[Child of the 7th Age]

Child visibly exhaled. She gave a slight cheer as she saw the REG sliced into two neat, very dead pieces. Mith had done the right thing.

No thoughts were in her mind of their previous foolish plan of holding the REG for ransom. The remodeling of her hobbit hole would just have to wait.

Child gathered up her belongings and prepared to leave the party ground. She had to pick up her children, and then attempt to make delivery on the waiting bags of mail, which Mayor Samwise had warned her now made quite a daunting pile. At last count, they had numbered 342 bags of undelivered mail.

But as she prepared to go, she heard what seemed to be a small crying noise from under one of the tables. She pulled the tablecloth back, and there was Angara, much shrunken from the last time she had seen her.

The dragon glared quite rudely: "So you used me for your little trip, and now you are dumping me by the side of the road!!!

Child was overcome with definite guilt. The dragon did have a point. He had served them
faithfully, and she had totally forgotten about him once the monster and the REG was destroyed.

Child tilted her head and thought. This dragon had a number of talents, chief of which seemed to be his ability to shrink or increase in size according to his surroundings.

Child had once heard a learned man say that, in his world, there were little dragons who could change the color of their skin according to the place they were living. Of course, Child had not believed such a preposterous tale. But this ability to change in size.....it could be quite useful.

"Alright dragon" she said. "I would like you to come home with me as long as you are willing to keep yourself about the size of a small pony. Of course, when you fly free outside for exercise, you may be any size you want. That is.....if it's not too near my hobbit neighbors."

Child figured that some of the hobbits might be scandalized by the presence of a dragon in their part of the Downs. But, as long as he wasn't terrifyingly large, she could probably get away with it. Anyways, surely, the Tooks, Gamgees, and Bagginses wouldn't mind too dearly, especially if she promised to give the younger ones rides.

"Just think how much faster my mail delivery will go," she mused. "And how much more fun! I'll have those 342 bags done in no time. I may even be able to rent him out for special occasions and earn extra that way to remodel my hobbit hole. And I had been promising the children that I would get them a pet. This seems quite good, although I may lose a bit of credibility among the stuffier hobbit families"

The dragon smiled slyly, and turned his head about. "Alright, I'll come with you to this hobbit hole. But we'll see about any extra rides, and if those stuffy families get too nasty, I'll turn their houses into toast."

Not a bad idea, Child thought, as she turned to leave the field.