Chapter 2: Never Feed Mark Before His Dinnertime

“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.