Page 52 of Legends and Librarians
Wait...they looked like cats when they found a patch of catnip.
I laughed, finally remembering where I’d seen these plants before. Nyssa and the apothecary frowned at me, but I just shook my head.
“Sorry,” I said, “but these plants actually go by another name. You might use them medicinally, but dragons use them recreationally.”
“What?” Nyssa asked.
“It’s like catnip to them,” I said, crumbling a leaf up so the smoky aroma filled the air for the little dragons. Their eyes widened with excitement. “See? It’s dragonnip. I saw some dragons high on it one time and let me tell you, they’re much less terrifying when they’re small like this.”
Mabel studied them, her keen eyes focused on the littlecreatures like they were a plant she was analyzing under a microscope. She nudged one with her walking stick and it just rolled over, cooing at her and wiggling its body around on the ground. A small smile touched her lips.
“I see,” she said, nodding, “I guess I was wrong then. These are just dragons looking for a good time and I was interrupting them. But why are they so small?”
Nyssa let out a breath. “They’re characters from inside a book, brought to life by library magic. I’m not sure why they’re so small though.” She tapped her chin, staring at them. “I should ask the knights.”
“The knights?” Mabel asked. “There are knights too?”
“There are all sorts of story spirits,” Nyssa said, grinning like she just hooked a big fish. “When you visit the Misty Mountain Library, the books literally come alive before your eyes. You can talk to all sorts of characters, learn more about their stories, and have fun like you never thought you could.”
That’s the pitch we’d been working on the past few days and it worked just as good as we’d hoped. The apothecary hung on her every word, nodding and smiling as she started to casually play with the dragons.
“But what do they want?” Mabel asked as she leaned down to pet one.
And that was my cue. I pulled a book from my bag titledDragons Just Wanna Have Fun.
“Here’s a copy of the book they come from,” I said, handing it to her.
Nyssa smiled, nodding at her to give it a try. “We’ve already checked it out in your name, so feel free to take it home and read it. You can bring it back to the library whenever you have a chance. I hope it helps you understand them better.”
Mabel stared at the cover, glancing between the decorative dragon art and the actual dragons in front of her before finallycracking it open.
“Every young dragon knew that there was a time to be serious and a time to be silly,” Mabel read solemnly, glancing up at us. “Really? They just want to have fun?”
“As much as possible.” Nyssa grinned as a dragon landed clumsily on her shoulder.
The other dragons circled Mabel, as if summoned by her reading. Some curled up by her feet while others stayed in the air, but they were all focused on the book, giving it far more attention than I thought dragons high on dragonnip could do.
But then one of them fell from the sky in a plume of violet fire while the others did the dragon equivalent of giggling. Yup, they were still enjoying the nip.
Mabel smiled, looking like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders as the fear of this mountain drifted away.
“Okay,” the old apothecary said softly, “I’ll rescind my mission with the guild.”
“Really?” Nyssa practically jumped with joy. “Thank you!”
“On one condition.” Mabel held up a finger, staring at us both with utter seriousness. “You must find a way to make this wretched climb easier on these poor old bones of mine. Otherwise, I’ll never be able to return this book.”
“Deal,” Nyssa said with no hesitation.
I raised an eyebrow, but chose not to comment. This was her library, her mission to fulfill. Maybe we could build portals, buy self-driving carriages, or find the secrets to cloud transportation. Actually, this was right up my alley as an adventurer. There were so many wonders hidden out in the world if you were brave enough to look for them.
Maybe we could even search for the solution together and have our own private adventure...
“Okay, enough lollygagging,” Mabel said. “We’ve got three more herbs to collect before the sun goes down and thesedragons aren’t going to calm down anytime soon.”
Nyssa nodded, but looked back at me. “Think they’re okay on their own?”
The little dragons were shooting multicolored fire now, lighting up the sky like a fireworks show as they dipped and twirled through the air. Honestly, I’d stay and watch them all day if I could. Maybe we should plant some of this closer to the library. Wait, no, they’d probably burn the library down if we did that. Better to have their fun far enough away that they couldn’t cause any damage.
