Hatched

by Bruce Coville

  “I have to say, going through the Transcendental Curtain this way is going to be easier than the method I used to enter the human world!” I told Brad.

  He looked at me oddly but said nothing.

  We stood in front of the church door, then turned right and began to walk. Master Abelard and Bibi had stressed that we must keep the church to our left as we went around it.

  One circuit of the church and nothing happened. But then nothing was supposed to happen at that point. I was just fussing.

  As we finished the second circuit I heard Brad mutter, “I hope this works.”

  So I was not the only one who was fussing.

  I did begin to worry as we made the third circuit. I was expecting some kind of feeling…though I didn’t know what kind of feeling it would be.

  Then…ZING! It wasn’t in the least gradual, as I had thought it would be. Instead, when we reached the front of the church and passed exactly over the spot where we had started, the transition happened. One second we were in the human world. Before we finished the next step, we were in the Enchanted Realm!

  “Yow!” cried Brad. “That tingles! Do you recognize this place, Gerald?”

  I didn’t answer.

  I was too shocked by who was waiting for us.

  From Brad’s Real Journal

  7/8 (continued)

  I can honestly say I have never seen a greater look of shock than when Gerald and I entered the Enchanted Realm and he found his sister waiting for him.

  “Violet!” cried Gerald while I was still trying to deal with the tingling, which was like the pins and needles your foot gets when it goes to sleep, except I had it from head to toe. “What are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for you,” his sister said sharply. “It’s about time you came back. Mom and Dad are having fits.”

  “But how could you possibly know I would come through at this very spot?”

  “I didn’t know for certain. But Dad went to the university and threatened to eat someone if they didn’t give him some information about where you might have gone. They finally sent him to your teacher’s best friend, some guy named Henrik. He told Dad the spots most likely for you to reappear if you did decide to return. We’ve been keeping watch on those places ever since.”

  “Are you going to have me arrested?” Gerald asked.

  His sister looked at him as if he were crazy. “Gerald, you are my brother…my triplet! Do you really think I’d do that? Besides, Mom and Dad would never forgive me. Now, tell me what you’ve gotten yourself into. And why you have a human with you! What’s its name?”

  “He’s not an it,” replied Gerald indignantly. “He’s a boy, and his name is Bradley…though if you’re nice, he’ll let you call him Brad.”

  Violet turned to look me over. “I never saw a human before,” she said. “You don’t look as strange as I expected. Thank you for helping my brother.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, not entirely comfortable in her gaze.

  “Now, tell me what you’re up to,” said Violet.

  Stammering and stuttering, Gerald explained our plan to gather a batch of pink bunnies to take to the human world so we could save New Batavia from drowning.

  “I love that idea!” she cried when he was finished.

  Gerald looked at her as if she had just said, “Please hit me on the head with a brick a dozen times.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes! It’s completely worthy and might even help us secure a tenth treasure.”

  “Us? I thought you had your tenth treasure all figured out,” said Gerald. I noticed that he sounded a bit…well, bitter.

  Lowering her head, Violet said, “I did, but it fell through.”

  “How come you never talked to me about it?” he asked.

  “Because we were supposed to do it on our own, you big doot! But time is getting tight, so I think we should all work together.”

  “All?” said Gerald, clearly puzzled.

  “You and me and Cyril.”

  “Cyril doesn’t have his tenth treasure, either?” yelped Gerald.

  Violet shook her head, then said, “Look, I know Cyril can be kind of a pain. But he is our brother. Maybe he could help.”

  Gerald tilted his head in that way I was getting to know and said, “Won’t you both get into big trouble for this?”

  “Hard to say, but maybe not. Mom and Dad and Cyril and I have spent a lot of time talking to that Henrik guy. It turns out some of the rules of the Enchanted Realm are more confusing and more subtle—that was his word for it, ‘subtle’—than we thought. The most important thing right now is to get our tenth treasures.”

  She closed her eyes and shivered. “Gerald, if we don’t manage that, our Tenth Hatchday Ceremony is going to be a disaster. Which will kind of kill Dad. Cyril and I have been frantic about it.”

  She paused, and I could tell the next words were hard for her. “I know Cyril and I were kind of rough on you, and I’m sorry. I was a brat sister. Of course, you were a stinky brother, but that’s not enough of an excuse. I will tell you the truth: Cyril and I are both amazed you had the griffin guts to leave the Enchanted Realm. All of a sudden you feel like the big brother we always wanted.”

  Gerald spread his wings to their full width (which was stunning), then bowed. He pressed his beak to his sister’s talons and murmured, “My dearest Violet, I am sorry to have brought shame to our family by being first laid but last hatched. However, now I have a mission, and a worthy one. I would be honored to have you and Cyril join me.”

  Then he straightened his shoulders, raised his head, and cried, “Overflights unite!”

  “Overflights unite!” Violet repeated. Then she said, “It’s really good you came through at the spot where I’ve been watching. If you had come through where either Mom or Dad is waiting, you would have had no chance of returning to the human world, gnome emergency or not. Mom has been frantic. Dad has been, well…”

  “Well WHAT?” Gerald demanded.

  “It’s like he doesn’t know what to think. He’s very worried. And he’s upset because Mom’s upset, which of course makes life miserable for everyone. But I also get the feeling he’s proud of you for doing something so daring. Only, he can’t admit that in front of Mom. I’m going to go get Cyril. Do you promise to stay here? No, forget that. Come with me. It will be faster.”

  “But I can’t leave Brad here,” Gerald said.

  “Well, let him ride on your back.”

  “I can’t do that!”

  Violet sighed in exasperation. “Then how were you planning to get him back to the human world?”

  “Oh,” said Gerald in a small voice. “I guess I hadn’t thought about that.” He turned toward me. “Are you all right with this, Brad?”

  I told him I’d been planning on it all along.

  “How did you know?” he asked, sounding startled.

  “Your teacher told me.”

  “Why didn’t he mention it to me?”

  Violet rolled her eyes. “He probably didn’t think he needed to! Honestly, Gerald, for the smart one in the family you don’t always think things through. Come on. Let’s go get Cyril and catch some bunnies!”

  Gerald crouched and said, “Climb on!”

  I positioned myself in front of his wings. “What should I hold on to?” I asked, wishing I had a saddle.

  “Lean forward and grab my neck. But don’t squeeze!”

  I did as he instructed.

  “Let’s go!” urged Violet.

  Gerald climbed to the top of a nearby boulder, leaped into the air, and began to beat his mighty wings.

  In an instant we were flying! I felt a surge of joy and whooped with delight. This was the most awesome thing ever!

  The bright light of the massive, nearly full moon revealed the wild and craggy world below me.

  The air around us was pure and cool.

  The rhythmic beat of Gerald’s wings was a beautiful sound.

  I wanted to
fly forever!

  Wednesday, July 8 (continued)

  With Bradley mounted on my neck, flying was considerably more difficult than usual. Fortunately, it only took about ten minutes to reach the place where Cyril was stationed.

  I had expected to be nervous about seeing my brother and was surprised that I wasn’t. Then I realized that of course I wouldn’t be nervous, since I was wearing Alexander’s armband.

  I wondered, then, if Cyril had any idea what an amazing treasure he had actually given me. And why did Master Abelard never tell me about it before? I suppose he was waiting until I really needed it. Maybe it would have been a mistake to wear it while trying to fly through the cliff that took us to the human world…it might have made me so brave that I wouldn’t have felt a need to believe, in which case I might have crashed and died!

  Master A is wise indeed.

  To my satisfaction, it was Cyril who let out a squawk when Violet and I landed in front of him. “Gerald, where have you been?” he cried. “And what in the name of Izzikiah are you doing with a human on your back?” He squinted, then said, “That is a human, right?”

  “Yes, he’s a human. His name is Bradley, and he has come to help us with an important task.”

  Then Violet and I explained the plans for the Great Bunny Hunt and asked if he wanted to help.

  “Count me in!” Cyril cried. “I love catching bunnies!”

  “You have to promise not to eat them,” Violet said.

  “Not even one?” Cyril asked mournfully.

  “Not even one,” I said. “Or aren’t you strong enough of will to resist? If that’s the case, we can’t use you.”

  “I can do it!” said Cyril.

  “Overflights unite!” cried Violet.

  “Overflights unite!” Cyril and I shouted together.

  And so it was that the Great Bunny Hunt began.

  From the Griffin Archives

  The Overflight Bunny Hunt

  Though Clan Overflight is a solid member of the Northern Quarter of the North American Aerie, historically it has been a quiet family, with little to distinguish it.

  This ended, however, when with daring and élan the current younger generation carried out a bold plan to help an endangered city of gnomes who had been living in self-imposed exile in the human world. (That is as much on the matter as I am allowed to record here.)

  In brief, Gerald, Violet, and Cyril Overflight captured twenty-four of the famous Cherry Blossom Hares of the Northern Quarter. They were aided in this by a human boy, Bradley Ashango.

  Bradley had befriended Gerald, the oldest of the Overflight triplets (or perhaps the youngest…there is some confusion on this matter), who had brought the boy with him into the Enchanted Realm! A daring move, indeed!

  Catching the rabbits was fairly easy for the three grifflings, as they were skilled hunters. The greater task lay in the self-control it took for them to not devour their prey in the moment of capture. Rather than disemboweling and consuming their catches, the grifflings brought them to the Ashango boy, who took each rabbit and stored it in a gnome-woven mesh bag.

  To the human’s credit he was very careful with the creatures, putting no more than four in each bag.

  When the hunt ended, the Overflights had captured two dozen rabbits.

  However, if the hunt was easy, the journey to the human world was fraught with unexpected peril.

  Adelaide Hornbeam, Dwarf

  Record Keeper, North American Aerie

  From Brad’s Real Journal

  7/8 (continued)

  While Gerald and his siblings hunted, I was assigned to wait at the place where we had met Cyril. The griffling triplets were to bring their catches to me for safekeeping.

  I felt a surge of pride when Gerald was the first to return. In his talons he clutched, as promised, a pink bunny.

  Holy rabbit stew, it was the biggest freaking bun-creature I had ever seen!

  Not so big that people wouldn’t believe it was real. Just…huge.

  And it was definitely pink. Not cotton-candy pink, not valentine pink. Just…pink. As in, its fur had a mild but definite tint, kind of like the light pink rosebuds in Bibi’s flower garden.

  It wasn’t until I saw that first bunny that I really believed my plan might work. No one in the human world could doubt that this rabbit was a species that had never been seen before!

  Soon Violet and Cyril returned with pink rabbits as well. I carefully took each rabbit from their talons, while the raptor-captor repeated over and over, “I must not eat this bunny. I must not eat this bunny!”

  Then I would place the wriggling critter into one of the bags Gerald and I had brought from New Batavia.

  I could fit four bunnies into a bag without overcrowding. Since each of the griffins could carry two bags, we topped out at twenty-four bunnies (eight bunnies times three griffins).

  It was time to head back to the human world.

  Which was when our real troubles began.

  Wednesday, July 8 (continued)

  As I had flown through the solid cliff face once, I was much less worried about doing it this time. Cyril and Violet, however, almost backed out at that point.

  “Do you mean to tell me you’re afraid?” I asked, trying not to show how thoroughly I enjoyed the question.

  “Certainly not!” said Cyril. “It’s more that, um…I’m worried about what Mom and Dad will think when they can’t find us!”

  “We can leave a note, like I did the first time,” I said.

  “But we don’t have any paper,” protested Violet.

  “I can take a page out of my pocket journal,” Brad replied.

  The sibs didn’t look pleased, but in the end that was what we did. We placed the note exactly where Cyril had been stationed, holding it down with a rock so it wouldn’t blow away. Mom and Dad were sure to find it when they came looking for him.

  That done, we started toward the Cliff of Passage.

  “Do you know the way?” Brad asked. He sounded a bit nervous.

  “Of course,” I said, speaking more confidently than I felt. That was probably an effect of Alexander’s armband. In truth, I was not entirely certain I could spot the right cliff, since I had been in such a state of high fuss when Master Abelard and I first approached it.

  I wondered how I could be positive. I couldn’t fly into the wrong cliff! I wouldn’t just be killing myself. Brad would perish as well. And New Batavia would be drowned.

  As I flew in what I thought was the right direction, Brad was spotting landmarks and assuring me that I was indeed on track. There were two places where I was not quite sure, but Brad said, “Yes, that jagged peak should be to our right,” then “No, Gerald, turn right here…yes, head toward the rock face with the red streak in it.”

  And then there was no more need for directions, no more need for doubt.

  We knew we had come to the right place, because it was guarded.

  By a dragon.

  From Brad’s Real Journal

  7/8 (continued)

  Holy smoldering hot sauce! When I saw that dragon flying back and forth in front of the Cliff of Passage, I thought I was going to wet my pants. In an instant this trip to the Enchanted Realm had turned from dream journey to blazing nightmare!

  And I do mean blazing, since the monster shot fire from its mouth, then bellowed, “Who seeks to use this passage to the human world must first deal with me, Zarnakk!”

  Zarnakk had to be forty feet long. In the moonlight I could see that the creature’s scales were bronzy scarlet. Its batlike wings were three times as long as Gerald. Its enormous eyes, emerald green, seemed to burn with an inner fire.

  To my astonishment, Gerald let out a loud “Gaaah!” then shouted, “Why do you wish to stop us, Zarnakk?”

  “For the sake of a toll. I know from the gossip in these parts that this passageway was used recently. And I know from experience that once used, the cliff is often used again shortly after. But I have no reason to allow free
passage in my territory. And make no mistake, this cliff is in my territory. So what do you have to offer me?”

  “We cannot negotiate while flying,” Gerald replied.

  I was amazed at how calm my friend sounded.

  “Then meet me on that triangular peak below and to your right,” Zarnakk answered. “Do not think to fool me or fly past me. My flames are long, and I will roast you until the savory smell of your burning flesh brings hungry ghouls out to feast on you.”

  And I thought the bullies at school were bad! That was the nastiest thing I had ever heard anyone say!

  “I think it is safe for us to land,” said Gerald, speaking so only I could hear. “Dragons are fierce, but they are bonded to negotiate in good faith.”

  We touched down on the peak, Cyril and Violet not far behind us. Once we were there, Zarnakk settled on the opposite side. The beast’s head was large enough that I was pretty sure it could swallow me in a single bite. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, and didn’t know which would be more frightening. Either way, my terrified heart was threatening to pound its way out of my chest.

  Gerald, on the other hand, was remarkably calm, which probably kept me from totally freaking out.

  In a voice that sounded like it came from inside an enormous copper kettle, Zarnakk said, “Why do you wish to pass to the human world? And what in the name of the Great Dragon are you doing with those rabbits?”

  “We are on a rescue mission,” Gerald said, his voice firm, bold, and courageous.

  The dragon snorted, which resulted in a short burst of flame. “Rescuing what?”

  “We seek to save a city of gnomes from discovery by humans,” Gerald replied. Then he gave a brief description of the situation.

  “Sounds like nonsense to me,” Zarnakk snarled. “However, I am willing to let you pass…if you have something to pay the toll.”

  “What is the toll?” asked Gerald.

  The dragon shrugged its massive wings. “Something of value. Something you have that I want. The human would be a good possibility. I haven’t had human for supper in a long time.”