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When the glow of the first dawn lit the world, there was only the Great Dragon. He lay draped over the entire globe, his wings stretching over quiet fields and below lightless oceans, while his scaly back formed mountains. The Great Dragon was the world. For an eon he lay, tranquil, not quite asleep. The faint stirrings within that breathless slumber roused the first trees and tides. The stupor faded slowly, memories of the void outside existence.

The Great Dragon opened his eyes and a new age began. He rose and began to collect his wings. It took ten thousand years to pull them from the depths of the oceans and the roots of the forests. It took ten thousand more to shake off the dirt, moss, and kelp. Finally free, his wings shuddered as they stretched out fully. The first flight of the Great Dragon triggered hurricanes, volcanoes, and quakes, but destruction was not his nature, and soon those great wings flew gracefully. He surveyed the world, flying over each continent and ocean. For the rest of the age he flew until every mountain and river was familiar. The whole world belonged to him. The Dragon was the world.

His world was pristine, but stagnant. Nothing crossed the surface except the rivers, nothing touched the sky besides himself. The Dragon imagined creatures, small but independent, covering the lands he knew so well. The Dragon dreamed of life, and since he was the world, it was made so. Animals to eat the grass, swim the oceans, and climb the trees. He invited birds and bugs to join him in the sky, but they never climbed to his heights. The world dreamed of predators, so the Dragon made it so. Life filled the world.

The age of life continued. The Great Dragon examined every creature, watching them go about each day with desires he did not have. On occasion he would imitate them, drinking from rivers or ambushing prey, but those base actions gave no satisfaction, for he had no need to satiate hunger nor instinct. He swam in the ocean depths to witness every variety of fish, then followed the lineage of bears between the mountains. For ten thousand years he remained motionless at the bottom of a single tropical lake, observing the slow evolution of the fish and lizards.

The creation of life had changed the world. The creation of life had changed the Dragon. He was far greater now, with parts of him roaming every corner of the land and sea. Simultaneously swimming an ocean and scaling a summit while also at rest on the bank of the river where he first awoke at the start of the age. He was also lesser now, no longer spanning a continent with his wings. For a long time the age of life evolved. It was a long time before the chaotic motion of the new life became a constant pattern in the world.

Stagnation was not the nature of the world, and so when the rhythms of life settled into a steady tempo, the Great Dragon dreamt a new being. It would have for itself something that was missing in the world, that faint compulsion that had driven the Great Dragon to observe the rivers and mountains eons ago. The Great Dragon mimicked the creatures he had created and carved from himself an egg. With the birth of the Second Dragon, a new age began.

"What is this place?" asked the Second Dragon.

The Great Dragon marveled at his daughter's question. A question. Questions hadn't existed before. He opened his mouth to answer. The words she had used were his, for he was the world.

"This is my world. Welcome."

The Second Dragon began to walk the grassy hills at the foot of the mountains where the Great Dragon had opened his eyes. She studied the ages-old river and the fish within it.

"What are those?"

The Great Dragon was not familiar with questions. "They are the fish of this river."

"This river? There are other rivers? Are there other fish?"

"Yes, I will show you the world. I have drunk from every river and created every creature."

"How many fish are there? How many rivers? You created the creatures?"

"I will show you everything there is to see."

The Great Dragon spread his wings and took flight. The Second Dragon tried to follow, but did not rise.

"How do I fly? Can you teach me?"

The Great Dragon gave pause again. "I had no need to learn. I have always known."

The Second Dragon fluttered clumsily, working to mimic the Great Dragon.

"You are my daughter. You will fly."

She was unhurried and unashamed, fumbling the wing strokes yet improving with each. Both were patient. She was persistent. Without a teacher, the river froze and thawed a dozen times before the Second Dragon learned to rise into the air.

"Now I will show you the world."

Guided by the Great Dragon, she planned to fly until every mountain and river was familiar. Early in the journey they watched a single seed grow into a giant of the rainforest, and become home for nesting birds.

"You call it a bird, but there are many kinds of birds. What is this kind called?"

"It is the bird that is here, now. There is nothing else."

"I will call it the blue manakin. The tree I will call kapok."

The dragons remained until the first kapok tree fell and was eaten by the soil. The Second Dragon continued to explore. For half the age she flew, learning the ways of every creature. There were so many, in various sizes and colours, with legs, wings, and fins. Every kind got a name.

Returning to the mountain valley where she was born at the start of the age, the Second Dragon convened with her father.

"I have seen every creature, named them, and learned how they live."

"All I created. I am the world."

"I've watched every bird, and they do not soar as we do. They flitter between trees and are afraid of fire."

"That is how a bird is."

"Why is there no bird that soars in the sky? Why not a bird that chases fire?"

"Such a bird does not exist. The world did not dream it."

"I have dreamt of it. If you created me, and you are the world, then am I the world too?"

The Great Dragon did not know.

"Teach me how to create a new bird."

"I had no need to learn. I have always..."

The Great Dragon had always known, and known everything there was, for he was the world. Now he knew less than his inquisitive daughter, who had known nothing.

"I will teach you."

It was difficult for the Great Dragon, who had simply never learned, to now teach another who had never simply known. Slowly, the Second Dragon learned to shape her dreams, to weave them into reality. The Great Dragon could offer only guidance, allowing mistakes and discoveries he was incapable of making. After a millennia the Second Dragon had learned the art that was her birthright. She took a stone from the riverbank, mottled brown and oblong, from near the place she had hatched. It was like her own egg long ago, but much smaller. Holding the dream of the creation in her mind, the world accepted the addition as its own. The Second Dragon was the world.

The egg hatched and a new bird, the dragon's kite, emerged fully grown. It rose high into the sky soon joined by the Second Dragon. The first of the kites was eager to soar and gleeful for fire. Higher than any other bird they climbed, but it could not match the dragon's speed or strength. At the peak of the climb, the bird departed to join the order of creatures, forever a fire-spreading terror to those below.

The Great Dragon joined his daughter in flight. His size, grace, and power made her as small as the kite.

"I created no creatures after the dawn of life. The kite is welcome in my skies."

"Why did you stop? There are so many possibilities, we can create more."

"I have no more dreams."

"I will teach you how. Start with something you know, then create something new. What if a lizard had no legs? What if a fish could walk?"

"My dream was the world of creatures. I created all at once."

"You created fish that swim in the sea, and others that swim in the springs. What about a fish that swims for both?"

"I did not dream it, long ago."

"Can you dream it now?"

"I have no more dreams."

"Start with something you know, then create something new."

For the rest of the age the Second Dragon crafted wondrous new creatures. Each unique and carefully formed, they followed the patterns laid out by the Great Dragon, but with an aspect his did not possess. Creatures with sticky tongues or sharp quills. Oversized rats that ate trees. Birds that swam in frigid waters. She even created new plants, some that lived in deserts, or that ate other plants, or that ate mice.

"Everything is possible, if it can be imagined," she concluded. "I am the world, and I dream, and so the world dreams."

The Great Dragon observed his daughter's craft closely. For all the insights she had pursued, the new creations were still born of the world. They had always been there, waiting unimagined to be summoned. The Second Dragon now provided the inspiration for her father as the Great Dragon had done for her.

The Great Dragon descended to the most familiar place, the thing he knew most of all, and thought of something that did not exist. A thought that had never existed. A feeling that had always existed. Something familiar mixed with a dream that only he could have. Another being to join the world and embody an intangible thing he could not experience. The Great Dragon carved from himself another egg. With the birth of the Third Dragon, a new age began.

"Oh, the beauty of this place!"

The Great Dragon was bewildered by his daughter's exclamation. The word beauty belonged to the world, but he did not know it. Never before had such a statement been made.

"This is my world. Welcome."

"It is so peaceful here. The sunlight warms my scales."

"I will show you the world."

The Second Dragon was watching intently. Her newborn sister was much like herself, but wore scales of different colours. Why had she noticed the sun? The Second Dragon knew the sun's warmth, lizards soaked in the heat and it burned away morning fog. The sun could not compare to the heat of dragonfire. What was peace and beauty?

"First you will learn to fly. I will teach you."

The Great Dragon lifted into the air. The Third Dragon followed. There was no hesitation.

"You did not learn. You know as I do."

"Flying is fun!"

The Great Dragon did not understand. He knew everything, but he did not know fun. He would learn.

"I will show you the world."

Guided by the Great Dragon, flanked by her Second Dragon sister, she yearned to fly until every mountain and river was familiar. They started in the mountain valleys, exploring the birthplace of dragons before following the river down to ocean shores. At every step the Second Dragon recounted the names of the creatures, what they ate, how they moved, and whether they were of the Great Dragon or the Second.

"This one is a stone-arch crab. The Great Dragon created the first crab, but this one I made with a shell as hard as stone."

"This crab is not bothered by our presence on the beach. It does not fear us."

The Second Dragon did not answer. Her sister made strange comments about the world, and did not pay attention to the names of the creatures. The Third Dragon had not learned to fly but flew anyway. It did not make sense to her.

"Let's stay here and enjoy the sand for a while."

The Great Dragon did not understand his daughter either, but knew that since she was a part of the world, his understanding was inevitable.

"We will stay." The Great Dragon continued on with difficulty, "Why do you stay?"

"The sand is soft."

"Soon the sun will set over the water. The crabs will be more active in cool air."

"I will enjoy the view of the setting sun."

The three dragons watched the sun slip below the waves. The Third Dragon meditated on the changing colour. The Second studied the shimmering reflections. The Great Dragon watched. He watched the sun and the waves and his daughters. The next morning they resumed their journey of the world, the Third Dragon seeing for the first time every creation of the others. They visited the ocean depths and mountain peaks, then lay breathless in a snowy forest while the spruce trees grew around them.

One snowy day, no different than any other, a three-spot ibex wandered into the grove of the dragons. On this day, it was pursued. The Second Dragon was the first to notice the silent hunter stalking along, downwind and low to the ground. The tiger came into view of the impartial observers, its white coat and auburn stripes at home in the bush. With one last soft step the tiger charged. The ibex startled and took two bounds, unable to reach full speed before the predator was upon it. Seconds later the ibex was dead.

"Fascinating, it is the perfect hunter," the Second Dragon said. "The boreal tiger won't eat for a month after such a large kill."

The cat growled a warning toward the sound of the dragon, previously indistinguishable from a snow-draped hillside.

"It is the most powerful creature in these woods, yet it knows fear. Fear of us, fear of hunger." The Third Dragon did not count herself among the woodland animals. Although they had hunted before, it was a rare thing born of exploration, not necessity. "The prey knew only fear."

"They live. They do not know." The Great Dragon replied.

"What is fear?" asked the Second, "I do not see it."

The Great Dragon had no answer to give. The Third had no way to.

The dragons continued to journey the world as before, as the Second Dragon had, and the Great Dragon before that. They flew until every mountain and river was familiar. After the Third Dragon's exhaustive journey around the world, she and her kin returned to where it had all begun, the place of beginnings.

"Together you created all these creatures," the Third Dragon began, "and gave each a name."

Her sister confirmed, "It is true."

"You named them all. Why don't we have names?"

The Second Dragon was confused. "The beasts needed names because there were so many. We were only two."

"Do you want a name?"

The Second Dragon pondered the question. It was a very strange question. There was no logical answer, and yet her sister expected an answer. She contemplated the question, wondering if an answer could even exist. Did she want?

"Yes..."

"Then I will name you!" The Third Dragon thought hard for a moment. "It's a gift for you... I name you Salephe."

Salephe the Second Dragon stood a little taller.

"This name suits me. Thank you."

The Third Dragon bowed happily, pleased to share with her sister. She studied Salephe then, hopefully.

"Sister..."

Her hope rose as Salephe spoke.

"You also deserve a name. Is Amra appropriate?"

"Ohh yes, it is beautiful! Thank you!"

Amra the Third Dragon fluttered joyously into the air around her sister. The Great Dragon, meanwhile, was watching the chatter with curiosity.

"You have taken names. Names were created for the beasts."

"I never considered it at the beginning," Selaphe recalled. "It fits us too."

"You would be happier with a name! How should we find your name?"

"I am the Great Dragon. I do not need a name."

"You don't need one, but it is worth having."

"No name could ever suit me."

"We could keep trying until we find--"

"I will not take a name."

Amra conceded with a nod, though she was unconvinced.

"You have seen the world and the creatures. You will now add to them."

The dragons were led by the Third Dragon as she began to think of new creations. Already an idea was forming as she surveyed the land. Amra went to the animals made by the Second with an inspiration. She started with a forest bird, clever but timid, and gave it vibrant colours of expression. Soon after, she saw how the ants lived as a complex colony, but was disappointed with their lives ruled by rote. She chose a grassland rodent and gave it the comfort of family, and watched as it dug networks of tunnels for its kin. Dozens of new creatures followed, each shaped with an insight that had never before been empowered. Amra, the Third Dragon, was the world.

After this flurry of diverse creatures, Amra rested for a time. The Second Dragon departed for her own pursuits, and later the Great Dragon left Amra alone, satisfied by her efforts. She wandered the world, reflecting on her powers and the new additions she had brought. While hanging from an enormous kapok tree, a strange frog caught her eye. Its skin glistened with an unusual sheen. She followed the creature closely while it crawled among the leaves until it was spotted and devoured by a hungry cat. A day later the cat lay sick and dying. The frog's poisonous skin was a new idea from Salephe, Amra was sure of it, but the sight of the dead oncilla disturbed the Third Dragon. The death didn't upset her, all things passed, but a defence that provided vengeance at the exclusion of salvation struck her as empty. With a cheerful spark she took the form of the poisonous frog and recoloured its skin with vibrant reds and blues. For many generations she watched the conspicuous frogs continue to doom their killers but the wary cats gradually learned to avoid the deadly prey. A new balance was achieved where the frog and its would-be predators remained wary of each other, but alive, and Amra was pleased by her alteration.

The Second Dragon immediately noticed the strange frog when she next crossed the forest. Curiosity soon led to Amra.

"Your frog does not hide under the cover of leaves," she noted. "It is protected by its appearance alone."

"Not quite," Amra replied. "The poison is the thing predators fear. I relied on your earlier creation."

Salephe had her own theory spring to mind but kept the doubt to herself without evidence. She studied the interactions of the frog with the other creatures herself. After careful analysis Salephe crafted another forest frog. Amra watched with great anticipation, expecting a majestic novel creation. Once unveiled, she gasped in sheer confusion. It was a frog exactly like her own. Salephe did not explain as her sister descended to the forest floor to hold the creature closely. It was almost exactly like her own brilliantly coloured poisonous frog. The colour patterns differed slightly and its skin's poison sheen...

"It has no poison?" Amra said, looking to Salephe in disbelief.

"Observe, it does not require poison."

The dragons watched the lives of the mimics and their poison-skinned cousins both. The wary cats stalking on branches above had no way to know them apart and avoided them both.

"What a magnificent idea!"

"Every change empowers change," Salephe mused. "I never thought to add such brilliant colours."

The Second Dragon left as spontaneously as she had arrived. Amra chose to linger in the shade of the kapoks, enjoying the calm cycles of rain and sun. She began to understand the nature of the peace she felt among the trees. It was the same peace when below the waves and atop the cliffs. It was the feeling of sharing the world, knowing that anywhere she went her father and sister went with her. For the first time in her life, Amra slept. The canopy of kapok trees was her blanket and the stirring of forest creatures her lullaby.

She awoke with that same peace resting in her soul. Rejuvenated, Amra continued to wander, occasionally finding strange new creatures that could only be her sister's work. Salephe wove curious ideas into her work. She seemed to be asking the world questions, and sometimes Amra would answer instead. Over the years they traded songbirds with ever expanding repertoires. With each bird they developed a shared musical art that stretched around the forests of the world. Inspired, Amra crafted a bird that stole songs to make its own, finally letting the birds share in the art of songwriting. Separated by continents and centuries the sisters exchanged ideas through their animated craft. Deep in the ocean Amra added rainbows to the coral fish that Salephe had taught to school ages before. Salephe in turn accepted the colours, but hid them away under venomous anemones where any others would be consumed. Neither could predict when or where the other would leave a living thesis. As millennia passed the dragons spent more time deliberately crafting each creature to express their own ideas. The sisters' rare dialog became rich with the context of ages, but never did they understand how the other devised each breakthrough, for the sources of their inspiration were incompatible.

After an eon, the three dragons settled on a cold southern beach, icy water lapping pebbles into sand as they rested. Amra was watching the water. Her dragon-hot breaths melting the snow near the shore. She marvelled at the sunlight reflecting into the waves and off the ice, the beauty of the changing colours throughout each day, and from day to day, and from season to season.

"The cold air burns my lungs, daring to freeze it like water."

Selaphe watched her own misty breath. "It is a harsh place."

"I enjoy it, regardless."

The Third Dragon shivered.

Her sister hesitated for a moment, then said, "The world is changing. Have you noticed?"

"I changed the world, as you did before me."

"We three are the world. What changes us?"

The Third Dragon did not understand. After pondering the question over countless dawns, she still had no answer.

Instead, her thoughts wandered through her memories.

"Our world is beautiful; every living thing miraculous, every sight and sound memorable, every moment precious. Do you see it?"

"The motions of all elements are interlinked. I see it."

"Do you feel the sunlight?"

"It warms my scales, as it does yours."

"Do you feel it?"

The Second Dragon did not understand. After pondering the question over countless dawns, she still had no answer.

Selaphe left the beach to contemplate the discussion in solitude. It was clear to both sisters there was nothing further to add. The Great Dragon spoke from the bluff above the shore.

"You speak often of things that only you see. Joy, beauty, fear, and more. What are they?"

The Third Dragon withdrew from the edge of the water as she responded.

"Hope is the promise told by the rising sun. Love is the soft embrace of a mother's fur. Exhilaration is the rush of breath drawn from cloudless skies."

"I know these things. They are only themselves. What is beauty?"

"All those are beauty too."

"The things you speak of have nothing in common. I ask of beauty. Show it to me."

Amra was surprised by the curt statement from the usually glacial dragon.

"Beauty is there for any to see, that is why it's beauty."

"I do not understand. I do not think you truly understand."

The Third Dragon waited for an explanation.

"I am the world. All things are mine and from me."

"That is true, so you have no need to ask."

The Great Dragon waited expectantly. His daughter said nothing.

"I will discover what you speak of."

The Great Dragon left and began to travel the world. It was not a search. He knew every river and hill and sea, but still he journeyed, revisiting each place over and over again trying to understand the things the Third Dragon spoke of. It felt pointless. She could know nothing he did not, and yet... In that eon before his daughters, all his thoughts and actions were the thoughts and actions of the world: inscrutable, pristine, absolute. His thoughts were still the same. Wasn't it still the same?

When the search returned nothing the Great Dragon reluctantly recalled the suggestions from the beach. First he flew up. Up and up, and the air rapidly became colder. He had done this before, many times more often than raindrops had struck the oldest trees. He could not remember the last time. His wings beat hard against the thinning air and the view of the world beneath began to curve. Ice formed on the leading blade of his wings before spreading to encase them. His upwards progress slowed. The cold seeping inward restrained all motion and stiffened his body. With enormous effort he filled his lungs at top of the arc with the stinging rarified air. The cold froze him, and the Great Dragon fell. The chill did not reach him.

Movement returned as he fell through the warming air. The Third Dragon had claimed exhilaration could be found in the clear and cold. It was not there. The ice began to shed from his wings allowing him to slow his descent. He remembered the first time his daughter spoke of beauty: the sight of a sunset. He carried his descent down to a winding savanna river and splashed into the center. There he chose a spot carefully in the middle of the stream before settling down, damming the water into a new lake. He watched as the sun set again and again. It was always the same motion. Proud animals drank during the day and secretive ones at night. In the time between all kinds visited. As the years passed riverine predators ate both young and old before growing old themselves. Motionless he watched. He had always been the one who watched. Could anything be found by watching? He did not find beauty here.

One evening, the same as any other, the Great Dragon's tireless patience ran out. As the sun descended below the far side of the lake he rose, letting the shadow touch his nose for only a second. Into the air flew the river's ancient dam amidst a torrent of water. The dragon did not look at the flood, only forward toward the setting sun. He rushed across the plains chasing the daylight. His shadow grew longer as he built speed to rival the world. Again the ultimate shadow reached the Great Dragon's nose. There it rested. Through great effort the sunset was held captive. Perhaps here, trapped within motion that seemed to stop time he would find what he sought.

There was no revelation. The grassy savanna became rocky and temperate. Mountains rose slowly at first then suddenly. The dragon flew up to the first tallest peak and landed with force that stripped the meager grasses from their roots. With this height the sunset was again minutes away. The Great Dragon breathed calmly. As the shadow cast from the next mountain began to edge upwards towards the dragon's perch he lifted off again. Over the mountain range to the fjords beyond, tirelessly pursuing the beauty of the sunset over the outstretching ocean. Sometimes the Great Dragon flew with his wings in the spray of the wavetops before climbing to scan the blue horizon that now surrounded him. He would slow slightly and lag into the twilight then surge forward into the light. There was a way to tease out the things she spoke of, there had to be. If it existed he would find it. From every corner and angle of the sunset he danced, dissecting it, conquering it, and revealing every aspect. Across the ocean he went, still searching and finding nothing. The endless blue horizon was replaced with shoreline, an entire ocean without an answer, and the Great Dragon let the sun set. There was no revelation.

The rush around the world was exhausting, but the dragon remained airborne as twilight fell. He had not found the beautiful thing the Third Dragon claimed existed. Instead, he had the answer to rising doubt. He flew the shadowed continent until he found the Second Dragon. She was hunched over an animal he was unfamiliar with. Even in the low light the beast was impressive at a distance, huge for a land creature with oddly angled horns.

"We must talk."

His daughter withdrew from the motionless hulk suddenly to face the Great Dragon.

"Yes! We should talk. I have been thinking and watching and--"

"Eating?"

The Great Dragon could see the remains clearly now. Half of the enormous body was ravaged, a jagged bloody heap reduced in only a few of the dragon's bites. He studied his bloodied daughter uncertainly.

"I created this creature since we last met. It has a nose that can tear branches from trees and tusks that scare every predator. Best of all, it remembers what it has seen, during the droughts it will--"

"Why did you eat it?"

Salephe was silent for a moment.

"Everything else was too small."

The answer did not satisfy the question, but he was focused instead on his purpose for coming.

"I am the world. I started everything. You know this truth?"

"Yes, of course."

"Everything exists from me. Do you understand this?"

"Yes, of course."

This extensive reasoning was not intuitive for the Great Dragon. He took a moment to continue.

"You have studied this world. Do things exist that cannot be seen?"

"Yes, of course, the air under our wings cannot be seen."

"I see when the wind shakes the trees."

"That is the wind, not the air."

"Then the air presses against my wings."

"Yes, but you asked of things unseen."

"I asked of things that are not there! Do things exist that do not exist?"

The Second Dragon considered the question carefully.

"No."

The Great Dragon nodded grimly.

"Your sister is flawed. She celebrates things that are not there. It is heretical."

"She has spoken of intangible things. I do not understand her, it should not be possible..."

"It must not continue. It will not."

"What will you do?"

"My purpose is the world. She must explain. Come with me."

The Great Dragon compressed himself an imperceptible degree before leaping into the air, brushing over the Second Dragon. The lesser dragon startled and pressed herself to the grass suddenly as meek as a grasshopper below the elephant. The action was fleeting. The very next moment she was refocused and followed into the sky dutifully. Only the impression of the Great Dragon's formidable silhouette lingered.

The Third Dragon was found by her kin on a mountainous island none were familiar with. She was wandering the lava flows, claws sinking into the semi-solid rock of the still forming island. This was the grandest of the archipelago, large enough for goats to feed off the creeping vegetation rooted in fertile soil. The preceding land below the treacherous crucible supported a forest with singing birds and shadowed cats.

"This island has expanded rapidly since I last visited," Salephe said as she too settled into the pliable surface. The intense heat and reek of sulphur crawled along the valley.

"This island feels different. It is creation from itself alone. The slow process is gradual but also fierce and powerful. It fills me with wonder."

"What do you wonder?"

Amra ignored her sister. She instead watched the Great Dragon circle once more before descending toward the island. He chose to land nearer the caldera and the freshly exposed lava.

"Be careful. The lava is as hot as dragonfire, perhaps even hotter."

"Nothing is hotter than dragonfire," the Great Dragon scoffed.

Intrigued by any new unknown, Salephe bounded up the flow carried on partial wingbeats. She made little progress toward the brilliant lava fountains as the semi-solid ground turned from hot and pliable to scorching and viscous. It was only a few more steps before her feet sank into the mash and the lava ignited her scales. She gasped at the overwhelming sensation assaulting her mind. Her wings sprung wide and in an instant she was high above flicking molten rock from her feet. Nervously she looked down to understand the effects. The scales up to her ankles were scorched and smelled of foul charred hide. Flexing the joints sent a jolt up her legs, but they still moved strongly.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" her sister called.

Salephe was not certain. The experience was too unfamiliar.

"I am unharmed... I will cool off in the ocean."

The Second Dragon veered away and dove toward the water. Still concerned, her sister spread her wings to follow when the Great Dragon interrupted.

"Halt. She is a true dragon. She is unharmed."

"You are probably right, but I still worry for her."

"Worry? Is worry another of your strange fancies?"

Amra folded her wings patiently.

"I searched for the things you spoke of. I searched for hope and fear and beauty. Why did I not find them? Do you hide it?"

"They are all very real. I have no power to hide them."

"So you say again and again. Let me ask another way. Am I the world? Do all things belong to me? How do your fancies elude me?"

"I do not know. Perhaps you do not own them."

The Great Dragon stomped and huffed, "All belongs to me. Even you."

Her body stiffened at the poisonous tone.

"The only solution is that they do not exist."

"It is okay if you do not feel what I feel," the Third Dragon offered. "I will not ask you to believe."

"No. You do not understand." The Great Dragon moved closer. "This is not about doubt. It is about certainty."

Salephe came over the ridgeline and landed gingerly on her swollen and discoloured feet. She continued to examine her injury, oblivious to the building tension. Amra turned to her anxiously, concerned for both her sister and herself. She was about to speak but the Great Dragon rumbled on.

"I will ensure my world is orderly. You have only brought discord and confusion. At least your sister's odd ways do not undermine my creation. You have no place in my world."

Amra's eyes flicked back and forth nervously.

He addressed the Second. "You understand. As a part of my world, you understand... and you will help."

Salephe understood the significance of the command.

"I will do my duty to the world, as I always have," she answered honestly.

"Sal, you asked what makes us change?" Amra's desperate words had no outward effect on her sister. Isolation closed around her as she clung to her sister's dispassionate gaze. "We do! As we are the wor--"

"I am the world!"

The Great Dragon surged toward his daughter's neck with claws outstretched. She sprung away faster than she'd ever moved before--still not fast enough. His grip caught her tail and dragged her back toward the ground despite frantically beating wings.

"You are no longer welcome."

Amra tumbled against the Great Dragon but was pulled down instantly. He wrestled to improve his grasp; claws gouging into her scales as his grip tightened. Amra pleaded for release.

"No, you had your chance."

"Salephe!"

The Great Dragon strangled Amra to silence.

"She knows her duty."

The Great Dragon glared back at the Second Dragon with a fiery threat in his eyes. She felt the chill of the terrifying stare demanding her total submission. Without a thought she snatched at her sister's frantic wings, pinning her sister down. The Great Dragon repositioned himself over Amra and carefully locked his claws around her throat before bearing down. The crushing weight of the ancient dragon steadily smothered the life from his daughter.

"Sal..."

Salephe's gaze was caught by her sister. Amra was staring at her with an expression she had never seen before. It was fear, she felt that same crushing weight now, and something else beyond sadness too. She watched as her sister's struggle resigned just a little. It was a pitiful thing. Amra looked up at her, still refusing to see an enemy while the friendship burned away between them. The betrayal on her face reflected back to Salephe and stung at her too.

"We change us," Salephe said quietly.

Her grip loosened. The Second Dragon studied the twisted face of the Great Dragon and his razor-talons latched around her sister's throat. Salephe drew a deliberate breath while ferocious energy bubbled within her. What a heinous thing to attack family... her sister's wing still in her grasp.

Salephe sprayed incinerating dragonfire upon her father. The blazing serum coated his nearest wing and face with burning fury. He leapt away from the sisters, wiping at his face and fanning his wings. Salephe found herself trembling as she rushed to help her sister up and was relieved when Amra accepted without hesitation. The sisters regained their footing just in time for the Great Dragon to charge back toward them. This time they were ready for the lunge and dodged aside, swiping at his wings as he passed. All three took to the skies and began a spirling duel of teeth and claws. They chased each other trying to line up a torrent of fire then rolled away desperately when tails turned.

Salephe observed a pattern in the Great Dragon's flight. He was favouring one-sided manoeuvres after her blast had blackened half his face and left one eye partially blinded. Still worried for her sister's wellbeing she decided to bait the dragon toward his injured side. She taunted ahead of him while always darting back into the shade of the cloudy eye. With their father distracted Amra whirled above, still panting from the earlier chokehold and focussed on staying out of reach. She landed a few slashes along his back and wings but was too winded to consider the dragonfire beginning to boil within her. It was just as well, for Amra was still numb from the sudden turn from peace to war.

"It wasn't you I wanted," the Great Dragon roared between snaps at Salephe's tail, "yet you turned away from the world."

"No! We are the world, we are!"

The defiance only enraged the Great Dragon further. He turned once more as his elusive daughter rolled under his nose. This time he recognized the trick and unleashed a cone of brilliant dragonfire toward Salephe. She dashed forward but could not outpace the expanding cloud that enveloped her from tail to thigh. That fierce glow seared into her already charred ankles. A sickening convulsion struck Salephe as several scales cracked and oozed from the abuse.

Amra watched from only a wing's breadth away as her sister was obscured by the billowing dragonfire. It gave her new focus. The Great Dragon's sudden declaration that she was an aberration had overwhelmed her. Initial confusion led to inferiority and fear then horror when he had struck. The treachery of her sister's complicity turned to heartbreak and sorrow then irreconcilable pride and terror to stand finally beside Salephe again. Her sister emerged from the churning glow with deep craters in her flesh where her scales had ablated. It gave Amra renewed focus.

The Great Dragon's attack drew him directly in front of the Third Dragon. The tumultuous emotions dancing through her mind resigned to an understanding of grim truth. Dragonfire gathered pressure within her. She targeted the frazzled wing already burned by her sister and unleashed a stream that scoured across his wingspan as he flew past. The torrent pierced star-like pinpricks through weakened scales that bloomed wider as the jet continued. The Great Dragon bellowed furiously as his wing was shredded.

His cries of agony wrenched at Amra's heart despite his assault against her.

"We can still stop this!" She pleaded. "We can live on, even if we can't go back."

"It's supposed to be my world," came the dark response.

Amra's last hopeful thought was shattered as the Great Dragon turned sharply and launched a wave of incandescence back toward her. She tucked her wings to weather the heat and punched through the roiling edge. The flames pitted her hide at every scale. As their father dove in pursuit Salephe repositioned herself to put an end to the battle. She flew close and latched on tightly to his frayed wing. From there she tugged the Great Dragon downward against his immense strength. He floundered and fought to maintain his balance as three wings struggled for aerial control. The exertion aggravated the exposed muscles of her hind legs but she pulled even as it made them ache and bleed. Amra was still trailing smoke from the dragonfire when she reappeared at the Great Dragon's uninjured wing. She had a harder time constraining the powerful strokes as he rolled about but managed to hang on as well. Together they trapped their father.

"What do you hope to achieve against me?" he roared. Behind the bravado there was a spectre of uncertainty.

The sisters heaved together wordlessly. They had both realized what had to be done, and more importantly, accepted it. They spiraled back down toward the island along a chaotic arc with the Great Dragon thrashing against them. He snapped at each sister in turn and each time the other used the chance to force him even lower. The caustic stench of the lava below reached the descending dragons.

"Release me!"

The sisters forced the Great Dragon from the sky. Downward they drove him, gaining speed as the glow of the lava intensified. His struggles became increasingly desperate but his wings were pulled taut and useless between his daughters. Salephe's sight was fixed on the turbulent lava fountains fast approaching. She had felt the sting when days-cooled lava eroded her own scales and knew the raw power of the volcano. The flames that forged the world were still alive deep underground. The infernal dragonfire of ancient creation was staring back at her from the dawn of the world.

The Great Dragon let out a ferocious roar as the lava spouts filled his eyes. The heat steaming up from the flow rose against the wings of the three dragons barrelling down. When the embers thrown by the eruption began peppering their scales the sisters heaved the Great Dragon back into the furnace of the world. Their wings pitched sharply when freed of burden and caught the great updrafts back into the sky. Pained screams followed them as the Great Dragon sank into the molten currents. When Amra turned to look back into the glow with tearful eyes there was no sign left of the Great Dragon.

The sisters circled once above the lifeless caldera before turning away from the island. They flew wordlessly, wingtip at wingtip, back to the mountain range where it had all started. They landed in the familiar valley and let the cool air relieve their senses. The soft burble of the ancient river could not assuage their heavy spirits. They collapsed on the mossy riverbank wrapped in the embrace of each other's charred wings. The weight of what had happened held them there, hearts and minds in turmoil. Occasionally one would try to speak but could never find words to match the enormity of their thoughts. Because they could not speak, they cried instead, and let their mutual embrace say the unspoken. For one year Amra and Salephe remained huddled tightly together. The cost to discover the rift that separated them was this shared pain. Now they shared a sorority tempered by dragonfire.

The Great Dragon was dead. The Great Dragon was dead but the world still lived. Such a thing was impossible. The Dragon was the world. The sisters were the world. Maybe what they had done was heresy. Maybe it was destiny. The sisters did not know, for they had not created the world, only inherited it. The only thing they knew with certainty was the comfort found in the wrap of each other's wings.

"I am sorry, Amra."

"I forgive you. Thank you for saving me."

The words were as soothing as the embrace they shared; the rising dawn a confirmation of their new bond.

"What do we do now?" Salephe asked. "We sit in the centre of our world, totally alone."

"We are alone," Amra agreed, "but I feel we... we always were."

Salephe nodded slowly.

"I did not see the changes in front of us," Amra continued. "Did not understand when you explained so clearly. And as for yourself..."

She spoke without blame and Salephe understood with her heart for the first time. There was no need to elaborate. It had taken a year for the drowning guilt to be washed away by her sister's forgiveness, but the regret would always remain.

"If we are alone now, we are alone together. I am overjoyed to truly share the world with you," Sal concluded. Amra's pensive mood thawed considerably upon hearing such considerate words from her sister.

Salephe continued, more typically, "The question still remains: what do we do?"

"We do as we have always done! We will explore and add to the world."

"Yes, and perhaps we should go together this time."

Amra was beaming now.

"Yes, we will go together! I already have a wonderful idea that came to me some time ago. I was disappointed that no creature could ever feel as I do--create as we do."

"Ohh... that is an interesting idea."

"I wanted a creature that could speak as we do and give names to itself. It would have named the trees and other beasts, maybe even named the stars."

"Did you try to create it?"

"Yes, but I could never complete it."

Salephe was quiet for a moment, pondering.

"I've had a similar desire for a beast that could think and plan and reason. When I tried, the idea I saw was only a shadow of the full thing. A distorted reflection on a murky river."

Amra shook her head. "I saw the shape of my creature clearly, but I could not fully craft its heart."

"Your idea is captivating. What was its shape?" Salephe asked eagerly.

"A lanky thing," Amra giggled. "It walked on two legs. I don't know how."

Salephe gasped, "Two legs! I did not believe that it could be! With paws free to build a home as the weaverbirds do? That is the creature I saw in the haze!"

"The same?" Amra leapt overtop of Sal, ecstatic. "I'd love to craft it with you, this dream that we share!"

"A deserving dream," Salephe said. "A gift from the world to the world, manifested through us."

Amra had already closed her eyes, deep in focus. She felt for the sensation of the creature, letting the will of the world guide her thoughts.

"I have a dream for a creature that can feel."

Salephe felt the energies of creation swirling around her sister as she moved to Amra's side. She concentrated on the creature's concept flowing from the world's imagination.

"I have a dream for a creature that can think."

The sisters' cooperation was clumsy at first, so different were their techniques, but eons of experience guided them to guide each other. Their efforts became harmonious, weaving together the splintered dream they shared. A being to share in joy and sorrow, that would observe and reason. With a final understated flourish, new life sprouted before them.

In the warm glow of a rising dawn, the first of their new creation stood before them. It marveled at the dragons, eyes filling with wonder at the sight of the world around them. Then, the creature spoke.