“No! Father, you can’t!” Lillian gripped her father’s tunic. “He has never done anything to any of us!”

“Lillian, you are too young to understand.” Her father gently detached his eleven-year-old daughter from him and smiled at her. “The beast is dangerous. It has to be destroyed.”

Lillian stared at her father. But then she smiled, as if she understood. “Alright, Father.” She turned, walked into her room, and immediately clambered out of her window. She raced towards the woods.

With branches whipping her face, Lillian flew along the path she had made when she had first started visiting Dragon in secret, two years ago. It was longer than the road by half a mile, but it kept Lillian out of sight.

She had to warn him. She had to warn Dragon. They couldn’t kill him. He was the last dragon on Earth, and if they killed him, there would be none.

Mindful of the time slipping through her fingers like water through a sieve, Lillian ran faster. She darted through the trees, heedless of the scratches on her face, arms, and legs.

When she finally reached Dragon’s home, the men from the village were only three dragon lengths away. They shouted when they saw her.

“Isn’t that Lillian?”

“Get away from there!”

“Why is she here?”

“Where did she come from?”

“How did she get here?”

“Dragon!” Lillian screamed. “Dragon!”

Everyone heard shifting from within the cave. “Little One? What seems to be the matter?”

The colossal dragon majestically exited his lair.

Lillian ran forward. “They are here to kill you! You must fly! Fly!”

The men hesitated, then roared and charged Dragon.

“Fly!” the girl cried.

And Dragon snapped his wings open and took off. He held his great forepaw down to Lillian, who leaped onto it and flew up and up and up.

The men below gazed up, openmouthed, at the mighty dragon and the joyous girl soaring out of their world.