Meg Murry is in her family’s kitchen looking for an after-school snack when her brother Charles Wallace enters the room and tells her dragons are in their twin brothers’ vegetable garden. Meg looks at him and sees his torn and dirty clothes and a bruise developing under his eye.

Meg and Charles Wallace walk across their lawn with their dog Fortinbras. They go through the garden and orchard into the north pasture, where two large glacial rocks emerge from the ground. Meg asks Charles Wallace if he is alright, as he is breathing heavily, pale, and sweating. He ignores her question, so she asks where he saw the dragons. Charles Wallace says they were in the pasture when he got home from school. He then says Mother thinks there’s something wrong with him because he’s felt tired throughout the autumn. His fatigue has been worse this week and even more so today. Charles Wallace explains that Dr. Louise Colubra examined him today while she was visiting Mother. Dr. Colubra didn’t find anything specific but agreed that something was wrong.

The siblings reach the pasture but don’t find the dragons. Standing on a stone wall, Charles Wallace describes the dragons.