My first thought was: Are you insane?

Tiberius had only hatched yesterday and had barely gotten out of the duel with the mimic dragon alive.

I opened my mouth to tell Jane to stick her challenge where the sun didn't shine.

But Tiberius had come instantly alert to her words and was dancing on the table in foxy little circles. He was as happy and excited as if someone had opened up a can of dog food.

Jane was smiling at me, too. There was no malice in her expression.

I closed my mouth over the words that I had wanted to say and checked myself.

New world, Harmony. That meant a new culture and expectations.

"You want to... duel us," I repeated, just to make sure we were all on the same page. And that Jane and I hadn't somehow gotten into an argument — that no one's honor had been... besmirched for something.

Jane nodded rapidly. She seemed excited, and so did Tiberius.

"I'll let you borrow my quartz," Sienna said. "But it's best if you buy your own for later duels."

"Quartz? I didn't use a quartz crystal last time for the mimic," I said.

Jane shook her head. "That was a wild duel. Dragon fight each other all the time in the wild — they didn’t need a tamer to help them. No, this will be a proper duel, which means..." She trailed off and to my surprise, shook her head. "It's so odd to have to explain this out loud. Everyone just knows what a proper duel is. You really don't have this in your world?"

"I mean, people fight all the time," I said and decided not to go into the whole ugly explanation of cock or pit bull fighting. I rested my hand across Tiberius’s back, trying to get him to settle down. "I don't like the idea of him getting hurt."

Jane's eyes widened and Sienna shook her head.

"No one will be hurt in a proper duel," Sienna explained. "Think of this like shadowboxing. No blood is drawn."

That made me feel a little better, but... "I don't know how to explain that to Tiberius. That fight against the mimic was his first. I haven't even trained him to sit yet." I looked at Jane. "I don't want to get Commodore hurt."

Jane smirked at me. "Who says that Tiberius will win?"

Oh, them's fighting words.

"Besides," Jane continued, "You seemed eager enough to duel with the mimic."

"Um, hello, Tiberius and I hadn't exactly had a choice." But upon reflection, I realized that she had a point. Yes, Tiberius had jumped in between me and the mimic at first, but after the fight started to turn in his favor, I had been all for it.

"Jane's just challenged you to a friendly duel," Sienna said as if I were slow on the uptake. "You don't have to take her up on it, but... it's sort of a matter of honor. Plus, if you decline you'll upset your dragon."

I looked down at Tiberius who gazed back up at me with pleading, opalescent eyes. The combination between his big eyes and giant ears was ridiculous. He was like weaponized cute.

I sighed at him. "You really want to do this?"

I didn't think that Tiberius understood English, but he definitely read the tone of my voice.

He made a hiccupping 'yarp!' and pranced in place. I swear I saw a lick of flame come out from between his teeth. He was excited and ready to go. I was the one who was holding him back.

"Okay Jane, if you want this so bad... you're on." I stood, for the first time I felt eager to have my dragon prove himself.

* * *

Jane and Sienna led me from the food court down another dusty side street to a sort of park-like area. It was pretty, with a green field and a little pond with a wooden bridge stretching over it. More bobber dragons, like Sienna's Ferdinand, floated on top of the water with their wings tucked tightly against their sides. Occasionally, one would dip under and then bob up again with a minnow in its ducky jaws.

On the other side of the pond stood a cleared out area. Cities back in my world would have had basketball or tennis courts there. Maybe a handball court if was upper class.

This town had their local dragon dueling arenas. Instead of a fence, the outlines of the arenas are marked out in white paint.

We weren't the only ones to use the park.

Several other groups of people surrounded the arena circles. One group cheered as two sparrow-like house dragons fluttered in mid-air combat. As we passed by, several people called out to Jane who grinned and waved back. As usual, when I hung out with prettier girls, I was all but invisible. Though Tiberius in my arms got a few lingering looks.

"We all know who's the belle of the ball," I told my dragon, who chirped happily back.

Sienna, Jane, and I stopped at an empty, marked-out arena. It was basically a large painted circle, maybe fifteen feet in diameter with two smaller attached circles on opposite sides. I assumed the smaller circles were the places for the dragon tamers to stand.

Sienna seemed to have appointed herself the referee. She looked between us. "This is a friendly match. Don't draw blood, and whoever gets knocked out of the main circle first, loses."

"Sumo wrestling rules," I said and ignored Jane and Sienna's confused looks. "What about using special attacks?"

For the first time, Jane hesitated. "Normally that's okay, but Tiberius's is fire-based, so... be careful."

"Got it." Hopefully, Tiberius understood as well.

My dragon was currently circling my legs, doing a happy little dance. The complete opposite of Commodore who sat on Jane's shoulder in the very picture of dignity.

Bending down, I picked up my fennec dragon and held him so that we were eye to eye.

"You got the rules? Be nice to the house dragon. No blood. If you knock him out of this circle—" I touched the painted edge with the toe of my good foot, "Then you win."

Tiberius gave a happy little peep and his tongue darted out to lick my nose. His spit was super-hot.

Jane and Sienna looked at me like I was insane.

I ignored them. Seriously, I didn't know what Jane was thinking. Tiberius's one and only fight had practically been a death-match. I didn't want him going into this duel with the same frame of mind and, like, try to squish Commodore or something.

With a sigh, I put Tiberius back down and wiped the dragon spit off my nose. "We're ready, I guess."

"Good luck," Jane said. With Commodore still on her shoulder, she headed for the further of the two circles.

Tiberius and I headed for the other one, Sienna following. Once I stepped inside the tamer circle, she handed me a milky white crystal about as long as my pointer finger.

"Hold it and clear your mind," she told me. "Then reach out to Tiberius."

Jane was already ready to go. She stood as still as a statue, her quartz crystal sat between her cupped palms. She looked like she was giving an offering.

"This is so weird," I muttered under my breath but copied Jane's pose.

Free my mind... no, clear my mind. That's different.

Pushing the Matrix references out of my head was difficult. Somehow, I managed it.

There is no spoon... damn it! Concentrate, Harmony.

To my surprise, once I stopped thinking of Keanu Reeves, awareness of the crystal slid its way into the forefront of my mind. I knew the crystal, intimately, every crack and imperfection... and there was a lot.

This crystal kind of sucked.

But beyond the flaws lay true depths of the crystal. It was strong enough to hold a portion of my conscious mind. At least for a little while.

As my awareness plunged deeper into the crystalline depths, I became aware of a connection. One that extended from my heart and outward to the little dragon who stood waiting near my feet.

What was it that one guy said? There is an element of quartz within every crystal?

While scientifically wrong, I sort of understood what he meant. Whatever lived in the heart of this basic-ass quartz crystal also lived in the opal that bonded Tiberius and myself.

Following it, my mind linked up with Tiberius.

The moment my mind touched his, he welcomed me with a silent sense of, "Finally!"

I'd had impressions of his emotions before, but that had been dim and included a lot of guesswork. I had been halfway convinced that I had been imagining it.

Now, through the quartz crystal, I felt Tiberius's eagerness for the upcoming duel with new clarity.

... And I got the impression that the connection could easily be stronger. Right now, it was a home-antenna grade signal, complete with snowy pixelated bits. With a better quartz crystal, we could have full-blown 3D HD.

Still, this was enough to work with.

Tiberius was eager for the duel. He wanted to prove himself against Commodore the snooty house-dragon. His enthusiasm washed over me and became my own.

I blinked.

The world around me looked different. Colors were washed out, turned dim and unimportant. When I inhaled, I smelled a hundred things I had never noticed before... and yet knew intimately.

I turned around on my perfect four legs — each working with perfect, machine-like precision. Muscle and tendon flowed perfectly under skin. Experimentally, I did a little hop and came down with ease.

I had never felt this full of energy like I could go wherever I wanted to go, and my body could move however I wanted. For the first time in my life, no bad leg weighed me down.

But I wasn't wholly in control of my new, young, strong body.

Tiberius was there in his own mind. It was as if we both had a hand on the steering wheel. It was a partnership, watered with the seed of the opal crystal I had used on him while he'd been in the egg.

This was why Jane and Sienna knew that Tiberius would understand the rules of the match. Because I understood them.

Tiberius didn't seem the least bit upset that he was sharing brain-space with me. He loved and trusted me and couldn't wait to see the battling team that we could make.

Also, he wanted to kick that smug house-dragon's ass.

Distantly I heard human-mouth sounds. My giant ears were very good at picking up noise and I was able to pinpoint her location with a twitch of one ear.

"Are you two ready? Harmony?"

Right. I was sharing the duel with Tiberius, but I had not fully abandoned my own body.

With an effort of will, I held up my human hand.

"Okay," Sienna said. "Three... Two... One... Duel!"