A bell rang out in the sleepy town of Leviathon. Ramea cocked one eye open. This meant trouble. Dressing as quickly as she could, she ran to the other side of the house to find her brother.

“Zeldin! Wake up!”

“Huh?”

“Oh you are such a heavy sleeper. Didn't you hear the bell?'

“Bell? Huh?” he still looked half asleep. Then: “Oh! A Telray!” he said, naming the town's name for an emergency gathering. Suddenly he was wide awake. “I'll be ready in a minute!”

A few minutes later, Ramea and Zeldin made their way to the town square. All around them, excited, nervous whispers flitted through the crowd. This crowd, the townspeople of Leviathon, was not a large one. The village had only about 5000 people in it, and in general, not many visitors. Separated from the rest of the country, not much really happened. So when the town bell rang, it could only signify an emergency.

Ramea wondered vaguely if someone had died, because she couldn't think of a good reason for the stuffy old king to call an emergency meeting. Of course, there were the rumors of flesh-eating nightmares in the forest - but Ramea was too old to believe that. And at that point, her thoughts inevitably drifted back to her wand. She and Zeldin had found two wands in their attic the week before, and she could hardly think of anything else. They greatly increased the limited magic that Leviathonians could already do, and there was no telling what she could do - if she could only get her hands on a spellbook.

The townspeople were jumpy and scared as they gathered around the plaza. Ramea yawned. Unlike her, most of them had chosen to get up at 8:00 on a Saturday morning. She was still rubbing her eyes as the king, or His Royal and Esteemed Majesty, Bradbury Flantifer Hempleface, Great and Mighty Ruler of the Grand Duchy of Leviathon, as he preferred to be called, stood up to speak. The king cleared his throat and looked around the crowd, succeeding at both getting the people's attention and giving them a look that made Ramea want to run away. The king did not have a history of caring for the townspeople, and many believed he would sacrifice any person in the town in order to increase the ostentatiousness of his castle.

“A terrible beast has been ravaging the countryside.” He paused, and people looked at each other, their faces full of fear. “But I don't want to keep you in suspense. This creature,” he paused for effect, “is a dragon.” Immediately every single person around Ramea started screaming hysterically and hugging one another. Ramea and Zeldin exchanged exasperated looks and shrugged.

“A group of our bravest men has already tried to slay the wretched thing. We didn't want to alarm you all unnecessarily, in case it turned out not to be a threat,” he said, not sounding very sincere at all. “Oh, and I don't believe they're coming back,” he added as an afterthought. At this the volume of noise, if possible, increased. But Ramea was skeptical. She knew the king wouldn't care if someone died. He was that shallow. There had to be something else...

“And this creature,” he raised his voice, “has set fire to an entire turret of my fine an expensive castle. Gone! Destroyed!”

Yep. She knew it.

The king banged his fist on the armrest of his throne. “We must end this destruction, or my entire castle will be gone. Burned to the ground!” And the houses too, Ramea realized.

“Now who will come forth?” the king's voice boomed, “Who will come forth and slay the dragon?” the king waited, his eyes clicking scathingly around the crowd.

A plan was forming in Ramea's mind. There was something they had that the others didn't. She looked at Zeldin, an evil grin on her face. And indeed, she was the only one there who was smiling.

“Oh no,” Zeldin whispered, “Not one of your crazy plans again.” But Ramea persisted, so Zeldin shrugged. “All right. I relent,” he joked.

“Annn - yyy - oooonee????” the king cried, beadily scanning the audience.

Suddenly, two small figures wafted forward. The king's discontent was evident even before they got up there. The king had long disapproved of magic, mainly because everyone in the town had the ability to levitate - everyone that is, except for him. This was because his great large body could barely be supported by his throne, much less air, no matter how much power he stole to try and achieve it. So he had outlawed magic. And this, Ramea suspected, was why those people had died.

Ramea was brought back to the present by the king's face, gradually growing redder. “Kids!” he roared, “How many times have I told you not to levitate in public?” But as Ramea and Zeldin moved closer, realization dawned on him. They weren't up here to annoy him. They were volunteering.

“That's it?” he screeched. “Two kids? I'll not have such rubbish in my kingdom. Go to your rooms!”

“Don't got none,” Zeldin said sulkily, referring to the one room shack they lived in. “However, if we killed the dragon...” he looked up hopefully, his eyes barely coming up to the king's great waist.

Ramea could sense the conflict going on behind those fierce eyes, and tried not to grin. On one hand, if they defeated the dragon, that would be good for his castle. On the other, it would be shameful if to mere kids were able to defeat a creature that had plagued the land for years. But really, it didn't matter. They weren't going to be able to do it anyway, this he was sure of.

“So... you really think you can do this, huh?”

“Yes,” said Zeldin defiantly, squarely meeting his gaze.

“When a group much stronger than you perished? Preposterous!”

“Well maybe,” Ramea smiled, “but we got magic on our side.” Zeldin winced, worried she'd give away their secret.

“Fine!” the king snarled, “You got it! But I'll be darned if I see either of you alive tomorrow!”

“I told you that magic thing would get him,” Ramea said as they drifted back, with that stupid crazy grin on her face.

But when they returned to the house, the grin was wiped right off her face. Their mother was livid. “How could you do that?!! I would never have thought...” she seemed incapable of coherent thought. “You two! How! How!”

“You don't understand, Mom. Ramea's got a plan,” Zeldin said, sincerely hoping that she did.

“Yeah. We won't get killed Mom, we promise,” added Ramea, although she wasn't sure her mom heard her through all that yelling.

“No. I won't allow you. I forbid it!”

“It's too late, Mom. We already made the promise.”

Thirty minutes and many arguments later, Ramea and Zeldin set out to the forest, armed only with their forbidden wands, some rope (Ramea's idea), and their lunches.

“So, where do you suggest we should start?” Zeldin mused, half talking to himself.

“How about the beginning?” Ramea countered, levitating herself to the edge of the forest.

“Uh, where's that?” Zeldin said. The forest looked pretty big. Ramea opened her mouth, then closed it. Her brother had a point. For once.

“Well, if we had a stupid magic book...”

“Good luck,” Zeldin scoffed, “All we've got are these stupid wands.”

“You mean the super expensive, rare, antiques that even the king would sell his castle to get his hands on? Hardly stupid.”

Zeldin was about to say something, when he noticed Ramea doing something funny with her wand.

“Go west,” she said simply.

“Wait a minute! What'd you do?!!”

“Easy,” she said, with a look on her face that made Zeldin want to sock her, “I just used the wand and asked it which way to the fire dragon.”

“Well, if you're so great, let's see if we actually find the thing.”

They didn't have long to wait. Up ahead, they could already feel the heat.

“Yikes! What's that?”

“Shhh, it's the dragon. Don't want to get on it's bad side.”

“Um, I think we already have,” Zeldin said, as the dragon turned and prepared to spew fire on them. They just barely got out of the way in time.

“Mr., er, Dragon,” Ramea squeaked, “D'ya think it would be all right if you stopped, you know, burning stuff?” She started backing up. “I guess not. We'll be uh, leaving...” The dragon responded by setting fire to a nearby tree, narrowly missing them.

“Platinum,” the dragon roared.

“It spoke,” said Zeldin, amazed.

“Well of course I spoke,” the dragon's voice raised angrily. “And I'll thank you call me by my name. It! Dragon! Humph!” he bellowed, setting yet another tree on fire.

“Er, Mr., er...”

“Platinum, I just told you!” the dragon yelled, though this time, Ramea gladly noted, he sounded more exasperated than angry.

“Yes, Mr. Platinum, we've noticed that you've set quite a few things on fire, and apparently killed a few people. We're trying to kindly ask you not to,” Ramea said, as sweetly as possible. This wouldn't work of course, but was the only tactic she knew.

“Oh,” sniffed the dragon. Was that a tear coming out of his eye? “It was an accident. I'm so sorry!” Then to Ramea and Zeldin's complete surprise, he started crying. What in the world were they supposed to do now?

“Well Mr. Platinum...”

He interrupted Zeldin with a loud nose blow, however, this didn't very well, since fire came out of his nose too.

“I didn't mean too... They came at me with arrows and swords. What was I supposed to do? I got mad at them, and I didn't mean to set fire to them, I really didn't! Oh! Oh!”

“Um, Platinum, why don't you just... not breathe fire?”

“Oh that's near impossible, you see. It's a fate I was cursed with.”

“A curse?” Zeldin's eyes lit up. “We could do something about that!”

“Really? Oh could you? Oh I would be forever in your debt. Oh how can I repay you? Thank you! Thank you!”

“Um, Platinum,” Ramea felt herself going red. “We haven't done anything yet.”

“Oh that's right,” he paused, “huh.”

“So, Platinum, how'd you get that curse then?” Zeldin inquired.

The dragon shuddered. “Oh, I don't like to talk about it. But if you insist... I was cursed by Manches Herzeleid.”

It didn't have the effect he'd intended. Both Ramea and Zeldin looked confused.

“You've never heard of Manches Herzeleid?” the dragon bellowed incredulously, setting another tree on fire.

“No. Should we have?” Ramea asked.

“Why he is only the evilest, most powerful, cold hearted magician this land has ever seen.”

“Because he cursed you? Or because he's the only magician you've ever seen?”

“Well,” the dragon looked confused,”Now that you mention it... Well anyway, he didn't exactly put a curse on me to breathe fire exactly. No, not really. Much worse I'm afraid. Much, much worse.”

“Okay, get to the point,” Ramea said, annoyed.

“Well you see, I have the horrible misfortune of eating 50 jalapeños a day, every day, for the rest of my life!”

Again, the two kids seemed more perplexed than shocked. The dragon grumbled. He was not getting anywhere! “Oh don't tell me you've never heard of jalapeños!” he wined.

“Course we have,” said Zeldin, “Never eaten any myself. Rather spicy, so I've heard.”

“That's the point!” the dragon snarled, “I'm forced to eat hot, spicy, putrid peppers every day of my life, constantly. That's why I breathe fire!”

Ramea had to work hard to suppress her giggling. This magician guy may have been evil, but he was surely very clever. The dragon was getting mad, so she backed away, afraid she might get burned worse than those trees currently blazing around her.

“You laugh at me girl, and you meet the same fate as those poor saplings over there.”

“I wasn't laughing at you,” she said, speaking randomly, “I was thinking about a way to help you.”

“There's no way to help me. I just told you that. If there were, somebody would have done something by now.”

“Not true,” Ramea persisted, “Nobody's ever tried. But we will - if you have any idea where to start.”

“Well,” said Platinum, “I do have some idea...” He snorted sparks into the ground. “You know of Mount Ellery, right?” They nodded. Mount Ellery was the tallest mountain in the local range, (though none were very tall), and sat right next to the second tallest, Mount Nortenz. This mountain was only a few feet different in height, yet nobody bothered with it because they could just climb Mount Ellery and claim they'd climbed the tallest mountain in the range.

“Yep. Ellery, not Nortenz. Make sure of that. They do look quite similar, you know.

“Well,” he paused dramatically, “The magician Herzeleid has some sort of house or small castle, somewhere on Mount Ellery. I'm pretty sure it's hidden by magic, or one of your kind would have found it by now, wouldn't they? Not that it matters,” he said dejectedly, absently stamping out red sparks on the ground. ”I already told you there's no way to cure me.”

“Don't worry. That won't be a problem for us.” Ramea grinned.

“What?.... Oh.” Zeldin said, looking down at his wand. It was glowing. Odd. It hadn't done that before.

“Anyway, Herzeleid's house has some spellbooks probably. But it doesn't matter. Even if you find a countercurse, you still won't be able to lift the spell from me.”

“Why not?”

“Well you see, another side effect of the curse is that if you lift the curse off me, I won't be able to fly.”

“I'm sure some people wouldn't mind that,” Zeldin joked.

Ramea ignored his comment. “Oh come on, Platinum. Don't you know the fundamental rule of magic? For every enchantment there is an equal and opposite enchantment. That means, if this curse was put on you, it can be removed, some way or another, without side effects.”

“Oh.” He looked dumbfounded. “Well good then. I hope you know the way to Mount Ellery. I'm off.”

“We'll manage,” Ramea said, but before she could say another word, Platinum took off, soaring off above the trees, until he was just a tiny speck in the distance.

“I wouldn't do that if I were him,” Ramea remarked, “Great target for arrows.”

“Yeah, uh, whatever. Not our problem. Let's go.”

***

After an hour, they had wafted to the bottom of Mount Ellery using Ramea's finding spell. But before they could proceed, a curious sign blocked their way. It read:

Oh one morning on Mount Ellery,
how much I did crave celery,
But all I could see,
For miles around me,
Was nothing worth much a Tellery.

“What kind of poem is that? And why would anyone bother engraving it on a sign?” Zeldin complained.

“Because they were bored, duh. No really, if must be some kind of message.” Ramea looked thoughtful.

“Oh come off it, Ramea, some crazed person what just practicing their wood carving skills. Let's go.

“Um, how?”

“I suppose we could levitate ourselves up. That's what we've been doing all along, hasn't it?”

It was probably true. Ramea concentrated on the power in her wand, and suddenly found herself rising, higher and higher, many more feet than she ever had in Leviathon.

“Wow, it's neat up here, Zeldin! Come on!” A few minutes later, Zeldin figured it out, and came up to join her. He marveled at the scenery, and the phenomenal view they had. Then they were off, up to Mount Ellery.

After an hour or so, Ramea was starting to understand the mountain's reputation. With all those pitfalls and crevasses, it would have been an absolute nightmare to actually climb this thing.

Ramea's teeth started to chatter, and sure enough, as she zoomed up the mountain, there was more and more snow on the ground.

“It's c-cold up here,” Zeldin chattered.

“Thank you for that blatant statement of the obvious. Now, let's stop a sec, so I can do a finding spell.”

Luckily they didn't fall into any pits when they touched the ground, and Ramea did her spell. It turned out the house was southwest of where she was. Good. She didn't know how much longer she could stand the biting cold.

When they finally reached the castle, the sun had come out, and they gratefully landed on the ground.

“Hmm, now this ought to have tons of spells and enchantments guarding it, so we have to be really, really careful.”

“Oh calm down, Ramea. This Herzeleid guy was probably some fat old geezer who didn't have time to bother with that kind of thing. I mean, look at his house!”

For the second time that morning, Ramea had to admit he had a point. The castle did not look like the kind of palace an evil magician would live in. Besides having pink frill on all the windowsills, the “Happy Easter” sign on the door looked entirely out of place.

“Well,” said Ramea, “Nothing to do but go for it I guess.” She ran forward with her hands out, as though she expected to run into an invisible glass wall.

Nothing. “That was too easy,” she said.

“So open the door then,” Zeldin prompted. This was not so easy. It wouldn't budge when Zeldin tried the handle, nor would it open when both of them used the power from their wands.

“Uh oh. We're in trouble.”

“Not yet,” Ramea said, kicking the door vigorously, as though this would suddenly cause it to work.

“Abracadabra! Peterklomi! Mononucleois! Herzeleid!” she tried. No luck.

“Maybe we gotta make it rhyme. Open up the door, or my foot will be quite sore,” he said, kicking the door as he said this.

“That's a stupid rhyme,” Ramea scoffed, but then she had an idea. “Alohomora!” she yelled, pointing her wand at the door.

“Alohomora? You can't plagiarize from Harry Potter, you dolt.”

“Yes I can. It just worked.” And sure enough, the door creaked open, and they stepped inside. Ramea looked around cautiously. There was, of course, a possibility that Herzeleid might be here. But Platinum had said he hadn't been seen for many years. And his house sure suggested that fact.

The two kids filed past the ant-infested kitchen (complete with dirty dishes from the last meal there), and into a room Ramea guessed was the library. To her surprise, the door opened right away. Among the musty and molding shelves caked with layers of dust, they found the book. It was cleverly titled “The Book of Magic.”

“Do you suppose this is it?” Zeldin asked.

“Yes, dummy, do you see any other magic books here?”

“Well I was going to say yes...” He opened up a book at random: “ ‘Many people seem to feel that celery is just another vegetable. But we're here to prove those people wrong.' Uh, I guess not.”

Ramea smacked the magic book on the table. “Well this can't be that hard. The spells got to be in here somewhere. It's not like this book is that big or anything.” Opening up the dusty tome, she immediately regretted her words. Somehow, oddly, it had expanded to twice it's size upon opening. And it wasn't stopping.

“Uh, I vote we do this as quickly as possible.” Zeldin said.

“Wow, you're clever,” Ramea said sarcastically, flipping to the index. The index, however, was almost as big as the book used to be. Under “dragon” she found anything from dousing fire to curling tail hair. The fact that there were about 1000 spells under “fire” didn't help much either. “We are so not getting anywhere. Unless you want to sift through all of those.”

“Wait a minute,” Zeldin looked thoughtful, which was a change for him. “Platinum said mentioned something about jalapeños, didn't he?”

“Yeah!” Ramea said, and quickly flipped to the page, worried that the ever expanding book would engulf her before she found the spell.

“Well here it is,” she said importantly, “The Jalapeño Curse.”

Ramea grabbed a scrap of paper to mark the page. “This is interesting. There's a really easy incantation to undo the curse, but like Platinum said, the side effect for airborne mammals is that they won't be able to fly.”

“I'm sure some people wouldn't mind that,” Zeldin scoffed, referring to the other 99.9% of the population.

“Yes well I mind it, and so would Platinum,” Ramea said, glaring at him. She resumed reading the page. “Oooh, this looks difficult. Apparently we have to find all 4 dragons that represent each of the elements: fire, earth, air, water.”

“So I'm guessing Platinum is the fire dragon?”

“Duh. Did you leave your brain back there with Hempleface?”

“Well, if you're so smart, find the other three then!”

“And you think we're going to find any up here? Come on, let's go.” Ramea shut the book, and it thankfully shrank back to its original size. Stuffing it in her backpack, she and Zeldin walked outside.

The journey down the mountain was considerably faster, especially since they had gravity on their side. Plus, neither of them could wait to be back on the warm ground again.

Ramea stuck out her wand. “The water dragon's that way,” she called.

“But how are we going to find something that would probably collapse before it could be made?”

“Dunno. We'll find out.”

But they had been walking for quite a while, and nothing look promising. Ramea was seriously thinking they should just give up, when Zeldin spoke. “That's what it means! I got it! I got it! “

“You got what? Explain before the end of the day, please.”

“That poem, remember? It said “nothing worth much a tellery. That's not what it meant. It meant nothing worth much a Telray.”

“So what does that mean?” Ramea asked, still skeptical.

“It means, I suppose... that the fire dragon's okay. Calling a Telray wasn't necessary because the dragon isn't evil and doesn't need to be killed.”

“Which doesn't help us at all,” Ramea said, indicating the endless stretch of trees in front of them.

“Well it could have, if we hadn't met Platinum first...” He trailed off. After thirty minutes of slowly wafting, Zeldin was well, sick of slowly wafting. Especially the slowly part. And also, he had an idea. Ramea certainly wouldn't like it, but... He cleared his throat. “Ramea. Er, D'you think, you know, we could go faster, cause we're getting nowhere now and...”

“Spit it out.”

“That maybe we could... use the wands as broomsticks? You know, like in those books.”

“Zeldin! How could you say that! We're not witches! It's a really good thing there' s no one around to hear you!” Ramea said, nervously scanning the area. To be called a witch was the worst insult in Leviathon, and everyone knew witches rode broomsticks.

“Well,” he said, scuffing the ground with his foot, “No one is going to see us. And it would make us go faster, you know. If we have to spend any more time waddling along...”

Ramea reluctantly agreed. Quickly consulting The Book of Magic, she found a spell that would create an invisible seat so that she could use the wand to navigate.

“And you call that a broomstick?” Zeldin said. “See, no problem at all.”

And then they were off, zooming at about 10 times their previous speed, going faster and faster, until Ramea started worrying she was going to crash. The trees rushed by until... “WHOA!!” she cried, jerking the wand upward. She had barely missed a cave, though really, once she thought about it, it was more like an elaborate ice structure. That they could walk through. An ice cave! Yeah, that was it.

“That's it!” she cried. “Zeldin, we're looking for an ice dragon, not a water dragon!” She looked around. “Uhh, Zeldin?” Dang it, he was gone. Probably ran into a tree or something.

A moment later a small figure plummeted to the ground, narrowly missing Ramea's ear. “Sorry. Got lost. Oh, and I kind of ran into a tree too.”

“Gee, couldn't tell,” Ramea said, looking at his face which sported a broken nose. “But I bet there's a spell for that.” Sure enough, there was. Ramea had just finished the incantation (helanaristeis) when suddenly it looked as though they had found the ice dragon.

“Whoooo..... dares trespass upon my lands!” the dragon's voice boomed, not unlike Platinum when he had first met them.

“Oh no, I'm sorry, your um highness (she knew better than to call it “dragon”). We don't mean to trespass. Actually,” she smiled sweetly, “We were hoping you could do us a favor.”

“A favor? I, the great dragon, Magnesium, I give no favors! Especially not to humans!” Uh oh. This could be harder than they thought.

“But the favor isn't for us,” Zeldin piped up. “It's for Platinum, the fire dragon. Do... do you know him?”

“Platinum? You know where Platinum is?” the dragon's demeanor changed abruptly, and now Zeldin was sure it was female.

“Well, sort of. We were just talking to him, and he needs help.”

“Oh gladly! What does he need? What can I do? When can I see him?”

“Slow down. A curse was put on him by that evil magician Manches Herzeleid.” Magnesium recoiled in fear.

“Oh he's not here anymore. Actually he sort of disappeared. We don't know where he is, or whether he's even alive. But my point is, he needs you to help break the curse.”

“He needs my help? Really?” said Magnesium, looking utterly flattered.

“Yeah. Herzeleid put a curse on him that makes him eat jalapeños all the time. Which causes him breathe fire. A bunch of houses and trees have been set on fire because of him.”

“And a few people,” Ramea said softly.

The ice dragon snorted, as if to say that she thought trees and humans were about equal. But she still seemed willing to help.

“We need five of your... feathers.” Ramea said, clueless as to how you would extract feathers from and dragon made out of ice.

“My feathers?” Irked, the dragon ruffled, as though the very thought were simply ludicrous. “Why, if you take my feathers, I shall look simply dreadful! My whole coat will be off balance!” she shook her head self- consciously, and a few drops of water that had melted rained down on them.

“Well, we'll take two from each side and one from the middle then. Honestly.” However, Zeldin had gone too far. He stepped back slowly as Magnesium stared at him intently.

“Er.. you'd do it for Platinum, wouldn't you Magnesium?” Ramea said quickly, in the sweetest voice she could manage.

“Oh of course. But...” She still didn't look too pleased.

“But first,” said Ramea, “we'll need the other dragons. They all have to be close to each other for the spell to work. Do you have any idea where they'd be?”

“You need other dragons for this spell?” she asked completely missing the question. She look rather disappointed,

“Of course there are. Now are you going to help us? It took us like two hours to find you, and I don't really want to have to spend that much time finding the others.”

“You mean you walked all the way over here from that shoddy town of yours?” Magnesium sniggered loudly, causing the nearest tree to be engulfed in ice.

“Well yeah...”

“You don't even know a simple apparating spell?”

Ramea and Zeldin looked at each other. The idea had never occurred to them. Though really, Ramea doubted it would be as easy as Magnesium made it sound.

“Pathetic! You humans, I swear!” They waited for her to stop laughing, and she continued. “Well since you're here, I suppose it doesn't make sense to apparate anyway, since all you need is an even simpler summoning spell.” Zeldin exchanged a look with Ramea. Another thing they'd never thought of.

“Well, at least we know the incantation for that,” Ramea said airily, remembering what she'd read in the Harry Potter books. But Zeldin knew it was a mistake. Magnesium's guffawing shook the entire ice cave, until Zeldin was sure it was going to topple.

“Stupid! Insolent! Arrogant humans! You knew the spell and didn't use it! I don't think it can possibly get worse than this. Absolutely pathetic! You humans!” She continued walking around and muttering to herself, spraying nearby trees with showers of ice.

Ramea tried the summoning spell, but was shaking so badly she couldn't concentrate on it.

“Oh Ramea, don't let her get to you. Dragons have a history of being a little arrogant themselves too,” he said, raising his voice a bit so Magnesium could hear.

“So sorry dears,” she said, not looking very sorry at all, “You are just children. But still, I would have expected...” But just then Ramea had reached her limit, and was pointing a shaking wand directly at the dragon's heart. “All right! All right! I'm sorry! Go do your spell then.”

“Thank you,” Ramea said curtly, “Now maybe we can get some work done.” Magnesium shut up then. Despite how dumb and arrogant these humans were, it was kind of fun to talk to them, and she'd rather not be forced to give them a deadly ice shower.

Meanwhile, Zeldin, who hadn't gotten so riled up by the dragon, concentrated on summoning Platinum. He pictured Platinum firmly in his mind, and yelled, “Accio Platinum!”
figuring that was the incantation Ramea had meant.

“Almost,” Ramea gave a small smile, “You got him about halfway.” She repeated the incantation, and Platinum appeared at their side.

“Burrr... It's cold. Why'd you bring me here?..... Oh,” he said, seeing Magnesium for the first time. “Why what brings you here Maggie? I haven't seen you in ages.”

“Oh, can't you guess?” she giggled, which was hard considering she was a dragon. “I live here. I have to, otherwise I'd melt.”

“Oh, Maggie, how dreadful! How did that happen?”

“It was that magician of yours, Herzeleid. Quite a nasty guy, huh?” she said, ruffling her tail feathers - no small feat, considering they were ice. She didn't sound remotely depressed about the curse, but Ramea and Zeldin knew otherwise. He raised his eyebrows at Ramea, who shrugged.

“Really! So that's why I could never find you. I would never have thought to look here! That Herzeleid, we'll have to do something about him.”

“But it was worse for you, wasn't it Plati?” exclaimed Magnesium. “I don't know how you can stand eating those horrible peppers for so many years. Why, I simply would have died!”

“Oh,” he said, with an obviously fake grimace, “It's been hard, but I've managed.” Ramea rolled eyes. This was certainly not how he'd explained it to them. Dragons. Honestly.

Ramea let them at it, and went back to her spell, joining her power with Zeldin's to try and summon the earth dragon. This was much harder, since they'd never met him before, and couldn't picture him in their minds. After a few minutes, they both collapsed in a heap. Ramea could barely move she felt so drained.

“Ugh,” creaked Zeldin after a few minutes, “Any idea if it worked?”

“Mm,” said Ramea, still feeling somewhat monosyllabic, “Yes I think so, look!” She pointed, and sure enough, there was something large and cake-like walking up the path.

“Oh. Excuse me,” said a voice. “Did you call me?” The dragon bent forward in what was unmistakably a bow.

Ramea was shocked. A polite dragon! This was a new thing. “Well yes actually; we'd like to ask a favor of you.”

“A favor? Why I'd be delighted! What exactly does it entail?”

“You see, two dragons we know need some help. Do you know Magnesium and Platinum?”

“Dreadfully sorry, but I can't say I do. Why, I simply had no idea there were other dragons.”

Well that made sense, Ramea thought. If he'd spent anytime around those two (separately), he certainly wouldn't be that polite to humans.

Suddenly the dragon sneezed, and before Ramea realized what had happened, she was covered in slimy brown earth.

“Oh no!” said the dragon, completely flummoxed. “I'm so sorry. Did it hit you?”

Ramea looked down at her clothes, soaked with earthy dragon snot. “Oh no,” she said sarcastically. “Not at all.”

“Oh that's good then,” said the uppity dragon, completely missing the sarcasm. “Well, I suppose I should introduce myself. Will you forgive me for not doing so earlier? I know it was terribly rude.” He paused, then continued. “I'm Selenium. How do you do?” For a moment, Ramea was worried he was going to try and shake her hand or something, but he refrained.

“Er...” Ramea didn't like all these formalities. Luckily, she was saved, (if you could call it that) when the dragon sneezed again. A fresh wave of mucusy dirt splattered on her and Zeldin.

“Oh, I'm so sorry. It was truly, truly an accident. Really, I did not ever in the slightest mean any speck of harm...”

Ramea was getting a bit miffed at his overexaggerated politeness. “Look Mr. Selenium, we need you to help us with a spell, all right? Save the apologies for later. You can pay us back this way.”

The dragon didn't say anything, apparently afraid Ramea would yell at him for apologizing, but nodded. As they walked back toward the other dragons, Zeldin thought of something. “That's a nasty cold you've got. Is it allergies?”

“My cold? Oh yes, I'm dreadfully sorry about that. If there were any possible way I could undo what I just did, I would be most grateful and appreciative and...”

“That's not what I asked. Where'd you get the cold?”

“Well,” he said elaborately, “a few years a go, there was a terrible, dark, evil magician who plagued the land with his audacious madness. Those were dark and desolate times, and this magician...”

“You mean Herzeleid?” Zeldin interrupted.

“Why yes of course, how did you know?”

“Some friends of our had some problems with him too.”

“Friends?”

“The dragons,” Zeldin explained, exasperated.

“Oh yes, why of course!”

“To make a long story short, he cursed them. What about you?”

“Why, quite amazing! You are most bright. He cursed me too, what a coincidence! I have a simply dreadful perpetual cold and must suffer rabid dirt shooting through my nostrils every time I have the barest sniffle. Simply dreadful.“

They returned to the two other dragons, who were still locked in deep conversation. Ramea looked around, as if mentally counting the dragons. “Hmm, we're looking for an air-breathing dragon now.”

“Well that should be easy - a dragon that's got no problems.”

“Don't be so sure,” Ramea said, looking at Magnesium, currently trying to show off her flying abilities. Since her wings were ice, it wasn't working too well. “Come on, let's do the spell.”

“Excuse me, no. Not till I have lunch,” Zeldin said. It was true. They hadn't eaten for hours.

“Well I'm going to do something useful,” Ramea said haughtily, taking out her wand. But she could barely start the finding spell. Her head hurt. “Fine, you win,” she said, taking her lunch out of her backpack. “But make it quick.”

Fifteen minutes later, Ramea and Zeldin were concentrating on Ramea's finding spell to try and locate the air dragon. However, it wasn't working too well. Just as with the earth dragon, they had no idea what it would look like. “This is stupid,” Zeldin said, slamming his wand on the ground. “I bet it doesn't exist.”

“Oh please Zeldin, you're so pessimistic,” Ramea said. But truthfully, she was thinking the same thing. A finding spell should be easy - it was her specialty, after all - it was the summoning spell that ought to be difficult. “We're looking for the wrong thing,” she decided. “We must be, or we'd have found it by now.” She closed her eyes and tried to broaden her mind as to what she might be seeking. Something that flies... Something that flies...

Suddenly she had it. It wasn't a dragon, exactly... It was a... something. Smaller, but sort of dragon like. Well, it was worth a try. She gathered up all her power for the draining summoning spell. She had barely uttered the incantation, when -WHAM! Something hit her face.

“I guess I used too much power, huh?” she said, dazed. She blinked a little, and looked up. It wasn't a dragon. It was a bird.

“A bird? Why how absurd!” said Selenium, who had been watching. He looked quite proud of his little rhyme. Ramea was completely surprised. She had forgotten he was there.

“Why thank you for your insight,” she said, half sarcastic. “I don't supposed you could tell us where the actual dragon is, could you?”

“Why, that is the dragon, if you'll pardon my saying so. It has simply assumed another form.”

“Takes one to know one, I guess,” said Zeldin, a sly smile crossing his face. Selenium looked rather offended.

“Well there we are then.” Ramea looked excited. “Hey, er, dragon who is currently a bird, can you come here?” The bird cocked its head, which Ramea supposed was a nod, and flew toward them.

“Now what?” said Zeldin, looking at Ramea, as he always did, for advice.

“The spell, dummy.” She held up the book. “It's all in here.” Flipping open to the bookmarked page, she quickly called the other dragons to her, while Zeldin explained to the dragon-bird what was going on. Magnesium and Platinum both looked rather bitter that they had to break up their conversation, but at the same time, Platinum was eager. He would never have to eat one more stinking jalapeño ever again!

This ice cave was a good place, Ramea thought. There was no way for Platinum to set fire to anything here. “All right, let's start,” she said, raising her voice to address the dragons. “We need five feathers from each of you.” Magnesium didn't look any less distraught by this pronouncement than she had earlier, however she was obviously trying to hide her distress in front of Platinum.

Zeldin started collecting feathers from Selenium, Platinum, and the bird-dragon, while Ramea worked on Magnesium. It took the better part of fifteen minutes to find five feathers she would agree with, but by the time those had been removed Ramea honestly couldn't find a difference in her coat.

Meanwhile, Zeldin was studying the spell's how-to page, though this was not easy with a dilating book. “All 20 feathers must be woven in the pattern shown here,” he read. “Ramea, heeelp me!!”

“Oh get out of the way,” a different voice than he expected scoffed. “Why do you ask a mere human when you could ask me?” Magnesium, of course. Ugh. “Oh this is so simple. I can't understand how this could possibly give you trouble.” With a quick glance to make sure Platinum was watching, she arranged the feathers in the intricate pattern described by the book, which had now reached a size easily read by a dragon. “There you go. Simple.”

“And you say humans are arrogant,” Zeldin muttered, but went on with the spell. “Apparently you all need to er, breathe on the feathers while Ramea and I say the incantation. Oh, and you'll need a couple of jalapeños, of course.”

“No problem,” Platinum said, with a exasperated sigh. He took out a pouch, and placed five jalapeños on top of the feathers.

“All right, make a circle around it, and we can start.” As the dragons moved in closer, Zeldin allowed himself a small laugh. Imagine what it would look like to a passerby right now - four fierce looking dragons all crowded around a pile of jalapeños as if it were a god or something.

“Wait a minute,” steamed Ramea. “You can't just start. You have to double check, make sure everything's okay. Otherwise, things could go horribly wrong.” Magnesium scoffed and Zeldin rolled his eyes, but then both stopped abruptly, shocked to actually be agreeing with each other. “Just let me check, all right!” Ramea shouted, and looked again at the spell book, which now had become so large they'd had to move it. There was something that was bothering her. “Wait a minute. How's the bird-dragon going to breathe on the feathers?” she said, a serious look on her face.

“Breathe on the feathers, breathe on the feathers. Ha ha, that sounds really funny,” Zeldin snickered.

“Shut up!” Ramea yelled, giving him a this-is-not-a-laughing-moment stare.

“That's a fair question,” mused Platinum, “How is it going to?” The bird-dragon suddenly starting chirping incessantly and nodding.

“Uh, I think that means he knows what to do,” Ramea said. The bird-dragon chirped and nodded again, with more vigor this time.

“See, I told you there was nothing wrong with the spell,” said Zeldin smugly.

“Well, there could have been, you know... Oh this is stupid. Let's start already!”

“You never had a better idea,” Magnesium jeered, but was quickly shut up by a look from Ramea.

For the second time, the dragons closed in on the feathers, and Zeldin said, “Okay, on my count: one... two... three...”

BOOM!

Somehow, this odd mix of feathers, jalapeños, fire, earth, and water sent them sprawling backwards. Selenium was sneezing constantly, doubtless from the jalapeños, and Magnesium was trying in vain to clean her feathers. Platinum was ignoring all of them, shouting “I'm cured! I'm cured!” and dancing around like a quite uncivilized dragon. “I'll never have to eat one more ruddy jalapeño ever again! Ever! Woohoo!!” He did a victory lap in the air, and came sweeping down in a perfect arc, and landed softly on the ground right next to Magnesium.

“Well that's great!” said Ramea. Then she turned to the dragons. “It's been nice meeting you, really, but we really ought to get going.” She pointed at the sky, which was rapidly approaching dusk.

“Oh no you don't lassie!” Magnesium yelled. “Has your tiny brain forgotten that I was cursed too?”

“And don't forget us!” Selenium squeaked between sneezes.

“That's right. Them too,” Magnesium added as an afterthought.

Ramea sighed and looked at Zeldin. It had been a long day, but it wasn't over yet. Then she went over to the Book of Magic , which was currently trying to expand but stuck between two trees. With great difficulty she managed to close the thing, then tentatively opened it again.

Within a few minutes, she found what she was looking for. “Well,” she said, turning to Selenium (who had thankfully stopped sneezing), “yours is a basic healing spell - you've only got a cold. But for you guys,” she turned to Magnesium and the bird-dragon. “We'll need to find Herzeleid.”

“Whaat???!!!” Magnesium sputtered. “I don't think I can stand this horrible disguise any longer.”

“Well I didn't write the spellbook, so don't blame me,” Ramea countered. “To return something to its original from, you need the agreement of the person who cast the spell. Makes sense, doesn't it? And most magicians can't even come close to casting this curse; it's way too difficult. But Herzeleid...”

“Is way too powerful for his own good!” cried Magnesium. She was becoming a bit whiny now that she had realized she might never be cured.

As they starting walking away from the cave, Ramea did the healing spell on Selenium. “It's really quite simple,” Ramea explained to him, “All he cursed you with, in its basic form, is the common cold. Not too clever if you ask me.”

But there was still Herzeleid to find. Once they had reached a clearing, Zeldin climbed on Selenium, while Ramea climbed on Platinum. (She would not ride on Magnesium, for more reasons than one!) Then all four dragons rose in to the air. Somehow, they seemed to know where they were headed.

“Hey Ramea!” Zeldin yelled after a few minutes, above the din of flapping wings. “Where're we going?”

“To town, dummy.”

“Why would Herzeleid be in town?”

“That's where my finding spell told me to go. Why would I know?” But what Zeldin said made her think. She had done her finding spell after the dragons had started flying northeast toward town. Which meant... the dragons must know something! She tried to yell this out to Platinum, but with his flapping wings in her face, she was pretty sure he didn't hear her.

When they landed, a little ways up from the town, the sky's dark color caught her eye. It was getting late, and she was starting to worry. She'd never been out that long before, after all. However, if they could find Herzeleid quickly, with any luck they could have this whole ordeal cleaned up before nighttime tea. Shaking herself off a bit, she looked up at Platinum and the other dragons. “Spill. How come you guys knew exactly where Herzeleid was? I didn't give you pointers or anything.”

“Spill? I rather quite confused, what should we spill?”

“Honestly Selenium.” Magnesium sighed loudly. “And you wonder why you've never seen another dragon before? No one can stand you!” Just as expected, Selenium immediately started to wail, and no matter what they said, he couldn't be consoled.

“Oh now look what you've done!” Zeldin yelled at Magnesium. “We don't have to worry about finding Herzeleid, he's probably going to find us!”

“Selenium, please shut up,” Ramea tried. Though they weren't right next to the town, they were still close enough that someone could hear. Unfortunately, her statement made him wail, if possible, even louder than before.

“Oh what is all this racket?” a voice boomed, shutting Selenium up immediately. It was the king, His Majesty Bradbury Hempleface, surrounded by an entourage of bodyguards. “Why, may I ask, have you brought not one but four dragons to Leviathon? I only wanted one, and I wanted it dead!”

Ramea didn't respond right away. She felt an odd tingly feeling in her wand, and unconsciously hid it behind her back. There was something funny going on here...

Suddenly she got it. Running up to Zeldin, she whispered in his ear, “Distract him!” and running behind a tree, opened her magic book.

“Your highness!” Zeldin bowed low to the ground. “Your highest majesty, ruler of the Grand Duchy of Leviathon, King Bradbury Flantifer Hempleface. I am your loyal and obedient servant...”

“I asked you a question!” he yelled. “Why have you brought these dragons to this town? Are you planning to burn down my castle and the town while we sleep? Are you on their side???”

Well now that you mention it, yes, thought Zeldin, but it's not quite what you think. “Your majesty, these dragons are now merely harmless beasts.” Annoyed, Magnesium cleared her throat loudly, as though she had an intense desire to prove him wrong. “We have cured the dragon! He no longer breathes fire. Your kingdom is safe now!” he yelled, putting false confidence in his voice. He tried to ignore the tingling of his fingers as he clutched the wand in his pocket.

“I did not ask for a “cured” dragon! I asked for a dead dragon! Not a single one of these dragons are dead!”

Great observation, Zeldin said to himself, thinking of the comment Ramea would have made. And speaking of Ramea, he had to keep talking... “But these dragons are fine, really your majesty. And they won't do any harm, I promise,” said Zeldin.

“The only good dragon is a dead dragon!” the king rumbled, “and if you won't find a way to dispose of them in the next thirty seconds, you will find yourselves and the dragons properly disposed of.” He cackled evilly, looking smugly at his servile bodyguards, each holding up a sword. These people would follow the king's every whim.

Zeldin was at a complete loss for words. He was so nervous and fearful that he couldn't even speak. Twenty identical swords held by twenty identical combatants were descending down on him, like giant maniacal clones who had forgotten the ability to think for themselves. Zeldin backed away, trembling. Oh hurry up, Ramea...

“You!” screamed a voice, thankfully female. It was Ramea! “I know who you are!” she cried. The bodyguards faltered, fearful of this foreign object, a wand in their faces. “You are Manches Herzeleid!” she yelled as loudly as she could. Zeldin was shocked. How could she accuse the king of that? “You are the reason these dragons have suffered, why those knights were killed, why countless trees and animals have been needlessly burned, and even your own castle,” she sneered.

“And now,” her face lit up with that maniac grin of hers, “It's time for you to go back where you came from!” Zeldin had never seen the king like this. His kingly composure was gone, and in its place - was that fear?

“No... no... no...” whimpered the king. Then he realized that he still had his bodyguards. “Kill them! Now!” he ordered. But his words held no force or command. Those guarding him had seen him admit his true identity, and would not follow him now.

Ramea shrugged, almost reluctantly, and said the incantation, pointing her wand at the king. Immediately he cried out, and began shrinking, oddly enough, until he was barely perceptible. Then - he was gone.

“What the hell did you do, Ramea?” asked Zeldin, completely shocked. “You killed him!” He half expected a sarcastic comment, but for once Ramea said nothing.

“I had to,” she said finally, “and I didn't kill him either, exactly. I simply took away his magic. Come on, Zeldin, how do you think he's been ruling Leviathon so long?” Her voice was shallow and soft, rather unlike the confident Ramea he was used to. “He's only been alive all these years because of his magic,” she continued. “I took it away, and, well, he just went to where he would have gone if he'd died when he was supposed to. Somewhere in the ground, I suppose.”

Zeldin pondered this for awhile. “Okay,” he said, “But then how did you know he was Herzeleid?”

“Simple,” Ramea said, and her smug grin returned. “Fist of all there was that tingling in my wand. I knew that must have meant something. But what really told me was when he said four dragons. No one but Herzeleid could have known that that bird was a dragon.”
Zeldin nodded, wondering why he hadn't noticed it himself. Of course...

“I'm not a bird you know,” said a high, perky voice he didn't recognize.

“Uh, what, who? Ramea was suddenly aware of all the dragons and people cluttered around them. And not just three dragons. Four. “Wow, you've changed back!” she exclaimed, looking at the dragon she hadn't seen before.

“Well, of course! As soon as you put your spell on Herzeleid, my curse no longer had any effect. I was changed back into a dragon immediately. And it's really quite nice; I can finally talk! I'm Vanadium, by the way.” Ramea smiled. She was beginning to like this dragon. The only intelligent one of the four, it seemed.

“Then I guess Magnesium...” Zeldin stopped short. Instead of a dragon-shaped piece of ice, she had transformed to a creature with vibrant red and gold plumage that glinted in the sun, as if each feather were a mirror, splaying light over the entire forest.

“Yep, she changed too,” the former bird-dragon nonchalantly informed the two.

“And it's a good thing too. I was starting to melt!”

“Well then, what now?” said Zeldin. “Our town's kind of missing a ruler. I don't think the people will be too happy about that, even if they didn't like him.”

“Well,” said Platinum, looking nervous and fidgety for some reason, “A long time ago, the dragons were kings.” He looked wistfully skyward. “And I was one of them...”

“I think what he's trying to say,” interpreted Vanadium, “is that he'd like to be king of your town.” Magnesium nodded her head in vigorous agreement.

“King of our town? I'd love that!” Zeldin exclaimed. “But...”

“No one's going listen to us,” Ramea finished. “We're just kids.”

“Not so much anymore,” Vanadium said cryptically. “But you're right. It may be hard to convince them.”

Ramea was sure Magnesium would have some sort of comment about this, but she said nothing. She wondered if this had anything to do with the fact that Vanadium had barely spoken two sentences, yet already seemed much wiser than Magnesium ever had.

The six of them walked into town to address the townspeople, with Platinum's new entourage in tow. Ramea fully expected everyone in the town to be fearful of the dragons, but none were. It seemed as though they were simply... curious, wondering what four large creatures were doing in the streets. Perhaps Herzeleid had put a spell on them, too.

By the time they got to the town square, there was hardly need for a bell. Though it was late and almost dark, the dragons were very visible on the streets.

“Know what you're going to say?” Ramea asked Platinum anxiously.

“Yes, I think so.” He looked very nervous. But the townspeople had assembled, so he cleared his throat and began. “Ladies and gentlemen, townspeople of Leviathon, I have heard you are in need of a new king.” Platinum continued on, explaining how dragons used to be the rulers, and how he would serve the town faithfully and help them in times of need. Ramea was impressed. It wasn't just anyone who could deliver a speech like that at the spur of the moment. However what she did notice was that he hadn't once mentioned Herzeleid...

Platinum went to go step down from the platform, or at least tried to, considering there was no space for a dragon in that crowd. However, before he could make up his mind as to whether to fly over them, he was stopped by one of the bodyguards.

“The coronation of a new king is a great honor,” the man said to the crowd, “This is what Leviathon has needed for many years. This calls for... and I'm sure you'll agree with me- this calls for a feast!” The people clapped and cheered, but Ramea still felt puzzled. “Many years?” What was that all about? They'd had a king about an hour ago. Then it came to her. The people never knew Herzeleid. When she had stripped the magician of his magic, she had erased the memory of him, too. The people didn't remember him because he had died when he was supposed to, 100 years earlier.

Ramea looked over at Zeldin, who had just came to the same conclusion. “Herzeleid never existed...” he said thoughtfully.

“Oh, come on, Zeldin, it's over. Party time!” She stood up with a renewed burst of energy. This truly had to be the best part of coming home. Now she could finally get that dragon mucus off her clothing!

***

A couple hours later the entire town assembled in the square for a twilight feast. Each dragon had a table to him or herself. The rest of the people were spread out, sitting at tables or on picnic blankets. Ramea looked over at her mother, sitting across from her at the table. There were tears in her eyes, but Ramea knew she was happy. She'd have to tell her the truth someday...

Platinum scanned the voluminous amount of food spread throughout the tables and picnic blankets. “Jalapeños, anyone?” Those who knew what he was talking about roared with laughter.

“Just kidding. Let the feast begin!”