Page 26 of With the Potion in the Courtyard

Jessie looked around. "Has to be here somewhere."

"Should we look around for her?" Robbie asked.

A yellow creature shaped like a spring bounced past us. When I shifted, it froze. Two tiny eyes turned in my direction, and then it coiled like a snake and bounced so high up that I had no idea where it’d end up when it fell. However, the clouds seemed to swallow the yellow thing right up.

"Are we safe, though?" My concern grew with each oddly shaped cloud floating overhead.

"Could be dangerous, but doesn't seem to be," Jessie said, her gaze still vigilant. "We need to take this seriously. Should go back, tell the headmaster, get the hunters, then come back with a team."

Everyone nodded agreement, though I could see the allure of adventure twinkling in Robbie's eyes. I pulled out my black stone, the one supposed to whisk us back, and clutched it tightly. Nothing. Not even a glimmer.

"Let me try," Jessie said, retrieving her stone with determination etched on her face. Robbie followedsuit. Still nothing. Our collective worry was palpable.

"Stuck," Robbie said, and we knew it was true.

"Why though?" I asked, looking at Jessie.

Jessie shook her head. "I don’t know. I didn’t think this was possible."

"Wait, what's that?" I moved toward a splash of color on the ground. A polka-dotted sock. Picking it up, I gently rubbed the soft, stretchy fabric between my fingers.

"Jaylyn's," Jessie said. "She had socks just like that."

"Could we use this to try to find her?"

Jessie took a second to answer, then nodded. "We might be able to.

She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the sock. With a bit of swinging of her hips and a flicker of her wand, her wand suddenly jerked in one direction. "She’s this way!"

We took a few steps forward when her wand made a strange sound, like electricity, and fell, pointing at the ground. Jessie shook the wand and didher movements again, the swinging of her hips and the flicker of her wand. This time, only the sound like electricity came.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The spell worked for a few seconds, but then it didn’t. I don’t know if it’s this place, or something else, but I don’t think we can count on the spell to find her." Jessie sounded disappointed, and I was right there with her.

"Well," Robbie said, "at least we know she’s here and she’s that way. That’s more than we knew a few minutes ago."

"Way to go with the positivity," Jessie said, and they exchanged a high five.

"I guess we’re going to need to explore a bit to find her, and then see if she has any ideas about how to get home," I said, more to bolster my own spirits than anything else. We set off, each step cautious yet full of resolve.

We hadn't walked far when a rustling sound made us stop in our tracks. Out of the underbrush rolled a creature so bizarre that it took a moment for my brain to register what I was seeing. It had wild fur, everycolor you could imagine, shifting and changing like a kaleidoscope with each movement. Two large googly eyes on stalks wobbled above its head, looking in different directions.

"Wow," Robbie broke the silence. "That's a Goozleflump if I've ever seen one."

"What’s a Goozleflump?" I asked, unable to peel my eyes away from the mesmerizing display.

"No idea," Robbie shrugged, "but if it were a thing, that's what it would be called."

Before we could further ponder the name Robbie had coined, more Goozleflumps emerged from the surrounding underbrush. There were easily a dozen of them. As we studied them cautiously, the Goozleflumps came closer, babbling in a sing-song language that sounded like a toddler's gibberish mixed with wind chimes. We tried talking back, but our words only seemed to amuse them as they mimicked us with exaggerated, playful gestures.

"Hello?" Jessie said, her voice rising with uncertainty.

"Hel-looo," one said, drawing out the syllables until it becamea melody.

Their antics quickly escalated from amusing to disruptive. One tripped Robbie with a swipe of its tail, sending him staggering into me. Another snatched Jessie's hat right off her head and wore it jauntily atop one swiveling eyestalk. They danced around us in a blur of colors, sometimes jumping onto our backs, expecting piggyback rides, or rifling through our pockets with nimble fingers, searching for treasures.

"Enough already," Robbie laughed, trying to dislodge a Goozleflump from his shoulder.