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“There!” said Jay, pointing to a dark purple head and arms flailing in the waves.
“Dive! What are you waiting for?” Evie asked as Jay hesitated by the rail.
“I can’t swim!” he confessed. “It’s not like there were lessons on the Isle of the Lost, you know!”
Carlos ran up and began to remove his heavy jacket. “I can dog-paddle! I’ll go!”
“Wait!” said Jay. “Crocodiles!”
Mal was surrounded by several of the large scaly beasts snapping their jaws. She was bobbing up and down in the water and screaming for help.
“We’re coming!” said Evie. “Carlos is coming to save you!”
Carlos climbed up on the rail and stared down at the hungry crocodiles. “Um, I am?”
“Go!” said Evie. “Don’t worry about the crocs, Jay and I will draw them away!” She gave him a little push and he dropped into the water. She saw his black-and-white head above the waves as he inched his way toward Mal.
“Great! How are we going to do that?” asked Jay.
“With bait!”
“Awesome!” he said. “Wow, you really travel with everything you need, huh?”
Evie gave him a look.
“Hang on, are we the bait?” asked Jay with a groan.
“Yes! Hurry!” Evie threw her other heel so it bounced on the nearest crocodile’s head. Then she whistled while dangling a leg over the side of the bridge. “Over here! Yoo-hoo!”
Jay stretched his torso from the edge of the dock and began to wave his arms. “Come on! Over here! Come and get me!” Then, seized by a sudden flash of brilliance, he began to chant. “Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock!” It was common knowledge in the Isle of the Lost that the crocodiles in its waters were no ordinary crocodiles, as they were descended from the one and only Tick-Tock himself. The sound of a ticking clock was almost a lullaby for them, and the crocodiles were hypnotized by Jay’s chanting, swimming toward him and Evie.
Mal screamed one last time before disappearing under the water, but in a burst of speed, Carlos was by her side. He dove beneath the waves and hooked his arms underneath hers.
“I’ve got her! I’ve got her!” he yelled, keeping Mal’s head above the water as he kicked his way back to shore, dodging the crocodiles, which were now circling Jay eagerly, entranced by his rhythmic chanting.
“Tick-tock, tick-tock…yeah, that’s right, come on over here. Tick-tock, tick-tock,” said Jay. “Tick-tock, tick-tock!”
Evie pulled her leg back from the edge and ran to help Carlos, and together they hauled Mal back safely on land.
It was late on Sunday when a fairy tapped Ben on the shoulder and told him that Faylinn had asked that he meet her with her team of archivists in the oak tree’s library. Ben had passed the time while waiting by looking over the latest weather reports for the entire kingdom to see if anything had gotten worse. There hadn’t been any new sightings of the purple dragon or snake in the last few hours, but who knew when it would strike next.
He followed the fairy up the winding staircase to a massive library housed in one of the topmost branches of the oak tree. Faylinn was flying in front of a huge projection screen, buzzing quietly with her team. The room was cozy and warm, with a crackling fireplace behind a grate, and long tables with pretty intertwined leaves and branches where the fairies worked.
“Ben, you’re here, good,” she said, flying over to him. “I think we’ve found something.”
She motioned to the images projected on the wall, which showed two blown-up photos of purple scales. Faylinn flew over and motioned to sharp ridges on one of the scales. “Look at this,” she said. “The ridges on your scale are almost identical to the one on the right, even though the one on the right is almost ten times its size. The one on the left is your serpent scale, and the other one is about the size of a dragon scale.”
“A match, then?” he asked.
“We think so. Either there are two different creatures, with identical ridge patterns, or these scales are from one creature that can take two different shapes. We think it is the latter, as it would be nearly impossible to find two creatures with these specific markings,” she said, buzzing between the two photographs.
“Where’s the dragon scale from?” he asked, trying not to show how anxious he was. “Is it Maleficent?”
“Not exactly,” she said, coming over to fly by his shoulder. Her voice was tiny and sharp as a wind chime.
He exhaled. “What does that mean? What’s it from?”
“The scale isn’t from any creature we have in our files. As much as we tried, we couldn’t find a match, actually, until Lexi Rose remembered we’d received something similar not so long ago.” Faylinn clicked to the next slide. “As you know, fairies like to study every aspect of nature, and we ask that if anyone in Auradon discovers something new in the natural world, they send it to us so we can add it to our collection. Recently, a team of dwarfs were digging a new mine down by Faraway Cove, when
