[Lighthearted Western fantasy | Travel adventure | Raising a little dragon | Excellent sleep aid: read three chapters and you'll be out like a light]
"We sent out a dragon egg."
"You brought back a dragon."
Lia, a rookie courier, accidentally delivers a dragon egg to a bakery.
The next day, the egg hatches, the baby dragon gets its fill, and then it refuses to leave her mailbag.
Her independent express-delivery license is suspended, and a claim for three thousand gold coins is awaiting review. To make things right, Lia sets off with Tuanli, a dragon-fearing old guard, and a curious apprentice mage.
All she wanted was to get her license back and save up for a mail cart of her own.
But along the way, giant beasts carry markets on their backs, and flowers bloom on the undersides of branches. Sometimes she has to deliver a letter nineteen years late. Other times, she has to deliver an entire post office.
The things she has to deliver grow stranger, and she meets more and more friends.
And the little dragon that once curled up in her mailbag is beginning to look up at the sky.
Not only has she lost her license to take independent express-delivery jobs, but there's also a claim for three thousand gold coins awaiting review on her desk.
To make up for the accident, Lia sets off along the old northern mail route with Tuanli the little dragon, a dragon-fearing old guard, and an apprentice mage who is passionate about studying magic.
Glowing moss-antlered deer, a relay station buried in snow for nineteen years, and a four-note bell that always rings at the wrong time... The route is full of wondrous creatures, ancient magic, and all kinds of special mail waiting to be delivered.
All Lia wanted was to get her license back and save up for a mail cart of her own.
But the farther she travels, the more she wants to know: Who made the old mail route start giving the wrong signals? And how can she deliver a little dragon that has begun to yearn to fly to the place it truly wants to go?
