The Last Phoenix (20 page)

“Four of them!” Fenella plumped up her feathers. “What a to-do! One chick would have been quite enough for me but now I've got four to look after.” A happy smile crossed her face as one of the chicks fluttered up into the air, twittering a beautiful song. “I'll never be lonely again!”

The chick who'd been turning somersaults before did a backward flip and almost fell out of the nest.

With a gasp, Skribble zoomed forward and nudged the chick back in.

“Thank you, Skribble, lovie,” said Fenella unperturbed. She looked fondly around at her brood. “Oh, I can see I'm going to have my claws and beak full with you lot.”

“So what happened, Worm?” demanded Michael, still in shock. “How come the egg hatched in the end after all?”

“Because of all that magic going on,” Milly blurted. “Including magic from us!”

“It's certainly one for the magic vet manuals.” Fenella chortled.

“Your chicks are so cute!” said Jess admiringly.

Fenella ruffled her feathers. “I've even thought of names for them all.” She gave the children a coy look. “Jess, Jason,
Milly, and Michael,” she said, nodding to each chick in turn. “So I shall never forget the four of you for as long as I live. And you know how long
that
is!”

“Cool!” said Jason, looking at the chick named after him. It rose up into the air, zoomed in a circle and turned a loop-the-loop.

Milly stroked the Milly chick, who sang sweetly at her and rubbed her head against Milly's finger. “Oh, Fenella, that's so sweet. Thank you!”

“It's, like, everything I ever wanted,” said Michael wryly, but there was no disguising his broad smile.

“Well, I'm afraid we're going to have to be on our way soon, lovies,” said Fenella. “There's places to go and things to see. A phoenix never stays in one place for long.”

“I suppose I should be on my way too,” said Skribble. “Although I'm not sure exactly where I'm going…”

“Well, Skribble.” Fenella looked at him and fluttered her eyelashes. “You could always come with us.”

Skribble hesitated.

“I'd like it
very
much,” Fenella said softly.

Skribble cleared his throat noisily. “Well…um…perhaps I could accompany you a little while,” he mumbled. “I mean, after all, such an event as this multiple-hatching is unique in the annals of creation. It should be documented by someone wise and objective, someone—”

“—who's cute as a button! Yippee!” shrieked Fenella.
“Oooh, Skribble, we'll have such fun, you and I. We'll have such adventures! See so many wondrous things. Oooh, you handsome little worm, you!” She popped a kiss on the top of Skribble's head.

He blushed furiously. “Just be sure to educate your brood that I am
not
a mere earthworm!
I
am—”

“Perfect daddy material?” said Michael innocently.

Skribble stared at him, spluttering and speechless.

Milly looked at Jason and giggled.

“Come on, chicks!” said Fenella, throwing the rest of the worms hastily into her chicks' mouths. “Time to go! Time to have your first proper flight!”

They all chirped eagerly and gulped down the worms before flapping their wings and hopping to the edge of the workbench.

“Now, steady there, children,” said Skribble anxiously as the Milly-chick teetered on the edge. “Just be careful! Careful!”

“Being careful only gets you so far.” Fenella turned to the children. “Just remember, the future's wide open. Take a chance or two and you can be anything you want to be. Anything at all.”

Milly smiled and nodded. “But do we really have to say good-bye?”

“Perhaps ‘farewell' would be better.” Fenella looked at each of them in turn, blue eyes sharp and sapphire-bright.
“Michael, Jess, Jason, Milly. Whenever I look at my precious chickabiddies' faces, I'll think of you.” A worried look crossed her face. “But how will you remember me?”

“Oh, we'll remember you all right,” said Michael.

“No, no. I must give you something to remember me by. Something better than gold…” Fenella smiled suddenly. “Wait a sec, lovies. I know just the thing!”

She plunged her curved beak into the feathers covering her chest and pulled out four feathers each with a shining jewel at its tip. “Glow jewels,” she mumbled with her beak full of feathers. She flew around giving them each one feather with a jewel attached. “From your tears,” she said, pressing the last feather into Milly's hands.

Milly looked at her in confusion.

“When you thought I was dead in that horrible room, lovie,” said Fenella, “your tears fell on my heart. They helped revive me. And now it is my turn to give this gift to you.” She looked around at them all. “To all of you! Hold them close, and when you do, remember me and our adventures and smile.” Her blue eyes were serious for once. “My chicks wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for you. Thank you all.”

“Yes, thank you,” Skribble added. “You are four fine children.” He regarded Michael and frowned. “Well, three and a half, perhaps.”

“Oi!” Michael protested, and Fenella cast Skribble a sharp glance—but then they both caught the gleam in the magical bookworm's eye and smiled.

“It's been so lovely to see you again, Skribble,” Milly added, and Jess and Jason nodded.

“Next time, I hope the circumstances will be a little less frantic,” declared Skribble. “Magic has bound us together, children, and such links can never be broken. Have no doubt of it—we shall meet again.”

Jess smiled. “Maybe by then, I'll be a famous history expert!”

“And I'll be a rugby star!” Jason grinned.

“Me a famous actress,” said Milly in a grand diva voice.

Michael nodded. “And I'll be a multi,
bulti
-billionaire!”

Skribble glanced at Fenella and smiled. “I dare say we are all of us richer for what's happened here.”

Fenella rose gracefully into the air. “Now, time to fly, my little ones.” She trilled to her chicks. With excited cheeps the balls of fluff flapped their wings and rose unsteadily into the air. The golden bird tucked Skribble's lamp under one wing and winked at the children. “Onward to the great unknown!” she cried, and soared out through the door with the chicks following her, cheeping and turning
somersaults as they went, with Skribble chivying them on from behind.

“Bye-bye!” shouted Milly. “I love you, Skribble! I love you, Fenella!”

“There they go,” Jason murmured, waving as the figures dwindled into the first golden stirrings of the sunset. “The genie and the phoenix.”

“One of them lives forever, the other one yabbers on forever,” said Michael. He grinned. “Good luck to them.”

“Wherever they fly,” said Milly dreamily.

“Now, we'd better get back home,” said Jess, “and see about real life again.”

Together, chatting busily about all that had happened, Michael, Milly, Jason, and Jess walked away from Mr. Milton's place for the last time. The whole world around them seemed awake and alive with possibilities.

Michael pointed straight ahead and set off with a swagger in his step. “Come on,” he said. “The future's this way!”

Jacket art © 2010 by Tim Jessell

Jacket design by Andrea Vandergrift