© James Pyles
The King.
Of course, it was a lion. It wasn’t cowardly. It was angry.
He seemed larger than a typical male lion, but everything seemed unrealistically larger here. His mane was the color of burnt wood and his fur was a rich golden hue. The King’s eyes were glowing green, the shade used in many comic books and cartoons to indicate radioactivity. Here, in this unreal world, it seemed a dangerous reality.
“You’ve caused us some trouble, young Daniel.”
© James Pyles
There was nothing but darkness, and then there was light.
Daniel woke up with a headache surprised to be alive. The last thing he remembered was Gerald the Rooster expanding to fantastic proportions, growing to become a prehistoric nightmare, and engulfing the ten year old in its ebony wings.
Then he was here, wherever “here” was.
“The farm?”
It sort of looked like the farm, but not really. There were structures in the right places, the farmhouse, the chicken coop, the barn, but they all had an air of unreality to them, as if they were just “bookmarks” for other objects.
© James Pyles
Daniel was in the henhouse gathering eggs, but he also wanted an opportunity to check in on Henrietta. Gerald the Rooster was elsewhere in the barn yard, so there was time for this clandestine meeting.
While the other hens appeared as they always did, the ten year old was shocked to find the talking hen missing feathers and with her left eye swollen. What had happened to her?
“Henrietta. Are you okay?”
The character “Slappy” from the Goosebumps books | found at Amazon.com
The Fifteenth Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series
It was a Friday and Landon was happy that the school week was over. He went into his bedroom to get rid of his backpack and saw something strange.
All of the living stuffed animals were at the foot of the bed looking suspiciously at an object resting on Landon’s pillows.
“Is that new thing your’s, Landon,” asked Baby?
“No. I mean, I’ve never seen it before.”
From the film “Red Fog” (2013)
The Thirteenth Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series
It was one of those rare days when Buddy was at home watching eight-year-old Landon and his 20-month-old sister Dani while everyone else was out.
Grandpa, Dad, and Dad’s cousin Nate went out for lunch and to see a movie, while the kids stayed at home in the Ambrosial Dragon’s care.
Buddy wasn’t much larger than the average collie, but although a dragon, his intelligence and maturity was equivalent to an adult human’s. In fact, given his other worldly nature, there was no estimating just exactly how intelligent Buddy was, or for that matter, how old he was.
Buddy had hopped up onto Grandpa’s “reading chair”. Landon came out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth.
“Hey, where’s Dani?” The last Landon knew, she’d been sitting in the living room looking at her books, but now only Buddy was there.
Stephen Voss – Smithsonian Magazine
The Tenth Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series
Landon had been bored and sleepy until the plane began its final descent toward Cairo International Airport. Then his face was glued to the window taking in every detail of a city that was over a thousand years old. Grandpa was sitting next to him, enjoying his eight-year-old grandson’s enthusiasm.
They had planned this vacation for months, ever since Grandpa read Landon the “Goosebumps” book Return of the Mummy by R.L. Stine. Grandpa actually had a friend in Egypt named Issa Salib who was an archaeologist, a person who studies history by digging at ancient sites like the pyramids, examining what they find…
…like mummies.
from “The Hobbit” (2012)
The Seventh Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series
Landon was playing with Baby, Scorch, and Sly in the field behind Grandpa’s house. It’s not unusual for a seven-year-old boy to play with friends on a Saturday morning, but in this case, Landon’s friends are living stuffed animals.
Well, they are living now, but they weren’t before the magic.
Through a rather unusual set of circumstances, Landon was imbued with magical energy and in order to learn to control it, his dragon companion Buddy had no choice but to train the child in the use of his magic.
This has caused some problems recently, but they were resolved when Landon formally became Buddy’s apprentice.
So on this bright, cold December morning, Landon is practicing magic with the aid of some of his stuffed animals, a small yellow giraffe named Baby, an equally small stuffed dragon with pink wings named Scorch, and a little red stuffed fox named Sly.
Image: spyderonlines.com
The Third Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series
For the first two stories in this series, see The Day the Dragon Came to Live with Us and Rescuing a Dragon.
Tarmreiboth the Dark Wizard had become very interested in the spaces between worlds recently, and with good reason. It was being used by fugitives.
Tarmreiboth resided in a realm ruled by his family for thousands of generations that was dangerously near the void between the dimensions. It’s near in the sense that the darkness from the void enters Tarmreiboth’s realm rendering it dark as well. It has always been that way, as far back as the eldritch sages of the Storvian Mountains remembered, which was a considerable length of time.
Yet this darkness rendered Setioval, which was the name of Tarmreiboth’s dark planet, strangely immune to detection by the Shadow Dragons who ruled the space between worlds. It may have helped that the denizens of Setioval were just as black hearted and evil as the Shadow Dragons, but it was still a puzzle why the Dragons never visited their realm.
No matter, since they never have. Still Tarmreiboth liked to keep an eye on what was happening in the void.
An Ambrosial Dragon making the crossing between one dimension and the next was unusual but not unheard of. The dragon having two human companions from Earth with him was unprecedented. Earth was almost a forgotten legend in the world of Setioval. This astonishing reminder led Tarmreiboth to do a little research.
Uwe Zucchi / AFP – Getty Images
The Second Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series
If you haven’t done so yet, read the first story The Day a Dragon Came to Live with Us.
Grandpa sat in a chair on his back patio pretending to manipulate a drone’s controls while Buddy the Dragon flew high above.
“You see, Landon…” Grandpa addressed his seven-year-old grandson sitting to his right, “…if anyone sees Buddy way up there, I can just say I’m flying a drone over the field. The trick is taking off and landing.”
“I’m glad he can fly. He likes to be high up.” Landon didn’t take his eyes off of the golden figure in the distance, imagining what it would be like to be up there with his best friend.
Grandpa spoke into the microphone he’d wired into the drone control box. “Okay Buddy, that’s a wrap. C’mon down now.” The dragon could hear Grandpa through a headset he’s managed to get to fit on Buddy’s head. The dragon could talk back through a small microphone.
“Flying, flying. Buddy likes flying.”
“It’s getting late and Dani will be waking up from her nap soon.” Dani was Landon’s 15-month-old sister. Landon’s and Dani’s Dad was still at work but would be home in time for dinner.
“Oh, okie-dokey, Gramps.”
Buddy went into a nosedive right toward the back of Grandpa’s house, but at the last second he fully extended his wings and breaking hard, landed softly on the back lawn not five feet from the startled pair.
Grandpa recovered his composure. “Have a nice flight?”
The dragon walked up to Grandpa and nuzzled his head on the older man’s leg. “Yup, yup, yup. Good fly. Good fly.”
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