Billy woke up, yawning. He looked around him, expecting to be in the storyworld and on Pegasus riding back home. He was shocked to see that he was in his bedroom, in his usual bed, and his legs were casted.

"What? This can't happen!" Billy tried to pinch himself, hoping that he was dreaming. But he found that he wasn't. He really was back home.

It wasn't that Billy wasn't happy about being back at home. That had been his main goal, after all, to return to the place he knew. But he had wanted to go back after he had finished the story. The story surely hadn't been finished when he had been riding Pegasus? Had he fallen asleep and missed the ending? A wave of disappointment came over him. He remembered all of his friends that he had made, and was a bit upset that he didn't get to say a real "goodbye" to them. It shouldn't matter, he had thought, as they were just book characters. But even as he had tried to tell himself that, it failed to have the desired effect. He could no longer say that the friends that he had made were just book characters. They had felt so real, and with the interactions he had with them, he could say that they were his friends, and that he was really going to miss them.

Billy knew that the only way to find out whether or not he had missed the ending of the book was to in fact, read to the ending of his copy of the book. He looked around for it, and wondered where he had last put it.

Suddenly, he heard a tiny knock on his door.

"Billy?" A tiny voice called out softly. "Can I come in? I have the book."

"Yes, Clara!" Billy called out.

The door opened seconds later, and Clara had come in, holding the magic book.

"Billy...what happened? Why did we leave?" She asked him sadly, climbing onto his bed and looking at the book.

"I don't know. Let's open it and see."

Billy took the book and opened it to the very last page. Sure enough, the illustration displayed showed happy and triumphant characters riding a pegasus back home. That was indeed, how the book had ended.

Billy was disappointed. He had hoped for more than just what he had gotten out of the story. With all of the battles and hardships he had powered through, he had hoped that he would have gotten at least more time to say goodbye.

"Look, Billy!" Clara pointed to three words that she had recognized from past fairy tales her mother had read to her. Billy looked to where she was pointing and read them aloud,

"Happily Ever After."

"See, Billy? They all lived happily ever after. That's how all princess stories end," Clara informed him.

Billy sighed and said, "I guess so. There's not much room for the after, is there?"

Billy knew that what Clara had said made sense. In most fairy tales that he had been told as a child, they usually ended with those three words. Happily Ever After, and he would be left assuming what the characters did together after their great adventure.

Billy read the last page of the book aloud, hoping that the story's parting words would give him insight on what happened.

"'And so, Pegasus flew the goblins back to Goblin Bridge, and the humans back to the Royal Village. The Queen was so grateful for the princess's rescue and the peasant Ella's bravery, that she had decided to knight her, and they all lived happily ever after."

Billy finished reading with a smile. He was proud that if he couldn't say goodbye to his new friend, at least he could rest knowing that she had received a better life and better treatment from the villagers.

Suddenly, another knock was heard on Billy's door.

"Billy? Is Clara in your room?"

Billy recognized that voice instantly.

"Mom!" He cheered. He had missed his mother through all the time he had been in the storyworld. He was glad to know that he could be with her again, back at home.

Clara was just as happy to see her mother as Billy was. As soon as the door had opened, Clara ran towards her mother and gave her a big hug.

"Mommy!" She cheered. "I missed you!"

Billy and Clara's mother looked at her children with great bemusement.

"What's going on? You're acting like you haven't seen me in years!"

Billy's cheeks turned pink when he had heard her say that. He started to think about how time had passed when he was in the storyworld, and realized that it surely must have gone slower and in the span of one night, as his mother was treating this morning as a normal one.

"Um...we just really missed you while we were...um...sleeping," Billy stammered sheepishly, trying to excuse their strange behavior.

"I see..." His mother answered suspiciously. Then, her expression changed when she saw what was on her son's bed.

"Billy...are you reading that book Grandpa got you?" She asked, surprised.

Billy looked down at the book, sitting wide open to the last page on his bed.

"Yes," he answered confidently. "And I really liked it. Clara did too."

His mother put her hand on her heart and had a big smile. "Oh Billy...your Grandpa would be so happy..."

Billy chuckled sheepishly. "Mom, it's just a book."

"I know, but still. I think it's so sweet how you read it to your sister. It makes me so happy to see you two getting along so well," His mother smiled.

Billy smiled back, and then looked down at his book. He turned the last page over, as if searching for any more information about the story that he may have missed. He didn't see any more illustrations or story, but he did find a scribbled piece of writing in purple pen.

"Huh? What's this?" Billy pointed to the messy scrawl of writing.

His mother noticed his confusion and moved closer to where he was pointing, looking down at the writing and squinting her eyes.

"I think...I think that's a message from Grandpa!" She exclaimed after a few moments of comprehension.

Billy looked at it and squinted his eyes as well, but just couldn't read much of the writing. It was far too messy.

"How did you know?" he asked his mother.

She rolled her eyes with a smile. "I can recognize his writing from anywhere. Want me to read it to you?"

Billy looked at the messy writing doubtfully. "If you can..."

His mother allowed herself a small chuckle and then began to read the writing, slowly but surely.

Hey Bill its me grandpa. For christmas this year I wanted to give you a book because i want you to read more lots of kids they don't read these days and i don't want you to be like them. I know because I was one of those kids once. I had this book when i was a boy like you and it was my dad who gave it to me. Hebought it at a magic show. I never wanted to read it and it stayed all alone in my dresser dwarer where i hid it. I didn't take it out for years but i ended up takng it with me when i got older and kept it but never red it. Now i'm going to give it to you and i hope that you dont end up like me and never read it. I know that you wont be the kid like i was. You have a big imaginaton and i know you wil go far in life. I hope this book helps you feed your imagination and make it big and strong. Stories can do that you know. They can make you feel things you never felt before and take you on adventures you never thought you could go on and help you grow. As a person, i mean. Not grow taller.

Love you billy enjoy from grandpa