Birds and Reptiles

“What’s this?” Angel asked. He leaned in the doorway and watched Ella stitch a complicated pattern into bright red cloth.

“An eagle,” she said, “for the legions.”

“An eagle?”

She’d seen it in a vision. She shrugged. “I think it looks nice. And they’re fierce creatures.”

Angel scooped up the other red pennant she’d made. “And this creature? I don’t think they exist anymore.”

“It’s a dragon,” she said, which she knew he remembered. From Andrev.

“Why a dragon?”

“It will confuse historians,” she said. So many battle leaders, so many dragon standards. “Have you heard from Lucius Artorius yet?”