Here it is. The end of the road. Thanks so much for all your support and enthusiasm throughout. It's been a pleasure writing it.

Epilogue

Mama always said that the best stories started with a fire breathing dragon. So there were Cooper and Liam, sitting cross legged on the floor of their grandparent's living room, surrounded by family and friends, telling the tale of how Liam defeated the fire breathing dragon and then went on to battle with poisonous serpents, a dragon lady and an evil witch. Liam explained how cunning the evil-doers had been in tricking him into lying on their altar and Cooper explained how he and Astrid had used critical literacy to figure out where they were holding him.

"And then Dad's ninjas swung in from the ceiling and caged all the reptiles and the evil witch with their special cage initiators," Liam exclaimed, jumping up in his excitement and adding actions to his words. "They tied them up and took them away to the fire pits never to be seen again!"

The congregation cheered at the epic end of the story, even if it was somewhat different to the last time they'd heard it, and much more exciting than the real thing. Liam made his way over to Great Grandma Mazur where they engaged in enthusiastic conversation about the extra details Great Gram always loved to hear and Cooper turned his attention to his father and uncles.

"What really happened to them?" he asked, finally letting his curiosity get the better of him. The question had been nibbling at the back of his mind all week, but the general rule was not to ask about that kind of thing. Cooper hoped that since he was so involved in this particular case his father would make an exception to the rule.

The men exchanged significant looks, not bothering to keep their faces blank for once, and that fact alone told Cooper that he was about to hear the details.

"Usually in cases like these, we interrogate them and then make them disappear," Uncle Tank, started, coming closer to lean against the armchair Dad sat in. "But this case was a little different."

"There were a lot of them," Uncle Lester agreed. "And not all of them seemed stable of mind."

"Wait," Coop interrupted. "What do you mean by make them disappear?" he questioned. "Do you mean you kill them?"

His father looked him directly in the eyes, staring all the way into his soul, and as he spoke Cooper felt certain that even though he said one thing, he meant the exact opposite. "Of course we don't kill them," he informed them. "That's murder and it's illegal. Usually we take them into the police and they deal with them. Got it?"

Cooper nodded, a shiver running down his spine. "Right. So you didn't make them disappear this time?"

"No," Uncle Bobby confirmed. "Their mental state was too fragile to warrant such harsh action. And while we don't believe in giving the benefit of the doubt, especially where you and your brother and mother are concerned, we do believe in allowing them to regain a normal mental balance before we taken any further action."

"So what you're saying is..." he prompted.

"After your father gave me the much needed opportunity to kick the witch's ass from here to breakfast time, he shipped them all off to a high security mental institution where they will await evaluation," Mama stated, coming over to perch on the coffee table beside him. "Their evaluation appointments are in roughly three years. They should all be completely insane by then."

Cooper shook his head. His parents were a little sadistic, why had it taken him 16 years to come to the conclusion when the fact that they made him clean the fifth floor bathroom as punishment should have been enough evidence?

"THE FLOOR IS MADE OF LAVA!" Liam yelled, running over to them. "QUICK ACTIVATE YOUR BOOTS!"

They all laughed and tapped the side of their shoes as the boy jumped up on the arm chair his father was sitting in and giggled. The kingdom was safe and the prince was back to his palace. The horses were fed and resting in the table. The treasure was being kept safe by the eagles. And the bad guys were melting away in the fire pits. Things were just as they should be.

The End

Stay tuned, my new story will be arriving in the next couple of days.