Free bedeviled & beyond 06.5 - bedeviled & bah humbug by sam cheever Page A

colorless. He was terrified.
    I grinned. That’s what he got for shifting me into the workshop nakies.
    Spencer sure is handsome, Glynus.
    Her response was a fire tinged snort.
    And he seems very sweet.
    She turned her head, fixing me with a beautiful turquoise eye. You sound like my mother.
    I sort of am...a surrogate mother anyway.
    She shrugged.
    Spencer pounded the air hard with his huge wings and rose up beside us. He turned a bright, green eye on Glynus. I could tell they spoke to each other on a mental path and wondered what they were saying.
    Spencer suddenly lifted his head on a roar, and several massive white dragons shot toward us across the sky, sliding in behind us in the shape of an arrow.
    What is it, tadpole?
    Greens. Lots of them.
    I frowned. I thought the whites and the greens had reached some sort of a truce?
    The queens have. But there are factions of greens who do not wish to follow their queen’s dictates.
    The Hell dragons.
    Yes.
    The previous year, Glynus and I had been in Hell at Christmas. Our unfortunate assignment had been to discover how hundreds of green dragons were escaping Hell. They’d been running for their lives, essentially. Hell’s sulfurous fumes were growing steadily thicker and it was poisoning them. Especially their young.
    We learned that Ralphy the quivering rodent had released a few of them to the North Pole before we could stop him. There were a lot of problems with that, but the biggest one was that the Hell greens were hot blooded dragons, having spent most of their lives in the steamy environs of Hell. And being in a snowy wasteland was no doubt making them cranky.
    Are they working with the Grinch?
    It would appear so, yes. He’s most likely promised them an end to Santa and the workshop. They seek to engage the Escendo Prophecy.
    Ahhh. So that’s what he’s up to.
    Yes. Snoopy and I have been keeping an eye on the cranky little green creature for months. However, last evening our queens demanded our presence at a bridal meal.
    I could clearly hear the disgust in her tone. And the Grinch chose last night to snatch Santa and set the Escendo Prophecy into motion?
    It would appear so, yes.
    The Escendo Prophecy tells of a time when Santa and Christmas no longer exist. The outcome of that eventuality is in question. Some read the prophecy to foretell the end of the North Pole, thinking that, without the magic and hope engendered by Christmas and its perpetrator, Santa, the whole geographic area would dissolve in upon itself and just disappear.
    Others believed, as the name Escendo implies, that the climate of the area will reverse and become tropical. It was easy to see why the greens would want the latter outcome. But I suspected the Grinch was interested purely in squelching everybody’s good time.
    That would explain why temperatures have been changing, I told Glynus.
    We have noticed too. Though it is still painfully cold, at this time of year the cold is usually deadly. Each day that Santa is missing and Christmas is in danger grows the prophecy’s tendrils exponentially. It is one of the most quickly growing prophecies we have.
    Then I guess we need to stop it. I grinned at Glynus as she turned her head and showed me her teeth. Reaching down, I rubbed my dragon’s broad, glistening black shoulder in her special place and she wriggled happily, giggling in my mind. No matter how big, how old, or how elegant Glynus got, I knew she would always be my tadpole. It had been too long since Glynus and I had fought a worthy battle together. I had to admit I was looking forward to it.
    Shall we go kick some Grinch ass, Mother halfling?
    Spencer’s massive, white head came up and he fixed us with a bright green gaze, bobbing his head in the affirmative.
    I smiled at him. Spencer ?
    Yes, Mother halfling. His voice was very deep, with just the tiniest bit of squeakiness at the end that told me he was still growing.
    I laughed. I hadn’t known Glynus was sharing our mental path