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with you lovely little quacklets questing away for my special ingredients, so bravely…” She shot a loving look at Michael. “Well! I’ve got a real fighting chance of hatching it!”
    â€œYou can stay here while we’re away,” declared Milly. She liked the idea of having a pet phoenix in the den.
    â€œIt’s a bit chilly, lovie,” Fenella said kindly. “And as I get closer to my next ‘becoming,’ I’m going to need as much heat as possible for the egg and me.”
    â€œWe could wrap you in blankets?” Jason suggested.
    â€œOr get the heater down from the attic,” said Michael.
    Fenella gave a tinkling laugh. “I’m talking about real heat, my dears. Fiery heat!”
    â€œWhat about an oven?” Milly suggested.
    â€œYeah, I can see Dad and Ann asking a phoenix to shift every time they put in dinner!” Michael said.
    â€œOh, they wouldn’t see me if I didn’t want them to,” Fenella assured him. “I can make myself completely undetectable to anyone I choose.”
    Michael was impressed. “You can?”
    â€œTruly! It’s a little knack I have evolved,” Fenella confided. “Being a unique and magical bird, I attract all kinds of interest, and not all of it welcome. Hunters, tourists, cults of phoenix worshippers…they’ve all pursued me over the years. So I’ve learned to hide myself from those I don’t want to see me, while staying in plain sight for those I do.”
    Jess smiled uncertainly. “You can’t, can you?”
    Fenella’s eyes twinkled. “A little demonstration, lovie?”
    â€œHey, she’s gone!” Jason declared.
    Michael frowned. He could see Fenella plainly. “No, she hasn’t!”
    â€œShe has, though!” Milly laughed, and Jess nodded, reaching out with her hands uncertainly as if she really couldn’t see Fenella.
    The phoenix hopped quietly out of the way of Jess’s fingers and winked at Michael. “They can’t see me and they can’t hear me either!”
    â€œWhat, really?” Michael watched the others’ faces for any signs this was a wind-up, but found none.
    Fenella chuckled. “And now you can’t either!”
    With that, she disappeared.
    â€œWhoa!” said Michael. “Where’d you go?”
    The beanbag shifted on the floor a little—and suddenly Fenella shimmered back into sight. “Here I am!”
    â€œWow,” said Milly. “That’s amazing!” Michael, Jason, and Jess nodded eagerly.
    â€œShame it doesn’t really solve the problem of where we can hide you,” said Jess, thoughtfully. “Even if you’re not noticed, people would keep turning off the oven.”
    â€œIf only we had a spare oven,” said Jason.
    â€œI know!” Milly gasped. “Mr. Milton’s old workshop! It’s got a kiln that gets ever so hot—and he never uses it—that’s why he let Ann and me use it instead!”
    â€œA kiln!” Fenella beamed. “For firing pots? One that people hardly ever use? Sweet heavens in flight, that sounds right up my airstream.”
    â€œAnd I’m supposed to be taking Milly there today in any case to pick up those pots she and Mum did.” Jess realized with a grin. “That’s a perfect excuse to go there.”
    â€œSo what are we waiting for?” said Michael. “Let’s go!”
    â€œOoh!” Fenella swept one wing to her breast. “Such energy! Such resourcefulness! Such courage!”
    â€œEr…Michael!” Milly called.
    â€œYeah, what?” he said, stopping, his dressing gown flapping around his legs.
    Milly grinned. “Maybe we should get dressed first!”
    Â 
    Half an hour and four bowls of gulped-down cornflakes later, the Worthingtons stepped out of the house into the midmorning sunshine.
    â€œWith weather like this,” said Michael,