“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one… Ready or not, here I come!” Alex the Boy Wizard scans the outer fortress of the mighty castle in search of Sir Michael, Knight of the Round Pizza who was recently stolen by the Bog Creatures. The ground is wet, recently soaked by a tropical monsoon so rare in this part of Fresno, especially at this time of year. Those Boggers are clever so he is going to have to use his wits if he’s going to find his friend before it gets dark and he has to go home.

The castle fortress is well disguised as an ordinary suburban backyard. The spotty lawn offers no good hiding places, neither does the old metal swing set. He searches the thick underbrush of the rose bushes. Darn, those thorns are sharp! No sign of Michael in the garden or the rotting wood tool shed.

Alex spots his faithful beagle Dodger. Dodger is up on his hind legs sniffing the air. “Hey boy, do you smell Michael? Go get him, okay? We need to save him!” Dodger seems to understand as he immediately races toward the house. Uh-oh. “No Dodger! We’re not supposed to play in the house!”

Undaunted in his mission, Dodger the Wonder Beagle crashes straight through the back door screen and into the kitchen where Michael’s grandmother is pulling cookies out of the oven. Alex reaches the house in time to see the dog trying to put the brakes on his sliding paws gliding, not so gracefully, across the newly waxed floor. True to form, however, the resourceful beagle manages to swipe three cookies off the baking pan while in route to his eventual stop against the pantry door.

Michael’s grandma, the Honorable Queen Matilda, is in good spirits. She laughs at the errant hound and cheerfully offers him milk to go with his cookies. “By the way those cookies disappeared, he’s going to have to have a drink before he chokes” the kind queen proclaims; “Why don’t you and Michael come in and have some for yourselves?”

Alex doesn’t want the good queen to know about Michael’s abduction and impending doom by the Bog Creatures as she might worry.

“Don’t worry fair queen; I’ll bring him back safely.”

“Fair what?”

Alex doesn’t hear her reply as he is already out the back door, hanging on to the recalcitrant beagle by the collar as he is trying to sneak another cookie on the way out.

Alex stops short on the porch. Something is amiss in the upper branches of the pecan tree where he had counted out just a few minutes earlier. Yes, there’s a foot dangling from within. Alex ran to the tree and looked up.

“Gotcha!