Startled as a jolt of lighting went through his arm,  he dropped the book to the floor and jumped back.  The book acted like it had heard the question, opened and flipped through several pages, finally stopping partway through the book.  

"Be careful son," warned the Dowager when they realized that the book was finished moving and not going to close,  the Baron started to pick it up from the floor.  He  slowly placed it on a reading table near the bookshelf it had come from keeping his hands from the front of the book incase it decided to close like teeth chomping together.

Awena stepped up to the book and saw the page it had opened to, smiled and then stepped back, motioning for the others to read the page.  "I think there is your answer."

If you would like to read the story with Griselda and the Baron...
click here or on the book below.

"Come, I will take you to the library."  Rising smoothly from the cushion, Awena and the Dowager started towards the door. ​

​"Hummm... Don't worry about me," grumbled under his breath the Baron as he struggled to rise from the floor.   He wasn't going to let two "old ladies" beat him to the door.

Soon they stood before an ornately decorated entranceway with no door.  "Aren't you worried about someone getting in here with all of these books and scrolls," asked the Baron thinking about how even Atian had a lock on his door.  Awena just smiled and said that "they are well protected".  What that meant, the Baron did not know, but after thinking about the power the Sisters had, decided it was probably better if he didn't.

Finally the Sister stopped in front of a large bookshelf and asked the Dowager if anything looked familiar.  "We try to copy everything exactly the same from other books to include the cover and binding," she explained.  "Anything look familiar?"

Slowly Griselda pulled back a portion of her sleeve, revealing her dragon tattoo and started to approach the bookshelves.  All at once, a book started to glow!  "It looks like we found it," the Baron grinned as he pulled the book from the shelf.

As the Baron turned to the others he realized that Awena was no longer smiling.  Catching his mother's eye, he gestured toward the Sister and then Griselda saw it too.  "Is there something wrong?" she asked her friend.  "What is it?" 

​"What are Nyte Shades and what connection do they have to the Dragons?"

I am keeping my fingers crossed too that I can get these hands out of the molds when I am ready to pour them in porcelain.  So many things to think about when making hands that will be casted in a mold... like even how much can I bend a finger in relationship to the other fingers so the hand will come out of the mold when poured.  I am glad my Fae decided they only wanted to have three fingers instead of four (*smiling*).

Now, this is where I get to go play with my new magical fabric that is just waiting to be explored while these pieces take the week to dry out. Yep, about that long before I can start pouring the liquid porcelain into them and moving onto the next stage.

"Ffion, that is no way for a faery princess to enter a room." ​

​"But Father, there is a stranger in the garden!" Ffion wailed.  "It came out of the water and is walking over my flowers!"

He also knew that Hewy, Efem, Parsley and Cornelia were busy helping Hungry, the young Wish Dragon, to learn his lessons.   "So it wouldn't be one of them," he reasoned.

​"What are you going to do about it?" he heard his daughter ask while he was mulling over who it could be.  Vaguely he heard her saying something about the stranger looked like it had a tail... 

"It's dressed up funny too," said Ffion.  "It's wearing a jacket with lots of pockets on it and has a funny looking hood that looked like it has two pointy ears".

​Jumping to his feet he started towards the garden while his startled daughter followed him close behind.  "What is it?  What was the going on?" Ffion asked.

Just like my children, these two each have their own personality which I needed to find and bring out in them.   So yes, they are as different as night and day but that is what makes them fun!  (That is also why my husband calls them characters as each one is a 'real character'.)   

​"Not very big," thought the Baron as his mother started to lift her hand to knock on the door.  But before she could knock the door opened and there stood one of the Sisters.  "Awena awaits you in her chambers."

Unsurprised, the Dowager nodded her head in thanks and the both of them followed the Sister through a series of hallways until they arrived at an ornate set of doors.  "The place doesn't look this big from the outside," the Baron muttered, only to receive a look of reproach from the Dowager.  "Do I need to leave you on the doorstep?" she asked him in a frosty voice.  Realizing he had best just keep quiet and listen with his mouth closed he gestured for her to lead the way.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." the Baron said as he bowed.  " I am Belvedere Allowishes Theodore Steffon, but you may call me Baron since I am one," he told the Sister removing his hat, "Or by my nickname BATS."  Smiling, Awena introduced herself and proceeded to give Griselda a brief hug.  "It has been way too long," she told the Sister, "but as usual, sadly my coming here is not just a friendly visit."

As the smile left Awena's face and by the look on Griselda, Awena knew that another big event was on the horizon.  "Come, sit with me and we will get reacquainted and then you can tell me what troubles you," she told both of them.  Trying not to be noticeable, the Baron quickly glanced around for a chair as he did not relish the idea of sitting on the floor for any long period of time.  Ignoring him, Griselda lowered herself gracefully to a pillow and waited for the others to join her.  Groaning silently to himself, "I think I have just gone down a rabbit hole here!" and not as gracefully as his mother, the Baron sat on an adjacent pillow.  "I hope I can get up when this is all over.  My knees aren't what they used to be," he continued thinking to himself.

​As Arnie was heading to the hole by the old oak she had fallen into when she found the Dragon tablet, she was totally unaware that at that moment she was the most popular being in all of the realms.  Everyone (and every thing) was looking for the Borrower with the Dragon tablet.

And across the Realm, two more of the searchers were on a mission of their own. 

"Tell me again why you think the Sleeping Sisters will help us?  I mean, they usually don't get involved in any of the events of the realms.  Why this one?" asked the Baron as he and his mother, the Dowager Griselda, were walking to the Sleeping Sisters house.  "Also, I would like to know how you know where they live.  Hewey, Efem, and the others had to be lead there by a bird."

Stopping in her tracks, the Dowager turned to face her son.  "They don't do that," she growled at him with irritation in her voice.  "The Sleeping Sisters have been guardians of the realms as long as I can remember and they know of many secrets and prophecies which they study and explore to keep all of us safe.  Now, if you would be quiet for a while as I think on how to approach them, it would be appreciated!"  Getting a nod from her son who decided it was best not to say another word for a while, they both started back down the trail.

While on another hillside overlooking the waterfall, something was watching Arnie as she stepped through the water and started exploring around the pool.  "How dare someone come into my garden," it thought.  "Something must be done about this..."

For little did it know or care that at that moment it was the only one who knew where the Borrower was ~ even though it didn't know it was a Borrower.  It just knew someone was in it's garden!

It was soon apparent to Arnie that the Wysp had seen her as it started to fly towards her.  Arnie put on a brave smile and hoped that it would go away quickly.  "This is all I needed," Arnie thought to herself.

"Hi, whatcha doing?" asked the Wysp.

"Oh, nothing.  Just passing by," Arnie answered.  "Got to go, see you around."

​​"That's too bad," answered the Wysp.  "I was just going into a cave I found and was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

​"That's great!  I can even light up the trail for us.  See you there."  Arnie barely heard the last part of the Wysp's comment as it quickly sped away towards the tunnel entrance.

Soon Arnie was down the hole and standing in the tunnel.  "I have already seen what is in the tunnel going down but as Squirrel said, let's see what is at the other end," she thought to herself when the Wysp asked which way she wanted to go.   "Let's explore up," she told the Wysp.  Deciding that the blue light the Wysp gave off was good enough to see, Arnie didn't bother to look for a torch or pull out a candle from one of her pockets.  "No sense wasting them if I don't have to," she figured as she followed the Wysp.

Soon she was scratched, wet, smelly, and the snarls in her tail which would take hours to get out...  "What a dumb idea Squirrel had," she thought as she kept following the Wysp.   ​

Little did Arnie realize, that a few feet from where the Wysp was leading her was a perfectly level path with nothing blocking the way.  "Oh wait until I tell the others about what I did today to a Borrower," the Wysp giggled as it continued to lead Arnie up the tunnel.

As Arnie was beginning to think that they should turn around and go back, she started hearing a roaring sound.  "I wonder what that is," she thought.  Again, her curiosity grabbed ahold of her and she knew she needed to keep going.  As the Wysp lead Arnie around yet another bend in the tunnel, the roar turned even louder.  "This is far as I go," she barely heard the Wysp say before it turned and flashed back down the tunnel. 

​Arnie was now standing alone in front of a wall of rushing water that was falling over the tunnel.  "That's just great!" growled Arnie.  "I should have known better."  As Arnie started feeling into one of her pockets for a light, it became apparent to her that the cave was not as dark as she thought it should be.  "Light must be coming in from the other side of all that water falling down from the wall," she realized.  Excited, she was now determined to see what was on the other side of the falling water.  Picking up a stick from the cave floor, she slowly pushed it through the falling water.  Nothing stopped it and soon her arm was pushing through the water.  "There must be an opening on the other side!"  Not wanting to go back through the tunnel and with the curiosity of a Borrower, Arnie decided to take a chance and stepped into the wall of water.

It only took a few seconds, but Arnie realized once she was through that a waterfall was hiding the entrance to the cave she had been in.  "That's why nobody has found it before," she realized, "but I wonder where I am?"

A look of confusion crossed Arnie's face.  "Squirrel, what are you talking about?  Quit trying to crack that nut and help me figure out what to do..." ​

"It is the first thing I truly have found that was not somebody else's first.  The Dragons are all gone and there are none to claim the tablet as their own so it truly is mine," she continued.  "I have never really had anything that was mine and now I find that I don't want to lose it.  Does that sound silly?" 

Squirrel had never heard his friend talk like this before and he was not sure what to tell her.  His life was easy in comparison to Arnie's.  All he needed to do was gather and store nuts while climbing up and down trees, but being Arnie's closest friend he knew he had to say something.  "You told me that when you fell down the hole that it really was a tunnel going up and down.  Did you explore the other direction?"

"Nope, I still don't have my winter stores stocked up and if all of the nuts I find are like this one, I'll starve before I get them cracked open."

​Arnie just laughed as she jumped up and started off towards the old oak tree.  "Good luck" whispered Squirrel as he bit down once more on the nut.

​As she contemplated her problem, humming the words to her song, (Blue on Blue, I Can't Get...) she wandered through the woods totally unaware of her surroundings until a small nut hit her on top of her head.  "Who threw that?" she demanded, stomping one of her feet on the acorn while searching around her for the culprit.  It did not take her long to see an old friend watching her from a tree branch nearby.

"Hi Arnie" said the Squirrel. 

"Good Morning, " Arnie replied. "You must have dropped one of your nuts because I can't imagine that you would throw one at me," grinned Arnie.  The squirrel only smiled back.  It was sort of a game they played with the squirrel never admitting to anything.  "You should have been a 'borrower' Squirrel.  Nobody would ever get you to confess," laughed Arnie.  Soon the two were chatting away over little things they had discovered lately when Arnie decided to tell her friend Her Big Secret. 

"You may think I am nuts," smiled Arnie at her own little joke, "but I found something the other day when we were playing around that big old oak tree that is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do."  Squirrel just lifted one eyebrow and waited for Arnie to continue.

Thinking back to that day, Arnie no longer even saw her friend as she continued to tell about her adventure.  All she could see in her mind was how dark the hole had been that she had fallen in.  Having a big bushy tail at times is a hinderance, especially when it knocks over things accidently, but this time it came in handy as it helped cushion her fall.  She continued to tell Squirrel the story, unaware that she was rubbing her tail as if it was still sore from landing on it.  She also remembered how strong the curiosity had burned inside of her too.  All Borrowers have it as they just can't leave things well enough alone, but only the great ones are not consumed by it (or they never live to become great ones...").  They always have to see what is on the other side and then figure out what to do about it.

​They were shiny and I did consider looking them over but before I could, something else caught my eye.  In the center of the cavern was a stone alter and laying on it was a tablet!"

Not realizing that Squirrel was only partially listening to Arnie as he was busy trying to break open an unusually difficult nut, Arnie continued...

"I had heard the old timers talk about Dragon hordes but never realized what that meant  before!  The thrill of something new to find pulled me to the alter.  At first I thought maybe it was something the Dragon might have picked up to add to his treasure.  You know, like a wizard's spell book or something magical, but that didn't 'feel' right if you know what I mean.  It was placed on the podium like it was sitting in a place of honor."  Arnie did not know how to better describe it, but if she hadn't been a 'Borrower' she might not have touched it because it would have felt wrong to disturb it as it was so beautiful to see.

"I'm was only going to look at it," she remember as she told Squirrel, "but I didn't. I reached out and touched it.  It was at that moment the ground began to shake and the long stalactites started to fall from the ceiling of the cavern.  Instinctively I grabbed the tablet to protect it.  When the first stone hit the podium where the tablet sat, I RAN - keeping the tablet to my chest as I sprinted out of the cave opening I had just come from."

Taking a deep breath as she finished with her story, she looked again at her friend and after a minute of silence asked Squirrel the question that had been nagging at her when she had been walking down the trail.  "So what do you think I should do with it?" 

The Squirrel looked at her and with a slight squirrely smile said "Yep, that is a tough nut to crack isn't it?"