Elliot and the Pixie Plot

  "You shouldn't trust a Shapeshifter," Patches said.

  Elliot turned to Harold. "Are you only flying me there so that Kovol can kill me faster and then you can be me forever?"

  "Yeah, pretty much," Harold said.

  Elliot looked back at Patches. "See? There's no reason not to trust him. He's telling the truth."

  "About wanting you gone."

  "Yeah, but it's still the truth."

  "Okay," Patches sighed. "Fine."

  Harold stood and drew in a deep breath. As the air moved inside him, he stretched his arms out wide. They expanded and grew into wings covered with long, brown feathers. His legs thinned and grew talons where his toes would have been. Finally, his nose stretched into a sharp orange beak, and his hair became smooth white feathers that covered his eagle head.

  Harold looked at Elliot and cawed to get on his back. Elliot climbed on, then turned to Patches. "Listen, he's going to take me all the way to Demon Territory. I want you to go back home. I'll come back with your father in another day or two."

  "No, wait!" Patches said, but it was too late.

  Elliot had already climbed onto Harold the Eagle's back. As Harold lifted off the ground, Patches leapt into the air and tried to grab hold of Harold's tail, but Harold shook her off and back to the ground.

  "Hey!" Elliot looked down. Patches was standing and trying to yell at him, but they were already too far away for him to hear her. He knew she'd be angry about his leaving so fast, but at least she was okay.

  The view of the Underworld from the air was better than anything Elliot could have imagined. He could easily see back to Burrowsville, which from here looked like it was made of small mounds in the ground that served as the Brownies' homes. Then he stopped himself. The Brownies' homes were small mounds in the ground. Far in the distance he could see the Glimmering Forest. He wondered if Mr. Willimaker was being held somewhere near there by the Fairies.

  Elliot was pretty mad at the Fairies and still mad at the Pixies. He was mad at Harold too, for wanting to take over his life, even though Harold was doing him a big favor right now. Of course, Harold was only doing him the favor so that Elliot could get killed faster. Then Harold, pretending to be Elliot, could declare his love to Elliot's worst enemy.

  On second thought, Elliot seemed to have a lot of enemies lately. If he included Tubs, Grissel, the Fairies, and the Pixies, Cami was only his second or third worst enemy.

  Harold cawed again and aimed a wing ahead of them. Elliot looked down at what appeared to be a long, black hole. Although it was late in the morning, it looked blacker than midnight in that spot.

  That was Demon Territory. Somewhere in the middle of the blackness was the worst Demon in the history of time. And Elliot had to take a hair from his head. And now, one of his socks too.

  They neared the territory and Harold flew lower to the ground, preparing to land. By now, Elliot couldn't see Burrowsville anymore. He couldn't see anyplace he recognized. The thought occurred to him that even if he somehow survived in Demon Territory, how was he going to get back to Burrowsville again?

  He put his mouth close to where he thought Harold's ear would be, if giant birds had ears. "Will you wait around to fly me home when I come out?"

  Harold shook his head so roughly that a few feathers fell free. Elliot didn't blame him. He wouldn't want to wait around either.

  They landed in a clearing not far from the entrance to Demon Territory. Elliot slid off Harold's back, and soon Harold changed into the human boy he'd talked to on the surface.

  "Okay, listen," Elliot said. "I had time to think up there, and I'll make you a deal. If I don't come back, then it's okay with me if you want to live out the rest of my life. Just promise never to tell my parents. My parents can be old-fashioned, and hearing that their son is really a Shapeshifter named Harold--well, they'd have a hard time with that."

  "Yes, I've noticed that human parents are very strange about Shapeshifters taking over their children's lives."

  "They love me," Elliot said. "But as long as they think you're me, I guess they'll love you too."

  Harold kicked at the ground. "Now, why did you have to go and be nice to me when I'm clearly trying to help you get killed?" His eyes narrowed. "But in a way, being nice only makes me feel guilty for wanting you killed. It's not at all nice to make someone feel guilty."

  Elliot shoved his hands into his pockets. "I have to go in there now, with or without your help. So don't feel guilty. Just go back and be a good me. Be a better me. I wasn't very nice to my family before I left them."

  "It'll be hard to be better than the Elliot Penster I know," Harold said, "but I'll try. I'll be the kind of boy Cambria Dawn Wortson can love in return."

  That pretty much ruined the moment for Elliot. He rolled his eyes and said, "Don't get too comfortable, though, because I am planning on coming back."

  Coming back? Crazy thing to say, considering he didn't even know how to get in there first.

  Elliot started to walk off, then with a smile turned to look back at the Shapeshifter. "I bet you can't get me inside Demon Territory."

  "Bet I--" Harold stopped. "You're trying to trick me, aren't you?"

  "Who, me?" Elliot raised his hands to show his innocence. "I just think it'll be too hard for you to get me into Demon Territory. I bet you're not that clever."

  "Bet I am," Harold said, walking up to Elliot. "And I know you're tricking me, but I don't care, because it just so happens that I want to take the bet. I'll show you just how clever I am."

  Elliot turned to look at Harold, but Harold had changed again. He was now an Elf. Probably. Based upon the Elves Elliot had seen in a lot of movies, Harold was not how he figured Elves would look.

  Elliot had always thought Elves would be smaller than him, like most Underworld creatures seemed to be. But Harold was tall, very slim, and very handsome. He had pointed ears on the side of his head, and his skin was pale in color.

  "You're an Elf now?" Elliot asked.

  "Elves are the caretakers of Demon Territory," Harold said. "No humans can get through."

  "That's fine for you, but how do I get in?" Elliot asked.

  Harold sighed. "Do I have to do everything? Honestly, you'd think I was the only one who wanted to see you killed today." He rubbed his hands together, then ran them along the edges of Elliot's ears. Elliot felt a tickling sensation in his head. When Harold removed his hands, Elliot touched his ears. They were pointed, like Harold's.

  "You can change my shape?" he asked.

  "I can only change a few small things, and those won't last more than five or ten minutes, so we've got to hurry. Are you ready for this, Elliot? Because after the next step you take, it'll be too late to turn back."

  Elliot held his breath, closed his eyes, and took the next step.

  Harold and Elliot hurried to the entrance of Demon Territory, which was very clearly marked with a large sign, just as Fudd had described to Elliot. The sign said, Warning: You are now entering Demon Territory. All creatures must enter at their own risk. Humans may not enter for any reason.

  Dear Reader, it's important to pay attention to signs. For example, if you ever see a sign telling you not to swim because there are alligators in the water, then you should definitely obey the sign. Sometimes alligators will pretend to be friendly, hoping to trick you into coming into the water. Then they'll eat you. However, if you ever see a sign telling you that it's okay to swim in a place where you know alligators live, you still shouldn't go in. It's possible that the alligators got a marker and changed the sign. Alligators are a lot trickier than most people think.

  A female Elf as tall as Harold the Elf, but with long, golden hair, stood in front of the sign. Elliot thought she looked very bored. There probably weren't many creatures who came this way, so she probably didn't have much to do.

  She straightened up as Harold and Elliot came closer. "You wish to enter Demon Territory?"

  "We're on a long trip, and it's a shortcut," Harol
d said.

  "I don't recognize you, Elf," she said. "What is your name?"

  "We're southern hemisphere Elves," Harold answered. "We're here on a journey of discovery."

  "Demon Territory is dangerous, even to Elves," she said. "I suggest you take the longer path."

  "This is our path," Harold said. "You have no right to stop us, so allow us to pass."

  "It's true I have no right to stop you," the Elf said. "I can only stop humans."

  Elliot laughed like that was ridiculous. "Humans down here?" he said, slapping at his leg. "What is the Underworld coming to?"

  The Elf looked at Elliot. "You don't look like an Elf to me."

  "He's a young one," Harold said. "And notice the long legs. The rest of him will grow soon."

  "No, it's in the face. It doesn't have the smooth beauty of Elfish skin. The eyes, there's too much fear in them for an Elf."

  Elliot tried to get rid of the fear in his eyes, but that's not as easy as it sounds. The harder he tried, the more afraid he got that he couldn't get rid of the fear.

  "Of course I'm an Elf," he said, then his eyes widened. "In fact, I'm so much an Elf that it's the initials of my name."

  "Oh? What's your name?"

  Elliot looked around. Suddenly he didn't want to say his full name. Not with Harold listening anyway. He leaned in close to the Elf female and whispered, "Elliot Louise Penster."

  Dear Reader, clever as you are, you no doubt picked up on Elliot's middle name: Louise. And, yes, it is a girl's name. Here's how it happened. When Elliot was born, his middle name was supposed to be Louis. He would be named after his grandfather, Louis Penster, who was a war hero, a fighter pilot, and, lately, the slowest driver in the fast lane of the highway. The nurse who wrote down Elliot's name was very smart at nursing, but she was a terrible speller. This is because as a child, she played nurse on her dolls when she was supposed to be studying her spelling words. So when she wrote the birth certificate, she put an e on the end of Elliot's middle name, thus making him Elliot Louise Penster for life. His parents were saving up the money to get his birth certificate changed, but the money always seemed to go to other needs, like dinner.

  "Elliot Louise Penster?" the Elf said. "Your initials spell ELP." (Apparently, the Elf was better at spelling than Elliot's nurse.) "And it sounds like a human name."

  Elliot laughed. "Human name, yes, my parents--who are Elves, of course--are big fans of humans. In fact, that's the rest of my name. Elliot Louise Penster Human. E-L-P-H. That spells Elph."

  Elliot was very good at spelling. And you have to agree, Dear Reader, that sometimes he is a very good thinker.

  "Elph," the Elf said. "Let me see your ears."

  Elliot turned his head so that she could inspect his ears. She tugged on them and twisted them until he said, "Ouch." That was the second time today someone had pulled on his ears.

  "Very well," the Elf said. "You may proceed through Demon Territory. I advise you to be careful and stay on the path."

  "Of course," Harold said.

  They walked past the sign, then Elliot turned back and asked the Elf, "By the way, can you tell me where Kovol is? We'll have an easier time avoiding him if we know where he is."

  "When the air around you is so black that you cannot see your hand in front of your face, then you have found Kovol," she said.

  "So stay away from the pitch black. Good advice." Elliot thanked her and then ran to catch up to Harold. "Thanks for coming with me. I feel a lot better not being here alone."

  "You are alone, because I'm leaving," Harold said. "But I must admit, I feel a little bad about helping you get killed. That doesn't seem right somehow. If you do die in here, I'll never be able to look at my face in the mirror again, which, of course, will be your face. Listen, I hate to do this, because I really love Cami, but I'm going to help you."

  "You're coming with me to find Kovol?" Elliot asked.

  "No way. I feel bad, but I'm not stupid." Harold withdrew a small bottle from his pocket. "This is some of that invisibility potion from my--I mean you and Cami's science fair project. I snuck it away because I wanted to test it when nobody else was around. You can rub this on you. It'll make you invisible while you pass through Demon Territory. You could move right past a Shadow Man, and he wouldn't even know it."

  Elliot took the bottle. "How long does it last?"

  "I don't know, but I tried some on myself and I stayed invisible until I shapeshifted again."

  "Are you sure it works? Maybe you just shapeshifted yourself invisible."

  Harold laughed. "I think I'd know if I were making myself invisible. Just use the potion, and if you hurry, you might get all the way to Kovol and out of Demon Territory before it wears off."

  Elliot started to thank Harold, but he disappeared before Elliot got the words out. Elliot stared at the bottle, then put it in his back pocket. He decided to wait as long as possible before using it. It was still a little light here, so he doubted he'd run into any Shadow Men yet.

  "Elliot?" Patches was in the middle of saying his name even as she poofed in front of him. She wrung her hands together, and her eyes darted around. She didn't seem to like where she was, but then, who would? (Other than evil Demon armies, of course.) "I'm glad I found you. It's very hard to poof in here, since it's so dark."

  "Patches, I want you to go home," Elliot said. "It's dangerous here."

  "If it's dangerous for me, then it's dangerous for you too."

  "If your dad finds out I let you come with me to find Kovol, he'll be more dangerous to me than Kovol could ever be."

  Patches frowned. "Yeah, that's probably true. But I tried to tell you something before you came here. I read a story a while back about why humans can't enter Demon Territory. The story said what keeps Kovol asleep is an agreement that no human will ever disturb the peace of his territory." Her eyes widened. "Elliot, I think you're disturbing the peace of his territory!"

  Elliot paused a moment, then whispered. "Is the story fiction or nonfiction?"

  Patches wound up her face. "Which is which?"

  Elliot shrugged. "Can't remember. I thought you'd know. Was the story about Kovol sleeping a real one or made up?"

  "I don't know. But what if it's real, Elliot? What if you've already woken him up?"

  Once, Elliot had woken up Reed for breakfast without knowing he had already been up all night on a double shift at the Quack Shack. Reed had said a few words that would've made their mother's ears melt, then threw his Quack Shack cap at Elliot. Elliot had been more careful about waking up sleeping people since then.

  Waking up evil Demons was probably worse.

  Elliot put his hand on Agatha's flashlight and forced a smile onto his face. "I don't think the story is real. But even if it is, I'm not disturbing his peace. Just getting what I need and leaving."

  Patches wrapped her arms around Elliot's waist. "You're the best king the Brownies have ever had," she whispered. "Hurry and get the hair and the sock, then get out."

  "I will," Elliot said. "Now go home and be safe." Patches poofed away as Elliot took his next step deeper into Demon Territory.

  He was certain it was already getting darker.

  Near the Philippine Islands is an underwater canyon known as the Mariana Trench, which goes down almost seven miles beneath the surface of the ocean. It's deeper there than Mount Everest is tall. Light can't break through all the water to reach the bottom, so if you want to ask how dark it is, the answer, in scientific terms, is "super dark."

  Elliot has never been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (which is probably good, since the pressure of being in water that deep would crush him like a bulldozer running over a soda can). But Elliot didn't need to go to the Mariana Trench to understand true darkness.

  All he had to do is look at the trail leading deeper into Demon Territory. Even from where he stood, the air was so dark he couldn't see the colors of things anymore. Everything around him was in shades of gray and brown. Or maybe everything in
Demon Territory really was gray and brown. It would be silly to call it Demon Territory if it were all happy pastels.

  But the trail narrowed ahead and looked like the kind of darkness where he could put his hand in front of his face and, if he was lucky, maybe see his fingers. But Elliot didn't care too much about seeing his fingers. His fingers weren't going to try to kill him.

  The Shadow Men might. And they were somewhere ahead of him on the trail.

  Elliot felt for the bottle of invisibility potion Harold had given him. It was still in his back pocket. How dumb, he thought, snorting in the air. Invisibility potion. What a stupid idea for a science project. If there was a potion that could turn people invisible, some company would already be selling it for fifty dollars a bottle.

  Or maybe nobody knew about the potion yet. Harold said he had tried it and that it had worked on him. Maybe Elliot could sell it and make fifty dollars a bottle. Or more likely, Harold had accidentally turned himself invisible just because he wanted Cami's project to work.

  Either way, Elliot wasn't going to use it on himself yet. Not until he had to.

  He wondered again what his family was doing right now. Uncle Rufus hadn't stolen anything since he'd met Agatha. But had anything shiny caught his eye since Elliot had been gone? Had Reed gotten any more pickle relish from the Quack Shack? Whatever Wendy was burning for dinner tonight, Harold got to eat it, not him.

  Sometimes when Kyle and Cole were flooding things, Wendy was burning things, and Uncle Rufus was stealing things, Elliot had wondered what it'd be like to live with another, more normal family.

  He'd only been gone a few days, and yet he missed them--flooded, burned, stolen things, and all. Odd or not, they were his family.

  It was time to finish this job and go home.

  Elliot took several long steps forward, then stopped. The sky had darkened. He felt for the flashlight at his side. Not yet, a voice inside him said.

  Dear Reader, we all have a voice inside our head. It keeps us safe and helps us remember things we have to do. Usually when Elliot listens to the voice, he's very glad he did. You should listen to the voice inside your head too, unless the voice tells you to cut your sister's hair while she's asleep. If that happens, it might not be your own voice inside your head. Instead, it's probably an evil spell that a wizard put on you as his idea of a joke.