When Charles opened his eyes a moment later, he was absolutely shocked that he had not been eaten.
The Ice Dragon had halted mid-bite and was looking at him strangely.
“What’s that in your hand?” the dragon asked.
“It . . . it looks like a present,” Charles answered, a little confused.
“From who?”
Charles saw a note on the box that said, From Penny. “Oh! It’s from my friend!”
“I’m not without a heart,” said the dragon. “You may open your present before I eat you.”
Charles carefully unwrapped the paper. It was a box of Possum’s Hot Peppers. He lifted the lid, and inside were dozens of bright orange peppers. The death peppers.
Great, thought Charles. Some last meal.
“Well? What is it?” asked the dragon.
That’s when Charles had the idea of a lifetime. However, it would require him to break a rule and tell a fib. Charles was mortally afraid of breaking a rule. But he pushed aside his fear, figuring it was his only hope.
“Umm . . . it’s a box of chocolates,” Charles said to the dragon.
“Chocolates! My favorite!” said the smiling dragon. “Tell you what, if you feed me the chocolates, I won’t chew you for too long.”
“It’s a deal,” said Charles.
The dragon opened her mouth wide and grinned in chocolaty anticipation.
Charles chucked the entire box of orange peppers into the dragon’s mouth. In her excitement, the dragon instantly chewed and swallowed all the peppers.
The dragon’s expression slowly changed from joy to horror as steam blew out of her ears.
“Those weren’t chocolates!” the dragon choked.
“Oops,” said Charles, showing her the box of hot peppers with Mr. Possum’s photo on it.
The dragon roared and started running around. She tried to blow a stream of ice from her mouth, but all that came out was a stream of fire. The Ice Dragon plunged her face into the snow to extinguish the heat, but the ice just turned to water and spread the heat all over her insides.
Now the dragon was in real agony. As the peppery heat coursed through her veins, all of the ice that formed the dragon’s scales started melting. Fuming with anger, the dragon shot a desperate blast of fire at Charles, but Charles ducked out of the way. The fire melted the ice wall that trapped him!
With the ice wall down, Lattie pulled Charles out of the way, and they joined Petunia, Jason, Fred, and Wendy, who had taken cover behind a large rock.
The dragon was thrashing about, causing her icy body to melt all the more quickly. Then the sorceress’s magic wand, which the dragon had been grasping in her claws, flew through the air and landed in the hand of Petunia.
“Please,” begged the dragon, “Shout ‘milkus eruptus.’ It will shoot a jet of milk into my mouth.”
Petunia thought about it. Well, even though she’s evil, I guess it’s the right thing to do.
Petunia raised the wand and shouted, “Milkus—”
But before she could complete the spell, the wand was snatched out her hand. The students turned. Only Charles recognized who had snatched the wand.
It was Marlin the Fizard.
“Little girl,” said Marlin, “there are rare occasions when doing the right thing is not the right thing. This is one of them. Charles, I hope you remember the dragon’s weak spot.”
Charles nodded. He pulled the Sword of Fire from the snow and limped over to the shrinking dragon. He held the sword up toward the dragon’s nose and barely touched it. Fire exploded from within the dragon’s gut, melting the rest of the ice, and leaving only the sorceress Mortazella standing, defeated and without her wand.
Marlin approached Mortazella, still gripping her wand.
“Marlin!” exclaimed Mortazella. “How did you escape the ice?”
Marlin pointed with his sword nose. “This boy freed me from your spell.”
“He must be a very powerful wizard,” said Mortazella.
“No,” said Marlin. “He’s just a brave kid with some good friends.”
The twelve students smiled at one another.
“Please,” she said. “I’ll give anything for a glass of milk.”
“I know just what will cool you off,” said Marlin.
“No! Wait!” shouted Lattie. “She has to tell me where my master is!”
But it was too late. Marlin had shot an ice blast from the wand, and in an instant, Mortazella was frozen in a block of ice. “That ought to keep you cool for another few hundred years, sorceress. In fact, I know it will! I’ve seen you there!”
Realizing the Ice Dragon was beaten, the students of Scream Academy stormed back through the gates. They rushed toward the Scary School students as fast as they could.
The trolls lifted Charles up on their shoulders, chanting, “Noodle-neck! Noodle-neck!” The ogres lifted Lattie, the yetis lifted Jason and Fred, and the witch girls gave Wendy a broom to fly on. Rory released a bloodcurdling roar that knocked everyone over and surprised even himself.
Charles jumped down and gave Marlin a hug. “I guess you were wrong about my future,” Charles said to him.
“What are you talking about?” said Marlin, confused. “You’re Charles Nukid, the famous dragon slayer. Two hundred years from now, your statue still stands, commemorating your remarkable victory over the Ice Dragon.”
Of course, thought Charles. That’s the future that Marlin remembers now! I really did change it!
When Charles thought back to that terrible day when his picnic with Penny had ended in disaster, he couldn’t help but laugh. If it hadn’t been for everything going so badly, Penny might never have brought the hot peppers to Scream Academy and come to his rescue, and Charles would not have survived his battle with the Ice Dragon.
Charles had learned a very important life lesson, and he didn’t even have to die in the process. Sometimes bad things happen, but it’s not until later that you realize it was all for the best.
Lattie appeared in front of Charles.
“Thanks for saving me,” he said, giving her a respectful bow. Lattie bowed back to Charles, but then he noticed that tears were dripping from her mask.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“The Ice Dragon stole my master. Now I fear I’ll never be able to find him.”
Overhearing the conversation, Marlin popped his swordfish head in between, nearly spearing them both.
“Excuse me,” said Marlin. “Did you say the Ice Dragon took your master? Well, now that we have her wand, it shouldn’t be much trouble to bring him back. Tell me, what’s his name?”
“Master Three Claws.”
Marlin waved the wand and chanted, “Zalakazam zalakazaws! Bring me Master Three Claws!”
Master Three Claws appeared in a puff of smoke right in front of them. He opened his eyes as if waking from a deep sleep and immediately recognized Lattie.
“Master Lattie? Where am I?” murmured Three Claws.
“Where you are matters far less than whose heart you are in,” Lattie replied. Then she jumped into his arms and hugged him harder than she ever had before.
The six exchange students from Scary School couldn’t have had a better time at Scream Academy the rest of the week. Actually, Jason got bruised pretty badly from playing monster hockey with Hubert, but he figured that all the bumps and scrapes just added to his good looks.
Each Scary School student was considered a Scream Academy hero, and the monster students fought over who got to be better friends with them. Nobody ever complained about humans at the school again.
When it was time to leave, the Scary School kids were given a big going-away party in Garzok Hall. Witches flew around on brooms, dropping candy for the kids to catch in their mouths.
Wendy won a school-wide game of pin-the-tail-on-the-dragon. Her dragonfly potion helped out a lot, though the dragon student who got his tail pinned was a little upset.
Petunia painted the walls with purple petunias so that the monsters could see what flowers looked like. Fred danced with all the cute zombie girls and still couldn’t believe his dreams kept getting more and more fantastic.
Lattie took down a two-ton troll with ease during the championship sumo-wrestling match. Dumbfounded, Silence the Yeti asked, “How did you beat someone who weighs so much more than you?”
Lattie replied, “The boulder weighs more than the rock, but which would you rather have in your hand during a fight?”
Charles rode into the party on the back of Mr. Dullahan’s horse, holding his teacher’s head high in the air. Mr. Dullahan exclaimed, “Good-bye, students of Scary School! We are all very sad that you’re ‘heading off!’ Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
The event culminated in Principal Meltington unveiling a brand-new statue next to the one of the great Garzok Grubshanks. It was a sculpture of Charles Nukid, made out of gleaming marble. It looked remarkably like him, with the same gray shorts, white dress shirt, and polka-dot tie, except, of course, it was thirty feet tall. He was immortalized in a heroic pose, pointing the Sword of Fire skyward with a ferocious look on his face.
The inscription read: CHARLES “NOODLE-NECK” NUKID—SLAYER OF THE TERRIBLE ICE DRAGON. WIELDER OF THE SWORD OF FIRE. FRIEND TO ALL MONSTERS.
Charles loved it, except for that “Noodle-neck” part. But what’s set in stone is set in stone.
Suddenly, there was a green flash of light from outside. Charles ran back through the wolf’s mouth and saw Penny standing in the snow, looking upward.
In the sky was the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights. Brilliant waves of green, pink, and blue light flashed in the sky—an effect that only happens near the North Pole when charged energy particles collide with the atmosphere. It looked like a rainbow river was rolling across the stars.
Both thought it was the most beautiful sight they had ever seen. Penny took Charles’s hand in hers, and they gazed at the sky for what seemed like hours, but may have only been minutes.