Something was crawling up the side of the skyship’s wooden hull! Ty, whose face was pale, shrinks back and ducks down behind the tiller but Mariana rushed to the edge and peered into the gloom below. She  just makes out something or somebody scrabbles up the side of the ship. It was quite small and had green eyes. It paused and stared back up at her. “It’s a baby dragon,” she is called, “and it’s hurt.” Mariana, whose brow frowns with concentration, was going to reach down to grip its outstretched paw and pulled it onto the deck. “It will be hurt in the storm.”

The dragonlet is shivering, cold and whimpered. Ty dashed off to fetch a ship’s blanket, wondering anxiously if the dragonlet’s mother was pleased to know that they would be helped her baby. Mariana speaked calmly to the baby, hoping that Captain O’Shea will not take a dim view of what they have done!