“Wow!” said Breeze, jumping in backward circles. “You outdid yourselves this year!”
“I can’t wait!” Sunbeam exclaimed, dancing with excitement.
“This is the feast of my dreams! So many froyananas!” Bloom sang out.
The dragons laughed, and green flames and blue smoke rose from their nostrils as they emptied the contents of their vats into a row of gold and silver troughs. “Bon appétit!” the dragons called out. The unicorns rushed across the cloud floor and began to gobble down the food in the troughs.
“This stew is incredible!” gushed Moon between bites.
“And the soufflé is amazing,” Prism added, licking her lips.
“It’s the best chowder I’ve ever had,” Bloom and Sunbeam said in unison.
Cressida smiled as she watched the unicorns eat. She was glad they were enjoying their feast. Just then, a dragon bounced over to her carrying a silver tray piled high with sliced roinkleberries. “Sunbeam remembered how much you loved these,” the dragon said. “All the other dishes have froyananas in them, and Bloom mentioned that, for some strange reason, you don’t like those.”
“Thank you!” Cressida said. She had first eaten roinkleberries on her first trip to the Rainbow Realm, when she’d visited the Glitter Canyon with Sunbeam, and she knew she loved them.
As Cressida ate the sweet fruit, she realized it was probably about time to go home and fly her own homemade kite up into the clouds above her backyard. She was eager to see Corey, even if she couldn’t tell him about her adventures or how he and his book about bats had helped her get the bats off the giant kites. She hoped he still wanted to make a giant bat kite, and she wanted to help him do it.
“You look like you’re thinking about going home,” Breeze said, looking up from her trough.
“I’ve had such a wonderful time here,” Cressida said, “and I loved the Blast. Thank you so very much for including me. But I do think it’s time for me to go home. I’m looking forward to flying kites with my brother.”
“You have kites in the human world?” Breeze asked, eyes widening.
“Yes,” Cressida said. “In fact, I was making my very first homemade kite this morning when you called me. The only thing I had left to do was make the tail.”
“Wow,” Breeze said. “Have fun flying it.”
Moon took a final bite of the food in her trough and trotted over to Cressida, still wearing her blue, sequined cape. “I heard you say you’re about to leave,” she said. “Thank you so much for lending me your magic cape. I know I should give it back to you, but,” she said, blushing, “I was wondering if I could keep it to wear later on when we all fly back down to the ground.”
“Of course,” Cressida said, smiling. “I don’t need it in the human world. I’m not really a superhero after all.”
Then, Flash, Sunbeam, Bloom, Prism, and Firefly joined Cressida, Moon, and Breeze.
“Good bye!” Flash and Sunbeam said.
“Come again soon!” Prism and Bloom said.
“We’ll invite you back in no time,” Moon said, and Firefly nodded.
Cressida pulled the old-fashioned key with the crystal ball handle from her back pocket. “Take me home, please,” she said. The clouds and sky began to spin around her, faster and faster, until they were a swirl of blue and white. Then, everything went pitch black—as dark as Moon had made the Windy Meadows—and Cressida felt the sensation of soaring through the air. She always liked that part of leaving the Rainbow Realm best, but today she especially liked it because it reminded her of flying Kelly the Kite up into the magic clouds.
Soon Cressida felt herself land on the soft forest floor. At first, the trees and sky spun in a blur of green, brown, and blue. Then, the woods slowed to a stop and she found herself sitting beneath the oak tree with the key still in her hands. She stood up, and as she pushed the key into her pocket, she felt something unfamiliar. She pulled it out to discover a long string of the same blue sequins that had been on her magic cape. Attached to the string, a note read,
Here’s a magic tail for your kite.
Love, Breeze
Cressida smiled. And then she skipped back toward her house, ready to tie the sequin string to her unicorn kite and fly it in her backyard.
In the top tower of Spiral Palace, Ernest, a wizard-lizard, leafed through a dusty book entitled Formal Wear for Feathered Friends. As he turned the pages with his scaly fingers, a bird with messy red feathers and bright green eyes grinned with excitement and hopped from one foot to the other.
Ernest looked up from a page that read, “Magic Spells for Beginners: Wingtips for Woodpeckers and Spats for Sparrows.” He furrowed his green brow and cleared his throat. “Bernadette,” he said, “let me make sure I’m getting this right. You want me to turn one of your head feathers into a ball gown?”
“Exactly,” Bernadette said. “Last year, I wore an emerald green tuxedo to the Starlight Ball. It matched my eyes perfectly. But this year I want to try a ball gown. I have so many feathers on the top of my head,” she continued, looking up at her thick, messy head plumage and grinning sheepishly, “that I was thinking I could spare one to make the perfect dress.”
Ernest nodded and flipped to a page with the words, “Advanced Spells: Turning Feathers and Plumes into Gowns,” in large, gold letters across the top. He read for several seconds and asked, “You don’t happen to know what a plume is, do you?”
“It’s just a fancy word for a feather,” Bernadette said, shrugging.
“Then I think I’ve found just the right spell,” Ernest said.
“Fantastic!” Bernadette said, twirling on one talon while she kicked the other foot in the air. “I’ve been practicing my dance moves all week.”
Ernest laughed. “Me too! And I’ve almost perfected the spell for my tuxedo.” He
