🐉✨ The Day Magic Made a Mess (and Then Fixed It) ✨🐉 <chapter5>

One sunny morning in Crystal Cove, the waterfalls sparkled, the crystals glowed, and the dragons were already busy.

Velcara was checking the crystal gardens.

Lunashade was guarding the entrance tunnels.

Starwhisker was watching the stars reflected in the water.

Even Luma was pretending to help...

which usually meant trouble.

Meanwhile...

L and M the Littles had decided they did not want to do anything useful at all.

Not reading.

Not tidying.

Not helping.

Not even putting away the crystal dice they had left scattered everywhere.

Instead they were chasing Emberling through the cave while Duskwhisper encouraged increasingly terrible ideas.

"Let's build a pillow mountain!" shouted M.

"Let's turn the waterfall into a slide!" giggled L.

"Let's hide all the cleaning cloths!" suggested Luma.

Across the cave, Cyddie was trying very hard to stay patient.

Very.

Very.

Patient.

She stepped over three abandoned books.

A pile of socks.

A dragon toy.

Two blankets.

A spoon.

A mysterious potato.

And something nobody could identify.

"Cove family..." Cyddie called.

No answer.

"Children..."

Nothing.

"Cove family..."

Still nothing.

Then she found M trying to balance on Nova's back.

L was teaching Emberling how to wear a saucepan as a helmet.

And Luma had somehow become trapped inside a laundry basket.

Cyddie pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Oh stars above..."

The dragons looked at each other.

They knew that face.

That was Cyddie's:

"I love you all very much but you're testing my patience" face.

Then suddenly...

an idea appeared.

A mischievous smile spread across Cyddie's face.

"Fine," she said.

"If nobody wants to tidy..."

The cave became very quiet.

"We'll do it with magic."

Instantly every little head turned.

"Magic?" asked L.

"REAL magic?" asked M.

"Trouble magic?" asked Luma hopefully.

"Helpful magic."

The children looked disappointed.

Then Cyddie raised her hands.

Tiny silver sparks appeared.

Crystal dust swirled around the room.

The lanterns glowed brighter.

And the entire cave began to shimmer.

A blanket floated into the air.

A sock danced past M's nose.

Books flapped their covers and flew toward shelves.

The scattered dice began rolling themselves home.

"WHOOOOA!"

L and M burst into laughter.

Soon they were helping.

Not because they were told to.

But because it looked fun.

L waved a crystal wand and guided books through the air like little birds.

M directed floating toys back into their baskets.

Emberling carried tiny crystals.

Solstice carefully stacked cushions.

Duskwhisper accidentally stacked himself.

Even Luma helped.

Mostly.

She secretly moved things to the wrong places just so everyone would have to find them again.

The cave filled with laughter.

Magic sparkled everywhere.

Lanterns bobbed overhead.

Tiny crystal lights danced through the waterfalls.

Within an hour Crystal Cove looked beautiful.

Cleaner than it had in weeks.

The littles stood proudly looking around.

"We did it!" cheered L.

"We used magic!" shouted M.

Cyddie smiled.

"You know the secret?"

"What?"

"The magic wasn't the floating books."

"It wasn't?" asked M.

"Nope."

"The real magic was everybody helping together."

The littles thought about that.

Then L hugged Cyddie.

M hugged Cyddie.

Velcara wrapped a wing around everyone.

Nova climbed into a lap.

Starwhisker purred.

And Luma immediately stole three crystal dice while nobody was looking.

Later that evening, as everyone sat beside the glowing pool, Cyddie watched the littles laughing together.

The cave was peaceful.

The chores were done.

And her heart felt lighter.

Because sometimes the strongest magic isn't spells.

It isn't dragons.

It isn't glowing crystals.

💛

Sometimes it's simply a family helping one another.

And finding a way to laugh while doing it.

The End. 🐉💎🦋✨💛

P.S. The three missing crystal dice were eventually recovered from Luma's emergency snack chest. She maintains they were "borrowed for scientific reasons." 😇🎲🦋