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As evening came, George sat alone outside on a lawn chair in the backyard of the Mason house, his eyes closed in concentration. As he waited for Pip to arrive he was doing his best to gather more strength. Now that he was away from the city, he sensed many more living things nearby, even though most of the area was deforested and farmed. He stretched his senses out to surrounding life forms and selectively and very carefully he absorbed a tiny bit of life energy from the healthy and strong. Countless thousands of neighborhood plants, insects, snakes, lizards, toads, and mammals temporarily felt slightly tired when he was done with them, but were otherwise unaffected. At the same time, he absorbed heat energy from the area, lowering the tropical temperature about five degrees. As he gathered strength he expanded the effect, until it was applied to everything within a mile. The energy he obtained still wasn’t much, but the sum of it was many times greater than he had gotten from the electricity inside the house or from the earlier fire.
The Masons were inside the house, but frequently one or more of them would peer at him through a nearby window. After half an hour, the senior Mason quietly exited the house and silently approached George.
“Good evening John,” said George, without moving or opening his eyes.
“I didn’t want to disturb you, but I see you turn white in color again and I figure you going to leave us soon.”
“I hope so. I’d like to come back and visit if I get a chance though, if that’s alright. And I’d like to thank you all again for saving my life.”
John laughed heartily. “You be welcome here any time. You saved us first, and you gonna do it again, I be hoping.”
“That’s the plan. With help soon coming I have new hope.”
“Before you be running off, I want to ask you about what you did for me. You not just fix my leg, I think? I feel fit all over.”
“You mean the cancer. Yes, that’s all gone, John Mason, at least for now. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know if you knew about it or not.”
“I knew. I didn’t tell my kids, but I for sure did know myself. Doctors said I had six months left, tops.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
John shook his head. “But I think maybe it be a big mistake, that you fix us.”
“What?” George asked, in genuine surprise.
“You’re going to fight the monster again, after your friend comes. You need all your strength to do that. It be headed to Legos next, I be thinking; that be our biggest city. I see how tired you get, helping sick people today. You should save all your strength for fighting the monster. You come back later to help sick people, after all monsters be finished with. Deal?”
At that moment, George received another message from Pip. The elf mage would arrive very soon. It was time to say goodbye. He opened his eyes and stood up to face John Mason, smiling. “Deal. But I still think I did the right thing. Fetch Sara and Joseph now. My warrior friend will arrive soon, and I want you to meet him. Then we’ll likely be leaving right away.”
After they gathered in the darkening back yard with George, the Masons watched in amazement as a large jet aircraft passed low overhead, flashing wing and tail lights, than banked sharply away. As the thunderous noise of engines faded, George searched the graying sky for any sign of Pip, but saw and sensed nothing.
“You expecting your visitor to fall from the sky?” asked the ever curious Sara.
“Yes, but he masks his presence well,” said George.
“That I do, Chosen One,” said a high pitched voice from behind him.
They all turned to observe a tiny man-like being dressed in green, standing a few paces behind them. He would have been nearly invisible in the gathering darkness, were it not for the fact that he glowed green brightly from head to foot. “I am Pip, warrior Elf Mage at large,” he boasted, pulling out his glowing long sword and brandishing it wildly before bounding to George and exchanging a quick hug him.
The tiny elf seemed to be an even more unlikely hero than George. John and Sara managed to politely remain silent, but laughter escaped from Joseph before he caught himself.
“I’m really glad you came, Mage Pip,” said George. “These are the three friends I told you about.
“Good evening, humans,” he said, as he sheathed his sword and floated up in the air to regard the Masons from their eye level. “On behalf of all remaining free and living Narma inhabitants I thank you for your help, for the White Dragon and his Chosen One are the greatest hope for us all.”
“We are honored, Mr. Mage,” said John. “Please forgive our reaction to your appearance. George mentioned you were a great warrior, and we were expecting maybe a giant.”
“I didn’t mean anything by laughing, Mr. Pip,” added Joseph.
Pip laughed. “Giants are clumsy oafs and lack magic skills, human, but your reactions did not surprise me. Even in Narma, the elf is often underestimated. My cousins have read about this Africa of yours, and how you have great wild beasts over which you have gained dominion despite their greater size. Likewise we elves have strength and wit that more than makes up for smallish size. In fact, in our culture smaller size suggests greater strength and is regarded as an advantage.”
“I’m used to being under estimated all the time myself, Elf warrior,” said Sara, with a smile, before turning to her father. “We be out of our league here, Papa; we need leave these two to get to what they need to get to.” She grasped to arms of her father and brother and pushed them towards the house before turning to again address George and his diminutive visitor. “If there be anything else we can do, you let us know. You don’t forget us, George the Mystery Boy.” She looked him in the eye and before he realized what she was doing she ran back and gave him a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before walking away.
“Not likely,” George answered awkwardly, not being at all used to being kissed by cute girls and not knowing what else to say.
“You like that one too, I see,” said Pip, when Sara was far enough away not to hear.
“What’s not to like?” replied George, embarrassed. “But I’ve got a bigger problem than girls. I am stronger now, but nowhere near strong enough to rescue Freedom.”
“Nor am I. I scryed the monster as I dropped from the airplane. It’s near full dragon strength, I would say. Even were I to transfer most of my strength to you, it would be nowhere near enough to destroy it. Then there is the little matter of the Witch. I don’t sense her but she could be near. She will have gained great strength also. She may well be stronger than the giant monster.”
George didn’t even like to think of the Witch, as then he was forced to think of Mary. “Do you think Mary is alive?”
The boy had asked the question so softly that even Pip’s elf ears barely registered it, as if he feared to vice the thought aloud. “I don’t know. But I do know we’ll all soon be dead if we don’t rescue Freedom. Keep that in mind; Freedom has to be saved to save any of us, including Mary.”
George shrugged. “I’ve been focused on that problem but I haven’t found a solution. I need to be much stronger. There are some mediocre energy sources nearby, but not near enough, and I don’t have time to make any long trips to find better ones.”
“If you were a dragon you could transport in an instant to wherever you needed to go to find the energy source you need.”
“Teleport? I hadn’t thought of that! You're right; dragons can do that.”
“As an elf mage I can teleport for short distances, but many dragons can even travel between the stars in that way.”
“Freedom hasn’t even tried teleporting yet,” said George, "though I have had visions of dragons doing it."
“He told me that he tried doing it after being captured by the monster but lacked the necessary strength," said Pip. "But is it not true that Chosen Ones can do what their dragon can do? Could you teleport to someplace that has the energy source you need? It is said that dragons can even eat the energy of suns.”
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George’s jaw dropped. The sun? “That’s the answer! That must be what he expects me to do!”
“Do you know how?”
George shook his head in dismay. “I haven’t got a clue. Not only that, I don’t know where to find the energy I need to do it, or where to teleport to in order to get still more. Can you help with any of these questions?”
“With my own short range teleporting, I simply focus on it happening, and it happens. Maybe dragons do the same. As to finding strength from normal energy, in the absence of thunderstorms water might provide an answer. My uncle told me he once saw a tired dragon freeze a lake in an instant. That somehow gave him strength to continue fighting.”
“That makes sense. Dragons can get energy from warm matter, and a large body of water contains a lot of heat energy. I’ve gathered a little energy here that way. I’d just need to get to the ocean.”
“I sense the ocean is that way.” The little elf pointed south–west. “Are you strong enough to at least fly there with me?”
“Yes. And to first talk to Freedom for a moment.” He closed his eyes so that he could more easily focus. Reaching out, he quickly located the monster KraKara. Within the monster, he could dimly sense Freedom. “DON’T TRY TO RESPOND,