17 DING DONG

Mom and I set up some old garbage cans with sunlight, water, and one forest rose each. Thank goodness for sunglasses—our whole barn was lit up with bip burps. When the magic doorbell rang, it took only a millisecond for me to fling the door open. "MARSHMALLOW!" I squealed. "You're HUGE!" I could hardly believe it. My baby dragon was back, and he was enormous. Almost as big as my friend Tiny! Marshmallow leaned his head down, and I

wrapped my arms around part of his giant neck and gave him a hug. He leaned his head even further down, and Sassafras purred as he and Marshmallow gently bopped their heads together. "Everyone ready?" called a frog voice. Pip hopped down from Marshmallow's back, and I covered a giggle. With his scarf and goggles, he looked like a tiny frog airplane pilot! "I'm going to fly on Marshmallow and direct him to the different roses. Do you have a container or scooper for me to pour out the bips?" We heard a dragging sound behind us and Mom appeared, pulling four large garbage cans that had rope between them. She gave one of Marshmallow's tree-trunk legs a hug, and then hurried over to hand Pip a plastic cup that was

almost as big as him. "Can you lift that, or is it too big?" Pip grinned and held it over his head. "No problem." Mom turned to me next. "OK, Zoey. I need your help lifting these up onto Marshmallow. Thankfully the bips aren't too heavy." Pip went over to Marshmallow and made some hand gestures. Marshmallow lay down on his stomach and stretched his neck out flat along the ground. Mom and I set it up so that two garbage cans full of bips were on each side of Marshmallow, with the ropes running between them across his back. "Good luck!" Mom and I cheered as Marshmallow beat his giant wings and he and Pip took off for the forest. About an hour later they returned with empty cans. "It worked!" Pip cheered. "We could see the forest roses sparking back to life from the air. It was incredible. And not a moment too soon. We spotted a few hippogriffs hatching as we flew." Pip took off his scarf and goggles and wiped his forehead. "Now remember, hippogriffs are very shy, and very protective of their babies… but if

you all can be very, very quiet, I know where we can probably see a baby hippogriff eating its first meal of forest roses."