Wishful Thinking

Windows in the Wilderness

Stephanie learned that her new friend, Beynon, was a pygmy griffin, and he was taking her back to his nest to get advice from his parents before taking her to the portal. As Beynon had warned her the area the portal lay in was dangerous, she didn't think that was a bad idea. They reached a particularly fat and tall tree. Stephanie could see a large nest up in the branches.

"Ma! Da!" Beynon called, flying up to greet them. Two larger pygmy griffins who were about the size of cats, flew out from the nest to meet him. Stephanie watched them fly circles around each other.

"We were worried sick!" the larger of the two said with a feminine voice. Stephanie supposed that must be his mother.

"Where were ye, son?" his father asked.

"I was caught by a carnivorous plant, but Stephanie saved me!" Beynon told his parents, looking down at her.

"Stephanie?" his mother asked. She and his father also looked down at her. They flew lower and circled Stephanie.

"You saved our son?" his father asked.

'Yes,' Stephanie thought.

"I'm Eynon," his father introduced himself.

"And I'm Aerfen," his mother said.

"We are in your debt," they told Stephanie, landing and bowing to her.

'There's really no need for that,' Stephanie though, 'But... I was hoping you could help me find the portal?'

"The portal?" Eynon and Aerfen gasped.

"Oh, ye don't want to go there!" Eynon said.

"It's dreadfully dangerous!" Aerfen agreed.

'But I must find my sister, and I don't have much time,' Stephanie thought earnestly. 'If I don't hurry, my little brother will be turned into a goblin!'

"I see, your sister wished him away, did she?" Aerfen said with a tone of disapproval, plucking that information from Stephanie's mind.

'She didn't think anyone was really listening,' Stephanie thought in her defense.

"Well, be that as it may," Eynon said, "we can guide ye to the portal, but you'll have to pass through the Shadows. It's a dark part of the forest where the deepest, darkest thoughts ye've ever had are echoed back at ye."

"Many go mad trying to make their way through there. We'll be all right, because we can block it, but ye'll be completely vulnerable," Aerfen added. "Then it's the Vale of Unicorns."

'Vale of Unicorns?' Stephanie thought. That didn't seem so bad.

"It is bad," Aerfen said. "Very bad. Unicorns are aggressive. They'll charge anything that moves and they wound to kill. There's only one way to get past them. You have to sing a song they like. Then you can pass while they're dancing. But they are extremely picky."

"And after that, it's the dragon," Eynon said.

'Dragon?' Stephanie asked, startled.

"Dragon," Eynon repeated with a nod of his head. "It guards the mouth of the cave that holds a treasure hoard. You must travel through this cave to reach the portal on the other side."

'A dragon, great,' Stephanie thought sarcastically. 'What could possibly go wrong there?' To be honest, she was terrified. But she had to find her sister and help her rescue Toby, and a part of Stephanie was excited—the part of her inner child that had always wanted to be a knight rather than a princess. She finally had a chance to face off against a real dragon. 'Let's go!' she thought with determination.