By Hannah Carter
Flames swept across the living room as the young dragon wailed. One fireball incinerated a garland while another illuminated the Christmas tree.
Coppelia Potts stared with mouth agape. She’d have to update her résumé once again: full-time Nightmare Hunter, part-time babysitter, and elder sister to a temperamental dragon.
Coppelia grabbed a blanket and whacked the flames to smother them. “Seth—Gwenny caught the dragon pox.”
“How do you know?” Seth called from the other room.
“Maybe because she started a hoard of stuffed animals in her crib and sprouted a tail?” Coppelia yelled.
“Gimme—more—toys!” Gwenny howled. She flapped her pink wings, and Coppelia dove to keep the three-year-old toddler—three-minute-old dragon—contained.
Seth burst into the room, just as a fireball splattered at his feet. He raised his hand to shield his face.
“I told you not to bring your new baby dragon here, but no-o-o-o.” Coppelia glared at Seth, though he couldn’t see her smoldering anger—he’d gone blind from an accident years ago.
But he must have been able to sense it. “Whoops,” he said cheerily.
“Whoops? My baby sister caught the dragon pox from your pet, and all you can say is whoops?” Coppelia swatted at the flames.
“Would ‘my bad’ be better? I can’t help it that your sister didn’t have her dragon pox vaccine. That’s the first thing I had to do when I became a Nightmare Hunter.”
“She’s three!”
“I want more toys!” Gwenny hiccupped, and another fireball whizzed toward them.
Coppelia shrieked and tackled Seth.
With no one to hold the toddler down, Gwenny, the harbinger of holiday destruction, was set loose in the house.
Seth sniffed. “I smell smoke.”
Coppelia growled. “No, duh.” She turned over her shoulder and yelled for her brother. “Wolfgang Potts, I need you out here on fire duty. Now.”
Wolfgang stumbled out of his room, ripping off his headphones. “Huh?”
Gwenny whirled on her brother. “I wanna play Wolfy’s game! Gimme!” She burped, and a fireball smacked a certain elfish decoration that sat on a shelf.
Coppelia winced. Another Christmas, another doomed elf.
“Gimme the game!” Gwenny landed next to Wolfgang and stretched one of her claws up. “It’s mine.”
Wolfgang held the game console above his head. “No, it isn’t. It’s mine.”
“Oh, no,” Seth muttered. “Your brother’s had the dragon pox vaccine, right?”
Wings sprouted from Wolfgang’s back.
Coppelia smacked her forehead. “Yes, but you can still get mild symptoms after exposure!”
“Tell me what you’re looking at,” Seth said.
“Three Christmas decorations burning, two siblings fighting—”
“And a partridge in a pear tree?”
Coppelia punched Seth’s shoulder. “Not funny.”
Seth cackled. “I thought it was hilarious.”
Gwenny tackled Wolfgang. “I want the game!”
The two of them rolled along the floor, bickering like the seagulls from Finding Nemo. Gwenny raked her claws across Wolfgang’s arm; he howled and swatted her with a red wing.
“It’s mine.” A long tail broke through the back of his breeches. He swiped at Gwenny with it and hurled her across the hallway.
Straight into Coppelia’s room.
“Don’t you two dare go into my room!” Coppelia chased after them, Seth in tow.
“Now it’s my room.” Gwenny grabbed a giant stuffed panda.
“Nuh-uh!” Wolfgang’s tail crashed into one of Coppelia’s bookshelves as he barged into the room.
“Uh-huh.”
“Nuh-uh!”
“Uh-huh.”
The two of them played tug-of-war with the panda until Gwenny hiccupped again. The poor plushie burst into flames and ripped open. Burning stuffing floated down like macabre snow in Coppelia’s room.
“Fine. Keep that toy. It’s broken now.” Wolfgang scampered over the spilled contents of the bookshelves and plucked Coppelia’s beloved Hedwig plush from the bed. “This one’s mine.”
“No, mine!” Gwenny jumped, straining to reach it.
“No, please—” Coppelia clamped her hands over her mouth before she claimed ownership—and risked sprouting wings, too.
“What’s wrong?” Seth’s jovial tone dropped from his voice.
“They have Hedwig.” Coppelia swallowed as tears burned her eyes. “My great-granny gave her to me when I was seven.” She blinked as a few droplets spilled onto her cheeks, wishing once again that Granny Jane was still alive.
“Oh.” Seth sucked in a breath and said in a loud voice, “Quiet, you two.” He tugged at Coppelia, so she guided him forward. “Look. Everyone knows dragons are selfish and only think about building their hoard, but you’re not dragons.” Coppelia stopped him right before he bumped into Gwenny. “You’re Gwendolyn and Wolfgang Potts.” Seth put one hand on his hip. “Wolfgang, you’ve fought all sorts of monsters and put your life into danger hundreds of times.”
Wolfgang’s tail quivered.
“You’ve sacrificed a lot for Coppelia, and I know you never want to hurt her. Neither of you do.”
Coppelia sniffled and wiped her eyes. Wolfgang’s gaze flickered over to her wet cheeks.
“Hedwig really means a lot to her.” Seth’s voice softened. “It would mean a lot to her if you gave it back.”
Wolfgang sighed. Slowly, he lowered his arm.
His wings and tail vanished in a puff of smoke.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Gwenny blinked her draconic eyes as Wolfgang embraced Coppelia, who sniffed and buried her nose in Hedwig’s face. She couldn’t stop the tears now.
Gwenny shuffled stiffly over to Coppelia.
“Don’t cry, Coppy,” Gwenny whispered. “It’s okay.”
She bent down and picked up one of the smoldering bits of panda-stuffing. She blew on it, offering it up to Coppelia. “Merry Kiss-mas, Coppy. Please don’t cry.”
Gwenny’s wings vanished.
Coppelia choked on a watery laugh. “Thank you, Gwenny.”
Gwenny flashed her fangs and hugged Coppelia’s legs. They still had a way to go, but at least the dedragonication process had begun.
The smoke detector alarm pierced the air. The room smelled like melted plastic, and flames flickered from the Christmas tree.
Seth leaned in and whispered, “Your parents are never going to let you babysit again.”
Coppelia sighed. “Trust me, this is just a normal Tuesday for the Potts family.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
So cute! Make it an illustrated kids book !!
Thank you so much, Melodie!! I’ll have to see if I can find an illustrator, LOL. ^_^ <3
Such an adorable story! Love all the Potts’ adventures!! They always seem to get in the strangest scenarios! 🤣 Great story, Hannah! ☺️
Thank you so much, Andrew!! Yes, they always do get into the strangest scenarios. xD That seems to be a family trait…
This is ADORABLE!!!! I love this story–and enjoyed all the Easter Eggs sprinkled throughout, too! ;-)
Thank you so much, Bek!!! I’m glad that you got all those Easter eggs, hehe. ^_^ <3
Really fun story.
Thank you so much, Deborah!! I enjoyed writing it. ^_^
This is so amazing. One of my favorite stories you’ve written. (Is it bad that I want to catch the dragon pox?)
Awwww, thank you so much, Cass!! That means so much to me! <3 (And, nope! I mean, what's not to love? You get to be a dragon AND collect random trinkets for your hoard? Perfect. ;))
Nice Christmas story. It is always interesting to see what the heroes do at home when they aren’t heroing.
Thank you so much, Alex!! And, yup! Except in this case, the poor Potts never get much down time, because adventures even happen at home… lol! ^_^
Aww! What a lovely Christmas story!
Seth is *definitely* getting to be a helpful member of the team.
Awww, thank you so much, Rose!! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I really had fun writing Christmas-themed stories this year! ^_^ And I agree–Seth is going to bring lots of help (and probably trouble…) to the Nightmare Hunters! ^_^ <3
A chaotic Christmas!
Very!! But with he Potts siblings, you can’t have any other kind… ^_^
Love the Potts siblings and Seth! Can’t wait to see more of their adventures 😊
Awww, thank you so much, Kayla!! <3 I hope that there are many more adventures to come as well. ^_^
I like your created words like dedragonication. Great story!
Thank you so much, Arlan!! ^_^ I really appreciate that!! ^_^
This was so great & interesting, I felt captivated!! Such great writing.
Aww, thank you so much, Caroline!! I really appreciate you reading! ^_^ <3
I’m glad they didn’t have enough chaos to fully complete their new version of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas,’ but I’d also love to know where the next few days in their rendition go, hehe.
I really enjoy how you are able to blend scenes to be whimsically mischievous in some moments and then genuinely heartfelt in others – your aptitude at characterizing your cast definitely plays no small role in that.
Keep those Nightmare Hunters stories coming! ^_^
Awww, thank you so much, JamesDS!! ^_^ I can only imagine what a full 12 days of Christmas would look like in the Potts house…I can only assume the apocalypse. xD I appreciate your comment!! ^_^
I like that the dragons’ hoarding instincts transmitted over Dragon Pox still connect with the minds of the people it infects — of courseee Gwenny wanted ALL THE TOYS when she’s sick, and Wolfgang does too (…and to protect his game console…), but I wonder…would an older infected want a totally different type of hoard based on their interests? It’s a really neat and fun dynamic to imagine!
You know, that’s a good question! Maybe we’ll just have to wait until the Potts parents get home and see what happens with them… xD ^_^
What chaos! But it’s still cute and sweet at the same time.