Chapter 5

5 Rosie, Phoebe, and Stella flew into the mass of swirling sparks. The glowing points stung as they touched Rosie's scales, but she barely noticed. How dare the Fire Sparks destroy these precious daydreams! She zoomed among the glowing lights, swishing at them with her tail. The sparks

scattered, but then they returned and popped the bubbles, one after another. Rosie felt her frustration building. How could they stop these Fire Sparks? They were making her so mad! "They want to make you angry. Try roaring instead," purred GlidyCat in Rosie's ear. Rosie thought of the Tree Queen's comment that their roars would be helpful. Yes! Roaring was exactly what she needed to do. She took a big breath and roared out her frustration with all her might. The air shimmered with a purple-blue mist. It smelled like all the wonderful purple things that Rosie loved. Plums, lavender, passion fruit, and, of course, dragon fruit. "That's working, Rosie!" called Stella from the other side of the clearing. "Look!" All the nearby sparks had been extinguished by Rosie's roar. But it wasn't long before more sparks

appeared and began attacking the bubbles once again. "Let's roar together," suggested Phoebe. Rosie nodded, and on the count of three, the friends roared so loudly that the leaves of the surrounding trees shook! A powerful mist swirled through the clearing, so thick that Rosie couldn't see through it. When the air settled, Rosie looked around. The Fire Sparks were gone! Her angry feelings had vanished, too. And down on the forest floor, the Dream Collectors were hurrying to gather the remaining bubbles before they touched the ground. Rosie flew lower, landing carefully between the bubbles. Her friends landed beside her. This time Stella barely skidded at all. GlidyCat came to rest on Rosie's shoulder. "We did it!" cried Stella. "We got rid of the Fire Sparks. So now night can fall, right?"

"Wrong!" squeaked one of the Dream Collectors. It scurried over to Rosie with a daydream bubble balanced on the tip of its monkey-like tail. "Look!" Rosie peered into the bubble. Instead of a beautiful daydream, she saw gray clouds and drizzle. Rosie was pretty sure no one ever daydreamed about dull drizzling days. "What's happened?" she asked. "Daydreams are very delicate," explained the Dream Collector. "If they get blown around or shaken too much, they become muddled and sad." "Oh no!" Phoebe groaned. "So we didn't save them?" Another little Dream Collector bounded over. "They can be fixed," it said. "They will just need to be returned to the daydream maker for repairs." "What kind of creature is a daydream maker?" asked Phoebe curiously. The Dream Collectors laughed. "It's not a creature at all," explained one.

"It's a place where daydreams are made. It's up on the first layer of clouds, known as the Hope Clouds," said another Dream Collector. Stella pulled a face at Rosie, who knew exactly what she was thinking. A daydream maker up in the clouds sounded even more impossible than one in the forest! But everything in the Magic Forest seemed surprising and wonderful. "Well, at least we have wings," said Stella. "We can fly up there with the daydreams that need fixing." "Dragons can't fly that high," said one of the Dream Collectors. "The air is too thin for you. But cloud folk have no trouble." "So how do we get up there?" asked Rosie. "You must ride a sunset ray," said the Dream Collector. "And the good news is the ray station is not far from here." "But the bad news for us is that the ray stationmaster is very grumpy," continued another

Dream Collector, wringing its little paws together. "He doesn't let just anyone catch a sunset ray." Rosie decided not to worry about this. Besides, another problem had just occurred to her. How were they going to carry the daydream bubbles? They were so precious! And the Night Dragons didn't have a bag. There was no way they could fly carrying all those bubbles. As she was thinking, Rosie felt the silver thread on the chain twitch. It had begun to wiggle back and forth, like a worm trying to escape. An idea struck her. Quickly, she unlooped the chain from around her neck. Using her sharp dragon teeth, she nipped off long sections of the fine thread. It seemed to be endlessly long. "What are you doing?" asked Stella. "Let's make a net out of this thread," Rosie said. "Maybe it could be like those macramé hangers you make for plants, Phoebe? Then we'll