******
Aunt Drucilla Dragling's card arrived in the morning mail. It
floated through the mail slot
cut in the heavy front door of the Victorian
mansion and lay shimmering on the polished oak floor
in the front
hall.
Dewey Dragling was the first to see it as he started down the
stairs.
"A shimmer-card!" he shouted. (Shimmer-cards always meant something
special was
going to happen.) He hooked his green tail over the banister and
slid down the stairs excitedly,
only to tangle in the newel post at the
bottom. Hs twin sister Dagmar sped past him and snatched
the card up from the
floor.
"Wizard's warts," Dewey said disgustedly when he saw Dagmar with the
card.
"Give me that card Daggy. I saw it first."
"Just try and get it,"
said Dagmar. She hid the card behind the scales on her back and
watchfully
retreated from her slowly advancing brother.
Suddenly Dewey stopped and his
ears slid forward. Startled, Dagmar turned to see why.
Eleanor, the Wizard's
wife had appeared silently behind the twins and was extending her slim,
white
hand for the card. It flashed and leaped into her fingers as if drawn by a
magnet.
"What kind of magic was that, Eleanor?" Dagmar asked.
"Will you
teach us?" said Dewey.
Eleanor laughed. "You will have to wait until you are
older," she said kindly. "Our magic
is different from your kind of magic, and
at any rate, I am not the proper teacher for you. I can
only teach human
magic, as well you know."
"Wizard's warts. You always say that," Dewey said.
"Who is the card from? What does
it say?"
Eleanor scanned the card as the
two little draglings sat back on their haunches and slid
their ears forward
expectantly.
"Your Aunt Drucilla will be arriving tomorrow afternoon,"
Eleanor said. "She says she
has a surprise for you."
"Yaaay, Aunt Drucy's
coming!" the twins shouted. "What kind of surprise is it?" Dewey
added. The
two draglings's eyes shone and their tails moved excitedly as they waited for
the
answer.
"She says it's a secret. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to
find out."
At these words, the twins ears drooped disappointedly.
"Now
cheer up," Eleanor said. "Tomorrow will be here in two flicks of a unicorn's
tail
and we have lots to do before Drucilla arrives. Have you two
straightened your sleeping rooms
yet?"
Ears and tails drooped further in
response.
"Well then, you need to get back upstairs and get busy. Come on
now." With that she
shooed the two draglings back up the stairs.
After
they were safely out of sight, she swiftly moved into her sitting room, her long
silk
gown brushing the oriental carpet. Laying the card on her writing table,
she spoke a few words.
The card shimmered in response and began to
speak.
"I trust my niece and nephew are not listening to this," Drucilla
Dragling's voice began. It
was a two-toned voice that rose and fell in a
grand, lady-like fashion. "I will arrive tomorrow
afternoon from the Earth
world of South America. This card contains the ancient spell that
will
activate the lost crystal of Shaline. However, the spell is not
complete. There is a riddle that
must be deciphered in order to find the
lost crystal. Guard the card well until I arrive. Others are
trying to find
the crystal also, and they do not have dragling interests at heart. I will need
all of
Ladnar's wisdom and skill to help me." The card flashed and started to
fade, until it was a flat
green piece of paper.
Eleanor sighed and looked
around the room. "I wonder where I can hide this," she said to
herself
thoughtfully. "Ah, I know just the place," and with a few quick motions the card
was
concealed. "Even curious little draglings won't be able to find it now."
Her eyes crinkled a little
as she regarded the hiding place. "Now I must find
Ladnar and tell him about Drucilla's
discovery. I wonder where he is?" She
left the room, closing the door behind her.
On the second floor landing,
Dewey and Dagmar watched through the rails as she moved
out of sight.
"How
are we going to get into Eleanor's sitting room without being seen?"
whispered
Dewey as he craned his neck through the rails to see where Eleanor
had gone.
"We'll have to wait until Eleanor and the Ladnar are safely out in
the garden--maybe this
afternoon when they go down to the lake to feed the
unicorns."
"I can't wait that long," said Dewey, pulling his head back. "Ow,
Daggy, I'm stuck!" Sure
enough, his head was stuck fast between the rails.
"Ow, ow, ow!" he wailed, struggling to free
himself.
"Shhhh," whispered
his sister. "Do you want them to hear you?"
"But my head's stuck!"
"Quit
wiggling and let me think a minute," Dagmar hissed. "If you turn your head just
a
little, I think it will slide out. I'll get behind you and pull your
tail."
"NOOOO," he yelled as she started pulling. "That HURTS!"
"You're
acting like a hatchling, Dewey," Dagmar snapped, pulling even harder.
"What
is going on here?" said a stern voice behind them. Two sets of ears swiveled
back
and two draglings became very still.
"My head is caught in the
railing, Wizard," said Dewey. "Make it let me go."
Ladnar gazed curiously at
the twins. "Why did you put your head through the rails in the
first place,
Dewey?"
Dewey looked at Dagmar, who stared fiercely back at him.
"Uh, I
uh, well, uh," stammered Dewey, who was stuck for an answer also.
Ladnar
shook his head. "Okay, Dewey, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to.
Stop struggling and I'll get you loose." As he spoke, he touched his
fingertips together and slowly
raised them in the air. Then he turned his
palms out and slid them down either side of Dewey's
head. The rails curved
outward in response. "There, now you can pull your head free."
Dewey pulled
back, and the rails curved and were straight once more. Dewey turned his
head
from side to side and wiggled his shoulders gratefully.
Thanks, Wizard," he
said. "I was scared I would have to stay there forever."
Ladnar laughed. "I
couldn't leave you there, Dewey. How would we get up and down
the stairs with
your tail in the way? Of course, Dagmar was doing her best to remove it for
you."
Dagmar put her paw over her mouth and snickered.
"It looks to me
like you two need something to do to keep you out of mischief,"
Ladnar
continued. "Come with me." Ladnar started down the stairs with Dagmar
and Dewey close
behind.
"I was looking at the herb garden this morning
and there are weeds that need to be pulled
around some of the plants," he
said cheerfully. "I know you two will do an excellent job."
"But why do I
have to weed the herbs?" said Dagmar. "I was only trying to help Dewey
get
free." She smiled beguilingly at Ladnar, then frowned as he chuckled.
"When
one dragling is in trouble, two is the reason," he said. He continued through
the
kitchen and out to the herb garden in the back yard.
"Weed around the
nasturtiums and the basil," he said. "When you're done with that, pick
a
bouquet of wildflowers for the dining table. Eleanor mentioned the one we
have now is starting
to wilt."
Dewey and Dagmar watched as Ladnar
disappeared into the house.
"Wizard's warts," grumbled Dagmar.
"Why do I
have to weed the herbs," mimicked Dewey in a high-pitched voice. "I was
only
trying to help." He blew a puff of dragling smoke at her and she bared
her teeth in response.
"You do the nasturtiums," she directed over her
shoulder. "I'll start the basil. Maybe we'll
get done in time to practice
smoke curling before lunch."
Reluctantly the two little draglings knelt down
and began to pull weeds.
At the kitchen window, Eleanor and Ladnar watched
them fondly.
"Aren't they wonderful? They are so curious, so full of life,"
Ladnar said.
"Yes, but I can't keep them out of mischief. I hope Drucilla
doesn't stir them up too much
with her magic. Their imaginations run wild as
it is."
"Drucilla is coming here?" Ladnar said with a frown. "How do you
know?"
"She sent a shimmer-card," Eleanor replied. "It came this morning.
Dewey and Dagmar
were fighting over it."
"What did you do with the
card?"
"I transformed it. Drucilla said it contained an ancient spell for a
lost crystal and that
others were also looking . Do you know what she is
talking about?"
Ladnar knotted his brows. "The crystal of Shaline disappeared
many years ago after a
great war was fought between draglings and wizards for
possession of its magical powers. It has
the ability to turn anything it's
possessor touches into chocolate. And young draglings, as you
know, can't
resist chocolate. But the chocolate that the crystal of Shaline makes is
special. It has
the ability to enslave draglings so they will do anything for
a taste of it. After the war, draglings
and wizards made a treaty that they
would never fight again, but during the signing of the pact,
the crystal of
Shaline disappeared. It almost caused another war. Some thought the unicorns
had
taken it for safekeeping, others thought it was the phoenix." Ladnar
sighed. "I hope Drucilla
knows what she is doing. I'd much rather that
crystal would stay lost, for all our sakes."
"I'm sure Drucilla wouldn't do
anything that would threaten the peace of Hom. She's just
off on one of her
wild adventures that she loves so much. If she can't find excitement, she
creates
it. You know that."
"I know. I just hope this visit won't be too
exciting." Ladnar put his arm around Eleanor
and she leaned her head against
his shoulder.
*******
Later that afternoon, Dagmar and Dewey tiptoed down the stairs
and into the hall.
Silently they stalked the door to Eleanor's sitting room.
Seeing no one, they hurried to the door
and slipped through.
"Where do you
think she put the card, Daggy?"
"I don't know," Dagmar whispered. "You look
over by the bookcase. I'll look through
the desk."
Quickly the twins
searched the room.
"It's not here. Now what?" Dewey said.
"Let's forget
it," Dagmar said. "I guess we'll find out what the surprise is soon enough."
Looking around the room her eyes were caught by the gilt-edged mirror on the
wall. "Let's go
get some chocolate chip cookies, Dewey!"
"Remember what
Ladnar said. We aren't supposed to get into human's houses anymore.
He said
it's not right to take cookies when they aren't ours."
"But we haven't had
any chocolate chip cookies for weeks. Please Dewey, come with me.
They won't
find out."
"Wellll," Dewey said. "Okay, just once more."
"Where should we
go?"
"Let's try the room with the marble fireplace. They always have the best
cookies in their
cookie jar."
"Okay, You turn the globe while I check the
mirror to make sure the room is empty."
Dewey went over to a large globe
mounted on a brass pedestal. It was carved with rare
animals and mathematical
symbols. He touched two of the symbols and turned the globe very
slowly while
Dagmar watched the large mirror. As she watched, her reflection darkened until
she
couldn't see anything. When Dewey touched the carved griffon on the
pedestal, a different room
appeared. A small fire burned in the fireplace and
comfortable chairs were scattered around.
Books lined the walls and a lamp
lit the room dimly.
"Can you see anyone Daggy?"
"The room's empty. Come
on!"
The two draglings scampered over the frame and tumbled onto the couch in
the reflected
room.
"The kitchen is down the hall," Dewey gasped as he
bounced onto the floor. "Hurry."
They sped out of the room and down the hall
to the kitchen. Dagmar pushed open the
swinging door and stopped. The room
was dark except for a little moonlight which shone
through the
window.
"Help me move a chair over to the counter," Dagmar said. She hopped
up on the chair
and then onto the kitchen counter. Stretching as far as she
could, she reached for the cookie jar.
"Do they have chocolate chip cookies?"
Dewey asked.
"They sure do." She brought out a paw full. "Here."
She
handed him some cookies and then reached in for more. Just then they
heard
footsteps in the hall.
"Someone's coming. Hide!"
Dewey scrambled
into the broom closet while Dagmar hopped down from the chair and
squeezed
behind the stove. The held their breath as the kitchen door opened.
"Don't
make any noise," Becky, the little girl who lived in the house, said.
"Hey,
someone's been into the cookies," her brother Danny said. "Look, the lid's
off."
"Are there any left?"
In the closet, Dewey's nose began to itch. He
tried rubbing it with his paw but that only
made it
worse.
"Aahhh...CHOOO!" He froze. So did the two children. Dagmar rolled her
eyes and
sighed.
"What was THAT?" Becky said.
Danny looked at the broom
closet. Putting his finger to his lips he tiptoed to the door and
jerked it
open.
"Yikes," he yelped and jumped back, bumping into his sister.
"What
is it?" she asked, trying to peer around his shoulder.
"Ah, ah, ah, CHOOO!"
said Dewey.
"It looks like a little dragon," Danny said in
wonder.
"Dragons aren't real," Becky said.
"I am so real," Dewey said
indignantly. "And I'm not a dragon. I'm a dragling. There's a
difference you
know. Dragons are big and ugly. Draglings are small and handsome." He
started
to climb out of the closet, but Danny stopped him.
"You stay
there. How do I know you won't bite?"
"He won't bite because I say he won't,"
Dagmar snapped as she slid out form behind the
stove. The children turned in
awe.
"How many of you are there?" Becky asked.
"Just us," Dagmar said. But
there are a lot more draglings in Hom."
"Did you say IN home? You're supposed
to say AT home," Becky corrected.
"No, we mean in Hom. That's the name of the
world we come from. It's like your world
but different. We live with a wizard
named Ladnar and his wife Eleanor. And our Aunt Drucilla's
coming to visit
and she has a surprise fur us, so we tried to find the shimmer card to find out
what
it was but we couldn't so we came here to get some cookies 'cause we
can't have chocolate where
we live and...well... here we are," Dagmar said as
Dewey nodded his head in agreement.
"Did you eat all our cookies?" Danny
demanded.
The two draglings' ears drooped and they hung their heads.
"We
really, really love chocolate chip cookies," Dewey said in a small voice. "So we
came
through the mirror to get some."
"We're sorry," Dagmar added.
They
two children looked at each other and at the two small draglings.
"Well, I
guess it's okay this time," Danny said gruffly. I can't imagine not having
any
chocolate. Why, we have chocolate all the time."
"Did you say you came
through the mirror?" Becky asked. "What mirror?"
"The one in the living
room," Dagmar said. "Come on, we'll show you." They led the
children down the
hall and into the living room.
"Look in the mirror over the sofa," Dagmar
said.
"I can't see myself."
"That's not our living room."
"That is
where we live," Dewey said.
"What is it like in Hom," Danny asked, and Dewey
and Dagmar told them all about life
through the mirror. Finally it was time
to leave. As they were getting ready to hop over the edge
of the mirror,
Becky said "Wait." She ran to her room and got one of her dolls and handed it
to
Dagmar.
"I'll take good care of her," Dagmar said gently.
"I want to
give you something too, Dewey," said Danny. "But I don't know what."
He
looked around the room and then snapped his fingers. "I know." Pulling a
chain from around his
neck he handed it to Dewey. "I found the stone on this
chain when we went to South America on
vacation last summer. It was in the
jungle by some ruins."
"Thanks, Danny." He put the chain over his head and
grinned toothily.
"But we don't have anything for you," Dagmar
said.
"That's okay. Just promise to come back and visit us sometime. I bet
we're the only kids
around who have draglings for friends."
"We promise,"
Dewey and Dagmar said. Then they hopped onto the back of the couch
and jumped
over the edge of the mirror into the other room. As the mirror slowly darkened,
they
could hear the goodbyes getting fainter until they faded away.
* * *
* *
Dagmar and Dewey tumbled onto the oriental rug in Eleanor's sitting
room.
"We better get out of here fast before Eleanor catches us," Dagmar said
as she struggled
to her hind paws. "Why is this rug so slippery? I can't
stand up." She looked at Dewey who was
staring down intently.
"Look,
Daggy," he said. "Look at the rug."
Dagmar looked, and reached out a paw
gingerly. "It feels funny," she said "It's not soft
anymore. In fact, it
feels like..." He tilted her head questioningly. Dewey reached down and
broke
off a corner of the rug. He touched it to his tongue.
"It's
chocolate!"
"It can't be," Dagmar said. She stretched out her paw and took
the piece from Dewey. "It
is chocolate!"
And it was. But it was different
that any chocolate they had ever seen. This chocolate
wasn't rich and brown
like most chocolate. Instead it was blue and red and gold and looked
just
like the oriental rug it had once been.
"How did this happen?" Dagmar
said.
"Who cares," Dewey mumbled, busily stuffing some of the chocolate rug
into his jaws.
"Wait Dewey. Maybe it's a trick. Or maybe this is Aunt
Drucilla's surprise. We better not
eat anymore until we know how it got here
and what it's doing here."
"I guess you're right Daggy." Reluctantly Dewey
got to his paws and started for the
door. When he reached the door he paused.
"Well, come on. You're the one who was in such a hurry and now you aren't
moving.
What's wrong with you?"
"The whole floor is chocolate Dewey. It
changed as soon as you stepped off the rug. I
watched it. You're the one
who's turning the floor into chocolate."
"I am?" I can touch something and it
turns into chocolate? Wizard's warts!" He reached
for the doorknob. "I can't
wait to tell Ladnar and Eleanor," he said as he turned the knob. But
instead
of turning it broke off in his paw. "No problem," he laughed. "We'll eat our way
out!"
Dagmar frowned. "You better not touch anything else, Dewey," she
said.
Dewey laughed and took a bit of doorknob. Dagmar watched for a little
while but the lure
of chocolate was too great to resist. Soon she joined her
brother and before long they had
demolished the door to the study and were
starting on the books in the bookcase. After two
hours, the only things left
in the room were the mirror, the globe, a rubber plant, Dagmar's doll
and two
very fat, very sick draglings.
"Ohhhh," Dewey groaned, holding his paws over
his belly. "I don't feel good, Daggy."
"I don't even want to look at
chocolate," his sister answered.
"Don't say that word," Dewey said. He sank
down to the chocolate floor and accidentally
brushed against Dagmar's
doll.
"No," Dagmar cried but it was too late. The doll had turned to
chocolate.
"I'm sorry Daggy," Dewey said miserably. "I didn't mean to touch
it."
"It's all your fault," Dagmar said and she started to cry.
Dewey
looked at her sadly. "I wish we had never gone through the mirror. The
only
good part was meeting Becky and Danny." He touched the stone on the end
of the chain but it
didn't change. "Daggy, look! My stone didn't turn into
chocolate."
"Maybe it's the stone that's doing this. Take it off and try to
touch something in the hall."
Dewey took the necklace off and laid it on the
floor. Then he went to the hole in the wall where
the door had been and
gingerly touched his hind paw to the hallway floor. Nothing happened.
He
stepped into the hall and turned to his sister who was watching intently.
"You were right. It was
the stone."
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY SITTING ROOM?"
Eleanor stared in shocked
amazement at the demolished room and the guilty,
green faces in front of her. "Ladnar, look what
they have done to my sitting
room. How in Hom's name did you manage to destroy an entire
room in two
hours? Where are all my things? My desk, the books, even the furniture is gone.
What have you done with it all?"
"We ate it," Dewey said in a small
voice.
"ATE IT?" said Ladnar.
"Dewey got this necklace with a magic stone
and when he wears it, everything he touches
turns to chocolate."
"Where
did you get this necklace?" Ladnar asked.
"From Danny, the little boy who
lives in the house in the mirror."
"Where is the necklace now,
Dewey?"
"It's there on the floor, Ladnar. Please don't make me touch it. I
never want to see
chocolate again as long as I live."
The Wizard laughed
and walked over to the necklace. Holding it to the light he peered at
it
carefully. "Did Danny say where this came from?"
"He said it came form a
place called South America. They went there on a vacation."
"If you don't
mind Dewey, I'd like to keep this for a while."
"Sure, Ladnar. But I'd like
to have it back. It was a present and I don't want to lose it
even if I can't
wear it."
"Ladnar, can you change my doll back?" Dagmar said. "It was a
present from Becky."
"I can try," said the wizard. He moved his hands over
the doll, but nothing happened. "I
will need to study your doll and the
necklace. They must have some magic attached to them that
I don't understand.
Eleanor, do you have a potion for upset tummys?"
"I think I can find
something. Come with me."
After they had gone, Ladnar climbed the stairs to
his laboratory on the third floor of the
house, carrying the necklace and
doll carefully. He laid them on his desk and went to the books
lining the
walls. Locating the one he wanted, he sat down in his overstuffed chair and
began to
read.
Four hours later, Eleanor found him there, head resting on
the side of the chair and
snoring softly. The book had fallen to the floor
and she picked it up curiously.
"Ancient History of Hom," she read. "Why is
he reading about ancient history?"
Shrugging her shoulders she laid the book
down and left the room, closing the door quietly.
******
"Aunt Drucy's here!"
Dewey and Dagmar jumped down from the
window sill in the front room and rushed out
the front door and down the walk
to Drucilla Draglings' bubble coach. The coach was filled with
smoke and at
first they could see only a faint outline. Then an opening appeared in the side
and
the smoke began to escape, forming intricate designs in the air before
swelling and fading away.
At last an elegant hind paw appeared, toe-claws
painted a shimmering turquoise, and stepped to
the ground.
"You may take
my paw, Dewey," said Drucilla as she emerged from the bubble coach.
Her
front paw-claws were also painted turquoise, and she wore a velvet cloak with
gold tassels
and a satin turban with ostrich feathers bouncing high above her
head. "You may carry my fan,
Dagmar," and she handed her a silk fan edged
with lace and painted with elegant draglings in
evening dress. Holding her
head high she swept up the walk to Ladnar's front door, Dewey and
Dagmar
flanking her and the bubble coach floating along behind.
"Good afternoon,
Ladnar, Eleanor," she said.
"So good to see you Drucilla," Eleanor said with
a smile.
"Well don't just stand there," Ladnar boomed. "Come in, come
in!"
Making her way to the front room, Drucilla seated herself in the easy
chair by the
fireplace. Her niece and nephew sat back on their haunches on
either side of her and waited
expectantly.
"What are you two looking at?"
she said tartly to the twins.
They grinned and wiggled excitedly as Eleanor
and Ladnar exchanged smiles.
"I think they're waiting for the surprise you
mentioned," Ladnar said. The twins nodded
eagerly.
"Did I mention a
surprise?" I must have meant this," and she lifted her paw and began to
draw
figures in the air. Trails of sparks came from her paw-claws and swirled and
formed around
her. Gradually they took shape as two giant clam shells which
floated in the air before settling in
front of Dewey and Dagmar.
"May we
open them?" Dewey asked, his eyes wide.
"Of course you may," Drucilla said
fondly as the two draglings reached for the gold clasps
on the front of each
shell.
"It's beautiful," Dagmar said as she held up a necklace of glowing
pearls. "Thank you
Aunt Drucy."
"Those pearls came from the Slisson Sean
Dagmar. I dove for them myself in azure
waters one hundred feet deep. An old
dragling who lived on the edge of the Sean gave me the
secret words to use to
get the oysters to open. Many draglings have tried to obtain pearls
from
those waters and have failed because they didn't know how to talk to the
dragling who guarded
the water." She sat back with a satisfied nod.
"What
did you get, Dewey?" Eleanor asked.
He was holding a dark object in his paws
and trying not to cry. "Bravely he said, "I don't
know...but it sure is
neat..."
"Turn it over and push the button on the bottom," Aunt Drucilla
said.
He did and the object started to hum. Then it started unfolding. Wings
rolled out from
either side and fanned into feathers of gold and green and
red and purple. A tail started growing,
longer and longer until it swept the
floor. From under the right wing where it had been tucked, a
head emerged and
rose up to stare straight at Dewey. It had a curved beak and big black
eyes
that slowly opened and closed.
"Wizard's warts!" Dewey gasped. What
is it?"
"That is a Phoenix Pflier, one of the rarest of ancient toys. Do you
see the ring that is
around the right leg? That controls it. Put it on your
paw and tell it to fly. Take it outside before
you try it. The Phoenix Pflier
needs plenty of room and lots of practice before it will fly
correctly.
"Thanks, Aunt Drucy! Can I go try it now?" he asked
Eleanor.
She nodded yes and he raced out of the room, with Dagmar close
behind.
"You spoil them Drucilla," Ladnar said. He told her about the
necklace that had been
given to Dewey, and about the power it had shown while
around Dewey's neck. "They were
pretty sick little draglings last night," he
concluded.
"They seem to have recovered, thanks to Eleanor's magic with
herbs," Drucilla replied. "I
wonder if the stone in the necklace is similar
to the crystal I am trying to find. Could I see it?"
"Of course," Ladnar
said. As he went to get the necklace, Eleanor said, "What was the
secret
hidden in the shimmer card?"
It was part of a formula that I found in an old
book of magic spells. Part of the page was
missing, the part that told where
to find the Shaline crystal. It doesn't matter though. With
Dewey's necklace,
I can have chocolate any time I want."
"I don't think that is such a good
idea," Ladnar said as he came back into the room. "Do
you remember the
ancient history of Hom? In the old days, stones like this were plentiful
and
draglings could have as much chocolate as they wanted. But after a while,
chocolate was all
draglings thought about. A great war was fought over
whether the stones should be outlawed,
with wizards and draglings on opposite
sides, until our world was almost torn apart. I think the
stone on this
necklace is one of the ancient ones that were banished to the other world and
hidden
in the jungles of South America. They were not supposed to have ever
been found. This one
should not be used ever again."
"Nonsense," Drucilla
said. "Draglings have changed. We are no longer the foolish
creatures we were
thousands of years ago. We can handle the stones now. Besides, there might
be
an antidote to the power of chocolate hidden in that stone. If I could tap the
antidote, the ban
on chocolate could finally be lifted. I think you should
give me the necklace," and she reached out
her paw.
Ladnar drew back as
Eleanor said "Drucilla please. Let Ladnar keep it. Chocolate doesn't
affect
us the way it does draglings."
"You want the power it contains for
yourselves. Wizards should stay out of dragling
business. It belongs to Dewey
and Dewey is my nephew. It should be in my safekeeping." As
she spoke her
eyes grew bigger and her teeth longer, and the nails on her paws changed to
blood-
red. "Give it to me," she hissed, and pointed her paw-claws at the
necklace in Ladnar's hands.
Sparks flew to the necklace and it jumped toward
her. Ladnar grabbed and caught it in mid-air,
and giving a mighty tug pulled
it back to him. Sparks flew again and back and forth they pulled
until it
seemed as though the chain would break. Smoke curled around Drucilla in angry
swirls
while Ladnar's hair and beard grew whiter and glowed with an inner
fire. Stunned, Eleanor
watched this unexpected battle over a child's gift.
"Stop," she said suddenly. "Stop. Why are you acting like this? What's wrong
with you?"
They turned on her with snarls. "Stay out of this, Eleanor,"
Ladnar shouted. "I'm doing
this for her own good." He clenched his teeth and
heaved back. With a snap, the chain broke,
and the stone flew across the room
and out the window, where it was caught and swallowed by
the Phoenix
Pflier.
Drucilla and Ladnar dove for the window, reached it at the same time
and got stuck.
There they struggled, trying to be the first out the window.
Ladnar won, and spying Dewey he
raced over and grabbed the control ring from
the little dragling's paw.
"What are you doing?" Dewey cried as Drucilla, her
teeth bared and gleaming, lunged for
the ring in Ladnar's hands. As they
wrestled for the control ring, the Phoenix Pflier spun crazily in
the air,
screamed and crashed in agony at their feet. Bursting into flames it was soon
nothing but
a pile of ashes.
Eleanor knelt down and put her arms around
Dewey and Dagmar, who were shaking with
fear at the terrible sight. Over
their heads she stared accusingly at Drucilla and Ladnar, who
stood in
ashamed silence beside them.
"How could we have been so foolish," Drucilla
whispered.
"The ancient ones were right. The stones are dangerous and should
not be used. I should
have known better," Ladnar answered. "Dewey, come
here."
Afraid, Dewey clung to Eleanor, who hugged him and whispered, "It's
okay Dewey."
Hesitantly he went over to Ladnar.
"We were fighting over
your necklace because we wanted the power that it held. We
were wrong. Can
you forgive us?" Ladnar said gently.
"We are sorry," Drucilla added
sadly.
"I guess I can forgive you. But what about my toy. You've ruined
it."
"Maybe I can fix it," Ladnar said. He closed his eyes and raised his
hands over the pile of
ashes. Drucilla joined him, and sending smoke curling
into the air began to hum. The ashes drew
together and formed a tight mass.
Then Ladnar muttered a few words and pulled his left ear lobe.
The mass
started to move. It grew larger, and wings unfolded from its center like before,
only
longer and more beautiful. When its head rose up they could see the
stone shining in the great
bird's beak. The Phoenix Pflier stretched its
wings and took off into the sky, flying higher and
higher until it
disappeared. It was gone for a short while, and then it came back, swooping
and
turning gracefully, as though it had shed a great burden. When it settled
to the ground next to
Dewey they could see that the stone was gone.
"Where
did it go?" Dewey asked.
"I don't know," Ladnar answered. "I think it's
better that way."