"Alice and the Dragon (Scary, Green, Prickly)" by Kir Bulychev, summary

This science fiction novella was written in 1998. The plot revolves around an alien artifact — a box containing six magical markers. These markers materialize any objects drawn with them. The images on the mirrored bottom of the box instantly become real, and once erased, they disappear without a trace.

This work is part of the extensive children’s book series "Alice’s Adventures," along with "Alice’s Journey," "One Hundred Years Ahead," and "A Million Adventures." This story chronicles the adventures of a Moscow schoolgirl at the end of the twenty-first century.

Returning from the expedition

Alisa Selezneva returns home from a distant, nameless planet. She’s greeted in her empty apartment by a cat named Mouse and a house robot named Polya. The huge black cat comically stretches all four paws. The robot grumbles at Alisa, complaining about the lack of a warning cosmogram for preparing dinner. Pashka Geraskin appears at the door. Alisa tells his friend about the excavations of an ancient city. Space archaeologist Gromozeka has uncovered the history of this dead planet. It used to serve as a giant children’s amusement park. Gromozeka allows Alisa to take a transparent box containing six thick markers he found in a warehouse.

Pashka is skeptical about the find. He expects to see an antique dagger or a ancient statue. Alice asks her friend to turn the box over. The mirrored bottom serves as a canvas. The girl takes blue and black inks and draws a kitten with big eyes. The silhouette instantly takes on volume and jumps to the floor. The real cat, Mouse, perceives the visitor as a territorial threat, hisses loudly, and starts to fight. Alice quickly erases the drawing with a handkerchief. The drawn kitten instantly vanishes into thin air.

Impressed, Pashka immediately draws a robot for Polya wearing a red kitchen apron. The exact duplicate causes a short circuit in the real Polya’s electronic brain. A quarrel ensues, and the real robot threatens the duplicate with a ladle. He demands that the plastic arm be unscrewed to verify its authenticity and perform maintenance. Alice erases the second robot. An angry Polya predicts that Pashka will soon meet a real dragon.

Duel on the lawn

The robot’s words quickly come true. As soon as Alice goes to the bathroom, Pashka takes the markers for dangerous experiments. The boy draws a heavy medieval sword. The blade falls to the parquet floor with a loud clang. Polya’s robot runs out at the noise, but Geraskin declares his intention to hunt wild cats. The mouse is frightened and hides on the closet. Realizing the apartment is too small for large-scale battles, the boy takes the box and blade out into the yard. Neighbors are strolling outside, grandmothers are knitting on benches, and children are playing in the sandbox. The boy stops on a green lawn near flower beds.

Geraskin draws a gigantic green and red dragon with yellow ears. The creature, about six meters tall, comes to life and releases clouds of black smoke from its mouth. The dragon begins trampling the flowerbeds of phlox and chrysanthemums. The neighbors hide in horror. Pashka, terrified by his own creation, runs away. He slams head-on into the brick wall of the house and closes his eyes, awaiting the oncoming reprisal. Alisa hears the monster’s roar and looks out the second-story window. The girl in her bathrobe jumps right onto the lizard’s head. She slides down its lumpy neck onto the grass.

Alice picks up the dropped sword and hits the dragon on the nose. The lizard howls in frustration, and the girl quickly erases the drawing with the sleeve of her robe. The courtyard instantly calms down. The mean neighbor, Maria Fedorovna, from the third building, thanks Alice for saving the flowers. Alice explains to Pashka the reason for his easy escape. In his haste, the boy drew a huge dragon with absolutely no teeth.

Alien Orphan

At the end of December, Professor Seleznev returns home from work. His father tells Alisa about a baby found in outer space. The alien child was discovered on a drifting ship of unknown design. The baby is in a special space hospital for aliens who have crashed. The alien is covered in large golden scales. It has bulging frog-like eyes, blue feathers on its head, and long claws. The orphan misses its parents and refuses to communicate with the doctors.

Alice decides to visit a patient and bring him a New Year’s holiday. She runs to the Christmas tree market and buys a fluffy, thorny tree. The girl decorates the trunk with glass balls and garland. Under the branches, she places a cotton-wool Father Frost and Snow Maiden. Alice brings the decorated tree to the hospital ward and sets it in a jar of water. The awakened alien child is overcome with indescribable terror. He calls the Earth tree a green and evil monster. The child complains of painful thorns and frightening glass balls.

The doctors and nurses on duty rush to the patient’s scream. The doctor demands that the tree be removed immediately to avoid stress. Alice takes the tree home, gives it to the robot Polya, and takes the magic markers. The girl returns to the ward. She invites the child to draw a Christmas tree from his home planet. The alien takes the markers and draws a red hat with yellow stripes and gilded soft springs. The alien tree appears in the middle of the room. The plant sprouts thin grasshopper legs and begins to dance joyfully along with the joyful orphan. Alice leaves the drawing untouched.

Family heirloom

During the spring school break, a Lithuanian girl named Egli from Vilnius comes to visit Pashka. The cat, Myshka, greets the thin and fidgety guest with extreme hostility. The robot, Polya, insists on feeding the skinny child extra food. Egli shows Alisa the Krapikas family’s greatest pride: protective chameleon-like goggles with a soft plastic seal. Wearing these historic goggles, Egli’s ancestors performed incredible feats. Her great-grandfather, Romualdas, conquered Mount Everest. Her grandfather, Arnis, descended to the bottom of the Tuscarora Trench and crossed the Storm Desert on Mars. The girl’s father swam through crocodile swamps in them, and her older sister, Maria, walked across the Antarctic ice sheet.

Pashka and Egli go on vacation to Crimea. A few days later, Geraskin contacts Alisa on the home videophone. The boy’s face looks frightened. Egli lost her original glasses while swimming in a stormy sea. Pashka begs Alisa to send him a box of felt-tip pens. He wants to draw an exact replica of the lost item and avoid the wrath of his guest’s relatives. The girl is hesitant about the idea, reminding him of the impossibility of replacing a family heirloom with a fake. However, Alisa gives in under her friend’s persistent persuasion. She goes down to the entrance to the e-mail reception point — a system for instant physical delivery of capsules — and sends the package. Pashka vows to return the artifact in exactly one hour.

Crimean storm

Geraskin breaks his promise and disappears. The weather bureau reports a raging storm on the southern coast of Crimea. The computer center locates the boy’s bracelet near the resort town of Gurzuf. Alisa rents a flyer at the Simferopol train station and rushes to the sea. The plane refuses to fly over the raging waves for safety reasons. Alisa lands on a rocky shore and screams loudly into space. A drenched and scratched Pashka emerges from the rain with a box of markers. Egli is stuck on a separate rock amidst the huge waves. The boy tried to swim to his friend but was thrown onto the coastal pebbles.

Pashka had used up almost all of his magic paint. He was unsuccessfully drawing a long lifeline from the cliff to the shore. The black, green, red, purple, and blue lines broke off halfway due to a lack of pigment in the rods. Alisa took the last yellow marker and drew a solid line. The yellow rope successfully hovers over the boiling water. Geraskin holds the end of the rope tightly on the shore. Alisa climbs up it to the cliff and helps the frozen Egli safely back to the beach. The boys cover themselves with a tarp for warmth.

Crawling out from under cover, Pashka accidentally steps on the painted replica of the glasses and crushes them completely. The paint in the markers runs out completely, turning the box into a useless piece of plastic. Alisa throws the fragments of the replica into the salty waves and loudly calls to the dolphins for help. The marine creatures carefully search the rocky bottom. Soon, they wash up the real Krapikas family glasses on the pebbles. Grisha Skopas’s rescue flyer lands on the beach. Alisa asks the lifeguard for an orange circle and gives it to the dolphins as a token of sincere gratitude for finding the glasses. The children keep the box of empty markers as a souvenir of their successful rescue.