Chapter 7

chapter seven Sorry about Carol almost leaving Quint behind. She's just a puppy, aren't you? My Carol?Whal all good. Drooler's just a kid too. I think Dirk cocks his head and glances at Drooler. "Actually, there's a lot about Drooler I don't know. A lot I'm still learning. But that's all part of—" Dirk is interrupted by a sudden commotion coming from the Wrangler. Dirk and Kimmy wheel around, just in time to see Galamelon poking at Quint's cane.

"Galamelon, wait!" Quint suddenly cries. "Don't touch that lever or—" "HEY!" Dirk barks. "Watch where you're pointing that thing!" Galamelon frowns at Dirk, then returns his attention—and the conjurer's cane—to Quint. "Your staff isn't like any I've seen before," Galamelon says.

"Because it's not," Quint replies. "I built it using materials from this dimension. The mini-basketball gives it a magical nudge—but it's technology that allows me to wield it. Yursl taught me all I know about this stuff." "And I can tell you know a lot," Galamelon says. Quint shakes his head. "Not enough. The first time I used the cane—it went, well, poorly. I tried to destroy a monster using Kinetic Crescendo. But I only sliced it in half—" "Sliced it in half! That's fantastic, guy!" "Ehh, no. I also mistakenly teleported us." Galamelon nods wisely. "Yep, that'll happen. Incantations of destruction aren't easy. For master conjurers like me, they're a breeze. But tougher for a novice. Best left to the experts." "I need to be an expert," Quint says. "And that's why you got me!" Galamelon says, flashing a wide, crooked grin. "Now let's see what we're working with here..." Galamelon opens the book and begins flipping the pages. He shakes his head at conjuration after conjuration, until he finally says, "Bingo! This one! We'll start with something simple." Quint frowns at the otherworldly text. "But I can't read that."

Galamelon waves a hand dismissively. "Pssht. It's a ton of words anyway—no need to bother with them. All you really need is the name of the conjuration:.... NAZZCEUL Which, in your language, translates to 'Orb of Protection.' Just do the movements in the little doodle, there, and then say those three words. You were born to conjure this conjuration, guy!" Quint stares at the page. Maybe he can ignore the words. Maybe it's like ordering from the menu at Denny's, the ones with all the pictures. And when you can't decide between the Triple-Chocolate Super Slam or the Lean Lumberjack Trio, the pictures always steer you in the right direction. "OK," Quint says. "If you say so..." He begins swinging the cane in a wave pattern, and as it begins to hum, he shouts, "Orb of Protection!" and pulls the trigger-switch. Something like Day-Glo silly string explodes from the tip of the cane, and... SCHLA-BOOM!

hey, you got magic all over me. That's it. From now on. All conjuring is to be done in the back seat while facing backward, away from Drooler Amy. Unless you're conjure in kittens, kittens, you can conjure wherever. Whenever Galamelon rolls his eyes—but Dirk's hard glare catches him, and he grudgingly clambers into the back of the Wrangler. "Don't pay any attention to those two," Galamelon says, as Quint follows him. "What matters is that ya did it!" "Did I, though? What I conjured didn't look like this," Quint says, tapping the page. "The image depicts something more akin to a protective bubble..." "Protective bubble, oodles of noodles, same difference," Galamelon says. "Now, c'mon—we're off to a grand start. Let's keep it going, guy!" And thus begins...

a conjurer training montage led by Wise counselor GalaMellon Embiggen the Bug