"I want a glass of milk.” Heidi sighed looking over at Andy who was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. His bright red Christmas jammies almost matched the color of his face. The happy snowman’s expression did not at all. A tantrum was coming and, of course, her husband Braden was at the store getting eggs to replace what Andy had broken.

Wringing the last bit of raw yolk from the washcloth Heidi shook her head. “You’ve had enough today.” Setting down the rag she knelt in front of Andy. “Do you want Santa to come?”

While the question forestalled a wail, it hadn’t averted it completely. He still had that distrustful glint in his eyes. Lips turned down, he nodded his head as he twisted the pant cuff in his hands.

Kirsten paused at the edge of the wood. Her walking stick struck the frozen, bare ground. Rubbing her hands, she looked over the gnarled tree at the edge. The branches groaned in the frozen breeze. Wings fluttered, barely visible even in the bare branches. Raising her stick she wrapped it against the trunk. Dragonlings screeched taking to the sky.“Did you have to do that?” In his voice, Kirsten could hear the long years. Wearier this winter than even the last.

She snorted as the brown weathered form separated itself from the bark. Vines twisted around his feet sinking into the ground with each step he took, belying the cold and slowing his pace to a crawl. His face always was disconcerting with just twigs for a beard, instead of the summer foliage. “You should know better than to let dragonlings roost at the wood’s edge. Or have you forgotten company is arriving?”