8 The Fish Boy

8 The Fish Boy Violet ran to Leon as fast as she could. Sprite whizzed past her. The blue-green light got brighter. Two beams of light zoomed toward Leon... Sprite reached into his bag and pulled out some glittering dust.

"To the parking lot. "Sprite yelled. He threw the dust over himself, Leon and Violet.

Achoo! Pixie dust always made Violet sneeze. Her body tingled. Bright white lights shone around them all. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was standing in the parking lot behind the pet store. Sprite flew in front of Violet. "Good job, Sprite," Violet said. "Just in time. You saved—Leon?" Violet tried not to scream. Leon stood next to her. But he wasn't the same old Leon. Leon's eyes were big and bulging, like fish eyes. He had shiny scales on his face. His ears looked like fins.

Aquamarina must have started to cast her spell, Violet guessed. But then Sprite stopped the spell in the middle. So now Leon is part fish. A fish boy! "Oh dear," Sprite said. "Oh dear, oh dear." "Oh dear, what?" Leon asked. "Uh, nothing," Violet said quickly. Then she whispered to Sprite, "Don't say anything. I don't want Leon to freak out." "Right," Sprite whispered back. "Besides, as soon as we trick Aquamarina, Leon will change back."

"I'm so thirsty," Leon said. "Is there any water around here?" "Later," Violet told him. "Now we have to make a plan. We have to figure out how to get Aquamarina onto dry land." "I'm hungry," Leon said. "Does anyone have any worms? Or maybe some fish food? Mmmm, fish food." He licked his lips. Leon did not seem to care about their pixie-tricking mission anymore. Violet sank down on the curb.

"How can we get Aquamarina out of the tank?" she asked Sprite. "If we go near her, she'll turn us into fish. And then we won't be able to help anyone." "That's true," Sprite said. Violet brightened. "Can we say her name backward three times? That's worked before." Sprite frowned. "That only works on small magic spells, he said. "Turning people into fish is a big magic spell."