Josie stepped expertly across the rocks, carefully avoiding the sharp edges and little colonies of barnacles in the rocky pools. After the searing heat and the relentless unseasonal rain that followed she was glad to be out of the caravan park and out on the shore. And while it wasn’t exactly sunny, it was warm and the breeze from the ocean was pleasant - which was more than what could be said about her daughter, who had now fallen well behind.
“Come on, Tarryn! Keep up!” she called behind her.
“Mum, this sucks!” came the reply as Tarryn folded her arms across her chest and stopped. “Can’t we go to the shops or something?”
“Tarryn, we’ve already looked at the shops,” Josie said, stepping across the rocks to reach her daughter. “I believe at the time you said they were “lame”.”
“They are lame but this sucks. I want to go swimming,” moaned Tarryn.
“You can’t go swimming - the beach is filthy from the storm, now come on. This is interesting! Look!” Josie crouched down and pulled a small rock away, sending a pale little crab scurrying. “See? You can find interesting creatures here.”
“Mum, it’s a crab. It’s not interesting,” Tarryn said, rolling her eyes.
Josie kept moving, ignoring the adolescent attitude she was so tired of hearing. “Well, you had the option of going fishing with your Dad and Ollie . . .”
Tarryn huffed and started off again, veering away from the ocean and rocks while Josie continued across the pools just as she used to as a little girl. Every now and again she looked over her shoulder at her daughter, now walking along the cliffs and obstinately kicking at the sand.
Josie had just found a starfish when she heard Tarryn scream - looking up, she could see her by the cliffs surrounded by a small swarm of large insects. Hopping across the slippery rocks, she found her daughter crouching in the sand, the insects all gone by the time she got there.
“Mum! I killed it!” Tarryn cried, and Josie was shocked to see tears welling in her eyes.
“What is it, darling?” Josie said, crouching down and she couldn’t help but let out a cry as she saw what lay at her daughter’s feet.
It was tiny, barely twelve centimetres long and slender like a skink. But unlike a skink, its back legs sat more like those of a bird and its front legs more like a dinosaur’s, all bedecked with fierce little claws. Its head was bent back on an unnatural angle, but she could still make out rows of sharp teeth at the end of an elongated, scaled snout. But it was the wings that made Josie gasp: leathery like those of a bat and almost as long as the creature’s body, it was clear that both were broken.
“I felt something bite me so I swatted it and I killed it!” Tarryn sniffled, no longer fighting the tears. “I didn’t mean to . . . !”
“My god,” Josie gasped, “I’ve never seen a lizard like this before!”
“Mum, it’s not a lizard!” Tarryn snapped.
“It can’t be a . . . a . . .”
“Well what else is it?”
Josie had always imagined dragons to be colourful, but the creature in front of her was a dull dappled caramel-beige, the same colour as the cliffs. “Tarryn, I know you’re upset but this is really serious. You can’t tell anyone about this, not until we work out what to do. Don’t text your friends or tell your brother or anyone else, ok?” Tarryn looked up at her mum with eyes full of fear and sadness and nodded. Josie pulled a tissue from the small bag she had with her and scooped the tiny creature up, ignoring her daughter’s protests. “We might need to show the local ranger,” she explained and the two of them turned back towards the caravan park in silence.
Later, after Josie had sent Tarryn and Ollie into town to buy some fish and chips for dinner and she was alone with her husband, Josie brought out the little tissue-wrapped body. “John, I want you to have a look at something . . .”
“W-what . . . ? Is that what it looks like?” he stammered. He picked up a pen and gingerly turned the dead dragon’s body over on the kitchen table. “Where did you find it?”
“Tarryn found it by the cliffs near the rock pools; she swatted it thinking it was a bug. She’s real upset about it,” Josie said. “What do you think we should do?”
“I really don’t know. I mean, this is pretty staggering. You don’t think anyone else has seen one?”
Josie leant back against the flimsy caravan table. “I don’t think so. For all the years I stayed here as a kid I never came across anything like this before and I'm sure I would have heard something by now if they had. I think the extreme weather must have driven it out from wherever it was hiding. Do you think we should tell someone?”
“Well, we should,” said John. “Scientifically speaking, this is huge.”
“I know, but they’ve remained hidden for so long, I’m just worried about what’ll happen if other people find out . . .”
“So am I,” John agreed. “It is pretty sensational. Look, Tarryn found it, I think it should be her call. She’s mature enough now.”
“Are you sure?”
“You have a chat to her tonight after dinner. I’ll take Ollie down to the park and you two decide what you want to do. I’m sure it will be for the best.”
Josie frowned and nodded. She quickly wrapped the dragon’s body up again as they heard their children’s voices coming down the street.
*****
Josie and Tarryn made their way back to the cliffs as the sun was just staring to set, coating the shore in gold and orange; in one hand Tarryn held a little plastic shovel they found in the caravan and in the other was the tissue holding the body of tiny dragon. They approached the spot where they found it and Josie thought she saw the flicker of a reptilian tail disappearing into a small crevice just above her eye level.
Tarryn bent down, digging a deep hole with the shovel beneath the salty scrub that lined the cliffs. Josie's heart broke as she watched her daughter place the tissue deep in the sandy earth and whisper, “please forgive me!”, before filling the hole back in and covering the spot with a makeshift cairn of small rocks she found nearby.
Standing back, the two of them stared down at the spot and to their surprise another little dragon flew down, scurrying and searching desperately amongst the rocks as if aware of the other buried below. Soon dozens were floating down around them, all descending on the small cairn on fluttering wings.
“Oh, Mum!” Tarryn cried, breaking down into deep sobs and burying her head in her mother’s chest. Josie held her tightly as a tear escaped from her own eye, watching the spectacle unfold as the world faded from gold to grey and the warmth of the day turned cold around them.