Watersnake, Firesnake | Page 2

you. We have a mirror edged with the finest gold scripting that was given to the Emperor as a gift from the Czar of Russia."
"No, thank you."
"We have a maple seedling that will grow and spread and will never die. It will be the envy of the entire neighborhood."
"No."
"We have gold, enough gold that your family will never be hungry."
Just then, Chan's mother, having heard the voices from the back yard, appeared in the doorway behind Chan, looming over him.
"Can I help you?" she said in a voice that indicated how much she disliked strangers who came to call unannounced.
"Yes, my lady," the woman with blue robes said. "I believe your son has discovered something of great worth to myself and my brother." She indicated the dark man next to her with her head. Chan found it difficult to believe they were related. "An egg, quite a rare one."
"My son has found no such egg," Chan's mother said. "Have you, boy?"
Chan shook his head. He had not told his parents about the egg, and he was sure to be punished if they found out. They might even take the egg away from him.
"There, you see?" his mother said. "Now if you have no further business here, I will bid you a good day."
The woman's smile disappeared and she turned to her brother, who was clenching his fists. "Very well," she said. "We will be on our way. Thank you for your time, my lady." The man and woman turned and walked past the gate to the street, and then were gone from view.
Chan's mother stepped back inside the house and said, "Get back to your chores," before disappearing into the back garden again. Chan picked up the small broom he had left against the wall and began sweeping the front room again. He thought about the strangers, about the beautiful smile on the woman, about the big strong hands of the dark man, and started to shiver. How had they known about his egg?
A week later, Chan had just blown out the candle and was preparing to sleep when he heard a small scrabbling sound from the corner of his room. He looked up, but his eyes had not yet adjusted to the dark. The sound from the corner came again, and he leapt out of bed to push the window up and out on its hinge. Moonlight flooded into the room and lit upon a large figure clothed entirely in black, peering into the bottom drawer of his dresser. Chan let out a loud yelp and backed against the wall. The robber turned quickly at the sound, then burst into a brilliant green flame and disappeared. A scorched outline of the intruder stained the wall next to the dresser, then faded away in a wisp of smoke.
Chan's mother and father entered the room a moment later, put out and sleepy.
"What's the matter?" his father said in a thick voice.
"A man!" Chan shouted. "A man was in my room!"
Chan's father looked in every corner of the room, underneath things and behind things, then said. "There's no one here."
"No, he's not here anymore," Chan said. "He caught on fire and went away."
Chan's father looked at his mother, who gave an exasperated sigh. "You were having a nightmare," she said.
"No, I wasn't! There really was a man in here!"
Chan's father made for the door with his mother behind him. "It was a bad dream, boy. Go back to sleep." And then, Chan was alone again.
He couldn't sleep for the rest of the night, jerking upright at every little sound. He dozed off just as the faint glow of daylight seeped through the cracks in the window. In the morning, his mother came in two hours after he was supposed to wake, and chided him for staying in bed, for wasting the day away. She pulled him out of bed, spanked him twice for his laziness, then told him to get dressed.
Before he went out to cook breakfast, he opened the top drawer of his dresser and looked inside. The egg still lay bundled in the nest of shirts and socks, but a small crack had appeared lengthwise on the surface. Chan frowned. The robber must have jostled the dresser and knocked the egg against the walls of the drawer. But then Chan remembered how the egg didn't break when he accidentally dropped it. If the robber hadn't cracked the egg, then it must be starting to hatch.
After he was done with his chores, Chan went into his room for Rainbow, so that he could take the lizard outside to run around and get some fresh air. Rainbow curled up in Chan's front pocket, then ran in great circles once released into the back yard. Chan laughed as he scurried up and down