"Good morning, ol' chap!" Jane heard Archibald call. She stretched and found herself well-rested and cheerful, a very unusual state for the morning.

"Morning, Archibald," answered Orson. "We'll do our best to be quick with the apples."

"Take your time, my boy. Wendy and I will be having another paddle and dive."

"Why do we have to negotiate for apples?" Jane asked Orson after Archibald and Wendy swam away. "I mean, all we want is a bushel, right? Couldn't we buy them, or... maybe they'd give them to us?"

Orson shot Shelly a glance, and they both chuckled. "Applewoods apples are never free," Orson explained. "As for buying them, I wasn't exactly given a purse of gold for the trip."

Shelly cleared her throat. "Um, I might have some coins in the satchel from when I was covering for Pinkly's tooth fairy duty. I don't know if it will be enough, though."

"Every little bit helps! If you're donating to the cause, let's fish them out," Orson suggested.

Jane reached into the satchel and closed her hand around a small leather pouch secured with a drawstring as it rose to the top. She lifted it out, and they counted the coins: five in total. "Five doesn't seem like many," she commented. "Is that enough?"

"Well, they probably wouldn't be, except this is fairy gold. It's worth more because there's a chance that a wish you make on a coin could come true. There's no guarantee that it will, though, and no way to tell if the gold is a wishing coin or not. Even so, five potential wishes is a strong bargaining point."

"I think we should only offer three," Orson said. "There's no need to give them all we have if we don't have to."

Jane nodded. "I agree. I mean, we could make wishes! I'd wish the dragon was nice enough to simply give us the gold."

Shelly shook her head. "The thing with fairy magic is that there is always a consequence. Whether or not you make a wish depends on if you are willing to take the risk and pay the price. It could be small, or it could be big. Like... the dragon might give you its gold, but then you find out that the gold is fake."

"Oh," Jane said, deflating. "No, that wouldn't be good. I mean, unless the coin fooled Mr. Thomas." She was quiet for a moment. "Do you think the bears will want the gold?"

"You bet!" Orson nodded. "Even if they don't want the wishes, the gold spends the same as any other gold. But, three coins, or even five coins, might not be enough."

Jane cocked her head to the side. "But, why are the apples so expensive in the first place?"

"Well, how are you feeling this morning?" Shelly asked.

"I feel great! I slept really well, and my mood is surprisingly chipper given my circumstances," Jane shared.

"That's the apples. The juice that made the cider has some properties, but the apple dumplings with chunks of the fruit are what's affecting you the most," Orson explained.

Jane's mouth dropped open in surprise. "You mean the apples are magic?"

"Yes. They have restorative magic. It's why they're perfect for the goats." Shelly giggled. "After one apple, even an angry goat will be downright giddy."

Jane's eyes went wide. "What would happen if we fed one to a dragon?"

Orson looked thoughtful. "Hmm. I don't know. The bigger question is, how would we get a dragon to eat an apple?"

Jane's shoulders drooped, her hopes dashed a second time.

Shelly patted her ear. "Stay cheerful, Jane. It'll all work out."

Jane took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and smiled. "Right! We can do this! Now, let's go get some apples!"

🙚🜋🙙

With all the talk of apples, Orson had forgotten that the bears had offered breakfast, too. His stomach rumbled as they neared the Great Hall, and he was delighted to see Belinda and Arleen stirring large cauldrons of oatmeal. The oats, combined with walnuts, bits of dried apples, cinnamon, honey, and fresh cream, made for a delicious, filling meal.

Despite the pleasantness of breakfast, when the cubs had cleared the dishes and Jonathan looked at him with a serious expression, Orson was more than ready to negotiate. Don't be impatient, he reminded himself. Stay calm.

"How many apples are we negotiating for?" Jonathan began.

"We'd like a bushel," Orson answered.

Jonathan cocked an eyebrow. "That's a lot of apples. What are you going to do with them?"

Orson kept his face as neutral as possible. "We intend to use them to subdue the goats on the mountain as we go to the dragon."

"Hmm. I see. And the left-overs?"

Orson blinked. He hadn't thought about that, and his stomach flip-flopped.

Shelly spoke up. "We'd eat them ourselves or share them for someone else to eat them, and, to be honest, I thought to send some home with Jane to use the seeds to grow some there. Her family could stand to have another source of income, even if it does take several years to begin."

"Oh! I hadn't thought of that!" Jane exclaimed. "Yes! My dad can grow anything, and we don't have apples in our region. They'd sell well."

"So, another Applewoods. That's a significant enterprise. And, worth its weight in gold." Jonathan said.

"Well," Orson began, "we don't have a lot of gold to offer. We do, however, have three fairy coins to put on the table." He nodded to Jane, who set the small pouch in the center of the negotiation."

Jonathan calmly reached for the pouch and dumped the three coins into his paw. He studied each coin. "Can you guarantee that at least one is a wishing coin?"

Shelly shook her head. "No. But you know that."

The big bear smiled. "Yes, I do. However, it never hurts to know if those you are dealing with are honest."

"We have no reason to be anything but," Orson insisted.

Jonathan leveled his gaze. "Don't you?"

Orson's eyes widened when he realized what Jonathan was implying. "You think we're here on my father's behalf? To try and trick you out of apples?" He scowled. "I don't understand. My father can just buy apples and has done so in the past."

"You're being paranoid, Jonathan," Belinda declared. "Don't be silly. These kids want one bushel of apples, not the orchard."

Jonathan's eyes narrowed. "A bushel of Applewoods' finest, Belinda."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, I know that, Jonathan. But, still just apples."

"Who's side are you on here?" he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

She sighed, exasperated, and glared at her husband until he relented.

Jonathan looked to the sky for a moment. "Fine. You're not here to somehow trick the orchard. I still don't think that three fairy coins are enough if you're asking permission to plant the seeds. Where does she live, anyway?"

"England. She climbed a beanstalk..."

"England!" Jonathan's eyes widened. "Wait. You want to plant Applewoods off-cloud?"

"Well, yes," Jane said. "I don't live here."

"That would diminish the apple's effects. You know that, yes?" Jonathan asked.

"No, I didn't know that," Jane said with a small smile. "That seems like a good negotiating point, however."

Jonathan smirked. "Not really. We have no way of controlling where you plant them. So, we assumed on-cloud."

Orson spoke up. "We've gotten off-topic. Jane being able to plant the seeds is secondary to why we want the apples. Our top priority is to subdue the goats."

The negotiation continued for over an hour, frustrating Orson immensely, but he managed to keep it together. In the end, Jonathan accepted the three fairy coins for the bushel, mostly because Belinda ordered him to.

They loaded the fruit into the satchel, separating five of them for planting into a bag before adding them to the magic pouch. At last, in the late morning, they were ready to go, and they returned to the pond to collect the swans.

"Did I do okay?" Orson asked, scuffing his foot on the ground as the swans prepared to fly.

"What?" Jane asked, eyes wide. "Don't you think you did?"

"I don't know," he insisted. He rolled his shoulders to try and release some tension.

"Of course you did! We have the apples and didn't use all five coins. Isn't that a win?" Jane insisted.

"I think you did a great job, Orson," Shelly added.

Orson nodded. "Okay, thanks. I didn't want you to be mad there's only one coin left."

Shelly scoffed. "Pfft. Don't overthink it. It's all good."

"Righty, then!" Archibald interrupted. "Four hours and twenty minutes to the mountains! Hop on!"

The day was perfect for flying. The sun was shining, and the temperature was just right. There was a slight crosswind, but it wasn't a struggle for the swans to compensate. Despite the conditions, Orson couldn't relax.

He was trying to work out how to deal with the goats when the two swans began honking. Orson looked down and saw a swath of grassland separating the forest from the mountains. The swans banked and came to a running halt at the edge of the trees. When everyone had gathered, Orson finally voiced what had been bugging him for over an hour. "I know we just negotiated for the apples," he said to Archibald, "but now it seems silly. Why don't we just fly over the goats?"

The two swans exchanged a look. "We're not opposed to the adventure, ol' chap," Archibald explained, "but, per regulations, we can't knowingly undertake a hazardous journey without hazard pay, even if we're willing to do it for free... which we are ."

"Yeah, dude. We're sorry," Wendy added. "It's something about insurance or some such nonsense."

Orson pinched the bridge of his nose. "And we don't have a "hazard pay" level of funds." He peeked at them. "I don't suppose you'd take payment in apples?"

The older swan preened for a moment, ruffling feathers as he thought. "It's not that we wouldn't take them, it's that you don't have enough. The head office sets the rates, mind you. It is, unfortunately, cheaper to go through the goats."

"Will you take us up high enough to get to the goats?" Shelly asked.

"Of course, dude!" Wendy piped up. "And, we'll wait for you to come back down the mountain and take you home."

"Right, oh!" Archibald agreed cheerfully. "Now, who's up for a nibble? I'm feeling peckish." The older swan waddled away out into the grass.

Jane looked at Wendy for an explanation. "He's feeling a little hungry, and he wants a snack. I think I'll join him. Flyin's hard work, dude!"

Orson, Jane, and Shelly sat together just inside the trees in the shade. They were each biting into an apple when they heard a tremendous roar. Their heads swiveled toward the sound, freezing as the shadow of a dragon raced down the mountain toward them.

🙚🜋🙙