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.It didn't seem right to keep him cooped up."A-row, went Bonnington, dribbling slightly from the side of his mouth.He padded across the kitchen and leaped onto the drainer.And there he sat, as he often did, watching the garden world go by.David fiddled with a place mat, as if putting it in alignment with the table edge might induce the answers he was seeking."Was it Snigger?""I couldn't tell.I'm sorry.""But why catch a squirrel? What have they got to do with it?"Liz touched her fingers lightly to her temples, stretching the skin into worried ridges."Why steal Gadzooks's pad? Who set Gretel free? What's happened to G'reth? I don't know, David.Something strange is going on and I'm very, very confused."150It didn't help that the doorbell rang just then.Liz jumped and sat back with a hand across her heart.David pushed aside the place mat and went to answer.The caller was a healthy-looking Henry Bacon, who had not long returned from his sunshine cruise."Stand aside, boy, need to speak to Mrs.P.""Henry, not now.Liz isn't feeling good."But by then Mr.Bacon was halfway down the hall, leaving fine, sooty footprints on the dark green carpet."Bird down the chimney," he was saying to Liz, as David made it into the kitchen."Bird?" Liz repeated."Could be bats, bird more likely.Probably a pigeon.Stupid creatures.Worse than squirrels.""In the chimney?" asked David."That's what I said, boy.Or have you turned deaf again? Having breakfast this morning.Sudden fall of soot.Dust all over my scrambled eggs.Need to sweep it, Mrs.P.Anything your side?""I'll check upstairs," said David, gesturing to her, "in case we've, erm, any.unwanted visitors." He151clicked his fingers at the listening dragon.A slightly baffled Henry turned to look.But in the blink of a human eye, the listener had sent an alert call to Gruffen and also adopted its solid state.David ascended the stairs in silence.On the way, he picked up a fishing net that Lucy always kept in the umbrella stand in the hall.As he crept on tiptoe into the den, Gruffen pointed a wing toward the chimney.Something was coming down the inside of the stack.David edged closer.A shower of soot fell.There was a scrape, then an object fluttered in the grate."Got you," David said, and netted it in an instant.The creature twisted and hissed and sent a fine jet of blue-white fire from its throat.It was blackened with soot from head to toe, but its violet eyes were blazing.And it was carrying what appeared to be a bunch of flower heads.Gretel.Gruffen gulped and jerked back.The potions dragon was not a happy being.Gretel punched her wings outward to tear through the netting, all the while huffing152and stomping her feet and warning that if the flowers were damaged, then the stupid human only had himself to blame."All right, all right, calm down," he said, trying to lift her out of the grate.She spiked his hand and flew to the workbench.Immediately four guard dragons (pressed into service by Gruffen) closed around Grockle to protect him from attack.Hrrr! went Gretel, saying something unkind about the hopelessness of Pennykettle dragons in general.She shook herself down, blinding half the guards with a shower of soot, then proceeded to dust the flower petals clean, spitting angrily at David for each one that broke from the head of the flower.Sucking his hand, he knelt down to her level."Gretel, what are you doing?""Learning," she hurred."Flowers hear."David looked at the chimney they shared with Henry."Words, you mean? People talking?"Gretel raised an eye ridge."Bring the listener."153"Watch her," David whispered to Gruffen, and he hurried downstairs and slipped into the kitchen.Henry Bacon turned to him at once."Well, boy? Any problem?""Nothing we can't handle.Need this," he said to Liz, grabbing the listener off the top of the fridge.Henry's facial muscles swelled with disbelief."What the deuce are you up to now?"A question mirrored in Liz's face."And why are you back so early from the north?""Too chilly," David said."Didn't like the cold." He hugged himself, then shot up the stairs.By now, Gretel had cleaned the petals to a satisfactory state and was busy flicking droplets of water over them.The listener struggled free from David's hands and landed on the workbench beside the potions dragon.There was a brief and rapid exchange of dragontongue while Gretel arranged several flowers in her paws.Then she began to sing.It was a lullaby, not unlike the kind of thing Liz would use to calm a restless dragon into sleep
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