He simply laughed. "So that's how a person's mind works when they've been among humans for too long," he said. He held up his palm and commanded, "Look at my hand." Orange fire, as hot as any bonfire, sat curled as a neat ball in his grasp. He flicked it away and it hit a silk screen in the corner and quickly started to consume it. He gestured at it and it obediently came to heel, abandoning the screen, but still leaving it in tatters. He waved it over to Alyss, and it silently covered her completely without singing a single hair. She stared at it, whacking at her clothes to try to smother the flames, but they remained as stubborn as they were harmless to her.
"That's strange," he muttered. "She used to love playing with the flames. Perhaps it's the shock her polluted human form is prone to?"
Alyss was now on the floor doing her best to emulate the 'Stop! Drop! And Roll' procedure young humans are taught for this very circumstance.
Soon all the flames had been smothered and she was more angry than before. "That's not the point though," she added. "You kidnapper! Why did you do that? How did you do that? That little bubble thing you did. It shouldn't have been possible!"
"Well, I already just showed you," Aeron said.
She shook her head. "No, I don't mean you're stupid theatrics. Obviously, you have a flame torch hidden in your sleeves or something. What I want to know is how you made that weird bubble thing!"
He conjured another to show her. "Just like this. It's not really that hard to do, but I'll admit I'm still glad you're impressed by this," he said. He popped open the wing slits on his back and let them out as well. He did a lazy little loop around the room to show them in action. Surely flight would prove that this was all real and break through her delusions.
She touched the new bubble that was still resting on the ground. Curiosity had apparently overwhelmed her common sense. It gave under her touch, but it didn't trap her. She still pulled her hand back out of caution, however. "How did you do this?"
He shrugged again. "I just used magic. It's pretty simple, really. Any mere human could do it, so I know you could do this spell, too, if you tried. Want me to show you how?" He looked eager at the thought.
She shook her head. "I don't want to play magic tricks with you. All I want, right here and right now, is to go home. Do you think you can arrange that? Maybe use one of your so-called magic spells to send me home?"
His eyebrows drooped. It somehow made him look disappointed. "I'm afraid I can't do that," he said. "It's very important that I get you out of that world and in here where you will be safe."
She protested against his announcement, demanding that she be sent home. Pleading with him to see reason and how terrible being locked up like this felt for her.
He drooped a little more. "It is very unfortunate that you feel that way about this chamber and this world," he said in a small voice. "No matter," he announced more loudly, "I have something more important to see to than this entertainment." He snapped his fingers and all the orange flames winked out of being. He snapped again and disappeared in black flames.
CHAPTER FIVE
Bubbles
Alyss looked around the room. It was rather sparse. There was a long flat wall that was simply painted white, and another side of the room that seemed to be constructed of curved mirror glass. The whole room was bathed in a faintly blue light emanating from a giant multifaceted zinc lantern hanging from the ceiling. There was a bed, a blanket, and a pillow. And that was all there was to be seen.
A flash of orange light from the corner caught her attention. She walked over, ducking down to calmly inspect that end of the mirror. There was a flash of red light again, and a scaly head slowly blinked a giant eye at her. Surprised, she then leaped back in shock.
She ran back to the far flat wall, shivering. The eye blinked once more, then disappeared. It moved out of the way and was replaced in view by a giant reptilian head pressing as close as it could get to her. A scaled arm shoved that one out of the way to show a green one in its place that blasted fire at her. A gray scaled arm moved in to cuff the offender and dragged it by the spikes on its head to the other end of what could now be clearly seen as a giant stadium filled with over-sized dragons flapping about. The glass window, for that's what it must have been, was now once more opaque and innocent. She slumped to the floor, head between her knees.
The sterile room was silent, for all but the muffled sound of sobbing. Alyss was bundled up in a blanket, hiding under the bed frame. The disk-shaped room was filled with soft light, which had turned on at some point, probably in the morning, as it had been dark before then, probably to simulate night time and stimulate sleep. She hadn't slept then or now, eyes wide open and blood shot as she huddled there on the floor.
Her life had been dull and wretched in Florida. The sunny state had left her miserable with her mysterious illnesses and complete isolation at her schools and at home. Things had gotten better,
