'Run, children,' said Wise-as-an-Owl. 'No, hide! It's a creature from the past - a fearsome, fire-breathing monster.' When Much-to-Learn gets ahead of his lessons in the Book of Spells, he creates a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent. Everyone is in danger, unless Tashi can sneak by the terrible chimera to get the magic formula that will destroy it. And when Tashi is accused of killing the carp in Soh Meen's pond he serves a Truth Potion to his neighbours to find the real culprit.