Kathy and her father huddled together outside a pair of huge, battered double bay doors in an alley which ran between a huge complex of beautiful white buildings.

Unicorn had been bundled into various cardboard boxes and stacked up beside them. Their escort, two burly men of questionable intelligence and remarkable bloody-mindedness had been resolutely silent since they had arrived some hours earlier.

'What we waitin' for?' One of the men muttered to his mate. He was sporting a huge bruise around his right eye where Kathy's father had struck him, shortly before being knocked to the ground and kicked until Kathy's screaming distracted them.

'Hang on,' said the partner, 'she should be 'ere soon... any minute now...' He looked at his watch, tapped it, held it to his ear. Then: 'Look there she is!'

'Daddy I'm scared,' Kathy whispered and her father pulled her close to him, trying to hide the pain he felt at the simple gesture.

'Don't worry love,' He said quietly, 'it'll be okay.' But she could hear in his voice that it wouldn't.

The new vehicle - a large white SUV - arrived with a squeal of rubber on tarmac and terrifyingly impressive breaks, stopping mereinches away from the small waiting party. Two people got out of the front seats, a young woman with long black hair and sharp brown eyes and a fearsome looking man with bad skin and worse teeth, the sort her father would have described as a 'young ruffian'. The ruffian sneered at the little girl.

'Brought you some 'friends' missy.' He leered. There was a deep rumble of laughter from within the car.

'Do you two never shut up?' The woman shouted, shoving the scruffy man out of the way and stepping up to open the rear door. Kathy gasped when a young boy practically fell out onto the pavement.

'Oh come on Kat, 'ee's only avin' a larf with the boy.' The woman rolled her eyes and wrenched the nearest door open. Kathy's eyes widened. So she wasn't the only one. Only these children did not have their parents to look after them.

'That's Katerina to you,' spat the woman. 'Give me a hand here, will you?' She hauled a little boy out of the vehicle by the shoulders. The boy's bruised face was covered in dried blood from a viscious looking gash in his temple. He was barely conscious. The ruffian grunted and dragged him to his feet, then stood by Kathy holding him upright while another, much bigger and possibly the most frightening man Kathy had ever seen stepped out of the car. He was carrying a weakly struggling bundle, another girl about Kathy's own age with fiery red hair.

Behind them, the garage door slid open with a scream of tortured metal.

'All here?' Katerina said crisply, seizing the little boy's arm. 'Good. Let's go and see the Dragon.'