Grandma Dragon

Update on Characters

2009-04-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

Just for those following the stories, It's important to note the characters added to the stories lately.
Grandma and Grandpa Dragon
Dolphinian- Female dolphin friend that visits from the ocean
Wizard Helmsteadt- Magical Wizard that travels and sometimes lives on the grounds. He can be reached
Wolf- the last wolf left over from a pack that had previously terrorized the woods nearby.
Pumpkin Fairy- mischievous fairy
Sivart- A Genie brought back from Iraq by Grandma Dragon—and Genie workers
Dr. Ben- a doctor in resident
Piggy Fish and Family

Isaac Nosompos
Leify Nosompos- (lizard like) who lived in the jar above the fridge
Bonny Fairy
Lily Rock creature
Hazel the Spider

Jesse the Werewolf
Patrick the Leprechaun,
Tyler carpet race driver
Kalisa the fallen star
Chad the Jedi Knight

Seth the Caterpillar (now a butterfly)
Makayla the Ladybug
Brinley Rock Creature
Taylor

Joseph Mozambacker-Pirate
Abigail of the Mer mermaid/human
Hanna Banana Boat Mame, princess of the banana island
Zeek of the Shells transformation creature (mostly a pirate)
Eliza Rock Creature
Eva the baby fairy princess
Kathleen the hobbit princess

DebiJean the Unicorn
Tabitha the Lake creature (swan like fish lizard of many colors)
Lincoln the Wizard

Jonah the magical scientist

Knight Jason

2009-03-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

Joey the pirate had been gone for a long time with his crew: Abby the Mermaid, Hanna Banana Mame, Zeek of the shells, Eliza the rock creature, and Eva the princess fairy.

They didn’t know much about what was going on at the castle. They didn’t hear about Seth’s new garden in the green house or lily’s thigh injury, the visit of Dr. Duke for a few weeks or the amazing new magical spider creature at the castle named Hazel.

They just sailed on an on into a endless ocean of sunsets and sunrises, enjoying their time with Dolphinian and other fish creatures that Abby was able to call to the surface.

One evening they came upon a beautiful Island and decided to do some exploring. This island was the shape of Texas so they called it Houston for fun. Joey had some row boats loaded with provision and lowered down in to the water in the bay and Zeek transformed into a motorized propeller and they sped to the island in about 15 minutes. After disembarking and setting up camp (Zeek transformed into a number of handy instruments and people for the task, they made a camp fire and crawled into their sleeping bags and began talking.

The island was beautiful. One of the prettiest they had ever seen. They started talking about how much they were enjoying their trip but how much they missed their friends in the castle. They decided that the next day they would go exploring on the island and in particular they would check out the interesting castle like structure they could see up on a hill top.

They all slept well that night with the breezes blowing and palm tress gently swaying. The ocean’s rhythmic flow in and out, in and out lulled them all like a lullaby.

The next morning they awoke packed up had some yummy mangos from a near by tree for breakfast and headed out to the distant castle like form. It took several hours to climb through the brush, but after a while there seemed to be a well tread trail leading up up up to the hill with the now clearly visible castle. It wasn’t like Grandma Dragon’s castle. It was much more crusader like. It was formidable, like it was ready for an attach at any minute.

Bonny Fairy

2008-09-11T14:43:00.001-07:00

Bonny Fairy misses Hannah Banana Mame, Abby the Mermaid, Zeek of the Shells and Joey the pirate.

Morning Runs

2007-05-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Summer was fast approaching and the delicious smelling Russian Olive trees near the river that comes and goes were blowing soft wafts of sweet Spring time smells over the whole castle grounds. The kids were anxious for school to get out even though it was still nearly a month away. Grandma was preparing for the important end of year exams and the children were nervous about the comprehensive exam she had waiting for them on June 8. Even though they wanted to do well, every once in a while you could find one or two of them out at the pool swimming and hanging out They usually took some of their notes and school books with the intent to study but everyone knew it was just for show.
Grandma decided that even with everything going on with the exams, she was going to start training for a ½ marathon. She had the wizard measure out a ½ marathon (about 13 miles) around the castle grounds and she posted a sign up sheet. Oddly enough all the genie workers signed up first. All of them- dozens and dozens of Arabic names filled the list followed closely by the Leprechauns family and Isaac and Leify Nosompos. Soon all the families in the castle had signed up, except, of course, the fish families. Grandma promised them a swimming race later in the summer.
Isaac and Leify decided to get up in the morning early and go practice running on the castle lawn. The very next morning they got up before dawn, put their running shoes on and headed out to the lawn only to find to their dismay that Joey the pirate, Patrick the Leprechaun and Tyler the Carpet race driver were already there and running.
“Well, we’ll just have to get up earlier”
What followed was a week of extremely early mornings for the ambitious boys in the castle, turning into earlier and earlier mornings until by Friday when Isaac has set his alarm for 3:00 in the morning, he came to himself and said “forget it, I’m just going at 6:00”. That was the end of the extreme mornings but not the morning runs. The boys were motivated and excited and running in the morning seemed to help them with their studies. The girls went to the GYM after school and ran on the treadmills there. It was more convenient and they could just jump off and use the bathroom if they needed to. The moms and dads in the castle were all getting healthier and in better shape and even Grandma Dragon lost about 30 pounds. Her scaly back was leaner and shinier than ever and she found she could breath better fire when needed (which was never) but she still enjoyed the morning runs. Every once in a while, she got running so fast she just took off flying and took a little spin around the Lake and castle. The mornings were beautiful for running.

A New dress for The Princess Fairy

2007-02-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

Abby missed sleeping on the pirate ship even though it was stationary and stuck in the river-that-comes-and-goes- not going. She found her self visiting the ship often after school and soon she and Hannah Banana were frequenting the ship nearly everyday. One night, even though it was still February they decided they were going to sleep out on the ship. It would take some preparation because it had been a long winter with the ship just sitting there. Each day after school the two girls filled up buckets of warm soapy water, took some rags, got their coats on and tramped in the snow to the pirate's ship. They scrubbed out their old room until it was free of the cobwebs and dust that had accumulated since Fall. They cleaned out the old coal burning stove in their room and started hauling logs for burning. They piled it neatly in the corner and then toward the end of the week they asked the Genie workers for some extra blankets. Their old room was cozy and warm after they started a nice fire and they both felt just like they were home again. Although Grandma's Castle was wonderful, home will always be where a child began life. There will always be a yearning and a wonder about those first places that they lived. Abby and Hannah were no different. They sat in their little room after school on Friday and just talked and talked. They had told Grandma and Joey and Zeeky where they were going so no one was worried when they didn't come to dinner. In fact some of the girls wanted to go visit them but Grandma said they should wait until tomorrow morning. Inside the cozy ship room the girls talked and laughed until nearly midnight when they finally doused their lamps and snuggled down into their soft warm beds. They were soon fast asleep. Out on the deck of the ship the night air was cold and quiet. Nothing stirred. Even the wolf in the forest had found a cozy den to curl up in. All was quiet. too quiet. Up in the very tip top tower of the castle magic was stirring. Up, up, up in the tip top tower where the fairy families had lived for so long but were now removed from, the magic was very strong. The tip top tower of the castle will always be very strong in magic. Even after the remodeling job. The princess had slept there WAY too long, the fairies had lived there way too long, the magic money chest, the Jedi sword and the visit from the magical prince had forever marked this room as magical. And that magic was not being still. February is the month of love. Even though the snow is cold and the air is sharp, the month is a month of warmth and softness. Magic has a way of shaping itself around the feelings of the year. The tip top tower of the castle magic was stirring a wondrous magical surprise for all the creatures in the castle. In the dark night a bright star from the sky fell. If you had been standing on the deck of the ship you would have thought it was just another falling star. And from that place you would have seen the star sputter out behind the tower. In fact if you had stood anywhere around the castle you would have seen the star sputter BEHIND the tower. But it didn't sputter behind the tower, in fact, it wasn't even a star. It was a new fairy being born. Most fairies were born from the first baby's laugh but this Fairy was a brand new one. Way back in the human world there was a beautiful new baby named Eliza Zimmerman. She laughed a really sincere happy good laugh that night and it was so powerful and strong that it created a new fairy, a fairy royalty in fact--a little baby fairy princess. She lightly floated down on the princess bed in the tip top tower and she lay there sleeping with a small feather for a blanket. But no one was on the deck of the ship that night, and no one was standing out by the moat and no one was anywhere but fast sleep in bed. So no one saw the fairy be born. The two girls emerged from the ship the next morning very hungry. They had only brought enough food for dinner. They put out the little fire that had kept them so warm all day and made their beds. They locked up the ship and walking down the plank to the snow covered lawn, they headed to Grandma's kitchen where they could smell scrambled eggs and pancakes. While snarffing breakfast with the rest of the children who ate with grandma, the children noticed an unusual feeling in the castle. Isaac remembered when the rocket ship took off, Tyler remembered his first ride on a magic carpet, Legolas remembered the first time he touched the jedi sword and Violet remembered her first days at Hogwarts. It was a magical feeling in the air. Joey even felt it. Joey the pirate was not a magical creature but he had great skills with knives and swords.

Zeeky was the most affected. He looked up from his eggs and smiled a sly thoughtful smile.
“What’s going on” asked Grandma looking at all the children who were frozen at the table. “Eat your food!”

“grandma” Leify cried, “Can’t you feel that?”

“What, the new magic in the castle?”

Of course Grandma could feel it, Grandma knew everything. In fact Grandma had spent most of the morning in the tippy top tower, making the new baby fairy comfortable.

All at once the children began chattering and asking Grandma questions. “What is it?, how did it happen, how do you know about it….”

Grandma just poured another Blue Spotted shaped dragon pancake on the griddle and smiled.

“Does anyone need more syrup?”

“GRANDMA!!!” all the children yelled in chorus.

“Alright, alright, finish up your food, we’ll clean up the kitchen and I’ll take you to meet our new magical friend."

Banana

2006-08-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

Abby of the Mer was super popular for a few days at school. Grandma had Isaac write down his experience in the sea for all the children to read as an extra assignment for Summer time. She wanted to make sure he didn’t forget his writing skills. Grandma made copies and let everyone read about his adventure. The children were so thrilled to hear about Dolphinian and the Mer people. They had so many questions for Abby. Joseph and Hannah were excited that everyone liked her so much. They felt at home in the castle after Grandma gave them a couple of rooms. Abby and Hannah shared a girl’s room and Zeek of the Shells and Joseph shared another one right next door. They spent time on the pirate’s ship keeping it clean and fixing anything broken in case the-river-that-comes-and-goes, came again and they could go sailing.

The girls enjoyed their time at the pool and the boys went exploring around the castle. Isaac trained them all on the best way to eat Gilly weed so they also explored the moat. Pigalletto was so excited to finally play with his buds from school in the water that his father, Piggy Fish, had a hard time getting him to leave his friends and come to dinner each night.

The summer time flew by. Pumpkin Fairy seemed a bit preoccupied with Halloween and frankly a bit too early but the children just dismissed it because they knew he was just that way.

One afternoon Leify invited Hannah Banana up to his room to play with Legos. They pulled out all the diagrams of things they could make and Leif decided to make a space ship. It took nearly the whole afternoon and for a snack Hannah went and made some banana ice cream shakes. They were delicious and Leify sucked his up through the straw so fast, at first, that he got a freezing headache for a little bit. The Lego space ship was nearly as tall as Hannah by the time they were done and she stood next to it to compare her height. It was late in the afternoon and she was a little bit sleepy. She stretched her arms wide out and above her head and yawned a huge yawn.

“Oh, sorry, I’m just a little bit tired” she exclaimed shaking her body awake. She looked around the room and walked over to the large round window over looking the grounds. There was a comfortable cushion and it looked very cozy. She sat leaning against the window sill cross legged looking into the room and watched as Leif put the finishing touches on his ship.

“There, all done” he explained. “Now we just need to send it into orbit. Prepare to launch”.

Just then Hannah felt a vibration in the window sill she was sitting in.

“Leif, what was that?” Leif walked over to the window and noticed that the wall connecting the little round window sill to the room was partly detached.

“I don’t know”, he sat in the window sill and continued his dialogue with his pretend ship.

“Engage the engines, fuel check, oxygen check, seatbelts… launch on my mark in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three…..

Leify fell on his back side into the round window sill with Hannah. The window was shaking violently and was completely detached from the wall except for a few wires that seemed to be wanting to break. There was a large roaring sound and Leif and Hannah sat frozen in the round window sill. Leif knew what was happening and suddenly with out really thinking about the consequences, he blurted out

“…TWO, ONE, BLAST OFF!”

The window sill (now rocket) slowly inched its way up the side of the castle. Where the opening to room had been, a sliding mechanical round door rotated from inside the sill to close off the cube shaped hull. The inching up the castle became faster and faster. Hannah and Leify searched around for something to hold on to and from the top of the ceiling an opening appeared. Two chairs with seatbelts and helmets started sliding down into the sill of the window. The children squished their bodies against the side of the walls to make room for the chairs to lock down into place and they both scampered into the four strap seatbelts pulling their helmets on. By this time the ship had detached from the castle and was gaining altitude as it shot into the sky.

“WOAAAAAAAH” they both shouted as they launched into space clutching the arms of the chairs. They could both hear each other through the helmets. And Hannah screamed as they jiggled their way up, up, up into the sky
“DID YOU KNOW THIS WAS A ROCKET SHIP?”

---------

Isaac walked into the room and felt like something was missing or different but he didn’t really register what it was. He looked around and didn’t really notice anything at first. He walked back out after changing into his swim suit and grabbing his towel and he headed down the stairs to the pool. Half way down he stopped. His eyes got wide and he turned and ran back up to the room.
There the window sill was there was just a big piece of glass covering the area.

“What happened to the window sill?” He yelled.

He looked at the pile of Legos in the middle of the floor. The vibrations had tipped the creation over in a heap of partially connected pieces of a space ship.

“The whole window, it’s just gone!” Isaac explained to the wizard and Grandma after the general alarm had provoked nearly everyone to Isaac’s room.

“Oh ho ho!” laughed Wizard Helmstead. “How exciting, they found it”. He and Sivart the Genie winked at each other.

“Found what?” said Pinko and Malcolm in chorus.

Suddenly Wizard Helmstead and Sivart the Genie were fully engaged in an animated and excited whispering conversation. They exited the room walking quickly and talking rapidly. Grandma’s eye got wide and her face flushed like she had just remembered something.

“Woah”, she said “They took off!”

Meanwhile, Leify and Hannah sped toward outer space and were soon in orbit around the earth. The earth was blue, brown, green and white and much like a bouncy ball they could reach out and play with.

They both had been quite silent since Hannah had yelled her question to Leify. They could hear each other breathing through their helmets and could nearly hear the pounding of each other’s hearts. This, by far was the biggest surprise Leify had ever encountered in Grandma’s castle. When they were finally calm and the ship was sailing smoothly through space, Leify turned his head toward Hannah and smiled. “You ok?” he whispered

“Wow, that was incredible” Hannah sighed.

They both felt like whispering as they drank in the quietness of space. The earth was so peaceful from this distance. With their noses pressed against the glass of their helmets they stared wide eyed at the incredible view they were experiencing. Leify blew puffs of his breath against the helmet glass and trying to look at the moisture collected from it, made his eyes go crossed and Hannah giggled at his silly face.

The ship started to pick up speed and headed back toward earth. A thick gooey solution spit out from the top and like jello covered the whole ship in a protective shield. Leify guessed it was for the re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. He remembered from school, that coming into the earth’s atmosphere made things burn up and that it was very dangerous. (This is why all the stuff floating through space that would normally hit the earth, usually burns up and dissipates before it gets to the earth.) Hannah and Leify did notice what seemed like fire dancing on the ship window for several minutes while they hurried toward the green and blue bouncy ball (which was getting bigger and bigger). They didn’t feel any heat though, and Leify sighed a breath of relief.

He was still a bit nervous though because the ship seemed to be on a course all its own and the children had no control over it. Hannah and Leify watched as the bouncy ball earth got bigger and bigger and soon they could not see the edges of the circle and they seemed to be heading straight into… Straight into…

“LEIFY, We’re going to land in the water. There’s nothing but water there!”

And indeed they were speeding to the very middle of the Pacific Ocean and it seemed like there was nothing but water everywhere.

However, as the little ship got closer and closer to the surface, Hannah yelled “Look, an Island!”

Just then the top of the ship shifted open and the small middle part of the ship where the children were sitting was thrust out and up. Leify and Hannah felt suspended in the air for a minute and watched the rest of the space ship crash into the ocean. But then they started coming down, and coming down fast.
Just before they had time to be really afraid, two large parachutes opened and they decelerated to a slow comfortable speed dropping right on the beach of a small Island in the Pacific.

Back at the castle, Sivart and the Wizard were busy in the wizard’s house with Grandma charting where the ship would have taken the children for its first ride.

“We programmed it to take the children to a place that was personally significant to them. Let’s think, what’s a really important place to Leify?”

Isaac, peeking his head in to listen, blurted out,

“Leify just likes space. He’s always wanted to go up and fly around”.

“What are you doing here little one?” Sivart said.

“Um, he’s my brother and I was worried” Isaac said sheepishly, realizing that he probably wasn’t invited in the conversation.

“Well that’s ok, said Grandma as she lifted Isaac onto her huge tummy lap to listen to the Wizard.

“Space huh?” the Wizard mused. “Well, that would mean they would come right back down to earth—back to the castle or Leify’s original home in the jar on top of the fridge, but I didn’t put any special shrinking potions in it. We should be careful. Grandma, take the jar on top of the fridge out on top of the castle in case the ship tries to come back to that place. We wouldn’t want it coming through the kitchen ceiling would we? I’ll blow it up a little bigger so Leif can at least land safely in there with out damaging anything.”

“but what about Hannah Isaac said. What is important to her?”

“Well I suppose the pirate ship, so that should not be too difficult to land on, right?”

Everyone in the room was quietly thinking the same thing. But what was REALLY important to Hannah? Where was she really from? Where was her home?

Grandma was the first to say anything “Go and get Zeek, Joe and Abby. Perhaps they can help us know what place is important to Hannah”.

------------

Leify and Hannah crawled out of the pod and took off their helmets.

“Where are we?” Leify said?

“I don’t know but I feel so alive here and so comfortable breathing this air. It’s like it is filling my whole body with nutrition and strength”

“You are weird” Leify said scrunching up his forehead. “What in the world are you talking about?”

Leify crawled back in the space pod looking for some supplies and food. He found a small first aid/survival kit, some power bars, water and two emergency blankets in a small pack. He donned the back pack and rolling up the parachutes he took all the supplies to a near-by cluster of palm trees.

“We need to make a shelter for tonight. Help me please.”

The children were too small to really cut and carry much so they took the strings from the parachute and tied them in a round “ish” shape in the middle of a bunch of trees. They collected some soft dry seaweed from the beach and placed it under the new ceiling and then put the other parachute on the ground for a floor.

“There, that’s good.”

It was getting late and the sun was getting lower in the sky. They children found some matches in the pack and placing rocks in a circle just like at the camp out, they made a little fire from some dry drift wood on the beach. They drank their water and munched on the power bars.

They both talked excitedly about the adventure they had had that day and soon their eyes got heavy and curling up with the emergency blankets, they both fell fast asleep.

The next morning Hannah stirred in bed. She felt satin sheets and soft pillows and realized subconsciously that she must still be dreaming. She snuggled deeper in her blanket. “Wow, this is a nice dream” she thought.

Hannah had to use the bathroom so she rubbed her eyes and expecting to see a parachute ceiling, instead was surprised to see a beautiful and ornate delicately carved ceiling of crown molding. Where was Leify and was she? She jerked awake and sat up in bed.

A young maid near her bedroom door bowed softly to her. “Wow, what a vivid dream!” Hannah said out loud.

Rubbing her eyes again she looked around the room and saw Leify on a soft couch in the corner. She was afraid that she was still dreaming and would pee in her bed if she didn’t wake up but she couldn’t wait.

“Um, where is the bathroom?” she asked the maid.

The girl pointed to an opening on the North wall and Hannah slipped out of the large soft bed. Noticing that she was dressed in a soft comfortable nightgown, she quickly tip toed over to the door and walked into a bathroom as big and beautiful as grandma’s hot tub room.

“I don’t think I’m dreaming” Hannah said as she washed her hands and dried them on a soft thick fluffy towel hanging on a golden rod attached to the wall in the bathroom.

“Leify!” she whispered loudly to her very still friend on the couch.

“Urnnnnggg” Leify mumbled as he rolled over on his side. “Just a few more minutes.”

“Leify Nosompos, wake up”, she said shaking his shoulder and commanding in a much more bold voice. Everyone knew that waking Leify was almost impossible.

Leify opened his eyes for a moment and then closed them up. He seemed unphased by the ornate décor surrounding him but a few moments later his eyes shot wide open and he too sat straight up in bed.

“Where are we?” he exclaimed.

Just then, the double door (where the pretty young maid had stood) opened majestically and in walked what must have been some kind of king or something. He was dressed in a long flowing and very colorful robe, His head was wrapped in a bright orange turban, his jewelry hung off his neck, his ears, and arms in similar colorful tones. Around his neck he wore a strangely familiar pendent.

“Good morning” he said in a deep commanding voice.

"I trust you slept well?"

2006-06-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

The swimming pair entered the moat from the Tunnel to the Sea at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Isaac was completely exhilarated. What an experience. And he still got to go the rest of the camp out. He remembered that he had sent Grandma’s rug back to the camp out and was just changing his clothes trying to figure out how he would get to the lake when Grandma burst in.

“She’s a mermaid!? Why, that’s amazing, phenomenal, extraordinary! How exciting to have a mermaid in our castle. It’s been ….well, now… it’s been years now since I’ve associated with a mermaid. We saw some on one of our trips but that was way far away on the shore now wasn’t it. It’s just so exciting. And Abby is such a nice little girl”

Isaac could hardly get a word in edgewise. He guessed that Piggy Fish had told all the creatures about Abby’s true identity and it had spread to all corners of the castle.

“Hey Grandma, can I borrow Three Bird Rug please” Isaac said interrupting Grandma’s raving.

“Um, why of course my boy” Grandma said, a little distracted.

Isaac didn’t waste any time. He went right upstairs to Grandma’s bedroom but the door was closed. Isaac opened the door and then quietly shut. Grandpa Dragon was taking a little nap. Isaac was afraid to disturb him. He started looking around the hall and spotted the other rug that had flown across from the Middle East. “Maybe this one will fly too” he thought.

Isaac rolled up the blue and white rug and with some effort hoisted it up on his shoulders and climbed down the stairs and outside. He sat on the rug and held on to the fringe and commanded “Rug, take me to the camping spot by the Lake”

Now, this was a very inexperienced rug but magic none-the-less. It was good that Isaac had a good hold on the fridge because the blue and white rug took off so fast and furious, he nearly lost his scales. He was at the camping spot in no time but just sat there on the ground for a while trying to remember how to breath. His eyes were wide with terror and after a while Leify who was fishing looked over and noticed him.

“hey, Isaac, you ok?”

“um, just finishing up the most exciting 48 hours of my life with a scale stripping ride from the castle- that’s all. I’m a little over stimulated right now and I think I’m going to go get in my swim suit and lay out by the lake a bit.”

Isaac rolled off the rug and crawled on his hands and knees to his and leify’s tent. He emerged in his swim trunks and towel and flip flops. He spread his towel by where Leify was fishing and putting his sun glasses on, he just lay there breathing in and out, in and out.

Leify asked about the trip and after a while Isaac rolled on his side and leaning on his eldow with his hand holding up his head he started explaining the amazing under world of the mermaids and the incredible ride with Dolphinian.

“What a blast said Joseph” who was sitting nearby.

The boys all caught a little fish each and cooked them up for dinner. The girls had been on a hike and collected some cool flowers, leaves and sticks and little rocks. They made a little house out of the materials and decorated it with the flowers and leaves. Bonny was especially helpful because she was small enough to get the details just right. In fact, the house was just a little bit smaller than she was.

The camp out ended that night. After packing up and roasting the last of the marshmallows, they doused the fire and disbursed the rocks back into the woods. The cleaned up everything and made sure it looked like no one had been there. They climbed back on Grandmas big old rug and Isaac and Legolas and his little brother Tyler got on the blue and white rug and they all took off. Well, Legolas was clutching his brother in a death grip by the time they got back to the castle and if there had been a race, well, the blue and white rug beat them by a long shot. Grandma’s rug was fast but nothing like the blue and white one. Isaac was trying to breath again and wide eyed the trio sat still on the lawn until Grandma’s rug with the rest of the children en tow, landed softly by the pirate ship.

“What’s wrong” asked Hannah.

“Oh, nothing” said Tyler who seemed un phased by the ride as he leaped from his brother’s tightly held arms and headed to get his back pack off the other carpet. Legolas and Isaac both looked at him incredulously.

“Maybe Tyler should be a carpet race driver!” said Isaac.

Camping Trip

2006-06-27T01:08:00.000-07:00

School was out for the summer and the children hung out at the pool a lot. They missed Jeremiah and Timothy but they were happy that they had some new friends- the mysterious pirate children. One afternoon Joseph swam up the edge of the pool, put his elbows up on the deck and started kicking his feet in the water. He looked kind of not like a pirate in just his swim suit and he was a little less fearsome.

“Do you guys ever go camping?” he asked to no one in particular.

“Yes, all the time” said Pinko. We go to the lake way over there. He pointed to the lake and Pumpkin fairy felt a little queasy thinking about the fly episode at the lake.

Pinko and Malcolm jumped up immediately at the suggestion and went to get permission from their father’s to plan a camping trip and soon all the children were gathered around the edge of the pool talking about all the fun camping trips they had had in the past. Zeek of the Shells excitedly asked if he could go and everyone burst out in chorus “Well of course you can”
Laughing and yelling they gently pushed Zeek into the water but not before he grabbed Ebony’s arm and they both went tumbling into the pool. They came up with a big splash all over Pinko and Leify and that started a huge water fight that lasted nearly 20 minutes. Every one was soaked and laughing and exhausted.

The sun was hot and the cement around the pool was warm on their wet bodies. All the children lay out in a line like hot dogs on a grill, resting and drying out, rolling on their tummies and then on their backs.

“So when shall we go?” asked Isaac Nospompos.

“We are leaving at 3:30 in the afternoon this Friday” explained Bonny Fairy. She and Lavendar, Abby and Hannah Banana had already planned out all the meals for the trip, their outfits for the trip and had decided who would sleep in which tents.

“Um, ok.” Said Ebony sarastically, “Thanks for planning with out us!” He and the rest of the boys were actually glad they didn’t have to plan all the details. They wanted to just go and not worry about all that stuff but they knew they would be mighty hungry if they didn’t plan something. In fact they were just glad it was going to happen- it seemed like magic from when Joseph mentioned it to when it was really going to happen.

The next few days were spent at the pool, in the green house and of course packing and talking about their upcoming camping trip. They asked Grandma Dragon if they could take the flying carpet and she said yes only if Ebony was the commander. Ebony was very grateful that Grandma had forgiven him and trusted him with her flying carpet.

On Thursday night Bonny was taking a twilight flying trip around the castle to exercise her wings and she spotted Abigail of the Mer and Hannah Banana on the Pirates ship with their camping gear. She thought they were packing and she flew back into the fairy apartments, to her parent’s room and into her little hanging bed. Abby and Hanna were not just packing though. They were talking about a very important event that was going to happen soon. Abigail of the Mer had almost forgotten, in the stir of all camping plans, that her yearly trip to the ocean was THIS WEEK END!!

Abigail of the Mer, as you know, is a mermaid that was given the gift of human legs from her Merpeople when she was littler. She had read about The Little Mermaid and asked her parents if she could be a human for a while. They told her that it was forbidden. But she kept asking and asking and asking. Finally she gave up and decided to just be a mermaid. She was happy with this decision. One terrible day, her family was eaten by a big shark. She was the only one left and was so lonely that she decided she couldn’t stay in the ocean anymore because she was reminded of them all the time. So she went to the King of the Ocean and asked him if she could be a human. He studied her circumstances and decided it would be ok. The spell he case on her was a very special one and required that she return each year to the ocean during the month of June to be a mermaid for a week and then her legs would sprout again and she could go back up to the surface. She became a human and the first ship that she found was a pirate ship where she met Joseph.

Joseph, Zeek and Hannah Banana knew about this but none of the other children did.

Well the big camping day came. The kids were so excited that they could hardly fall asleep on Thursday night and most of them were up and to breakfast very early. Grandma hadn’t even mixed the waffle batter yet when Isaac, Leify, Patrick, Pinko, Legolas, Tyler, Malcolm, Zeek, Joseph, Nathan and Pumpkin were all sitting anxiously at the big kitchen table. They were chattering to themselves about the fishing poles they had packed, the cool new flashlights they were bringing, the best way to set up a tent and asking if anyone had brought marshmallows. Grandma smiled to her self as she listened to the excited chatter and poured the thick creamy batter into the dragon shaped waffle makers.

As the boys snarffed down breakfast, grandma asked if the girls were coming.
"Ah, they’re probably still sleeping!" said Legolas.

“SLEEPING???” Hanna, Abby, Lavendar and Bonny yelled as they entered the kitchen in their camping jeans, gray camping t-shirts and hiking boots. “We’ve been up for hours packing the food onto the flying carpet. What have YOU guys been doing?”

Joseph looked up from his strawberry jam covered waffles and with his mouth full he mumbled, “wur eathin bwekfath”

“I see", said Abby pompously, and she sat down and tucked the napkin into her shirt. She plopped two horn tailed dragon shaped waffles onto her plate and poured maple syrup all over them. Then, pouring a glass of cold rice milk, she dug in to eat. The other girls had a healthy appetite as well and Bonny ended up eating more Blue-Horned dragon shaped waffles than Pumpkin. With a sigh, the girls sat back and watched the boys finish up and leave to go pack up the rest of their stuff. The girls helped clear the table.

Zeek felt bad for leaving his mess and he also helped clean up the dishes. In fact, after even the girls left, Zeek of the Shells stayed and helped Grandma clean up the kitchen. He turned himself into a broom, swept the floor, then into a mop and bucket of soapy water, and he mopped the floor. Then he became a six-armed dishwater and washed and clean up all the cups, dishes and silverware. He turned into a little dragon child and gave Grandma a dragon hug (which she just loved) and he headed out the door turning back into a pirate so he could pack his things onto the flying carpet.

“What a sweet little boy” grandma said to her self as she took the extra waffles out of the microwave for breakfast for Grandpa Dragon and herself.

Later in the morning, Grandpa Dragon was out with the rest of the parents helping to pack up the flying carpet. He secured the gear with rope and made sure all the stuff was balanced so the carpet could fly straight.

“We’re not going that far”, said Pumpkin, remembering how fast he had flown to the Lake when the flies were chasing him.

“Yes, but you will have a lot of gear and creatures on this contraption, and I want to make sure your marshmallows don’t get squished”, Grandpa joked.

Soon it was lunch time and the preparations were nearly complete. “We might get to leave early” said Hannah Banana, her beautiful Banana pendent shining in the sunlight. The boys were so excited they were jumping all around the carpet and being very rowdy.

Grandma brought sandwiches, chips and lemonade out to all the creatures at about 11:30 and after the kids ate, they all found their places on the carpet, took a hand full of fringe and Ebony started the carpet up.

“Carpet, take us to our camping trip by the Lake”

“Get out of the way”, Purple Monster said as the carpet floated up into the air.

Little Emerald was still begging her parents to let her go. Patrick waved to her as they flew away. She was still just too little.

The carpet landed gently on the most beautiful little spot of green grass near the prettiest little stream flowing into the most ideal shore of the lake. The children all sat still on the carpet looking around at their perfect camping spot. No one moved a muscle until finally Bonny took off flying yelling “This is where the girl’s tent will be!”

Almost instantly, like a group of ants swept up in a pile, they children scattered from the carpet with their gear and headed in all directions. The boys found a great spot for their four tents and everyone got busy setting up their tents, unrolling their sleeping pads and sleeping bags, situating their pillows and lanterns for evening time and setting up their folding chairs around a spot they decided they would build their fire. Some of the boys went to gather sticks and wood for the fire and the other group of boys looked around for rocks. They dug a little pit and arranged the rocks in a circle for the fire and set up everything for dinner time. The girls started making a little path from their tent to the kitchen area. They put rocks along the way and little flowers. The boys thought this was silly and they went with their pocket knifes out into the woods to find some nice green sticks with which to roast their marshmallows. Zeek told them they should probably get some for the girls and soon the boys were really focused on finding the very best ones for the girls. Leify found one for Bonny Fairy and Isaac found a good one for Abby of the Mer. Patrick found a good one for Hannah Banana. Pinko found one for Lavender. Meanwhile, the girls set up the porta-potty outside the camp a bit and put a roll of toilet paper on a nearby tree branch.

It was a perfect camp site. When everything was set up, Abby and Isaac went down to the water and threw their fishing lines in. Abby was thinking about what she had to do that night and she got a little nervous. She wanted to tell Isaac about her secret but she didn’t know if he would understand. She asked Isaac about his mom and dad and soon they were talking about the planet in the jar above the fridge. Abby was fascinated and listened while Isaac explained about his world.

“I come from a different world too”, she finally said.

“Oh really, you’re not from Earth?” Isaac inquired.

“Well, it’s kind of like you, I’m from another world on the earth”. She explained carefully.

“That’s cool, is that where your parents are?” he probed further.

“No, they are up in heaven”. She said sadly. “Mine too” said Isaac Nospompos.

They were both quiet for a minute and then almost like an explosion Abby blurted out. “Isaac, I’m a mermaid from the Ocean. I have to go back there tonight so I’m going to take the flying carpet and fly back to the moat and through the tunnel to the ocean for a week.”

Isaac’s eyes got really big and his mouth dropped open and he just sat there staring at her.

“Well,…say something” Abby begged. Isaac raised his eye brows and his lips looked like they were going to move but nothing came out of his throat.

Abby’s shoulders fell and she turned back to looking at her pole in the water. Her face was sad and heavy. “I shouldn’t have told you huh?”

Finally Isaac spoke “No, Abby, I think that’s really cool. I think it’s…really cool. I…I think that’s just so cool.”

Abby smiled and Isaac gave her a pat on the back. “I wish I could come with you” he said.

“Maybe you could” said Lavender, walking up to both of them. “Maybe we all could.” Abby’s face flushed red and she looked down.

“I didn’t know anyone could hear us” Abby said embarrassed.

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about” Lavender said tenderly.

“Yeah”, said Isaac, “Why didn’t you tell us all, right from the beginning?”

Lavendar explained “I guessed that you were a mermaid anyway from some books I’ve been reading. I asked my sister Violet to send me some Gilly Weed from Hogwarts so if you ever wanted to go swimming, I could go with you. And you were going to go all by yourself?!”

Lavendar and Isaac talked Abby into telling the whole group.

The sun started setting. The children put on their jackets, sprayed themselves with bug repellant, started the fire and put their foil dinners in the coals. The spent the evening eating, roasting marshmallows and listening to Abby tell them stories about the Sea. Then Joseph and Hanna told about the Pirate ship adventures and when it got very dark and they only had their flashlights and lanterns, Malcolm told them a scary spider story. It wasn’t that scary though because they all knew Malcolm and they all liked him so the whole “big spider creature thing” was lost in the story teller himself. One by one the children left the camp fire and climbed into their sleeping bags and went to sleep, until it was just Isaac and Abby of the Mer sitting by the camp fire talking.

Soon Isaac knew what he had to do. He was going to go with her. He tip toed over to Lavendar’s tent and asked her if he could have a bag of the Gilly Weed. She sleepily handed it over and told him to have a good time explaining that she was too tired to go with them. Isaac Nospompos’s body was perfect for the water but he still needed gills. He told Leify that he was going with Abby and to watch his stuff until he got back and he and Abby quietly put some of their things together. After Abby had kissed Hanna good night, they tip toed to the flying carpet.

“Take us to Grandma’s castle”, Isaac whispered

Off they went.

They landed in the dark courtyard near the Pirate ship. Isaac sent the carpet back to the camp site on its own and he took a big wad of gilly weed out of the bag.

“You ready?” he asked sheepishl.

Abby’s eyes glazed over “We better go soon, I’m starting to change right now.” And sure enough where little legs used to be, a large green scaly fin appeared as if her two legs were fused together and covered with scales. She started to gasp for air and Isaac immediately took a big gulp of Gilly Weed, grabbed his half fish friend (now passed out on the shore of the moat) and he jumped right into the cool water of the moat.

Piggy fish was awakened by the splash and he came out of his house. “Isaac Nospompos, and a mermaid?” he said.

“This is Abby of the Mer” Isaac explained.

“Ah, yes, she is famous among sea creatures. Yes, this is the time of year she must renew her identity. Better be off!” he pressured them.

Isaac gave him a look of confusion and raised his eye brow at the idea that Piggy Fish knew about Abby of the Mer but Abby who was awake and breathing quite well wasn’t surprised at all. Isaac soon got the hang of using his webbed hands and feet and breathing underwater and he could almost keep up with Abby who was fully transformed into a mermaid. Isaac had always been curious about the tunnel to the ocean and although it was very dark and at times rather scary, he was still fascinated by it and when they came out into the ocean he felt like he’d accomplished a great thing. They swam for nearly 30 minutes until Isaac started to get worried. He told Abby to stop for a second.

“My Gilly weed only works for an hour. I have to take some more soon, don’t let me forget ok?”

“How much do you have” she asked.

“I have only enough to stay with you for one day. Then I have to go back to the camp out. You’ll have to come back alone- will you be ok?”

“Yes, of course, I’ve been doing this for three years. If I can’t find the entrance I’ll just ask Dolphinian or Mr. Hammerhead for directions”

Isaac wondered about this underwater world where everyone knew about everyone else. How come Dolphinian never talked about mermaids? How did Abby know about Dolphinian and Hammerhead? He had more questions that he ever knew he could have about the ocean and he decided he was going to get a book about the ocean when he got back to the castle.

It took nearly 2 hours to get to the mermaid kingdom and Isaac was very tired when they arrived. The Merpeople were waiting for Abby at the gate to the city and they cheered as they saw her approaching. They started whispering about Isaac almost immediately and Abby had to quickly explain that Isaac was from a world just like the ocean- it was part of Earth but not always visible. The Mer people liked the idea and soon, they were too busy with the important identity renewal ritual to worry about him too much anyway.

They placed Abby on a pretty little chair and poured colored powders all over her which swirled in the water and tangled in her hair. They sang songs and read from important books. Isaac was very tired but he didn’t want to miss anything. Finally Abby told him he had to go to sleep. It was hard to rest because Isaac’s body felt so weightless and he couldn’t stay down on the little pearl bed they had for him. He kept floating up. He finally tied the blanket down on its four corners and crawled under it and fell asleep.

He was awakened suddenly by Abby. “You have to go soon, you only have two hours of Gilly Weed left and it will take you that long to swim back”

Isaac felt his heart leap. “Where did it go?”

“I’ve been putting it in your mouth all night and day so you wouldn’t turn back into an air
breather” she explained. “You slept a long time.”

He quickly packed up his things and gave Abby a hug. “See you in a few days”

“I have a familiar friend here to help you get back to the tunnel to the castle really fast” said Abby.

“Dolphinian!” Isaac yelled throwing his arms around the water mammal.

Isaac thought that riding a dolphin on the top of the water was fun but he had no idea how fast and fun it could be under the water. The sun was up and the ocean was alive with color and movement. Dophinian swam as fast as she could with Isaac holding on to her fin and a little rope she held in her mouth for him. He laughed and yelled as they curved around rock formations in the ocean and he stared googlily eyed at the millions of fish and plants. It was the ride of his life and he would have a lot to tell Leify when they got back.

A Difficult Decision

2006-06-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah and Timothy the elves came to school one morning a little more subdued than usual. They didn’t really participate when Grandma Dragon asked everyone to recite their times tables, they seemed distracted during the pledge of allegiance, and they hardly ate any lunch. At play time, they walked around the large field outside, just the two of them, very slowly, just talking. No one really noticed their altered behavior except for Lavender who was always very perceptive.
“I wonder what’s wrong with Jeremiah and Timothy” she said to Abigail of the Mer and Bonny Fairy.
“What do you mean?” asked Abby. Bonny admitted that she too had noticed they were kind of perplexed lately and not acting like themselves. Lavender and Bonny explained to the new Abby of the Mer student that the two elves were usually really talkative and energetic, they loved to debate and to talk things out with the group in school.
“Oh” said Abby, “Yes, I can see how you would think they are acting differently. I don’t know them that well so I guess I didn’t notice.” Abby explained the conversation to Hanna Banana who came up to the girls mid sentence.
“Well I hope everything is ok with them”, Hannah said in a concerned tone.
By the end of the week most of the children had noticed how thoughtful and quiet the elves were but no one really asked the boys about it. They all seemed kind of respectful of what ever the elf boys were going through and were confident that if it was something they needed to know about, the boys would tell them.

Well, everyone soon found out the dilemma. It had been almost a year and a half since the elf parents were seriously injured in the car accident at the North Pole and they had all moved to Grandma Dragon’s castle. The grandparents of the elves were very sick and the next week Grandpa Elf past away on Monday followed closely by Grandma Elf the next night. Jeremiah and Timothy and their nicely recovered parents seemed to not be surprised at all. Indeed, Elves usually know when they are going to pass on and it comes as little surprise. The Elf parents announced that they were well enough to move back to the North Pole and resume their duties in Santa’s Village. The news spread through the castle like wild fire on an Iraqi field in the summer time. All the creatures were aghast that anyone would want to leave Grandma Dragon’s castle but they respected the elves for their dedication to Santa.

Jeremiah had told his parents that he wasn’t going to go with them and that he was going to stay in the castle with Grandma Dragon and his friends. He and Timothy had both argued and cried and begged their parents not to have to leave. The elf parents were very understanding and during family counsel they reminded their children of all the friends they had at the North Pole and how difficult it had been to leave that place. They explained that life goes on, and it’s really just one’s attitude that will determine how happy they are. In the end, the parents told Jeremiah, (who was the oldest) that he could stay and finish elementary school with his friends if he wanted. That was when Jeremiah really became confused. He did remember his life at the North Pole and all his wonderful friends at church, in scouts, on his little league ball team, his cousins and Aunts and Uncles and how wonderful Christmas time was at the North Pole. He started remembering how happy he was before his parents got hurt and how hard it had been to just leave there when Grandma and some of the children came on the Polar Express to visit them. That was such a hard time in his life and he wondered if this “going back” change would become happy and better like it had when he left. He rolled the memories around and around in his head, wishing he could somehow have both of the lives he had found. If he could only move the castle up to the North Pole or move Santa’s village down near the castle. But it was a silly idea. He would have to choose one or the other. He knew in the end he would not be happy without his brother Timothy and he would miss his mom and dad too much.

Late one night he slipped out of bed and went to the hot tub room.

The water heaters in the boiler room next door were humming softly and the bubbles were churning enough to make soothing water music. Jeremiah needed some time to think and pray alone. He slipped into his candy cane stripped swim suit and dipped his foot into the huge hot tub. Slowly, very slowly he finally eased into the water and just sat there thinking. This was the hardest decision he’d ever had to make in his whole decade of a life. He felt torn apart inside. Deep down he knew he had to be with his family but there were creatures in his life with Grandma Dragon that now felt like family to him and he wondered if he would ever see them again. He lifted his toes out above the surface and saw that they were wrinkled with time in the water. His fingers were wrinkled too. He was very relaxed and tired from thinking. He whispered a little prayer, “Please Dear Father, let me see my friends again someday after I leave here”. He felt a warm feeling, (like the warm water on his outside), wrap around his inside, and he knew everything would be ok.

He climbed out of the tub, wrapped a big warm fuzzy towel around his body and scooping up his pile of clothes, tip-toed back to his family’s apartment. He dressed and climbed up onto the top bunk of his bed, careful not to rattle the bed too much and wake up his brother Timothy.

The next day at school Jeremiah seemed happy and calm. Grandma noticed his worried expression was gone and during play time, she asked if Jeremiah would take a walk with her. He loved alone time with Grandma Dragon and so of course he was happy to talk with her. She told him to climb up her huge tail and onto her neck and they would take a walk around the castle. Jeremiah cried a little when he told her that he had decided to leave. “Well, my dear boy, you weren’t happy until you decided to go with your family, so I know you’ve made the best decision for you. I wanted you to stay… Oh, my! I wish you would stay! You make lovely boots and are a great student, but those things are nothing to the way I feel about just you. I love you dear boy and I will miss you so much” Jeremiah scooped his arms around Grandma’s huge neck and squeezed with all his might the biggest little Elf hug he could muster. He cried a little more and they both walked back into the castle and the school room.

The next few weeks were a flutter of packing, planning, giving stuff away, washing, mailing stuff to the North Pole and tying up all the loose ends that a family has to tie up before they move. Jeremiah’s parents were both strong and healthy and were able to lift boxes, pack kitchen stuff and do all the things necessary to move. It was comforting for Jeremiah to see them so well recovered and he remembered what his mother had told him about “Life goes on”.

“Yes”, he thought, “life goes on and I will be ok. Who knows? Maybe Grandma will come visit the North Pole again and I’ll get to see her again or maybe when I grow up and get married I can come and live in the castle again”. He started to get excited about all the new adventures that awaited him back home and was grateful that he had his brother timothy. What would he do with out him? He loved his brother so much and needed him as his friend forever. “Yes”, he thought, “everything’s going to be OK”

Pirate Children

2006-06-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

It was so hot this summer. The kids were so grateful that the castle had been remodeled with air conditioning. They barely went outside except to go straight to the pool; and their mothers made all of them wear sun block. Even Isaac and Leify Nospompos and the other orphan children didn't forget to put sun block on either because they didn't want to get burned. It was so miserably hot! The Genie workers let everyone know that on Wednesday night they were going to be cleaning the electrical circuits room and that the power would be off all night. Everyone prepared for the worst. They brought coolers of ice into their rooms, closed the curtains all during the day and the Genie workers put hand held fans in all the bedrooms. You would think that this would do the trick, but it still got very warm when the power went out at 7:00PM and got hotter and hotter all night. The creatures all lay in their beds with very little clothing on, and no covers- each creature slowly swished the air back and forth with their genie fan quietly and no one stirred beyond this simple action. No one stirred. It was hard to fall asleep and most of the children took a long time to nod off. It was nearly 02:00 in the morning when Leify finally started to fall asleep. He was awakened by a knocking at the front door.

Knock, knock, knock

Now, normally there were so many sounds in the castle that no one could really hear the front door from any other part of the castle, but with all the appliances turned off and nothing else running except for the swishing fans, Leify could hear the faint knocking. He was only wearing his boxer shorts and he slipped his clawed feet into his Addidas flip flops and slowly opened the bedroom door. Isaac was fast asleep.

Knock, knock, knock

“ok, ok, I’m coming” Leify whispered half to himself and half to who ever was at the door. He didn’t really think about what was behind the door. It was very warm in the castle and quiet and he was kind of drowsy and tired and not really thinking that there was any danger. He slowly opened the large heavy wood door and he thought for a minute that he might be dreaming.

There stood four pirates. They were children, but mostly definitely pirates. The oldest boy pirate sighed a sigh of relief and said, “Oh good, I thought maybe everyone would be asleep. We are too hot on the pirate ship and we need a place to stay that is cooler” Leify just stood there staring. There was an awkward silence and the oldest boy pirate raised his eye brows in anticipation and the youngest boy gave him a questioning look.
“Hello?” said the oldest girl pirate. Leify still said nothing.
“Um, can we come in?”, said the youngest girl pirate.
At last Leify shook his head and said in a surprised stammering voice “um, yes, sure, come in …here to the castle, um…. Um welcome”

The oldest boy pirate removed his jewel-studded three point hat and shook his waist sash un twisted and with a strong solid voice and a sturdy stance explained “My name is Joseph, MoZimbakor” I am the captain of the ship whereon the small female fairy put her moon plants. We were going to water them but alas the task slipped our minds. I regret that the ghost scared her away, she seemed a nice enough fairy.”

Gesturing to the other three children he explained “This is what is left of my sturdy brave crew. Abigail of the Mer, Hanna Banana Boat Mame, and Zeek of the Shells. You will find them hospitable guests and fine company for warm summer nights. We sail no more until the river that comes and goes…um… comes again. We seek shelter in your castle as the summer heat is unbearable on our ship, but low, there is no respite in your dwelling! For, tis as hot in here as on my seaworthy ship run aground."

Leify by now had collected his thoughts and invited the pirate crew to sit down. He explained that the power was out for just that night and that they could stay there and be cool after all. He asked them why they had not introduced themselves before and they explained that they were very comfortable on the ship and were happy to just stay there in anticipation for the river to run again. Leify wondered how they had stayed so hidden for so long. They had watched with curiosity as the entire castle was gutted and everyone had lived on the lawn for a long time and although they were curious, they had remained in stealth. They had eaten most of the stash on the ship and were getting very warm there. They finally decided that Grandma Dragon and her friends were harmless and probably good companions.

Leify started to get tired after they had talked for a while and at 4:00 in the morning the power came back on. All the lights in the living room came on and nearly blinded the talkers who had been sitting in only the moon light shining through the sky lights and windows. Leify invited them to sleep in one of the guest rooms and escorted them out of the large beautiful living room hall, shutting off all the lights as they went through the castle. Soon the AC was blowing cool fresh air throughout the interior of the castle. Leify secured some linen for the pirate guests and after seeing they were comfortable, he went back to his room and climbed in his cool sheets. Isaac was oblivious to the whole event and was still asleep- fan in his little claw hand.

The pirates were marvelous creatures. Joseph was a human boy, strong and sturdy with an incredible outfit of leather belts, a cotton shirt with a criss-cross tie opening at the top, black leather boots that folded down at the calf, a brightly colored bandana on his shaved head, loop ear rings and several gold necklaces. His pants were strong canvas knickers and he was the very picture of a pirate in every way (even a knife, revolver and sword). Abigail of the Mer held a secret that few people knew. Her brave sturdy companions knew her secret but she rarely explained her odd behavior to anyone else. You see, Abigail was a mermaid who was human part of the time but would return to the sea periodically to renew her identity. It was critical that she do this at certain times of the year, but that is a story for another day. She had long silvery hair that shined greenish blue in the sunshine. Her eyes were large dark green eyes with beautiful long eye lashes. Her skin was soft and pink and she walked like she was floating....or....swimming. Hanna Banana boat Mame was rescued from a burning castle when she was just a baby and she wore a jewel around her neck that was the only clue to her identity. She was even more of a mystery than Abby, for you see dear reader, Hanna Banana Boat Mame, was a princess. She did not know this. No one knew this. The necklace she wore was a gold banana pendant that was a representation of the islands where she came from. The islands were ransacked by pirates and she was stolen away long ago and came to be friends with the pirate children. She wanted only to know who she was and where she was from, but that, too, is a story for another day. Zeek of the Shells was a magical sea creature. He was discovered by a fishing crew hiding in a large shell that was scooped up from the ocean. He could change his shape to fit the creatures he was around and had immediately become a human and slipped out of the net and on to the boat. The boat was attacked by pirates and Zeek of the Shells immediatly turned into a pirate. He loved Abby and Hanna and Joseph and decided to stay with them when the ship floated into the river that comes and goes. They were a marvelous crew and quite a sight to behold.

Leify dreamed of adventures and slept a long time that morning. He awoke to a cool comfortable room with the smell of scrambled eggs and toast down stairs wafting into his room. Isaac was long awake and by the time Leify made it down to the kitchen, the pirate children had already been discovered. All the other kids were crowded around them at the large kitchen table asking questions and touching their amazing clothes and jewelry.

"Hey, hey, leave them alone" Leify yelled, disappointed that he wasn’t the one to introduce them to everyone.

Everyone was all of a sudden very quiet.

After an awkward silence Joseph said "Tis a joy to be here and to meet you all- Thanks to Leify for our comfortable accommodations last night".

Everyone soon heard the whole story of the night before and Leify apologized for yelling and they all decided to go swimming.

"SWIMMING!?" Abigail said. How fun! I've been watching you guys swim for months and months. She jumped up and ran for the door.

"Wow, she's excited" said Bonny incredulously.

Flies

2006-05-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

Bonny was too afraid to go to her moon plants the next night and the next night after that and by the time she had mustered up the courage just to visit them during the day time, she discovered that they had withered from lack of water. She watered them as fast as she could and told them she was sorry. She was very sad. They were the coolest little plants and now they were dead or dieing. She was faithful in watering them for the next few days and one little withered plant out of the six, recovered; one left out of all those pots! She was very sad but happy to have at least one to tend. She moved the pot up to the top tower on a window sill over looking the grounds. There would only be a few hours of moon light each night but some was better than none.

I guess all the reconstruction had stirred up the local insect population or maybe it was just the time of year, but there were just an inordinate amount of flies everywhere. Every time anyone wanted to have a picnic or go swimming or anything, they had to carry a fly swatter and wapp flies the whole time. Grandma finally sent pumpkin fairy and some of the other boys to the Dragon Home Depot to get some fly repellant or something. The boys perused up and down the pest repellant row looking at traps of all kinds; ant hotels, spider hotels, sticky rat traps, sticky fly strips. There was some nasty smelling stuff that you put in a trap and it attracts the flies to it and kills them. Pumpkin’s little mischievous brain started clicking. "A liquid that smells like vomit and something dead that will attract flies from all around, hum….he thought… I could put this on Pinko’s head and the flies would chase him everywhere”. His eyes lit up with glee as he brain stormed about all the creatures he could torture with this disgusting stuff.

“well guys, let’s get a bunch of them and try them out and see which is the best” Jeremiah pursuaded.

Pumpkin Fairy noticed that none of the other boys had seen the smelly stuff. They filled the shopping cart with all kinds of traps and headed for the check out. Pumpkin flew behind holding the very small vile of liquid. “USE ONLY IN SMALL AMOUNTS” it said on the side. “Hum, must be pretty strong”, Pumpkin Fairy thought to himself. He unscrewed the lid a tiny bit and took a sniff. "Bluughch," a little bit of Pumpkin Fairy’s breakfast lurched up into his throat.

“Gross!” he thought quietly to himself swallowing hard.

Screwing the lid back on tightly, he placed it in the shopping cart and with the last of the Dragon Home Depot cards, the boys purchased all the traps.

They had a great time putting them all over the castle and outside and after a few days there were sticky fly traps blackened with stuck flies, liquid bags of fly killer full of dead flies and various other types of fly catchers all full of flies. Grandma asked the boys to empty them all and replace them with new ones until the fly problem was solved. Pumpkin Fairy knew it was time to pull the prank. While the boys emptied all the traps into a big garbage bag after school on Wednesday, Pumpkin Fairy nonchalantly flew above them. As they stopped to gaze at a particularly full trap, he silently unscrewed the small lid and dropped one drop of fly attractor on the head of each boy, Isaac and Leify Nospompos were first, then Tim and Jeremiah, Legolas and Tyler, Pinko, Malcolm and his brother Ebony, Nathan and finally Patrick.

The boys emptied the trap into the big black garbage bag and replaced it with a new one and headed outside to check on the traps by the pools. The Spider family, was pleased as punch with the food storage the boys had collected for them and they packed away enough flies to last for a whole year for the whole tribe! The mother Spider was especially pleased to have one less worry on her mind.

Just as the boys passed the green house Jeremiah began swishing his hand back and forth in front of his face to shoo a fly away, then there were two flies and Jeremiah was waving both hands around his head. Patrick was waving his hands too and jumping up and down shaking his head. He had five flies swarming around him. Legolas was the worst, though- there were about 15 flies swarming around him and he was running around the pool waving his hands and wiggling his body to get them away- but they didn’t go away- they didn't go away from any of the boys. Lavender, who was laying out by the pool trying to get a tan, thought that the flies were finally getting their revenge on the boys and she chuckled. But after a while when it seemed like there was a cloud of flies around all the boys, lavender knew something else was up. She ran across the lawn to the wizard’s house and asked him to come out and see what was going on.

Pumpkin Fairy was sitting on top of the Green house laughing his guts out. In fact he was laughing so hard he didn’t notice that the cap to the liquid grossness was not on tight enough and all his laughing had opened it more. When at last he doubled over in whelps of laugher, the cap came completely off and spilled out into his pants pocket. He could smell it immediately and guess who else could smell it immediately? ALL THE FLIES!

Suddenly all the flies swarming around the boys turned their beady little multi-eyed faces to the direction of the green house and like an army under one commander, they darted straight toward Pumpkin Fairy.

“Aaaaaaaaaa, help me!” he yelled, flying up to the tallest tower of the castle and then down again, around and around, with the swarm of flies close on this heels.

“I’ve got to get these clothes off and this smell off me!” he panicked. He could see the lake where the kids loved to camp way in the distance and he flew like he’d never flown before straight for the very cold water. Just before the swarm tore him to pieces he dove in the lake, deep in the lake and ripping off all his clothes and holding his breath he shook them out, scrubbing and scrubbing with all his might before coming up to the surface for air.

“Gasp” he breathed at the top of the water.

The flies were confused and hovered over the water wondering where all the vomit and dead meat had gone to. But then the liquid dissipated in the water and the stench came to the surface. Pumpkin could smell it and quietly dove back down into the water. He swam with all his fairy might to the far end of the small lake and popped his head up. The flies were still swarming around the spot where he had first gone in. He flew up above the surface of the water and naked as the day he was born, he squeezed the water out of his clothes. He sniffed them and could still smell the vomit a little bit. “Yuck!” He put the smelly wet underwear and pants back on and flew back to the castle and right into the big tub room. He thought he could secretly throw his clothes into the laundry bin and get cleaned up with out anyone knowing but the wizard had figured it all out and sent all the boys up there to shower. As Pumpkin Fairy flew into the steamy room, all the boys glared at him. Pinko yelled “Get him!” Soon there was a huge water/bubble/soap fight and even though the hot tub room got thrashed, the boys were all very clean by the end. The incredible Genie workers cleaned up the bathroom and laundry and all the boys met out on the lawn for a No Flies Celebration BBQ with all the creatures in the castle.

There were (amazingly enough), absolutely no flies anywhere. The grilled hotdogs sat on the table untouched by the foul little creatures, no germ infested flies landed on the juicy watermelon, there weren’t even any by the garbage bags. No, dear reader, the flies were all gone. They were hovering around a little spot on the lake looking for the vomit and dead things they could surly smell.

Moon Plants

2006-05-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

It was like a huge spot light in the sky, streaming down on the castle on Friday night. Bonny Fairy tip toed from her bed across her room, slipped her tiny feet in her night slippers and wrapped her robe around her body being careful to slip her wings through the wing slits in the back. Her slippers had shinny soft fluff balls on the top and her robe was a soft satin gown with a pretty pink ribbon tie to hold it in place.

This was not the first time Bonny fairy had snuck around the castle and the castle grounds at night. In fact she was becoming rather careless about her stealth as she had slipped around in the night air so much. But it was only during one week of the month. It was the week that werewolves fear the most and foxes go out on chilly nights to raid hen coops and come back with grease on their chin. Yes, Bonny snuck around on the nights of full and partially-full moons.

As you may already be aware, Bonny Fairy often included a little pixy dust on her vegetation and every year she grew the largest produce of any creature in the castle. One year (as you may recall) her pumpkin (which took Grandma Dragon great effort to carve) adorned the roof of the castle, smiling out at the Halloween world. It was visible from miles away. It was so enormous it couldn’t fit in the green house after only 2 months of summer growing. Bonny’s pixy dust was very powerful.

What the reader may not know however, is that pixy dust (although powerful as a growth agent with sunlight) is nearly 25% more powerful with moon light. This is only with a handful of special plants thought. While Ebony was in Kirkuk, he had accidentally collected a number of burrs on the rug. These velcro type seeds attach themselves to fur or the like and they spread themselves by taking a free ride on what ever animal happens to connect with them. In ebony’s case, the carpet became the spreading agent.

Bonny recognized the burr seeds during the moving day when the rug passed by her being hefted by one of the Genie workers. She grabbed a few off and stuffed them in her pocket.

After some careful research she was sure they were moonlight plants. When all the children planted their gardens Bonny planted her normal pumpkins and peas and watermelons and in some special pots near the window, Bonny planted the special burr seeds. She called them Dewskis. She covered the pots with a thick canvas cloth and most of the other children thought nothing of them. No one knew there was anything planted there and as far as they were concerned, the pots were just empty jars on a shelf. But once a month for a week Bonny Fairy set her alarm for 02:00 and flew down to the green house and uncovered the plants for five hours of bright nourishing moon light. She watered them every day in secret- somehow slipping into the green house when no one else was around and soon the Dewskis began to grow.

The moon light combined with Bonny’s Pixie dust produced such results that at last Bonny feared someone might start to ask questions. The canvas was bulging and she also feared the cloth would squish the little plants.

So that Friday night Bonny decided to move the plants to the pirate’s ship. The Pirate’s ship with the very stretched out multi celled creature from the cup of moat water— aka The Invisible Pirate Ghost.

Bonny brought the fairy-sized wheel barrow over to the green house, slowly opened the creaking door and entered the moon light flooded green house. One by one she uncovered the seedlings in the tiny pots and placed them carefully in the wheel barrow and wheeled it out the door, across the moonlit courtyard, past the pool and toward the pirate ship. Up the gang plank she wheeled the plants and stood on the deck of the ship breathing hard, partly from being awake so late, partly from fear of being caught and especially from pushing the heavy laden wheel barrow up the ramp. After her heart rate steadied again she searched around for a good spot that she could put the pots. They would have to be able to get full moon light and yet be out of site from any one visiting the ship.

“Ah, there’s a nice spot?” she half whispered to her self and the moon.

The Captain’s quarter’s entrance was framed by a large wooden beam. The ledge it created exposed what ever was on top to full exposure from the sky but a passerby couldn’t quite see what was up there. Bonny was a good flyer. She couldn’t take all the pots at once of course so it took her some time to get each one up on the ledge and then cover them up with the canvas. They couldn’t be exposed to sun light because it would confuse their sensitive photosynthesis.

Just as she was nearly finished straitening the cover she heard something rattle around in the captain's room.

He little fairy heart started pounding and her eyes widened. All her arm hairs stood on end. She fluttered away from the ship as fast as she could and up to the fairy window and into her bed leaving the wheel barrow on the ship and the green house door open. She was terrified. How would she go and uncover her pots the next night for the moon light with that noise down there?

Bubbles!

2006-05-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

School was just getting started when Ebony brought a note in for Grandma Dragon.
It said.

“Grandma Dragon,
Please excuse Malcolm from school today,
he is ill. Mrs. Black Leather”

“Oh that’s too bad” Grandma said crunching her eye brows into a worried look.
Pinko and the guys didn’t know that Malcolm was sick until then and so after school they all went to see him and bring him his homework.

Malcolm was still in bed and his mother said the boys could visit him just for a little bit.
Around Malcolm’s bed there were half read comic books, a tray with an empty bowl of soup, a half drunk cup of water and crumbs from some crackers. There was a remote control to the TV his mother had brought in for him with some videos of Land Before Time. Malcolm was half asleep and when the boys all clambered into his bedroom he was awakened by them stirring around and sat up in bed. His sheets were a tangled mess and the room was warm and damp. The boys were kind of timid as they approached the bed but soon saw that Malcolm was alert enough to talk with them.

“How are you feeling Malcolm?” Tim asked.

“Well, I threw up yesterday and now when ever I go pee it hurts really bad”

“eeewwwooo” all the boys exclaimed in chorus.

“That’s horrible” Legolas volunteered after a long awkward silence.

Malcolm explained that he’d gotten some medicine from the Wizard and would have to take it for a few days. He had to drink lots of water and rest for a few days too.

“Well here is your homework” Patrick said thumping the pile of books on the bed.

“Don’t put them there Patrick” said Pinko.

“It’s ok I should get up and do something, I’ve been lying here all day and I’m really starting to get stiff” explained Malcolm shifting in his pajamas.

The boys stayed for a few more minutes explaining the lessons for the day and telling Malcolm that he looked better and they would come by tomorrow. Mrs. Black Leather interrupted and said that they should probably go so Malcolm could get some more rest. She thanked them for coming to visit and gave them each a warm raisin cookie before they felt.

The boys all started toward the hot tub to go play. They all had their homework done and had told their parents where they were going so they were kind of bummed and kind of excited. They were bummed that Malcolm couldn’t come and excited to go play in the warm water.

Jeremiah, even though Grandma told him not to, had brought some bubble bath to the hot tub room. No one else knew about it except his elf brother Tim. Tim was kind of worried that he had brought it but was kind of curious to see what would happen when they poured the whole bottle in the tub and turned on the under water jets . So although Tim told him he shouldn’t, he kind of smiled when he said it and Jeremiah knew he was just as curious as he was to see what would happen.

All the boys put their clothes in the cool boys locker room by the hot tub and they hung their fluffy thick soft towels on the hooks by the tub and they all climbed in slowly because it was so hot. Leify and Isaac Nosompos could get right in because they had protective scales on their bodies.

After they were all used to the heat, Jeremiah climbed out and pulled a bottle out from under his towel. He opened the lid and let the thick goopy liquid pour out into the tub. He emptied the entire bottle! Then, Tim nonchalantly got up and turn on the jet bubbles in the hot tub. At first the boys were thrilled to see the bubbles come forming. But after a while Pinko noticed there were a lot more bubbles than usual forming in the hot tub. In less than two minutes, the bubbles were over flowing and streaming down the tub and onto the flood. In five minutes the floor was nearly covered in bubbles. Jeremiah was delighted. He laughed and giggled. But when the bubbles filled the floor and about 3 feet up the wall, he said

“Hey, Tim, turn off the jets, that’s enough”
“I’m trying to, Tim said desperately”

Tim searched and searched for the switch to the jets along the wall but he couldn’t find it, the bubbles were everywhere. The boys had to clear a way to breath when they walked and Ebony found the window and opened it.
Immediately a stream of bubbles flowed down the castle wall from the tub room and started for the moat. The boys pushed the bubbles out of the window and soon could see each other.

“What did you guys do?” yelled Pinko

Sheepishly, after Tim finally found the jet switch and turned it off, he said. “Um, Jeremiah put some bubble bath in the tub”.

“Oh my! You guys are going to be in so much trouble when Grandma finds out!” chided Pumpkin Fairy. He was disappointed that he hadn’t thought of it.

“No we’re not!” Tim said. He started swatting the bubbles with his towel and soon all the boys were dancing around the bathroom with their towels swatting the bubbles like flies. They leaped to get the ones on the ceiling and walls and took huge towel-fuls at a time.

When all the bubbles were popped, the rest of the boys went to get dressed and left Tim and Jeremiah to finish the job. Well, Jeremiah was very afraid of Grandma getting upset so he started washing the bathroom. He scrubbed it and rinsed it until it shined. Then he dried it with a bunch of towels and threw all the dirty laundry into the Genie laundry bin. It was very clean.

The next morning Grandma went in to take a little bath and noticed how clean it was and was surprised. The Genie workers didn’t even do that good of a job. She didn’t know what happened but she was very curious about the stream of bubbles that were running down the castle wall and filling the pirate's ship. hum....

Fairy Photo

2006-05-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

Fairies are very difficult to photgraph. As you can see from this Photo, the wings of this particular fairy were fluttering so fast, the camera couldn't capture them. However, Bonny Fairy held still long enough for her Fairy Grandma to take this picture.

This photo was taken in the garden of the Castle- near the green house where Bonny Fairy grows her pumpkins. I hope the cat doesn't try and eat little Bonny Fairy.

Dolphinian Stayed Much Longer Than Expected

2006-04-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

Dolphinian stayed around much longer than she had expected. She was taking care of the three little shark pups. They didn’t quite understand that their parents had been friendly sharks and they kept trying to bite everyone in the moat. So, one of the Genie workers made a playpen that sort of floated around the moat. It was big enough to contain the three sharks and allow them to swim around but they couldn’t really get out and hurt anyone. After about a week and a half, Mr. Hammerhead sheepishly swam into the moat from the tunnel to the ocean. He held his head low and approached Dolphinian.

“I’m sorry for running off like that. I was just so afraid, and sad and worried and I couldn’t face it. I swam around the ocean a long time thinking about things. I want to take my pups out into the sea and raise them up in a family. I know they won’t have a mom but they’ve got me!”

When everyone heard that Mr. Hammerhead was back, they rallied around him and told him that they had been praying for him and that they were so sorry his wife died and that his children were so beautiful and full of….um…”energy”. Mr. Hammerhead really started to feel better. He went to the floating playpen and introduced himself to his two boys and little girl. “Hello Daddy”, they all said in chorus. He kindly thanked Dophinian for all her help and told her he would send her an e-mail. Then almost as quickly as he came, he packed the three children around himself and swam towards the opening to the ocean. Grandma and the children watched from the school room window and waved to him as he left.

“So many changes!” Patrick exclaimed.

Grandma had a great lesson planned for that day. She had told the kids to bring a pack lunch and so they all suspected that there was something coming up. But they had no idea!

Grandma pulled out a microscope from the new supply room. She asked Shelly to run up stairs, out side and get a cup of water from the moat. Shelly headed out and Grandma explained “Today we’re going to find out just how many other creatures are in our moat; creatures that we can’t even see.”

Malcolm and Pinko looked at each other and nodded “This is going to be good!”

“Alright everyone get your lunches and head out to the parking lot to the MAGIC SCHOOL BUS. Shelly, bring the cup of water and Pinko, will put the cover on the microscope?”

Wizard Helmstead was on hand to aid in the “getting back” part because some one would have to keep an eye on the cup of water and dump it out before the bus got back to the real size. That’s right readers, Grandma was going to shrink down to microscopic size and go right into the cup of moat water. Tim wondered if there really could be THAT many microscopic creatures in the water that was just barely cleaned out a month before. Grandma told him that he was in for a surprise.

When everyone had taken their seat on the bus and Grandma had strapped her seat belt, she asked the Wizard to place the bus in the cup when it was small enough to fit and to dump out the cup in exactly 1 hour. They synchronized their watches and grandma pushed some buttons, pulled a handle and cranked the bus into shrink mode. The children were giddy with excitement and all watched out the windows as the trees and then the grass got bigger and bigger and bigger. Soon a HUGE hand reached down and lifted the bus into the air. Jeremiah got really dizzy and sick and nearly threw up from moving like that. It was a lot like a roller coaster. Grandma yelled “Push closed the windows!!!” right before they splashed into the cup of water. The cup seemed like the big temporary moat pool that used to be in the back yard and then soon even it was too big to really distinguish. After about a minute the children were soon gawking at the incredible world of life they had entered. Hundreds of single and multi-celled creatures were making their way around the cup. Grandma pointed out the different parts of a one celled creature that slowly floated by and she had all the children write down the parts: Mitochondria, DNA, RNA, Nucleus, etc etc. Some of the kids had a hard time writing all the parts so they drew them and they would write them down later (it was their homework for this field trip).

Isaac and Leify Nosompos explained that this was their actual size but in their world (in the jar on top of the fridge-now in the new kitchen) they didn’t ever see these creatures that were in the cup. Everyone on their planet was just like them. They had a controlled atmosphere that kept out the microscopic creatures from earth. No one really cared about this but the children were polite enough to listen and nod and say “oh that’s interesting”.

Tim and Jeremiah (who had recovered) were in a contest with Pinko and Malcolm as to who could count the most creatures. The two groups had come up with nearly 200 different creatures. Bonny Fairy was taking pictures and Pumpkin fairy was planning a great Halloween costume from one of the creatures that he saw. We’ll just have to wait until October to learn about what he’s going to be. The hour was just about up and Grandma was proud of all the work she saw going on in the bus. She walked around helping the children to spell the words and then told them to sit back down, it was almost time to enlarge. They wouldn’t want to miss the time to enlarge and get stuck deep in the earth when the cup was poured out. They had to at least be big enough to be seen before they got dumped out.

Just at the moment when Grandma pulled the enlarging lever, a huge microscopic creature swallowed the entire bus in one gulp. Everything went black for a minute and then Grandma Dragon got really worried. The enlarging magic would touch the creature too and that creature would get very very VERY big very fast. What would it be when it got that big. Could a few cells actually get that big with out totally imploding and smashing the bus to pieces? They were soon going to find out.

As the creatures began to shrink and the sides of the cup appear, the creature that had swallowed them began to stretch very thin. It was so thin that the kids could see right through it and it wasn’t dark anymore. The huge hand again holding the cup began pouring the water out on to the grass (very close to the ground). Jeremiah again felt like he was on a ride at Lagoon and had to hold his hand over his mouth so his lunch wouldn’t come up. "Weeeeeeee" Bonny Fairy sang as they floated out of the cup and landed >thud< on the ground. The hungry creature that had swallowed the bus was nearly invisible but Grandma knew it was there. The outside of the bus was shiny and slimy. The bus was soon as big as a match car and the wizard picked it up and carried it to the parking lot. By the time he got there it was nearly too big for him to carry and he placed it down with both arms. The children laughed to see him so gigantic. But soon he was the normal size and the sticky film all over the bus was completely gone.

“How strange” said Grandma, “The creature just dissipated. Magic is a strange thing”.

What she didn’t know is that the creature hadn’t dissipated it had just become invisible. You see, being invisible isn’t actually being NOT there. Sometimes it’s just a state of being very, very stretched out. The creature coughed up the bus and sloshed its way over the pirate ship and went to sleep in the captain’s quarters. It would soon be known as the Pirate Ghost. It wasn’t really a ghost, but no one could ever figure what made all that noise in the pirate ships after that day.

Finally a Permanent Place to be

2006-04-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

Isaac and Leify Nosompos were comfortably situated in their “bedroom”. The morning after the wolf incident, Grandma awoke suddenly in the very early hours and worriedly rushed out to the back yard that was completely empty except for a very wolf mangled empty tent. Terrified for the worst, she had alerted the wizard and he informed her that the two small boys had escaped into the-house-that-could-be-anything during the night. He had coincidently noticed and watched with great trepidation the last part of the great escape, and after the wolf crashed into the door, he’d placed a protection spell over the house for the night.

Grandma had sighed a great sigh of relief and peeked into the house for a check on the boys before heading back for the rest of her sleep.

The boys stayed in the HTCBA for nearly a week and were, of course, very comfortable. After all, it was their bedroom. They knew where everything was and could get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom with out bumping into anything in the dark.

But one can not just stay in the HTCBA for ever and the boys knew that. So when Grandma announced that their place was finished in the castle, they had mixed feelings. They would miss their “bedroom” but were relieved to be finally settling down into permanent quarters.

They had a really great place and they both agreed after touring the place that it was well worth the wait. Their bedroom was a series of levels and large shelves and steps. They each had a four poster bed on opposite sides of the bedroom and in the middle of the room was a large round raised step for—well anything they wanted to put on there. They decided to place their train track on it for the first month and they started setting that up before they even unpacked their clothes into the really nifty closet/shelves. Everything was either polished hard wood or nicely finished wood painted in bright colors: red, green, blue, yellow etc. Where there was carpet it was soft and inviting and they had their own bathroom with a huge sauna tub for washing and playing in. They had a little kitchenette with a small fridge and sink and microwave. A built-in entertainment center featured a computer monitor for both computer use and watching movies. It was definitely the coolest kids room in the entire castle. One window was kind of bay style and one could sit in the large flat round sill and look out on the moat and countryside. The glass was rounded and it was nearly like a space pod. (In fact, it was a space pod but the boys will discover that much later).

There was a laundry shoot that the boys would toss their dirty clothes and towels into and once a week the Genie workers would wash them, dry them, fold them and deliver them to the boy’s room. The Genie workers didn’t really have anywhere else to go after the huge remodeling job of Grandma’s so she employed them as workers in the castle. They had a whole three floors sublevel (somewhere between the Patrick’s floor and the Horner Creatures floor) for their living space and they did most of the cooking cleaning and maintenance around the castle. They really kept that place in tip top shape.

Sivart stuck around for a long time—mostly because Grandma had one more wish left but he also really enjoyed the atmosphere of the castle community and everyone loved him.

The other two orphans, Shelly and Nathan, had a really cool room but it just wasn’t as cool as Isaac and Leify’s. They had a sort of divided up room because they were different genders and couldn’t very well share a room. One side was all girly and the other was, of course, really masculine and cool. They had to have two separate bathrooms too which took up more room. Isaac and Leify’s room was especially cool because it didn’t have to be divided and it was all boy stuff and bigger.

Isaac and Leify got all unpacked and situated and went down to Grandma Dragon’s Kitchen which was nearly all done. She was baking peanut butter cookies and had just pulled some out of the oven. It was Saturday and there was no school, so the boys sat on the nifty new counter stools and watched Grandma lift each cookie off the hot pan and onto the cooling rack. They thanked her for the beautiful new room and sat and just talked about stuff for a long time. They loved to spend time with Grandma. She was so beautiful and big- with shiny purple and green and orange scales that shimmered when she moved. Her pink cooking apron covered her belly and the big bow in the back hung down onto her enormous tail. She was still getting used to the new kitchen and she accidentally hit her tail into the bottom cupboards a few times. It didn’t seem to harm them much. The Genie must have thought of everything when he was instructing the Genie workers on the remodeling work.

Most of the other children were swimming in the pool that day. It was warm out side and the parents were doing little church or work projects or out enjoying the sunshine. It was a calm and beautiful day at the castle and it seemed like all was right in the world…
UNTIL...

There was a huge splash in the moat. It was so big it washed water all over one of the pirate ships. Everyone heard it- everyone! The creatures in the pool all looked over towards the moat and some got out and put their towels on and started walking over there.

Dolphinian had stayed in the moat with all the other moat creatures for a while. Mostly because Mrs Hammerhead was going to have all her little babies. Hammerhead sharks are viviparous with the eggs hatching inside the body and nourishment provided by a yolksac placenta. She was about to hatch about 30 new pups (baby hammerhead sharks) and so Dolphinian stayed on to help her during the recovery. But something terrible happened and during the birthing and Mrs. Hammerhead Shark died. Only three little baby sharks were birthed and the rest died before being able to be born. Mr. Hammerhead was so despondent that he thrashed around the moat and made a huge splash that washed a huge wave up onto the shore and alarmed everyone.

As everyone gathered around the edge of the moat Dolphinian came to the surface and told everyone the sad news. Mr. Hammerhead swam very fast down, down, down deep into the moat and out to the tunnel to the sea leaving his little pups behind to fend for themselves. He just couldn’t bear to look at them and be reminded of his dear wife.

Grandma was alarmed at the events. She had the body buried in a little grave in the back yard near the woods. It was the first death anyone had ever known in the castle and everyone was so sad. Some of the children lay in their beds that night and cried and cried. Some just stared at the ceiling and thought very deep thoughts. Everyone was sad.

They were glad to go to church the next day to be reminded of the life after death but they were still very worried about the three little shark babies. Who would take care of them?

Alone on the Lawn

2006-04-21T00:32:00.000-07:00

Grandma announced that in the coming day, she would be allowing the families in the temporary tents outside, to move back into their apartments in the Castle. After what Legolas had told everyone about the improvements, there was a great deal of excitement and when this announcement spread through the camp, there was a regular carnival feeling. Mothers and fathers started boxing up their things, folding clothes, wrapping dishes and glasses in cloth, children bundling their things into little piles. Everyone was looking for boxes and containers. Grandma had the Genie Home Depot workers pass out tons of boxes for everyone and soon the atmosphere was completely focused on packing and moving. The creatures rushed through the cafeteria line at lunch with their take out boxes and hardly anyone stayed to eat at the tables. They left in clumps munching on their food as they rushed out and back to their packing; everyone, except Isaac and leafy Nospompos. You see, in remodeling the castle Grandma had to completely knocked out some walls and in the process, Isaac and Leify’s room was completely dissolved into the other apartments which, as you can imagine, were much bigger than before. But the Nospompos room was no more.

“Not to Worry!” Grandma had said. We’ll find you a great place to stay.

The Nosompos boys weren’t too sure about that and when Grandma told them they would have to stay in a temporary room until she figure out where they would be permanently, well…it kind of burst their bubble.

All the other children were talking about what color they were going to paint their rooms, and where their furniture would go and how they would set up their toys and stuff, Isaac and Leify sat quietly by their tent, not even wanting to pack.

The next day there seemed to be many more Genie Home Depot workers than ever before. At the crack of dawn the mothers and fathers were up through the cafeteria line for breakfast and already scurrying around the camp pulling their tents down, putting their tooth brushes and other last minute items in their bags and lining up near the table that Grandma had set up near the back door to the castle. She had made copies of maps of the castle and outlined exactly where everyone would go. She assigned the Genie workers to a particular family and made them wear that color shirt. The room and the path to the room of each family as also colored. I’m sure that a clever reader would be able to guess what some of the colors are. Now let’s see, purple monster and his family had a __________ path on the map to a room that was colored_________ on the map. And all the Genie workers that were to help Purple monster and his family had _______colored shirts on. Now try and guess what color scheme Pink Fuzzy monster had. Here’s a tricky one—Patrick and his family had a _____ colored path to a ______colored room and were helped by Genie helpers in _____shirts. You are guessing right but I’m sure there are some you won’t be able to guess. You probably guessed that the Black Leather family had a black path with Genie workers in black shirts (they got really hot during the day by the way). You may not have guessed, however, that the Horned Creature family used the color brown and the fairies used turquoise.

The fish didn’t really need a path but they did need some sort of direction in the moat to their particular dwelling so Grandma had one Genie worker (a fish worker) direct traffic down there. The wizard did most of the work for the moat anyway. It was a huge task of magic but he did it. He began by swirling the water in the huge pool. It started spinning faster and faster and just as it looked like it would spill right out, it did! It didn’t spill out and down though, it spun out and up, up, up and over the castle, around the castle once and then twice and then again lower and lower and closer to moat each time. Slower and slower it spun until it gently sloshed into the colorful clean bright cheerful moat. The sun reflecting off the many colorful rocks in the moat was nearly blinding at first and all the children watching the magical feat cheered and laughed and jumped up and down.
“Can we go swimming with Pigaletto?” Lavendar asked her father
“no, no, no honey,” he answered. Pigaletto has a lot of unpacking and organizing to do and so do we.

One by one the tents and stuff disappeared off the lawn and into the castle. Mothers and fathers were busy instructing the Genie workers where to put this couch or that lamp, this bed or that desk. By 17:00 the lawn looked pretty deserted. The huge swimming pool was even disassembled and stored in the castle garage. The Genie workers began mowing the huge lawn and cleaning up all the debris from the 3 month-long camp out.

There was still one tent out there though. It was just a little one for two boys. Two orphaned boys; two orphaned and now homeless boys!

Soon it became dark and Isaac and Leify could see the bright lights of the castle. Families were still organizing drawers exploring their new appliances and getting ready for bed. Maybe some of the kids had even gone down to get in the hot tub. Isaac and Leify Nospompos acted like they didn’t care. They crawled in their sleeping bags and watched as one by one the lights of castle turned off. Not until nearly 00:01 did the last light in the last little fairy apartment turn off. They knew it was Bonny Fairy up late talking with her parents. She loved to talk with her mom and dad.

Soon it was very quiet outside. Isaac and Leify were just fine (for a while). They were soon very drowsy and began to drift off when they both stiffened in their sleeping bags. A low howling had come from the woods. There they were, in the middle of the lawn, and the woods were just on the edge of the lawn. Isaac gulped and said “Leif, did you hear that?”

“Why did Grandma forget about us, how come everyone left us here all by ourselves?” Leify started whining and a little tear of fear fell out of his eye.

“I have an idea” said Isaac.

Soon the two boys were scurrying around their tent throwing all their stuff into bags and back packs. They loaded up all their gear on their backs and in their hands, took one last look at the tent to make sure they had it all and with their flashlights in their mouths they peeked out of the tent.

The house-that-could-be-anything was about 50 yards from their tent. It would be a long scary dash but if they could just make it there, they would be safe for the night. Isaac nodded to Leify and they cautiously stepped out of the tent looked around and began scampering toward the house-that-could-be-anything. They were kind of awkward with all their stuff and certainly slower than normal. The moon was bright and although Isaac had told Leify not to look back, he did. There was the wolf--right on the edge of the woods with his hungry eyes on the two scaly boys. Leify gave a yelp that was muffled by the flashlight in his mouth and he sped past Isaac who was already very tired and slowing down. Isaac sensed something was wrong and began running faster with Leify. The wolf started in a dead run straight across the lawn at the two boys. Isaac was nearly to the house when he could hear the pounding of the wolf’s paws on the ground. The boys nearly fell into the house and all their gear spilled all over the place. Isaac jumped back up and slammed the door shut barely in time to hear the wolf splat against it.

The two boys were breathing hard and lay very still for a while until they heard the wolf finally limp away. Isaac didn’t waste anytime. “House, be our old bedroom” Isaac commanded. With a swirl of magic, and house was all of a sudden their old bedroom in the castle. All the stuff on the floor floated to the places it had been stored in their old castle bedroom and their beds were suddenly soft and inviting. They both washed their hands and feet and faces and climbed into their soft comfortable beds and were soon asleep.

Living in a Tent is hard but it's worth it

2006-04-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

All the inhabitants of the castle were now out of the castle, in tents and in the large pool on the huge lawn. The Genie Lamp home improvement workers with their limitless Dragon Home Depot cards had gutted a lot of the castle and were rewiring electricity, plumbing, and wiring for internet throughout the castle. Although all the residents of Grandma Dragon's Castle were thrilled to have a remake of their apartments, they were weary of camping out. Now, the children didn't know any different but the parents did. It's difficult to have all your stuff in boxes and crates and only the essentials unpacked and spread out on a table somewhere for you to pick through every time you need to brush your teeth or wash the dishes or do some laundry. So Grandma Dragon had some of the Genie workers set up a cafeteria and a laundry service so the mothers and fathers didn't have such a difficult time of just doing the basics.

She was thrilled with the changes happening to the castle and she decided to have a drawing among the children to see which one would get to take a tour with her when she inspected it the next day. The kids were so excited. Grandma put a bunch of papers in a big hat. Each one was folded in four ways and on only one of them there was a big X. All the children reached their hands into the hat the next morning at school hoping that they would get the big red X on their paper. Leify and Isaac Nospompos were first and they were disappointed. Then Patrick, Lavender and the rest took their turn. But the one to get it was Legolas the Horned Creature's son. Grandma was pleased that he had picked it because she also need him to move the sword in the top rafter of the top tower of the castle so the workers could finished wiring and cleaning up there. As the reader may know, no one could touch the sword except for the Jedi Knight and Legolas was a Jedi.

Legolas was so excited for that afternoon to come that he could hardly sit through class. And when lunch came and everyone went to the big cafeteria tent, he went to his room and put on his Jedi robes. Grandma was a little surprised at first but she didn't say anything. She didn't realize how honored Legolas felt to be chosen to tour the castle before it was even done.

Sivart the Genie and a few of the head Genie workers escorted Grandma, Grandpa and Legolas across the newly built draw bridge over the very cleaned out moat (but not filled yet). Legolas noticed that the moat had some really cool cement apartments and tunnels built on the bottom and sides. They had thick windows and were wired for internet like Grandma promised. They had beautiful water plants as seedlings sitting in jars just waiting for the moat to be filled up. It was so clean too. All the yucky mud was scrapped up, and beautiful clean shiny colorful rocks and sand replaced the floor and shelves; blues and greens, orange, pink purple and yellow shininess would soon sparkle out of the moat. It was just like an aquarium. He couldn’t wait to tell Pigaletto about it. The draw bridge was automated so Grandma just pushed a button and it went up or down. The chains that held it were shiny stainless steel.

All (and I do mean all) the floors in the castle were retiled or the wood was refinished. All the walls were either scrubbed clean (if they were brick or rock) or repainted a nice high gloss white enamel. The bathrooms were all refinished and each family's apartment had a brand new bathroom complete with tub, shower, and sink. Some families (like the fairies) had several new facilities and each one had a kitchen. All the furniture was either refinished or replaced. The old shining armor of knights that stood at attention down a great hall (they had long lost their luster) were polished so that Legolas could see his reflection in them. The carpets were washed, the windows were replaced with new clean glass. All the electricity was replaced and in every room there were at least 2 internet plug ins.

Grandma's kitchen was the most transformed though. It was completely gutted and Legolas wondered if it would ever be a kitchen again. The workers still had a lot to do. Carpet to be laid, lighting to the base, base, base basement had to be wired, the old elevators up and down were gone and they were still waiting for the Dragon Home Depot to receive the shipment of new ones. There were some other really cool improvements. Grandma had redesigned some of the empty rooms. One was turned into a theatre with theatre chairs and a big theatre pop corn maker and soda bar on the side. The screen was huge and Legolas nearly flipped out thinking about how much fun the kids would have watching Finding Nemo or Pirates of the Caribbean. One room was turned into an indoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi. Legolas started thinking about where on earth he had put his swimming suit. He knew he had used it after he had helped clean out the pool but he could remember where he put it to dry. He was just thinking about this when Grandma showed him the laundry room. It would a great relief for his mother to just bring up her laundry and have it delivered washed, dried and folded to their apartment in the basement. That's what Grandma told him would happen. Each family had their own washer and dryer too but this would help the families spend more time with each other and give some of the idle creatures in the building an occupation. There was a racquet ball court, an indoor GYM with weights and cardio machines. There was a huge project room with sewing machines, tape glue colors and paper, a large game room with two pool tables, ping pong tables and fooz ball tables. There was a large elegant dining area that Grandma said would be for Sunday night dinners and other special occasions. There was a big room that had mirrors on all the walls and a wood floor. There were mats on the sides. Legolas wondered about this room and Grandma told him that it was dance, and wrestling, yoga room. "You just pull out the mats when you want to wrestle or do yoga" she explained.

Legolas's feets were tired and he was getting hungry and they hadn't even made it to the top tower. Grandma decided to skip to that part because she could see that Legolas was tired so they headed up into the top, top, top tower. Legolas was so pleased to see that the topest tower was a bit more sturdy than it was before with steel enforcements and such. He retrieved the sword and looked around. There was a telescope up there. Grandma had decided to build a new housing area for all the fairies and turn the topest tower into a comfortable astronomy room. Legolas loved studying about the stars and moon and planets and he yelled out loud "Oh Grandma this is so cool!"

Legolas stayed up very late that night in the cafeteria with a lot of the other children, telling them all about the new stuff and improvements on the castle. The children's heads were filled with wonder and amazement.

"A Jaccuzi right in the Castle?" said Bonny Fairy. "That's so fun!"

Fish out of Water

2006-04-02T00:33:00.000-08:00

Grandma told Ebony at school the next day that she was about to use her last Genie wish to wish Ebony back home. He was very sad that he had caused such a stir in the castle and told Grandma that he was very sorry.

Everyone was quietly working in the late morning hours on some math when Pigaletto tapped on the glass and told Grandma that he felt something was wrong in the moat. Grandma said she would go check. She left The-House-That-Can-Be-Anything and walked over the castle lawn to the draw bridge over the moat which was all drained out. She saw something flapping around at the bottom and she yelled for the Wizard. Wizard Helmstead came over and, with his wand, magically lifted the flipping creature up to the top of the moat and when it got eye level with Grandma she let out a yell

DOLPHINIAN!

The Wizard magically threw the swimming mammal clear over the castle and it landed right smack dab in the middle of the huge fish tank on the castle lawn.

Dolphinian took a huge breath of water/air and rested on the bottom of the tank for a long time. Grandma and the children all stood by her on the outside of the tank while she lay motionless on the bottom next to them. Some of the girls were crying and some of the boys were really restless. “What happened to her grandma?” said Leify Nosompos.

“I guess she tried to come visit us and came out of the tunnel to the ocean into an empty moat. I should have sent an e-mail out, I feel horrible. I’m just glad we found her in time, thanks to Pigalleto and his 6th sense.”

“What’s that?” said Isaac Nosompos.

Grandma explained that a 6th sense was the ability to feel and understand things with out seeing them or using any of the 5 normal senses which are seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling. She said that spiritual people believe a 6th sense is the spirit of the God telling them things they need to know. The children were curious about Pigaletto but they were all very grateful that he felt there was something wrong in the moat.

After about a half an hour Dolphinian began moving a bit and she was soon swimming slowly around the tank. All the fish were so worried about her and were so glad to see her getting better. Mrs. Hammer Head made her a little bit of food and after a few hours Dolphinian was back to her old self. The children went back to school and started talking about how excited they were to go swimming with Dophinian in the big tank.

"I wish I would have taken my dad"

2006-03-31T07:17:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Black Leather called for Malcolm and Ebony to come eat at about 6:30 when it started to get dark. Malcolm looked around the group of children climbing out of the pool for his little brother. Everyone had big garbage bags of leaves and garbage that had flown into the pool during the winter and scrub brushes to clean out all the guck. Mr. Purple Monster and Mr. Pink Monster hosed it down and plugged up the bottom. After everyone was out they turn on the water and heaters and put the cover on the pool for the night so it could fill up. Malcolm couldn't find Ebony anywhere and started to panic.
"Where's Ebony?!" he shouted finally.
Everyone stopped and Mr. Purple Monster quickly pulled the cover off the pool and turned the lights of the pool on. He was afraid that Ebony had fallen in.

"He wasn't out here all day" said Bonny Fairy.

Malcolm ran home and told his parents and soon the entire castle was searching through all the remodeling tools, empty rooms, ships, tents, basement, empty moat and everywhere for Ebony. there was general panic and Grandma was nearly ready to call the human police to help her when Wizard Helmstead offered to help.

Meanwhile....
Ebony's trip had been traumatic. Three Bird Rug had never traveled before, let alone traveled as far as over an ocean and she was very bumpy. In fact, there were times that Ebony thought he was done for. And for a little 5 -year-old boy, he was quite scared and so very grateful when the rug finally landed. He wasn't sure where he was but he took a small piece of paper out, poked it with a pin and held it down on the ground. Instead of a small circle of sunlight shining through the tiny hole, he saw a crescent--a clear indication that the moon was half way covering the sun. He was thrilled and exhausted and hungry and tired and a half a dozen other emotions all bundled up together. He asked the rug to find a good tree nearby and the rug flew to the US Military base in Kirkuk and over really close to the Titan linguist office and base chapel where there was some soft cool grass and trees. Ebony hid in a thicket of trees and pulled out a small blanket from his pack, curled up on the rug and he and Three Bird slept for a very long time. When he awoke it was dark and cool and he was very afraid and even more hungry. He got some water and bread and snacks from his pack and ate quickly before snuggling up on the rug and quietly whispering, "Rug, take me back to Grandma Dragon's castle"
The rug gave a little shudder but didn't lurch into the air.
Ebony started to panic immediately. He had no idea what to do or why the rug wasn't flying. He missed his mother and father and big brother and he just wanted to go home.
"Please fly, Three Bird" he whispered a little louder.
"Please!"
…still nothing but a little shudder.
Then he remembered that the rug responded to him the first time when he touched the third and hidden bird. It was very dark and he could barley see his little claw/hand/feeler thing when he held it in front of his face.
He tried to find his flashlight but couldn't feel it in his pack.
He could feel his heart pounding and tears welling up in his eyes. His hands/claws/feeler thingies were sweating and he knew he was really upset.
"Calm down Ebony" He said to himself. "It's ok, just be calm and try to remember where on the rug the third bird was"
He felt on one side of the rug in the spot he thought the bird was and it wasn't there.
"It must be on the other side"
Just as his feeler hand thingy rubbed across the silk woven bird, the rug gave a big shutter and at that very moment Ebony yelled "Take me home Three Bird!"
The rug leapt in the air and Ebony's apple fell off but he had grabbed his pack in the nick of time and was on top of his blanket so the apple was the only thing he lost as the rug sped for Grandma’s Castle.

Back at the Castle...
The Wizard asked everyone to come out onto the lawn in front of his little cottage and present all the clues and ideas that they knew about the whereabouts of ebony.
One person saw him walking with a big garbage bag along the side of tents. Another saw him with his back pack in the kitchen, and one student saw him looking up solar eclipse stuff all week on the Internet. Grandma told about how she asked him to help her clear out the bedroom and that he had taken an interest in the rug.
“Is it a Magic flying rug?” the Wizard asked.
“No”, said Grandma. "It’s just an ordinary rug from Iraq."
“Hum…, well, I don’t know, but something tells me he’s gone on an adventure. Although, for a boy his age, he sure has a lot of courage and spunk to do what I think he’s done.”

The Wizard told everyone to go back to their tents and that he would work on the problem all night.

Mr. and Mrs. Black Leather didn’t sleep all night. They prayed and cried and walked around the camp talking about where he could possibly be. As the morning light broke over the mountains, Malcolm (who was sleeping outside in a sleeping bag waiting for news about his brother) saw something coming over the Eastern horizon. As the thing approached closer and closer he realized that it was his brother on a little flying rug. He jumped up, rubbed his eyes and started shouting “Ebony, Ebony—we thought you were drown in the pool or eaten in the woods!”
Grandma came running, as did everyone in the open camp.

Ebony landed Three Bird gracefully in front of Grandma’s tent and rolled off. His legs were wobbly from sitting so long and his head hurt from the wind.

His mother snatched him up and held him in her arms crying and Mr. Black Leather cradled both of them in his big strong arms and Malcolm joined the hugging trio. Soon all the creatures one by one joined the group hug when at last Grandma stretched her huge wings around the whole cluster and squeezed, Pinko yelled “AAA I can’t breath!” and everyone let go laughing and rolling on the morning grass.

Everyone was so happy and grateful that Ebony was back safe.

Mr. Black Leather took Ebony on a long walk that morning around the camp talking with him. He explained how wrong it was so leave like that with out telling anyone and Ebony said “But I left a note!”

Mr. Black leather said that no one had thought to look in Ebony’s room for any clues and so no one had found the note. Ebony said he was sorry and told his father all about his experience with the solar eclipse. His father said that he wished he could have been there with him to share the experience and protect him from any harm. Ebony started wishing that he had told his dad to come with him as well.

Later that afternoon all the kids wanted to hear about the adventure and Ebony was really popular for a few hours until Pumpkin Fairy interrupted with “Hey guys, the pool’s full!”

Even though it was still not quite warm enough outside, the kids all scrambled to be the first to get in their swim suits and to jump in the pool. The water was very warm because Mr. Purple Monster had heated it up too much so it was just perfect in the afternoon and evening hours. The kids all played in the pool until dinner time and then went home to their families.

Grandma told Ebony that he could visit and borrow Three Bird any time he wanted AS LONG as he asked Grandma first.

"I thought Ebony was helping to clean out the Pool"

2006-03-29T04:43:00.000-08:00

Ebony found out that on March 29th there was going to be a Solar Eclipse and so during Internet time at Grandma Dragon’s Home school, he got on line and looked up Eclipse 2006. He found out that the Western Hemisphere would not be able to see it. He learned that he would have to travel to a place like Turkey or Pakistan or Iraq in order to see the solar eclipse. THEN, he got a crazy idea. He was only 5 years old but he decided that the magic carpet’s first trip flying would be back to the place it was created- the Middle East. He knew that if he flew all night he would arrive nearly just in time to see the eclipse.

Well Grandma Dragon had made her second wish and the whole castle was in an uproar. Grandma had the crew of home improvement workers start in the very depths of the castle, and they cleaned, and repaired stairs and walls, dusted, inspected and repaired wires and plumbing and so forth. The whole Horned Creature family and the Patrick Family had to move out into one of the Pirate ships on the lawn for the entire month while they were working. And the moat was drained to a dangerous level so the wizard created a large above ground fish tank on the lawn close to the woods and all the water and fish he put in there. Piggy Fish was glad to get out- their fish home especially needed some cleaning and repair. Grandma used her unlimited Dragon Home Depot card again and again and the Genie, Sivart (just to be useful) supervised the whole remodeling job. Some of the workers were assigned to the top towers and soon almost all the families in the castle had to start moving out on to the lawn. It was so crazy and fun. School was held in the house-that-could-be-anything and Grandma made it be exactly like her school room that was being remodeled. They even hooked up the humongous fish tank to it so Pigalleto could continue with his studies. Grandma was still sleeping in her room but she explained that she would be moving out on the 28th.

Ebony knew it was his chance. That, morning very early, he volunteered to help move all of Grandma’s stuff to her magic tent on the lawn. These were amazing magic tents. They looked relatively normal size but when you went inside, they were huge expansive tents that had many rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, large dining areas and all the amenities one could ever hope for (even a bathroom complete with running water, tub and toilet). Grandma was delighted to have help and she told Ebony to be especially careful with the beautiful carpet she had bought in Iraq. He told her he would be very careful.
He scurried upstairs and walked carefully over to the carpet. He didn’t know if he should talk to it or just roll it up. He decided that it’s best to be polite in all circumstances so he whispered.
“Hello Three Bird Rug”
The rug gave a shutter.
“We’re going on a journey but I must roll you up first. It won’t hurt. Just relax and lay still”
The rug obeyed dutifully and Ebony put the rug on his shoulder and hauled it out. It was very heavy for a five-year-old but he managed to get it down stairs and out on the lawn. He put a black garbage bag on it and instead of carrying it to Grandma’s tent, he walked on the parameter of the tent living area and when no one was watching he slipped into the thick trees of the wood.
It was dark in there but he didn’t go in far. He tucked the rug in the garbage bag near a tree and tied a red ribbon (he had brought) around the tree to mark it.
Grandma finished teaching school and that afternoon all the kids went to help clean out the swimming pool because it was getting hotter and hotter and they wanted it to be ready for summer. Ebony wrote a little note to his parents, tucked it under his pillow in the tent and grabbed a little pack he had put together. He again walked along the parameter of the tents and slipped into the woods. There was the ribbon and the garbage bag. He carefully unrolled the rug on to the forest floor of pine needles and took off his shoes. (Grandma didn’t allow anyone to walk on her rugs with shoes on). He got situated on the carpet crossed legged and in a very stern voice commanded the rug
“Take me to Kirkuk Iraq”
The rug gave a BIG shutter and danced into the air. Ebony clutched his pack tightly and held on to the fringe for dear life—he was FLYING!

to be continued

Ordinary Rugs?

2006-03-22T12:32:00.000-08:00

Magic Rugs?

Grandma Dragon decided to buy a rug while she was in Iraq and she entered a small rug shop. She found some very beautiful ones from Turkey and Iraq and Iran and bought two lovely ones. Then she pulled the shop keeper aside and whispered
“Do you have any flying carpets?”
“What?”
”You know, Carpets that fly”
The shop keeper laughed and said “go to the pile of small carpets over there and pick out one you like”. Grandma found a lovely one with red roses all over it and communicated that she loved that one. The shop keeper picked it up and threw it across the store and it landed after spinning a few times and another pile of rugs.
He laughed and said “There is your flying carpet”
Grandma was disappointed and figured that the shop keeper didn’t really understand that there really were flying carpets. So she paid him for the two lovely ones she’d bought and she headed back to her hotel. She packed up everything from her Iraqi trip and shrunk it down to fit in a little bag and she and Grandpa Dragon pulled out their big old REAL flying carpet and they headed home across the ocean and back to the castle.
It had been a long journey and they were glad to finally see the towers of the castle. There was still snow on the grounds when they landed and it was dark so they tip-toed into their room and went to sleep.
Well, there is an interesting thing that happens when a normal carpet flies on a flying carpet. The two normal rugs that Grandma bought from the naïve shop keeper had spent nearly 17 hours flying on a magic flying carpet and their little fibers got all excited and stimulated with magic from the journey. The next day when Grandma opened, re-sized and unpacked her bags, the two formerly ordinary rugs shuttered with delight at their new found power (although they stayed put on the floor where Grandma put them).

One was placed in the living room and the other was put in front of Grandma’s big bedroom window over looking the grounds.

Well, little Ebony was the first to accidentally discover the new magical powers of the carpet.

Grandma had unpacked a little bit more of her stuff and ran across the magic lamp. Before rubbing the Genie out, however, she decided to make a list of a couple of things she would want to wish for. She thought of better tile in the bathrooms, rewireing of the castle's very old electrical wires, better cabinets in the kitchen, a new cement job for the drive way, and various other Castle improvements. When she had made a good list, she noticed that they all involved the Castle Home Depot so she thought of a clever way to get all of them and decided to wish for a crew of home improvement workers and a never ending gift certificate for Home Depot. She was just putting the finishing touches on her phrasing of the wish when Ebony came down for breakfast. He was the first creature to see Grandma since she had left for Iraq and he climbed up into her huge scaly lap and gave her a big hug. Grandma laughed with delight as she stroked his leathery back and they both squeezed each other tight. Although not that tight on Grandma's part because she could easily crush most things if she held tightly enough. Ebony asked what she had brought back and Grandma told him to go take a look at the pretty rug in her bedroom. He skampered up to the room and saw the rug laying near the window. It was a beautiful hand made rug depicting a vase with a beautful arrangement of flowers. Grandma told him to see if he could find three birds in the flowers so he got closer to it in order to see the detail. He found two birds right off but the third one was a little more difficult. When he finally did he reached out and touched the rug where the bird was woven. The rug gave a little shiver. Ebony jumped back and stared at it. He knew that grandma had a special flying carpet that the school students used sometimes but he had never been on it and had only heard about it so this was a very new experience for him. He wasn't sure what to do so he backed out of the room quietly and tip toed back down stairs. He told Grandma it was beautiful and then he ran back up to his room and climbed under the blankets because he wanted to think for a while. He started thinking that maybe Grandma didn't know it was a magic carpet and that maybe no one but he knew. He was kind of exicted at the prospect of having a secret like this to himself and he decided not to tell anyone if he could help it. He especially wanted to try it out when no one was around. But he didn't know how he would do that because at night when everyone was sleeping and it seemed an ideal time to go try it out, it would also be a perfectly horrible time because Grandma and Grandpa Dragon would be sleeping in the same room with the rug. It was risky but Ebony knew he had to try it.
That week he planned out where he would go and thought about how he would make the carpet fly and how he would get it out of the bedroom and all kinds of things. He asked his brother Malcolm to explain how Grandma made her flying carpet go and he got some maps of some cool places around the town he could fly to in the night. When he felt like he was ready he decided on the best night to fly.

to be continued...

JetLag Genie

2006-02-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

Sivart the Genie

The mysterious story teller is up in the middle of the night and shall now relate the Grandma Dragon Genie experience. After great explorations on the Iraqi magic balloon farms, Grandma Dragon was tired and returned to Slayer Village where she rested before traveling to the Northern city of Kirkuk. She had heard tales of the magic Genie that lived near the mountains in Kirkuk and was anxious to see if the tales were true. Because it was still dangerous to drive in Iraq she got her self manifest on a Chinook and flew clear up there. Not to alarm the humans on the very large double prop helicopter, she disguised herself as a First Lieutenant in the US Army and Grandpa Dragon was a Colonel- Wizard Helmstead’s potions were always coming in handy for disguises.
The city was green from the recent rains and she quickly found a nice place to unpack her things and get Grandpa Dragon settled in. She got some lunch at the chow hall, showered got herself turned back into a Dragon and dressed in her exploring clothes. Although dragon feet are very sturdy, she put four very good boots on her huge dragon feet. These boots had been hand-made especially for her and Grandpa Dragon by the elf family from the North Pole.
Jeremiah and Tim’s parents had recovered nicely from their accident in Santa’s Village last year and had taken up their ancestor’s trade of shoe making to earn a living in Grandma Dragon’s castle. All the creatures benefited from their handy work and Jeremiah himself became quite talented with boots. Although his father did instruct him on a few minor details, most of the workmanship on Grandma Dragon’s boots was done by Jeremiah. He was so proud of how well they fit and the fine leather stitching, that he signed his name on the inside of all four boots. Grandma knew the terrain would be rather difficult and was especially grateful for these wonderful shoes for her enormous clawed feet. The claws were an especially difficult part for Jeremiah and he studied some old books on shoe making to get the toe part just right. While he was looking through the old shoe making boots, that had been handed down by his ancestors, he came across a magic spell that if conjured up and cast on the shoes, would make the wearer of the shoes invisible in times of trouble. He decided that he would put this spell on Grandma Dragon’s shoes because he wanted to protect her.
Grandma packed a light lunch in a back pack with some other useful things like water, and early the next day headed toward the mountains. It was winter time in Iraq and there was snow at the edge of the mountains so Grandma knew it was going to be cold. Dragons don’t usually worry about coldness because they can roar a large fire into existence on demand- when ever, where ever they are; and can set the temperature so hot, it will burn just about anything they come across, including rock. But she did take a little jacket because she didn’t want any of her scales to get frozen and break off. It was extremely painful when this happened—much like a human breaking off a fingernail.
She had an ancient map of the Genie’s hideout that she had obtained from Wizard Helmstead via e-mail the night before, and knew she could reach the special cave in just an hour. She decided it would be best not to fly because she didn’t want to alarm anyone. The Arab people didn’t take well to dragons. Not many humans do. She reached the mouth of the special cave by about 10:00am. It actually took a little longer than she thought because she was getting older and had to walk slower. She was very grateful for the boots by the time she got there because there really wasn’t a path to walk on. Several times she had to conjure up a big fire to burn her way through some thickets.
The cave was actually quite beautiful. It had shiny crystals, stalactites, and stalagmites blanketing the floor, walls, and ceiling and she could hear dripping water. She gathered a large bundle of sticks together, wrapped them with a cloth she had brought for the purpose of light and lit it on fire. It was a perfect slow burning torch that lit up the whole cave. As she entered she brushed spider’s webs away with the torch and saw with the illumination that there were also ice crystals in the cave. It was very cold, but as I mentioned before, Dragons don’t worry about cold. The map led only a short way into the cave and detailed a small entrance into a large chamber. Grandma got a little confused at first but soon discovered the entrance to this chamber. As she entered the other room of the cave, darkness enveloped the first room she had left. It was a little bit frightening at first when she looked back, but Grandma reminded herself that she could make fire when ever, where ever.
Just as the map said, there, in the center of the room was a large stalactite and stalagmite that had grown nearly together over the years. Suspended magically between them was a Genie lamp. Grandma watched as the drop of water left the upper formation and dripped magically through the floating lamp onto the lower formation adding more minerals to its slow growing thickness. She was so excited. She followed the wizard’s instructions carefully and did not touch the natural forming rocks above and beneath the lamp as she removed it. She withdrew another special cloth from her pack and gentle rubbed the lamp. Just like in all the movies, all of a sudden a whiff of smoke whirled from the spout, circled the room, and POP! There sat a wondrous Genie on a floating carpet just a few meters from Grandma.
The Genie was a male, looked to be about age 28 with bright red hair and a smallish goatee under his lip. He was dressed in a white Pakistani gold embroidered shirt with parachute pants and curled up toed slippers. His pants and shoes were an exquisite purple color with gold shininess that hinted when he moved. He stretched his arms and back and yawned a huge yawn, stretching his face muscles and contorting his eyes and lips until he slumped back down and smiled at Grandma.
With his eyes closed in a condescending pompous pose the Genie said “Thank you, I was so squished in there and it’s been centuries and centuries since anyone bothered to call on me—now, let me see if I remember the routine….Ah yes, something about three wishes I think it was…That’s right I grant you three wishes, no more, no less, you may not wish for more wishes, you may not wish anyone dead and you may not wish any dead person alive”.
Grandma was so excited she could hardly speak. She finally gathered herself together and introduced herself. Sivart the Genie was alarmed at first when he noticed that she was a dragon but after some time talking the two magical creatures became good friends. Grandma explained that she didn’t really come for the wishes, she just wanted to invited the Genie to the castle some time for dinner and to teach the children at her home school all about the Middle East History. Sivart was shocked that Grandma didn’t want the wishes and he insisted that she use them or he would be insulted.
“Oh very well” said grandma. “I wish you would come to dinner and teach my school children about the Middle Eastern History”. “Ug” said Sivart, “You are no fun. Wish a wish for yourself—you only have two left”. “Oh very well” said Grandma. “um…”
Just then there was a huge explosion out side the cave and both Sivart and Grandma were startled. Very few things startle a Dragon or a Genie but this was very loud. “I better leave” Grandma said. “Well, I am bound to you until you finish your wishes”. Rub me back into the lamp and put the lamp in your pack and take me home. I can always find my way back here when your wishes are done. I’ve done it 243,000 times most of them were in the 700-900 A.D. period but a crusader that strayed a bit ran into me in about 1200 A.D. Boy, he had a good time after his three wishes.”
“Ok, ok, stop talking” Grandma whispered. She rubbed the lamp and the Genie sucked back into it. She quickly placed the lamp in her bag and exited the chamber. The torch was low but light enough that she could see the entrance to the cave. It was much smaller than before. The explosion must have crumbled part of it. She could barely squeeze herself through and was covered with dust, ice and spider webs when she emerged from the cave. To her astonishment it was very dark outside. She must have been in the cave for hours and hours. It was amazing to her but she figured that when dealing with a Genie, time gets very strange. She was super grateful for her boots as she hurried down the hill in the dark. The torch lit the path barely enough to see. She was very tempted to fly but she didn’t want to get shot down by the coalition forces or the insurgents so she just continued walking as quickly as she could. All of a sudden she walked right into a camp of insurgents. There was a huge cannon in the camp that was obviously the cause of the explosion. They were startled and reached for their weapons and turned them on Grandma. They blinked in disbelief as she instantly vanished. Even her backpack disappeared. They lowered their guns and started rubbing their eyes. Grandma noticed that something was wrong and she soon realized that she couldn’t be seen.
“Phew” she thought “I best be very quiet”. She tip toed around the camp fire and squeezed between two militants standing a little ways apart from each other. Then she took off in flight. She flew all the way back to her little room and into the window where Grandpa was sleeping soundly. She undressed, showered and threw her things in the wash. She noticed in the bathroom mirror that parts of her scaly body started to reappear. She place the lamp near her bed and sent an anonymous note to the Coalition forces tipping them off to the location of the insurgents and then she got in bed. She had forgotten to take her boots off and they were all wet from the shower but still very comfortable. She laughed at her self as she untied them and then slipped her bare feet back into the sheets—which were just a little damp.
She was so very tired that she totally fell asleep with out even thinking about the last two wonderful wishes she could make the next day.

An Introduction

2006-02-13T05:59:00.000-08:00

Grandma Dragon began when the Amazing Aunt Tamee discovered that her nephews were old enough to comprehend fantasy and could be easily quieted and calmed by stories of multi-colored creatures on fanciful adventures- sometimes even scary ones. When she left for Iraq, she needed a way to communicate these adventures to the children, hense a blog.
Grandma Dragon is the great, great, great, great, great, grand-daughter of a cruel and evil Dragon that once occupied the castle. This dragon kidnapped a beautiful princess and put an enchantment on her. The beautiful princess slept in the highest room of the highest tower of castle for many decades, never aging, until she was rescued (like every good fairy tale would tell you) by a handsome prince and they, of course, lived happily ever after--leaving behind some enchanted items in the castle. The castle is occupied by many different creatures. Some left over from the princess and the evil dragon's days and some that have come from the woods near by. Some came from the ocean into the moat through the secret passage way. Some creatures were invited and some simply knocked on the door and asked for a place to stay. Some creatures were acquired through the adventures of Grandma Dragon.
Here are some of them:
-Pink Fuzzy Monster, Mrs. Pink Fuzzy, Pinko (9 yr old boy) and Pinky (3 yr old girl)
-Purple Monster, Mrs. Purple Monster, Violet (11 yr old Wizard girl at Hogwarts), Lavendar (5 yr old girl)
-Black Leather, Mrs. Black Leather, Malcolm (8 yr old boy), Ebony (5 yr old boy)
-Patrick the Leprechaun, Mrs. Patrick, Patrick Jr (8 yr old Wizard boy), Emerald (3 yr old girl)
-Horned Creature, Mrs. Horned Creature, Legolas (8 yr old boy and Jedi Knight) Tyler (5 yr old boy)
Fairy Families: numerous fairy families with children including Bonny Fairy and Pumpkin Fairy (5 yr old girl) (9 yr old boy) Eliza the fairy princess (baby)
Piggy Fish, Mrs Piggy Fish, Pigaletto (8 yr old boy)
Nosompos boys: Isaac and Leify Nosompos- tiny orphaned creatures (lizard like) who lived in the jar above the fridge and were enlarged by magic
Elf Family- Jeremiah (9 year old boy) and Tim (7 year old boy) from the North Pole, their grandparents, and parents who are in critical condition from a car accident in 2004. They moved back to the North Pole in June 2006
Orphan kids- Shelly (8) and Nathan (11)- plain old Human orphans
Hammer Head Shark and wife- swam from the ocean to the moat (Mrs HHS died giving birth to three shark pups and Hammerhead took his children back to the Ocean).
Dolphinian- Female dolphin friend that visits from the ocean
Wizard Helmsteadt- Magical Wizard that travels and sometimes lives on the grounds. He can be reached by e-mail.
Wizard Donovan- Magical wizard that lives on the grounds in a small cottage.
Wolf- the last wolf left over from a pack that had previously terrorized the woods nearby.
Sivart- A Genie brought back from Iraq by Grandma Dragon.
Pirate children : Joseph Mozimbaker (6), Abigail of the Mer (a 5 year old mermaid/human), Hanna Banana Boat Mame, (4 year old orphan princess of the banana islands) Zeek of the Shells (a 3 year old transforming sea creature)
Rock children: Brinley and Lily (creatures made of lovely jewels and rocks)
Enlarged insects: Seth the caterpillar and Makayla the ladybug.
Jesse the Superhero
Genie Workers-conjured up from Grandma Dragon's wish to remodel the castle. They stayed on as maintenence workers and they love it.
Items include:
-An enchanted pirate's ship (one of four) grounded on the lawn of the castle (from the enchanted river that comes and goes)
-An enchanted house-that-can-be-anything, which is exactly that.
-A magic sword in the top bedroom where the fairies live- can only be wielded by a Jedi Knight.
-A treasure chest that produces money when it is very much needed.
-A Magic Flying Carpet
-Green House out back where the creatures all grow their flowers and produce during the growing season- Bonny Fairy sprinkles fairy dust on her produce and they always are very large.
-Jar on top of the fridge where-in lies an entire world of creatures from which the Nosompos boys were rescued as orphans.
-Swimming pool on the grounds- not especially extraordinary but a lot of fun in the summer time.
-Home School room one floor below ground level with a window into the moat so Pigaleggo (Piggy fish's son) can participate via speaker phone and window, and where Grandma Dragon teaches school.
-Magic School bus where in Grandma takes the children on grand adventures.
-Expansive grounds around the castle- ideal for playing games and having picnics
-hot tub room- excellent for bubble baths and water fights