Last week’s vote: Change her brother back.

Maya sighed, and then took off running. Even though it hurt her to make this decision, she needed to keep her promise to her brother. Plus, by changing him back, she’d have a good chance of changing the others back into their former frog selves too.

“Eric, wait!” she yelled, catching up to her dragon brother who was now on the edge of the forest. She reached her hand out and caught the end of the leash. Jumping into the air, she swung herself onto his shoulders. “Woah! Stop!”

Eric paused.

“Come on!” cried Maya. “We’re going to play tag again, and we’re it!” Maya knew that the only way to trick the others into the water was to convince them that they were playing another game. Maya and Eric caught up to the others.

“Time for another game of tag!” Maya yelled. Eric leapt into action and began chasing the Robot Dinosaur, Dragon and Frog Prince back towards the beach.

“That’s it! They’re going! Way to go, Eric,” she said, patting his scaly head.

As they approached the shoreline, they could see Ben jumping up and down. He was holding his chipmunk mother with one hand, and waving his arm. “Hurry! We’ve only got ten seconds until midnight!” Ben cried.

“10, 9, 8…”

Ben splashed into the water.

“…7, 6, 5…”

Maya, Eric the Dragon, the Robot Dinosaur, the Frog Dragon and the Frog Prince chased each other into the lake.

“…4, 3, 2…”

Ben lowered his chipmunk mother down to the surface of the water.

“…1!”

SPLASH!

Lego bounded into the water, chasing the others. He seemed to be carrying something in his mouth.

POOF!
POOF! POOF! POOF!
POOF!
POOF!

The Robot Dinosaur, the Frog Prince, and the two dragons seemed to disappear. In their place now were a dripping wet Eric and three small frogs quickly swimming back to shore. Ben’s mother was sitting in the lake, looking quite stunned. They could hear a muffled cry behind them. Turning around, there was Maya and Eric’s father with a backpack over his head!

“Dad! You’re back!” Maya shouted. “How did you get to the lake on your own?”

Lego licked Maya’s hand.

“It was Lego! He must have grabbed the backpack and brought it down here. Good boy!” Ben laughed, rubbing the dog’s head.

“Mrph! Mrrmrr!” Eric and Maya laughed as their father fought with the backpack. Pulling his head free, he looked at his children. “What on earth is going on? Why is there a backpack on my head? And why is it suddenly dark?”

“Yes, Ben. Can you tell me why I’m sitting in this lake?” Ben’s mom asked.

The children laughed. “It’s a long story,” Eric replied.

“And it’s been a long day! I’m ready for bed,” Ben added. “We’ll tell you in the morning.”

“That sounds like a good idea. I do feel quite tired myself. Like I’ve been running all day, or something,” Ben’s mom said.

Slowly, everyone waded out of the lake, collecting their things. Eric and Maya’s dad led the way towards the path. Except he was hopping! Eric and Maya looked at each other. Maybe the spell hadn’t completely worn off yet? Ben’s mom followed their dad, bending down every few steps. She was collecting nuts from the ground!

“Oh no!” Ben whispered. “Do you think the spell will ever wear off?”

“I sure hope not!” said Lego.

“YOU CAN TALK?!?!” cried Ben.

“Isn’t it great? In fact…”

What does Lego say next? Vote for what you think Lego the dog says, or post a comment with what YOU think a dog would say if he could talk. IMAGINE!

Last week’s vote: The magic works.

“Bring my chipmunk mother to me!” commanded Ben, waving the magic wand through the air.

Ben could hear a faint rustle in the trees, and then the pitter patter of dozens of tiny feet. Ben was astounded! What had to be at least 100 chipmunks were charging towards him!

“Chipmunks STOP!” he cried, waving the wand.

The chipmunks froze in their tracks, all staring up at him with their little brown eyes.

“Why are there so many? Why didn’t the magic work?” he said.

NEIGH-CHOO!

“Well, technically the magic did work.” Dave, the talking horse, had just appeared at Ben’s side. “Magic wands just don’t hear too well. When you spoke the words chipmunk and mother, the wand summoned all chipmunks who are mothers! And here they are,” he said, gesturing with his hoof.

“This isn’t at all fair,” Ben sighed, sinking down to the sand.

NEIGH-CHOO! NEIGH-CHOO!

“Ugh! Excuse me. My allergies are acting up again,” snorted Dave.

“Hey, that just might work!” cried Ben.

“What? You want me to sneeze on them?” asked Dave.

“No, no! My mom has allergies! She’s allergic to flowers. All I have to do is hold each one up to a flower and wait to see if the chipmunk sneezes. If it does, then it must be my mother.”

Pleased with himself, Ben looked out at the group of chipmunks. He began calculating in his mind how long it would take to test each chipmunk, multiplied by the number of chipmunks on the beach. “This is going to take almost until midnight,” he said to himself. “This better work!” Ben quickly found a flower on the edge of the forest, and then set to the task of testing them.

Almost three hours passed, but Ben was no closer to finding his mom. Just then, Ben could hear more rustling in the forest. But this time, he could feel the pitter patter of feet vibrating through the ground. Ben’s eyes widened. “Oh no! What now?”

Crashing through the forest came the Robot Dinosaur, the Dragon, and the Frog Prince. They were being chased by Maya and the dragon version of Eric. The chipmunks seem to let out one giant squeak, and then dashed back into the forest all together.

“Ta da!” shouted Maya. “Look, it worked! It took us awhile to find them, but we finally spotted the former frogs over by that meadow. I convinced them to let us play tag and chased them down here!”

“Maya, that’s great. Except you scared away all of the chipmunks, including my mother. Although I’m still not sure which one she was,” muttered Ben.

“Oh, sorry Ben!” Maya exclaimed. “But isn’t that a chipmunk over there?”

Ben turned to see where Maya was pointing. One of the chipmunks had remained behind, and was now sitting on top of the Dragon’s head.

“That’s her! That must be her! The rest of the chipmunks were terrified of the dragons, except this one. My mom LOVES dragons. She was the only one who didn’t run away!” Ben cried happily. Placing his magic wand in the backpack for safe keeping, Ben ran over to the dragon and reached up to coax his chipmunk mother down onto his arm. “Come on, Mom!”

The chipmunk scampered off of the dragon’s head and onto Ben’s outstretched arm.

“Hooray! We did it!” Maya said. “And not a moment too soon. It’s almost midnight!”

Maya hopped down off of Eric the Dragon’s shoulders and reached for the backpack containing her frog father.

Suddenly, the Robot Dinosaur also lunged at the backpack, grabbing it in his jaws, and flinging it into the forest.

“Oh no!” Maya yelped. “They think they’re still playing!” Quickly, she ran towards the backpack. As she did, the two dragons and the Robot Dinosaur began chasing each other back towards the forest.

“No!” Maya wailed.”Come back!”

“What are we going to do? It’s already 11:58pm. Only two minutes!” Ben shouted.

“Why don’t you set your chipmunk mom down next to the water and get Eric and the others, while I go after the backpack?”

“I can’t. If I let go of my chipmunk mother, she’ll just go scampering back into the forest. And I’m not as fast of a runner as you are. If I run after the backpack, I’ll never make it back on time.”

“But I can’t get the backpack with my dad and chase after Eric,” Maya said. “I guess I’ll have to make a choice.”

Maya quickly considered her options.

If she went for the backpack, she could turn her father back into a human. But then her brother would be a dragon forever, not to mention the Robot Dinosaur, the other Dragon and the frog prince.

If she went after her brother, she could turn him back into a human like she promised AND turn the others back into frogs. But then her father would be a frog for the rest of his life. Who would take care of her and Eric?

This was not an easy decision. What should Maya do?

Choose-the-next-adventure time: Should Maya go after the backpack and save her dad from a life of frog-dom, or should she keep her promise to her brother and make sure he is in the lake, with the other Dragon and Robot Dinosaur, at midnight?

Voting will be up until Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. MST. Then check back on Wednesday for the next chapter of the story!

Last week’s vote: One of the kids should change into a dragon.

“What have we got to lose? I think one of us should change into a dragon and chase down those former frogs,” Ben said decidedly.

“Okay, but then we need to come up with a plan so that whoever changes into a dragon doesn’t stay that way forever!” said Eric.

“Good idea,” agreed Maya. “So how do we do this?”

RRRUFFF! RRRUFF!

“Be quiet, Lego! We’re trying to think!” shouted Ben.

RRRUFFF! RRRUFF! RRRUFF!

“Lego, be quiet!”

“No, wait! That gives me an idea!” cried Maya. “When you take Lego for a walk, what do you use so that he doesn’t run away?”

“A leash!”

“Exactly! We’ll get a really big leash and tie it around the new dragon’s neck,” Maya said.

“That’s perfect! Of course, that also means that one of us will have to go with the new dragon to lead them back,” Ben said.

“Which means you’ll be on your own to find your mom. Are you okay with that?” Maya asked.

“Sure. Are you okay with leading all of the dragons and the robot dinosaur and the frog prince back to the beach?” Ben asked.

“Hold on a second!” Eric cried. “If Ben stays behind to find his mom, and Maya is holding the leash, then who is the dragon?”

Ben and Maya looked at Eric, as his eyes went as big as saucers.

“You mean I have to be the dragon! But this was Maya’s crazy idea in the first place! Why do I have to do it?”

“Come on, Eric. You’ll be great! You’re always reading books about dragons, this is perfect for you,” said Maya.

“Fine. I’ll do it. But you better figure out a way to turn me back. If I have to be a dragon for the rest of my life, I won’t be very happy,” grumbled Eric.

Ben and Maya tried not to laugh at Eric’s pouty bottom lip.

“Alright, we promise to turn you back,” Ben said. “But we need to hurry. It’s already getting dark. First, we need to make a leash.”

“Well, that’s easy,” said Maya. “We can drop my belt in the lake and change it into a dragon-sized leash.” Maya slipped her belt out of her belt loops and dipped it into the water. “Become a leash for a dragon!”

POOF!

Maya now held a large brown leather leash.

“I guess it’s my turn now,” Eric said. “Wish me luck!”

Eric slowly stepped into the lake. “I want to become a dragon!”

POOF!

A large blue dragon now stood on the lakeshore.

“Wow!” Maya breathed. “That is incredible!” Maya carefully tossed the end of the leash over the dragon’s neck and tightened it. She then handed Ben the backpack containing their frog father.

“Remember, you have to be back here by midnight. You’ve only got 3 hours!” Ben cried after Maya, as she led Eric the Dragon off towards the forest. Using the leash, she swung herself up onto the dragon’s back. Eric took off running, and the two disappeared into the trees.

“Well, Lego. I guess it’s just you and me!” Ben said, swinging the pack over his shoulder. He picked up the umbrella and walked to the edge of the lake.

“Become a magic wand!” he yelled, tossing it into the water.

POOF!

Ben reached down and scooped a magic wand out of the water. “Here goes!” he said to himself.

“Magic wand! Bring me my chipmunk mother!”

Choose-the-next-adventure time: The magic works and Ben’s chipmunk mother appears, or the magic doesn’t work and nothing happens.

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**

Last week’s vote: A robot dinosaur came crashing through the forest!

CRASH!

“Oh my goodness!” cried Maya. “It’s a…”

“…ROBOT DINOSAUR!!” yelled Eric and Ben in unison.

“That is so cool!!” said Maya. “I wonder where it came from?”

CRASH! SNAP!

“Wha--? Wha--? What’s that? Is there another one?” stammered Ben.

The children stared at the forest behind the robot dinosaur. A dragon was crashing through the trees onto the beach. It appeared to be chasing after the robot dinosaur.

“It’s the dragon from before. Remember that frog that Maya threw in the lake?” Eric asked.

“Hey! I didn’t throw it. I was very gentle!”

“You guys! It doesn’t matter! We have a robot dinosaur and a dragon running around on the beach. We have bigger problems!” Ben said.

“You’re right. What are we going to do?” asked Maya. “We don’t even know where this robot dinosaur came from.”

“But I do!” a voice croaked.

The children looked behind them and saw the frog prince.

“Hey! Where did you come from?” asked Eric, looking quite startled.

“Ribbit! Harriet and I went to play in the forest!” the Prince explained.

“Who’s Harriet?” asked Maya.

“That dragon of course! And that’s Rodney,” answered the prince, pointing behind him.

“RODNEY?!” the children cried in disbelief.

“Who exactly is Rodney?” Ben asked.

“Rodney’s an old friend of mine. We used to play together after school, back when we were just tadpoles. I would be the Prince, Harriet would be the dragon, and Rodney would be the robot dinosaur. I can’t believe we finally got our wish! Isn’t it great?”

“Yeah. It’s awesome,” Eric said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

They looked back to the beach where Harriet the dragon and Rodney the robot dinosaur were now play fighting.

“CHARGE!” the prince yelled, running towards the beach and leaping onto the dragon’s back. “Come on Harriet! It’s Rodney’s turn to chase us!!”

The dragon spun around and fled back into the forest, the prince clutching onto her scales. The robot dinosaur let out a mechanical roar, and thundered after them.

“Well now what? We can’t have those knuckleheads running around this forest for the next 500 years. They’ll scare everyone away!” said Maya.

“We’ll have to figure out a way to get them back to the lake at midnight too,” Ben said.

“Though it really doesn’t seem like they want to turn back into frogs. And they’re too big for us to throw them back in, like Maya did before”, Eric said.

“Hey! I didn’t throw them!” Maya exclaimed, raising her voice.

Ben let out a loud sigh.

“Sorry,” said Eric and Maya, apologizing for fighting again.

“What we need to do is figure out a way to trick them into going into the lake at midnight. Then they’ll change back on their own,” Ben muttered, thinking out loud.

“I know! What if one of us changes into a dragon? We can play their game of tag with them, and lead them down to the water!” Maya said.

“But we don’t know what it’s like to change into something else. What if we can’t remember why we changed into a dragon, and we get stuck that way forever, too,” Eric reasoned.

“I say that we find Dave again, and ask him to help us. Maybe he can chase them down while we look for my mom,” suggested Ben.

“But Dave doesn’t want to go back to normal either. He might not want to trick the others into changing back into frogs.”

Choose-the-next-adventure time: Should one of them change into a dragon, or should they trust Dave and ask for his help?

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**

Last week’s vote: Change the umbrella into a magic wand.

“Land here,” Maya told the magic carpet.

“GENTLY!” Ben added at the last moment.

The magic carpet slowly descended to the ground, dropping them off at the front door to Eric and Maya’s cabin.

“Let’s look around and see what we can find,” said Eric. Ben and Maya followed him through the front door, stepping into the dark entranceway.

“I thought I saw an old umbrella by the door when we first got here,” said Eric. “Maybe we could change it into a magic wand!”

“I love it! That’s a great idea,” Maya said. “With a magic wand, we should be able to do anything!”

Eric found the dusty umbrella leaning against the wall. He it picked up and blew the dirt off.

“Hey!” Ben coughed. “Watch what you’re doing! You blew that dust right at us!”

Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo!

A tiny voice seemed to be sneezing nearby.

“Did you hear that?” asked Maya. “It sounded like someone sneezing. Did Dave follow us or something?”

“No, he can’t have. The sneezing is much too quiet to be Dave. Shhhh! Listen for it,” whispered Ben.

The kids froze in place, holding their breath.

Ah-choo!

“There it is again! And it seems to be coming from your backpack, Maya,” said Eric.

Maya took off her backpack and gently placed it on the floor. Unzipping the top, she peered inside. She could see the five frogs that Ben had put in her backpack earlier that day.

Ah-choo!

“Oh, that is so cute! It’s one of these little frogs that’s sneezing!” Maya gushed.

“Wait! Let me see!” cried Eric, pushing his way forward.

Ah-choo!

“Dad’s allergic to dust. He always sneezes when we’re cleaning the house,” Eric said. “This one must be him!” Eric carefully lifted out the tiny sneezing frog, cupping it between his hands. “We’ll keep him separate from the other frogs for now. That’s one mystery solved, at least.”

“Here, I brought a bug jar with me this summer. There are holes in the lid, so we can put dad in here,” Maya said, digging through her suitcase and handing Eric the container.

“Let’s get this umbrella down to the lake and find my mom next,” said Ben, heading outside. Eric placed the bug jar into Maya’s backpack, taking care not to squash the other non-dad frogs, and zipped it up. The children hiked the short pathway down to the lake, excited to have found Eric and Maya’s dad.

“We can probably let the other frogs go, now,” said Maya. She knelt on the sand and opened her pack to let the other four frogs leap out.

“Okay! Now to make ourselves a magic wand!” Ben said. As he began walking into the lake, there was a loud crash coming from the forest.

“What was that?!” yelled Eric.

CRASH!

The sound was getting closer.

“It’s coming from over there!” cried Maya, pointing towards the trees at the end of the beach.

“Come on, let’s hide behind that rock,” said Ben. The children ran behind the large white boulder resting on the sand. Crouching down, Ben peered around the edge.

CRASH! CRACK!

Something was emerging from the thick forest of trees. What could it be?!

Choose-the-next-adventure time: What has come crashing through the forest? Is it a huge robot dinosaur or a strange green space alien?

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**

Last week’s vote: They should stick together

“I think we should stick together,” said Ben. “Eric’s right. We don’t know what my mother will be like as a chipmunk. Maybe I will be able to recognize her somehow.” Ben shuffled his feet, looking uncertain about what he’d just said.

“Don’t worry Ben. We’ll find her,” Maya said, trying to reassure him.

“For sure we will! But we better get back to searching,” Eric reminded them.

“Hey! We’ve still got my magic compass!” Ben happily cried. “We can use it!”

“That’s right! How do you think it works?” asked Maya.

“Well, the magic carpet worked by telling it what to do. Maybe this works the same way!” reasoned Ben.

Eric, Maya, Ben, and Lego clambered back onto the magic carpet. Ben examined the newly created magic compass and then yelled, “Show me where my mother is!”

Nothing happened.

“Why isn’t it working?” asked Maya.

“Try asking it to point to something else,” suggested Eric. “Maybe we’re not doing it right.”

Ben focused on the magic compass again and yelled, “Show me where Dave the Flying Horse is!”

The needle on the compass spun around three times and stopped. It was pointing straight at Dave.

“Hmmm. Well I guess it must work,” said Ben. Eric, Maya, and Ben leaned in to inspect the compass to see where the trouble was.

AHEM-MMM-MMM-NEIGH!

Looking up, the children found Dave’s nose butting into their circle.

“I see that you’re having some problems there! Would you like to know why?” asked Dave.

“Yes, please. But how do you know why this won’t work? Do you know about compasses?” Maya asked.

“I may not know about compasses, but I do know a lot about magic,” said Dave.

“Well… can you tell us?” asked Eric.

“Of course I can tell you, silly! Don’t you remember that I can talk now?” asked Dave.

Eric sighed. “Will you tell us?”

“Well, yes I will! You asked the compass to show you where your mother is. But your mother isn’t your mother right now. Your mother is a chipmunk. So you can only ask the compass to show you where the chipmunk is,” explained Dave.

“Alright,” said Ben, staring down at the magic compass again. “Show me where the chipmunk went!”

The compass needle spun around three times. But instead of stopping, it went haywire! First pointing in one direction, and then a split second later, pointing in another.

“What’s going on?” cried Maya.

“Neigh-hay-hay!” Dave laughed. “There is more than one chipmunk in this forest, of course! Your compass will tell you where the chipmunks are…and they are everywhere!”

The children looked defeated.

“What are we going to do now?” wailed Maya.

“We’ll just have to think of something better. Let’s go back to the lake and create something else that can help us find my mom,” said Ben.

“We should stop at the cabin on the way. Maybe there’s some stuff there that we can change into magical things,” suggested Eric.

“Magic Carpet! Take us to our cabin!” yelled Maya.

“Rrruff!” barked Lego.

As they zoomed off towards the cabin, Eric, Maya, and Ben started to think about what they could turn into a magical object. There was a whistle attached to their dad’s hiking pack. Maybe the whistle could be made into a chipmunk calling device that would bring Ben’s mom straight to them. Or there was an old umbrella that could become a magic wand. Perhaps it could be used to summon Ben’s chipmunk mother to the lake.

Choose-the-next-adventure time: Should the kids change the whistle into a calling device, or the umbrella into a magic wand

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**

Last week’s vote: Use the magic carpet to find Dave.

“Let’s use the magic carpet to go look for Dave. Who knows? Maybe we’ll spot your mom in a tree while we’re flying over the forest!” Eric said.

“Okay. And we can pick up your dad and bring him with us,” said Ben, scooping up the five remaining frogs and slipping them carefully into Maya’s backpack. “Sorry little guys!”

“So how does this thing work? Will it be able to carry all of us?” asked Maya, staring at the magic carpet.

Eric, Maya, and Ben slowly crawled onto the hovering carpet, trying very carefully not to flip it over. Once they were settled, Ben whistled for Lego.

“Oh, no!” cried Maya, as Lego leapt onto the carpet and knocked everyone off.

“Okay, let’s try that again!” laughed Ben.

This time, Ben called Lego up onto the carpet first. Then the three kids climbed on after, trying to keep the carpet balanced the whole time.

“Ready? Let’s go!” yelled Eric.

The carpet zoomed towards the forest at lightning speed.

“Woah! Slow down!” cried Ben. The carpet slowed down just as they reached the first tree.

“Fly over the trees. Slowly!” commanded Maya.

The carpet lifted up higher into the air, brushing against the tops of the trees.

“This is so cool,” said Eric. Maya and Ben nodded silently in agreement.

“Okay, we need to keep a lookout for Dave,” said Eric.

“And my mom,” Ben added.

Neigh-choo!

Neigh-choo!

“Did you hear that? It sounded like a sneezing horse!” asked Maya.

“Yeah, a sneezing flying horse,” said Ben.

“It’s coming from over there,” Eric said. “Magic carpet, take us down to that field.”

The magic carpet slowly lowered them down to the open meadow that Eric and Maya had driven by earlier that morning. As soon as the carpet reached the ground, the kids and Lego jumped off and ran towards the flying horse.

“Dave! Dave! You have to help us!” they yelled.

“Neigh! Hello again! I see you are enjoying the lake’s magical powers,” said Dave.

“I guess so,” said Ben.” But we really just want to get our parents back. As funny as it would be to have a chipmunk for a mother, I don’t think I want a new pet.”

“You said that you knew how to reverse the spell, right? Can you tell us?” asked Maya.

“Well of course I can! I’m a talking horse!” bellowed Dave. “It’s really very easy. At midnight, the magic will be reversed. Whatever was changed needs to be back in the lake at exactly midnight,” explained Dave.

Maya checked the time on her iPod. It was already noon. That meant they had only 12 hours left to find Ben’s mother.

“Maybe we should split up. If we want to make sure we find Ben’s mom before midnight, we might need to expand our search,” suggested Maya.

“But Ben might be the only one who can recognize her. I think we should stick together,” said Eric.

Choose-the-next-adventure time: Should the kids split up or stick together?

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**

Last week’s vote: Try to reverse the spell

“What do you think we should do Maya?” asked Eric.

“First of all, I can’t believe we’re even talking about this. Our father being a frog? Or Ben’s mother suddenly turning into a chipmunk? And our new friend Dave, the talking horse?” Maya squeaked.

“Don’t forget flying horse, too,” Ben said. “But it doesn’t matter now! We have to decide what we’re going to do!”

“Okay. Well let’s try to reverse the spell first. At least we’ll have our dad back. And then we’ll have more people to search for your mom,” said Maya.

The three kids ran to where they last saw their father jump. Unfortunately, there were now seven frogs sitting by the lake.

“Which one is which?” Eric asked.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to pick one of them and try it,” replied Maya.

Maya picked up the closest frog to her and walked over to the lake. She gently tossed the frog into the water and yelled, “Become your true self!”

POOF!

The frog became human!

“Greetings, my fair lady! Are you in distress? Shall I save you from a tall tower?” he exclaimed in a croaky frog-like voice.

Instead of the frog turning into their dad, the frog had turned into a Prince!

“Whoops!” Maya laughed. “I guess I picked the wrong one!”

Choosing a second frog from the backpack, again Maya tossed it into the water and yelled, “Become your true self!”

POOF!

This time, a large green dragon emerged from the lake. The Prince yelped and ran off into the forest. The dragon leapt up and chased right after him, disappearing into the trees.

“Hmmm. I guess this might be trickier than I thought,” said Maya.

“Well, we can’t keep changing frogs into other things. We might get something even worse than a dragon next time!” Eric said.

“You’re right,” agreed Ben. “We’ve got to go find my mother.”

“Well, we also really need to find Dave. What good is getting your chipmunk mom back if we don’t know how to change her back?” Maya argued. “Plus, there are bound to be chipmunks everywhere in this forest! How will we know which one is Ben’s mom?”

“I don’t know, but what else can we do?” asked Eric.

“THE LAKE!” screamed Ben.

“What? She ran away from the lake, remember? She went into the forest,” Maya said.

“No, I mean we can use the lake to help us! Dave said that anything that touched the lake could become something else. If we can turn a frog into a dragon, then we must be able to make other things magic,” Ben reasoned.

“That’s brilliant!” cried Eric. “So…what do we do?”

“Well, I could make my watch into a magic compass to point us to where my mom is,” said Ben.

“Or, I could change my beach towel into a magic carpet and we could fly over the trees to find Dave!” said Maya.

Ben undid his watch, dipped it into the lake, and yelled, “Magic compass!”

POOF!

The watch was suddenly a shiny gold compass, which now seemed to be humming with magic.

Maya pulled her towel from her backpack, dropped it into the water and said, “Magic carpet!”

POOF!

The towel leapt from the water and hovered about two feet from the ground.

The children stared in delight at their new magic objects, trying to decide what to do next.

“I say we use that magic carpet to find Dave,” said Maya.

“But we have the magic compass now! We can probably find my mom right away!” cried Ben.

Choose-the-next-adventure time: Should the kids use the magic carpet to find Dave, or use the magic compass to find Ben’s mother?

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**

Last week’s vote: Take the path to the lake.

“Please can we go swimming first?” pleaded Eric.

“Okay, fine,” said Maya. “But we are definitely going to check out that other path later!”

Eric, Maya, and their dad quickly dug out their suitcases from the car, ran into the cabin, and changed into their swimsuits in record time.

“Let’s go!” their dad cried. As they carefully stepped down the steep path to the lake, they saw that they weren’t the first ones to arrive. A woman was sitting in a lawn chair on the sand, while a boy with glasses played fetch with his dog.

“Cool! Maybe they’re staying at the lake this summer too!” said Eric, walking up to the boy.

“Hi, I’m Eric, and this is my sister Maya.”

“Hey. I’m Ben. And this is Lego,” Ben replied, gesturing to his dog. “Here Lego!! C’mere boy!” Lego came barreling back towards the three kids with a stick in his mouth, almost knocking them over.

“Don’t worry, he’s harmless. He just gets really excited when he gets to chase things. Including sticks,” Ben joked.

“Well, I think he’s cute,” Maya said, leaning down to give Lego a scratch on his head. “Is that you’re mom? Are you guys staying here this summer too?”

“Yeah, my mom and I are staying at the cabin at the top of the hill. Hey, did you guys see those wild horses when you drove in?”

“Yeah, we did. Actually, isn’t that one of them right there?” Eric asked. The kids all turned to see where he was looking. The same horse that seemed to wink at them earlier that morning was leaning down to drink from the water.

“Time to swim!” Eric and Maya’s dad yelled. “Last one in is a rotten egg!”

“Hmph. Parents are so immature, aren’t they?” sighed Ben, as they watched Maya and Eric’s father tip Ben’s mom out of her chair. The two of them raced each other down to the lake, with LEGO chasing after them.

“Hey look! A frog!” cried their father.

“And what a cute little chipmunk on the bank!” said Ben’s mom.

POOF!!!

With a burst of smoke, the kids’ parents suddenly disappeared. In their places now stood a tiny green frog and a furry little chipmunk.

“Woah! What just happened!?” cried Maya.

Lego began barking at the two animals, splashing in the water to chase what he thought were his new toys. Their frog father jumped further down the shore of the lake. Lego turned to chase their chipmunk mother, who squeaked and ran towards the forest.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?” yelled Ben.

Just then, the wild horse unfurled a set of wings and came gliding through the air towards them. It landed gracefully at their feet.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh-choo!” the horse sneezed. “Excuse me. Must be my allergies.”

“You…you can fly? And… and talk?” stammered Eric.

“Neigh, not until today. Today is a magical day that only comes around every 500 years!” said the horse. “I’m Dave, by the way.”

“A flying, talking horse named Dave,” whispered Maya. “Who would have thought?”

“So…um…Dave, can you tell us what’s going on? Why are you able to talk? And why are our parents now forest creatures?” Ben asked.

“Why, it’s the lake of course! For one day, every 500 years, this lake becomes magical. Anything that touches the water will be able to transform into anything it wants!” explained Dave.

“But how does it work? I’m sure my mom didn’t plan on becoming a chipmunk,” Ben reasoned.

“Ha, ha! No, I’m sure she didn’t,” chuckled Dave. “It’s not about what you wish for, it’s just what you think or say. I’ve always wanted to talk, so when I stepped into the water I just thought it and it happened! “

“So tomorrow, everything will go back to normal, right?” asked Maya.

“Nope! I get to fly forever now,” smiled the horse. “And your mother, lucky thing, gets to stay a chipmunk!”

“WHAT?!” shrieked the children.

“Unless you follow the steps to reverse the spell, of course.”

“Well, how do we reverse it?” the children cried.

“Oh, well it’s really quite simple. All you have to do is…AHHHH!” screamed Dave. “IS THAT A BEE?” Dave ran around in circles and then flew off into the forest.

“A flying, talking horse named Dave who’s afraid of bees,” whispered Maya to herself.

“Okay, let’s think. What are we going to do?” asked Ben, trying to calm everyone down.

“Well, we can try to find our frog father and reverse the spell,” Eric said.

“But we don’t know how to reverse the spell. I think we should try to catch my chipmunk mother before she disappears any further into the forest,” said Ben. “If we wait too long we might never find her in time.”

“Yes, but if we can get our father to change back into a human he can help us to find your mom faster,” said Eric.

“Maya, what do you think? You decide,” said the two boys.

Choose-the-next-adventure time: Should the kids try to reverse the spell on their frog father, or chase after Ben’s chipmunk mother?

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**

“Wakey, wakey! We’re almost at the cabin!”

“Wha--? Dad, what time is it?”

“It’s already 6:30 in the morning! You missed the sunrise!”

It was the first day of summer vacation. Eric’s dad had picked them up right after school the day before, the car packed to the brim, insisting that they get an early start on the traffic. But what it really meant was that Eric had been stuck in the backseat of a hot, stuffy car for the last 14 hours with his sister Maya. Not the ideal way to start a summer vacation!

Eric and Maya blinked wearily in the growing daylight. As their eyes adjusted to the sunshine, they looked out in amazement at their beautiful surroundings – towering gray mountains, crisp clear streams, and brilliantly blue skies.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” their Dad asked.

“Is this where the cabin is? This is awesome!” Maya exclaimed. “I could get used to spending two months out here.”

“Well get used to it fast! The cabin is just ahead, past that grove of trees.” Their dad pulled the car off the main highway and turned down a gravel road. On one side was a thick forest. On the other was a lush green meadow. Wild horses were grazing in the grass.

Eric quickly rolled down his window. “Here horsie, horsie, horsie!” he yelled.

“You can’t call a wild horse like that! They’re not even tame!” Maya scoffed.

“How do you know? Maybe these ones are friendly.” Just as Eric spoke, one of the horses lifted its head and looked right at them. “Woah!” Eric cried. “That horse is looking right at us! And… did it? I mean, did it look to you like…”

“Like it winked?” Maya said.

“Um…yeah.” The children stared at each other in disbelief.

“No, it couldn’t have. Horses don’t wink,” Eric laughed, a little uneasily.

“Well kids, here it is,” their Dad said, interrupting their thoughts.

They pulled up to a tiny log cabin surrounded by tall spruce trees. To the left of the cabin was a path that led down to a lake. To the right was a hiking trail that led to the next cabin.

Eric and Maya leaped from the back seat, grateful to get outside and stretch their legs.

“So, what should we do first?” asked their dad.

“I want to go for a swim in that lake!” said Eric. “We’ve been stuck in that car so long, the water would feel really good right now.”

“I want to hike down that trail. Maybe there are some other kids staying at the next cabin! Or maybe it’s haunted!” Maya teased.

“Well, we can only do one thing first, so what should it be?” asked their dad.

Choose-the-next-adventure time: Should the kids take the path to the lake or the trail to the next cabin?

**Voting has now closed for this chapter.**