It’s my birthday! I had received a strange gift card in the mail. It was for the Balloon cart in town. Its purple text sparkled with some ambient magic. All it says is “Valid on Birthday only.” So I went into town looking for the balloon cart. I found it next to an antique store. A squirrel lady was running the cart. I noticed a wand laying on the surface of it. She cloths didn’t look very wizardry. “Ah, you must be the birthday dragon” she said.

I approached and handed here the gift card. “You must be Edragon! I’ve been to your potion shop” she said excited as she took the card. “So? Are you ready?” She asked, picking up her wand. “Ready for what?” I said, suddenly nervous and a bit confused. “To be turned into a balloon of course!” She said waving her wand. Oh, I expected to receive some free balloons. I didn’t think I’d be becoming one. “I’ll shrink you down and turn you into a nice round balloon dragon. And then you get to be one with the balloons for several hours” the squirrel said. It didn’t take long for me to decide, any excuse to be inflated. “Alright, I’m ready” I said.

The squirrel squealed with delight. She pointed the wand at me. There was a blueish flash and I began to shrink. Soon I was smaller than the cart. The shrinking stopped, leaving me just under 3ft tall. Then she made another gesture with the wand and pink particles flew from the wand to me. I became full of nothing but air. Every part of me, including what I was wearing, turned to latex like rubber. I felt the end my tail become a balloon end, but it was untied. I noticed that I wasn’t inflating. In fact I was shriveling up. I was deflating rapidly! “Oh! I didn’t mention that the spell turns you into a balloon, but the gas is not included.” The squirrel said chuckling. I was now flat on the ground and unable to move, totally deflated. She pick up my limp shriveled-up body. “But being inflated is half the fun!” She spoke as she connected the hose to the end of my tail and opened the valve on the tank. I began to inflate slowly full of helium, a wonderful feeling as it filled my rubber body. Soon I was inflated taut full of warm helium as the balloons above me. She tied my tail up and a string around it. Then she tied the string to the cart and released me. I floated up to the rest of the balloons. “You’ll be like the is for about five hours to six hours. Then the spells will wear off, you’ll return to normal size and make, but you’ll still have all that helium in you. Has to be let out manually. Oh one more thing. Soara told me that she’ll come pick you up in about 4 hours to take you to your surprise party.” The squirrel told me. Ah, so that’s who sent me the card. And she planned a surprise birthday party for me! Wonder if the other guests knew I’d be arriving as a small balloon.

So there I was. Shrunken and turned into a living balloon. Bobbing in the breeze. Bumping into the other balloons. Watching people pass by the stand. Most not noticing the out of place dragon balloon. Though a few did try to buy me. She explained to them that I was in fact alive and that it was my birthday treat. They wished me happy birthday and moved on. This was a wonderful surprise gift indeed!