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flitted over to join them.
    “Do you guys go everywhere together?” Jesse asked.
    “We didn’t use to,” said Flicker. “But Lady Flamina says we younger fire fairies must now travel in groups … for safety’s sake.”
    If there is safety in numbers
, Jesse thought, looking around at the mob,
this is probably the safest place in the Fiery Realm right now
. He wound up seated between Opal and Fiero. Opal was talking to Daisy, so Jesse struck up a conversation with Fiero.“So do all the fire fairies watch the Fire Screen?”
    “Not only watch,” said Fiero. “Some of us even lick in.”
    There was that word again. “What’s ‘lick in’ mean?” Jesse asked.
    “It means we can join up with the flame in the Earthly Realm and get ourselves a really good look at what’s happening on your side of things,” Fiero said.
    “What she isn’t telling you,” Flicker put in shyly from across the table, “is that licking is considered very rude, because it causes reception problems on everyone else’s Fire Screen.”
    “Oh, right,” said Jesse, nodding. It was sort of like standing up in a theater and blocking the view of the person behind you.
    The roar of the runchers rose to an even higher pitch. Two doors burst open, and a procession of fire fairies and dragons filed in bearing trays and platters piled high with food. Jesse, expecting the food to be weird, was pleasantly surprised to see all sorts of familiar-looking dishes: roast suckling pig and spaghetti with meatballs, hamburgers and hot dogs, tacos and Chinese dumplings, and even pizza pie. It might not be traditional breakfast food, but it looked delicious. A blue dragon draped in a voluminous white apron placed a platter of steaming roastturkey on their table. Bowls heaped with mashed potatoes, green peas, and yams followed.
    “It’s a Thanksgiving feast!” Jesse said, helping himself. “This tastes
great
!” he said after sampling a little of everything.
    Daisy nodded enthusiastically and said, “Amazingly good!”
    “The secret ingredient—in fact, the
only
ingredient,” Galena said mildly, “is air.”
    Jesse and Daisy stopped with their forks halfway to their mouths. “Air?” they asked the lilachued dragon.
    Galena nodded. “We’re fire beings here, dragons and fairies alike,” she explained. “All we need is oxygen to keep ourselves going. We whip the oxygen into other forms … just to make it more interesting … and runchable. We get most of our ideas from your world by watching the Fire Screen.”
    “Of course!” Jesse said. “Because we cook with fire, so you would see into kitchens all over the world. I bet it’s sort of like watching the Food Channel.”
    Jesse dug in again but stopped when he saw that neither Galena nor Opal had touched her plate of food.
    Daisy noticed, too. “Aren’t you hungry?” sheasked, with the half-gnawed turkey drumstick halfway to her mouth.
    “Actually,” said Opal, the skin above her eyes rumpled with concern, “we wanted to talk to you about Emerald.”
    “What she means is,” Galena said, “we’re worried about what will happen when Jasper’s fiery mote comes back from her patrol of the Outer Reaches.”
    “Whoa!” Daisy set down her turkey leg slowly. “You’re telling us that Jasper already
has
a mote?”

C HAPTER S IX
LOOGIES OF FIRE
    “So does Emmy know yet that Jasper has a girlfriend—um, mote?” Jesse asked.
    Opal shook her head. “I don’t think Jasper has the heart to tell her. He’s afraid … of hurting her feelings.”
    “But won’t it hurt her feelings worse the longer he waits?” Daisy said with a pained look on her face.
    Jesse looked up at the dais. Emmy and Jasper, foreheads touching, were in a world of their own. It looked like nothing in this realm or any other could ever come between them.
    “Emmy thinks they’re TLFEE,” Jesse said.
    “What is that?” Galena said.
    “True lovers for ever and ever,” Daisy said with a contemptuous