Elliot and the Pixie Plot

  Mr. Willimaker shrugged. "He told them he'd think about it. I don't know what he's decided."

  "Doesn't sound good," Elliot said.

  "No, it doesn't," Mr. Willimaker agreed.

  They stared at the streaks for a while longer, although now that Elliot wondered whether Fudd had betrayed him again, the streaks didn't seem so bright and colorful. He sighed and said, "I don't think I'll get much sleep tonight."

  "Cheer up, Your Highness," Mr. Willimaker said. "Other than the Brownies, I can think of at least five Underworld creatures who aren't trying to kill you right now."

  "Great."

  "Try to get some sleep," Mr. Willimaker mumbled. "I'll have breakfast ready when you wake up, and sn..."

  Whatever "sn..." meant, Elliot wasn't going to find out. Mr. Willimaker was asleep before he finished the word.

  Elliot slept better that night than he thought he would. He woke up to a cheery sunrise, or whatever it was in the Underworld that provided light. Morning magic, perhaps. He would have liked another cup of Fudd's Mushroom Surprise, although if Mr. Willimaker was right and Fudd couldn't be trusted, he probably shouldn't take anything else Fudd offered him.

  Mr. Willimaker greeted Elliot when he sat up. "Awake, Your Highness? My apologies, I expected you to sleep awhile longer."

  "Hard to sleep when you're hunting a Demon," Elliot said.

  "Ah, yes." Mr. Willimaker said. "My cousin once said the same thing about hunting for delicious burbleberries. Although to be fair, burbleberries won't rip your arms off if you get close to them."

  Elliot turned to Mr. Willimaker, who was finishing getting dressed. He looked as fresh and clean as ever. Elliot, on the other hand, thought he could smell his own body odor, and something sticky was on his cheek.

  Mr. Willimaker hurried over to unwrap his bundle. "I saw a stream a little ways back. Maybe I can heat some water for a warm mint broth." As Mr. Willimaker pulled two cups from his bag, his ears suddenly perked up at the side of his head, the way a dog's might when it hears something.

  "I don't mean to alarm you," Mr. Willimaker whispered, "but is there any chance that noise came from you?"

  Elliot hadn't heard anything. "What noise?"

  "That rustling noise. I was hoping that perhaps it was you over in those bushes."

  "It's not me," Elliot said.

  "Are you sure?" Mr. Willimaker's ears were at full attention now, then they relaxed and he added, "It was probably nothing. A rodent or a snake perhaps."

  Elliot pulled his feet in close to him. He didn't like snakes. He didn't trust anything that could move on the ground without legs.

  Mr. Willimaker tapped the cups. "I'll get some water. Won't be long." Then he walked away toward the stream.

  Only a minute later, Elliot heard a "Hamph!" and a loud "No!" Then a small puff of smoke rose in the air and everything went silent. Elliot hoped it wasn't a snake that had gotten to Mr. Willimaker, because that would have to be some freaky large snake. He ran in the direction Mr. Willimaker had gone, calling his name, but there was no answer. Then he ran to the stream, but it didn't look as if Mr. Willimaker had gotten this far. At least, no footprints were in the mud other than Elliot's.

  Elliot turned back the way he had come. Under a bush he saw the two cups Mr. Willimaker must have dropped.

  "Mr. Willimaker?" Elliot called again. What had happened to him?

  He picked up the cups and then saw a small note hanging from a branch of the bush. He plucked it off and read:

  To the king of the Brownies--

  By helping the Pixies, you are in violation of a treaty agreeing to stay out of any fighting over Glimmering Woods. Therefore, we have taken the Brownie, Mr. Willimaker, and will hold him as our captive until you also do something for the Fairies. We want a sock off the foot of the Demon Kovol. It shouldn't be a problem for you. We hear you're going to see him anyway.

  Refuse to help us and you will never see Mr. Willimaker again. Should you fail with the Demon Kovol, no one will ever see you again.

  Cheers!

  The Fairies

  Elliot crumpled the note into his pocket and yelled again, "Mr. Willimaker!" Then he yelled, "Fairies! I want to talk to you!"

  But there was no answer.

  He was alone in the Underworld, with no map either back to Burrowsville or ahead to Demon Territory. And he thought he heard a sound nearby. Something was coming toward him.

  Elliot hurried back to camp and gathered up both his and Mr. Willimaker's bundles. With his arms full, he began racing in the direction they'd been walking yesterday. He didn't know if he was still walking toward Demon Territory or not. But he did know he was moving away from whatever was following him.

  Maybe it was Goblins, who knew he was alone and wanted revenge for his ending the Goblin war.

  Maybe it was Fairies, coming to capture him before he could find Kovol.

  Maybe it was the ice cream man on his secret Underworld route. That'd be cool, but he sort of doubted it. Elliot didn't have money for ice cream anyway.

  Elliot ran so quickly through the bushes that he lost track of where he was going. All that mattered was getting away. Then he burst into a small clearing and took a step onto something that wasn't hard ground.

  It was a kind of mud, but no ordinary mud. His foot sank into the mud almost up to his knee. His second foot landed in the mud before he had time to stop, and he went in up to his thigh.

  He didn't think he was in quicksand. Elliot had never been caught in quicksand before, due to the fact that there was no quicksand in Sprite's Hollow. But this wasn't sand at all. It was mud, and the mud seemed to be holding him in. The more he struggled, the more tightly the mud held on.

  "King Elliot? It's me. Where are you?"

  Elliot turned his head toward the sound. It wasn't Goblins or Fairies chasing him. It was Patches, who had disobeyed both him and her father to follow them into the Underworlderness. But she was about to save his life, so he decided to ignore her rule-breaking.

  "I'm here," he called. "I need help!"

  Patches poofed from wherever she was to stand on solid ground near Elliot. "Oh," she said. "Gripping mud."

  "That's what this is?"

  She giggled. "In case you didn't know, you're not supposed to walk on it."

  "Now you tell me. How do I get out?"

  Patches giggled again. "You can't. Well, I mean you can't get out by yourself. The more you try, the more you'll get stuck."

  "So can you get me out?"

  "If I get you out, then you can't get mad at me for following you, okay?"

  Elliot smiled. "If you hadn't followed me, I'd be stuck here forever."

  Patches knelt on the ground. "Okay, so here's how it works. I'm going to hand you a branch. You have to let me pull you out by myself. Don't help me at all. Anything you do will only make the mud hold you tighter."

  "I'm pretty heavy for you," Elliot said.

  "I'm pretty strong for me too." Patches snapped off a branch of a nearby tree and held it out to Elliot. "Just hold on."

  Elliot held to the branch. Once Patches started to loosen him from the mud, he wiggled his legs to work his body upward. Instantly, the gripping mud pulled him down again.

  "You might be a king, but now you have to obey me," Patches grumbled. "Don't help."

  "Right," Elliot said. "Sorry."

  This time he relaxed his body and did nothing to free himself, no matter how hard Patches groaned to pull him out. Even when it was only his toes remaining in the mud, he still let her drag him forward until he was entirely on solid ground.

  "No one can get out of gripping mud on their own," Patches said between breaths. "Sometimes the Brownies call it friendship mud. If you don't have any friends, you stay stuck."

  "Thanks for being my friend," Elliot said. "You saved me."

  "You're welcome, but don't hug me," she said. "You're dirty."

  Elliot heard a river nearby. "Give me a minute, and I'll be back." He ran to the river,
this time being more careful to watch for any signs of gripping mud, then waded in. The water was cool but clean, and he splashed around until all the mud had washed away.

  When he got back to Patches, she had caught her breath and was gathering up what little remained from his and Mr. Willimaker's food bundles. "Don't try to hug me now either," she said. "You're all wet."

  "That gripping mud is pretty nasty stuff," Elliot said. "Is there a lot of it in the Underworld?"

  "No, but you see it from time to time. You can sometimes see a brown glow around it. That's how you know it's there before you run into it."

  "So why'd you come?" Elliot asked. "It's dangerous out here."

  "I know," Patches said. "But I remembered a few things after you left. Some really important things."

  "Like what?"

  "Well, I wanted to tell you about the Shapeshifter in case he comes back and tries to trick you again."

  Elliot shook his head. "He's on the surface, pretending to be me. That'll keep him busy until I get home."

  "But if he does come," she said, "there's a way to keep him from changing forms. Just pinch his ear."

  Elliot pinched two fingers against his own ear. "Like this?"

  "The tighter, the better."

  "Anything else?" Elliot asked.

  "Yes. I'm worried about your helping the Pixies. I was thinking about a treaty the Brownies have. A really long time ago, Queen Bipsy agreed not to help either the Fairies or the Pixies while they were fighting over Glimmering Forest. I think the Fairies are going to be mad if they find out."

  Elliot nodded. "Your dad told me the same thing last night."

  Patches looked around. "Where is he?"

  "The Fairies got mad," Elliot said. "They just took him."

  Patches groaned. "My mom won't like that. After the Goblins took me, she made it a family rule that nobody else can get kidnapped."

  "I don't think it was your dad's choice," Elliot said.

  "My mom won't see it that way. She'll think he's trying to get out of weeding the garden."

  Elliot shook his head. "He's fine for now, but the Fairies left me a note that said to get him back, I need one of Kovol's socks for the Fairies. I have to get to Demon Territory, but your dad had the map. Do you know how to get there?"

  "Of course," Patches said. "Let's go."

  "I don't want you to take me there," Elliot said. "Just point me in the right direction."

  Patches put her hands on her hips. "It's still a long way, Elliot, and without me you'll be lost. Do you want my help or not?"

  "Fine," Elliot said. "Let's go."

  He followed Patches across a wide field of tiny white flowers that made him sneeze. And every time he sneezed, it blew the flower apart into bits that created new flowers where they landed. By the time they left the field, there were hundreds more flowers than when he began. He followed her up a tall, sandy hill where with every footstep he slid almost as far down as where he began. Patches was lighter and climbed it much faster but waited for him while he heaved his way to the top.

  "That wasn't much fun," he said once he arrived.

  "Yeah, but going down makes the climb worth it." She turned and leapt into the air, landing on the soft sand and rolling the rest of the way down the long hill.

  Elliot followed, laughing as he rolled until he got a mouthful of sand and wisely kept his mouth closed the rest of the way. Once he reached the bottom, he and Patches lay on the sand and laughed a little longer.

  "My dad would've taken you around the hill instead of over it," Patches said. "Now aren't you glad I'm here?"

  Elliot nodded. "You have to go home soon, though. You can't come into Demon Territory with me."

  "Oh, I forgot," Patches said, sitting up. "That's the other thing I had to tell you!"

  But she never got a chance to tell him because at the last moment--

  Dear Reader, don't you hate it when a character is about to say something really important, but they never get a chance to say it, because they're interrupted by something else? Maybe someday you'll have something really important to say, such as, "Mom, did you know the house is on fire?" Even if someone tries to interrupt you, like your little brother asking for a drink of water, you should still tell your mother about the fire. Not only was it rude for your little brother to interrupt and you have to teach him good manners, but your mother will probably also want to use that glass of water for the fire.

  In this case, Patches never got a chance to finish what she was going to say, because Harold the Shapeshifter poofed in right in front of Elliot. He was still in Elliot's form, and the only reason she could tell them apart was that Harold had a small patch of white hair on the back of his head.

  It took Elliot a moment to realize that it was not a mirror that had suddenly poofed in, but it was actually Harold, who looked exactly like him.

  Elliot tried to say hello, but Harold spoke first. "I'm very sorry to tell you this," he said to Elliot, "but you'll have to stay in the Underworld forever. I won't let you go home ever again."

  Except for the Pixie prison, Elliot quite liked the Underworld and thought if he ever did get home, he might want to return for a nice visit one day. But he didn't want to stay in the Underworld forever. For one thing, his family was on the surface, and he missed them. For another, Underworld creatures thought chocolate was about the worst thing since liver and onions. Elliot couldn't see himself living anywhere without chocolate.

  And he didn't at all like Harold the Shapeshifter telling him he couldn't go home again.

  Elliot dropped his bundle just as Harold was drawing in a large breath of air to change into something, probably a scary something. He grabbed Harold's ear and held on tight.

  "Stop that!" Harold said. "I've got to change into something that can kill you."

  "I'm sick of everyone in the Underworld trying to kill me lately," Elliot said. "So it's bad timing on your part. I'm not letting go."

  Harold grabbed Elliot's shoulders and started kicking his shins. In turn, Elliot kicked him back, all the time keeping hold of Harold's ear.

  "That really hurts," Harold said.

  "It's my ear I'm pinching anyway," Elliot said. "You're just borrowing it."

  "It's your ear, but it's on my body, and it hurts. Want to see what it's like?" With that, Harold grabbed Elliot's ear.

  "Ow!" Elliot yelped. "You're pinching harder than I am." So he pinched Harold's ear harder. In return, Harold began stomping on his feet.

  "You can't stomp on a king's foot," Patches said. She rolled up her sleeves and flung some magic toward Harold, who suddenly sank to the ground like all the bones had gone out of his body. Elliot, who had been holding tightly to Harold's ear, also dropped to the ground, but he knew he still had bones, because they cracked against a rock as he landed.

  "What did you do to him?" Elliot asked.

  "I just zapped his energy for a couple of seconds," Patches said. "An Elf taught me that trick a while ago."

  "Cool." Elliot leaned in to Harold and asked, "So why do you want to kill me?"

  "I'm in love," Harold said. "We Shapeshifters sometimes do crazy things when we're in love."

  "That's stupid," Elliot said. "Who are you in love with? My sister, Wendy? Because I've got news for you. You're up there pretending to be me, so if you go and fall in love with your sister, that's just creepy."

  "It's not your sister," Harold said, "though I must say it's been nice to eat real human food after all this time. I've eaten so much of her food, it's really surprised her. She says I've never been as nice to her as I have this week."

  Elliot groaned and Harold continued, "But, no, the girl I love is that beautiful human Cami Wortson."

  For a moment, Elliot's brain went numb. He thought his heart had just stopped beating and that he'd faint and fall back into the gripping mud and sink to the center of the earth. And that would be fine, because not him or anyone who looked like him was ever supposed to even like Cami, much less claim to love
her!

  "No," he finally said. "No, you can't love her, because she's out to destroy my life. Which means as long as you look like me, she's out to destroy your life too. And if she finds out that you like her, she'll use that as a weapon that may or may not involve her reaching down your throat and ripping out your guts and feeding them to a crocodile!"

  Harold sat up on his elbows. "That seems a little extreme for the love of my life."

  Elliot shuddered. "Cami Wortson is not the love of your life. You'd have an easier time loving a toad. Trust me."

  "And she has a nice smile," Harold said. "I don't think toads can smile."

  Elliot had to give him that. He'd never seen a toad smile either. "Okay, listen," he said. "I have to let go of your ear now, because this is getting really weird. But don't try to change into anything that's going to kill me, because Patches will just zap your energy again."

  "I can really only do that once," Patches whispered to Elliot, but he shushed her and hoped Harold hadn't heard.

  Harold sat up. "I won't change into anything that can kill you. But I can't let you return to the surface again either. I've decided to remain as you for the rest of your life."

  Elliot shook his head. "No."

  "Why not? For your information, I've been a very good Elliot Penster. I'm probably better at it than you are."

  "You can't be me, because nobody else knows the combination to my piggy bank. I've got my whole life's savings in there, and you'll never get it, because you don't know the combination."

  "I broke the safe with a hammer and used the money to buy Cami some flowers," Harold said.

  "Oh." That had been Elliot's best argument. "But did you have to buy flowers? Why didn't you just go ahead and propose marriage?"

  Harold's eyes lit up. "Do you think--"

  "No!" Elliot cried. "Listen, I'm not going to be here much longer. I just have to get a couple of things from Kovol, and then I'm going home, so you'd better get back up there and make enemies with Cami again."

  "You're going to make Kovol mad," Harold said.

  "Not if I don't wake him up," Elliot said.

  Harold chewed on his bottom lip for a minute and then said, "How about this? I can change into a large bird and fly you to the border of Demon Territory in just a few minutes. It'll save you days of travel."

  "No, thanks," Patches said.

  "Wait!" Elliot said to Patches. "I lost most of our food in the gripping mud, and I'd rather get this over with."