Flushed! Part 3:
Dee commented, “Man...that is so cold. I
hope I am their king. I'll give you guys
a beat down.”
Ganga only chortled, “You're in
no position to threaten us, lad.”
Yelling at all the Bweebles, “Now...be gone
out of my presence before the rest of your crops are also set aflame.” Then, Ganga sneered at Dee. “Now...you are to march right to the Bweeble Empty Palace.”
He pointed to three of the soldiers, “You three come with me to
accompany this young lad. We'll see if
he'll complete the challenges and if the Bweeble
prophecy would indeed come true. If
not...we'll take him to the Emperor.
He'll have you drawn and quartered.”
To the remaining soldiers, he barked at them. “You three will have the wagon delivered with
the Emperor's phystia. If any of the beasts stumble, cut them from
their harnesses and...just dispose of them.”
One of the soldiers in charge of
the wagon and the Bweeble women who pull it, went up
to the one harnessed at the front to the left.
Slapping her on the back of her nearly bald head, the team of Bweeble slaves began hauling the heavy load. It was difficult telling the women Bweebles from the men.
The women had worn the work dresses.
That was really the only distinguishing features between the men and
women.
De'Angelo
was outraged by how cruel the Goya were, but there was nothing he could do to
stop them—for now. Ganga gave Dee a
shove on the shoulder, and he had to place a foot out to avoid hitting the
ground. “Get moving. Follow that road.” For a time he had followed the wagon until
the roadway came to an intersection. The
wagon made a turn to the left, and he and his group of soldiers went to the
right. Up a cliff over a half-mile away
he could see a palace so shiny from its gold plating that it gleamed almost
blindingly in the sunshine. As they
walked silently, Dee noticed how brown and dried up most of the vegetation
was. Any trees were barren of any
leaves, and he occasionally glanced back at the Bweeble
wheat field with flames whirling around monstrously high and smoke billowing
towards the cloudless sky.
“Hey...Ganga,” confronted Dee.
The muscle-bound slave master
turned around and smacked him across the face, knocking him to the ground. De'Angelo clutched
his aching jaw. “Man!” he cried. “What was that for?”
“You will address me as
'sir.' Is that understood?”
“Okay, sir.” Dee said that
with a high degree of sarcastic anger.
“Now, get up. And do not speak to me unless I request you
to speak. Just head to
the Palace.”
Pushing up off the ground, Dee
longed to go back home. He thought of
his shoes and wondered if they would give him the means to leave this terrible
world like in a movie. However, he
didn't dare stop to try with these huge soldier guys surrounding him with their
weapons. Dee attempted to project bravery,
but he was scared—the most he ever had been in his life.
With the Sun beating down on him
and his shoes and socks still squishing wet, Dee's feet and legs throbbed. He wasn't certain he could take another
step. The dirt roadway, which had become
weed-infested from the lack of use, continuously sloped upwards, making the
trek that much more challenging. To make
matters worse, the soldiers and Ganga carried canteens and made sure their
thirsts were quenched. They even pulled
out dried pieces of meat, similar to beef jerky, from below their metal chest
plates. These Goyas
seemed to enjoy rubbing it into those they had power over.
As they finally ambled their way
up to the Palace grounds, Dee could see orchards of some type of tree that once
produced glorious fruit, but were now just as lifeless as the ones he saw
traveling here. That was to the left of
him, but after that was what must have been a vineyard with rows of
grapevines. Only, weeds had intertwined
themselves with the grape plants and whatever fruit actual grew was mostly
eaten by animals or birds. To the very
left of the Palace was something similar to a basketball court. He saw six poles carved from tree trunks and
attached at a height greater than the typical ten feet Dee was used to and
positioned at an angle were baskets carved from hollowed-out wood. The one soldier carrying a sword had used it
as a machete, clearing away the thick weeds so they could easily maneuver to
the strange looking basketball court.
The hexagonal court was separated
from the vineyard by a high brick wall that wrapped itself around all sides
with the exception of the one closest to the Palace. Each pole and basket stood evenly spaced
apart right at the center, as opposed to the ends of a traditional one back in
Dee's world. When Ganga stepped onto the
court his armored boots chipped away at the surface made from some kind of tan
clay and smoothed over by transparent varnish.
It was slippery to walk on as Dee planted the soles of his shoes on the
top. Ganga reached over a ledge and
found a leather-bound ball, smaller than a basketball, close to the size of
school playground ball.
“Oh...future
king. You stand on the markings
on the floor with the sketches of a crown.
You have to fling the ball into each basket. Notice...the markings get farther and farther
away with each basket.”
“Excuse me...Mr. Ganga, sir.” Ganga came stomping over towards Dee as he
prepared his arms to block another hit from the Goya.
“You, worm, dare speak to
me. I—”
“According to what's the orange
dude's name again...? Hyphyn, is it? There
are two challenges and I don't think I have to do both. There's a drawing challenge. I'd like to see that one.”
Surprisingly, Ganga did not
strike the boy, but gave commands to the lead soldier in an unrecognizable
language. The soldier vacated the court
and went around to the palace entrance, parting the solid wood double doors,
disappearing inside. Ganga explained to
Dee, “Dirn went to go find this other challenge. I do remember the fabled prophecy claiming
another challenge.”
A moment of awkward silence
followed as the rest of the group waited for Dirn to
return. It seemed to take hours, and
Ganga spoke. “Huh...Dirn
hasn't returned. There either is not
another challenge or the fool got lost.”
Dirn,
at that point, appeared outside the palace entrance and motioned for Ganga to
go inside. Altogether, Dee and the Goyas meandered over to where Dirn
had signaled, and they stopped just short of entering. Struggling to explain, Dirn
explained to Ganga. “Go...ah, this
way...signs prints dragon throne draw.”
The manner of his speech was
amusing to Dee because the Goya sounded so unintelligent. Laughing and snorting, Dee commented, “What
did he just say? Dang, the dude needs to
learn how to talk.”
“Lad, he's a common class Goya...their
only purpose in life is to obey and be prepared to fight. They never get any schooling,” Ganga grunted
out this reality of Goya life. “But...I
know what he's saying. We must head to
the throne room.”
As they passed through the front
doors, Dee noticed the luxurious foyer greeting anyone visiting the
palace. The walls and floor were lined
with black and white marble. From the
wooden ceiling, encrusted with clear quartz crystals, each the size of Dee's
thumb dangled a shimmering chandelier, lined with ten diamond covered candle
holders. About 100 feet away was a
staircase with marble steps that matched the bulk of the foyer. Wooden hand rails intricately carved with
little swirls in them were attached to the two walls of the staircase. Dee noticed faint claw prints, as large as
a four-wheeler, scarring the marble floor and leading straight up the
staircase. Each print took up three
steps at a time and the band of Goyas and Dee walked
wherever they saw them lead.
Eventually, up the stairs they
came to a grand royal hall that had a plush red carpet and the dragon prints
were visible as outlines of dirt, instead of the imbedded ones in the marble
flooring outside the room. Three
chandeliers, duplicates of the one down in the foyer, hung over head from the
high-arching ceiling that had the same wood and quartz crystal as
downstairs. The hall resembled a church
sanctuary with pews on either side of the red carpet. Ending at a double-sided throne on a platform
three steps high, Dee strolled down the carpet.
To the right of the throne was a picture of the Ruby Dragon, just as Hyphyn described and it was leaning against an easel. Another easel to the right of that had an
empty canvas with sketching instruments that were like chalky crayons.
De'Angelo
noticed the double-throne had one side that faced all the pews and another
towards a window that the Bweeble king could look out
and observe the kingdom. The two easels
were in front of the side of the throne that faced the pews. He took to studying the detailed picture of
the Ruby Dragon and nodded confidently to himself. Dee had created alien beings, fantastic
worlds, and made-up superheroes in action all with more features than this
image before him.
Cynically, Ganga inquired of
him. “So, future Bweeble
king...which challenge is it?”
“Well, I'm all right at the
basketball out there, but this challenge...no sweat. What are you gonna do when I finish it and
the Ruby Dragon shows up?”
“Ha...I'm pretty sure that even
if you complete this challenge, there will be no Ruby Dragon. The Bweebles have
spread this fairy tale for centuries. No
Goya Emperor had ever witnessed such a creature. Besides, my men and I...we can handle any
dragon. We'll capture it and make it do
our bidding. Then we wouldn't need Bweebles. We could
put them out of their miseries. Now get
drawing.”
Dragging the easel with the blank
canvas and drawing utensils over to the throne chair, he noted how plush and
comfortable the blue violet seat was. After
that hike up to the palace, he was grateful to rest his feet. Before he began his task, he examined the
original impression carefully.
“Hurry up, lad! I think you're stalling because you can't
draw it,” Ganga snarled accusingly.
However, Dee just ignored him and
concentrated. Finally, he scrawled an
outline on the canvas with a black crayon.
It was such a smooth instrument that allowed him to control the
thickness of each area. Then, he grabbed
crayons of various shades of red and green.
Each of the soldiers had now relaxed on the pews as Ganga watched Dee
slowly make an exact copy of the dragon.
For his part, he had almost hoped the Ruby Dragon would show up
just so he could subdue it and take control of it—he might consider
overthrowing the Emperor. He was
awestruck with Dee's artistic ability.
After painstakingly diagramming
the rest of the dragon, Dee had put away his final crayon. Then, he beheld his achievement and admired
how well he actually did. Every detail
from the original he replicated and he wondered if it was good enough to raise
the Ruby Dragon. Dee really hoped that
he had fulfilled the Bweeble prophecy and not only rescue them from the iron fist rule of the Goyas, but he wanted to escape from this land and prevent
any harm from happening to him. So far,
there was no sign of any dragon.
Hanging his head in shame and
defeat, Dee was almost in tears over his vain attempt at completing this
challenge. Ganga only laughed at
him. “Well, lad...it looks like your dragon
isn't showing. Dirn,”
he shouted to the soldier lying on the front pew to the right. Dirn bounded to his
feet. “Take your sword. Cut this 'king' in half right from the top of
his head until his body lies in two sections.”
The soldier drooled in
satisfaction. “Dirn
love to sword split him. Try cut I one try.” He might have been a brainless thug, but Dirn must have enjoyed this part of being a Goya soldier.
For Dee, his breathing and heart
rate jumped as he watched the enormous man withdraw his razor-edged sword from
its sheath, and the man lumbered towards him with the blade already prepared to
strike. The only thing his mind could
think of was to run away, but the platform he was on did not give him much
room. Dee would risk an escape,
regardless. Ganga stood in his way, but
he dodged around him football-style and sprinted towards the right side of the
room. All the soldiers sprung up off the
pews and they readied their battle-axes.
Dee was faster as he ran along the aisle to the extreme right of the
pews, but he would have to somehow figure out how to get to the center of the
royal hall and the red carpet. He leapt
onto the seat of the last pew in the hall and made a dash towards the main
carpeted walkway.
Only, one of the men with a
battle-axe was right at the end, waiting for him. He tried backing up towards the end aisle
again, but the other soldiers, including Dirn and
Ganga had been coming at him from all angles.
Dee had no escape. The boy cried
out, “C'mon, now! Don't cut me in two. That's not nice!”
“There's no escape. You will now die.” Ganga had his monster sword drawn and seeing
that his situation had been hopeless, he started shutting his eyes, when he
noticed that there would most likely be enough space for him to crawl
underneath the pews.
Just as Ganga brought his sword
down, Dee did a shallow dive underneath, bashing his chin on the marble floor,
biting through his tongue. The boy
yelled in pain as Ganga shouted in irritation for missing him. Dee had to push through and not allow his
injured tongue and chin to slow his egress.
He glided along the smooth flooring and paid attention to the armored
boots that gave away the position of each Goya.
Ganga screamed at the other soldiers,
“There he is! I can't fit through these rows enough to
strike him. Neither can you guys. Start tossing over these pews.” Attempting to add an air of hopelessness,
Ganga growled, “Okay, lad. You're only
delaying the inevitable.”
Dee froze as he heard the Goyas hurl each pew and they landed on the hard floor with
a thud. They certainly had the strength
to throw them effortlessly, but they must have started with the ones up near
the throne platform. So, Dee scurried
over to the red carpet and emerged just two pews from the exit. However, as he stood up, Dirn
was now right next to the boy. The
soldier was nearly ready to toss his next pew, but dropped it to ready his
sword. Not waiting for him to swing the
weapon, Dee dashed out of the royal hall while the Goyas
all stumbled out behind him, not even close to catching up to him.
Ganga hollered at Dee, “You may
be running ahead of us, but we will catch you.
We Goyas will hunt you down. Surrender and we'll make your death a quick
one with as little pain as possible.”
In Dee's mind, those words were
nothing but crazy talk. He planned on
surviving his brush with the Goyas somehow. Dee had skipped several steps as he pranced
down the staircase and he passed through the foyer to the outer courtyard where
he planned on trotting along the pathway carved through the overgrown
weeds. He briefly stopped and turned to
see how far back his pursuers were, but that was a terrible mistake because
Ganga had only lagged behind him by ten feet at the least swinging a
leather-made bolas above him. Before he
could continue his escape, Ganga released his weapon which wrapped around Dee's
ankles, tripping the ten-year-old face first on the prickly ground below.
The preteen boy twisted around to
find Ganga with his sword raised and he fought back tears at the realization
that there was truly no escape for him. If
I'm gonna die, he thought, I might as well take it like a man. Sorry, Bweebles
that I couldn't help you.
“Now, you little maggot, I'll
dash you into pieces. You should have
stopped when I called you.” Ganga's
teeth all blackened with decay, shown through his grinning lips. All Dee could do was shut his eyes and
prepared for the first slice. No matter
how hard he tried, tears streamed down his cheeks from the corner of his eyes.
A roar that echoed throughout
this fantastic world had seemed to delay Ganga's first blow from his
sword. Dee cracked one lid and found the
sky above the Goya slave master twinkling red.
Then, another roar rattled his bones and Ganga seemed to stumble about
as the ground shook from that thunderous noise above head. Just hovering maybe twenty feet in the air
was the Ruby Dragon with its bat-like wings extended and its claws curled up
against its body. The creature was both
strikingly beautiful and menacing to behold.
With its ruby scales it twinkled in the sunlight with the gaudiness of a
house decorated with way too many Christmas lights.
Ganga forgot about killing Dee,
and shouted to his soldiers all cowering in terror over what they were
witnessing. “Don't just stand there, you
cowards. Attack it...attack it!”
Dirn
spoke for the other three. “Dragon how
no attack not know.”
He had his sword drawn, and he swung it towards the beast, but couldn't
even reach it. The soldiers all swatted
the air above them, but the dragon lunged at the Goyas
and pummeled them all with his great tail.
They all went sailing into the overgrown weeds over to the left of the
palace. Dee wasn't certain what the
dragon had planned and he just lay on the ground, hoping he would somehow not
be harmed by the creature.
Then, it spoke to Dee, staring at
him with its emerald-colored eyes. “Get
up, sire. Unwrap the bolas from your
legs and climb up on my back.”
De'Angelo
sat up and said, “You talk? Are you
gonna kill me?”
“You fulfilled the prophecy,
breaking the Emperor's curse...and now I'm free. You are the king of the Bweebles
and together we will rebuild the beauty and glory of the once proud
people.” As the dragon had conversed
with Dee, the Goyas managed to push themselves out of
the weeds and attacked the dragon from behind.
“Look out!” Dee pointed.
The Ruby Dragon turned and in one
flaming breath set the Goyas on fire. Each of the burning soldiers, including
Ganga, fell back into the weeded overgrowth, writhing and shrieking out in
agony. Dee could hardly believe his eyes
or his nose. He had never witnessed such
a thing before, but he was glad those Goyas wouldn't
be able to cut him into pieces or mistreat the Bweebles
anymore. He undid the bolas from his
legs and he found it easy to climb up on the ruby scales of the dragon and
found one smooth spot right behind its neck.
Grasping two ruby scales flanking the sides of the neck, Dee held on
tight as the dragon soared into the sky.
In the distance Dee could see a castle and the creature flew straight
for it.
“Where are we going?” Dee
wondered.
“You're going to destroy the
Goya's castle and their emperor.”
This seemed to be a strange
statement from the dragon. “Uh...you
mean you're gonna destroy them, right?”
“Well, I'll help. Pull off one of my ruby scales and then toss
it on the ground.” Looking to his right,
he plucked one near the top of the dragon's wing. Below was the roadway that Dee and the Goyas took to get to the Empty Palace. The intersection where his group of ruffians
split from the harnessed Bweeble women burdened with
pulling that wagon full of phystia was quickly coming
into view. Dee chucked the ruby scale at
dead center of the intersection and a scarlet beam of light the diameter of an
old oak tree escaped from somewhere in the sky, through the jewel, and hitting
the graveled surface below as a slender ray.
The dirt and the ground underneath melted into molten rock, generating
an ever-growing sinkhole that threatened to not only swallow up the entire
intersection, but much of the dried-out vegetation on all sides. All in all a hole maybe 100 feet deep and 100
feet in diameter was what now remained.
“Now,” chuckled
the dragon. “Think of what will happen
to someone like the emperor or anyone else.”
“Hey, Dragon. Once we destroy the Goya Emperor and his
castle, how can we restore the Bweebles back into,
you know, less orange and healthier people?” Another
concern had entered Dee's mind.
“Hey,
suppose there's like Bweeble slaves needing rescuing
or in the castle perhaps there are Bweebles locked in
a dungeon.”
“Hmm...I suppose we'll go and
free any slaves after we destroy the castle and the emperor. But as for those in a dungeon, Goyas never hold prisoners for long. They execute them as soon as possible or
enslave them.”
“Well, let's start with those
girls they had hooked up to pull a wagon.
Can you believe that? They treat
them like animals.”
Finally, they passed over a
thicket of woods and into the land of the Goyas. Throughout this region everyone had lived in
a small castle, but at the middle of everything sat one with fifty or so
lookout towers and sprawled an area of at least 10 acres. It was surrounded by a moat and at the center
of the castle was a clay-surfaced courtyard.
Dee located the wagon from earlier that had been loaded with phystia. “Where are
those Bweeble girls that were pulling that wagon?”
Goyas
throughout the land pointed up at the Ruby Dragon and Dee could tell they all
dreaded the sight of the beast. They
scrambled into their stone-reinforced castles, but over at the central royal
structure, a drawbridge lowered across the moat. Goya soldiers on horseback, armed with bows
and arrows charged out to confront the Ruby Dragon. As their arrows made contact with the jewel
encrusted hide of the beast, ruby scales became dislodged. Beams of light like before streaked from the
sky, opening up several magma-filled sinkholes, destroying all the main
roadways going to and from this land. In
one breath, the Ruby Dragon set aflame a score of horseback-riding Goyas. After a
second fire-laced exhale, all of the attacking archers were now disabled. Their screams made Dee wince at their fiery
deaths, but he just shrugged it off, saying aloud, “Man...I'd hate to be them.”
The dragon swooped down into the
courtyard and Dee could see four wooden entrances back into the castle. Hopping from one entrance to the next, the
dragon used its front talons to pulverize each of them. Bweeble women, the
ones who pulled the wagon, surfaced from one of the entrances to check out what
the commotion was all about, and they all rejoiced at the sight of the Ruby
Dragon.
“The Prophecy. It's coming true,” one of the women cried
out.
Due to the size of all the women,
Dee was greatly relieved they could all fit on the dragon's back and escape
their captivity. He motioned for them to
get on board and they clambered upon the creature. “Hang on!” Dee advised them. Lifting into the air, Dee spotted a man
dressed head to toe in gems and a gold encrusted robe. The Goya man stood in front of a cauldron two
stories high and ten feet across. He
turned a wheel that began tipping the simmering liquid inside towards the moat.
“That must be that stuff that make you Bweebles bright orange,”
Dee Surmised. Plucking a ruby from the
thick hide of the dragon, he dropped it right on the cauldron. A ray of light and the man and the pot
vaporized.
Behind Dee, a Bweeble
woman hollered, “You got the Emperor!”
The ground underneath where the Emperor had been became molten
lava. Dee dropped several more rubies on
other areas of the castle and the land surrounded by the moat became a lake of
magma, the entire structure became swallowed up by it all.
They flew off to the Bweeble village, which was a nothing but a series of tent
dwellings. Dee landed in what seemed to
be the center and the Bweeble women climbed off the
dragon. All the Bweebles
rushed out of their tents to greet them and to hug them each tightly. The women explained the death of the Emperor,
the destruction of the vile phystia substance, and
the total collapse of the castle. Hyphyn grabbed Dee by the wrist and shook it with all his
might.
“You are the Prophetic king. We can start opening the Empty Palace and
return it to its once gloried state.”
Dee shrugged his shoulders,
“Look, I can't stay here and be your king.
I'm really not from here. I'm
glad to defeat the Goyas for you, but Hyphyn, you seem to be the kingly type.”
“Are you granting
me...kingship?” His neon orange face
beamed brighter than normal, and he was greatly honored.
“So, how are you guys gonna
reverse the effects of that poison or whatever it was?”
“Well, a few drops of dragon
blood into our water supply should begin the process, but we would need to
request from the Ruby Dragon if he'd donate some.” Hyphyn bowed his
head humbly towards the dragon.
“I'm happy to help the Bweebles restore their land.” The Ruby Dragon bolted into the air, headed
upstream, and eventually injuring his own hide just to mix his blood into the
water supply.
“Now, how do I get outta
here? I gotta meet up with the guys at
the park. Man, they probably played
without me or couldn't get a court.” Dee
shook his skull knowing his buddies would give him plenty of grief over missing
their chance at attaining a court.
“Just go back up through the
drain. There's a lever down in the cave
that reverses the flow,” admitted Hyphyn.
“Do you know where it is? Can you do the lever and I'll just climb up?”
“Oh, it'll just suck you in.”
“Hyphyn,
I'm not sure if all the Goya soldiers were destroyed...they could, you know,
still mess with you guys. The dragon
burned up some of them, but they're still physically larger than all of you.”
“Now that the Ruby Dragon has
been released, he's better than any Goya soldiers. Maybe the Goyas
will be willing to negotiate peace with us...and all the lands they had
previously conquered and oppressed.”
Scratching his bald scalp, he asked Dee, “Are you sure you want to pass
up being the Bweeble King? You'd have Bweebles
waiting on you. You'd have a pick of any
female in the Bweeble kingdom.”
“Naw...I'm
just a kid. And I already have a girl
that I kind'a like.
I gotta go back to my family. I
even miss Kayla, my little sister. She's partly responsible for me being
here.” Dee never imagined in his life he
would appreciate that three-year-old pest.
All the Bweebles
lined up and hugged him with the utmost affection and appreciation. They bid Dee a fond farewell as he and Hyphyn followed the trail by the stream into the cave. Before going inside, Dee beheld the wheat
field that had been completed burned away.
“Hyphyn, man...what are you gonna do about the
wheat?”
“Down in the Empty Palace, well
in the cellar, are stores and stores of harvested
wheat. It was preserved in an ancient Bweeble process that allows food from plants to last for
nearly a thousand years. We'll tap into
that. We'll be fine.” Hyphyn and Dee
sauntered side-by-side until they found the drain. “When you see the water no longer flowing
out, but up into the drain, then it's ready for you.”
Hyphyn
disappeared down the branch of the cave where Dee first saw him and his little
wheelbarrow full of phystia. Dee realized he would have to get his shoes
wet once more, but as long as he could return home, it was a minor
inconvenience. Then, he watched as water
from the stream began vacuuming up into the drain, and Dee waded into the
water. “Oh man, that's cold.” He wasn't quite used to the chilled creek,
but he trudged on until his body ascended into the drain. Complete darkness surrounded him as well as
the coolness of the wetness around him. De'Angelo's head was the only part of him out of the
water. He twisted and spun. It was like a water park slide, but going
against gravity. Finally, Dee shot out
of the toilet in the bathroom in his home.
Now, he stood on his feet without a single drop of water on him.
Moving his eyes around, he
recognized the bathroom. His little
sister had been beating her fists against the door. “Brother...be
done. Kayla gotta go potty.”
“C'mon, De'Angelo.
Get out of there. Isn't that
toilet unclogged?” The voice of his
mother was reassuring. Standing to the
side of the toilet, so as not to accidentally fall in again, he pressed the
handle and it flushed uninhibited.
Dee wondered how long he had been
gone. “Yeah, Mom. It's flushing fine now.” Glancing at the window it didn't seem to be
any later in the day than when he first began his adventure in Bweeble world. He
stopped to peer down at the toilet, curious over whether or not he could see
that strange land through the commode.
However, it was nothing but porcelain.
Kayla pounded and whined more at
the door. His mom screamed, “Dee, you
need to be grounded? Now, get out of
there. I thought you were playing with
your friends at the park.”
Fortunately, his shoes had also
been fully dry. Once more, he brushed
his hands along his hair and his head, trying to look as good as possible. “Amari won't be able to take her eyes off of
me,” he mused. “Okay, Mom. I'm coming out. You won't believe what happened to me.”
Opening the door, he scooted past
his sister, patted her head, and said, “Sorry I made you wait so long.” He went down to the living room and explained
his experiences with the Bweebles and the Ruby Dragon
to his mother. She just smiled, happy
that her oldest child was growing up, but still filled with imagination.
