22. the Lake. 

Sebastien was waiting for us at the dock. This time there was no dinghy behind his boat. 

“So,” he asked, “how’d it go? Saw an awful lot of fairies and one big dragon leaving in a hurry over my lake.”
“It went all right,” Soy said modestly. “I got to tackle an evil fairy.”
“Good for you,” said Sebastien sincerely.  

We started for the other side of the lake.
“What are you going to do with the pen?” asked Soy with excitement. 

The pens and the Book of Lore were sitting next to me. 

“Well, I think it’s only right to return the book and the real Fairytale Pen back to the fairies,” I said.
“No, not that pen. I mean the Author Pen. You can use it to create anything you want! You saw what it did back there!” Soy was getting more and more animated as he spoke.
“I hadn’t thought about it,” I answered.
“Instead of just doodling you could be creating entire cities! Kingdoms! The possibilities are endless!” Soy said.

Deli placed her hand over mine.
“What do you think you should do with it?” she asked kindly. 

I looked at Sebastien. He was watching me intently, as well. 

His words were running through my head. “You were chosen for a reason.” Deli had said that I thought differently than Tryt, and that was why I discovered the identity of the Author Pen. But that couldn’t be all. Maybe I was chosen so that I could put the pen to good use. There was so much that I could do with it. But… that didn’t seem like the answer either. 

Instead of just recording tales in the Book of Lore, Tryt could have been using the pen to create his own version of things. There’s no telling what he would have done if he had known. In their cleverness, the dwarves had tricked him, to conceal the pen’s identity. Above all else, they wanted it protected. And in a way, they were the ones who had chosen me to do it. The needed someone to find the pen who would know what to do with it once the story was over. And I did. 

I picked the pen out of my pocket and wrote one last note in small letters, covering it with my other hand. I waited until the words were safely inside the book, then reached my hand out over the side of the boat. I shut my eyes and dropped the pen into the lake. 

Deli let out a laugh and gave me a hug.
“What? What?... But…What?” was all that Soy could say. 

Sebastien smirked at me and continued rowing.

Soy let out a sigh. “Well, I don’t get it, but I don’t get most of this, anyway.” 

Soon we were on the other side of the lake. Sebastien pulled us up to the dock and held the boat steady as we stepped out. 

“How will we get back up?” I asked him.
“Same way you got down,” he answered.
“Thank you!” I said as we all waved goodbye.
“It was my pleasure. Best fare I ever had,” Sebastien said with a wink. 

He disappeared into a purple mist before I could respond. When we approached the tunnel again, I still didn’t know what Sebastien had meant. 

“He said, ‘same way you got down’,” Deli repeated. 

As I stuck my hand past the opening, felt something odd. There was a gravity inside the hole, pulling me in, same as from the other direction.

“Soy,” I said, “try to enjoy it this time.” 

I jumped forward and was immediately falling again- this time upside down. A few minutes later, I was tossed up and into the cave room with the five animal doors. I noticed that the doors were all open and calm. 

The only stirring was far away at the bottom of the cloud beyond the middle door. I peered through, down from the top of the cloud. There was a golden dragon and a fairy, surrounded by a circle of warlugs. Moments later, Soy and Deli popped out of the tunnel. I closed the door shut. 

Outside the entrance of the mountain, my bed was waiting for us. It was nice to see it again. I probably could have fallen asleep on it right then and there, but I knew there was a lot of traveling left to do, so I climbed on top and took my spot up front. 

“Hey Deli,” I asked, “do you know a good place for three heroes to celebrate after an adventure?”
“I do,” she responded with a smile. 

And with that, we set off for Pavidale on my flying bed.