BEYOND THE LOOKING-GLASS: Book One in the BEYOND Series by Gordon Rothwell Page A

giant glowered at Aleeta. “I love small children. Especially broiled on toast.” The giant stared at a teapot and tray of cookies on the table in front of him. “They taste a lot better than tea and these here munchies.”
    Aleeta didn’t flinch at the giant’s taste for children. She kept boring in. She was not to be put off about the possible location of her kids.
    “Maybe one of your charming companions saw them.”
    The giant hooted. “You won’t get nuthin’ outta them two. The one with no head is no fun. And neither’s that moss-backed troll who don’t speak no language anybody ever heard of. And that goes for all three of his festering heads.”
    “How did you all wind up together?” Kellen asked, hoping to wrangle something out of the giant about the kids.
    “Well,” the giant replied, “I found this here Hessian wandering around in a meadow. He must’ve fallen off his horse and it run away. And that cursed troll was in some bushes by the road looking for a dinner of grubs and salamanders.”
    The headless Hessian stirred in his seat, causing a tiny cloud smelling of fire and brimstone to billow forth.
    Aleeta, holding her nose, asked: “Why do you stay with them? When you dislike them so.”
    The giant yanked on his beard once more. “The Hessian’s not much for talking. That can be plumb aggravating. But he never argues, or eats any of my food. And the troll is happy if I toss him a lizard or a frog once in a while. I could have worse companions to travel with I suppose.”
    Before Kellen could comment, the giant jumped up to his feet. He held his head high and sniffed the air.
    “Fee-fi-fo-fum,” the giant bellowed. “I smell the blood of a fearsome one.”
    The teacups began to dance around on the top of the table. And the earth beneath their feet was shaking and quivering violently.
    Kellen and Aleeta turned their eyes on the edge of the forest….and froze.
    A monstrous, winged dragon clawed its way through the thick foliage and was coming toward the clearing at an incredible speed.
    “Omigod, Kel,” Aleeta cried out. “It’s the Jabberwock!”
    The fire-breathing dragon pounded along the turf on huge claws. The air in the clearing was filled with the fetid odor of phosphor.
    Before any of the terrified party-goers could flee or react, the Jabberwock was on them. It loomed high above the table, staring down at the puny human forms beneath it with burning crimson eyes.
    The Jabberwock leaned down, nose-to-nose with Aleeta, saliva dripping from its fang-congested jaw. The droplets burst into small flames as they hit the turf. The dragon flexed its powerful, scale-covered wings. And swung its massive armor-plated tail back and forth with a loud SWISH .
    Aleeta didn’t give ground. Or show any fear. Kellen couldn’t help but admire her spunk. He felt at this moment that he had always underestimated her.
    The stand-off lasted only seconds.
    The Jabberwock’s red eyes widened. Kellen saw Aleeta stiffen, preparing to be incinerated by the monster’s flaming breath.
    He couldn’t stand by and let that happen.
    Kellen leaped up onto the Jabberwock’s back. As the dragon roared and bucked like a wild bronco, Kellen hung on for dear life. But his effort was doomed. The dragon knocked him off and flung him high into the air with its tail.
    When the angry dragon turned to Aleeta and lowered it scaly head again, it didn’t get a chance to open its jaws and spew out its death-dealing stream of fire.
    Aleeta calmly reached out, took a teapot in her slender hands, and threw the boiling contents into the startled Jabberwock’s eye slits.
    When the blinded dragon screamed in agony and thrashed all about, the giant saw his opportunity. He jumped up on the table and bashed the huge beast in the face with his large club. He rained down blow after blow. And the Jabberwock retreated.
    As the deadly duel between club-wielding giant and flame-spouting dragon began, Aleeta ran over the Kellen’s fallen