I said, “Why does anyone have to die?” I gave him one of my peanut butter bars, and that seemed to cheer him up. Then, suddenly, one of the dragons snapped his white forked tongue in and out and made a run at the group. Another ranger pushed him away with the long stick, and for some reason he walked off. I still can’t believe I saw what I saw.

When we got back to the Komodo Island dock, we boarded small boats again and went off to a beach for a glad-to-be-alive snorkel. I just sat on the sand and counted my fingers and toes, having exceeded my risk tolerance for one day. I thought about where I was and how, just one year ago, I was fighting other dragons.

Copyright © 2013 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.