It was a sunny day, and the amusement park with alive with excited faces. The five witches gathered as near as they dared to the portal they knew would soon be opened to their children. They blended into the crowd with common features and plain clothes.

"If only we could have told them. If only we could have said our goodbyes," said Leisha, her face downcast.

Mohan went to her and lifted her face in her hands. "Have faith, child," she said with a sympathetic smile, which the other returned.

"Hey, look! The Dungeons & Dragons ride!" Bobby suddenly yelled.

They all froze, sharing the lightning bolt of shock that pierced them all at once. They watched their children running to catch up with Bobby.

Peia sighed. "It had to be their first ride, didn't it?"

"Let us take this as a good omen, sisters," said Mohan.

The five moved to stand in a line and held hands. Syanna and Leisha to their elder's left; Ellarice and Peia to her right. They could only watch as their children were swallowed whole, all six at once, by the mechanical dragon. An eldritch light flared in its unseeing eyes, causing Mohan's breath to catch in her throat and her skin to prickle.

She waited, wondering when it would happen, if she would know it when it did. And then she felt it: a tightness enveloping her, tugging like a needy child, bringing tears to pool in her eyes. With one last heart-rending surge, it was gone.

They were gone.

She heard Leisha gasp and sob, and then Syanna's soothing words murmured to quiet her. To Mohan's right was Ellarice, as still as stone as Peia leaned her head on her shoulder.

Mohan raised her eyes to the hulking, metal monstrosity. For a world that had never known true dragons, its people had a gift for bringing them to life with terrible veracity, she thought. Electric light had returned to flash in the sightless eyes. A simple, unassuming amusement park ride.

Had any dragon ever been such a size? she wondered. Perhaps, she thought in answer, in the ages of the Realm before Man had come to wage their war upon them. And now their sons and daughters had just entered their ancestral home.

How long for them? she wondered. Who would survive? Which would return? There was no way to know.