I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons

by Peter S. Beagle

working. The Princess Cerise was going to teach herself to read if it was the last thing she ever

That silly boy with his wonderful book, she thought sadly. He has no idea how lucky he

Upended. That was the word: Cerise felt upended. Also uprooted, in an uproar, put upon, barely upright, and caught utterly in upheaval.

There’s just something upsetting about getting what we want. I suggest knitting.

men believe themselves to be all straight lines and right angles—an illusion you will find it important to allow them, though in fact they are as hopelessly snarled as a ball of yarn after a cat gets through playing with

“My mother, sometimes she says that everybody in the world is

a donkey with the heart of a lion. Everybody. Only most people don’t ever discover it—they don’t have to, they get along all right just being donkeys. But it’s there, always, if you really need it. If you really want to find it. If you look for it. I think that’s what he’s doing, Prince Reginald.”

“My own opinion,” Robert said tightly, “is that you have fiendishly set out to bore us to death. It’s working.”