title: A Poor Excuse for a Dragon (Step into Reading)
author:  Geoffrey Hayes 
description: Geoffrey Hayes has written and illustrated more than forty children's books, including the popular series of Otto and Uncle Tooth mysteries (Step into Reading), the beloved <i>Bear By Himself</i>, and the Patrick Bear books. In 2010 Geoffrey received the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for <i>Benny and Penny in the Big No-No</i>.
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  ## Chapter 44
  
  ![Dragon](../Graphics/dragon.gif)
  
  #### _The Lesser Sadness_
  
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  Rand's shirt clung to him with the sweat of effort, but he kept his coat on
  for protection from the wind gusting toward Cairhien. The sun had at least
  another hour to reach its noonday peak, yet already he felt as if he had run
  all morning and been beaten with a club at the finish. Wrapped in the Void, he
  was only distantly aware of the weariness, dimly perceiving the ache in arms
  and shoulders, in the small of his back, a throb around the tender scar in his
  side. That he was aware of them at all told the story. With the Power in him,
  he could make out individual leaves on the trees at a hundred paces, but
  whatever happened to him physically should have been as if it were happening
  to someone else.
  
  He had long since taken to drawing on _saidin_ through the _angreal_ in his
  pocket, the stone