Our story thus far: “Are the dimensions really merging?” Summer asked suddenly … Seth said, “The Evil One got all worked up when the dogs asked why he wanted to destroy everything, but then he walked off to think about it instead of just going ahead and destroying us all.” Everyone turned to look at the worblatts, who appeared to be conflicted. After a few moments of awkward silence, Bub seemed to make up his mind. “I’m going to tell them,” Bub said. “Don’t you dare!” Bellzy flared.

“The truth is that —” Bub said.

That was all he was able to say before Bellzy tackled him.

Do you know what it’s like when one 20-foot-tall worblatt tackles another 20-foot-tall worblatt and they crash to the ground? Even the great buck was lifted off the ground by the shock wave, and Seth the Dragon teetered a tad.

“Don’t hurt the septic mound!” I cried.

The two worblatts wrestled on the field in front of the septic mound.

“Watch out for the willows!” I shouted. After all, the name of the property is Three Willows, and I like having three big willow trees.

Bellzy and Bub rolled away from the trees and toward —

“Don’t break the fence!!!” I screamed.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Seth said, stepping over the backyard fence and gently laying a clawed paw on the shoulder of the worblatt on top, who happened to be Bellzy at that moment.

“What the —?!” cried Bellzy, who swung an arm up and back and accidentally smacked the dragon in the snout.

“All right, THAT’S ENOUGH!” Now Seth was rather irritated. Even the two battling worblatts had to stop battling at the menacing sound of an irritated dragon’s voice.

“Fine, I won’t tell them the truth,” Bub said as he sat on the ground and Bellzy eased himself back up to his full height.

“Too late,” Dejah said, her tail wagging uncertainly. “Now you’ve got us curious.”

“Yes,” said the imperious bald eagle on the room, and his fellow eagles ruffled their wings in tacit agreement. “Tell us what you’re hiding about the Evil One.”

“He’s not —” Bub began, but he was silenced by a backhand across the face. “Hey! That hurt, Bellzy.”

“It was supposed to hurt,” said his colleague. “It was also supposed to get you to. shut. up!”

“That’s kind of rude,” said Summer.

“I don’t care!” Bellzy said. “You’re not supposed to know that’s not really the Evil One!”

The big worblatt stopped suddenly with a shocked look on his face, as if disbelieving he had just said what he just said.

The silence was not broken until Grenn, the elfin being, broke into a wide grin and said, “Oops.”

Dejah also seemed to be smiling, and she said, “Well, this is an interesting turn of events.”

The eagles looked at each other in something akin to confusion.

“So this is NOT the day foretold in the great prophecy?” one of the big birds said.

“No, no, it is!” Bub said, but his body language reminded me of Frank Morgan trying to get Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. “This is the day when the dimensions merge and the Evil One comes to destroy everything! This is it! Run, everyone, run!”

“Give it up, Bub,” said Bellzy. “I just blew it.”

“Something tells me we still need to be on guard,” said Seth the Dragon.

“Agreed,” said the arrogant eagle. “This is still an unusual day even for the time of magic.”

“What’s going on here, boys?” the great buck asked the worblatts.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” said Bellzy defiantly but a little hopelessly, and turning to Bub, he added, “He’s going to kill us when he finds out.”

“FINDS OUT WHAT?” asked a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Our story thus far: “We seem to have stumbled across quite a complicated incident,” the doe said. “You don’t know the half of it,” I agreed. “And neither do you,” said yet another new voice, this time from above. It was the eagle again, and he had company.

It was a convocation of eagles to be exact — the eagle we met a few minutes earlier had returned with a dozen or more friends, and they all perched along the peak of our rooftop.

“I ain’t scared of you,” said Bellzy the worblatt.

“Yes, you are,” said the imperious eagle who had visited a few minutes ago and now was back with a few of his close friends. From the look in the big monster’s eyes, the eagle was right.

“Say what you’ve come to say,” said the great buck.

“This is interesting,” murmured Dejah, who had found her way to my side during all this discussion. “The head eagle and the big horse with the antlers are both acting like they’re used to being in charge.”

“You’re right, that’s kind of funny,” I said.

“It’s extremely funny,” Dejah said. “Everyone should know that Summer and I are in charge.” I let that remark hang in the air. Being unaccustomed to my retrievers talking, I couldn’t tell if she was serious or deadpan-joking.

“The events of this morning suggest fulfillment of a great prophecy in our eagle culture,” said the lead eagle.

“Let me guess,” said Grenn the elfin one, his eyes rolling.

“Please don’t interrupt,” the eagle said, unaccustomed to being interrupted. “The prophecy says, ‘In the time of magic there will come a day when the dimensions merge and tongues are unlocked to a human. Be on watch —’”

 “‘Be on watch against the Evil One on that day, lest it consume all in its path.’ Yeah, yeah. tell me something we don’t know,” Grenn said.

“I guess the prophecy wasn’t from elf culture OR dragon culture,” Seth the Dragon admitted.

“Doesn’t matter,” Grenn said. “What are we going to do about it?”

“We came because we heard a loud voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once,” he eagle said. “Was that the Evil One?”

“I was just going to ask our tall companions here,” said the great buck, indicating Bellzy and Bub, the worblatts, who looked uncomfortable.

“Well, to be perfectly honest —” said Bub.

“Yeah, of course it was the Evil One,” Bellzy interrupted. “Who else would want to destroy everything in his path?”

If Dejah had eyebrows, they would have lifted, but she remained silent.

“Well, then, what are we going to do about this?” asked the doe, who was a little distracted because the fawns had started to prance around each other.

“Why would we discuss strategy with two of the Evil One’s allies standing in that field listening?” The  eagle had a point.

“Are the dimensions really merging?” Summer asked suddenly.

“What?” said several beings at once.

“Well, there’s that inter-dimensional portal thing, and the worblatts and the really big guy came through, but is that the same thing as the dimensions merging?” Summer said. “If whole dimensions were banging together, wouldn’t there be a little more — what’s the word? — chaos going on?”

“We got a human who can suddenly understand what we’re talking about, and a small crowd of us getting more crowded by the minute,” Grenn said. “Isn’t that chaotic enough for ya?”

“My little sister has a point,” Dejah said. “This is the time of magic — it’s October, after all — and it’s a really weird day, but is it really THAT day?”

“Oh, come on, guys,” said Bellzy. “I’m telling you, it’s that day. Why else would the boss be here?”

“But he hesitated,” Seth said. “He got all worked up when the dogs asked why he wanted to destroy everything, but then he walked off to think about it instead of just going ahead and destroying us all.”

Everyone turned to look at the worblatts, who appeared to be conflicted. After a few moments of awkward silence, Bub seemed to make up his mind.

“I’m going to tell them,” Bub said.

“Don’t you dare!” Bellzy flared.