One is Come (Five in Circle) by C. H. MacLean Page A

Are we as one?”
    The other dragons nodded.
    Earth raised his tail, and waited until the others did also. “It is done, Three as one.” With the last word, his tail came down with a crash. The other two dragons’ tails slammed down at the same time, making one great noise.
    Fire snorted, a brief flash of flame. “That was productive. Let’s do this again in another couple of centuries,” she said snidely. As she finished, she opened her mouth and let loose a large fireball. The fireball gave its usual roar of fire, which didn’t quite cover a ruder sound. The fireball imploded around the dragon and both disappeared with the same booming sound that had announced her arrival.
    Earth looked at Water, who was looking vaguely at where Fire had been. Water looked at Earth, and he couldn’t help one side of his mouth slide from thoughtful into a fox-like smile.
    “Just between you and me, one dragon to another, you do not agree?” Earth said. It was not a question, but an invitation.
    Water recovered quickly, his eyes widening in mock surprise. “Whatever do you mean?”
    Earth's gaze never wavered. “Fire dragons have always been the best scouts, the best Readers, quick and facile thinkers. Not really the best liars, however. Water dragons are clearly the superior schemers and planners, seeing things all interconnected, flowing into one another.”
    Water gave a slight tip of his head. “All things are interconnected . ”
    Earth shook his head, the grinding and grating sounds of its scales somber backdrop to its voice. “If you can see it that way. This Fire, especially, looks far into the future. I would be a fool to doubt her. She was the one who saw and rooted out the vilest treachery in Faustas and saved us all.” His eyes grew distant, lost in the past. “I was so sure he was different, he was the evidence that humans had become people, and to be so wrong, so completely wrong... he had all the soul of a pricklescrinch!” He shivered, a rattling of rocky scales. “But now, we all feel the time is near—does she see the Flows as they are, or as she wants them to be? She speaks of them and us, but I cannot tell anymore.”
    Water held up his right front claw, palm up, and gave a little shrug. His face showed uncertainty, but there was a gleam in his eyes Earth did not miss.
    Earth shook his head again. “No, you know more than you are telling.” Earth held up one front claw, forestalling Water's attempt at denial. “It is your right, even your nature as Water to do so. Just as it is mine to absorb it all, even what you do not say.” He eyed Water calmly, who had attempted, somewhat successfully, to assume a posture of innocence. “You didn't care what Fire reported from the Reading… though it is odd how unsure she was.”
    Water only blinked, but it was enough for Earth.
    “You think there was something unsaid about the Reading? About the human?” Earth kept his eyes on Water. “ Or there is something off about Fire,” he whispered. “Oh, how very skillfully she avoided talking about the boy!” The cave echoed in rumbles for a moment. “Come now, out! Dragon to dragon, what do you know? I heard you talk to Fire, you could not have known their interaction would result in a Gift of Return. Yet, you prompted the meeting anyway. What are you after?”
    Water started to protest, and then just smiled. He swirled his tail in a complex figure, leaving an impression of a Celtic knot on the floor. Water looked at Earth for a moment, smiling with a tilt to his head. “What Gift did your Clan member give the human?” he asked coyly.
    Earth didn't smile back. Then again, it was difficult to tell when an Earth dragon did. “What did yours?”
    A slippery smile trickled over Water's face. “I am not the only one with hope, then?” He didn’t wait for a reply, but quickly bowed. On the way up, the bow turned into a back flip, then a quickly spinning blur, which finished in Water’s imploding with a