The Secrets of the Boggy Marsh
Chapter 10: Escape?
Mr. Elf flew straight up through the mist, with his arms wrapped tightly around Seamus. He was very glad he wasn’t going to have to carry Seamus far, as the extra weight was a major strain on his delicate wings.
Seamus was breathing hard, in and out through his nose. As Mr. Elf rose above the mist into the clear sky above, Seamus’s eyes nearly bulged out of his young face. Even though he was scared out of his wits, he didn’t dare make a sound. If anything made Mr. Elf let go of him now, he knew he wouldn’t survive the fall to the ground hidden in the mist below.
Mr. Elf slowly spun back to face the nearest end of the rainbow and tilted himself and Seamus in that direction. The beating of his wings slowed fractionally, and he and Seamus dipped back into the mist, slowly heading in the direction of the rainbow.
A few minutes later, the Dragon broke free of the mist and flew rapidly in the opposite direction.
Mr. Elf and Seamus half flew and half dropped through the mist. Mr. Elf’s wings were never intended to carry the weight of an extra body and he was tiring fast. If Seamus weren’t a young and light Leprechaun, Mr. Elf would never have been able to fly with him.
In truth, Mr. Elf’s plan had never included this action, but the Dragon had proved smarter and more persistent than he had expected. Flying into the mist carrying Seamus was an act of utter desperation, and a last-ditch attempt to throw the Dragon off their tracks, before meeting up with Mody.
A large tree branch suddenly loomed up in front of the descending pair. Mr. Elf made a slight adjustment to their flight direction and landed on the branch with the startled Seamus still clinging tightly to his waist.
“You can let go now,” Mr. Elf panted, while his wings folded neatly back into their non-flying position. “Oh, one more thing: don’t ever tell anybody about this.”
Seamus unwrapped his arms from around Mr. Elf, making a “nnngghhh” noise, while pointing at the handkerchief in his mouth.
Mr. Elf leaned against the trunk of the tree and took several deep breaths to recover from the exertion of the flight. He smiled at Seamus, nodded, and said, “Yes, you can take that out now. Just talk quietly and we should be ok.”
Seamus pulled the handkerchief from his mouth and took some deep breaths of his own. He carefully handed the handkerchief back to Mr. Elf. “What magic does the handkerchief have that helped us to disappear?” he asked.
Mr. Elf smiled, as he put the handkerchief back in a pocket. “It stopped you from talking and asking more questions. I needed you to be dead quiet, so I could try to trick the Dragon into going in the wrong direction.”
“Oh,” Seamus said, slightly disappointed. “It’s not really magic, then?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. It seems to have worked, and that’s what matters,” Mr. Elf replied, still smiling. “Now, we won’t have much time before the Dragon comes looking for us again. We have to get Mody, and get that dratted egg to Hag Head.”
“I’m all confused,” Seamus said. “How are we going to find Mody?”
Mr. Elf leaned forward and called down to the bottom of the tree, “Mody, are you down there?”
Mody’s high pitched voice came back immediately through the ever-present mist. “Yes, I am here, as you instructed me to be.”
“Is the egg safe?” Mr. Elf called down.
“Yes, I have been keeping it warm by sitting on it,” Mody said, her voice floating up through the mist. “Can we go now? That Dragon scorched some of my feathers and I don’t want to meet her again.”
“How did you know Mody was there?” asked an awestruck Seamus. Mr. Elf just seemed to have everything under control.
“Easy,” Mr. Elf said. “Mody does what she’s told. I told her to meet us back at the bent tree where we made our plans. And sure enough, she is just where I needed her to be.”
“I do as I’m told,” Seamus muttered, under his breath.
Mr. Elf chose to ignore this. “Go on, climb down to Mody,” he said, to Seamus. Then he tried to shake his wings out to fly down. Instead of his wings opening, as they normally would, a lightning bolt of pain shot through his body, making him gasp audibly.
Seamus was at his side in a second. “Mr. Elf, what’s wrong? Are you ok?”
Mr. Elf straightened up, as the pain subsided and took some deep breaths. “I appear to have strained my wings by flying with you wrapped around me.” He gave Seamus a weak smile. “Looks like I’ll have to give away the flying until they heal. Come on, let’s climb down to Mody and get going.”
Seamus watched with a worried frown, as Mr. Elf moved stiffly to the main branch of the tree and climbed down.
“I said come on!” Mr. Elf said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “That Dragon won’t stay fooled for long. She’ll be back, and she’ll be angrier than we have seen so far.”
That was enough for Seamus. He moved quickly to the main branch of the tree and shimmied to the ground.
When Seamus stepped off the tree, Mody was there with a huge grin on her face. She slid off the egg she was sitting on, stepped over to Seamus and rubbed her head affectionately against him. Seamus threw his arms around Mody and gave her a big hug.
“Ok, time enough for that later,” Mr. Elf said. “It’s time to get away from here.”
“How do we find Hag Head again?” Seamus asked.
“She said to call her name and she would find us,” Mody replied.
Mr. Elf shrugged and called into the mist, “Hag Head! Come to us, Hag Head, we have the egg!”
Seamus waited expectantly, “Well? Where is she?” he asked, impatiently.
“She didn’t say how long she would take,” Mody replied. “She just said to call her name and she would come.”
“She better not take too long, or that Dragon will be back, and I’m in no shape to do much about it,” Mr. Elf said, wincing, as he sat on the damp ground.
“Shouldn’t we get going?” Seamus asked.
“Which direction would we go in?” Mr. Elf asked. “I can’t fly up out of the mist to check our direction, until my wings heal.”
“What about you, Mody? You’ve been able to navigate around Boggy Marsh without too much trouble,” Seamus asked, hopefully.
“I had never seen Hag Head, or her house before,” Mody replied. “I think if we went looking for her house, we wouldn’t be able to find it. I have a feeling it moves about, probably to keep the things that live here from sneaking up on her.”
Seamus decided to use the waiting time to ask Mr. Elf a question that had been bothering him. “Mr. Elf, just how did you know how to unfreeze us after the Dragon scream?”
Mr. Elf suddenly became subdued and uncomfortable. His face creased into a look of suppressed anger, and his answer was rudely spoken. “I am of the Aelfin, boy. The Aelfin know many things about the other peoples of this land.”
Seamus cringed at the roughness of Mr. Elf’s response. “I’m sorry if I offended you, Mr. Elf. I didn’t mean to break the rules of Damanta Mallaithe. If you tell the village council I was prying into your past, they will kick Paddy and me out of the village. After all we’ve been through, I thought we’d become friends and you might not mind a few questions.”
Mr. Elf let out a loud and long sigh and his whole body relaxed. “No, Seamus, it is I who should apologize. You’re right, we have become friends, and I should treat my friends better than that. The Aelfin are a secretive people and we guard our knowledge jealously. Old habits die hard, I suppose.”
“Were you frozen after the Dragon scream?” Mody asked, with interest. “I was frozen while sitting on top of the egg. I was really worried, but then something changed and I could move again.”
“Yes, we were frozen and scared,” Seamus said. “Mr. Elf did something that released us. That’s what I was asking him about.” He glanced at Mr. Elf to see what his reaction would be.
Mr. Elf drew in a big breath. “My father is the Lore Master for the Aelfin people. I was studying under him to become a Lore
Master, myself.”
“What’s a Lore Master?” Mody asked.
“The Lore Master keeps the knowledge, prophecies and secrets of the Aelfin people,” Mr. Elf replied. “The Lore Master must always have an apprentice, so that the knowledge can be passed on if something happens to him or her.”
“So something you learned during your apprenticeship told you how to escape from the scream freeze?” Seamus prompted.
“Yes,” Mr. Elf replied, now quite relaxed. “There is an old legend about the Dragon scream that gave me clues on how to break the freeze effect. It all has to do with the fear induced by the scream. If you can remove all traces of fear and replace them with happier emotions, then the freeze effect can be broken.”
“What was the legend about?” Mody asked. She was finding this very interesting.
“Well, there was an insane Dwarf called Nokey, who used to like baiting Dragons. It was said he was so raving mad, he could feel no fear …,”
Dragon fire exploded through the mist, rolling in a huge wave towards the three companions. The Dragon had flown to the boundary and, finding no trace of the thieves, had returned to her nest. She had then heard the voices of the thieves by the old blackened tree. Not wasting any time, she had rushed forward and unleashed the biggest blast of Dragon fire she could muster. The thieves would be roasted and eaten, and that would be the end of it.
Mr. Elf, Seamus and Mody saw the wave of Dragon fire racing at them. They felt the fearful heat being pushed forward by the fiery wave. They watched in horror, knowing there was nothing they could do to avoid the Dragon fire.