The Chameleon Shop

At the Castle on Mount Beaton

The Crone was poking morsels of raw meat, on the end of a sharp stick between the bars of a cage, in which one of her wild ferrets lived. The ferret snatched it quickly and ripped into the meat, ravenous.

She returned to her table, cut open a carcass of some small creature recently dead and pulled out its innards. The old crone threw these into a pewter dish adding some vile green goo from a glass bottle. It hissed and bubbled. She pulled her rune bones from the pocket in her ragged dress and tossed them into the horrible concoction, swirling the plate and its contents round and round in circles.

When she stopped to read the prophecy she screamed in horror and dropped the plate to the floor with a crash.

‘No! It can’t be?’ Her rune-bones had predicted her death, you see. Death by fire! ‘The White Witch shall be to blame?’ She muttered, ‘It has to be that girl!’

She rushed over to another table where small globes, of varying sizes, of a planetary model stood. ‘Blood moon, in two days. All I need is the heart of a white witch and I can make the spell to protect me from fire. Kill two birds with one stone, ha ha ha!’ She cackled high-pitched and shrewish.

She grabbed her wand from the table and pointed it at her face. The wand looked nothing more than a gnarly pile of sticks, roughly tied together with twine. However, when she pointed it at herself, a silver flash shot out, transforming the crone into an eagle. The eagle hopped to the arched window of the dungeon and soared up into the blue sky, then down to the border woods of the Spirit Realm.

There the eagle became the crone once more. She began casting more spells, more evil magic, waving her arms about in wild patterns. She left two gargoyles waiting inside to grab the White Witch when the innocent young thing wandered back through the woods.

How could the girl resist entering the irresistible candy-cottage sitting in her path?

The bars that held them apart vanished like smoke and Kaylee stepped into her father’s loving arms. His kind eyes filled with tears anew, spilling down his cheeks as he hugged her so close she could hardly breathe.

Kaylee’s hand trembled as she lifted it to touch his face, fearing it would disappear just before she could touch him, as good dreams always did when it was time to wake. Upon finding him real live flesh and blood, she crumbled back into his arms and sobbed her little heart out on his big warm chest, releasing so many months of hurt.

She turned suddenly to go, ‘Right then,’ she sniffed loudly and wiped a drip from her nose with her sleeve. ‘The sooner I leave, the sooner I can come back and get you out.’

‘Wait! Where are you going?’ Her father asked.

‘To get this bloody egg, I guess,’ she replied rebelliously.

‘But, it’s night time. You can’t do it in the dark, sweetheart.’

’How do you know its night time, after being held prisoner here twenty-four-seven?’ She aimed an accusing stare at the dragon.

‘I’ve been here a long time you know,’ he replied quietly.

‘Yes, I do know.’ With tears in her eyes she said, ‘you have missed my birthday and Father’s day ... and ... and,’ she sobbed incoherently and he pulled her back into his arms, letting her go to pieces again.

‘You may rest here the night,’ Saorsa said. ‘Begin the search fresh tomorrow. Wilfrey will not harm the egg; he wants my baby ... alive!’

‘But,’ Kaylee said, hysterical with fatigue and worry, ‘What about Mum? She is going to kill me for disappearing on her like this. She will be half-mad with worry. I have to return. I’ve been gone for what? How many days ... five?’

‘No. The clock and the shop both reset, each time you go back, give or take a day or two. Your mother will only think you have been gone for a short while.’ The dragon stared intently into Greg’s cell. Moments later a fluffy brown fur pelt appeared before their eyes. ‘All will be well,’ she said. ‘Sleep child. Tomorrow, Wilfrey will meet his match.’

Now that Kaylee knew the whole sad tale, she sort of understood the dragon’s reasons for what she had done. A mother will do anything to be reunited with her child, just as Kaylee would do anything to get her father back.

Saorsa had looked after him reasonably well. Greg shared his dinner with Kaylee and the dragon went off, presumably to hunt for her own, or perhaps to be alone with her sorrow.

‘Use the key,’ Saorsa said to Kaylee, the next morning as she prepared to leave for the castle. Kaylee had no plan in mind, but trusted something would reveal itself in time. It always seemed to in this place. ‘Use the key,’ the dragon had told her, ‘It will hide you when you need to disappear and it will disguise you when you need, not to be seen.’

Are they not the same thing? Kaylee wondered to herself.

‘How does the key do these things?’ Kaylee was very curious about the dragon’s magic.

‘My egg has been stolen. I have been living with half a heart since that terrible day.’ She rose up and peeled back some scales in her chest to show a red glow, where indeed half her heart was thumping away. ‘Half my heart has been put into that key, so I can do all in my power to help you get my baby back.’

‘I’ll try, I promise you. I will try my very hardest,’ Kaylee said earnestly, feeling the incredible weight of responsibility settle on her shoulders.

‘That is all I can ask of you, child,’ Saorsa whispered softly and turned away as her emotions welled up. Then she turned back, ‘Mind you. If you fail … I might be inclined to want to kill you.’

‘Right,’ Kaylee said a little stunned. ‘So, no pressure then.’

Greg helped Kaylee adjust her backpack over the green cloak. ‘I wish I could do this for you instead. Please be careful out there, my big brave girl. I am so very proud of you darling.’