Breaking Flight: Witches not Wights

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. In fact, it had been over sixteen hundred years since the last one had been seen. But that was suddenly about to change.

“Okay, guys. I’m heading out for my walk. Back in a bit!”

Gorgias only had one foot out the front door for his morning constitutional when he stopped mid stride and slowly turned back around. He closed the door behind him.

“Um, guys?”

Epinomeo was enjoying a simple breakfast of coffee and buttered toast and was in the middle of reading the day’s news in The Septentrion Sentinel.

“I thought you were already gone,” Epi said without looking up from the paper. “The Sentinel is reporting smoky skies for today—some fire in the woods, apparently.”

Gorgias blinked his eyes hard and fell back against the door frame just as Nicklaus came down the stairs to join Epi for breakfast.

“Back already? I must be running behind...”

“No. He was only just leaving,” answered Epi, not looking up from the paper.

Nic sat down next to Epi and screwed up his face as he registered the smell of smoke. “Was there a fire last night?”

“Um, guys?”

“You’re repeating yourself, George,” said Epi, a bit annoyed as he turned the page.

“Please don’t call me that. You know I hate being called ‘George’!”

The familiar annoyance was enough to break Gorgias out of his stunned state: “Guys, we have a problem. There’s a dragon on the lawn.”

“WHAT?!” Both Epi and Nic jumped up from the table and rushed to the front door, pushing Gorgias out of the way.

Nic threw the door open and ran out on the porch. Epi was right behind.

There, on the lawn, lay a green dragon, fast asleep.

“Impossible!” exclaimed Epi.

“Clearly possible,” said Gorgias as he joined them outside. “After all, there it is.”

“There simply can’t be a dragon on our front lawn,” proclaimed Nic, clearly stunned.

“Well, it seems that we do,” said Gorgias. “Clearly, we have a dragon. And a green one, no less.”

Nic and Epi were too stupefied to answer back. They slowly sank down onto the porch steps. Gorgias squeezed his way to sit in between them.

“Why is there a dragon on the lawn?” asked Nic to no one in particular.

“How did a dragon get on the lawn?” asked Epi, even more puzzled.

“I think the bigger question for us right now is what we should do about it,” replied Gorgias.

At that moment, the green dragon began to stir.

“Well, first things first,” said Nic. “We need to get that dragon into the house before anyone else can see it.”

“Agreed.”

The unexpected dragon on the front lawn rolled over and sat up, stretched her arms with a great yawn, and blinked open her eyes.

And then she screamed.

“Wights!” she yelled, pointing her finger at the three beings sitting on the porch steps. “Hobgoblins! Bogles! Humyns! Kaniggits!”

“Ummmm…” said Gorgias.

“I wonder if it hit its head on something when it fell out of the sky,” said Nic.

“Maybe it’s just crackers... bonkers... looney…” suggested Epi.

“Well, it’s certainly hard to say when it comes to dragons,” muttered Gorgias.

“First of all, I’m not an ‘it,’ I’m a girl,” the dragon shot back. “And second of all, I’m not crazy or bonkers. And thirdly, the three of you are terrible, terrible wights!”

“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think? We’ve only just met,” said Gorgias.

“We’re not terrible,” added Nic. “At least I don’t think we are. And why are you calling us ‘whites’? We're all different colors.”

“And we’re not any of those other things you said either” said Epi. “We’re witches.”

“And we need to get you inside the house right now,” insisted Gorgias.

____________

Although it took some cajoling, the three witches were finally able to convince Sabrina that she was in more danger exposed out on the lawn than she’d be if she joined them inside their cottage. She grabbed her backpack and followed them into the house, albeit warily.

Being consummate hosts, as most witches are, all three immediately sat Sabrina down at the kitchen table and got to work making her a worthy breakfast. Gorgias was too flummoxed to cook, so he sat down with Sabre to help calm her (and himself) down a bit.

“Let’s start with some introductions,” he began. “I’m Gorgias.”

Nicklaus and Epinomeo each yelled out “Nic!” and “Epi!” in turn, raising their hands while staying focused on their work at the stove.

“What’s your name?”

“Sabrina, but my friends call me Sabre.”

“Oh, that’s a great nickname. I just go by Gorgias—no way to shorten it.”

“George!” chimed in the two cooks from the kitchen.

“No! Don’t call me that!” Gorgias turned back to Sabre. “Well, no way to shorten it that I like, anyway.” Sabre smiled at him.

Epi brought out a fresh pot of coffee and four mugs along with some placemats for the table.

“Yeah, he hates being called ‘Gorgeous George,’ but we can’t help ourselves,” laughed Epi.

“It’s because he’s so pretty,” said Nic with a broad grin as he added some bacon to the center of the table with some plates and utensils. Gorgias just shook his head in resignation.

“Ask her how she got here.” Nic called out from the stove where he had returned to finish up a few other dishes—crispy breakfast potatoes along with a bowl of fresh strawberries from the garden.

“I walked,” said Sabre, simply.

“Unimaginable!” exclaimed Epi from the kitchen. Gorgias bit his tongue.

“No, we mean how did you get here? It shouldn’t be possible,” said Gorgias. “How did you leave the Aerie?”

“I don’t understand,” replied Sabrina. “I just started walking, and I ended up here. Well, there were some obstacles—trees and an invisible wall that exploded—so that was something.”

At the stove, Nic and Epi looked at each other with eyebrows raised.

“Although I have to admit, I’ve never gone this far before, so I had no idea what was out here…” Sabre continued. “And truth be told, I’ve never seen a wight in my life until today! In fact, I didn’t think you really existed!”

“Not wights,” protested Gorgias. “You mean witches.”

“Well, I’ve never seen a witch before either. I don’t even know what that means!”

Sabrina took a moment to share what she knew about wights (or hobgoblins or bogles or humyns or kaniggits, which were all the same to her). She explained how she knew wights were mythological beings parents used to scare young dragons to get them to behave, that they didn’t really exist (or at least she didn’t think so until now) and, most importantly, that they were considered dangerous because they were all committed to dragons’ ultimate destruction.

“Well, I can tell you that wights, as you call them, do, in fact exist. But most wights—er, people—don’t want to hurt dragons at all,” said Epi.

“And I think calling us ‘wights’ is a bit offensive,” said Nic, picking up his fork to dig in.

Epi reassured the green dragon. “We’re not so easily offended.”

“Let’s eat!”

____________

After breakfast, the three hosts let her help clear the table, but Gorgias was absolutely adamant about her not doing the dishes.

“You’re our guest,” he declared. “Nic and Epi cooked, so I’m on dish duty.”

It became clear to all three that Sabre had no idea how surprising it was that she had shown up on their doorstep or that such a thing shouldn’t be possible.

“So when I found out that I couldn’t compete in the festival because Barto had made a big deal about one of the rules, I knew that I couldn’t win the Wishes Cup. And that was my only chance of getting my wings to grow so that I could fly.”

This revelation added to the witches’ confusion, but Epi and Nic thought better of asking for any clarification. Sabrina was clearly upset by being denied her chance to compete.

Gorgias had noticed earlier that Sabrina’s wings seemed on the small side, but he had excellent manners and would never have thought to ask her about them. But now that she had brought them up…

“So you thought you could use this Wishes Cup to get bigger wings?” asked Gorgias.

“Of course! I mean that’s what the Wishes Cup is for, isn’t it?”

“We really wouldn’t know anything about that,” said Nic. “I’ve never heard of a cup that grants wishes.”

“Well, I was so upset that I was disqualified, I just ran away.”

“You just walked here, then. Nothing stopped you?”

The three witches looked at each other quizzically.

“Well, not until I came to that thick part of the forest. Then, it was like I was being held back by the trees until I was frozen and couldn’t move.” Sabre wasn’t sure if she should say any more about the invisible barrier, the explosion, and the wall of fire. Her new friends might call her loony all over again.

“So… you were stopped, but then you weren’t?” asked Nic.

“Curious,” said Epi under his breath. “So I guess that would explain the reports of a fire in the woods…”

Gorgias quickly changed the subject.

“Well, I have some baby greens just itching to be picked…” he hinted.

“Oh! You have a garden?” asked Sabrina. “I’d love to come help.”

“NO!”

Sabre was taken aback.

“It’s just not safe out there for… um… someone like you,” Epi explained.

“And after your long trek through the forest, maybe it would be good for you to just rest for a bit. Take a nap, maybe…” said Nic.

“Or read a book…” suggested Epi. “We have quite the library.”

____________

When Sabrina had been safely sequestered in the witches’ extensive library, much to her obvious delight, Epi closed the door and called for an impromptu meeting.

“This doesn’t make any sense! I thought we had taken care of this issue eons ago!” said Epi, shaking his head.

“If one dragon has gotten out, that means more could be on their way,” added Nic. “This is not good. Not good at all.”

Gorgias just scratched his head. “Well, it’s worked for over sixteen hundred years. What’s changed?”

Epi was perusing the cookbook shelf in the kitchen, looking for a volume that might contain some answers.

“It was so long ago, I can’t recall what book the recipe was in,” said Epi as the other two witches joined him in the search.

Nic went to the front room and returned with a large, leather-bound volume embossed with “Guest Book” in fancy gold lettering. He flipped through the pages until he landed on the right year. “Here! It was the Spring Equinox party just after the Anti Magical Edict had been declared….”

Epi read the party menu over Nic’s shoulder: “Tilfodor Cheese on Crostini Rounds… Caprese Skewers with Balsamic Dipping Sauce… oh! That was a splendid appetizer. We need to make that one again!”

“Focus!” interrupted Nic. “What were the main entrées?”

Epi listed them off one by one: “Spring Vegetable Risotto … Lightly Seasoned Lake Trout with Parsley-Caper Vinaigrette … Grilled Garlic-Crusted Rack of Lamb with Asparagus…” read Epi aloud as he worked his way through the list.

“That’s it!” declared Gorgias. He pulled out a blue cookbook titled Aunt Heatty’s 653 Ways with Lamb.

Epi turned to the recipe in question and started reading the ingredients aloud.

“Not that!” said Nic. “Skip past the ingredients and get to the good stuff.”

Epi cleared his throat and began to read aloud. “Combine the garlic, rosemary, and olive oil and process until the garlic….”

“No, no, no. Forget about the method, too. What’s the spell?”

Gorgias reached over to take the cookbook. “Here, Let me read it. It was my spell, after all…”

Together at this solemn hour…

“Wait! What?! Solemn hour?” interjected Nic. “It was a kiki for goodness sake!” Gorgias looked up, a pained look on his face.

“That’s okay, Gorgias. Please, continue,” encouraged Epi. Gorgias started over:

Together at this solemn hour

We now invoke The Maker’s Pow’r

To ignite with fire this seed of air

Water’d with the tears we share

Planted deep in sacred earth

To give our protection spell its birth…

“Tears? What tears? Solemn hour… tears we share… it’s like you didn’t realize it was a party, Gorgias!” Nic was clearly a bit tense.

Gorgias ignored him and continued reading the spell:

Cover with unbreakable dome…

The land that dragons now call home

None outside may cross in or detect

What this ring will now protect

Nor shall pass dragons who fly

By day or night from land, sea, or sky

So mote it be.

“So there it is, then: dragons who fly,” said Nic with resignation, falling back into his chair.

“But all dragons fly, Nicklaus,” said Gorgias.

“Apparently not Sabrina.”

___________

Too troubled to talk any more about the botched protection spell, Gorgias headed out to the witch’s garden to gather some new lettuce, carrots, and fresh peas. He was musing over what else he might pick from the garden when his reverie was interrupted by the sound of a blunderbuss being fired.

Gorgias dropped his basket in surprise and looked around for the source of the shot. That was definitely gunfire, he thought to himself. If not a blunderbuss, a flintlock or a musketoon!

Apparently Nic and Epi had heard it, too, as they rushed out the kitchen door and loudly hissed at Gorgias, “Queensgard! Cloak yourself!”

Gorgias raised his hand to show that he had heard them. He waved his hands close to his chest and muttered something under his breath. A large shadow passed overhead followed by two more. Gorgias stayed focused and didn’t dare look up.

Gorgias cupped his hands as if they held a ball, and a transparent green sphere materialized, sparkling and glowing between his palms, the surface smooth as glass. He whispered into his cupped hands. When he was satisfied that his spell was complete, he raised the sphere above his head and then smashed it to the ground.

The sphere split apart when it hit the earth. As the shell disintegrated, a green mist rose up and enveloped the witch. When the mist dissipated, an old man in overalls and a floppy gardener’s hat stood in his place. Three large shadows passed over him again.

Gorgias looked up and squinted into the bright sun. Three dragons were flying overhead. No, not three… there were four dragons in the sky!

More shots rang out in rapid succession. Gorgias saw one of the dragons—a purple one—rear up in the sky, wildly flapping it’s massive wings. Then, it came hurtling down. There was a loud crunch and a howl of pain as it struck the earth.

Gorgias gasped. It’s been hit!

He looked frantically in the air for the remaining three dragons and spotted them circling in descent. He kept searching for a clue for where the purple dragon fell when the other three dragons landed together just outside the garden fence. Gorgias couldn’t believe how lucky they were.

“Quick!” he shouted. “Come here!”

The dragons looked around frantically for the source of the voice. They were clearly in a panic.

“Wight!” yelled Constance, pointing in Gorgias’ direction.

“Not again,” muttered Gorgias. “We don’t have time for this!” he yelled. “I mean you no harm. Trust me! You need protection!”

The old gardener reached into the left pocket of his overalls and pulled out some green crystallized flakes that he sprinkled liberally over three of the carrots that he’d collected. He mumbled something under his breath that none of the dragons could quite make out. The carrots quickly flashed purple before returning to normal.

“Here! Eat these, quick!” Gorgias insisted, handing each dragon one of the bright orange carrots.

The dragons, although clearly confused, did as they were told.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Where there once stood three dragons now hopped three bunnies, as innocent and cute as could be. Gorgias clapped his hands. “It worked!” he laughed to himself. “And not a moment too soon.”

“Old man!” an authoritative voice called out from the path in front of the witch’s cottage. It was a soldier in shiny metal armor astride a tall and impressive chestnut-colored horse.

Gorgias turned to face the knight. “Eh?’ he queried, his hand to his ear as if he couldn’t make out what the knight was saying. “What’s whot?”

“Old man!” Repeated the knight. “You there!” Gorgias looked up at the man on the horse, a befuddled look on his old face.

“Don’t tread on my melons!” yelled old Gorgias in a stern voice. “Make yourself useful. Get off that horse and help me catch these darn rabbits!”

The knight was taken aback. Clearly, he wasn’t used to taking orders from an old man in overalls standing in a country garden who was battling a bunny invasion.

“Sir,” the knight replied, regrouping himself. “Have you seen any dragons about?”

“No… not dragons! They’re bunnies! What would dragons want with my lettuces?” The old man yelled back, shaking his head and muttering curses under his breath.

“Look! There’s one right over there by the tomatoes! We need to catch him!”

The man on the horse frowned. “Old man! I’m not catching any bunnies. It’s dragons I’m looking for.”

“Well, good luck with that,” replied Gorgias. “Dragons are imaginary beasts. Mythical!” Old Gorgias shook his head. “Don’t exist! Never have! You’ll be looking for a long time, I’m afraid. But these bunnies are all too real. Make yourself useful, and help me catch them!”

“Useless,” said the knight with obvious resignation. The knight turned his attention away from the old gardener, resigned that his commands would not be heeded.

“Move out!” he called to the troops behind him as he turned his horse eastward and headed down the path. Behind him, fifty faceless automatons tromped in formation. In the middle of the troops, two grey horses pulled a large cart with a metal cage on top.

Inside, there slumped a purple dragon.

___________

It took Gorgias a bit of time to gather up the bunnies and get them into the house. Although Epi thought Gorgias’ antics in the garden were uproariously funny (he really was quite adamant about saving his lettuces from bunny consumption), both he and Nicklaus trotted out to the garden to help Gorgias out.

Eventually, there were three bunnies hopping around the living room of the cottage, wriggling their noses and looking adorable while they explored their new environment.

“Um, guys…” said Gorgias.

“So why, exactly, are there rabbits in the living room?” asked Nic.

“They’re not, precisely, rabbits, um, per se…” offered Gorgias. “They’re more like dragons, actually.”

“What?!” exclaimed Nic.

“Here, let me show you,” said Gorgias, reaching into his pocket for the green flakes he had used earlier.

“Oops.”

“What’s the matter?” asked Epi.

“My flakes are in my other pants!”

“Oh, Gorgias,” said Nic, a bit exasperated. “Hold on. Let’s not go to the trouble of you changing again. We'll use mine."

Nic sprinkled green flakes on the remaining carrots which quickly flashed purple like before and then returned to normal.

“Here! Everybody take one!”

Each of the witches took a carrot and scurried about the living room looking for bunnies under the furniture.

Just then, Sabre emerged from the library, book in hand and a puzzled look on her face. “Why are there rabbits in the library?” Three quizzical bunnies hopped behind the green dragon.

“Um… they’re actually not rabbits…” started Gorgias.

“No matter!” said Nic, handing Sabre his carrot. “Just catch one and feed it this!”

The bunnies seemed attracted to Sabre, and she easily scooped one up and began feeding it the carrot.

Pop!

There before her stood a golden-yellow dragon, a bit dazed and confused.

“Constance!”

Nic snuck up behind Sabre and quickly nabbed another bunny. Epi did the same.

Pop! Pop!

And there, in the witches’ kitchen, stood three very disoriented dragons, three very confused witches, and one baffled Sabrina who promptly dropped her book on the floor.

___________

It took some time for the dragons to calm down. First, there was the shock of having been bunnies, and then there was the additional shock of being turned back into dragons. Even worse, they were all dismayed at seeing what they could only assume were wights for the first time in their lives. Sabre quickly reassured them that the three humyns were not actually wights at all but witches (although she was still uncertain as to what that actually meant).

“In any event, they’re friendly,” she said. “They really want to help.”

The dragons regrouped as Sabre introduced the three witches to her friends and then introduced the dragons.

“I can’t believe you actually came after me,” said Sabrina. “How did you even find me?”

Reggie let out a low moan and choked back tears. “They hurt Barto!” he cried, ignoring Sabre’s question.

“What?!” exclaimed Sabre. “Barto was with you?” Sabrina wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that. “But where is he now? What do you mean, hurt?”

“Yes,” said Tokio, their lip trembling. “He fell from the sky, and they took him away.”

“I… I… I don’t understand,” said Sabre, visibly shaken.

“It was the Queensgard,” said Gorgias. “They have weapons—guns—you probably don’t have anything like them in the Aerie. And yes, I saw a purple dragon fall from the sky.”

“W-w-where is he now? We need to go and help him!” Reggie was inconsolable.

“I’m sorry, but your friend is gone. The Queen has him now.”

“Where have they taken him?” Sabrina demanded. “Where does this queen live?”

“Wait, wait, wait!” declared Epi. “Just hold on a minute. You can’t go running off after Barto.”

“Well, we can’t abandon him!” said Reggie, clearly upset by not knowing what might be happening to his friend.

Nic sighed and looked at his fellow witches. “We need to tell them.”

“Tell us what?” demanded Constance.

“Everyone just settle down. Please take a seat, and we’ll explain.”

Once the dragons had assembled on the living room sofas, Epi stood and began to speak in slow, carefully considered sentences.

“You’ve had a huge shock today—and so have we. You need to know that no one here in Septentrion has seen a dragon in more than sixteen hundred years.”

“In fact,” added Nic, “everyone here thinks dragons are just a myth… the stuff of legend.”

“Like wights?” asked Sabrina.

“Well, sorta kinda,” replied Gorgias. “For you in the Aerie, wights are imaginary beings. You’ve never seen one, and you believe them to be made up—like bogeymen or kaniggits, I think you called them.”

“That’s right,” agreed Sabre.

“Well, wights are not actually made up, but you’ve never seen one in the Aerie,” said Nic. “Just like no one here has ever seen a dragon. At least not for a very long time. Here, dragons don’t exist.”

“But we do exist!” said Tokio, puzzled.

“Clearly,” said Gorgias. “But you don’t exist here.”

“I don’t get it,” said Reggie, a perplexed look on his face.

Epi paced back and forth, thinking to himself how best to explain.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that in the Aerie all you’ve ever known are dragonkind like yourself?” he started. “I mean, you have animals there, but the only beings you’ve interacted with are dragons, right?”

“Yes,” said Tokio, the blue dragon.

“No wights. No kannigits. No witches, for that matter,” said Epi.

“There’s a reason for this,” said Nic. “And we’re at the heart of it.”

“It was basically for your protection,” added Gorgias quickly. “We wanted to keep you safe.”

“Safe?” asked Sabrina. The dragons started talking all at once, terribly confused.

“Hold on, hold on!” said Epi. “You need to understand. Thousands of years ago, all magical beings were feared. People in our world were so afraid of magical creatures that they began to hunt them… even kill them…”

“It was The Great Purge,” said Nic. “A terrible time.”

“All magical beings went into hiding. It just wasn’t safe for us,” added Gorgias. “Being magical was unlawful. We had to go underground…. Disappear.”

“Many of us could hide in plain sight—we could simply pass as nonmagical,” said Nic. “Those who couldn’t pretend to be normal (whatever that means) went into hiding.”

“There was just one problem: Dragons,” said Epi. “Dragons just don’t blend in.”

“That’s where we came in,” added Gorgias. “We had to hide the whole lot of you.”

___________

Epi was wise to put the tea on.

Nic explained that the witches had thrown a big dinner party to cast a protection spell to encircle the dragons within the Aerie and hide them from ever being found and, ultimately, killed.

“By the time we had our plan, nearly all dragons were gone from Septentrion. The Great Purge saw to that. There were only a handful of dragons left in the world.”

“So witches do magic—cast spells?” asked Constance. “But Gorgias’ spell didn’t work because Sabrina can’t fly?”

“Actually, that’s not quite right,” protested Gorgias.

“We don’t have time for this!” complained Reggie while nervously nibbling on a crisp ginger cookie which gave him only the smallest bit of solace. “We need to go after Barto now!”

“Maybe you don’t understand: the Queensgard will capture you if you go after Barto now. They may even kill you,” said Epi.

Reggie gulped hard.

“After all, you need to realize the huge shock it is for people in our world to encounter dragons after millennia of believing you were made up as part of some old legends,” said Nic.

“Your legends weren’t wrong about wights wanting dragons dead,” added Epi.

“Tell us where this queen lives,” said Reggie. “We will fly after Barto and release him before they get to their destination. They can’t stop all four of us!”

“But Sabre can’t fly,” added Constance. “So there’s only three of us. Who knows how many Queensgard we’ll face.”

“Wait!” said Tokio. “That’s not quite true. Sabre could join us! I have the Wishes Cup! I brought it so Sabrina could use my wish to fly.”

Sabre couldn’t believe her ears. “Tokio!” she exclaimed. “Wait! You won? And you’d really do that for me?!”

Tokio nodded. “Of course!” they said. “I want you to have it. You’re the one who really needs this wish.”

Tokio reached into their book bag and pulled out the Wishes Cup and handed it to Sabrina.

Epi jolted up from the table with a start, knocking his chair to the floor behind him.

“My cup!” he exclaimed. “That’s my missing cup!”

Epinomeno ran to the cupboard and returned with a goblet that was a perfect match to the one Sabre held in her hands.

“H-h-how did you get a Wishes Cup?” Sabrina sputtered. “I thought it was special.”

“Oh, it is special,” said Epi. “It’s one of a set of 24… well, a set of 23 cups until today!” Epi was literally giddy with excitement and couldn’t stop smiling.

“You must forgive him, Sabre. That cup has been missing for something like two thousand years.”

Sabre was dumbfounded. “Um… exactly how old are all of you?”

“Oh, a gentleman never reveals his age!” joked Nic.

Gorgias furrowed up his brow in thought. “Has it actually granted many wishes?”

“Well…” Sabre paused. “It’s supposed to… but there’s been some debate about that.”

“I think we should give it a try,” said Tokio. “It couldn’t hurt, right?”

“I’m afraid that’s not how wishes work,” said Epi. “I very much doubt that this cup has ever granted anyone’s wish.”

“It’s great for serving bubbly beverages at fancy dinner parties, though!” said Epi, clearly overjoyed. “And now the mystery is solved. My set is complete at long last—and just in time for tomorrow’s kiki!”

“In all the excitement, I had practically forgotten!” exclaimed Nic. “We have a kiki to prepare for!”

“What in the world is a kiki?” asked Constance.

“Oh, right. You probably don’t have anything like that in the Aerie,” said Gorgias.

“A kiki is a special party that we witches hold—a dinner party with great food and conversation and music… and lots of laughs,” said Epi. “We host several every year—and tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox, a very special day for us. We love to throw kikis for all our magical friends, and tomorrow’s kiki is for one of our favorite holidays.”

“Our friends are going to go absolutely bonkers when they meet you,” said Gorgias.

“Do you think that’s wise?” asked Nic, suddenly a bit worried about sharing the dragon’s existence with more people.

“Well, it’s not like they don’t know that dragons existed—a lot of them just haven’t seen one before! How exciting!” said Gorgias, gleefully clapping his hands together.

“Well, we still need to finalize the menu. And we have a lot of cooking to do!”

“So what about us? Do we just sit here and worry about Barto?” asked Constance.

“Maybe you could help us get ready for the party while we think about a solution on how to rescue your friend,” said Nic.

“Well, it doesn’t sound like there is a way to rescue him since we’re in imminent danger if we’re seen,” said Reggie.

“And if that’s the case, how do we even get ourselves back home?” added Tokio.

“Clearly, you can’t go as yourselves,” said Epi. “But I think I have an idea.” He smiled knowingly at Nic and Gorgias.

“Ah, it’s a good thing we’re having a kiki!” replied Nic. “Big magic! What perfect timing!”