Ariel sighed and tightened her grip on him. “The other dragonlings won’t leave him behind. If they do or something prevents him from coming home, I’ll be having a very heated conversation with a Goddess,” she said, an edge to her voice that made Mandra smile.
“I’m glad you’re home.”
“Me, too. You know you guys are going to be toast when the others find out that you didn’t tell them,” she said.
“Yeah, we know.”
Isle of the Monsters
Jabir slid off the boulder as Williston and Gabby chuckled. Mikey placed a large but gentle hand on his shoulder. Jabir looked up… and up, and up, until he was gazing into Mikey’s brown eyes, crinkled with amusement.
“If you have trouble keeping up,” Mikey said cheerfully, “I can carry you and your yummies.”
Jabir flushed. He hated how small and underwhelming he felt next to the towering trolls. Heck, next to everyone! Bálint, Zohar, and Roam would have glared the trolls down and replied with some sarcastic, witty comment.
Not him! He became tongue-tied and blushed.
His feelings of inadequacy weren’t Mikey’s fault—he meant well—but the offer stung. Jabir forced a smile and straightened his shoulders.
“Thanks, but I’ll do my best to keep up.”
Mikey nodded, unconcerned, and turned to follow Gabby and Williston down the narrow forest path. Jabir jogged a few steps to catch up, his tote bag bouncing against his side as the trail twisted between towering trees draped in moss like lace curtains. Shafts of light pierced the emerald canopy, painting the undergrowth in patches of silver and shadow. Every so often, something rustled in the underbrush—too large to be a squirrel, but too skittish to show itself. He didn’t blame it. If all he knew about the trolls was the snapping of branches thicker than his leg under their feet, he’d run away as well.
Mikey strolled beside him with a contented swagger, his belly jiggling with each step. Jabir’s lips twitched when he spotted Mikey’s footprints—dinner-plate-sized impressions pressed deep into the moss. Mikey glanced over at him with a sly, hopeful expression.
“That was the bestest crunchy I’ve ever had,” he said reverently. “It made my tummy rumble and my tongue tingle.”
Jabir chuckled. “I’ve got more. Want some?”
“Oh, yes! My tongue and tummy would like it very much,” Mikey said, his eyes widening with delight before he leaned down to whisper, “I don’t wants to share if I don’t have to.”
Ahead of them, Gabby and Williston marched with practiced ease. Gabby—her pale green skin glittering faintly under the filtered light—was still grumbling about being right all along. Williston, more stone-gray than green, listened with one ear while his other swiveled to catch distant sounds.
“How about something that doesn’t crunch?” Jabir suggested, pulling out a bag of Gummy Bears his Aunt Cara had programmed into the replicator.
“Are these as good as the crunchy?” Mikey asked, holding up the bag of multi-colored fruit-flavored treats with a skeptical expression.
“Oh, yeah. They are super yummy. So, um,” Jabir began as he dodged a low branch, “what kinds of creatures live here? You said this place is called the Isle of the Monsters?”
“Uh-huh,” Mikey nodded, brushing aside a vine. “Monsters from all over came here a long time ago. The Goddess opened the isle for those who didn’t fit anywhere else and gave us the Empress to protect and watch over us.”
“Is she a monster too?” Jabir asked.
“She’s the Empress of Monsters,” Mikey replied, his voice warm with admiration. “She can be any monster she wants to be.”
“I’ve never seen her as a troll,” Williston muttered under his breath.
“She doesn’t need to be a troll—there are already plenty of those,” Gabby said. “I heard she once changed into a hydra.”
Jabir blinked. “A hydra?”
“Was that when the Pirate King came to visit her?” Williston asked.
“No, the Empress likes the Pirate King,” Mikey said.
“She turned into a gargoyle. I heard she did it so the bad alien couldn’t mess with her the way it did my cousin Medjuline. Medjuline had to run into a tree to knock it out of her,” Gabby said.
They passed beneath an arch formed by the gnarled roots of two enormous trees that leaned together like ancient friends. Beyond the bend, the landscape changed—the thick woods gave way to open rolling meadows filled with strange flowers that pulsed gently with bioluminescent hues even in daylight.
