Wiz wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not. The Internet, an international computer network originally built around universities and research institutions, was famous for the depth and breadth of the knowledge contained in its newsgroups. However, even the Internet’s staunchest advocates had to admit that not all the newsgroups were research-related-or even serious. Hidden away in various places in the sprawling multi-dimensional message space were some decidedly odd things, including some highly unofficial newsgroups. But you needed to know how to use the net to get to them. Danny’s knowledge of the ins and outs of the net was extensive.
Danny was no sooner settled back in his chair than there was a discreet knock at the door. In all the Wizard’s Keep there was only one person who knocked so delicately, so discreetly and so exquisitely.
“Come in Wulfram,” Wiz called.
“Excuse me, My Lord.” The castle seneschal was calm, dignified and more than a little bit stuffy. “But . . .”
Before he could finish the door banged open again and two children and a dragon charged into the room.
“UncaWiz, UncaWiz,” shouted Caitlin, the daughter of one of the guardsmen. She was a couple of years older than Danny’s son Ian, with dark curly hair, flashing dark eyes and a single black eyebrow stark against her pale, fair skin. She was utterly charming, she knew it and she used it shamelessly.
Right on her heels came Ian. He was barely three and well into the head-down-and-charge stage of childhood locomotion. Without pausing he ran full-tilt across the room and bounced into Danny’s lap.
But the real attraction was the third member of the group, who charged into the room just as heedlessly, got his feet tangled up with the rug and his own tail, caromed off a pile of manuscripts and executed a neat bank shot to end up beside Ian and Danny.
Little Red Dragon, or LRD to the programmers, was little only in comparison to the eighty-foot cavalry mounts in the aeries below the castle. He-Wiz thought he was a he-was nearly ten feet long from snout to tail tip. His scales were darkening from scarlet to maroon and the blue edges were going from turquoise toward navy and his combination of exuberance, dragonish temper and size was making him increasingly hard to handle. Dragons do not become intelligent until they are nearly full grown. LRD was a long way from full grown and somewhat further than that from intelligent. But LRD and Ian were inseparable, so the dragon was allowed in the programmers’ workroom and their quarters in the Wizard’s Keep.
The seneschal knew when he was outclassed. With an exquisite sigh of resignation he stepped away from the door to await the wizards’ pleasure.
“The dragon’s got a new name!” Caitlin announced. “We had to come tell you because you can’t call him LRD any more.”
“Not LRD?” asked Danny, looking down at his son squirming in his lap.
“No! Fuf-fee,” Ian pronounced distinctly, reaching up and hugging the scaly monster’s neck. LRD looked pleased.
“I beg your pardon?” Wiz said.
“He means Fluffy,” Caitlin said with five-year-old superiority.
“Fluffy!” Ian repeated with three-year-old emphasis.
“Okaaay,” Wiz said, “his name’s Fluffy.”
“He’s taking us on a adventure,” Caitlin announced. “We’re going across the river to hunt for mushrooms.”
“All by yourselves?” Danny asked. “What does Shauna say?”
“Oh, Shauna can come too,” Caitlin said. “Fluffy says it’s all right.”
“Where is Shauna anyway?” Wiz put in.
“Here, My Lord,” the nursemaid said, puffing with exertion as she came into the room. She dropped a perfunctory curtsy to Wiz. “Sorry, My Lord, we were down in the orchard and they just took off running. The whole pack of them.” She turned toward her charges and planted her hands on her ample hips. “No manners in the lot of them. Just up and whooping off like a tribe of savages. They ought to be ashamed of themselves, bursting in here like that and disturbing wizards at their work. Why it would have served them right if they’d interrupted a powerful spell and been turned into a parcel of frogs!”
The boy, the girl and the dragon recognized their cue and they all managed to look properly abashed.