“Let’s see, lizard tongue, egg of
roc, powdered mandrake, and pond ooze. This couldn’t be that hard,” Sam said.
“Let’s go to the potion cupboard
and see if we can find all that stuff,” Beth replied as she ran out of Emily’s room.
Sam followed her with the open spell book.
Beth pushed Sam aside and stood on
a very rickety stool to reach the high potion cupboard in the schoolroom. After
a short fight in which Sam tried to convince Beth to move down so he could have
a turn looking (he was the only one who could read the labels easily), they
managed to get all the ingredients they needed. Or most of them at least. They
were just missing the egg of roc, but Sam suggested they just use a Phoenix egg
instead. It couldn’t make that big a difference.
Soon the two children were walking
out into the wide courtyard in the center of the castle, where Emily’s pet
Phoenix lived.
This
was an unusually large Phoenix, especially for it’s age. It was so large that
it could carry Emily back and forth from errands into Wolfetown. Phoenixes are
famous for being fabulously strong, so this wasn’t really that unbelievable.
Actually, Nixy was not as strong as most Phoenixes, but made up for this in
enthusiasm. Emily was planning on riding Nixy back and forth to Matilda’s Magic
School.
Sam
walked over and patted the big red bird on the beak. It purred happily, and
made a quick-paced circle around it’s nest surrounded by large lilac bushes.
“Hey
boy, do you have any eggs?” Phoenix turned to Sam with a completely insulted
expression. SQUACK! SQUACK!
“Shut
up!” Beth yelled. “What’s the matter with you?!” Sam started giggling. He
hugged his belly, and fell on his knees on the grass, and then rolled around
laughing hysterically. “Sam, stop it!” Beth yelled again. Between giggles, Sam
managed to get out,
“Beth,
I forgot, Nixy’s a boy.” He then fell into uncontrollable giggles again. Beth
laughed too, and eventually they started tickling each other and finally rolled
into the lilac bushes.
“Oww!”
Beth said. “Sam, stop it!” They both got up and looked at Nixy, who was huddled
in the corner of his nest glaring at the two children. They stood in silence
for a while, wondering what to do.
“I
know, let’s use frog eggs!” Beth said enthusiastically.
“Great,
then we can get the swamp ooze at the same time,” Sam replied. “I didn't get that from the cupboard because I thought it
would be better to use fresh ooze rather than the jarred stuff mom has.
“Ok!”
They ran through the courtyard, and under the castle gate. Sam looked up at the
black pointed spikes that hung above them and shuddered. He was always nervous
they would fall down on top of him.
“C’mon,”
Beth said, as she hung over the drawbridge. I see some frog eggs down there.”
Sam ran over and looked down. The cloud of eggs was floating innocently below,
annoyingly far below.
“Beth
get a net,” he ordered and reached out his hand. Beth handed him a stick.
Sticks aren’t very good for scooping up frog eggs, and soon Sam and Beth had to
think of a new solution. Neither one of them wanted to go back inside the
castle to find a net, so the only way was for one of them to dive into the
thick brown water.
Sam
looked down at the moat. He caught a glimpse of a fat grayish fish, and then
heard a huge splashing noise. The fish was gone, and in its place a gaping moth
with huge green-tinged fangs reared up out of the water.
“Mark!”
Sam cried. “I know, I can ride on Mark and get the frog eggs.” Beth agreed this
was a good idea and stepped aside as Sam climbed over the chain railing of the
drawbridge.
Sam
carefully aimed for Mark’s scaly back before he closed his eyes and dove into
the water. He felt Mark’s snakey body just barely brush his hand, as his feet
touched the squishy moat floor. Sam paddled to the surface and clutched a clump
of thickly growing water lilies before he wiped the mud out of his eyes and
looked around. Mark had cleverly slid away from Sam, and was now eyeing him
happily from the far bank of the moat. Sam reached over and grabbed a handful
of the frog eggs and turned up to face Beth, who was now lying on her stomach
on the drawbridge, her arms hanging down several feet above the water.
“Catch,
Sam!” She threw the other ingredients into the water next to her horrified and
totally unprepared brother.
“Beth!”
Sam screamed. “Look what you just did!”
“But
the eggs and swamp ooze are already down there, so I thought you could just
finish the spell right now,” Beth replied.
“You
have to read me the instructions.”
“Ok.”
Beth opened “Powerful Spells” to chapter one and read aloud. “Mix injure… um.”
“Ingredients!”
Sam called up, annoyed.
“Mix
ingredients in pond oz… ooze.”
“Well
that’s already done,” Sam muttered and rolled his eyes.
“Simply
read this chant over mistake… uh… mixture.” Beth cleared her throat and
continued in a clear, dramatic voice.
“Gooey mud, and tongue of beast,
Mix until you turn to grease.
Then mandrake root and… err…
frog egg,
Begin to form a dragon’s head.
Bubble, boil and fizz until,
My cauldron pot you completely
fill.
Then emerge a dragon, fully grown,
And refrain from gobbling me and my
home.”
As
Beth finished the water around Sam began to bubble and steam. Sam quickly swam
under the drawbridge and watched nervously. A very small serpent-like head
peeked out of the water. The bubbles calmed, and Sam moved back over to the
water lilies.
“Oh,
aren’t you so cute,” He said and reached out to touch the baby dragon. Suddenly
a black halo flashed around the tiny head and the little monster let out a
menacing hiss.
“A
snake! A cobra!” Sam screamed and
frantically began paddling back to the drawbridge again. Beth quickly placed
“Powerful Spells” on the bridge next to her and stretched her arms as far as
she could to see if she could rescue Sam. Her heart was pounding fast. She was
so scared for Sam that she reached too far over the edge of the drawbridge and
tumbled into the moat!
Beth
was gasping for breath and clinging to Sam. They were both screaming as the
venomous snake slithered on top of the water towards them. They were so
panicked they couldn’t move away fast enough, and soon the monster's head was reared
towards them, and it’s mouth opened to show a pair of sharp pearly white fangs.
The two children closed their eyes, and hugged each other.
SPLASH!
Suddenly Sam and Beth found themselves being thrown to the bank of the moat by
something large and scaly.
“Mark!”
Sam cried. His pet sea monster had pounced on their attacker and had devoured
it in one gulp.
“Oh,
Mark, you are the best,” Beth said, and pushed several strands of dark hair
out of her eyes. Just then Mark looked very odd. His green face suddenly turned
greener, and his eyes rolled up into his eyelids. Suddenly his great head fell,
and he rolled upside down in the water, showing his pale white underside.
“Oh
no!” Sam said. Something was terribly wrong with his precious friend.
