“Be careful of the dragon!” her mother called after Lisa.

Lisa laughed as she jumped through the snow to get a better look at the dragon sculpture. “It’s not real, Mom!” she called back over her shoulder. Her mother should know she wouldn’t fall for something like that. She was nine and a half, not a baby.

“He could be hibernating,” her mother called.

Lisa walked around the dragon before petting him on the head. “You’re just a statue, but I like you anyway.”

Her mother caught up and stood beside Lisa, her breath puffing out of her mouth like dragon’s steam. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned down at the sculpture. “Seems shifty to me. What is it doing way out here?”

Lisa shook her head and pointed to the building behind it. “Probably belongs to them. Let’s go! I want to get cocoa!”

“Okay,” her mother said and let herself be pulled away from the dragon after giving it one final look.

Lisa clung to her mother’s arm, chattering a mile a minute. Her voice meant that neither heard the metal grown behind them nor saw the steam rise from the dragon’s nostrils as it watched them go.