Oh.
Oh!
Kristy realized they were laughing. At Penn.
Then one of them, the smallest one, shook her head and started to cry.
What was happening?
Kristy tried to remember what she could from Madame Scruggs’s Dragonese class. It was worth a try.
Kristy stepped out from behind her tree and approached a small turquoise dragon with long eyelashes. She tapped her on the tail. “Roar roar… roaar roarrr?”
Before the dragons could respond, Penn yanked Kristy back behind a tree. He shielded her with his arms. “What are you doing? And what did you say to them?”
“I asked them if they were okay.”
“Let me handle this—I’m the one who is trained in dragon combat!” Past Penn’s head, Kristy could see that the dragons still hadn’t moved, but she thought she saw the turquoise one crying, too.
“I know why they’re so small. They’re baby dragons, Penn!” Kristy pushed past him. “Awwww.”
Penn furrowed his brow. He looked very Grabagorny when he did that. “How do you know? And even if they are, baby dragons are still dragons.”
“I just know, and I think they need our help.” Kristy jogged out to the center of the baby dragon circle and tried again. She pointed to herself and said her name in Dragonese. “Rrroar!”
“Ror roarr roar rroar!!” one of the dragons sniffled. “Roar ro-oar?”
Kristy nodded as if she understood. In truth, her Dragonese was rusty, so she could only pick out a few words.
“What are they saying?” Penn asked, still eyeing the brood suspiciously. He started to pace back and forth. He seemed annoyed. It was only a matter of time before more of his body parts would start turning blue. Now that she’d gotten used to it, Kristy didn’t find the blue so scary anymore. It was actually kind of cool.
“I think they lost their parents!” Kristy said. If anyone knew what it was like to lose their parents, it was Kristy and Penn. How lucky that they had been the ones to meet the baby dragons! Kristy knew what had to be done. She took her powerful Rainbow Knight stance, feet shoulder-width apart and hands on hips. “Penn, we have to help these babies find their parents.”
“Find adult dragons?” Penn asked. “On purpose? Weren’t we just running for our lives a second ago? We’re already on our way to the Forest of Candy. Remember? Lemon Bubbles? We don’t have time to help dragons.”
“There’s always time to help the vulnerable, Penn,” Kristy reminded him. “Haven’t you ever heard of the Power of One? If you help just one person… you help the whole world!” It didn’t matter that they weren’t people; dragons were definitely included in this equation, too.
“I thought I was the person,” Penn muttered to himself.
“Don’t worry, babies.” Kristy skipped over to the cutest, tiniest dragon. She was yellow with gold spots on her back scales. “We’ll take you to your parents. Sorry—I mean, roarrr ro-oar!” At this, the dragons began to jump and flap their wings with delight.
A purple baby dragon stomped over and nuzzled Penn in gratitude. The boy regarded the dragon suspiciously but couldn’t help petting him on the head. “You are pretty cute. Even if you did burn a hole in the butt of my pants.”
“Are you sure you didn’t do that from the inside when you boofed?” Kristy zinged.
Penn laughed. “Fine, Kristy, let’s go find some dragons.”
For the next hour, Penn and Kristy kept to the path that was supposed to lead to Dragon Town, which was only a little out of the way to the Forest of Candy. The dragons walked in front of them, eating leaves from the overhanging branches along the path, clearing the way for Penn and Kristy to walk. Kristy thought it was pretty fun!
But Penn seemed anxious, and his anxiousness was seeping into Kristy’s mood like lake pudding. As they walked, Kristy used a whole bunch of her energy to figure out what could be making Penn mad. She knew he was not thrilled about this detour. But maybe Penn was also still having a hard time letting go of the whole “Great Scorch” thing. She understood—when you’ve been told something your whole life, it was hard to accept that it wasn’t true. But maybe he was warming up to the Power of One. She bet he would feel great about it when the babies were reunited with their parents. It felt so good to help others.
“Does it seem like there are a lot of trees here?” Kristy wondered aloud. “You know, for burny dragonlands? Maybe we should stop and look at the map again.” Just ahead, the trail split off into two directions.
“No, I remember the way to go,” Penn insisted, pulling his water bottle out of his satchel and taking a big swig. “Definitely to the right.”
Kristy was pretty sure that Penn was wrong. She started to unfold the map, but Penn put his big blue hand on it. “I’m positive that I’m right,” he said.
Kristy didn’t want to start a fight or anything, so they continued on to the right side of the trail.
But a few minutes later, the nagging feeling that they’d made a wrong turn would not go away. Kristy made the baby dragons stop while she retrieved the map from her satchel. “Penn, I think maybe you’re wrong?” Kristy wondered why that had come out as a question when she meant it as a regular sentence. She tried again. “Penn, I think maybe you’re wrong?” Huh, her voice went up again. That was weird.
“I’m not wrong!” Penn huffed. “I’ll show you. Give me that!” He tore the map from Kristy’s hands.
That was a big no-no. Kristy had been polite and patient with him, but she was reaching her limit. “Will you just listen to me?!” Kristy shouted as she jumped onto the nearest boulder. A little extra height always made her feel powerful. “I knew we were supposed to go to the left, but I was trying to be nice, Penn! But the fact is you’re going the wrong way!” As Kristy spoke up, the color came back to her cheeks and light began to dance on her skin.
“Rrroar! Rrroar!” The dragons cheered, pointing their claws at her in awe.
“Do I have something on my face? What is it, a bug?” Kristy touched her face and looked down at her hands. They were solid. And her skin was even brighter than before! “I’m back!”
“Okay,” Penn sighed, looking at the map. “You were right. I guess I… I should have listened to you.” The words hung in the air for a moment. Kristy liked the sound of them.
“Whoa!” Penn gasped. He put his hand to his ear. “The buzzing stopped! The buzzing stopped! Yes!” He raised his hand and she gave him a high five.
But a thought nagged at her. “Why?” she asked.
“Why what?”
“Why did it stop? Why now?”
“Who cares why! Why do you always have to question everything?” He skipped ahead of her, singing, “The buzzing is gone, the buzzing is gone, bye-bye buzzing…”
She and the dragons followed in his path.
Was it possible that it was because he had listened to her? It seemed clear that the angrier he got, the more Grabagorny he became. What if the nicer he was, the more human he stayed? Hmm. “Penn—”
“Everyone turn right here,” Penn said, interrupting her as they arrived at the next fork in the road.
Kristy shook her head and pointed to the map. “No, Penn.”
“That’s the way to the Forest of Candy,” he said.
“I know,” she said. “But according to the map, Dragon Town is to the left. And I promised to help the babies find their parents.”
“We’ll do that after,” he grumbled. “I promise, okay?”
“I promised I would do it now.”
“I said no,” he said. He tried to cross his arms, but they were too big. So he hung them at his sides instead, his hands balled into frustrated fists.
“No?” Was he being serious? Did he not remember what just happened five minutes earlier? She stomped her boot on the ground. The baby dragons all stopped and looked at her. “You are not in charge!”
“I should be!” he said. “Grabagorns are supposed to be in charge! Men are good at maps, which is
why they never have to ask for directions!”
Was he just spouting nonsense now?
“You’re supposed to LISTEN TO ME! And besides, you would still be trapped in that pit if I hadn’t saved you!” Now Penn pounded his foot into the dirt angrily. It kicked up a giant cloud of dust. By the time the dust settled, Penn’s right foot had transformed! It looked hideous.
Disappointment flooded over her. Kristy had so wanted the wisers to be wrong about boys and men. She felt stupid to have been so full of hope. But she knew what she had to do.
“Okay, Penn, your thing is more important. We’ll do your thing first.” As the words left her mouth, she felt a chill. Her lips felt tingly and her cheeks felt cool.
“Okay!” Penn said. He was fixated on his new foot, which had burst right out of his shoe.
“Rooaar roahr roar rrroar,” she told the dragons, assuring them she’d take care of them after they helped Penn. The chill in her cheeks drifted up to her forehead. When she touched her face, it felt clammy. Was she getting sick? But she got the flu shot this year!
“Um, Kristy?” Penn said, when he finally looked up at her. “Your head is sort of… invisible.”
“Invisible how?”
“Like I can see through where your head was.”
Kristy looked at her reflection in a nearby puddle, and sure enough, her head was gone.
“Fluffernutter!” she said. “That can’t be good.”
The second Penn spotted the Forest of Candy in the distance, his grumpy mood seemed to melt away. He instantly forgot about his fight with Kristy. And that her head was invisible.
Penn was excited to focus on what was in front of them—lots and lots of candy. Just as Lillibop had described, the landscape was littered with patches of different types of sweets: Chili Candy Canes that grew out of the ground, rolling hillocks covered with Sour Squishers, and hundreds of Fudgy Finches perched on the tree branches (which, according to the guide, were made of chocolate bark).
“I can’t believe this is real!” Penn shook his head.
“Neither can I!” he heard her say.
The kids took off through the rows of Chili Candy Canes and across the Glittering Gumdrop field, laughing as they scooped up handfuls of the jellied treats. Penn recognized them from Turdgon’s candy guide, so he knew that they were safe to eat. He popped them into his mouth and the sugar crystals literally danced on his tongue. Penn wasn’t sure how, but they even tasted like colors. He shoved more of them into his pockets for later.
He stopped and turned to Kristy, feeling guilty. “Can you eat any of this?”
“Just because you can’t see my mouth doesn’t mean I don’t still have it. And my mouth can still eat candy.”
Penn could imagine her determined expression. She was being shockingly calm about the whole invisible-head thing. Girls were so weird.
“What are these ones?” Kristy called, holding up two swirly pink puffs.
Penn scanned his guide. “Those are Cinnamon Clouds.”
“They’re so fluffy!” Kristy yelled, shoving them into where her mouth probably was.
“I didn’t finish! It says, ‘Warning, you may sneeze jellybeans.’”
Kristy sneezed and sure enough, pretty little jellybeans shot out everywhere. “Ow.” She rubbed what he assumed was her nose. “And ew.” The baby dragons chomped them up off the ground.
Penn pulled some little purple pellets from a bird’s nest. “These are Cuckoo-Nuts. It says they make you talk fast.” They each ate just one of the chewy little nubs.
“I’m-not-talking-fast-are-you-talking-fast?”
“I-can’t-hear-you-you’re-talking-too-fast.”
“I-have-so-many-business-ideas!-Look-how-high-I-can-jump.”
“Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-Okay-thank-you-goodbye.”
Then they both barfed a little and took a five-second nap.
The baby dragons watched in fascination as Kristy and Penn helped themselves to every kind of candy they could find, stuffing their satchels till they looked like they might pop at the seams. Of course, they remembered their promises to grab Sour Squishers for Lillibop and Fudgy Finches for Turdgon. But there was only one type of candy that Penn truly cared about.
“Penn, over here!” Kristy shouted through an invisible mouthful of chewed-up chocolate bark. “I found the Lemon Bubbles!” Penn dropped his fistfuls of Sherbet Stars and raced over. At long last, the object of his quest was floating right in front of him. They looked just like he’d imagined—yellow and iridescent. Each time one popped, it would leave a fresh citrus scent in the air.
He froze. Why was he frozen?
This was what he wanted. This was everything these last couple of crazy days had been about.
“Penn? Are you okay?” Kristy asked.
He nodded. How could he admit to her that he was scared? Grabagorns didn’t get scared, and if they did, they certainly didn’t admit it. But what would happen after he ate the Lemon Bubble? He could never go back home. Would he have to be like Lillibop and find a sideways tugboat in a tree somewhere and live alone forever?
“Penn?” Kristy put her hand on his shoulder. He wasn’t used to someone being that close to him who wasn’t trying to punch him. It felt nice. “It’s okay if you’re scared.”
It was like Kristy was a mind reader sometimes.
“What if… what if it doesn’t work? What if there’s too much monster in me? But also, what if it does work? Then… what am I? Who am I? Where do I belong?”
“Penn, you’re going to be okay. Just remember that the good inside you is stronger than the bad. And that no matter what happens after you eat that Lemon Bubble, you’re still you.”
He wiped at his eye. Some sugar must have blown into it or something. “Okay, here goes…” Penn reached his blue paw out and let a bubble land gently in his palm. He lifted it to his mouth and took a bite. Penn squeezed his eyes shut as the bubble burst inside his mouth. It tasted sweet, citrusy, and… really familiar, actually.
“Did it work?” Penn asked, opening his eyes. He looked down at his hands, hopeful. But they were still all blue and monstery. His heart sank a little.
“Maybe it takes a few minutes to kick in,” offered Kristy. She sounded like she was trying to convince herself. It didn’t give Penn much confidence.
“Or maybe it wasn’t enough?” Penn chomped down on three more bubbles. Why did he know this taste? He was positive he’d never had a Lemon Bubble before. Penn stared at his hands, waiting for something to happen… but nothing did. “Why isn’t it working?”
All this way for a stupid Lemon Bubble and it didn’t even do anything? The monster inside Penn began to rattle its cage. “This isn’t FAIR!” Penn raged. He jumped up and down in frustration, squashing the Coconut Grass under his massive feet. Suddenly, he felt strange. Something had definitely changed.
“My other foot!” Penn cried out, kicking it into the air. Now both of his feet looked just like Brandon’s—ugly, hairy, and blue. They ached in his now too-small, split-open shoes, so he tore the shoes off.
Somehow, the Lemon Bubble was having the opposite effect on him. He was becoming even more Grabagorny than before! Penn had worried at the beginning that it had been a lie—a story used to lure him into helping the women. And he was right. He hated that he was right. The nerve of those wicked Rainbow Knights! They went on and on about helping people, but all they did was trick him for their own gain.
“She lied thooo me, Krithty!” Penn wailed as his lips began to change color. “Lermon thubbles don’t help—”
The sound of laughter rumbled through the trees. And the smell of raccoon breath.
Penn knew that laugh. He’d heard it a thousand times before.
“Look at you, Penn. You’re nearly one of us,” Grabagorn Prime bellowed as he stepped out of his golf cart, flanked by his two bumbling henchmen—Grabagul and Grabaleg—and a dozen other Grabagorns. Landon, Brandon, and another Grabagorn who looked familiar stood behind the
m.
“Marcus!” Penn cried, realizing that his friend had fully transformated.
“His name is Grabagus now,” Grabagorn Prime said. “And soon you’ll join him. How do you like the sound of ‘Grabaprisoner’?”
Penn did not like the sound of it at all. He pawed at his face to see if there were any normal parts of himself left. He turned to Kristy, feeling hopeless. He wished he could see her face. “I thourght the Lermon Brubbles would thurn eee barck!”
Before Kristy could respond, Grabagorn Prime stepped in front of her.
“Well, actually, it’s the opposite.” Grabagorn Prime laughed. “It speeds up the process.” He laughed more and harder. “We’ve been sprinkling it into the well water for years!”
So that’s why it tasted so familiar! Penn and the other boys drank from the well after Garate practice every single day. The whole brotherhood had been consuming Lemon Bubbles all along, without even realizing it. Penn fell to his knees, crushed by this new information. Had everyone been lying to him about everything since forever?
“Don’t feel bad, boy,” Grabagorn Prime said, slapping Penn on the back. “There’s no stopping it now. And once you fully transformate, you can never go back!” He had a huge smile on his face and was clearly enjoying watching Penn’s world crumble.
Grabagorn Prime stuck out his pointy claw and popped a Lemon Bubble as it floated past his face. “It was very clever of me to spread the rumor that Lemon Bubbles stopped the process! I knew becoming the publisher of Candy Every-Other-Monthly would pay off someday.”
“Yeah, man,” Grabaleg said. “That was dope!”
“It was also the easiest way to catch traitors… like you.” He pointed right at Penn. “You know what we call traitors now?”
“Free to go?” tried Penn.
“Penn!” Grabagorn Prime said. “We call them Penns! Now seize them! Throw them all in the dungeon pit!”
As soon as Grabagorn Prime gave the signal, ten more angry Grabagorns appeared, surrounding Penn, Kristy, and the baby dragons. The Grabagorns poked their spears at the baby dragons’ backs.
The Legends of Greemulax Page 7