Trapped by the Nixies

We ran into an interesting problem today. Our scout, a devoted, but rather odd creature named Nobbley, sent word that the king's men were close behind us again. Naturally, we immediately left our makeshift camp behind. Edric rode off on his horse, Endellion, and I flew away on Bellamy (Edric and Bellamy do not trust one another, so we find it best for Edric to stick to his horse, even though Bellamy is much faster). We stopped a few hours later, when we reached an area that seemed safe. It was a quiet glade in the midst of a very attractive, deep forest, with a little brook running through it. We thought it would be a perfect place to rest for a time.

Goodness, were we wrong! The glade turned out to be inhabited by nixies. Have you ever heard of nixies? They're little wingless faeries, about ten inches in height, with pointy heads, shiny faces, and extremely long, thin fingers. They have a rather unusual effect on people; they make you do whatever comes into your head, just by whistling in their strange little manner. And, owing to their odd senses of humor, nixies like to plant ridiculous ideas in people's minds. They're never malevolent; just silly and often a bit annoying. The only defense against them is plug your ears and cross your fingers, while concentrating on remaining serious.

So, much to my amusement, Edric was forced against his will to tap-dance in a crazy tight circle, waving a tree branch over his head. I laughed so hard that I completely forgot to defend myself against the nixies. The next thing I knew, I was turning back handsprings while singing loudly off-key. Edric started laughing at me, and pretty soon he was turning very graceful pirouettes through the air. Well, it went on in like fashion for over two hours. It was exhausting! If Bellamy hadn't sneezed and roasted half of the nixies, which scared off the other half, I don't know how Edric and I would have escaped!

Whew; I think we'll be sleeping well tonight!

Our Odd Little Scout

When Edric and I first fled, it was just us and Edric's horse. We had no allies, no assistance. Worse, no witnesses in case one of us killed the other (and believe me, that was always a possibility). After we'd been on the run for a few weeks, my dear Bellamy tracked us down. Of course, Edric wasn't overly thrilled about that, but I certainly was. Still, as comforting as Bellamy can be, dragons really don't make good scouts. We had no way of knowing how close the Royal Guard were, or whether there were other nearby dangers.

One morning, Edric happened across what he thought was a rather ugly little boy wandering through the woods. When he offered to help the youngster, he learned that it was actually a strangely beardless dwarf named Nobbley. As it turned out, he was ostracized from his hometown owing to his inability to grow a beard (for some reason, dwarfs consider this a very crucial matter). Nobbley tried to play it brave, but we figured out rather quickly that he was lonely.

Edric thought Nobbley might make a good scout, since dwarfs are skilled at tracking and at keeping others from tracking them in turn. Of course, Nobbley does have the unsettling belief that he is a miniature giant rather than a dwarf, but delusions aside, he's a marvelous scout. He seems to have remarkable instincts, even if his speech patterns are a bit bizarre, and he is fiercely loyal. I cannot tell you how grateful Edric and I are for Nobbley's assistance. I just wish that Bellamy liked him more (or perhaps less): he keeps trying to roast Nobbley.

Oops.

It has been a very trying day. Bellamy and I are both ill, and the results have been . . . catastrophic.

Bellamy, you may recall, is my pet dragon. He's a full-grown pygmy, twelve years old, and one of the most lovable, endearing creatures you could ever hope to meet. Unfortunately, he has always had a bit of trouble controlling his ability to breathe fire. He really does try hard, but every now and then, accidents happen. And when Bellamy has a cold, there's really no way for him to control his abilities.

Today, Bellamy has a very bad cold. A very, very bad cold. He was wheezing quite a bit this morning and obviously had terrible sinus pains, as he kept beating his head against the rather uncomfortable tree that Edric and I spent the night in. I'm not sure why he thought beating his head would make it feel better -- dragons are not always logical. As a result of Bellamy taking out his suffering on the tree, Edric was awakening by being knocked out of the tree. Don't worry, he's fine. He landed in some conveniently placed bramble bushes. I tried to heal his many cuts by crying on them (I have healing powers in my tears), but sadly, my powers only work on people I care deeply about. Edric was quite rude to both Bellamy and me after that.

Well, Bellamy just got worse as the day progressed. Around noon, he went into a massive sneezing fit, sending flames all over the place. Glemaria is now missing one of its forests. You should have seen how quickly those trees alighted; it was only moments before we were surrounded by a most impressive inferno. Edric's horse was smart enough to run out of there at the sight of the first spark, so she was unhurt by the fire. Bellamy, despite his misery, still had the presence of mind to grab Edric and I in his claws and fly us out of there -- just in time, too. Edric's boots got a bit singed, but other than that, we were unscathed. Unfortunately, the flight was rather bumpy, owing to Bellamy's continued sneezes (which helped to spread the massive forest fire even more), and I got quite sick to my stomach. When Bellamy finally deposited us safely on the ground, I was sick all over Edric's chest. That made him even grumpier than he had already been, although he did later concede that it was not deliberate.

To prevent any further fire calamities, Edric found a rocky area with no brush for Bellamy to rest in. I tried to brew a potion to make Bellamy's cold get better, but I am even worse at potion-making than I am at incantations, and Bellamy refused to drink the gurgling concoction that I created. I suppose I can't blame him. When Edric dumped it out on a nearby bramble bush (revenge against nature for this morning?), the bush shriveled into a vile-looking green thing and then suddenly exploded. Edric got quite a bit of nasty-smelling vile-green-thing juice all over him from that, at which point he hopped on his horse and rode off at a very fast gallop, calling out an impressive stream of highly undignified words as he went. He still hasn't returned.

Well, after the potion-making fiasco, I felt very faint, so I took a nap for a while in yet another uncomfortable tree. I tried to eat some berries after I awoke, but couldn't keep them down. I've no idea what I'm ill with, but after the way Edric has abandoned me to suffer alone, I hope that I'm highly contagious.

Oh dear, I think I'm going to be sick again. Please excuse me.