Wolf Dreams

Kevin and Kate didn’t get another chance at the window for several days. First Kevin got sick, and then Kate did. On Saturday, when they were both feeling better, their parents took them shopping for summer clothes in the morning and in the afternoon, it poured rain. On Sunday, everyone in the family was at Great-grandmother’s house for dinner and the afternoon.

Sunday was sunny and warm, and after a big potluck dinner (Great-grandmother refused to cook for the entire family anymore - she said in no uncertain terms that they could all help out, so they did) the whole family went out to the back yard with the croquet and badminton sets and lots of lawn chairs. The boys shed their suit jackets and all of the children ran around playing tag and hide-and-seek and getting in the way of the grown ups who were trying to beat each other at lawn games. Great-grandmother still beat everyone at croquet.

Kevin and Kate really did enjoy these Sunday afternoons with all of their cousins and aunts and uncles and great-aunts and great-uncles - all together, there were probably about forty people there, and ten of them were children. But this Sunday, all they could think of was the window. Kevin’s heart just wasn’t in showing his cousin Jack how high he could climb in the cottonwood tree in the back yard, and as much as Kate usually enjoyed playing with her cousin Beth, she just wasn’t having fun today.

The window called to them, a seductive siren song that was incredibly hard to resist. Kate and Kevin really wanted to see if it still showed a different outcome for things, or if they had imagined it all. But everyone was in and out of the house all afternoon, and there wasn’t any chance to go in and climb up on a stool to look out of the window without someone coming through and wondering what they were doing. Kevin tried. He used going to the bathroom as an excuse to go inside so many times that afternoon that he wasn’t allowed to have any lemonade and cookies with the others because his mother said he must have an upset stomach if he needed to go inside so much. Kate knew what he was doing, and snuck his lemonade and cookies to him later on.

“Kevin, if you’re going to be so obvious, we won’t be able to do anything, Someone will catch on and ruin everything. Stay out of the house!” Katie scolded him.

“All right. Next week Great-grandmother will be doing a lot of gardening. I heard her telling Aunt Patsy. We can do something then.” Kevin sighed miserably. “I really just want to check out that window again, and work out how we’re going to do this, though.”

Kate shook her head and went back to play with Beth some more.

Kevin stayed out of the house until it was time to clean up. Along with everyone else, he helped put everything away - dishes washed and put up, outdoor games and chairs in the basement. When the last lemonade glass was put away and the last lawn chair folded, all of the relatives except Kevin and Kate and their parents left. Since their family lived just a few blocks away, they always stayed later. Mom and Dad would help Great-grandmother with things she just couldn’t do anymore, like heavy lifting.

Mom and Dad had gone to the basement with Great-grandmother to help her re-arrange some furniture, leaving Kevin and Kate on their own upstairs for a short while. They looked at each other, and Kate grabbed the footstool from in front of one of the chairs. She carefully put a piece of newspaper on it to keep their footprints off of the fabric. (They had made that mistake one time before - they had thought that since footstools were for putting feet on, they could stand on them too, and had been playing super hero by jumping off one with capes on.  They had left  the footstool quite scuffed, and found that Great-grandmother didn’t like footprints on any of the furniture, not even the footstools.) Quickly they scrambled up on it and, side-by-side, peered out of the blue stained glass window. It was early evening though, and there really wasn’t much to see. Kate noticed that a bird that flew up into the tree through the rest of the window stayed on the ground in the blue window, but that was it. By the time they heard the adults coming back upstairs, they had already put the footstool back, thrown out the newspaper, and were playing checkers on the floor.

That night, Kevin and Kate made a few plans. They decide that one of them would stay inside and watch through the window, and the other would be outside and try to help passers-by. It wasn’t a sure-fire thing, but they might get a tip or two from someone whose dog didn’t run off or who missed stepping in a puddle. It was the best they could think of for right now.

Kevin found his old walkie-talkies and put fresh batteries in them. Then Kate dug around in the basement and found a little folding stool that would fit underneath Great-grandmother’s sofa where it couldn’t be seen when they weren’t using it. That way, they wouldn’t have to use the kitchen stepstool or the footstool that showed footprints too well.  They were ready to go.

The next day after school, Kevin and Kate took the stool and the walkie-talkies over to Great-grandmother’s house and left them in the bushes by the front door. After Great-grandmother had gone out to work in her garden in the back yard, they brought the things in.

“I’ll watch first,” said Kate. “You go out with the walkie-talkie and tell me what people are doing as they come by. Then I’ll tell you what I see in the blue window.” Kevin agreed, and went out.

Things went along all right for a while, although Kevin got some strange looks for hanging around in the front yard by the sidewalk with a walkie-talkie. No one was doing anything they could do differently and Kevin got bored. He decided to observe things from a different angle, and scrambled up one of the trees by the sidewalk where he sat happily on a branch in the shade. Even if someone noticed him, Kevin was often found in trees, so no one would think it was odd.

He was leaning out, trying to get a better look at what was happening down the sidewalk when suddenly Kate shrieked into the walkie-talkie. “KEVIN! HOLD ON!” Startled, Kevin did just the opposite, and slipped off the branch he was on. The walkie-talkie went flying and Kevin found himself dangling from a rather skinny limb with his toes ten feet off the ground. The limb was drooping lower and lower, and Kevin could hear a cracking noise. To make matters worse, his tie was caught on the branch too and the hard cement sidewalk was below him. He was frightened. He didn’t know which would happen first - if the branch would break and he would fall to the sidewalk or if he would choke on his tie. He needed to get his legs up over the branch so he could untangle his tie and get down, but when he tried to wiggle and swing his legs up, the branch creaked like it was going to break. As he struggled to hang on and tried to think of a way down, Great-grandmother came around the corner of the house into the front yard.

“Kevin! What on earth are you doing?” she called. Just then, Kate came around the other corner of the house struggling with the awkward ladder, and together they put it up under Kevin. He got his feet on the top step just as the branch broke. His tie ripped and he quickly scrambled down, happy to be in one piece, but still shaken.

“Now Kevin, you know I don’t mind you climbing the trees, but you must be careful. And don’t climb over the sidewalk. It’s too hard for landing on!” She looked him up and down. “And your tie is torn.” Great-grandmother shook her head and went off to work on the flower beds by the front walk.

Kate hissed, “I told you to hold on!”

“You shouted and scared me! That was why I fell!” Kevin replied, furious.

“But I could see you falling, and then I said something!”

“Well, all I know is I didn’t fall ‘til you told me not to,” said Kevin, pulling the walkie-talkie out of a bush. He checked it to make sure it was still working, stuffed it in his pocket, and folded up the ladder. He crammed his torn tie into his shirt front and, glaring at his sister, he stomped off to the back to put the ladder away.

Kate’s feelings were hurt - she had thought she was helping him, but it all went wrong and now Kevin was mad. Head down, she wandered slowly back to the house.

As she passed Great-grandmother, Great-grandmother said, “His pride is injured, just like yours would be if someone saw you looking foolish. Leave him alone for a bit, and it’ll be all right.”

Kate nodded sadly and went to make sure the folding stool and walkie-talkie were put away before Great-grandmother came in. Great-grandmother didn’t know the half of it. Kate just hoped that Kevin would realize soon that she didn’t mean to make him fall.

By evening, Kevin had cooled off. At bedtime, he told Kate, “Tomorrow, it’s your turn to be outside. I won’t make you fall out of a tree!”

“No, because I don’t intend to climb one. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some things I need to get ready for tomorrow.” Her nose in the air, Kate went off to find some things she thought she could use.

-She Wolf © 2008

I knocked over one of the spider plants yesterday, and needed  the vacuum to get the potting soil out of our cream-colored carpeting. (Yes, I know that cream colored carpeting is insane when you have four dogs, three of whom are large, and four children. It wasn’t my choice. It came with the house. If we can refrain from buying computers and software for a while, we will replace it with wood. Easier said than done. We are geeks.)

Anyway, the vacuum wasn’t where I thought I had put it – where it usually lives, in the back hallway by the big birdcage. My daughter checked the boys’ rooms, I checked various possible spots upstairs, and still no vacuum. I was thoroughly puzzled. Where could the thing be? Our house isn’t that big!

Then, checking in the hallway one more time, I saw a piece of paper sticking out from underneath the stand the big birdcage is on. Grumbling about offspring who can’t seem to pick up after themselves at their ages, I fished the paper out. Not wanting to accidentally throw away someone’s homework or an unpaid bill, I looked at the paper.It wasn’t homework or a bill or even junk mail stolen from the trash by the dogs. It was a note. The writing on it was a little hard to read, but I finally made out what it said.

I wasn’t sure I was seeing it right at first, because it seemed to be from my vacuum cleaner.I know, vacuum cleaners are things, and things don’t write notes. But after this, well, I’m not so sure. The hand writing wasn’t my daughter’s, and it was too legible to be my youngest son’s. It wasn’t like the handwriting of anyone else in the house, either. The note read: 

I have had it. I am leaving. I cannot take it anymore. Do you have any idea, any at all, of what it is like to be a vacuum cleaner in this house?! I am not even a heavy duty model. Kirby over there is, and he isn’t working. You wore him out! And then you expect me to just come in and take over? You said you’d get him fixed right away and I would just be the back-up model. That was more than a year ago. I haven’t forgotten, even if you have. If you can wear out a heavy duty model like him, what do you think I feel like?

Let me tell you, this house is no walk in the park. Why couldn’t I have been purchased by a little old lady who vacuums her spotless house once a week? Or even by the owners of a dust farm. THAT would be easier.

Let me elaborate. You have dogs. Specifically, you have Labrador retrievers, who shed five or six Labrador retrievers a week, each. Black and brown fur, on that white carpeting. And you expect me to keep it clean. Oh - and let’s not forget the red mud they track in all spring, summer and fall. You expect me to suck that out, too. Lady, that stuff stains. It’s murder to get out! Torn up papers, mangled sticks, chewed up bits of unnamable things  - all of it falls to me to get rid of. You don’t really want to know what some of the stuff they find to chew on is. Really, you don’t. Oh sure, you push me back and forth, but I’m the one doing the dirty work. And remember how the dogs used to attack me when they were puppies? Who was that fun for? Not me!  

Let’s not forget all those times my hose has gotten clogged with dog hair. Yeah, I know you got it out, but come on- some of those clogs really gave me indigestion until you got them out! (And that broom handle you used in my hose to get loose the clogs caught in the middle of the hose – I think that’s against the Geneva Convention. Pure torture, that was.)

Then there are the birds. I’m glad you like birds, and feathers aren’t hard to suck up, when they don’t fly the other way so I have to chase them. But all that bird seed! I know you can’t stop them from tossing it out of their cages, but can’t you put them somewhere other than on the carpeting? Somewhere you can sweep, for instance?  I wouldn’t even mind if it were just one or two birds. But you have four budgies, a canary, and three lineolated parakeets. That’s a lot of seed, lady, especially when you use me to finish cleaning out a bird cage.  And all that fiber wreaks havoc on my digestive system.

Then there are the times that all of you haven’t checked my bag soon enough and I’ve gotten a tummy ache because my bag was too full, all the rug cleaners and freshening chemicals you’ve made me eat, the times you’ve broken my belt and then blamed me for eating something I shouldn’t – hey, I don’t steer me, you do. And the times someone has just dumped my cord and left it in knots - knots hurt, you know.

Let me also mention coins. Pennies HURT.  People usually manage to pick up the larger stuff, but then they don’t get the pennies and when I run over one, they whack all over inside me with my roller brush and they really, really hurt. If they get up into my fan, they leave nicks in it. How would you like nicks in your digestive tract? At least the kids have out-grown Legos…Small blessings.

Of course, I am used and used and used. I never get a rest. Someone always seems to be vacuuming something up. I am exhausted, on top of everything else.

Monday was the last straw. First thing in the morning – AT SEVEN AM! – I get hauled downstairs to clean up after a sick dog. I mean, YUCK! How would you like to deal with that first thing in the morning? But okay, it’s my job, and if I had been left alone for the rest of the day, it might have been okay. But then, THEN, I get hauled into hell for a cleaning job. Let me tell you, the rooms of seventeen year old boys are unconstitutional torture - even more so than being used to clean out under the sofa cushions. There is NOTHING worse. Old gym socks, dog hair, bits of snacks that he snuck down there so long ago they don’t qualify as food items anymore, all the dirt he has tracked in, pieces of paper, broken pens and pencils, lost change, you name it, he had it down there and most of it, I had to eat. He didn’t do a good job of picking up first, and I had to try to eat a lot of stuff that I couldn’t. That was VERY uncomfortable. I ate so much in that room that I thought I was going to burst. His carpet isn’t large, but believe you me, it was dirty!

So I’m out of here, lady. Get old Kirby over there in the corner fixed, or go buy another sucker – I mean replacement. I don’t care. I am gone. I feel sorry for whoever gets stuck with this job, but is sure isn’t going to be me anymore.

Sincerely,

The Vacuum Cleaner 

Well, I was more that a little bit floored by this (so to speak). But I didn’t think he could have gotten far. After all, the gutters are still full of ice and snow and the streets are still ice ruts on our block. That would make for slow going for a vacuum cleaner with small wheels. After checking all the closets and the corners in the garage just to make sure, I started hunting around outside for tracks.

The front was clear, but I didn’t think the vacuum would have gone that way anyway, because it is so exposed. So I started looking around the back. Sure enough, in a patch of unmelted snow near the back gate, I found the tracks of little vacuum cleaner wheels. I could even see where his underside dragged through the snow because of his low clearance.

Opening the gate, I went out into the alley. I had no trouble seeing his tracks going down the alley, towards the street that leads to the park. He must have followed one of the kids out on trip to the garbage cans last night. There was a lot of mud as well as ice and snow out in the alley, and I could see that while the vacuum was avoiding the puddles, he had almost gotten bogged down at least once.I followed the tracks down the alley and out to the street.

This street was relatively clear of snow and I lost the trail. I looked to see if it resumed in the snow at the park, and sure enough, there it was. I couldn’t be that far behind him, I reasoned, so I kept on following. The trail led to one of the foot bridges across the creek that runs through the park. There are two rather high steps up onto the bridge, and I could see that the vacuum’s tracks turned away here. They went to the edge of the ten-foot deep flood control channel that the creek trickles along the bottom of, but then veered away from that, too, and followed the creek down the park.

The vacuum cleaner was heading towards another street – one that led to an area with nicer homes than our 1960’s era subdivision.So he thought things would be better if he lived in a nicer place, did he? I trotted along, following him easily now.Yes, there were tracks turning up the street to the nicer area…But wait! On the other side of the bridge the tracks were turning back into the park! That could only mean one thing. He had his sights set really high -on the McMansions at the east end of the park. 

I followed the tracks up the muddy little road that ran between the stream and the open space part of the park, up towards the kids’ fishing pond. His wheels had to be thoroughly clogged with mud by now. I could see where he had rolled over snow in several places, trying to clean off the mud.

Then, in a picnic shelter by the pond, I found him. He was huddled miserably between the picnic table and the trash can, and looked done in. He was mud-splashed and filthy, and his cord had come partially undone. The trailing cord was why he had stopped. It had wrapped around one of the posts holding up the roof of the shelter, trapping him here. He looked pathetic. His front was partially open, his bag was torn, and there was bird seed leaking out.

I sighed and shook my head and unwrapped the cord from the post. “Ready to go home now?” I asked, taking out the leaking bag and putting it in the trash can and putting his front back on tight. He didn’t say anything, so I took that as a yes, and hefted him up into my arms.

As we went home (by a much shorter route) I scolded him. “You don’t run away from your problems, you face them like a man – I mean a vacuum cleaner. You need to do the job you’re made for, and do it with pride. After all, without you, I have dirty carpets. After you go over them, they look nice again. Be proud of your job! And anyway, if you think you’d have it easier in a fancier house, you have another think coming. They have three times the floor space we do!”

Ten minutes later, I had him home and put a new bag in him. I left him alone for a while, to make sure that he was thoroughly dried out before I plugged him in again, and then I cleaned up the dirt from the plant. The carpet was pristine where I had run him.

“Well, I guess you are glad to be home, eh?” I said.

But just in case, I made sure to put him away in a closet with a door that shuts tight. 

-She Wolf © 2008  

This story is a bit more intense than most of my stories. For the faint of heart and the very young, beware.

 Alex edged closer to the rusty wrought-iron gate. He could barely see it in the blackness of the moonless night; it stood out as darker in the darkness around him. A delicate breeze sifted past him, just enough to make the leaves rustle on the trees. The sound should have been normal and reassuring but instead it was ominous. Everything seemed ominous right now, in the deep of the night.

Alex put his hand on the gate and pushed. It didn’t move. It was too much to ask that the gate be unlocked and open. He clicked on the miniature flashlight his mother had put on the keyring with his house key. “So you won’t have to fumble around in the dark,” she had told him, “You’ll be safer this way.” Alex had rolled his eyes at the time, but now he was glad it was here.

Carefully, shielding the tiny light from the view of the huge old house at the end of the driveway, he played the beam over the iron curlicues on the gate, looking for the best foot and handholds before he climbed over it. He frowned.  Up close, he could see tiny skulls and skeletons hidden in the fancy rusted iron flourishes. There were faces, too - and not of anyone he’d ever care to meet, especially on a darker-than-dark night like this one.

He turned off the light and stood there for a minute. If he turned back now, he knew the guys would never let him forget it. He really didn’t want to put up with the razzing…and he needed to be part of their group.

Jeremy’s voice came back to him. “All you have to do, man, is go in and get the scarf I’m gonna tie to one of the tree limbs on that big old oak by the house. Then come back out and show me that you got it. Then you’re in!” Jeremy had smiled then, his brilliant white teeth shining. Oscar and Joe had nudged each other with their elbows and grinned, too. “Unless you don’t think you can do that. And if you’re scared, I understand, man. There’s only been a few of us that did it, right guys?” Oscar and Joe had nodded, looking important. “And hey, remember, I have to go in and hang up that scarf every single time! So, you know, you’re not the only one. I’ve done it again and again! But you know, we’re the best.   Everybody knows we’re not afraid of anything, and nobody - nobody - messes with us!” He had nodded emphatically at that, and Alex had nodded too. 

He had liked the idea that no one would mess with him. He was the new guy, and well, sometimes that wasn’t easy. He was always the new guy and he knew how it went. This looked like an easy in with a crowd that would keep him safe. And when school started again, that would be important.

He had questioned Jeremy, though. “What if the dude who owns the place has a gun? Some people shoot trespassers, don’t they? And dogs? Are there any dogs?”

“The old guy who lives there is a distant relative of my dad’s. He’s grumpy, and he likes to be alone, but he won’t do anything. Just don’t go and mess around by the house, and you’ll be fine. I mean, it’s not like you’re stealing or anything. You’re just going to get a scarf that belongs to me. And he doesn’t have dogs. Doesn’t like animals.” He had smiled sort of strangely at that. Then he said, “So what is it? Are you in?”

And Alex had said yes. And now he was skulking around this creepy gate, looking for a way over it and onto the property to retrieve the scarf that Jeremy had tied there earlier in the day. He knew where it was - they had all come by in the afternoon and Jeremy had pointed it out - a faint smudge of red dangling from the oak tree nearest the house. “Just jump up and yank it down, and come back out! And poof! You’re in!”

It had seemed so much easier then. Even though the grounds were overgrown and looked like a snake factory and the very old house looked haunted and ready to tumble down, the light of day had made the idea of sneaking in and getting the scarf seem do-able. Even when Alex was sneaking out of the house after everyone else had gone to bed, it didn’t seem so bad. But now, in the dark, dark night, Alex was ready to forget it and go back home to his warm soft bed and plug in the night light he had told his mother he didn’t need anymore and listen to the radio until he fell asleep.

He slumped against the gate, smearing rust on the back of his shirt. He stood there for a few minutes and then, before he could think about it anymore, he grabbed the bars of the gate and swung himself up on them. Avoiding the spikes on the top, Alex clambered over and then he was panting, standing on the other side on the overgrown gravel drive.

Alex looked around. He was almost half-way done, he told himself. He just needed to run down the drive, grab the scarf, run back and get out. Then he could go home. And tomorrow, he could give the guys the scarf, his golden ticket to acceptance when the new school year started.

Except that he didn’t run. He was too frightened. There was something about this place…there were no animal noises here and it just seemed spooky somehow. He crept down the drive, staying to the sides near the cover of the bushes, placing his feet carefully and trying not to make any noise at all. He slowed his breathing to quiet that down too, but he couldn’t stop his heart from pounding so hard that he was sure someone could hear it three feet away. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, and every primeval instinct in his body was telling him to get out of here NOW!

The walk down the drive seemed to take forever. Alex startled and froze at each little sound he heard - the wind in the trees, a car out on the main road, something in the bushes nearby. When he finally reached the end of the drive and stood near the oak tree with the scarf, he was drenched in sweat and shaking with fear and he really couldn’t say why. He stared at the house looming in front of him. Was that a flash of light he saw in the windows? No, but now he noticed that the breeze had stiffened and had blown up clouds. He could hear thunder booming in the distance. He needed to finish this; get the scarf and get away.

He could see the scarf dangling a few feet away and just out of arm’s reach. One good jump and it would be his.

Alex gathered himself and leaped. As his hand wrapped around the fabric of the scarf and he pulled, something else wrapped around his legs, catching him and freezing him in mid-air.

Alex let out a screech that hurt even his own ears, feeling foolish even as he did it. It must be the guys, waiting here to scare him when he came in to get the scarf. He looked down, expecting to see Jeremy or Oscar or Joe with their arms around his legs, grinning up at him, laughing at him for screaming.

But it wasn’t. What he saw made him scream again, this time until the breath ran all the way out of his body…

Dirty fangs in a hairy, filthy face. Arms the size of small trees. Eyes that glowed red in the night.  And then the smell hit him, too. How he could have missed something that rank he didn’t know. He gagged, and the thing holding him chuckled in a raspy bass voice.

“Well, what have we here? An interesting little morsel?! Come with me, morsel, and let’s get acquainted!” The thing was carrying him towards the house as it spoke. Alex started wiggling and flailing his arms and trying to kick at the thing, screaming all the while.

Inside, the thing dumped him on the floor in a room with a single oil lamp and piles of rubbish everywhere. Alex instantly scuttled backwards until he hit a wall and huddled there, shaking, his eyes never leaving the thing that had grabbed him. He whimpered with every breath and could feel a growing dampness in his jeans pooling underneath him.

The thing watched him, an evil smile on its face. “So, little morsel, what do you think? What are you imagining right now? Because whatever you are imagining, I can make it come true. Your dreams, mind you, not your wishes. And only certain kinds of dreams at that.  I believe your kind calls them nightmares?” He laughed again. “But first things first. I am forgetting my manners in my eagerness to get to know you better. I am Corrock. And you are…?”

 Alex just stared at the thing. He pushed himself against the wall as if he were trying to push through it.

“Manners, morsel, manners! What is the matter with you? You’d think you never saw an ogre before! But then perhaps you haven’t. I forget how uneducated and ignorant you modern youth are. The old ways, the old beings, have been forgotten.” It shook its head and stared Alex right in the eyes. “I am an ogre. One of the last of my kind. I am bound to this estate and may not leave it. So my prey must come to me.” He looked around the room and licked his lips. “I must say, I am ready for a change of diet. The local animals bore me.” He  looked around the room and Alex, following his gaze, could see piles of bones. There were squirrel skulls and deer skulls  piled in a little heap nearby. He noticed the smell in the room for the first time and gagged again. Bile rose in the back of his throat.

Corrock laughed. “Good. The more scared they are, the juicier the flesh is when I finally get around to tasting it. I like it well seasoned with fear!”

Alex gasped and managed to croak, “M…my…my parents. They’ll know I’m gone. They’ll come and find me!”he finished in a rush.

“By now there should be note in your room, in your handwriting, about how you didn’t like it here and have run away. So sad, another runaway who disappears. Oh my. He must have fallen in with the wrong crowd. Too bad, but it does happen,” said the ogre in a grieving tone.

“A..a…a note?” His voice was hoarse from screaming.

“Didn’t you wonder how the scarf could get here, without Jeremy, as he is calling himself these days, being caught by me? Jeremy and Oscar and Joe are mine. Think, morsel, did you ever go to their homes? Meet their families? No, you only saw them in public places. And had school begun, you’d never have seen them in school.” It laughed, moving closer to Alex. “They bring me the young and the foolish, the lost and the desperate - anyone they can fool, in short - to stave off the pangs of my hunger.”

“Many, many years ago, when I was first imprisoned here, these cocky young toughs decided to rob the place. I caught them, of course, and since I wasn’t very hungry at the time, I made a bargain with them. They would bring me prey - tender, juicy young prey by preference, although I am not really picky - and I would let them live. It has worked well. They supply me with treats that I would not get otherwise and they are allowed to live - and live many more years than they should live by nature. In fact, they not only live, but have a glamour that allows them to seem any age they choose. I have been repaid many times over, and they get to live. It was a bargain well made.” He smacked his lips in satisfaction and anticipation. The saliva dripping from his fangs glistened in the lamplight.

It was reaching for Alex who was cowering away when the sound of a door opening and closing stopped it. Footsteps echoed through the house and then Jeremy, Oscar and Joe entered the room. “Oh, you aren’t done yet!” said Jeremy. “I thought you’d be finished by now. We’ll wait outside.” He smirked at Alex. The trio suddenly seemed much older than they had. As the glamour that surrounded them faded away, they began to age before his eyes and now appeared ancient and evil. They all grinned wickedly at him with dirty, broken teeth in straggling and stained grey beards and Alex wondered why he hadn’t seen how evil they were from the beginning.

The ogre said, “No, no - I think you should stay. You never stay for dinner. It’s not very polite you know. You really should stay while I dine.”

The three moved uneasily and their smiles died.  “I insist,” hissed the ogre.

“Right, sir. Whatever you say,” they mumbled, trying to move to the door without seeming to.

The ogre turned back to Alex. While it had been talking to its three henchmen, Alex had been feeling around on the floor nearby. Now he had a squirrel skull in his hand and before the ogre could reach for it again, Alex hurled the skull at the oil lamp.

The skull hit it with a smash and the oil from the lamp flew everywhere, bursting into flames as it did. Some of it splashed on the ogre, who roared in pain and rage. He whirled around, trying to reach the fire and put it out. Alex scrambled to his feet and ran toward the window, grabbing another bone as he went and throwing it against the glass.

The three in the doorway had rushed over to help their master, but when the glass in the window shattered they shouted and ran to stop Alex from escaping. In the confusion in the room, Jeremy got tangled up in a bone pile and fell to the floor, while Oscar got too close to the flames from the lamp and caught his clothing on fire. Joe was the only one left to pursue Alex and he was the farthest away, with the most obstacles in between them.

 The bone had broken the window, but the hole wasn’t big enough for Alex to get through without slicing himself so badly that the ogre’s work would be done for him. He swerved at the last minute and then ran through the door where the ogre’s three cohorts had been standing a few minutes before. He could hear Joe shouting and then a crash that suggested that Joe had fallen into the remains of the window. He pelted down a dark and dirty hall - there was a door at the far end. He could see the window in it lighting up with the lightening from the storm that was almost on them.

He raced to the door and yanked on the knob. It opened, and he nearly sobbed with relief. He was out onto the porch, dodging holes in the rotten boards, and then leaping down the steps in one leap; he was running for his life and he knew it. He listened for the sounds of pursuit behind him, but the shouts were still coming from inside the house. On an impulse, Alex swerved off the  drive and into the bushes. He would find a tree and use it to get over the wall instead of going directly to the gate like they would expect.

The storm broke overhead.  Rain poured down, drenching Alex in moments, and lightening flashed with thunder right on its heels. In the flashes, Alex navigated through the heavy growth. The rain masked the sound of his travels, but he knew it would also hide the sounds of anyone chasing him. He opted for speed instead of stealth and made for the wall as quickly as he could. There was a tree just the right size right by the wall and Alex swarmed up it as quickly as he could, expecting to feel arms pulling him back down at any time.

He leapt from a tree branch to the top of the wall which he straddled, getting his balance. He looked back at the mansion. As he did, a slash of lightening came down from the clouds above and struck the oak tree that loomed beside the house. In the light from the lightening bolt, Alex could see one large and three small figures illuminated on the porch. And then the blazing branch from the tree came crashing down through the rotten porch roof onto the figures and setting the whole building ablaze. Alex could hear screams and roars echoing as he slipped from the wall, landing in the overflowing ditch beside it. Staggering to his feet, he ran all of the way home as if he could still feel the hot breath of the ogre behind him.

An article about the fire appeared in the local paper a few days later. There were some inquiries being made, it said, about all of the charred bones found in the ashes of the fire. Some in particular had been disturbingly strange. Alex could tell them why, but he wasn’t sure they’d ever believe him…

-She Wolf (c) 2008

Grandmother Spring was worried about the cold rocks down below her. They were bare and empty and had no covering to keep them warm, and the year was still chilly, especially at night. She pondered and pondered on this problem.“What can I do to help the earth stay warm?” she asked herself. “I wish I had a blanket I could put over the rocks to keep them cozy.” She thought and thought as she strode over the land, leaving the bare beginnings of flowers and green leaves in her wake.

The rocks, however, stayed bare and cold. Grandmother Spring shook her head sadly. This just wouldn’t do. Things were supposed to turn green and warm in her wake, not stay grey and cold.

 As she strode through a forest full of tall straight pine trees, she had an idea. She would make the rocks a blanket. That would warm them up, surely. 

She took two of the straightest pines and carefully took off all the bark and branches. Then she polished them to a fine sheen and whittled the tops down to rounded points. Her knitting needles were made. Then she started to look around for the materials to make the blanket from.

A road, made of black asphalt, straight as an arrow, ran nearby. “Too hard,” she said, “Even if it is straight. I don’t want anything that hard.” So she kept on looking.

She looked up at the clouds above her. They certainly weren’t hard, but she thought that perhaps they might be too fluffy to knit with easily. Still, she would keep them in mind.

A field of soft green wheat growing nearby caught her eye. “But if I take the wheat, then that field will be cold, and I don’t want to warm one thing at the expense of another.”

She kept looking and looking.

Then she spotted a wonderful field that had been plowed, but not planted. It too was cold and bare, but it was plowed up in wonderful straight furrows running back and forth across the field. Since it was cold, too, and not growing anything this year, Grandmother Spring didn’t mind using it for her blanket. She picked up one end of the plowed furrows in the fallow field and reeled them in. They came up in one long row, back and forth across the field, and Grandmother Spring wound them into big brown ball that smelled of spicy rich earth. Then she took the end of the furrow-yarn and cast on the first row of her blanket with her pine tree knitting needles.

All too soon, she was out of her yarn, and the blanket was only half done. Sighing, she looked around for another field that had been plowed and left fallow, but she couldn’t see one. They all had tiny green plants poking up through the soil or stubble left from last year.

Then she noticed the river flowing through the fields. It was long and such a lovely shade of blue! It would add a nice stripe of color to her blanket. She went to take the end and wind it up into a ball like she had the plowed field, but then she realized that the river was too big. If she tried to knit with it, just a few stitches would take up almost as much space as everything she had knitted so far. She just couldn’t mix the sizes of her materials like that - not and have her blanket come out nicely.

A stream that fed into the river, though - now that was the right size. She wound that up into a ball, and another stream as well, just to make sure she had enough. She knit the blue stripe into the blanket and looked at it and smiled. The stripe was lovely, rippling in all sorts of shades of blue, and it gave off the sound of a babbling brook when she ran her fingers over it. This blanket was turning out to be a very nice blanket. Still, it needed something else.

Just at that moment, a shaft of sunlight split through the clouds and beamed down to the earth. Grandmother Spring could see the lines of the sunlight in the shaft and she laughed happily. “Of course!” she said, “This is exactly what my blanket needs! Some nice warm sunlight for the last stripe!”

She went over to the beam of sunlight and carefully collected the strands of it. She twisted them and twisted them until they made a light yarn just the right size and then she wound it into a ball. Then she took up her needles one last time and knitted a beautiful golden stripe of sunlight onto the blanket. When the last little bit of the sun-yarn was gone, Grandmother Spring put down her knitting needles and held up her blanket. It was beautiful - the bottom was a deep rich brown, smelling of good clean earth; the next stripe was a rippling blue, dancing with the sounds and colors of living water; the last stripe, at the top, was glowing golden spring sunshine, light and warm all at the same time.

Grandmother Spring spread her blanket over the cold rocks. The rocks sighed and wiggled a little bit, like a child does when a warm blanket is spread over him on a chilly night. Then, to Grandmother Spring’s surprise, as the blanket settled onto the rocks, a bright covering of spring flowers began to grow from it. There were pink ones, yellow ones, blue ones and white ones. Some were vines, hugging the ground, and others reached up for the blue spring sky.

Grandmother Spring laughed in delight, a deep belly laugh that shook the fields and hills. “I should have known!” she said, “Good rich earth mixed with water and sunlight will always yield green growing things! And since I am Spring, the green growing things are flowers, my own beautiful flowers!”

Now the rocks were warm and Grandmother Spring was happy. She went on her way once more, striding over the earth, leaving fresh green leaves and flowers in her wake.

She Wolf (c) 2008

 Well, Thomas was as good as his word, and had me into a new house before Christmas. Barely before, but he did make it on Christmas Eve. The house itself was…ummm…a bit unusual, to say the least. I should have known that Thomas would do something strange.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Cosmo and I arrived at a secondary portal Door (this one was keyed to only a few places and quite safe compared to the one I used to guard, which went anywhere.) I had really enjoyed my stay with the dragons, but I was ready to come back to my world with familiar sights and furniture my size.

Thomas whisked us off in a car, and by evening we were driving down dark country roads with snowy trees on either side of us. There were few other cars and Cosmo was allowed to peer out of the windows, which he did enthusiastically. With my new ability to understand some dragon, I enjoyed listening to his running commentary on what he saw. Since he saw better in the dark than humans, he was noticing all sorts of wildlife in the woods. He really wanted to get out and play in the snow, too.

Finally, the car turned into a pair of gates lit with Christmas lights and started down what seemed to be a driveway.

“Thomas, where on earth are you taking us?” I asked.

“You’ll see. It’s easier to show you than to explain,” he replied.

I wasn’t so sure I liked the sound of this, but he wouldn’t say anything else, so I didn’t have any choice except to wait.

About ten minutes later, we rounded one last curve and there was an enormous stone structure in front of us. Even in the dark, it clearly needed extensive repairs, but it was festively lit with Christmas lights, and a Christmas tree glowed in a front window. But what really told me that I was home was the front door. Or should I say, the front Door.

Because the Door it was, resurrected from being ripped loose from its anchoring magic and split into four separate Doors.

“Thomas, you didn’t? I thought you were going to leave it split because it’s so dangerous to have it functioning? I mean, that’s why I was guarding it in the first place, right? Thomas?”

He wasn’t answering me. He was rubbing his face and looking embarrassed, but he wasn’t answering.

“Thomas?!”

“I know. I shouldn’t have. But I’m sure I can figure out how to put protections on it, something to keep the bad things out…”

I growled. Cosmo giggled and imitated me.

Thomas continued. “You’re going to be out here anyway with Cosmo, so you might as well guard the door at the same time. I did fix it so that it can’t be hijacked like it was when Giganto kidnapped you two…” he trailed off.

“I’m glad to know that you realize what sort of danger that thing put us in, Thomas.”

He was wiggling uncomfortably behind the steering wheel now.

“I’ve arranged to have some, ummm…guards to live there with you. As you can see, the property is quite large, and when we’ve finished renovating, there will be plenty of space for visitors and guards and helpers…” he trailed off again. I think he knew he was digging himself in deeper and deeper.

“So now I’m expected to run a bed and breakfast for visitors from elsewhere? And take care of guards? I’m fine with being Cosmo’s foster mother. I couldn’t leave him now. But the rest of it? Thomas, what exactly is going on here?”
He sighed and unlocked the car doors. “Come on in. It’ll be easier to explain inside.”

I sighed and slipped a harness on Cosmo. He had a tendency to zoom off on his own, and I wanted him to stay close tonight. Then I followed Thomas out of the car and we crunched through the crusted snow to a side door. We couldn’t use the front Door, of course; it only opened magically to other worlds.

“This was originally a manor house in Europe,” said Thomas.

“You mean it was designed like a European manor house?” I asked.

“No. I mean that some industrial tycoon about a hundred years ago with more money than sense and a desire to feel like an aristocrat actually had the thing taken down stone by stone, shipped here, and reassembled. Not long after that he went broke, and shortly after that he died. His heirs were unable to dispose of the property. It seems no one wanted a large, drafty mausoleum like this when they could build new, comfortable homes. It has been for sale and falling down ever since.”

“Well, I think I can see why he went broke, if bringing this place over here was his idea of a good decision on how to spend his money!”

“Indeed,” said Thomas as he opened a gate to a small walled garden. This part had been fixed up a little bit - the walls were whole, and the door we were heading for was new.

Thomas opened the door into a huge old-fashioned kitchen. There was a fire glowing in an enormous hearth with an inglenook and bread ovens, a huge wooden work table, and a sink with a pump. The walls had been whitewashed at some point because a few flakes remained and the floor was stone.

“Thomas, this is ridiculous. If you think I’m going to live like they did way back whenever, you’ve got another think coming!”

He turned and grinned at me, and walked across the room to open another door. He bowed slightly and waved Cosmo and me through it. “Your apartments, m’dame.”

I stepped through and looked around suspiciously. Shining wood floors, comfortable furniture much like the stuff that the red dragons had incinerated, a small fireplace, filled book shelves, even a Christmas tree twinkling in the corner….I went into the next room. It held a big comfortable bed, dresser, and old-fashioned wardrobe. Next was clearly a room for Cosmo. I continued. A modern kitchen and dining area, a bath that was positively luxurious, and a work room with loom and spinning wheel and sewing machine and lots of shelves and drawers. I couldn’t see out of the windows in the dark, but I imagined that the view would be a good one. “All right, Thomas, this is good. In fact, it’s very good. Now then, what about the rest of this place?”

“You won’t need to do much. The Door is just through here, and there is an alarm on it, so you know if anyone is trying to use it. The others who will be living here will take care of themselves and help you with both Cosmo and the Door.” He opened another door in my new living room and we stepped through into the front hall. The Door was there, green and beautiful again with its magic restored. We went through an archway into the room that held the Christmas tree I had seen shining in the front window.

It was huge, almost brushing the high ceilings, and beautifully decorated. The tree had packaged piled under it, all sizes and shapes, and fir garlands hung all around the room. Candles twinkled on the mantle. This room had been restored to look like it had long ago, with flagged floors, lovely rugs and drapes and elegant furniture. It was a little too large and echoing to be comfortable for me, though.

“Thomas, this is beautiful.” I turned to face him. “Now who else will be living here?”

“I will, for one!” A familiar voice came from behind me.

I turned, and there stood Felix! “Felix?”

“I wish to make a study of your culture, and you need to continue your studies of the dragon language if you are to be a fit guardian for the little one,” he replied, clapping me painfully on the back. “I told you that the little token I gave you meant we would meet again!”

I reached into my pocket and felt the gift he had given me the last time I had seen him.

“Felix, I’m so glad you’re here!” I told him. And I was.

Thomas broke in. “Cosmo’s relative also want to be able to come and visit him. This place is large and isolated enough - and fire-resistant enough in many areas - to make a good place to house them. I know I didn’t ask you, but since you enjoyed your visit with the dragons so much I thought perhaps you wouldn’t mind?” He looked so hopeful and so afraid that I would be angry with him.

“Thomas….well done.” I told him, and he heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Others came into the room now. My good friends Jon and Rob, my dear neighbor Florence (with both cats, Isadore and Eleanora, who were winding through her legs), quite a few dragons - red, yellow, blue and green - and some humans that I didn’t know all came in. Someone brought in trays of food and drinks, music started playing, and all of a sudden, there was a party.

At midnight some friend of Thomas’s that bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus showed up and distributed gifts to everyone there. Cosmo got dragon toys, I got yarn and knitting things and some books on dragon, the cats got catnip mice…there was something appropriate for everyone.

When the party finally broke up in the wee small hours of the morning, I retired with Cosmo to my new rooms. Rob and Jon came with me, and after I got Cosmo settled for the night we sat down for a chance to catch up. Rob was staying for a few days’ vacation, but Jon was going to be here indefinitely, working on the renovations and setting up a computer network. I had been delighted to hear this.

“So you’re an otherworld traveler now, are you?” Jon smiled and punched me on the shoulder.

“Getting kidnapped by dragons wasn’t exactly the plan I had for visiting other worlds, Jon,” I replied.

“Yes, but it worked!” he chuckled. “But you know, I think I’ll just ask Thomas to take me along sometime. It sounds a little less dramatic, I know, and you do like to make an entrance and an exit…”

Rob was laughing so hard by now that he could hardly catch his breath. “Be careful Jon,” he wheezed. “She may have learned something from those dragons about causing pain!”

I just shook my head.  I settled contentedly into my new couch in front of the crackling fire and watched the lights on my Christmas tree while Jon and Rob tried to outdo each other teasing me, and let it all roll over me. It was really, really good to be home.

- She Wolf © 2007

 The way Cosmo’s sister explained everything to me, it was simple. I just needed to wiggle into the cave, locate Giganto’s mouth and put the packet with the spell attached to it into his mouth. Then I could leave. Of course, this left out the details, like how I was going to do this without waking him, how I was actually going to reach his mouth and get the packet into it, again without waking him, and how I was going to escape before he turned me into ashes. All righty then.

The dragons did give me a small magical version of a flashlight so I could see what I was doing. They also gave me a small shoulder bag containing not one, but three packets with the shrinking spell attached. “Don’t worry about giving him too much.  We would much rather have him small than large - he is a very dangerous fellow as he is!” Cosmo’s sister told me as she handed it to me. “And also, these contain an ingredient that will make him unable to use his magic after a few moments, so all you have to worry about is his fire.”

I think I must have whimpered here, because she turned to another dragon for a brief discussion. Then she turned back to me and said, “We will put a small protective spell on you. I say small because there is little we can do if he decides to blast you with fire while he is still large. That amount of fire is not something we can really protect you from without bulky equipment. However, the spell we are using for you will protect you from his fire once he shrinks.”

“How long will it take him to shrink?” I asked.

“The spell will start to work as soon as it comes into contact with him. If he swallows it, he will shrink fully within ten minutes. If he does not, the process will be much slower, and if he does not absorb enough of the spell before he spits it out, it will stop working and he will stop shrinking. Your best bet is to get it far enough back in his mouth so that he will swallow it before he knows what is happening. Oh - and he will no doubt wake up very quickly once he begins to shrink. You might want to make a hasty exit.” She patted me on the back encouragingly. Cosmo wound in between my legs - a trick he had learned from my cat Isadore before Isadore had abandoned us for the safety of Jon’s house. Cosmo was a bit large to do this well, and he was about to knock me over when his sister picked him up and held him. “You are staying right here this time, little one. I am not about to let you run off to help. I think everyone will feel better if we know you are safe.”

I nodded enthusiastically, and then reached over to give him a hug. He whined slightly and I felt a tear leak down my cheek and dampen his scales. “Cosmo, I can’t do this if I’m worried about you. This time, you need to let me do the saving, okay?” He complained, but settled down in his sister’s arms. I gave him a kiss on his snout and managed to growl out a much practiced phrase in dragon, telling him to be good. He wiggled again, and his sister handed him off to someone on the other side of the Door before he could change his mind about cooperating and escape again.

“Are you prepared?” she asked me. “I am sorry that I need to ask this of you. You have done far more than even most dragons would be willing to do…I do not know how we can ever repay you.” She shook her head.

“Let’s just finish this for now. It needs to be done, and I’m the one.”

She nodded and put the flame resistance on me, followed by a camouflage spell. I made sure I had the little light and the spell packets and we set off for the blocked opening to Giganto’s sleeping cavern.

When we rounded the corner of the cavern we were in and I saw the huge opening blocked by an equally huge stone I almost turned around and ran. I remembered how large Giganto was. I remembered how incredibly intense his flames had been, even behind the magical barrier of the Door.

I drew in a shuddering breath, and then another, because the crack I was supposed to slide through was small enough that I was going to have to become very skinny to get through it. I hoped my head wouldn’t get stuck.

I could hear the rasping snores coming from the cavern. At least he was still asleep. I needed to get this done quickly, before he began to wake up.

I tapped Cosmo’s sister on the arm and whispered, “I’m going now.” She nodded, patted me on the back again, and I began wiggling through the crack.

I fit through, but only just. On the other side it was pitch black. There was a little light leaking in through the crack I had just squeezed through but it didn’t go far in the enormous cave. I could see an area that was even darker in the middle of the cavern- this must be Giganto. His snores were echoing off the walls and the whole place resounded with them. I crept along the wall as quietly as I could, feeling for potential hiding places. I needed somewhere to duck when he started to shrink and woke up, preferably somewhere that would block the flames.

I was careful with my little light - I definitely didn’t want to wake up Giganto with it. I moved slowly and soon found an outcropping that would work as a shield. There was even a small niche behind it to squeeze into.

I couldn’t put it off any longer. I had to do what I had come to do. I began to move towards the sleeping dragon.  I could see now that he had his back to the opening and to me. His massive tail was curled around him and his wings hung limply at his sides. He seemed to be deeply asleep. I edged around him, keeping to the walls as much as possible.

Finally I was at his front. Up close like this he seemed to be larger than ever and once again I almost turned and ran. Only the idea that things would probably be worse for everyone if I did run kept me going. Leaving this fellow free to escape and wreak more havoc was not an option. I looked at him carefully.

Giganto slept with his mouth open. This was possibly the best news I had had all day. Not only that, but there was a rock near his head which, if I could climb up on it, would let me all but drop the packet into his open mouth, right onto his tongue. He’d eat the thing before he ever knew what hit him.

As quietly as possible I edged around his huge head (I’ve been in smaller cars) to the base of the rock. Up close, he smelled of burnt things. It wasn’t a nice clean campfire smell like Cosmo had, but a nasty charred flesh smell. I gagged slightly as I crept in front of his mouth. His teeth glinted in the tiny light I held.

The rock was right beside his mouth, and I needed to be very, very careful here. There were a few foot and hand holds on the rock and I started up it. My foot slipped when I was half-way up - about five feet or so - and I froze as pieces of rock crumbled and skittered off onto the floor.

Giganto never even twitched. I went slower so I wouldn’t slip again; next time I might not be so lucky and he might wake up or I might fall and land in his mouth. Now that was a nasty thought.

Finally I stood atop the rock, right over his huge face. His head was slightly to the side, with his mouth open a little bit facing me. One soft toss with the spell packet and it would all be over. I pulled the first of the packets out of my shoulder bag.

Balancing carefully, I made a slow underhand lob toward his mouth. The packet hit one of his teeth and bounced. I almost cried as I saw it falling towards the floor where it landed with a small plop. Well, I had two more.

I leaned out a little more over his head before I tossed the second packet. This time it landed in his mouth. I followed it quickly with the third packet, which also hit its mark.

When the third packet hit, he shifted irritably in his sleep. His head was now facing the other way. I hoped that the spell packets hadn’t fallen out of his mouth when he moved. I stood there on top of that rock watching and waiting to see if he was going to begin to shrink or if I was going to have to retrieve the fallen packet from beside his head and try again.

 I waited what felt like forever, and he didn’t start to shrink. I was going to have to get that first, fallen, packet and try again.

Quietly, carefully, I climbed down from the rock and quietly, carefully I slipped towards his head. His claws were larger than I thought possible and his scales were enormous. I skirted his nose and reached the fallen spell packet. Picking it up, I went back around his head.

 If I reached up, I could put it right in his mouth. First, though, I made a small rip in the covering. This time, some of the contents would be sure to get into his system. Before I could lose my nerve, I reached up and dumped the thing in his mouth hoping he would stay asleep and not notice.

He noticed. The stuff in the packet must have tasted bad - really bad. He jerked awake almost immediately, his head pulling up and his eyes flying open as he peered around frantically. He let out an ear-shattering bellow and shook his head, trying to get rid of what ever it was that tasted so awful.

When he reared up, I could see the two other packets where his head had been. Thinking fast, I grabbed them, ducked, and rolled over to the wall. Hopefully he was being loud enough that he wouldn’t hear me. The camouflage spell was still holding, so he couldn’t see me.

Giganto thrashed around, flaming the cavern randomly. I could see that he was starting to shrink, although it was painfully slow. I began to creep around the wall towards the entrance, or at least towards the safety niche I had found.

He quickly got his wits about him, and I heard the release word for the camouflage spell being roared out. This was not good - it didn’t take any magic to release the spell. I pushed myself against the wall and wished I were already on the other side of the cavern where that little hidey-hole was.

He didn’t see me right away, and I continued to creep in the direction of safety. He flamed all around the cavern and then he saw me, an evil snarl coming from his throat.

I made a break for it, running as fast as I could towards the other side of the cavern. I just needed to buy a little time while the spell worked and I literally darted right behind him, hoping to confuse him.

He whipped around to follow me, blasting fire as he went, his wings flipping out to help him turn quickly,. I must have moved faster than he thought - I certainly moved faster than I thought possible - and he mistimed his blast. Instead of hitting me, he hit his own wing with his flame.

While the dragons were proof against their own flames to a point, it still had to hurt quite a bit and he stopped pursuing me to roar with pain. I reached the far wall and paused for a second, hefting one of the leftover packets in my hand. What did I have to loose? I took aim and threw it as hard as I could. The packet hit home, landing in his open mouth and exploding on contact. I followed it immediately with the third one. This one went straight down his throat.

The previous packet was causing him problems, though. Even I could see that Giganto was getting ready to sneeze. I ran as fast as I could to the little place I had found to hide in and ducked in it just as he let loose the largest sneeze I have ever heard. Flames blew everywhere and even with the protective spell on me and rocks in front of me, I was singed. Two more sneezes followed the first and then there was silence. I looked out, and saw a wonderful sight. Giganto was shrinking very, very rapidly. Apparently all three spells had worked, and at the rate he was going he would soon be about the same size as Cosmo.

When he saw me, he roared furiously, but it was a tiny echo of his former roar and I actually laughed. Enraged, he charged at me, blowing flames at me, but my protective spell as good enough to keep me safe from his fire as small as he was now. Indeed, he was shrinking as he ran and looked more comical than anything else.

I could hear a grating behind me as the dragons in the other cavern opened the block on the door enough to get through. When he saw that happening, Giganto stopped and turned to run the other way. He was quickly overtaken by the dragons who rushed through the opening. I walked out to join Cosmo’s sister, exhausted.

“You have done it,” she said to me, and gathered me in her arms, hugging me like she had Cosmo.

“Yeah, I guess so. And I’m alive to tell about it.” I was on the verge of tears.

With no further comments, she led me through the Door to safety, where Cosmo leapt into my arms, doing more damage to me than Giganto had managed to do. Then I held him and cried.

     ****************

Three days later, I stood on the lawn and peered down into the ruins of my house. All that remained was a heap of rubble in the bottom of a pit. I could still smell the burning although Jon told me it had actually stopped smoking several days ago. The biggest surprise was the Door. The physical part of it in this world was still here at the top of the heap of debris, but all the magic was gone from it - it was just a burnt, faded, peeling green door with cracks running through the carvings.

The pit the house had collapsed into was caused by the hole the dragons dug to pull the magic of the Door loose from the bedrock it was set in. The house had collapsed into the pit and then burned from the flames that Giganto had poured into it. The powers that be on this world were calling it a sinkhole and massive gas explosion. It didn’t really matter what they called it. My home was gone.

Jon and Rob both told me I could come and stay with them while we sorted out what I was going to do next. Thomas, who had showed up after I shrunk Giganto, had promised me a new place to live by Christmas, with everything he could replace being replaced. I didn’t even have to get grumpy with him - although I did anyway. He took it well - he knew he deserved it.

I had had another offer of shelter, though. The dragons, Cosmo’s family to be precise, had told me I could stay with them in the interim. I had really enjoyed getting to know Felix despite the circumstances so I decided to take Cosmo’s family up on their offer. I would be traveling with Thomas back to the other portal tomorrow for my visit. Today I was taking care of business: explaining to the authorities that I had been away on camping trip when my house burned down (well, sort of, but I didn’t think I could explain what had really happened), buying some new clothes and knitting supplies, and trying to see if anything was left to save at my old house.

Thomas was down in the pit right now with protective spells on him, trying to find things worth salvaging. He had fireproofed some things because of Cosmo, and we hoped that they might have survived. Eventually, he came up with the hard drive from my computer, several photo albums, and a few other things. Rightfully, they should have been ashes now, but his spells had worked well. He was lucky - very lucky. I told him so. He looked relieved; he knew. He went back down into the pit to look at the remains of the Door and I could have sworn I heard him muttering about fixing it.

Tomorrow I would be setting out on another adventure; hopefully a much tamer one. And in a few weeks, I would have a new home - one that included Cosmo. He and I were bonded, both of us, quite thoroughly. I loved the little stinker. But for now, I was going in to a big dinner with my friends and there wouldn’t be any cave lizard at all served tonight.

-She Wolf © 2007

 The Plan was really very simple -well, my part in it was, anyway. All I had to do was don the camouflage spell, creep back into the big cavern, and open the Door. Three times. While not waking up any of the dragons that might be sleeping in the area. While who knew how many other dragons came through the door one at a time. Okay, it was simple, but it was still risky.

I asked Felix why I had to open the Door three times.

“When the red dragons pulled the Door loose from its magical moorings at your home, it fractured into four Doors, one going to each of the groups of dragons pictured as guardians for the Door. So you need to open the Door for the blue dragons, the yellow dragons, and the green dragons. Red dragons will be with each group, and there is quite a bit of mingling anyway, of course.” He looked at me. “After you have opened the Door for the last time, you and Cosmo are to go through to the other side to safety.”

“What about you?” I asked him.

“I was here anyway doing my research. I should be able to get back to it, unhindered by militant rebels using my site as a training base and inquisitive small dragons running from them.” A puff of condensation curled out of his nostrils as he tried not to laugh.

“And unexpected humans. Don’t forget about me!” I added.

“You have actually been a welcome addition. I have learned a great deal about your culture. If you were to choose to remain, I would welcome it. I could even train you to help me with my researches!” He actually sounded enthusiastic.

“Maybe some other time, Felix. I have things I need to do back home, like sleep in a bed again and eat ice cream and potato chips and work on my knitting…” I trailed off as I thought of all the pleasures that would be mine again after I did my part to help the dragons. (If I survived - this little refrain kept running through my head.)

“Then I shall simply have to come and visit you! There, now that’s settled!” He trotted off to get the camouflage spells together for Cosmo and me.

That was when it truly hit me that I didn’t have a home to go home to any longer. I had thought a little bit about the devastation I had seen occurring at my home when the dragons kidnapped us, but I had put it out of my mind while I was trying to survive. I would have to stay with Jon or Florence, assuming their homes hadn’t been wrecked, too, or maybe with Rob, who lived in my old house. They were good friends who knew the weird world I inhabited and they would understand. But still - my home, my books, my spinning wheel and loom and quilts and endless sock knitting projects - the familiarity of it all would be gone. The things I could replace - or rather, Thomas would replace, and fast, after I was done with him for getting me into this - and while there were some pictures and other things that weren’t replaceable, it was the fact that it had been wantonly destroyed by an evil, power-mad being that really got me. My safety, and the symbolic safety of my home, had been ripped away from me, and that really hurt. I hunkered down into a ball by the fire, and Cosmo came over and cuddled me. His safety had been stolen, too, and we were in the same boat. I held him and cried.

Felix seemed to understand that I needed some time, and busied himself in the other room until dinner. We were quiet while we ate, and then Felix challenged me to a game of chess. He could beat me about half the time now, and that took our minds off of our problems and off of tomorrow’s danger for a while. Cosmo amused himself by playing with the captured chess pieces.

The next day was a long one, what with waiting for the dragons’ sleep period to start and worrying about whether or not all this was going to work. Still, the day finally crawled into evening, and Felix put the camouflage spell on Cosmo and me. Before we climbed into the hole to the tunnel, he stopped us.

“I have very much enjoyed getting to know you both. I truly wish to see you again. I will be certain to make the arrangements and inform you of them at the appropriate time. In the meantime, please take this as a memory of me.” He pressed an item into my hand. It was small for a dragon, although it filled my entire palm. It was a metal disk with the dragon symbol for “friend” on it. “A small token, given from one dragon to another at times of parting. I do not know why this one was with my gear, but it was a good thing, yes?  It is a custom of ours, to pass these along to one another at a leave-taking. It also means we expect to meet again.” He chuckled. I thanked him, tears again in my eyes, and put the disk in my pocket where it barely fit. Then Felix boosted me up into the tunnel, Cosmo lit the torch, and we were off.

The tunnel seemed longer and darker than ever before. I just wanted to get this done with and go someplace safe with Cosmo. I hated the fact that he was still here and not someplace safe, but he was right, we needed him to navigate the tunnels. At last we came to the fissure in the corridor wall. Carefully I eased out of the tunnel and listened. I couldn’t hear anything, but I waited and listened some more. Finally I eased out into the corridor, Cosmo right behind me. We crept down the hallway and peered out into the big cavern. It was blessedly empty and we hurried quietly around the edge until we reached the Door. The dragons around the knob were already spinning. I whispered to Cosmo, “Stand back. I’m going to open it now.”

I grasped the knob and turned, tugging for all I was worth. The Door moved a little and then suddenly it was flung open. I went sprawling into the dirt of the cavern floor and something began pouring out of the hole.

I say something because I couldn’t see anything- they had to be wearing the camouflage spell too. I could feel the air moving, hear the sound of feet on the floor, and at one point, feel something almost step on me. It occurred to me that since they couldn’t see me either, I was likely to be trampled. I quickly scuttled off to the side and around to the back of the Door where I couldn’t be stepped on. I whispered to Cosmo and he joined me.

The dragons coming through must have had some formation they were following, because I heard very little that indicated collisions or tangling of limbs or equipment. They were very, very quiet and very, very efficient. Finally the noised stopped and I edged around the Door again.

“Human?” A voice near my head whispered to me.

“Yes?” I whispered back.

“Just checking. I will shut the door and take my unit to our destination. We thank you for your help. The next group should be ready shortly, so be prepared.”

I heard some shuffling and then the room was quiet again. I could feel Cosmo pressing against my leg, Velcro-like. He seemed to be intimidated by the large number of dragons.

We waited in silence for about 15 minutes and then the dragons on the Door began to spin again. This time I was a little more prepared and managed to jump out of the way behind the Door quickly. This group was as organized as the first had been and soon moved along to their posts.

Cosmo and I were waiting for the last group when we heard someone coming.

It sounded like the usual group of young dragons doing a sentry round. We edged back behind the door and I hoped desperately that the dragons who had come through here in such huge numbers hadn’t left too much evidence of their passage.

The sentries were coming closer and then the dragons on the Door started to spin. Silently cursing the timing, I stayed hidden behind the door and prayed that the sentries would be as incompetent as usual and not notice the Door.

They bumbled slowly around the room, grumbling and complaining about having to be awake (I could actually understand a few words now even if I couldn’t speak them), but mercifully they didn’t seem to notice anything. Finally they wandered off down one of the corridors. I slipped back around to the front of the Door and reached for the knob. Then I noticed that the dragons around it were no longer spinning.  I whispered something unprintable. We had missed the window. I grabbed the knob and twisted it anyway in frustration. Nothing happened, of course. Then, as I held the knob, the dragons around it began to move again. “Yes!” I said, in the loudest whisper I dared, and pulled on the knob. The Door came open, I ducked out of the way, and we were in business again.

The last dragon through was not camouflaged. It was a red dragon whom we knew though: Cosmo’s sister. He launched himself at her, hitting her dead in the chest, and since she couldn’t see him coming, she puffed out, “Oof!” Fortunately she figured out what was happening and held on to him. Then she spoke a release word and he was visible again. I looked down at my hands. So was I.

Cosmo’s sister turned to me and said, “We thank you for all that you have done. Because of your help, we have almost completely subdued - and shrunk back to size - the whole of the forces here, even as we speak. This would not have been possible without your help. We are truly in your debt.”

As she spoke, a small pinging noise came from a bag slung over her side. She reached in and drew out a small mirror, peering into it. After a few moments of quiet conversation, she looked up at us. “That is it, then. All is taken care of except for the leader, the one you call Giganto. And we have a problem. He sleeps in a large cavern beside this one, but he blocks the entry while he sleeps. If we attempt to move the block, we will awaken him. In addition, the block is so large, it will require many of us to move it. Our advantage of surprise will be lost. And unfortunately we need to be in physical contact with him to shrink him - either that or get him to swallow the shrinking spell. It must be quite large and powerful because he has enlarged himself so much.” She turned to Cosmo. “Are there any hidden entrances to this chamber that you know of?”

There weren’t.

Then the mirror pinged again, and she turned back to it.

She looked back up at us again afterwards. “There seems to be a small crack along the edge of the stone block into his quarters. Someone small and slim might be able to fit through it.”

I had a sinking feeling. I was the only small and slim one present. I took a deep breath, and with my heart in my throat, I asked, “What do I need to do?”

-She Wolf (c) 2007

 To say that Felix was surprised to see us back was an understatement. He was a bit annoyed at first too, because he thought we hadn’t even made it to the door since we came back with the camouflage spell on us. It didn’t take us long to tell him the story, however, and when I pulled out the scrying mirror, he was delighted. Immediately he did something to it, and it just unfolded. The mirror that had fit into my pocket on the way back was now about three feet across. Felix hummed happily under his breath and carried the now huge mirror over to one of the walls and pressed it up against the surface. The mirror stuck and hung there.

“These portable scrying mirrors are so convenient,” he said to me, as I ogled at him. “I really should invest in one in just in case of emergencies, like this one. Not that I expect to be rescuing kidnap victims everyday, mind you…” he was flustered now.

I giggled at him, and Cosmo hissed a laugh.

“Yes, well, how about some lunch, hmm?” Felix busied himself in his gear. I grabbed Cosmo and hauled him over to the little heating tube in the bathing pool. He understood what I wanted right away and seemed very happy to heat up the water for me.

After a bath (for me) and lunch (for all of us), Felix decided to try out his new toy, the scrying mirror.

I was fascinated as he managed to produce a picture of another dragon almost immediately, and although I couldn’t understand the conversation, I watched just so I could see what was going on in the background. I could see all sorts of dragons scurrying about and gear being collected. I was disappointed when the connection ended and Felix turned back to Cosmo and me.

“Well, they say it should be about a week before they are ready. They have the dragons, and the equipment, but they need to gather some magic together. I think they are planning on shrinking the dragons who have been magically enlarged back down to a more normal size. That would make sense at least. In the meantime, we need to amuse ourselves. I have no trouble with this. My research isn’t nearly done.” He snorted, turned and bustled away to the other room.

I looked at Cosmo. He gave a flip of his wings and landed in the opening to the tunnels.
“Be careful out there! Whatever you do, don’t get caught!” I told him. He nodded and ducked into the tunnel. Left to my own devices, I poked around in the edges of Felix’s gear, found something soft to lie down on, and curled up for a nap.

I was awakened some time later by Cosmo’s return. He was squeaking and hissing and growling at the top of his lungs from the time he popped through the opening into the room. Felix bustled back in and said something that calmed him down some. They proceeded to have a lengthy conversation. Finally, Felix turned to me and said, “They have discovered your absence. Cosmo says that they found the tunnel entrance in the room you were in, and are mounting an extensive search everywhere they think the tunnels might lead. Right now they have no one who will fit through the tunnels, but that may change. All it takes is the right spell to shrink the younger dragons back down to their normal size, and then they will have all the searchers they need.”

I gulped. “What can we do?”

“We will have to block the tunnels. I will prepare some spells that you can trigger at strategic points in the tunnels to cause small cave ins. We need to do this right away, though.”

I understood this. “Yeah, the sooner we do it, the longer the blockages will have been in place. They’ll look old enough to have blocked me, too.” I thought for a moment. “What about finding a place for us to have escaped to, someplace way away from here? Maybe even someplace outside?” I turned to Cosmo. “Do you know of any exits like that? If we lay some false trails that way, they’ll be looking in the wrong places for sure.”

Felix and Cosmo talked for a minute and then Felix said to me, “You go with Cosmo while I work on these spells. Make sure that you make really clear trials to lure them the wrong way, and by the time you get back, I’ll have the spells ready for you.”

Cosmo and I set off into the dark, winding tunnels once more. He led me back near the room I had been a captive in and we started to make the false trails leading away from our hidey-hole.  An old torch,  some of the junk from my pockets, the bones of an eaten cave lizard - we left all of these things here and there along the way, and down several dead ends too as we left our path of deception.

Cosmo made a point of scratching at the walls in several places, and I piled up little signs made of rocks to help it look like we were marking a path. Finally, we came to an opening to the outside world. I poked my head out and found myself wishing I could stay. The air was fresh and sweet. It was cool, but not cold, and I loved the feeling of the clean breeze with its hint of salt on my face. Cosmo goosed me, and I crawled out of the hole so he could come out too. Moments later, we were standing on the side of a huge mountain. I wandered over to a nearby ledge and looked out. I could see green stretching away below me and in the distance there was what appeared to be a sea. The trees weren’t familiar looking, but they weren’t so strange that I couldn’t tell they were trees. Something flew overhead and I looked up. It was a bird of sorts, but more reptilian looking. I definitely wasn’t home anymore!

Cosmo and I left evidence around the area, and even took a few minutes to start a small fire. After it had burned for a while, I kicked it out with sand and made a clear path into the trees. The searching dragons would think I was a clumsy human sure enough with the obvious trails I was leaving.

Finally, we popped back into the hole and hurried back to Felix.

Felix was in a sweat when we arrived. “Dragons, outside the doors!” he said in a hushed tone. “I heard them coming and put up an illusion of a rock slide over the door. It fooled them for the time being, but I need to make a real one. These were just the young dragons and they are easy to fool. If one of the big ones comes this way, they will see through it in an instant!” He was running around trying to get his things ready for the spell.

“I have five of these little spells ready for you - take them and use them while I make a large spell for the door. Go! Go! Go! And when you get back, check in here carefully before you enter. I don’t want you falling into a trap!” He shoved some packets at me, told me the trigger word, advised me to be at least ten feet away before I said it, and practically threw us through the tunnel entrance. Cosmo and I crawled away to do our jobs and left Felix dithering behind us in the old nurseries.

It didn’t take long to set off the magical devices that Felix had created. They were really very nifty - place the packet where you wanted to blockage, move away, say the word and watch the tunnel fill up with debris. The debris seemed to come mostly from the roof, but it didn’t look like it affected the stability of the tunnels at all. I tried to place them in logical places so they wouldn’t look contrived, and then we were done. We crept back slowly, my hands and knees aching with all the crawling I had done today. At the opening, we stopped, but all we could hear was Felix humming to himself. Cosmo darted out and landed in a high spot and when Felix looked up and acknowledged him, I climbed out, too.

“Well, they’re set. I think we did a good enough job placing them.” I said.

Felix bobbed his head. “Yes, and I have placed a real rock slide over the door to the nurseries. I think it should look enough like the illusory one to fool everyone into thinking it is the same one. We are set. Now all we need to do is wait.”

Waiting was long. Over the next few days, Cosmo explored the rooms of the old nurseries and found some antique dragon toys to amuse himself with. Felix objected to these “artifacts and relics” being used until I pointed out that if he wasn’t busy, Cosmo might decide to play with Felix’s equipment. Grumbling, Felix agreed that Cosmo was better off playing with these items meant to take the abuse of a small dragon than his delicate gear. So I set up flight courses for Cosmo with large rings to dart through, and he stacked big blocks, and generally kept busy.

When Felix wasn’t working, he tried to teach me some dragon, and while I learned to say a few things, my vocal chords really weren’t cut out for it. Finally, he decided to try and teach me to read dragon.

To the surprise of both of us, I took right to it. Written dragon was made up of ideograms, or picture words, like Chinese. They had originally been made by dragons pressing their claws into soft clay or making score-marks with their claws on wood or bone so I could even write them easily. I caught on quickly, and by the end of the third day, I could read and write simple sentences. Felix was delighted with me.

Cosmo finally became bored, and was annoyed when Felix and I told him to keep out of the tunnels. He finally got into enough trouble in our rooms that Felix told Cosmo that if he didn’t behave, Felix would stop making ice for him to slide on. Cosmo growled something in reply and Felix ended up laughing. He turned to me and said, “The little one says that if I don’t make him ice to slide on, he won’t light  our cooking fires and we can eat cold food.” He snorted a laugh.

I laughed too. “It sounds like a stalemate!”  I said.

Felix looked at me. “What is a stalemate?” he asked. “I have heard this term before, but cannot figure it out.” So I spent the next few hours explaining the game of chess to him. Then nothing would do but that he construct some chess pieces out of bone. He used a sharp edge on one of his claws to scrape some bits of cave lizard bone into the rough shapes and then had Cosmo darken half of them with his fire. A board was constructed in a similar way, and we were off.  He took to it like a duck to water, and was quickly challenging me. I decided to mix things up by teaching him mancala and gomoku which could be played with pebbles, and he enjoyed those too. He in turn taught me several dragon strategy games and after that we passed the time quite happily. Even Cosmo would stop playing with other things and play simpler versions of the games Felix was teaching me, much to our mutual delight.

About once a day, Felix would check in on the scrying mirror to see how the plan was progressing. Every time he connected, I could see more dragons and equipment in the background. The dragons were taking this threat very, very seriously.

We hadn’t heard any dragons out in the corridor since Felix had created the rock fall outside the door, but one afternoon that changed. I heard the noise first, a scraping sound.

I nudged Felix who was making dinner rather loudly, and shushed Cosmo who was sliding on the ice and squealing.

We all stopped and listened. The sound occurred again. It sounded like someone or something digging at the rock fall. I turned to Felix, white as a sheet. Felix whispered to me, “Get the little one and climb into the tunnel. If you need to run, do.” He fished in a bag and handed me a packet. I was getting familiar with his little packets. He told me the trigger word and said, “This will unblock the rock falls if you need it to. Get somewhere safe if they break in here.”

Cosmo and I climbed into the tunnel to wait. The scraping sound continued, getting louder. It sounded like whoever it was, was about to break through. Suddenly we heard dragons shouting and a lot of bumping and scraping and what sounded like a tussle. Then there was silence.

Felix waited a little longer before he motioned up down. Cautiously we crept out of the tunnel and over to him.

Felix was chuckling. “What was all of that?” I asked.

“The scraping sound was apparently a rather large adult cave lizard digging in the rock fall. The dragons we heard were stalking it, because, like Cosmo, they find cave lizard to be a delicacy. They immediately attacked it and carried it away for dinner. This wasn’t about us at all! Never the less, we must be vigilant, for they clearly come down that corridor from time to time.”

I heartily concurred, and we were more silent than ever before. Even Cosmo had been frightened out of his sense of security.

 Felix continued to check the mirror daily. However, it wasn’t a week; it was more like ten days before the day Felix turned from the mirror and said to us, “This is it. The attack begins tomorrow.” And then he proceeded to tell us what we needed to do.

-She Wolf © 2007

 I woke up to the smell of something tasty. Cosmo was off sliding on a freshly-iced bathing pool, making happy squeaks, and the blue dragon was cooking breakfast.

“Oh good, you’re awake! I wasn’t sure how much sleep your species requires, so I decided to just let you rest. I suspect that you needed it. I have breakfast, and a plan.” He said something in dragon to Cosmo, who immediately stopped playing and flew over to him.

I tried to get my vocal chords around the sounds he had produced - anything that got that prompt of a response out of Cosmo was worth trying to learn how to do. I received some strange looks from both of the dragons.

I looked back at them. “Don’t tell me I just asked for your mother’s best dress to be washed and pressed? I was trying to say whatever it was you said in dragon.”

The blue dragon wheezed a dragon laugh. “No, but you definitely didn’t call him to breakfast, which is what I did. We’ll have to work on your pronunciation. Calling a dragon to come and have you for dinner is not exactly the same thing. Besides, dragons don’t wear dresses!”

I blushed. “Um, right. Let’s work on that later, Felix.”

“Felix?”

“Well, I’m more comfortable if I can call you something, so is Felix okay?”

“Of course. I will try to remember to answer to that in the future. Now eat.” He placed a large bowl of something in front of me. It smelled great, so I didn’t ask questions; I just ate.

As soon as we were done eating, Felix started talking again. “I believe I have hit upon a plan. Now, while my scrying spells are not exactly up to snuff,” and here he ducked his head as Cosmo laughed, “I do have command of a rather good camouflage spell. They are quite useful for exploring areas that might hold dangerous predators or unpleasant academic rivals. I can place the spell upon you, and you can use this to get to the Door. There, you can go through and let the dragons on the other end know what is going on.”

 I looked at him. “What about you? Are you going to stay here?”

“I will stay here, yes. I am too large to fit through the tunnels that you and Cosmo here can get through, and the other way is too long. Even with the camouflage spell, there would be too great a chance of discovery. No, you need to get yourself and the little one to safety as quickly as possible. Just make sure that someone knows I am here, and I will be rescued eventually. In the meantime, I will continue the work I would be doing here anyway. It really makes little difference to me, as long as I am not discovered.” He twitched nervously. “And so please, please, do not get caught, for my safety as well as your own.”

After a small amount of preparation, Felix was ready. “Now, I will put this on you, and you must leave it on until you reach the Door and have it open. Then you must release the spell - I will tell you how to do that. It requires no magic to release this particular spell as it is built into the spell itself. When you reach the Door, naturally you must release the spell, or the dragons on the other side will not know who you are, and may feel threatened and react accordingly.”

I gulped at the idea of what a dragon who felt threatened might do.

Felix continued, “The little one may need to act as a translator, if the dragons you contact do not speak your language. I will remind him of this. Please stay away from any patrols. The spell will keep you from being seen, but not from being heard.”

One thing had been bothering me. “What about smell? I mean them catching our scent?”
“If you feel you need to bathe again, I am all for it, for I truly value cleanliness, but right now you are not odiferous.”

“No, I mean like smelling that I’m a human and nearby!”

“Oh! Well, really, dragons, especially the younger ones that are the ones that are probably doing the patrols don’t scent track particularly well. Dragons do have a keener sense of smell than some species, apparently including yours, do, but not that much better. They could tell that you were around if you were very close and they were trying very hard or had exceptional training, but sight has always been the preferred sense for dragons- when you hunt from the air, it is far more useful. I know that traditionally, dragons have trained themselves to use scent to some degree, but they can’t do it very well. Still, now that you mention it, we can cover up your scent somewhat.”

He rummaged around in his equipment for a few minutes, and came up with a flagon of liquid. “A friend of mine with more money than taste gave me this as a gift. It is not the sort of thing I like to wear, and I only brought it in case I needed to mask an even less desirable odor.” He opened the top and the smell of very cheap cologne wafted out.

He sneezed. Cosmo sneezed. I sneezed. Then Felix poured a few drops on my head. I felt the stuff oozing stickily down my scalp and shuddered.

“I am sorry. I can see that it isn’t to your taste either, but it will suffice to disguise your scent to any dragons that are training in scent recognition. By the time you get to the main corridors, it will be a little less pungent. Many of the dragons here wear this - I know because I smelled it when they first arrived. You will simply be thought to be the lingering odor of a higher-up!” He capped the flagon again quickly and stepped back from me a few paces.

“Now then, to release the spell, simply speak the trigger words.” He growled something in dragon. After a few tries, I managed to say it, and after a few more, I had it down.

“Hey, I can speak some dragon! What does it mean, anyway?”

“Be gone, spell.”

“Is that all? My first words in dragon are ‘be gone, spell’, huh? Not very glamorous, but it will have to do.”

Felix snorted. “If you are done being flippant, I suggest we get going. It will be time for the next sleep period by the time you reach the Door. Still, you will need to be careful - there will still be patrols and they will have stepped them up if they have realized you are missing.”

A little while later, Felix was giving me a boost into the tunnel opening above the bathing pool. “Please, be careful,” he implored me, “What you are about to do will not only save yourself and the little one, it may very well prevent a war amongst the dragons. Go in safety.” With that, he pushed me into the tunnel behind Cosmo, and we were off.

The tunnel was every bit as long, rocky, and hard on the hands and knees as I remembered. The only good thing was we were going downhill more than up this time. I scrambled along behind the torch Cosmo carried and kept up as well as I could. At least I had the torch to follow - the camouflage spell worked quite well, and the little fellow blended right into the walls of the tunnel.

When we reached the fissure in the wall that led to the corridor we needed to get into, we paused and listened. I didn’t hear anything and Cosmo didn’t seem to either, but we waited for a while just in case. Once I heard the far-off bellow of a large dragon, but then all was quiet. Finally we ventured out of the tunnel and into the hall.

Cosmo stuck to my side like glue. We couldn’t see each other, so touch was the only way we had to know were the other one was. Cosmo didn’t seem to want to be separated any more than I did.

We paused again at the mouth of the corridor and looked carefully into the big chamber. There was no one there, and we could hear the giant snores of Giganto in the distance.

Slipping quietly along the walls, we made our way around to the Door.

The dragons around the knob were spinning again. I counted this very fortunate, because it meant that I should be able to get the door open.

I gripped the knob and turned it, and then began tugging on the Door. As before, the central knob and the Door’s slant against the wall made it hard to open, but as I tugged and pulled, a crack slowly formed. Then whoever was on the other side saw the crack and began to push - hard. I went flying onto the cavern floor with Cosmo beside me as the door was flung open.

A large red dragon stood in the opening and it looked angry. Thinking quickly, I said the release words and Cosmo began squeaking, growling and chattering. Suddenly he launched himself at the dragon in the Doorway, landing hard in the middle of its chest.

The dragon looked stunned for a moment then ducked and squeezed through the Door. Cosmo began buzzing around it, darting in here and there with little jets of flame. I began crawling to the side, thinking this whole thing had been a mistake, that this was a reinforcement for the bad guys, and I was about to get roasted.

Then the big dragon moved, a startlingly fast snatch into the air. It snagged Cosmo in mid-flight. I winced, prepared to see the little one chomped, but the bigger dragon just clutched him to it, murmuring something quiet. Cosmo wiggled with delight and snuggled against it.

The big dragon looked at me. I stopped inching my way sideways and smiled hopefully.

The dragon spoke, “You must be the foster-mother. We are gratified to find both of you still alive.”

“Uh - yeah. Are you Cosmo’s …”

The dragon cut me off with a quiet hissing laugh. “I am his older sister, and I have been leading the search for you two. Since the blue dragons reported seeing you on the other side of the Door, we have been trying it on a regular basis, hoping you would open it again. Our patience was rewarded.” Cosmo got an extra cuddle at these words. Fed up with the mushy stuff, he wiggled loose and began a concerted attack on her tail, in the manner of over-excited annoying younger siblings of all species since the beginning of time.

I looked around nervously. “We need to get out of here before someone comes along. It isn’t safe. I’ll tell you what’s going on as soon as we’re as far away from here as we can get.”

The dragon replied, “Wait a moment.” She said something to someone in the room behind her. As she turned, I could see a large chamber crowded with blue, green, yellow and red dragons. They were all trying to peer through the opening. One of them handed her a large bag. She moved aside and shut the Door. Cosmo’s sister spoke some familiar words and I realized that she had cast the camouflage spell on all three of us.

“Over here by the wall. We must talk. I have five minutes before my colleagues try to open the Door once more. We knew that the two of you had been kidnapped, and we knew that dragons had done it by the evidence they left.”

I winced at the thought of what probably wasn’t left of my house.

The dragon continued, “We need to know who it was and what is happening here.”

As quickly and efficiently as possible, I gave her a run-down of everything I knew. Then the carved dragons on the Door spun and she opened it and spoke to the dragons inside and closed it again. As she turned to speak to us, I heard noises in the distance.

Cosmo’s sister reached out, felt for me and grabbed me. Quickly she turned and hugged the wall with me and Cosmo sandwiched between her and the rocky surface. I could hear a patrol shuffling through the room, fortunately as sloppy and inefficient as they had been before. Still, we all held our breath until they were gone.

Cosmo’s sister released us and looked at me strangely. “They were talking about the scent you are wearing. It seems they thought that one of their leaders had been here recently and they needed to hurry up because they were behind schedule. I must admit, I was wondering myself about your perfume…but it worked, so I have no complaints!”

Mentally, I blessed Felix and his cheap cologne.

“Now, here is what we need to do. I will take Cosmo here to safety. And then I need a favor of you. I need you to stay just a little while longer, while I organize a task force. Someone has to be here to open the door from this side and let us all in when we are ready. I do not want to ask this of you for you have suffered far too much as the hands of dragons already, but you are the only one who can do this. Will you?”

I thought for a moment. I knew what my answer needed to be, but I thought anyway. I thought about my friends, my family, my safety, soft beds and clean clothing and all the comforts of my world. Then I thought about dragon wars and the safety of little Cosmo and others like him. “I’ll stay,” I whispered.

The dragon slumped in a release of tension. “Thank you,” she said. Then she opened her bag again and pulled out a small round mirror. “Give this to Felix, as you call him. Even if his scrying abilities are weak, he will be able to communicate with us through this mirror. We will let you know when we are ready.” I nodded and reached for the mirror. It fit easily in my pocket.

Cosmo had been pressed against my leg for the past few minutes. His sister said something in his direction in dragon and then repeated it in English, “Time for us to go little one!”

I reached down to pick Cosmo up and give him one last hug before handing him to his sister. He wiggled away from me and growled something. I heard him scuttling away.

His sister growled something after him, but he didn’t answer.

She turned to me and said, “He said that if you were staying, he was staying, and that was that. He said he would meet you in the tunnels and guide you, that you will get hopelessly lost without him. He is worried about you.” She shook her head. “He is a true dragon although he is still small. And we cannot catch him. We cannot see him to catch him with the camouflage spell on him and he will surely be out of range for us to take it off. We must simply accept this. I know you will keep him safe, and he wants to keep you safe too. He has bonded with you quite well. Well done!” She nodded at me. Then she opened the door and wiggled through it, closing it quietly behind her.

I made my way back to the tunnel, where I found a lit torch that seemed to bob in mid-air and followed it back to the safety of the old nurseries, grumbling to Cosmo the whole way.

-She Wolf © 2007

 I had fallen from a good ten or twelve feet up, but fortunately the pool was deep enough to break the fall. The water was icy cold, though, and the blue dragon standing there sent a further chill through my veins. I got my feet under me and then ducked back under the water to escape the blast of fiery breath that I was sure was coming my way any second. I scuttled under the water to the wall, where I clung, terrified. I was still holding my breath desperately, close to blacking out and waiting to be boiled alive when something grabbed me and hauled me to the surface where I hung, gasping for breath. The dragon had me dangling from oneof his strong arms, dripping streams of water.  A series of whistles came from him, and when I just looked at him, still gasping, he switched to a strange lilting speech. When I didn’t respond to this, he stared at me, head cocked to the side in what was apparently a universal gesture of puzzlement.

A flash of red distracted us both, and Cosmo shot onto the scene from a niche in the wall. He landed at the feet of the blue dragon and squeaked somthing to him in dragon. The dragon looked back at me and said in perfectly good English, “So that’s the language, then! You know, if you are not an aquatic species, and apparently, despite your lack of fur, you are not, you will eventually expire if you remain under the water without access to air.”

I nodded at this obvious statement, coughing a little. I wasn’t capable of doing any