Michael came to Sarah in the late evening.
"Dragons have returned. One blood-red, the other a mix of medium red and blue."
Sarah looked at the angel and sighed. "We knew another would come. I didn’t expect two."
"There is more. Most of the soldiers have gone."
"Gone where?"
"Away. West. Two days ago."
"How many remain?"
"One hundred fifty-three soldiers. Fifty-one others. Forty horses."
Sarah furrowed her brow and stroked her ear. "What are they up to?"
Sarah slept. An hour before sunrise, she woke and went into a trance. Her experience expanded to the edge of the wood and beyond. She watched the soldiers prepare at sunrise. She saw the two dragons stretching their wings.
An hour after sunrise, half the remaining soldiers marched in formation towards the treeline. The blood dragon slithered along just behind them; the colorful one flew one hundred feet overhead.
When they breached the wood, the soldiers formed a wide ring around the red dragon, with each man seven feet part. The banded dragon soared in slow circles overhead, thirty yards outside the ring of soldiers.
"What are they doing?" she whispered to herself.
"What is she doing?" whispered Davion to Elu.
"She’s meditating," he whispered. "It gives her sight."
Davion raised an eyebrow. "Hm."
Sarah watched as a different set of men approached the wood. These men wore no breastplates or helmets, and were armed only with axes… and saws. She realized the plan with dawning horror. Her eyes shot open.
"I know what they’re doing," she said.
Davion and Elu looked at her.
Davion asked, "Who?"
"The new arrivals. Older and wiser dragons. They’re not rushing into ambush to take territory. They mean to take it one tree at a time."
"What can we do?" asked Elu.
Sarah looked off in the distance, her eyes mournful. "I have no choice," she said. "I have to make it rain again."