Notebook for Fantastical Observations (4 page)

Sketches of two locations where dragons may be found:

“We will rebuild the world in silver and copper and iron.”

FROM
B
OOK
4: T
HE
I
RONWOOD
T
REE

I have this ball from when I was a kid. It’s made from pure gold that shines like the sun. If you put your fingers just right on the surface and turn it—just so—the ball will open up. Inside is a jump rope of silver filigree as fine as a skein of thread and an eight-sided die with drawings on each side for a game I only half-remembered. People ask me if it’s real. They ask me where I got it, too, but I never tell them.

I used to have this friend who went by the name of Soltieg. I never saw him at school, but sometimes I’d see him around the neighborhood and then we would play games that none of the other kids knew. He was short, with black hair that stuck up from his head at odd angles and that he would tug at when he was nervous.

Sometimes he would come over to my house. We would microwave pizza bagels and watch television. He really loved cartoons and we’d
spend hours watching the tube or playing with action figures in front of it. But after a while I wanted to go to his house. At first he made excuses.

“My house is too far away,” Soltieg said.

“Then why are you always around here?” I asked him.

He pulled on his hair. “We don’t have a television.”

I shrugged.

He sighed. “My parents wouldn’t like it.”

“Fine,” I said, but the way I said it, he could tell that it wasn’t fine.

A week later he gave in and told me he was going to take me to his place. We cut through my neighbor’s backyard and the woods behind their house. We lived beside some steep hills, but as the road snaked upward, Soltieg led me up to the edge of the rocks where there were no houses.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

He pointed to a shadowed area and an entrance to what looked like a cave. I forgot all
about going to his place. A cave! That was about the coolest thing I could imagine. It was damp and a little chilly inside, but I didn’t mind. I thought of making a fort or a clubhouse with lots of rules about who got in. I was just thinking up what the first rule should be when I noticed that there were torches flickering in the gloom. They burned with a strange blue fire.

“This is where I live,” Soltieg said. “I’ll take you all the way in if you promise not to tell anyone about it and promise that you won’t try and bring anything from inside of the cave back out.”

“Sure,” I said. “No problem.”

He led me into a vast cavern. There was a whole city inside, made from gleaming gold and shining silver. Gems as large as grapes ornamented spires and hung from bronze trees as though they really were fruit. Overhead, even the distant ceiling of the cave had been painted with gold and hung with opals that mimicked stars. Occasionally a mechanical butterfly
would fly by, its wings rising and falling in time with the key unwinding at its side. As I walked through the streets cobbled with marble, I noticed that all the inhabitants of this strange city were shorter than I was—even the ones with beards.

Soltieg brought me to his home, which was a modest house on a sloping street, but still crafted from stone so polished that it reflected like a mirror. The whole place was topped off with a roof of glinting copper. He took me inside and we played a dice game with rubies, a board game where the pieces were warriors blown from glass, and a card game with cards that were etched in gold.

His mother brought us dishes of things I couldn’t identify dressed in unfamiliar spices and with many sauces. Despite not usually being a fan of weird food, I ate all of mine.

Before I knew it, it was time to go back. I didn’t want to go. It didn’t seem fair that Soltieg got to live in a magical place. Even
though his mother told me I could come again tomorrow, I found myself overcome with anger and envy.

I slipped the golden ball into my pocket. It wasn’t that I forgot about my promise; it was just that I figured the promise meant I better not get caught. I deserved it anyway—he had all of this; why should he miss one little toy? Following Soltieg to the entrance, the golden ball seemed hot in my sweaty grip, but to tell him now would get me in too much trouble. I said good-bye and Soltieg said good-bye back, but his voice was sad and one of his hands tugged at his hair.

After that, I never saw him again. When I went to try to find the cave, the stone was solid. There was no entrance into the mountain.

All I had was the golden ball.

—Eric N.

ANALYSIS: Dwarves are fine metalworkers with a deeply felt sense of honor.

—H. B. & T. D.

An odd little creature I’ve seen around my neighborhood:

Here’s what else I know about it:

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My three favorite