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The door belched cold air into the room when he yanked it open, barely missing the dragon. The creature sent a spurt of flame at the tip of Aleksandr’s shoe as it skittered past and he leapt backward, stamping his feet frantically to put out the fire. “Wretched beast,” he bellowed after the dragon. Its black body disappeared into a snow bank, and Aleksandr slammed the door. The baby cried even louder. How by the Tsar’s court was such a thing possible He had to press both hands over his ears just to think. The other dragon, still curled beside the baby, glared reproachfully at Aleksandr. “It set my foot on fire!” Aleksandr yelled at the other dragon. The dragon snorted and tucked its head against the baby’s throat. He stormed toward the basket, half ready to chuck it, the dragon, and the baby out into the snow. The child’s mother had to be close by, didn’t she Anyway, the babe was half winter-wild— she’d be fine outside no matter how young she was. The other dragon hissed and bared its teeth at Aleksandr when he reached for the basket. Before either of them had a chance to discover if he really would have thrown the pair out, something knocked into the door from outside. Aleksandr whirled around, staring. Had Sinivushka come back for her child The thump came again, louder, more insistent. Aleksandr hurried to open the door, eager to pass the child off. The other dragon was back. And it had a goat with it. A huge, fat goat, with sides half as wide as the door and an exact miniature of itself trailing behind. Aleksandr could only stare. “W-w-where,” he stammered. The dragon outside shoved past him, flicking his knee with its tail, and the kid trotted after it, the nanny goat moving to follow as well. “Oh no,” Aleksandr bellowed. “I am not so low as to sleep with animals in my home. You. Goat. Stop!” The goat knocked him over and went right inside, shadowing her kid. The little procession clomped the few steps to the baby’s basket and stopped. Both dragons looked at Aleksandr 48 Writing Tomorrow Magazine
expectantly. “I do not like goats.” The animals stared. The baby cried, hiccupping little sobs now, and the nanny goat baa-ed plaintively. Aleksandr sighed. He grabbed a chair and stomped over. With a bit of trial and error, he filled a bowl with milk from the goat’s swollen udders and, using a twist of cloth, the baby sucked the milk from the material hungrily. As steady as the ax falling when he chopped wood, his hand dipped into the bowl, soaked the cloth, and lifted it for the child. She drank for an hour until her little stomach was full and round as a piglet. In the following days, he built a small enclosure for the goat and her kid beside the house, adding to it until it was a proper shelter against the wind and snow. He had expected an angry farmer to show up at his door demanding the goat’s return, but none ever did. And so the goats stayed. And the baby stayed as well, burrowing into his life tight as a thorn tangled in cloth. Even the dragons remained, and in time, with her first words, Minchka named them: Zinfir and Dravij. On the night before Minchka’s seventh birthday, Dravij laid an egg. Aleksandr woke to the dragon’s pleased clicks as she crouched over it, nuzzling the thing with her snout. The eggshell was as muddy blue as the river before the first frost, and gold specks flecked the surface. Dravij had chosen one of Aleksandr’s boots as her nest and the leather tongue lolled out from under her paw, boot-strings tangled liked weeds, part of the heel propping up the egg while the rest lay in pieces around the dragon. His other boot, still intact, lay beside the door, as though Dravij had dragged it halfway across the room before deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. The boots were scarcely a month old. Wretched dragons! And now there were going to be three of them. He stared glumly at the egg. The next morning, when Minchka saw the egg for the first time, she squealed and leaped up and down, clasping her hands. February 2014 49
Page 1: Writing Shaping Tomorrow With Our P
Page 4 and 5: Contents Fiction 6 A Day of Rain/Ro
Page 6 and 7: Rolli A Day of Rain As it was a day
Page 8 and 9: I then returned to my Duties. As I
Page 10 and 11: “There was a boy. Another boy. Be
Page 12 and 13: Steven Volynets For Love, Eternal W
Page 14 and 15: pile. “Don’t hurtchaself now.
Page 16 and 17: up for a bump—maybe as much as tw
Page 18 and 19: mostly, crude pieces of wood and sc
Page 20 and 21: side. “Twice!” the Kid barks ba
Page 22 and 23: hair and face. “The friggin’ ba
Page 24 and 25: me, it aint happening. My uncle sai
Page 26 and 27: “What am I supposed to do, Skippe
Page 28 and 29: street— Chinatown, Harlem, Murray
Page 30 and 31: go back and forth in silence, like
Page 32 and 33: cellophane trash bag, pulled real t
Page 34 and 35: April Salzano Lightning can, does,
Page 36 and 37: Rob Andwood Set Phasers for One Ell
Page 38 and 39: the cloud cover. Don’t fret, Susa
Page 40 and 41: carried his plate to the sink. By t
Page 42 and 43: with the lady who cut all our hair.
Page 44 and 45: Jennifer Racek The Dragon Keeper Li
Page 46 and 47: They spent the night in a standoff,
Page 50 and 51: “A baby dragon! There’s going t
Page 52 and 53: It was a long time before Minchka f
Page 54 and 55: laboriously stretched out to him. A
Page 56 and 57: you made me last summer.” Aleksan
Page 58 and 59: flames at one another and huffing.
Page 60 and 61: Leila Fortier ~Punctuated~ Why Am I
Page 62 and 63: Leila Fortier ~Impossible Geometry~
Page 64 and 65: Devyani Borade Sky’s the Limit Th
Page 66 and 67: of her sari as she goes about her b
Page 68 and 69: “Shoe shine! Shoe shine! Get your
Page 70 and 71: “What, sir” “So what’s your
Page 72 and 73: himself some decent clothes. How lo
Page 74 and 75: • He watches the dancing water gr
Page 76 and 77: sacks on their shoulders. Of the la
Page 78: Still, when I remember you, it is w

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