Story:

Nutsy hits Louis on the head w/ something. Josh and Nutsy are sitting on something high, like a shelf or an overhead light fixture. When Louis is knocked unconscious, the scenery becomes enveloped in a gray fog, much to Nutsy and Josh's distress.

Josh: "Now what have you done?! This doesn't seem very funny to me." Pretty soon, they are sitting on a fog bank, w/ no details of their surroundings discernable.

Nutsy: "What's not what was supposed to happen! He was just supposed to see stars of get a bump or something." Nutsy looks contrite. "I just wanted to show him how that gag is not funny when it happens to you." Nutsy looks downcast.

Josh shows that he is is annoyed with his friend but still likes him despite the incident. { Josh grins and says, "You dork." || Josh: "You're stupid, but I like you anyway." || "Loser." } Josh: "What happened?" Looks around in confusion and wonder. "Where are we?"

Josh shifts and almost falls off his invisible perch. "Ahh!"

Nutsy looks scared: "Well, Louis is unconscious. I don't know... . We're in limbo?" Nutsy shrugs in confusion.

Josh is laying on his stomach w/ at least one leg hanging off the invisible edge. He feels around w/ his hand: "This ledge is soft." He thinks a moment. "What would have happend if I fell?" He shudders.

Slowly the grayness begins to lift. We can see that they are perched on the limb of a pine tree. They seem to be in one of the large evergreens in a temperate rainforest. At first, we can't tell how high they are, but the grayness slowly clears like the tendrils of a misty cloud. We see more and more branches, and then other trunks. Finally the ground. The sky never clears. The ground is damp and mossy, covered in deadwood, ferns, and silal. They can see a stream flowing by about ten yards away. We see that they are on one of the lowest branches of a very tall tree, about twenty to thirty feet off the ground.

Nutsy: "Whoa!"

Josh: "OK, I still want to know where we are!"

Both continue to look around. Nutsy begins to move toward the trunk: "Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's go explore."

Josh: "WAIT! Do you think that's a good idea?"

Nutsy: "Huh?"

Josh: "How do we get back? What if the fog comes again and we're not here?"

Nutsy sits to converse: "I don't think it works that way. What do you think?"

Josh: "Well, this started when you knocked Louis unconscious. I suppose it won't matter where we are if him waking up would bring us back." Josh thinks.

It starts to rain lightly, a northwest drizzle.

Josh: "Ugh. This is not going to be fun. I'm still worried though."

Nutsy points: "Look!" Over near the creek there is a tree with gnarled roots. A wisp of smoke is visible coming from between the roots.

Josh: "Smoke..." (Josh looks back over his shoulder.)

Nutsy: "There are other people here! Come on, Josh. Maybe they can tell us something. We won't be going that far. Plus, we'll be able to get out of this wet."

Josh sighs. He grimaces and shakes a few drops off his whiskers. "OK."

Nutsy and Josh head down the trunk to the forest floor. Nimbly, they make their way through the undergrowth and approach the wisp of smoke.

The dense fog slowly thinned, and soon the two friends could make out their surroundings. The sun shone wanly through the gray mist, and the air was cool and damp. They were in a forest, high up on one of the lowest branches of a douglas fir. Even at twenty feet in the air, the forest canopy was far above them, and they could see their surroundings as clearly as the receding fog would let them. The tall firs were widely spaced at six to ten feet apart. The forest floor was covered with a soft blanket of needles. Here and there were patches of salal and hollygrape, low brushy plants with stiff green leaves. There was an abundance of ferns, and the fallen logs were covered with mosses. They found themselves in a damp, lush world.

Nutsy twitched his whiskers to rid them of the water droplets that had condensed on them from the mist. A rushing, gurgling noise could be heard, coming from a large stream about thirty yards away.

"Look!" said Josh. "Smoke!"

Nutsy could just make out the slowly rising tendril of gray coming from between the gnarled roots of a large oak that was growing at the edge of the drop off of the stream's bank. "I see it."

"Someone must live there. Let's go talk to them and see if they can tell us where we are or what happened."

Nutsy shrugged acceptance, having no better plan to offer. Josh grabbed on to the bole of the tree and began lowering himself backwards down the tree towards the ground. Nutsy cautiously watched the forest from his perch on the branch, but he saw no other creatures stirring in the undergrowth. When Josh reached the ground, Nutsy scrambled down the trunk after him. The forest was calm and quiet, except for the rushing of the stream. The friends gave each other a nod when they were both together on the ground, then began moving quickly towards the distant oak. There was no path, but they wound their way along the open spaces in the sparse ground cover. The damp needles were soft beneath their paws as they padded across the forest floor. The stream got louder and more distinct as they approached.

"Kreeeee!" A shrill cry split the stillness. The squirrel and the raccoon both dove for cover under the dense prickly leaves of a hollygrape. A flash of brilliant green swooped across the open area where they had been. The two friends strained to follow the thwap of wings as the attacker wheeled through the upper stories of the cathedral like firs. It called again, and dropped with outstretched wings to land blocking the path before the two friends.

Nutsy and Josh stared. This was no hawk! Clad in shining emerald scales, it could be nothing other than a dragon. They stared agape. Its sinuous body was only a few feet long, with a slender tail, a golden-green crest, and bluish accents to its lustrous scales. It stamped its taloned feet and stretched its bat-like wings to their six-foot span in frustration, weaving its head back and forth trying to see where the two encroachers had hidden.

Suddenly it thrust its head forward and exhaled a burst of flame. The wave of heat and light hit the two friends like a slap. The raccoon and the squirrel yelped and fell backwards. The flames died quickly in the damp environs of the forest, and in moments the only fire left was in the twisting yellow threads of a few last burning needles. A three-foot swath of blackened, scorched ground stood before the dragon.

Nutsy and Josh were far enough back from the flames that they were not burned, and the fire ball had prevented the dragon from seeing them retreat further into the underbrush. Nutsy and Josh gave each other a silent look of terrified desperation. If the dragon spotted them, they were as good as dead. They hid motionless, clinging to the hope that the dragon would eventually abandon its quarry and depart. In the distance behind the dragon, Nutsy could see the faint wisp of smoke still rising from between the roots of the oak less than ten yards away. So close; now so utterly unreachable.

"Hai! Beth!" cried a new voice sternly.

The green dragon looked back over its shoulder and then ducked its head slightly at the tone of reprimand.

As the owner of the voice came into view, Nutsy was shocked once again.

"What is it Bethany? Heel," commanded the newcomer. She was a gray squirrel, wearing a dark green cloak and carrying a wooden staff, which she stamped on the ground to punctuate her command. The top of her staff was carved into a kind of cage in which was entrapped a polished stone of milky white quartz. The gray squirrel was about the same size as Nutsy, standing almost a foot high. She moved through the forest with calm assurance. Nutsy found her bright eyes quite fetching.

The dragon acquiesced and relaxed its posture, watching the gray squirrel respectfully as she stopped by its side. She patted its flank affectionately and rubbed its head.

"Wow," breathed Josh.

Both heads snapped around to face the sound. "Show yourself," commanded the gray squirrel, as she gripped her staff in both hands. The dragon resumed looking balefully around.

Nutsy and Josh looked at each other again. The gray squirrel and dragon looked like a pair that was not to be messed with. Nutsy elbowed Josh, giving him a look that said, "You started it. Get out there!" Josh grimaced, and then stood upright with his hands in the air. "Don't attack!" he called out, only partially visible in the dense leaves. "We didn't mean any harm!"

"Come out where I can see you," ordered the gray squirrel, gesturing sideways with the head of her staff.

Josh nodded and waded through the hollygrape to the clearing she had indicated. Nutsy followed, and soon they both spilled out into the open.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Nutsy and this is Josh. We're sorry; we didn't mean to trespass. We're lost," said the flying squirrel, trying to look as sincere and harmless as possible.

The gray squirrel looked at them appraisingly, and then relaxed slightly. She patted the green dragon to calm it as well. "You are lucky," she said finally. "Damn stupid, but lucky. I'm Moira, this is Beth," she said indicating the dragon. "Beth is a little over-eager, which is why I went through all the effort of putting up that notice around the boundary of my domain," said the gray squirrel with evident annoyance.

"We must have missed it," began Josh defensively.

"You couldn't possibly have missed it. It appears right in front of you when you cross my border," Moira cut in irritably.

"We're sorry, but we really are lost. I don't think we even crossed your border. We just appeared here!" said Nutsy, trying to forestall further argument. "We don't know what happened, and we were hoping maybe you could tell us. Where are we?"

Moira considered this for a moment. The dragon hissed softly. "Hmph," the gray squirrel snorted. "Well, come meet Beth, then we'll go inside and get to the bottom of this."

Nutsy and Josh hesitated, uncertain.

Moira rolled her eyes. "Come over here and hold your paw palm up so Beth can smell you. Then she'll know not to attack you."

Nutsy went first. He slowly walked across the scorched ground toward the dragon, holding his hand just barely in front of him, as if ready to jerk it back in an instant should the dragon snap at it. He could feel the dragon's glittering eyes hungrily watching his every move, and a frisson of fear tingled down his spine. "How do I get in these messes?" he thought.

Moira rolled her eyes again. Stepping forward, she grabbed Nutsy's wrist and dragged him quickly to the dragon's head. Nutsy let out a startled squeak. She shoved his paw under the dragon's nose, and, cradling her staff in the crook of her arm, laid her other paw on the dragon's cheek and whispered a few words to it. There was a hiss of hot breath from the dragon, and then it seemed to ignore the flying squirrel completely and began staring at the raccoon. Moira released Nutsy's hand and called to Josh. "Get over here."

Nutsy quickly stepped aside and held the relinquished paw close to his chest with his other hand, thankful to still have it. Josh tipped his head in acknowledgement of the inevitable, and crossed the blackened clearing to approach the dragon. Moira again grabbed the proffered hand and held it perilously close to the dragon's snout. A whisper and a snort, and the dragon relaxed again. In fact, it sat back on its haunches and scratched the back of its head with a hind talon.

"Come on," directed Moira as she nodded her head toward the oak and the stream. "Let's get inside out of the dampness. I'm surprised you are not wearing some sort of traveling cloak."

"Beth's beautiful isn't she?" said Josh as he watched the dragon walking gracefully beside them.

The dragon ducked her head and said in a small voice, "Thank you."

Josh stopped in his tracks and Nutsy glanced at the dragon in surprise.

"What now?" said Moira, looking back at them.

Josh opened his mouth, then shut it and just shrugged. Nutsy elbowed him in the ribs playfully.

Moira continued leading the way, and in moments they reached the oak. It was indeed situated at the edge of a steep stream bank. At some time in the past, the stream had worn away the bank until it had started exposing the roots of the magnificent tree, but that was long ago. Now the steam had meandered the opposite direction, leaving a broad gravel bar between the steep embankment and the water. The ground was mostly undisturbed at the top of the embankment, though Nutsy did spot a low stone chimney nestled hidden among the roots. From this chimney a gentle plume of smoke issued forth, the sign of habitation they had spotted earlier. Moira led them around the tree to a convenient but inconspicuous stairway descending the precipitous embankment.

From the gravel bar looking back toward the oak, Moira's home was much more obvious. The columnlike oak roots defined the front of a cottage dug into the hillside. The front was done in brick, with a large wooden door and two many-paned windows with window boxes full of greenery and even a few blossoms. To the right was a small cave formed by a large granite boulder embedded in the hillside, supported by other boulders. In front of this rock pile was yet another low boulder rising from the gravel bed. When Beth perched herself comfortably on the exterior prominence, it was clear to the travelers who preferred to live in the cave.

Moira opened the front door of the cottage. "Come in, come in," she said, as she ushered her guests inside.

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