ARTHYR AURELIO AND THE MISFITS’ OASIS — An unexpected visitor

Then she felt someone touch her head.

She looked up. Before her stood the strangest creature she had ever seen. He seemed to be an elf, though he looked nothing like the pictures in her books. Pieces of a violet vine hung from his vest, shifting from blue to green and green to red as Skyblue watched. A bell tipped his pointed hat.

His stockings were striped and different colors. His shoes were pointed, too, and had bells on them, but even the shoes did not match. Skyblue could not tell whether he had dressed in the dark or knew a way of putting colors together that dragons had yet to discover.

“Hello, dragon with the sad eyes,” he said. “I’ve come because you called.”

“I didn’t call you.”

“Your heart did. I was passing by, and your tears got my shoes wet.”

Skyblue looked down. Sure enough, droplets glistened on his shoes.

“Are those my tears?”

The elf raised one foot, then the other, making the bells jingle.

“Tears get lonely. They go looking for company until they find a cheerful soul to comfort them. Like mine.”

He pointed enthusiastically at himself, pulled a face, and hopped into the air. Skyblue laughed in spite of herself.

“Sometimes they have to travel a very long way,” he added. “If they find no comfort, they keep going until they reach the sea.”

He stopped hopping and sat down in front of her. He looked at her closely, without a trace of reproach.