Our story thus far: The sudden flash was so bright it hurt our eyes, and then it was gone. And so was Summer. My arms were empty. My dog was gone. Seth the dragon was gone, too. “What have you done?” We turned at once and said it simultaneously to the being called Greg. “Well, the truth is —” the newcomer said, and he paused as if deciding whether to finish the sentence, and then did: “I am the Evil One.”
No one spoke for quite a few seconds. And then Dejah began to growl.
I have never heard such a sound from the throat of a golden retriever. They are gentle, happy animals. This was neither gentle nor happy. My 11-year-old dog was growling like a K-9 officer who had just been given permission to rip a perp to shreds.
Gone was the gentle English cream golden retriever that yipped at the door hoping to get a treat when she came in the house. Gone, too, was the genteel canine who had been politely carrying on conversations with me, the elf, the dragon and the other visitors on this “day of magic.” She wasn’t even using words, just making the guttural noises that an animal makes moments before it launches an attack.
And launch she did. Moving at a speed that belied her status as an elderly dog, Dejah bolted toward the fence as if to leap over it and dismember the creature in T-shirt and jeans who had just disappeared her little sister and a big dragon.
I was right behind her. Screaming, “What did you to my dog?!” I sprinted toward him with a roiling hatred in my soul that made me fear for the guy when I got my hands on him — if Dejah didn’t reach him with her fangs and claws first.
In the corner of my eye, I saw Grenn the elfin being raise his left hand, palm up like a Marvel superhero sorcerer about to cast a spell. All of a sudden I couldn’t move, and Dejah suddenly stopped and writhed like a rabid animal at the end of her leash.
“Let me go!” she barked. “I’m going to kill him!!”
“I don’t think you want to try that,” Grenn said.
“No,” said the man who had just identified himself as the Evil One, smirking. “It would not end well for you.”
At that, Grenn made a sweeping motion with his right hand, and the smirking man’s head snapped sideways and back. He was lifted off the ground and flattened as if the elf had planted a right hook on him from 25 feet away.
Greg, or whatever his real name was, rubbed his chin and smiled as he picked himself off the ground and faced us.
“I will forgive you that,” he said. “You are grieving and not thinking straight.”
“What have you done to my dog?” I repeated.
“And my friend Seth,” repeated the elf.
“Isn’t it obvious?” said the creature, who now had green skin and an elongated face, similar to a character I cannot describe further without risking a copyright violation on Fantastic Four #11. “They’re not here anymore.”
“Where are they?” asked the eagle leader from the sky, where he continued to circle with his feathered colleagues.
“Gone, of course,” the creature said. The eagle responded by diving toward the beast, pulling up with his claws extended, and taking a piece of green flesh off the arm he had raised defensively. Seven of the other eagles swooped down and did a bit of scratching of their own.
There was another blinding flash, and suddenly the eagles were 100 feet in the air. The great buck lowered his great rack of antlers and began to charge.
“Stop right there or you’re next!” The creature cried. The deer decided to pull up. “You’re all fools! Why are you resisting? The whole point of this day is for the Evil One to consume all in its path.”
“Which is why we’re on guard,” said the buck. “You do know the prophecy, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” said the green thing, who was bleeding from dozens of eagle scratches. The great birds circled, preparing for another swoop.
“Liar!” screamed Grenn the elf, using his Big Voice. “But that’s who the Evil One is, the Prince of Liars.”
“All right, that’s ENOUGH!” the green thing shouted and raised both hands to the sky.
This flash was the most blinding of all.
