Good Ogre by Platte F. Clark Page A

and his friends, pushing the black magic away and surrounding them in a kind of bubble. Panoply—to cover and protect. But using the Codex in the human realm took nearly all the strength Max had. He collapsed, barely able to hold the spell together. Wayne reached down and scooped him up in his arms.
    â€œWhat’s happening?” Sarah exclaimed. “Something was inside of me.”
    â€œHurry, get us inside,” Max said, his voice barely audible over the storm. “It’s going to change things. It’s going to change everything.”

    They put Max down in the back room of the Dragon’s Den, where Dwight kept an extra cot. Max fought to keep hold of the spell he’d cast, pushing it outward as far as he could. He thought the protective bubble encircled the Dragon’s Den, but it was hard to tell. He could feel it weaken the farther he stretched it. He concentrated on the building, willing the spell to leave his control and attach itself to the brick and mortar outside. He could feel the connection between the Prime Spell and the Codex— the magic would have to sustain itself. “Don’t leave the building, no matter what,” Max whispered. The Prime Spell had taken everything from him, and he felt his body shutting down. The others were gathered around him, watching with worried expressions, the sound of the storm muffled by the magic Max had put into place.
    â€œDude, what did you do?” Dirk asked.
    â€œI opened the door,” Max admitted. “He was waiting on the other side.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    A NEW WORLD
    M AX WALKED INTO THE MAIN room of the Dragon’s Den, rubbing his eyes and trying to ignore the pounding in his head. He found Dwight standing by the counter and asked, “Do you have an aspirin or something?”
    His friends had been pressed against the windows, and they turned at the sound of his voice. He’d lost track of time, and outside a kind of gray light pushed through the windows. He caught sight of the storm clouds in the distance, gripping the sky like a vise.
    â€œMax, you’re awake,” Sarah said, her voice tight.
    Dwight wandered off to find something for Max’s headache as Puff padded to his side. “I’m glad you’re okay,” the fluff dragon said, looking up at him. “Whatever magic you used to protect us worked.”
    For the briefest of moments Max had hoped it had all been a bad dream. He knew better, of course. His nightmares usually involved being chased by vegetables. “Is everyone okay?” he managed to ask.
    â€œDude,” Dirk replied, but then his voice trailed off. Max frowned—his friend wasn’t usually at a loss for words. He walked toward the window as the memories from the day before fell into place: getting the portal from Wayne . . . opening the doorway to another world . . . the black fog . . . fighting against the magic that had tried to change him.
    Max reached the window and stared outside in silence. Madison’s Main Street was gone, and in its place a dirt path wound through brown weeds and dead grass. There were a number of tall black trees, with long branches that drooped to the ground and ran in tangles before rising again and growing into the next. Everywhere a gray haze hung in the air, and Max could barely make out the building where the town library used to stand. And beyond that were the beginnings of some kind of footbridge. He could hear the wind blowing through the window, carrying with it a kind of gurgling sound. Water, maybe . . . although it sounded more like hotcereal bubbling on a stovetop. Overhead the dark storm blanketed the sky, slowly churning as flashes of lightning danced across its surface. Everything had changed, and Madison looked more like an online game would than the town he’d grown up in.
    Dwight brought Max a couple of pills and a glass of water, and he threw them back and drained the glass, not realizing how thirsty