Bessemer is the character that changes the most in the first few books.  After all, he’s an egg in Book 0: Brechalon.  In Book 1: The Dark and Forbidding Land, he starts to play a real part in the story, but he only says about a dozen words in the whole book.  In The Drache Girl, he’s reached the point, where he is the equal (or more) than the human characters in the story.  He still plays an inferior role to Senta, as he does here when he shows up at the end of Senta’s magical duel with Wizard Bassington.

“Let’s not play that game,” said Bassington.  “Let’s play something a little better suited to our unique abilities.”

He held out his hand, waist high, palm down and said.  “Maiius Uuthanum nejor.”

Red smoke rose up from the ground just below his hand.  It swirled and coalesced into a shape.  The shape became a wolf.  Its red eyes seemed to glow and the hair on its back and shoulders stood up as it bared its dripping fangs and snarled at Senta.  She held out her own hand, palm pointed down.

“Maiius Uuthanum,” she said.

Green smoke rose from the ground below her hand, swirling around in a little cloud, finally billowing away to reveal a velociraptor with bright green and red feathers.

“A bird?” said Bassington, derisively.

The wolf lunged forward, snapping its teeth.  The velociraptor clamped its long jaw shut on the wolf’s snout, and grasped its head in its front claws.  The huge curved claw on the velociraptor’s hind foot slid down the canine’s belly, slicing it open and spilling steaming entrails out onto the gravel.  A moment later, in a swirl of multihued smoke, both creatures disappeared again.

“Prestus Uuthanum,” said Bassington, placing his right palm on his chest, and casting a spell of protection on his own body.

“Uuthanum uusteros pestor,” said Senta, spreading her arms out wide.  She seemed to split down the center as she stepped both right and left at the same time.  Where there had been one twelve-year-old girl a moment ago, there were now four twelve-year-old girls who looked exactly the same.

The wizard waved his hand and said.  “Ariana Uuthanum sembor.”  All four Sentas found themselves stuck in a mass of giant, sticky spider webs.

One of the blond girls fell down.  One of them pulled vainly at the webbing.  The third picked up a rock from the ground and threw it with all of her might at Bassington hitting him just above the temple.  The fourth waved her hand, saying the magic word “uuthanum”, and dispelling the webs.  The girl who had pulled at the webbing helped the fallen girl stand up, and then the two of them merged together.  The other two girls merged into her, and once again, there was only one Senta.

“Uuthanum uusteros vadia,” said Bassington and he disappeared.

Senta stood there for a moment, and then out of the corner of her eye, she saw several pieces of gravel shift on the ground to her left.  She pointed her finger in the direction.

“Uuthanum Regnum,” she said.

A ray of colorful, sparkling light sprayed from her fingertip in the direction she pointed.  Bassington cried out in surprise and reappeared, though he didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects of the spell, which usually left its victims covered in painful rashes.

“Erros Uuthanum tijiia,” he said.

A huge spectral hand, more than five feet across, appeared in the air in front of Senta.  The middle finger was bent back beneath the thumb, and then flicked Senta in the chest.  She fell backwards onto her bottom, crunching her bustle, and sliding several feet across the gravel road.  She struggled to suck in a breath.

“Time to say ‘uncle’, don’t you think?”  Bassington crossed his arms.

Senta tilted her head back and at last managed to pull some air into her lungs.  The wizard waited.

“Well?” he said, finally.

“The sky is purple,” said Senta.  “My dress is orange, and my dragon is going to bite your head off.”

Bassington stared for only a moment at Senta’s blue dress, before diving out of the way, just as Bessemer landed with a huge whomp right where he had been standing.

“Maiius Uuthanum nejor paj!” shouted Bassington, pointing toward the dragon, and then turned and ran north up the road as fast as he could.

Red smoke erupted just in front of Bessemer.  As it dissipated, it revealed a huge shaggy man-like creature, covered in white hair and more than seven feet tall.  Senta had never seen a gharhast ape before except in books, but she recognized one now that she saw it.  The ape bared a set of incredibly long fangs, and yelling out a tremendous roar, jumped onto the dragon.  Two very human looking hands grabbed the dragon around the neck as the ape attempted to dig its fangs into Bessemer’s neck.  The steel colored scales remained impenetrable, though a startled look was visible in the dragon’s eyes.

“Bugger all,” he said.

But then his serpentine tail whipped out, wrapping itself around the ape’s waist.  With one hand, Bessemer pushed the vicious anthropoid an arm’s length away.  Then with one quick motion, he bit off the ape’s head, chewed it several times, and then swallowed.  Blood spurted up from the creature’s severed neck like a fountain.

“Eww,” said Senta.

Then suddenly, as she had expected, the ape’s body burst into smoke and disappeared, leaving the steel dragon holding a few stray wisps in his hand.

“Oh my,” said Bessemer.

“What is it?”

“I think the part I ate turned to smoke too.”

Senta got to her feet and looked down the road.  Smedley Bassington was nowhere to be seen.  She felt the back of her dress.  Her bustle was hanging lopsidedly to the right.

“Kafira in a hand basket!  I can’t afford a new bustle.”

“That was pretty exciting,” said Bessemer.  “I’ve never seen a real magic duel before.”

“Sure you have.”

“Well, I don’t remember it.”

“How long were you watching, then?”

“Since the beginning.”

“And you didn’t bother to help me until just now?”

“Well, I figured that you would win.”

“How do you figure?  I’m just a kid.”

“Come on,” said the dragon.  “We both know you’re no ordinary kid.”