Mericlou repeated Aldrec's actions, and Krako smiled broadly, exposing canines that were as large and sharp as any dog's.
I have come to help you, Krako said; the voice in Mericlou's head was now low and serious.I have seen the outside world, and there may be trouble.
"What do you mean?" Mericlou said, with more than a small amount of apprehension, but Krako had already disengaged his hands from hers.
"I think we're going to find out soon enough," Aldrec said, as the baby dragon approached an arboreal rune-covered archway at the clearing's edge, which seemingly led to nothing but a wall of dense foliage. He passed his hand through the thin air between the two trees. As he did this, their runes came to glowing green life, and Krako vanished as he stepped forward through the archway.
"How thoughtful," Aldrec said, grinning towards where Krako once had been. He took his wife by the hand and approached the cupola. "He opened the doorway for us and maintained an open passage. I won't have to use any of my magic. Well then, shall we go?"
They stepped forward through the archway. Now that she was used to it, Mericlou made no reaction as the momentum pulled them into the brief nothingness of the nowhere place, and then into her house.
The room was as she had left it, with her bed sheets still rumpled from where she sat the night before, huddled in fear from the imse ether's endless summons. But something was different in the air, Mericlou thought. Something was wrong.
"Someone's here?" She heard Aldrec say to Krako, who, like a flame-haired gargoyle, had perched himself atop the bottom left-hand bedpost. "Who is it?"
"Who's here?" Mericlou said, feeling her insides suddenly freeze. Her family was not supposed to have been back until tomorrow. The imse ether at the side of her bed was silent. Had someone taken the prank calls a step further, and broken into her house? She wondered, half in despair, half in fear.
"Krako says there are seven people in the next room," Aldrec said, moving towards the door. "Four of them are androids, two are humans, and there is one elf."
"How does he know that?" Mericlou said, becoming aware of faint voices in the den. "The door was closed, and he was only here a moment before we arrived."
"Even baby dragons can cast spells better than most elves," Aldrec said. "Their blood can cure wounds, and one of their more interesting abilities that they unfortunately lose as adults, is the power to see through walls." He turned to Krako. "Let me see through your eyes," he said to the baby dragon.