The gates of the estate groaned as Marin and Jessica rode through, looking like they had been dragged through a volcano. Marin’s armor was dented, her face was smeared with soot, and tied to a makeshift sled behind her horse was the massive, obsidian skull of the Great Wyrm.
"I just want a bath," Jessica groaned, her silver hair tangled with ash. "A bath, a bed, and to see Malric's relieved face when he sees we survived."
"If he’s even awake," Marin muttered, dismounting with a heavy clank. "With Marley in charge, he’s probably—"
Marin stopped mid-sentence. She looked up at the cottage.
The roof was glowing a faint, pulsating violet. A stray pair of Malric’s trousers was currently drifting twenty feet above the chimney, spinning slowly in the wind. From inside, the sound of a flute was playing—except the flute sounded like it was being played by a very confused goat.
"Is that... Malric's wardrobe?" Jessica asked, pointing to an oak cabinet that was currently wedged halfway out of an upstairs window, hovering in mid-air.
The Zero-Gravity Zone
They burst through the front door, only to find their boots leaving the ground immediately.
"Whoa!" Jessica squealed as she began to float toward the ceiling. "Gravity! Where did the gravity go?!"
The living room was a nightmare of domestic levitation. Books, spoons, and half-eaten apples were orbiting a central point in the kitchen. In the middle of it all sat Malric, cross-legged on a hovering mattress. He was wrapped in a blanket, his face a vibrant shade of magenta, and he was staring intensely at a floating teapot.
"The tea... it refuses to steep in a vacuum, Marin," Malric said. His voice was oddly deep, echoing as if he were speaking from inside a cave. "The thermodynamics are... insulting."
"Malric!" Marin shouted, swimming through the air toward him. "What did she do to you?"
The Healer’s Pride
Marley emerged from the kitchen, wearing a pair of lead-weighted boots to keep herself on the floor. She was holding a tray of steaming muffins that were tied down with string.
"Oh, hey guys!" Marley chirped, completely unbothered by the fact that Marek was currently pinned to the ceiling by a floating dining table. "How was the dragon? Malric’s doing great! His fever broke about an hour ago."
"His fever broke?" Marin asked, dodging a stray fork. "Marley, the furniture is flying! He's purple!"
"Side effects," Marley waved a hand dismissively. "The 'Total System Reset' soup is very thorough. It flushed the fever out, but it also accidentally unlocked his 'Astral Projection' glands. He’s currently existing in three different dimensions at once. It’ll wear off by dinner."
Marek, peering down from behind the floating table on the ceiling, looked at Marin with pleading eyes. "Please... help me down. He’s been explaining the history of lichen to me for three hours."
The Reunion
Jessica managed to grab onto a ceiling beam and pull herself over to Malric. She reached out and poked his magenta cheek. "Malric? It’s us. We killed the dragon. Look, we even brought back a trophy."
Malric’s eyes slowly focused. The purple glow faded just a fraction. He looked at Jessica, then at Marin’s scorched armor.
"The Wyrm..." he whispered. Suddenly, the house shook. The floating furniture slammed back to the floor with a deafening series of crashes. Gravity returned with a vengeance, dropping Marek onto a rug with a heavy thud.
Malric’s skin returned to its pale, scholarly hue. He blinked, looking around at the absolute wreckage of the room. "Why is my laundry on the roof?"
"Because your sister is a mad scientist," Marek groaned, rubbing his back.
Malric looked at Marin, seeing the exhaustion in her eyes and the blood on her cloak. He stood up shakily, ignoring the mess. He walked over and placed a hand on Marin’s shoulder and Jessica’s arm. "You're safe. That’s... that’s all that matters."
"And you're not seeing through time anymore?" Jessica teased.
"I still see a very large, very angry dragon skull in the yard," Malric noted, rubbing his temples. "And I see a very long lecture in Marley’s future regarding the use of dragonfly wings in medicine."
Marley just grinned, handing him a muffin. "Eat up, 'Time-Lord.' You've got a lot of cleaning to do."
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