Now she could focus on the real problem. She realized what she needed to do. "I should have thought of this earlier," she mumbled to herself. "Maybe it's time to talk to the trees. After all they were here when the Dragons were plentiful. As a Tree Mother, I should have thought of this before now," Efem continued to herself. " I will make time now to go to the Sacred Grove." Earlier, before Nemmer delivered his good news, Efem had received a Flutterby from the Dowager. Griselda told her about the scroll and how she had seen the Herald named Aralt in her vision. "I'm old, but even I don't remember anyone named Aralt," Efem thought. "Maybe this Herald can help us when the Dragons arrive." Now that she had a plan, Efem started her preparations. "One doesn't just walk into the Sacred Grove and ask questions." she mumbled to herself as she started looking for some necessary items. "First I need a small satchel bag to carry everything."
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Nemmer would not admit it to anyone, being a little stubborn, but sometimes he liked fighting with The CAT. "Now that stupid CAT has me thinking about him just because he had to go and do something noble," Nemmer grumbled to himself with a slight pang of annoyance and a touch of nostalgia rumbling around in his chest. "Durn fool CAT. Why did you let that stupid troll pull you into that portal? You could have blinked out of there and gotten away," growled Nemmer as he was thinking about what the others told him had happened. "If I had found Hungry, then I would have been there to save you," Nemmer whispered to himself as he leaned his back against an old oak tree. So, that was it! Nemmer was feeling guilty about not being there and possibly saving The CAT. "If I was a better hunter, I would have found that Dragon first," moaned the archer. "Maybe I am not as good as I thought I was," he said as he slumped down the side of the tree to sit on the grass by the trunk.
While he was standing under it and trying to see through it, another apple fell out and almost hit him again. "Ha! Missed!" crowed Nemmer prematurely as another one fell out of the portal and smacked him again before it closed and disappeared. It was as he was rubbing his sore head and looking at the last apple that had hit him he now was holding in his hand when the realization struck him. "He's alive! That blasted CAT is okay! I've got to tell Cornelia and Efem. They will both be happy to hear that their CAT is still out there causing mischief and mayhem." It was with that thought Nemmer picked up the rest of his arrows (for an Archer of the Elfshot Guild would do no less) and started out to the cottage he shared with his wife Cornelia. And where was The CAT and what mischief was he getting into... well, that is another story.
"This is where we see if the recipe is right," answered the Goodie sister, "and if all goes well, the Wish Dragon will have undergone a transformation. This is rare and if enough magic is not released to finish the recipe, then the mixture will fail." It was then that enough of the haze had disappeared that everyone could see what was happening inside the egg. Both Hunter and The CAT were standing near the Wish Dragon, but the little Dragon had changed. Hungry had grown and turned blue! From the top of his head to the bottom of his claws - even his eyes were now a shade of blue. As most were looking at Hungry, it was the Goodie sisters that noticed the small magical portal opening behind the Dragon. "It will need more magic," each of the Goodie Sisters thought, but it would take more than they possessed to finish the transformation.
He had been watching Ffion through the crystal egg and already saw that his beloved daughter was approaching closer to the egg with the blue lights glowing around her. It was the time for him to act or lose his daughter forever. There had never been a choice, he knew what he must do. Stepping to the edge of the crystal egg, he started pushing his magic into it! Slowly, as as his magic swirled around in a circle, it began to expand... larger... and larger... and finally large enough to reach his hand through it. "Daughter, a young fae sacrificed herself to give magic to the dragons, I will not have you do the same," pleaded the King to Ffion. He reached out his hand taking hers. As soon as that happened the blue lights flowed into Hunter's hand turning him blue. "Hungry," Hunter told the Wish Dragon, "The Portal requires magic for magic. This was what was required for the young fae that first gave her magic to the dragons and why I told you the tale. When I step through the portal it will finish your transformation and begin your destiny. If I don't, you and the magic in the Realm will perish!"
"Ah, that's where the Dragon tablet went," thought Dulbbe as he stood behind Ffion's with one hand keeping her from going to the portal. For when the portal appeared, she had been slowly pulled towards it. If it wasn't for Dulbbe holding her back while the King held her hand, by this point she too might have entered it with the Dragon. "No! You can't have it!" yelled Druzzy. "I need it for my revenge," he screamed as he continued to cling to his crown with the Dragon tablet hidden inside as it pulled him towards the egg. Even the Gooblin King was startled by what was happening. "Let it go Druzzy," hollered Hir'aeth. "It's just a thing... let it go!" Glaring at the Gooblin King, Druzzy just smiled as he continued to clutch his crown, "Don't you wish. I will win this round!" It was then that three things happened all in a blink of a Dragon's eye. The Shadows' King let go of Ffion's hand and with a wave pulled the Dragon tablet towards him. He then stepped through the portal with the tablet following him... with a Troll King still holding on while the crystal egg shattered in a bright glittering glow like fireflies dancing in the evening. As Druzzy was being pulled into the portal, grabbing anything to stop the pull of the King, he grabbed The CAT's tail which pulled the CAT in as well. As Ffion watched her father, she saw him giving her one final look as he whispered "I love you" as the blinding flash occurred.
"Hungry," Hunter whispered to the little dragon, "Don't be afraid as I am here to help you." The king continued, "First, let me tell you a story about how dragons got their terrific powers... where it all started..." As the Shadows' King told Hungry how a Nyte Shade had given her powers to her dragon friend he also was trying to keep the Dragon calm so that he would not realize that the two of them were subtly changing and trapped inside of a large crystal. As the tale was being told, the Troll King, Druzzy, was standing by a tree and thinking of ways to get out of the garden with the Dragon tablet he had hidden under his crown.
The problem was he did not know which one did and a lowly bookkeeper does not accuse a King of taking something. "I will have to make sure neither leave with it before this is over," he realized. Making sure of how to do that was simple he quickly decided. Walking over to the Gooblin King he whispered, "Did you notice how King Druzzy keeps looking around. I wonder what he is up to." This started the Gooblin King to watch the Troll King even more than normal. "Now all I have to do is keep an eye on the Gooblin King," thought Dulbbe, "since then he will be watching the Troll King." By the time Hunter finishes his tale to Hungry, the Goodies had returned and were beginning their ritual with Ffion and The CAT. It is then that the Wish Dragon realized he was trapped inside of a crystal cocoon surrounded in a blue mist. At first startled, he stood up hitting his head. That is when the crack appeared throwing off the Goodie's spell and causing the release of the blue ooze. "Ouch!" Hungry yelled as he reached for the top of his head. Trying not to smile, Hunter took one of Hungry's hands and told him to relax. "This crystal shell will not last much longer. Look, there is already a crack in it," Hunter said as he pointed to the crack. As they were looking at it, something else started to appear inside of the crystal with them. Whatever it was looked like it had been stretched quite thin and shoved through the small crack. As they both moved back as far as they could, The CAT appeared (not looking too pleased ) in front of them. "I don't ever want to do that again!" The CAT growled when he fully materialized. Happy that his Spite was with him, Hungry moved up to give The CAT a hug. Too surprised to get away, The CAT let the Wish Dragon hug him (but only briefly) before telling him that was enough. "Not in front of the King," he whispered in Hungry's ear as he was being squeezed. Hunter only watched them, trying to hide his sad smile, before either saw it. "If things go right, then you two will be both be changed forever," thought the King. Also knowing that if things did not go right, all of them would be changed forever but not in a way each would have liked... Outside of the crystal and in the garden, Ffion, the Goodie sisters, and Hewy have joined hands as Hewy begins to sing. Soon, the others joined the circle and as the music became louder, everyone was holding hands and singing as they circled the large blue glowing crystal. Even Druzzy had to join in as Hir'aeth had grabbed his hand so he could not disappear. Inside the crystal, The CAT, having the keenest of hearing, all of a sudden perked up his ears. "Do you hear that?" he asked the others. Before they could answer he continued, "Hewy is singing." In a minute all three of them could hear the singing since it no longer was just Hewy. "It sounds like a whole bunch of Twitter Birds," thought the Dragon and he soon was tapping his foot to the beat of the music. Things were going along smoothly until Hungry accidently tapped too hard - on The CAT's tail! Leaping into the air, The CAT startled Hungry who stood up completely and again hit his head on the crystal ceiling in their cocoon causing the crack to start getting even bigger and spreading.
As Goodiegood regains her balance she notices Goodie2shues off to her right but can't see her other sister. "Where is Goodie4U?" she yells to her sister Goodie2shues. The youngest sister shaking her head as she is still confused by what has happened with their spell, shrugs her shoulders and just looks at her sister. Realizing that she doesn't know either, Goodiegood continued, "We have to get these blue flames under control for if they spread to those helping us here, it will drive them into become Creatures of Chaos!" As the two sisters were trying to decide what to do, the blue flames starts to flow from the cracked crystal and slowly spreading out landing on the others in the garden. Soon it is in their hair, gliding over their feet, and starting to creep up their legs which starts them to snarl and growl at each other. As the blue flames continue to spread, Goodie4U appears from across the garden. She has noticed that it appeared that her sisters were still unaffected by the blue flame but it would only be a matter of time before that would change. Deciding to take the chance, she starts walking very fast toward them. She couldn't run to their side as she was holding the solution to the problem and didn't want to drop it. "It was a good thing that I listen to my dreams," thought Goodie4U, "when I saw something like this was going to happen." Since the second Goodie sister had the good luck to know what might happen at this ritual from her dream, she had already stashed away what she needed in order to beat out the flames of Chaos. "One of the most frustrating parts of being a Seer is that one must keep quiet about the future and let it play out in order not to change the events," Goodie4U grumbled to herself.
As Goodie4U approaches her sisters with the cake in her hands, calmly she tells them, "This is a Moonflower cake that we can use to fight off the 'moon sickness' that had escaped from the cracked crystal and has begun to infect everyone." Quickly all the Goodie sisters start slicing and serving. Once everyone had eaten a bite and were no longer hangry (a combination of angry and hungry), they all turned to the Sisters for guidance. Goodiegood, as the eldest sister, spoke first. "We have gone down into the belly of Chaos and overcame it. The prophecy of the Realm being destroyed has passed, but we still have a new life needing our help to come forth for the wellbeing of our Realm." As soon as Goodiegood finished, Goodie2shues turns to Hewy and continues. "Hewy, please sing your song of hope as this is a time of renewal for all of us."
"We need to hurry!" replied Goodieg2shues. "Go grab him!" "Him??? Him who," thought The CAT who had been prowling around the edge of the garden, wondering about the magical mayhem that was going on here. He had felt the energy shift and no longer could feel Hungry, the little Wish Dragon. Being the Spite of a Wish Dragon was still a new experience for The CAT. It took another Spite, Sprigg'n Mac-talla, to teach him that as a Spite he was supposed to watch out and help (well maybe not quite as much) keep his Dragon out of trouble. Again, wondering why he could not feel Hungry, is when Goodiegood ran up to him and grabbed his paw. Goodiegood looked into The CAT's eyes and said, "Hungry needs you now like never before. You are that missing ingredient. We can't save him without you." "Do WHAT???" replied The CAT. "You are Hungry's Spite and we need you to help finish the ritual we began with Ffion at the cottage. You are all connected," Goodiegood answered. As The CAT was deciding, Goodie4U is shouting over all the chatter that the rest of the crowd is making in their confusion of trying to understand what is happening. Only one is not saying anything, Druzzy, the Troll King. He has been standing in the background trying to figure a way out of the garden without anyone noticing him leave since he was still hiding the forgotten Dragon tablet under his crown. "I have got to get this tablet away from here," he was telling himself. "The power it will give me!" "We need to finish this ritual that began with the Dragon tablet and the Shadows' King before it's too late. Hewy, you know the music you need to sing. Feel it inside and let it flow around us." Goodiegood directed Ffion, her sisters, and The CAT to stand around the Crystal Egg. As they joined hands, the egg started to crack a little more. "Hurry Hewy with the music, it will calm the beast inside," Goodiegood yelled back to the Troll who was still trying to figure out what he would sing.
"The blue ooze is chaos," yelled Goodiegood as her ears were still ringing from the spell exploding, "and if it spreads it will contaminate the others and turn them into crazy mad creatures!" "There must be some way to fix this!" Goodie2shues yelled back. "Where is Goodie4U?" she continued. Since Goodie4U is the sister who knows "what" is going to happen when she is 'seeing'... do you think she might have cooked up a way of fixing this???
As Arnie was thinking of the things she could do to the Wysp if it was tricking her again, others in the Realms were also making plans...
After a short pause, Awena continued in a low voice, "I believe that Fae could may be you as you were the one who was able to open the enchanted book when no others could." "I feel that you are wrong, but tell me more about this prophecy," answered the Dowager. "There are so many other Fae involved in this mess with the Dragon tablet that you must be wrong." So, as Awena and Griselda discuss the prophecy, others were also busy...
"I still think that checking with Drat (the Troll King's top minion) might be more beneficial," he continued. "Come on you scaredy-cat! If we talk to any the Troll King's minions or the Gooblin King's, then they will know what we are doing. Now, just follow my lead," said the Baron as he walked into the Troll bar right past the sign that read "Aged Goat's Milk Today's Special - 100 Proof" as they looked for Hewy...
"Can't we take a break Sprigg'n?" asked Hungry. "I am getting hungry and every time my stomach rumbles..." just then his stomach gave out another loud growl. The CAT started laughing as Sprigg'n just shook her head from side-to-side. "You had better let him eat otherwise you never know what kind of bush you will end up with," snickered The CAT. "Okay, Okay. Let's take a break," Sprigg'n told them. As they ate, Hungry asked about his other friends and had anything new happened in the Realm. As a student the little Dragon had very little time to visit with anyone who was not one of his teachers and most of them focused more on the lesson than on play or gossip. That is, except for Sprigg'n.
When Sprigg'n said the word 'Dragons', Hungry stopped eating and with longing in his eyes for more juicy news to feed on, asked the Spite. "Who are the 'borrowers' and what's so special about a tablet?" Before Sprigg'n could answer, The CAT jumped into telling Hungry about the 'borrowers'. "We call them the 'borrowers' as few know their real name. They are called 'borrowers' because that is what they do. If they see something that interests them, they 'borrow' it. They don't consider it stealing because either they leave something else behind or more likely they lose interest in the thing and usually return what they "borrowed" to where it was 'found'." Before Sprigg'n could add what she knew, The CAT continued, "and this 'found' tablet was supposed to have been written by a Dragon! It seems it was written before they all left and hidden away never to be seen again until you arrived."
"Is everyone okay? Where's the water buckets and I will start trying to put the fire out!" asked Hewy as he started towards the well. "Hewy, It's fine. The fire is out," Efem was finally able to tell him after she had stopped coughing. Cornelia grumbled, since Efem was coughing again, "We have found out that when Hungry gets excited, he spits a little fire and a lot, and I do mean a lot, of smoke." It took Hewy a minute before he realized what was happening, then since everyone was okay, he started laughing. This is when The CAT joined in as he also thought it was funny. Knowing that he was Hungry's Spite, The CAT was enjoying both being fed by Cornelia and Efem as well as the entertainment of these Wish Dragon's lessons. Hewy, soon realizing that both of the Dryads were not as amused as him, quickly stopped laughing but still could not take the smile from his lips. "And to what do we owe this visit from you today?" growled Efem as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "You are not scheduled to be Hungry's teacher for another couple of weeks." Having almost forgotten his reason for the visit, Hewy quickly told them of his meeting with the King of the Trolls and his concerns. "I agree Hewy, he is up to no good," answered Efem. "The question is, what do we do?" "I have been thinking about that and the best I can come up with is to send Hungry somewhere for a while so Druzzy won't be able to find him until we find out what he is wanting," answered Hewy. "The problem is that I can't think of anyplace safe and where he won't be seen."
Now Dewin, being a wizard, had given the others each a crystal to communicate with him over long distances so they could keep in touch. They decided that would be the best for Hungry and after the smoke cleared, went back inside of the cottage where they told Dewin about their concerns and request. Shortly Sprigg'n, the Spite that had attached herself to the wizard upon his arrival to the Realm, arrived and they (Hungry, The CAT, and Sprigg'n) were off to the safety of Dewin's cave. As they left and Hewy watched them crest the first hill and disappear from sight, Hewy finally felt that Hungry would soon be safe... ahhh, but will he? There seems to be others who also wish to see the Wish Dragon and not all of them from just curiosity. "Now," wondered Hewy, "in the meantime where I am going to disappear until this blows over?"
"Now wait a minute. Sorry to interrupt but I am trying to figure this out," cut in The CAT. "If Hungry is the last of the Wish Dragons and he has been lost for this whole time... sounds like to me that he would certainly be starving. Also sounds like he might be in need of a teacher too. Okay, please continue." Hewy then continued his song. "Whoooh!" said The CAT. "That sure sounds like the wizard here. He almost prevailed with trying to get his wish. Not that I am saying you are evil, mister wizard, as I don't know you that well. But it sounded like to me that the wish you were asking for could have changed things not only here in this Realm but where you were from too."
"As they both must gain the Dragyn 's token." Silently everyone gathered around the little Wish Dragon. Dewin was the first to speak. "I am sorry for misleading you Hungry. I just wanted to go home, not realizing that maybe I am already there." After that, everyone agreed that Hungry needed to learn more about the powers of the Wish Dragon. It was decided that Hewy and Parsley, having gained the Dragon's trust, would be responsible for starting those lessons. The CAT was happy he was also going to be returning to familiar surroundings, as he now had to have lessons too apparently as the Dragon's Spite. Sprout was thrilled to hear that Hungry was going to be heading home with him as her heard his mother tell the Wish Dragon that she would be his teacher. Until Parsley added, “and you will not be alone for Sprout will take classes with you.” “WHAT?” exclaimed the startled Dryad.
It was only The Wishing Well who noticed after everyone had left Snoop rushing from the bushes he had been hiding in to hurry back to the Bellwether to get out the scoop of his career. A Dragon had returned to the Realms!!!
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GreetingsWelcome to my blog. This is where I will reveal the magic of my Fae and their stories and share with you some of the success and pitfalls through the journey of doll making, sculpting, and other crafts that all come back to my dolls in many ways. Archives
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