❝ Wherever you go, go with all your heart. ❞

— Confucius

"Pirates!"

"Aliens!"

The children were debating what would make a great story above all others. Pete maintained that only pirates' stories where worth reading. Tom answered to that that aliens where required in every story. The two of them had been at it for a good ten minutes, the other three friends laughing like mad just listening to the same arguments coming back and forth.

Lola was checking imaginary marks in the air. She took the tally on the match. The two words, pirates and aliens, had been said at least twenty two times, one in answer to the other. She had lost the count at some point, needing her hands to hold her stomach. She was laughing so hard it was painful.

It was like a ping-pong match. Pete uttering "pirates", Tom answering "aliens", nothing else was said.

"It doesn't make sense," Olivia's words brought the silence in the room.

"True enough," Lola agreed, "those two doofus fighting over story ideas and characters don't make sense at all. But then, we're talking about Pete..." The girl added with a big smirk toward her brother.

"No. I mean, Billy's story," Olivia explained. "How come you get dinosaurs in a knight and dragon story? Dinosaurs don't exist anymore. They can't live at the same time as knights. That doesn't make sense..."

"This is why it makes it a great story," Billy countered. "You don't expect the dinosaur. The knight fights the dragon then, surprise! Here comes a T-Rex. Besides, dinos are great stuff in stories," he concluded.

"You say that because you like dinosaurs," Olivia disagreed. "You can't get dinosaurs everywhere. It's like you can't have aliens in all stories, or pirates..."

"If you go this way, Vivy," Billy retorted, "you can't get knights everywhere. Stories with them in it are nothing special, then."

"It's not what I mean, and you know it," the girl grasped for the proper way to explain her idea. "there are stories for every type of character, you can't just mix them altogether, just for the sake of surprise."

"But it gets boring if you don't things like surprise dinosaurs," Billy maintained his point.

"If you want a surprise," Olivia cut him, "then use a twist in the story. Not just a completely foreign element."

It was Pete, Tom and Lola's turn to follow attentively the exchange between the two others.

"What's a twist?" Tom asked. "What would make a good twist? I thought the dinos were a good idea for a change..."

Billy grinned, even Pete was nodding his head. Lola, however, stood on the opposite. She agreed with Olivia.

"You should listen, guys," the girl claimed, "Vivy reads a lot, and she knows a lot about stories and stuff."

Olivia blushed slightly, not used to be taken as a model.

"Okay, if you say so," Billy thought about the possibility that dinosaurs were not always the best element in stories. "So, what would be a good twist to a story about a knight fighting a dragon?" He asked the two girls.

Olivia cocked her head in reflection. Lola froze for a short moment.

"I know!" Lola shouted. "How about... human...?"

The three boys looked at each other in confusion. "What about human?" Billy asked.

"You're stupid, Lola!" Her brother shouted half laughing, half perplexed.

"You can't say she's stupid," Tom reprimanded him. "She doesn't make sense, but you can't say she's stupid," he added sententiously.

"When you're finished criticising me, guys, I'll tell you what about human..." Lola sneered at the trio.

"It's simple, really," she continued, explaining her idea of a great twist for the knight and dragon story. "You can even add the dinosaur in it. But you'll need another element to make it fit all together without being silly."

Lola waited for the boys' understanding before continuing. Needless to say, they were still puzzled by the girl. Would she come to say what she wanted, finally?

"It is really simple," she went on, "let the dragon transform into a human. Here you go. Knight fights the dragon, and in the middle of the combat, the dragon turned into a human..."

"Why would he do that?" Pete asked. "It's stupid... Erm, it's a bit silly, don't you think?"

"It could work," Tom was thinking at loud at the possibility. "The dragon could have been in reality a man turned into a dragon by a sorceress... Yep, it could work," he agreed. "But why would have been transformed, in the beginning?"

"Many reasons for that," Lola explained. "He's the good guy, the King wants him dead, and he asks the witch to do it... Then, the knight comes and fight and realises the dragon's a guy... Whatever. It's just a twist," she concluded. "How does it work for a surprise?"

"Vivy?" Billy looked at his friend, "Olivia? You're with us?"

The girl looked lost in another world.

"Yes, Billy. I was just thinking about something." Olivia cleared her mind. The group was observing her, waiting to hear what she thought was a great twist for a great story.

✧✧✧

"I really thought the dinosaur was a good idea," Billy told Grandpa.

It was after dinner and he was tidying up the kitchen with his grandfather, as they did every evening.

"But then, the girls said it was silly, did not make sense," he continued, still a bit chafed by the criticism he received from his two friends.

"I think," Grandpa tried to explain gently, "that they thought a bit more subtlety in a story would make for a greater surprise." He paused a moment to gather his thoughts. "What would you say if, for example, there was a story about two soldiers fighting in the desert and suddenly a penguin came by?"

Billy listened perplexed, then giggled at the image that came to his mind.

"I think I understand, Grandpa. The surprise needs to bring something to the story. It can't be anything... really..." This is what Olivia tried to explain, he thought. It made sense to him, now.

"Tell me what your friends thought about the story in the book?" Grandpa was quite curious.

"Pete and Tom were fighting about pirates and aliens. I realise, now, that I had the same idea with adding dinosaurs. We just thought of which characters would make the story great." Billy explained then to Grandpa all that had been discussed.

Lola's idea about the dragon changing into a human had intrigued him quite a lot. After some reflection, he imagined this part could be a great addition to the story he had read the night before. The story could go like that, two men were fighting. Two knights maybe, the Black Knight and another mysterious one. Then, as the duel went on, a dinosaur attacked the two knights. The Black Knight defended himself with his big sword while the mysterious one ran away. And then a big dragon appeared to help the Black Knight...

Billy asked Grandpa what he thought about a twist like that in a story.

The old man nodded, his eyes shining with amusement.

"Before this afternoon..." Billy's mind was still on the events of the day as he was playing a game of chess with Grandpa. The chessboard remained on the coffee table since the last time they played, the day before. A game of chess before bed was becoming a routine episode, a bed-time preparation step of a sort, just preceding the brushing of teeth.

"Before this afternoon, I never thought about what I like in storybooks. I am not used to reading much. Usually, it is more the comic books." Billy pondered about his discovery, that not everyone finds the same things interesting when they read a story. It was something that, at ten years old, he seldom thought about. How his friends differed from himself, even though they were all the same age and liked the same games. And even when they played games, there was always some difference between the girls and the boys, and even between Pete or Tom and him...

 "This is something important you learned today, Billy," Grandpa agreed with him. "We are all different, but this is what makes life interesting, "he continued. "It is similar for storybooks, they are all different even if they seem similar."

"But," Billy was thinking a mile a minute, "what about if I read the same story as my friends?"

"You know what makes books even greater, Billy? It is that they are just written. Words piling one after another, telling a story... but the story is not what's in the book..."

"What is the story then?" The boy asked his grandfather, confused by what he just said.

"The story, really, is what your imagination makes of it. You read the words, but you see things in a certain way. The words are like crayons, you use them to make a drawing in your head. This drawing is different from your friends', anyone else for that matters." Grandpa paused, observing how Billy was reacting.

"In fact, Billy, when you read a book you paint the words in your mind. In your own way. And this gives life to a new story. Your story..." 

✧✧✧

Billy's head was ready to explode.

Tonight, Grandpa had not been teasing him like he usually did. Tonight, their discussion had been serious. Grandpa used big words did not completely understand.

As he washed his teeth and got ready to bed, Billy thought back about the discussion he had with his friends earlier in the day. Besides Tom and Pete's ideas about aliens and pirates, Lola's twist had intrigued him, as he had told Grandpa. The bow was now convinced having a character transforming between beast and human was neat. He had heard about werewolves stories, but a dragon? It was better than a wolf, he had to admit.

Lola's ideas were good. But Olivia's were better, even greater than that.

"A dinosaur doesn't make sense in this story," Olivia had said. "The were-dragon idea is interesting, but still a bit farfetched," she had continued.

Billy wondered where his friend was finding all those big words she had used during her explanation. Even with using words he did not understand, Billy had found her idea just grand. It had been so simple, it made the surprise more... surprising...

The boy shrugged and tried to clear his mind. The day had been tiring, but the good thing was that he completely forgot about the cast on his foot. Even if the rain had spoiled his fun in the garden, he had more fun once he had debated with his friends about books and stories.

Shaking his head, he settled in his bed and took his book and read. With Grandpa's words in his mind, what he had said as they had played chess, he thought about reading the story from the beginning one more time. Maybe the painting in his head would be different.

        "Once upon a time, in a far far away kingdom, a great peril loomed. The king had called for all the knights to help fight the great danger. A fire dragon was ravaging the fields and the forests of the kingdom.

The wise king organised a tournament where the bravest of the kingdom's knight would prove their strength and determination.

A young knight, unknown and untrained, but full of brain and ruse, won the jousts. The man was smart, not just brawn, and had a good eye for opportunity strikes. The king called him forward and announced he had found his champion...:

Billy found the beginning of the story more interesting than the previous day. Perhaps Grandpa's words had unlocked something in his mind.

        "... and the knight in his black armour travelled forth toward the dragon's lair.

Arriving near the location, he heard a terrifying roar. In all its glory, the great beast stood. Full of rage, the Black Knight engaged the fire monster.

It then happened that, during the fight between man and beast, a giant reptile rushed them, sending blows to the two combatants.

The brave knight defended himself with his great blade as the dragon attacked the new monster with its magic fire."

Strange, Billy thought. This part was different from what he remembered.

        "The giant reptile finally rested at their foot, dead, a pile of charred remains. The knight and the dragon had fought side by side against a greater evil.

Worry rushed back to the knight, and with precaution, he raised his sword toward the beast of magic fire.

 "Stop, sir Knight!" The voice had come from the dragon.

Petrified, the man looked at his enemy only to see, in place of the great evil dragon, a man.

"Do not fear, sir Knight. Do not fight me and I will not attack you. I need your help!"

Light came to the black knight mind in a rush. He had heard about such a feat but it was the first time he witnessed it. The man standing in front of him, the beast of fire he had fought before, they were the same character. The dragon had shifted into man-form..."

The book escaped Billy's hands.

The story—the boy had difficulties to accept what he had read—was not what he had read about the day before. This story sounded a lot like what his friends and he had discussed the same afternoon. This story had all the elements he agreed would make it great, a were-dragon, and a bigger twist, as Olivia had proposed, maybe the enemy would not be the one that seemed obvious at first read...