The town lit up bright as day with the glow cast off by the lightning jinni, and the black clouds above its head began to swirl as if someone had just pulled the drain on the sky. Heat lightning lit any open space behind the clouds, and the clouds began to put off lightning of their own. The roar of the rolling thunder began to sound like freight trains from hell, but above that, you could still hear the first jinni shout, “STOP!” Buildings along Main Street shook with the force of its voice, and even though it had started to inexplicably shrink, it fired a blast of lightning from its hands, at the second jinni.

The new jinni rocked backward a little from the blast, but seemed otherwise unaffected. “You dare?” it bellowed. Another building collapsed from the shaking. “Have a care, young Adelar, lest you forget who trapped you in your present form.”

“I am trapped no longer!” shouted Adelar, still shrinking. The force of his voice was having less of an effect on the town, but you could still hear it. “You should be more careful who you choose as host, Khalid! Nuri was still wearing The Eye!”

Khalid looked at his right hand, and saw the form of a ring on his middle finger. “Noooo!” Immediately, the swirling clouds above his head began to swirl faster, and a funnel reached for Khalid. As it surrounded him, Khalid raged at Adelar from inside the tornado, “I see you have learned your tricks well, young prince, but here is one you did not learn: Though I cannot stop you from assuming your mortal form, I can ensure that your life is still as bound to this ring as mine.

"I give you back the life you have missed as a jinni; all the time that you have lost is now restored. When you fully assume your mortal guise, your extreme old age will catch up to you, unless you are wearing The Eye of the Golden Dragon. As long as you wear The Eye, you shall retain your youth, and even a portion of your magic. If you and the ring should be separated, you shall be no more.” With that, the funnel fully engulfed Khalid, and he shot through the clouds, and into the upper atmosphere.

Then, when he was barely a pinprick of light in the sky, he began to come back, and a small yellow comet appeared to be just ahead of him. Adelar watched intently, as the comet shot straight back through the funnel, closely followed by the lightning bolt that was Khalid. They both struck the street, leaving a small crater the size of a hatchback, and the entire form of Khalid disappeared into the hole.

As the funnel receded, and the sky began to clear and lighten, a bunch of huge bats went screeching through the air down Main Street, towards the fog of the Triangle. Running underneath was a pack of wolves. The Witches and their cats disappeared in columns of smoke, which also drifted towards the Triangle. The Pixies followed the smoke, their firefly lights flitting back and forth, from one side of the street to the other as they went. They stopped only long enough to lift the Black Dragon with their magic, and float it along with them. Finally, only Trolls, Elves, and Imps remained, along with Prince Adelar, who was just crawling into the small crater to retrieve the ring.

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Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 1997, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.