Strangely enough, Peter found it very easy to climb the hill by walking backward.
He did not get tired or even breathe hard. It felt as if someone were giving him a little push from behind, just like his mother used to do when he was a much smaller boy and needed help getting over the hollyhock fence.
Peter glanced at Dallahan.
The little red dragon seemed even stranger. His feet hardly appeared to touch the road at all. He simply floated backward up the hill without the slightest effort.
They must have been moving very quickly, because before long they reached the top of the long, steep road.
When Peter turned around, he stopped and stared.
Far below them lay what must have been Giggletown, a little village with red roofs tucked into the valley like a happy smile.
Dallahan pointed down the road.
“Look! Those wagon tracks in the dust. They’re from Mig’s donkey cart.”
He jumped excitedly.
“Quick! We have to follow them before that tricky old fellow gets away!”
But Mig had already gotten away.
Peter and Dallahan searched every corner of Giggletown.
They searched from the top of the village to the bottom.
Then they searched from the bottom back to the top.
Then they searched all over again.
But there was no sign of Mig.
No blue box.
No little white donkey with the same disgusted look on his face.
Nothing.
They had vanished as completely as magic butter melting in the sun.
Not a single person in the village had seen them.
There was a little fair going on beneath the shadow of a gray-green church, and Peter and Dallahan asked everyone they could find.
But the people at the fair shook their heads.
“No, we haven’t seen anyone like that.”
“Not a princess with silver toes?”
“No.”
“Not a strange old magician?”
“Not that we know of.”
Dallahan finally gave up and sat down on a stone beside the road.
“Well, this is very discouraging.”
He sighed.
“But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Mig is extremely clever. He can change himself into almost anything—shrubs, trees, stones…”
Peter looked at him thoughtfully.
“Can he change the princess, the donkey, and the cart into other things too?”
“Yes,” Dallahan replied, rubbing his sharp little chin.
“They can all change together.”
Peter looked up and down the broad white road.
“Golly. That makes things sound hopeless.”
Then he suddenly remembered something.
“What road are we on?”
“The King’s Great Highway,” Dallahan answered.
“The King’s Great Highway?”
Peter’s eyes widened.
“That’s where I fell off the dragon!”
He looked down the road.
“Maybe…maybe if we wait here, the dragon will come back looking for me.”
Dallahan’s face fell.
“If he goes all the way to Ireland, he won’t come back this way for days and days.”
He slumped against the stone.
He looked so tiny that he seemed more like a boiled red crawfish than a dragon.
Then Peter noticed something far away on the white road.
At first it was only a tiny speck.
It looked no bigger than a fly.
Then it became the size of a bumblebee.
Then a mouse.
Then a rat.
Then a puppy.
Then a dog.
Then a pig.
Then a colt.
Then a horse.
And finally…
A dragon!
Peter shouted with excitement.
“Oh, look! Look! It’s the dwagon! The dwagon!”
He ran down the road toward it.
At that very moment, Dallahan suddenly snorted and jumped to his feet.
Every red scale on his body stood straight up.
“The stone moved!” he cried.
He stared at the fat stone he had been sitting on.
“I’m sure it moved! I know it moved!”
He poked at it suspiciously.
“It isn’t moving now, but it definitely moved before!”
Peter did not hear him.
He was far too excited about the approaching dragon.
The cave dragon had stopped in the road.
Grandma climbed down first, still wearing her armor.
Then Johnathan jumped off.
Janet Jane followed.
Then Nap and Jerry.
Finally, Crubby climbed down from his usual perch behind the dragon’s ear.
Everyone rushed toward Peter at once.
They all tried to hug him together.
There was so much banging and clanking of armor that it sounded like a whole army falling down a staircase.
Peter was wearing nothing but Riggy’s torn doublet and hose, so all those steel arms pinched him terribly.
“Oh, Peter!” Grandma cried.
“Where have you been?”
“And why did you fall off?” Johnathan demanded.
“I tripped,” Peter answered simply.
Johnathan looked him over.
“Where’s your armor?”
Janet Jane hugged Peter even tighter.
“We were so frightened!”
Everyone started talking at once.
Peter tried to answer everyone at once too.
Then the two dragons began talking.
The cave dragon looked at Dallahan.
“Well, this certainly is a surprise. I never expected to find you here.”
Dallahan stood quietly beside him.
“Yes.”
The cave dragon studied him for a moment.
“And you’ve changed so much.”
Dallahan lowered his head.
“Yes, I have.”
He looked embarrassed.
“Please don’t make fun of me. I can’t help it. I was locked inside a box for a very long time. If that wouldn’t make anyone feel small, I don’t know what would.”
“Oh, you poor fellow,” said the cave dragon.
He reached out one golden claw.
“Come here, my friend. Let me shake your hand.”
Dallahan looked up.
“I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been far into the future, where I was the very last dragon in the whole world. Believe me, I felt pretty small and out of place myself.”
He gave Dallahan a gentle smile.
“But you can’t let that feeling last forever.”
He looked Dallahan over.
“You’re out of the box now, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Dallahan said.
Then he pointed at Peter.
“Thanks to him.”
The cave dragon smiled warmly.
“Then I have something to thank him for too. He did almost the same thing for me, only much farther ahead in time.”
He turned back to Dallahan.
“But let’s get back to you. You’re out of the box, and…”
He suddenly smiled.
“Look at yourself! You’re growing already!”
Everyone stared.
It was true.
Dallahan was stretching.
His body lengthened like a rubber band.
He stretched upward from his waist and downward from his waist.
His long spine slowly straightened and grew.
And as his body grew, his smile grew wider too.
Suddenly he threw back his head.
“I’m myself again!”
He laughed.
“I’m myself again!”
He stretched his wings.
“Oh, how happy I am! How happy I am!”
His voice was full of excitement.
“I want to do great, big things!”
He looked at Peter.
“I learned my lesson in that box. I don’t want to do small things anymore.”
He stood taller.
“I want to do big and wonderful things.”
He shook his head firmly.
“No more stealing. No more silly little fights. I’m going to return the princess to you, my old friend, if—”
Johnathan suddenly interrupted him.
“Look!”
Everyone turned.
“Look at that funny round stone!”
He pointed down the road.
“It’s walking away!”
Sure enough, the fat stone was waddling down the road like a strange, round little man.
Dallahan’s eyes became enormous.
“That’s the stone I was sitting on!”
He pointed excitedly.
“It moved before. It must be…”
He hesitated.
“Don’t you think it is?”
Everyone ran after the stone.
They quickly surrounded it.
The stone stopped.
Then it settled down on the road like a fat hen sitting on a nest.
Grandma adjusted her spectacles and leaned closer.
“What is this?”
She poked it with one finger.
“Why, it’s soft!”
She poked it again.
“A soft stone. That’s very strange.”
Janet Jane squealed.
“Look! It’s coming apart!”
Johnathan shouted.
“There’s a nose!”
“And an eye!”
Crubby puffed out his chest importantly.
“It’s a magic stone.”
Everyone immediately tightened their grip on their swords.
After everything they had been through, they expected almost anything.
The cave dragon leaned closer.
“I see moonstones.”
His eyes widened.
“And part of a red dress!”
Peter pointed.
“There are whiskers too. They’re tied into two braids.”
Grandma peered closely.
“And there’s that disgusted expression.”
Dallahan suddenly understood.
“Keep it together!”
He shouted.
“Don’t let it fall apart!”
He pointed at the strange stone.
“It’s Mig the magician, the cart, Princess Silver Toes, and everything else all mixed together!”
Everyone stared at him.
“Don’t let them separate,” Dallahan warned.
“If they fly apart, we’ll lose them!”
Everyone reached out and tried to hold the crumbling stone together.
But it was almost impossible.
It was like trying to carry a whole pile of loose apples in your arms without letting a single one fall.
“Quick!” Johnathan shouted.
“That piece is slipping away!”
Peter turned.
“Catch it!”
“It’s running between your legs!”
“Catch it!”
Peter bent down and grabbed it.
“I’ve got it!”
He held the little object up.
“It looks like a silver toe.”
Dallahan nodded quickly.
“That’s exactly what it is!”
He pointed at it.
“It’s the princess’s silver toe. It’s trying to run away by itself!”
He waved his claws.
“Put it back!”
Peter hurriedly pushed the silver toe back into the strange stone.
But the moment he did, something else fell away.
Then something else.
And another piece.
Every time they put one thing back, another thing escaped.
They were certain Mig was going to get away.
Then Grandma suddenly reached into her mysterious knitting bag.
She pulled out several balls of brightly colored yarn.
Everyone stared.
“What are you going to do with those?” Peter asked.
Grandma did not answer.
She swung one ball of yarn around her head like a lasso.
Then she threw it.
The yarn wrapped around the crumbling stone.
Grandma pulled another strand.
Then another.
Soon red and yellow wool were winding around the stone again and again.
Around and around.
Faster and faster.
It looked like a spider wrapping its silk around a helpless fly.
Finally the strange stone stopped moving.
Everything became quiet.
Then a rough voice came from inside the tangled yarn.
“Let me out!”
Everyone froze.
“Let me out! I’m Mig!”
The voice sounded miserable.
“And I’m sorry!”
Dallahan stepped forward.
“Are you really sorry?”
“Yes! Yes, I’m sorry!”
Mig sounded desperate.
“If you let me out, I promise I’ll never steal again!”
Dallahan looked at the cave dragon.
The cave dragon looked back at him.
Slowly, both dragons nodded.
“All right,” Dallahan announced.
“We’ll let you out.”
He gave Grandma a knowing wink.
Grandma winked back.
Then she began winding the colored yarn back into her mysterious knitting bag.
She wound it faster and faster.
Round and round went the yarn.
Until the very last bright strand disappeared into the bag.
Everyone stared at the fat stone.
Then something amazing happened.
The stone began to melt away.
And where the stone had been, a beautiful girl was standing.
She had long golden hair.
She wore a beautiful red dress covered with magical moonstones.
Beside her stood the strange little Mig, with his whiskers tied into two braids.
There was the blue cart.
There was the little white donkey, still wearing the same disgusted expression.
And there were the sacks of gold.
The cave dragon reached toward Mig with one golden claw.
“You bad, bad little fellow!”
But Mig was already preparing another trick.
He shouted a strange magical word.
Suddenly he changed shape.
In the next instant, he was flying high into the sky as a long blue dragonfly.
“Zummmm!”
He flew farther away.
“Zummm!”
He looked back at them.
“Zummm!”
Then he disappeared into the distance.
And in dragonfly language, that meant exactly the same thing as laughing:
“Ha, ha, ha!”
But Mig had left the princess behind.
He had also left the cart, the donkey, and the sacks of gold.
Everyone turned toward the princess.
Something had changed.
She was no longer enchanted.
Her large blue eyes opened like violet flowers covered with morning mist.
A soft pink color spread across her face.
Then she ran straight toward the cave dragon with her arms open.
She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
And from that very moment, she was sixteen years and one moment old.
Crubby immediately stepped forward and took charge again.
“Let’s open the sacks!”
He rubbed his hands together.
“They must be full of gold!”
Everyone gathered around.
They opened the sacks.
But Mig had managed one final joke.
There was no gold.
Not a single coin.
Instead, nothing but air rushed out of the sacks with a great whoosh.
The empty bags collapsed like brightly colored balloons.