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healthiest of pastimes.
    It was going to be a big decision, definitely the biggest I ever had to make on my own. The King (or to be exact, his stand-in) wasn’t due to make an appearance until noon tomorrow, so I had a little time to mull things over. With that in mind, I decided to talk it out with my last friend left in the palace.
    “What do you think, Gleep? Should I take it on the lam, or stick around and try to bluff it out for one day as king?” The response was brief and to the point.
    “Gleep!”
    For those of you who’ve tuned in to this series late, Gleep is my pet. He lives in the Royal Stables. He’s also a twenty-foot long blue dragon ... half grown. (I shudder to think what he’ll be like when he’s fully grown! Groan!) As to his witty conversation, you’ll have to forgive him. He only has a one-word vocabulary, but he makes up for it by using that word a lot. Wordy or not, I turned to him in this moment of crisis because with Aahz gone, he was the only one in this dimension who would be even vaguely sympathetic to my problem. That in itself says a lot about the social life of a magician.
    “Come on, Gleep, get serious. I’m in real trouble. If I try to stand in for the King, I might make a terrible mistake ... like starting a war or hanging an innocent man. On the other hand, if I double-cross the King and disappear, you and I would spend the rest of our lives as hunted fugitives.”
    The unicorn in the next stall snorted and stamped a foot angrily.
    “Sorry, Buttercup. The three of us would be hunted fugitives.”
    War unicorns aren’t all that common, even in Royal Stables. That particular war unicorn was mine. I acquired him as a gift shortly after I acquired Gleep. As I said before, this life-style is more than a little zooish.
    “In a kingdom with a bad king, a lot of people would get hurt,” I reasoned, “and I’d be a terrible king. Heck, I’m not all that good a magician.”
    “Gleep,” my pet argued sternly.
    “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but it’s true. I don’t want to hurt anybody, but I’m not wild about being a hunted fugitive, either.”
    Tired of verbalizing his affection, Gleep decided to demonstrate his feelings by licking my face. Now, aside from leaving a slimy residue, my dragon’s kisses have one other side effect. His breath is a blast of stench exceeded only by the smell of Pervish cooking.
    “G ... Gleep, old boy,” I managed at last, “I love you dearly, but if you do that twice a week, we may part company ... permanently!”
    “Gleep?”
    That earned me a hurt expression, which I erased simply enough by scratching his head. It occurred to me that dragons had survived because each of them only became emotionally attached to one being in its lifetime. If their breath reached the entire population instead of a single individual, they would have been hunted into extinction long ago. No, it was better that only one person should suffer than ...”
    Another part of my mind grabbed that thought and started turning it over.
    “If I run, then I’ll be the only one in trouble, but if I try to be king, the whole kingdom suffers! That’s it! I have to leave. It’s the only decent thing to do. Thanks, Gleep!”
    “Gleep?”
    My pet cocked his head in puzzlement.
    “I’ll explain later. All right. It’s decided. You two stock up on food while I duck back to my room to get a few things. Then it’s ‘Goodbye Possiltum!’”
    I’ve had pause to wonder what would have happened if I’d followed my original plan: just headed for my room, gathered up my belongings, and left. The timing for the rest of the evening would have changed, and the rest of this story would have been totally different. As it was, I made a slight detour. Halfway to my room, Aahz’s training cut in. That is, I started thinking about money.
    Even as a hunted fugitive, money would come in handy ... and the King’s advance would only last so long. With a little extra cash, I could run