Rosie the Twilight Dragon Read online

  It was beautiful, but Rosie wasn’t sure how helpful it would be on a quest.

  The Tree Queen seemed to read her mind. “You will find it useful, I promise,” she said. “And I know you will do a great job leading this quest, Rosie. Your ability to daydream is exactly what is needed.”

  Rosie felt like laughing. If there was one thing she was good at, it was daydreaming!

  There were about a million other things that Rosie wanted to ask the Tree Queen before they went in search of the Dream Collectors. Like, what should they do if they came across the Fire Queen or her Fire Sparks?

  But there was no chance to ask anything more because the queen had turned back into tree form. It was hard to believe this tree, with its silvery leaves and strong trunk, had looked like a person just moments ago.

  Rosie took the silver chain and draped it around her neck like a necklace. She turned to her friends. “Looks like we’re on our own!” she said. “Are you Dragon Girls ready?”

  Stella nodded. “I am SO ready,” she said.

  “We’ve totally got this,” agreed Phoebe. She was the shyer, more nervous one of the group, but even she was bursting to go on an adventure!

  Together, the three friends stepped back through the protective force field. Outside the glade, the sky was just as pink and orange as it had been before. It was as if the forest was holding its breath, waiting for a night that might never arrive.

  “Right. Let’s fly!” said Rosie, flapping her wings and rising into the air.

  Stella and Phoebe joined her. They weren’t as good as Rosie at flying yet. They kept bumping into each other and laughing. But to Rosie, flying felt like something she was born to do.

  “The Tree Queen said we should head to where the twilight colors are brightest,” remembered Phoebe. “Where is that?”

  “Let’s go up above the trees so we can see more,” Rosie suggested. She led the way up through the treetops. It was the highest she’d ever flown! Down below, the Magic Forest stretched away in all directions. The setting sun glowed on the horizon, lighting up the trees in twilight tones. The leaves shone like they were made from liquid gold.

  “That’s where we need to go,” she said, pointing a wing toward the bright horizon.

  As she spoke, a thread from the silver ball Rosie wore began to uncoil. It stretched out toward the colorful spot where Rosie had pointed.

  She laughed in surprise. “The magic thread agrees!” she said.

  Rosie had daydreamed many times about flying with her friends. She had pictured them all swooping and doing tumble turns together. But she had never really thought it would happen.

  “I feel like I should pinch myself,” she called to Phoebe and Stella. “But now that I have these big claws, I guess that’s probably not a great idea!”

  “True!” Stella laughed. “But hey, how about we try holding paws and flying?”

  The friends linked paws and flew together. It was tricky to fly this way, but it was fun. It was so fun that Rosie almost forgot that they were on a quest. Then she felt the ball of thread tugging down on the chain around her neck.

  Rosie looked. Down below, a patch of forest glowed more intensely pink and orange than anywhere else. Rosie knew that this was where they should go.

  “Get ready for landing,” she called to the others.

  “I hope I do better than my first time,” called Stella. “I ended upside down in a bush!”

  “Remember to put your talons forward and your wings back,” Rosie advised as the air whooshed past. She aimed for a small clearing in the trees. Her heart pounded with excitement.

  What were Dream Collectors, exactly? Rosie imagined huge beasts, with arms that scraped the sky with their massive claws. She just hoped they were friendly huge beasts!

  Gracefully, Rosie landed on the soft grass. Phoebe skidded to a stop beside her.

  “Watch out!” yelled Stella as she bounced clumsily along the ground. She tumbled a couple of times and then finally came to a stop just before a bush. “I didn’t land in a tree this time!” She grinned, getting up and looking at the others. “That’s a definite improvement.”

  Suddenly, a chorus of small but firm voices rang through the air. “Stand by! Incoming daydream!”

  The surrounding trees began to shake and shiver. What was happening? Then Rosie spotted little creatures with long tails and fluffy orange tufts on the tips of their ears, scurrying up and down the trunks of the trees. That’s what was making them shake! Her friends had spotted the animals, too.

  “Are they squirrels?” wondered Phoebe.

  “Their tails are too long,” Stella said.

  “We’re Dream Collectors,” squeaked one of them as it ran by with its nose pointed to the sky. “And we’re really busy right now. A new batch of daydreams has just dropped.”

  Rosie looked up. At first she couldn’t see anything. But as she studied the sky, she could just make out what appeared to be bubbles. They were all different shapes and sizes, and they were drifting down toward them.

  The Dream Collectors scurried back and forth, moving into position.

  “Get ready to catch!” they called to one another.

  “Don’t let them touch the ground or they will burst!”

  “Let’s hope that the Fire Sparks don’t get them this time!”

  The Fire Sparks? Rosie shivered. The Tree Queen had said the Fire Sparks worked with the Fire Queen. Were they here?

  The bubbles were almost at ground level now. Some of the Dream Collectors ran back up the trees, reaching out their little paws in readiness. As a bubble drifted close to Rosie, she could see small scenes inside them. One showed a field of flowers, laden with pollen. Another showed a huge pile of fresh carrots.

  “They’re different creatures’ daydreams,” said a familiar voice. “Daydreams for bees, daydreams for rabbits. And many others.”

  Rosie turned and saw GlidyCat by her side. “After the Dream Collectors have caught them, they scamper around, hiding the bubbles around the forest. When creatures find them, the bubbles shatter and release the daydream.”

  “They’re beautiful!” Rosie sighed.

  She reached out to catch one, but before the bubble touched her outstretched paw, a loud, angry buzzing filled the air.

  From beyond the trees, Rosie saw fiercely burning lights. There were just a few at first, but then more and more appeared. They swirled in a mass, crackling like electricity. The lights surged through the trees and into the clearing. They buzzed and jumped around like embers blown by the wind. Fire Sparks! They were so hot and bright that Rosie had to turn away. Besides, just looking at them made her feel oddly cranky.

  When she glanced back, she saw something terrible. One of the sparks landed on a daydream bubble. The bubble glowed red hot for a moment, then exploded.

  “Oh no!” cried one of the Dream Collectors. “It’s happening again! The sparks are destroying the daydreams. If we don’t have enough of them in place for tomorrow, night will not fall.”

  Rosie looked at her friends. No words were needed. They all knew what they had to do.

  Together, the Night Dragons rose into the air. There was no way they were going to let the Fire Sparks destroy the forest’s daydreams!

  Rosie, Phoebe, and Stella flew into the mass of swirling sparks. The glowing points stung as they touched Rosie’s scales, but she barely noticed. How dare the Fire Sparks destroy these precious daydreams!

  She zoomed among the glowing lights, swishing at them with her tail. The sparks scattered, but then they returned and popped the bubbles, one after another.

  Rosie felt her frustration building. How could they stop these Fire Sparks? They were making her so mad!

  “They want to make you angry. Try roaring instead,” purred GlidyCat in Rosie’s ear.

  Rosie thought of the Tree Queen’s comment that their roars would be helpful. Yes! Roaring was exactly what she needed to do. She took a big breath and roared out her frustration with all her might.

  The air shimmered with a purple-blue mist. It smelled like all the wonderful purple things that Rosie loved. Plums, lavender, passion fruit, and, of course, dragon fruit.

  “That’s working, Rosie!” called Stella from the other side of the clearing. “Look!”

  All the nearby sparks had been extinguished by Rosie’s roar. But it wasn’t long before more sparks appeared and began attacking the bubbles once again.

  “Let’s roar together,” suggested Phoebe.

  Rosie nodded, and on the count of three, the friends roared so loudly that the leaves of the surrounding trees shook! A powerful mist swirled through the clearing, so thick that Rosie couldn’t see through it.

  When the air settled, Rosie looked around. The Fire Sparks were gone! Her angry feelings had vanished, too. And down on the forest floor, the Dream Collectors were hurrying to gather the remaining bubbles before they touched the ground.

  Rosie flew lower, landing carefully between the bubbles. Her friends landed beside her. This time Stella barely skidded at all.

  GlidyCat came to rest on Rosie’s shoulder.

  “We did it!” cried Stella. “We got rid of the Fire Sparks. So now night can fall, right?”

  “Wrong!” squeaked one of the Dream Collectors. It scurried over to Rosie with a daydream bubble balanced on the tip of its monkey-like tail. “Look!”

  Rosie peered into the bubble. Instead of a beautiful daydream, she saw gray clouds and drizzle. Rosie was pretty sure no one ever daydreamed about dull drizzling days.

  “What’s happened?” she asked.

  “Daydreams are very delicate,” explained the Dream Collector. “If they get blown around or shaken too much, they become muddled and sad.”

  “Oh no!” Phoebe groaned. “So we didn’t save them?”

  Another little Dream Collector bounded over. “They can be fixed,” it said. “They will just need to be returned to the daydream maker for repairs.”

  “What kind of creature is a daydream maker?” asked Phoebe curiously.

  The Dream Collectors laughed.

  “It’s not a creature at all,” explained one.

  “It’s a place where daydreams are made. It’s up on the first layer of clouds, known as the Hope Clouds,” said another Dream Collector.

  Stella pulled a face at Rosie, who knew exactly what she was thinking. A daydream maker up in the clouds sounded even more impossible than one in the forest! But everything in the Magic Forest seemed surprising and wonderful.

  “Well, at least we have wings,” said Stella. “We can fly up there with the daydreams that need fixing.”

  “Dragons can’t fly that high,” said one of the Dream Collectors. “The air is too thin for you. But cloud folk have no trouble.”

  “So how do we get up there?” asked Rosie.

  “You must ride a sunset ray,” said the Dream Collector. “And the good news is the ray station is not far from here.”

  “But the bad news for us is that the ray stationmaster is very grumpy,” continued another Dream Collector, wringing its little paws together. “He doesn’t let just anyone catch a sunset ray.”

  Rosie decided not to worry about this. Besides, another problem had just occurred to her. How were they going to carry the daydream bubbles? They were so precious! And the Night Dragons didn’t have a bag. There was no way they could fly carrying all those bubbles.

  As she was thinking, Rosie felt the silver thread on the chain twitch. It had begun to wiggle back and forth, like a worm trying to escape. An idea struck her.

  Quickly, she unlooped the chain from around her neck. Using her sharp dragon teeth, she nipped off long sections of the fine thread. It seemed to be endlessly long.

  “What are you doing?” asked Stella.

  “Let’s make a net out of this thread,” Rosie said. “Maybe it could be like those macramé hangers you make for plants, Phoebe? Then we’ll scoop up all the daydreams and carry them that way.”

  Phoebe grinned. “Great idea,” she said.

  Rosie, Stella, and Phoebe set to work, weaving a huge net. Rosie was worried it would take a long time to make, but Phoebe took the lead on the project, teaching the others. Even better, the thread seemed to learn what they were doing and soon started weaving itself into perfect knots.

  In next to no time, the Night Dragons had created the perfect net. It was light but very strong.

  “It looks great!” said the Dream Collectors, clapping their little paws together delightedly. “We’ll help you gather them up.” They scampered around, collecting the bubbles. They were experts at transporting them, balancing several on their tails at one time.

  Rosie didn’t dare carry more than one bubble. They were so fragile that she worried her sharp claws would pop them.

  Finally, every last bubble was carefully loaded into the net. Rosie, Phoebe, and Stella gently gathered up the ends and brought them together at the top.

  Rosie secured the net, leaving three lengths of thread dangling. She still had plenty of thread around her neck, even though the bundle was huge!

  “It looks kind of heavy,” said Phoebe.

  Rosie took the three threads and handed one to each of her friends, wrapping the third one around her paw.

  “Let’s test it and see,” she said.

  The Night Dragons rose into the air. The bundle rose, too. And then it kept rising. The bubble-filled net was soon hovering above the Dragon Girls like a hot-air balloon.

  “I guess daydreams are light!” Rosie grinned. “Even the ones that are a bit sad and muddled.”

  “They are light at the moment,” agreed one of the Dream Collectors. “But they will get heavier over time. Don’t take too long getting there!”

  “Also, they might explode,” added another Dream Collector. “So be careful!”

  “Goodbye, Dream Collectors!” Rosie called. “We’ll get these daydreams fixed, don’t worry.”

  The little creatures scampered up the surrounding trees and waved their paws. “Good luck, Night Dragons,” they called. “Hopefully the ray stationmaster is in a good mood today.”

  The Dragon Girls flew above the treetops. The twilight was as bright as ever. GlidyCat fluttered by Rosie’s side.

  “Which way should we go?” Phoebe asked.

  “If we’re riding a sunset ray,” Stella said, “I guess we head for the sunset?”

  Rosie looked around. It was simple in theory, but the entire sky was filled with sunset rays at the moment.

  “Let the daydreams guide you there,” said GlidyCat. “They know the way.”

  GlidyCat was right! Rosie could feel the daydreams gently tugging in their net.

  The group flew in silence for a while. Rosie’s mind was filled with questions. Would they recognize the ray station when they saw it? And what would they do if the stationmaster didn’t want to let them ride a ray up to the daydream maker?

  But Rosie shook away the worries. We’ll find a way, she told herself firmly. She knew that she and her friends could do just about anything together.

  “Am I imagining it, or is the sky getting brighter?” Stella asked suddenly.

  “I was just wondering the same thing,” said Phoebe.

  Rosie looked around. The sky did seem brighter! It was almost like the sun was rising. But that was impossible! It was evening, and night hadn’t even fallen yet. Also, there was something odd about the glow.

  Rosie looked down. The strange light moved across the trees below her, like tiny flames. As she watched, the light began to spread. It came toward Rosie and her friends.

  “Fire Sparks!” yelled Rosie. “And they’re heading this way!”

  But it was too late. In a flash, they were surrounded by a twisting mass of sharp little flares. Rosie lashed at them with her tail and swiped them away with her claws. It was like being swarmed by evil fairy lights! Her frustration returned, even stronger than before.

  “Don’t forget your roar, Rosie,” urged GlidyCat.

  But roaring while flying and carrying a huge bundle of daydreams was very difficult! The Night Dragons did their best, but they just couldn’t seem to roar strongly enough to put out the Fire Sparks.

  “Watch out,” called Phoebe. “There’s a rain cloud up there! Should we go above or below it?”

  A gray cloud loomed ahead. It wasn’t very big, but it looked dark and heavy with rain. Rosie was about to swoop below it when she had an idea.

  “Let’s fly through it!” Rosie called to her friends, swishing away a cluster of Fire Sparks with her tail.

  Phoebe and Stella looked surprised but nodded. Although the Fire Sparks were making Rosie feel all grouchy and itchy, she managed to smile. It was so good to know that her friends trusted her! As they approached the rain cloud, Rosie held on tightly to the silvery cord of the net. It would be terrible if she accidentally let go and the daydreams blew away.

  The sparks swarmed around them as they flew into the cloud. The light grew dim, and Rosie felt like she was wrapped in a big, wet towel.

  She heard a strange, angry hissing sound. Uh-oh, was that the daydreams? Was the rain cloud damaging them?

  Then Rosie sighed with relief. It wasn’t the daydreams fizzing out. It was the sound of the sparks going out! Her plan had worked! By the time the Night Dragons flew out the other side of the cloud, all the stinging little fires were gone.

  Even better, the net was still intact. They had not lost a single daydream bubble.

  “We did it!” roared Rosie triumphantly. “High five? Er, maybe a low tail?”

  Laughing, Rosie, Phoebe, and Stella swung their tails around and tried to smack them together. They missed the first two tries, but finally managed it!

  GlidyCat nuzzled Rosie’s cheek. “Well done,” she purred. “You dealt with those sparks perfectly. The ray station is just down there, so I will leave you for now. But I’ll be back if you need me.”