Dragon Games

by Stacia Deutsch

  “Yes!” Poppy was super excited. More than her usual amount. “Dragon egg season! Oh my fairy godmother, this is hexciting!”

  Holly read from her MirrorPad. “Dragonpedia says that in the wild, mothers lay their eggs near active volcanoes to warm them until they hatch! It takes years, apparently.”

  Raven said, “I could cast a spell to keep the eggs warm. Incubation incantation, warm with lava imitation!” Light shot from Raven’s fingers and—zap !—it was warm enough to care for the twelve eggs in the soft hay.

  When Raven was distracted, Mira whispered, “This spell could use a power-up.”

  With a zap! of her own, Mira sent a current along the ground and toward the eggs. They suddenly glowed much brighter—so bright and hot, in fact, that the girls had to shield their eyes.

  Raven tried to figure out what had gone wrong. “Oh no! I must have overdone it!”

  Crack!—an egg began to hatch. Then another. And another.

  Precious baby dragons began crawling out of their eggs, into the light, and blinking open their moist little eyes. They stretched their tiny wings and steadied themselves on their feet.

  “This is bad. It got too hot!” Holly said, looking at the dragons. “That can make them turn…”

  “Evil!” Apple finished, turning to face Mira.

  Mira simply smiled and said to Raven, “What are you trying to do, Raven, you wicked girl? Trying to make evil dragons?”

  “Me? Never! Who would do such a thing?” Raven shook her head.

  “Your mother,” Mira muttered, but no one heard.

  The girls all looked at Raven with doubt. Raven raised her hands. This was not her fault. Just then, Nevermore, in her medium-sized-dog body, peeked around the corner.

  Raven was relieved to see her. “Nevermore! There you are! Look at all these new friends for you!”

  Nevermore stepped forward to investigate, but she leaped back when one of the little dark ones hissed at her.

  Brooke Page said, “The Evil Queen would totally do such a thing. And she just did.”

  “True, but perhaps Raven’s taking the blame will help get this fairytale back on course,” the Female Narrator suggested.

  “I say, dragons at Ever After High!” the Male Narrator said. “One thing is certain: This is the greatest threat our young heroines have ever faced.”

  CHAPTER 7

  This is Blondie Lockes, reporting live at Ever After High, where dragons once again roam the hallowed halls, ending the long-standing ban on the controversial Dragon Games program.”

  Blondie reported the news while Holly and Poppy fed the baby dragons. New dragons meant new armor. They brought the dragons fresh vegetables in a large basket. The instant they saw the food, the babies scarfed it down as fast as Holly and Poppy could hand it out.

  “Ow!” Holly exclaimed when one hungry baby accidentally nipped her finger.

  Blondie went on with the news report. She looked at her shoulder, where a baby dragon was nibbling on her hair. “It would seem the students of Ever After High are eager to adopt these pesky pets.…”

  Darling’s dragon breathed ice. She held out a paper cone, and he shot a breath of snow onto it. Instant snow cone!

  Holly and Poppy took two babies back to the dorm, where they jumped on the bed. One breathed fire. The other ice. Fire. Ice. Fire. Ice. Together, they made steam!

  Madeline Hatter’s dragon had an amazing talent. She breathed a web of pink cotton candy that wrapped around Maddie’s hat. “Cotton candy! Yum!” Maddie was thrilled as she bit into the sugar and licked her lips.

  Apple’s room was cold—that was, until her dragon shot fire into the fireplace, lighting the logs. She rubbed her hands together near the flame and said, “Good girl.”

  Behind the stables, while everyone was getting to know their new pets, Mira used her “charms” to persuade Nevermore to let her ride her. Together, they flew up, perched for a long moment on a brick wall, then swooped toward the ground. In a swift move, Mira made the dragon’s tail spiral, creating a corkscrew. Mira completed two full aerial rotations before landing gracefully. As she dismounted, she triumphantly punched the air.

  “Raven, you have to try this. Nevermore is a natural! Woo!”

  Blondie closed her MirrorCast by asking her viewers: “What will become of Dragon Games? Only time will tell.”

  Snow White was working on papers and signing scrolls when she saw Blondie’s news flash. Her eyes lit up as she recognized her nemesis performing tricks on the dragon!

  “Why, you wicked old thing!” She laughed. “Welcome back. Hmmm.” A brilliant thought came to her. “Summon the architects!” she shouted to a dwarf down the hall. “I’ve just had the fairest idea of all.” She smiled to herself, saying, “This should get Apple back on top—and freshen my pure-as-snow image, too!”

  “What is with the sudden assembly?” Mira asked Raven as they searched for seats in the Ever After High Charmitorium.

  “It’s top secret. No one knows,” Raven answered.

  “I heard there’s a special guest!” Blondie said.

  “This is hexciting!” Apple said as they all found seats together.

  Headmaster Grimm took the stage. “It is my honor to welcome back our favorite and most successful graduate, the ruler of our kingdom—our beloved queen, Snow White!” He stepped aside as Apple’s mom entered the room.

  The students and teachers all started to applaud, except for Apple. She looked at her mom’s bodyguard dwarves and the fluttering bluebirds, and wondered what was going on. “Uh-oh… Mom?”

  Snow White waited until the clapping stopped, then stood behind the podium. “A little bird told me that dragons have returned to my beloved alma mater. So it’s time we restored the good old ways. Today, Dragon Games are reinstated at Ever After High.”

  The students cheered, while Grimm and other teachers looked nervous.

  Snow White went on. “Dragon Games are tough yet elegant. And I want my Ever After High riders dressed accordingly. Girls?”

  There was a gasp that rose from the crowd as MirrorPhone flashes recorded pictures of this historic moment.

  “I’ve hired the creative team of Lizzie Hearts and Ashlynn Ella to design all-new Dragon Games wear,” Snow White said.

  Lizzie and Ashlynn stepped forward to present their models: Holly and Poppy crossed the stage, sporting fabulous riding-armor uniforms—

  After the applause died down, Lizzie and Ashlynn held up drawings for additional designs, specially created for Apple and Raven.

  “These looks are lightweight, flexible, and fashion-forward,” Lizzie said.

  Ashlynn told the students more about the uniforms, saying, “Not to mention fireproof, ice-proof, and explosion-resistant!”

  The students were all impressed and applauded loudly.

  Snow White settled them down. “Hold your applause, please. I must admit, this was not my idea.”

  She called her daughter to the stage and put her arm around Apple’s shoulders. “My daughter, Apple, thought bringing back Dragon Games would unite everyone with school spirit!”

  Apple stared at her mother. “No, I didn’t.… That’s not true!”

  The students were all so excited about the dragon competition that they ignored Apple’s protests, shouting, “Way to go, Apple!”

  Uncertain what else to do, Apple shrugged and blushed.

  Snow White then announced, “But wait—there’s more! Now, if you’ll all follow me outside…”

  The school’s stables and old arena were hidden behind a curtain of bluebirds. The students gathered around while dwarves in yellow hard hats packed up their shovels and construction equipment.

  “I can’t very well bring back Dragon Games in an old, dilapidated arena!” Snow White put on a hard hat with her crown on top. “Allow me to present… the new Ever After High Dragon Games Center!”

  The birds moved aside, revealing the renovated Dragon Games Center and Arena. It was beautiful, with enough b
leachers for the entire school. Two sculpted dragons, one light and one dark, framed the arena. Each was holding a giant hourglass.

  The students and teachers and even Milton Grimm gushed a loud “Ohhhh…” together.

  Apple grabbed her mom and pulled her aside. “Wow, Mom, why didn’t you tell me about all this? And why say it was my idea when it wasn’t?”

  Snow grinned a brilliant smile. “You’re welcome, my little Apple dumpling.”

  “But, Mom, it’s a lie,” Apple insisted.

  Snow replied, “You’re not Cedar Wood; you are Apple White. We discussed this! A little White lie won’t harm anyone. Sometimes you have to pull out all the stops and use your resources to get your fairytale back on track.”

  Apple was upset. “Mira was right. We are different.”

  “Who?” Snow asked, just as Mira stepped in front of Raven, speaking loudly so everyone would hear.

  “Me,” Mira said, pointing to herself. “And you can’t always just buy popularity, Snow.”

  Everyone gasped at Mira’s boldness.

  “Miss Shards! Mind your manners!” Grimm warned.

  Snow laughed. “‘Mira Shards.’ Very clever. Rumor has it you’re an excellent dragon rider. For a new kid on the block.”

  Mira looked boldly into Snow’s eyes. “The rumor’s true.”

  Snow nodded slowly. “Only you’re not a student. You might’ve been once—back when we were in school.” She folded her arms across her royal chest. “I’d know that arched brow anywhere.”

  Apple gulped, knowing everything was about to be revealed.

  Raven watched Mira closely—she had seemed so familiar. But why?

  “I just wanted to be close to my daughter!” Mira announced at last. “You can understand that.”

  Raven let that sink in. “Daughter?” Oh no!

  “And to be young again,” Snow said, pointing out the obvious.

  “You’d have done it, too, if you could.” Mira’s voice shook as she asked, “I suppose now you’re going to send me back to that awful mirror prison?” With that, Mira raised one eyebrow super high, just as she’d done when Raven visited her in the tower.

  Raven’s jaw dropped in shock. “Mom?”

  Mira spun in a whirlwind of purple smoke, morphing into her adult self—the Evil Queen.

  “Sorry, birdy. Guilty as charged,” Mira announced, sweeping back her royal cloak with a flourish.

  “Yay! The Evil Queen’s here!” Madeline Hatter cheered. Everyone stared at her uncomfortably. Maddie quickly corrected herself: “Said no one ever!”

  Suddenly, everyone in Ever After High understood that Mira was the Evil Queen. People started screaming! Running! Scrambling to get away!

  Raven didn’t move. She stared at her mother with a look of horror and shame.…

  CHAPTER 8

  The Evil Queen pushed her way to the podium and faced the crowd. Her eyes glowed a fiery red. The students stopped running and turned back, fearful yet curious to see what she was going to do.

  Raven rushed to her mom, inserting herself between the Evil Queen and everyone else. Her hands, crackling with power, were outstretched in a protective gesture.

  Her friends watched as, below the standoff, in two new dragon corrals, the twelve dragon babies were playing in the hay. Six were white, six dark. Fog settled around the arena, giving it a magical, mysterious feel.

  “Stand back, Mother!” Raven kept her hands raised. “I don’t know how you escaped from your prison, but I will not let you hurt my friends.”

  The red glow in the Evil Queen’s eyes faded, and she looked at Raven innocently, as if to say, Who, me? She no longer looked threatening.

  Faybelle Thorn, the daughter of the Dark Fairy, who cursed Sleeping Beauty, looked on from the stands with interest. She hadn’t realized that Apple’s new friend, Mira, was actually the Evil Queen. She straightened her cheerhexing skirt and flapped her little wings, thinking, If only I’d known before now…

  “Raven, I love that you’re willing to fight with your magic powers, but you judge me too harshly. I don’t wish harm.” She transformed into Mira for a beat, then back again. “While I was posing as Mira, I got to know your friends. I’d like to think of them as our friends.”

  “Nice try, Mom. I know your tricks,” Raven said.

  “No tricks. I did the crime; I did the time. Daughter, it is not so hard to change.” The queen then zapped Professor Rumpelstiltskin, who was sitting in the front row of the bleachers. He croaked as he became a frog, still wearing a hat. The frog jumped into Hopper Croakington II’s arms.

  “See. He just changed.” The queen laughed as if this proved her point.

  “Welcome to my world,” Hopper, son of the Frog Prince, said to the frog.

  Frog Rumpelstiltskin slipped out of Hopper’s hands. He dropped straight down off the stands and into a muddy puddle.

  A pair of real frogs raised their eyes out of the brown water and looked at him in a distrustful way. One of them shot its tongue out to catch a fly and knocked off Rumpelstiltskin’s hat.

  The Evil Queen turned to Snow White. She bowed her head and held up her wrists, waiting to be cuffed. “Snow White, I surrender to Your Queen’s justice.”

  The crowd murmured with surprise.

  Faybelle was the only one who saw the Evil Queen quickly glance in her direction. The queen was not sincere. This was getting more and more interesting to the Dark Fairy’s daughter.

  Two dwarves, decked out in sunglasses and wearing security earpieces, moved to apprehend the Evil Queen, but Snow stopped them with a subtle shake of her head.

  “But I promise, I am reformed,” the Evil Queen went on. “Raven, my child, my escape was only to get closer to you. I missed you so.” With that, she grasped Raven’s hands in hers.

  Raven pulled away.

  In a melodramatic and overblown series of gestures, the Evil Queen turned back to face the crowd in the bleachers. She stepped down the stairs so that she was slightly below Snow.

  Faybelle nearly laughed. It was all so predictable. The queen was putting on quite the show.

  “I will miss all this back in my mirror prison.” The Evil Queen glanced up and pretended to notice the Dragon Games gear for the first time. “And now you have dragons. Why, what fun we could have had together playing Dragon Games.”

  “No more games, Mother,” Raven said firmly.

  The Evil Queen looked up at Snow. “Remember, Snow?”

  “I remember.…” Snow White said. There was a competitive gleam in her eye. “It was our game. What a rivalry.” She reached her hand out toward the Evil Queen, for a moment forgetting where they were. “You against me, on our dragons. It hexcited the whole school, the whole realm.…”

  “And united it.” The Evil Queen jumped off the podium and landed firmly in the corral area. She looked back up at Snow and the crowd of students and teachers watching from the bleachers. She slowly rotated, taking in the arena.

  “The love of the sport,” she said with passion. “Dragon Games were the one thing that kept my mind off trying to rule the world.…” The Evil Queen suddenly lit up, as if a brand-new idea had just taken form. “Say, I could coach a team if I wasn’t sent back into the mirror. What do you say, Snow White? Feel up to a rematch?” The Evil Queen rushed back up the stone steps, coming eye-to-eye with Snow White at the podium. “Or is the ‘Fairest of Them All’ afraid of a little competition?”

  Snow paused, clearly thinking about the challenge. No one dared to breathe. “Ha!” she said at last. “If I recall, the crowds were cheering for me.” She poked the Evil Queen in the shoulder. “Okay, you’re on,” she said. “You won’t ‘snow’ what hit you!”

  The crowd gasped in shock, but it was Raven who was the most surprised.

  “I hereby grant the Evil Queen a temporary pardon,” Snow announced. Then she told a dwarf, “Have the paperwork drawn up, AESOP.”

  Raven knew she had to stop this. She rushed forward, stepping between
the queens. She said to Snow White, “What! No! With all due respect, Your Majesty, how can you trust my mom not to be evil when she just turned a teacher into a frog?”

  “That? Evil?” The Evil Queen laughed. “Oh, come on! Okay, I’m changing him back.… Ya happy?” She zapped a spell into the corral toward the puddle.

  She missed Professor Rumpelstiltskin, hitting another frog with her power and creating a clone of the teacher. This new Rumpelstiltskin checked himself, surprised to find he had a human body now.

  “Ribbit.” The real Rumpelstiltskin hopped around in protest, but no one noticed.

  “Happy?” The queen pointed at the fake Rumpelstiltskin.

  “I’ll be happy when you do something good that’s not part of some bargain. Find me when you do.” Raven hurried down the stairs into the corral. She moved quickly into the dragon stables and disappeared from view.

  “Really, Raven,” the Evil Queen shouted after her daughter. “For a girl rejecting her dark side, you’ve got to lighten up.”

  “Raven, wait!” Apple was about to follow, but Snow held her back. She said to the Evil Queen, “I’m sure your daughter will come around. Evil is relative, after all.” Snow then took the Evil Queen’s hand and raised it triumphantly. Together, they moved toward the magnificent dragon sculpture and then separated. Snow White went to stand by the light dragon, while the Evil Queen stood by the dark one.

  Snow White announced to the students in the stands, “We two queens will be your coaches. It will take many months of hard training for these young dragons to be large enough for full-contact play, but we must begin practices immediately. Tomorrow, bright and early, we will choose our captains and teams. Let us begin a new era of Dragon Games!”