Chapter 8: The Guardian
Seamus, Mr. Elf and Mody were back in Boggy Marsh. The mist swirled around them and they could see no sign of Hag Head’s house.
“Paddy, oh my Paddy, where are you?” wept a sad and shocked Seamus.
“What do we do now?” Mody asked, despairingly.
Mr. Elf ran his hands through his long dark hair, inspecting their surrounds with a grim face. “This is not working out the way I had hoped,” he mumbled.
“We have to get Paddy back!” Seamus cried. “We can’t just leave him with the witch; we don’t know what she’ll do to him.”
“Of course we have to get Paddy back,” Mody affirmed. “He is our friend. We won’t just leave him, will we, Mr. Elf?”
Mr. Elf made a visible effort to get his thoughts under control and then nodded. “Seamus, we will do what we must to get Paddy back. Hag Head made it clear we won’t be able to leave Boggy Marsh, until she has what she wants. We don’t have a choice. We must get the Dragon’s egg.”
“Why!” Seamus wailed. “Why can’t she get the stupid egg herself? She’s much more powerful than all of us put together.”
“I don’t know, Seamus,” Mr. Elf said, placing a comforting hand on Seamus’s shoulder. “This whole situation is just too strange. I don’t understand any of it.”
“Do you really think she will let Paddy go, if we get her the egg?” Mody asked hopefully.
“I think we have to believe she will,” Mr. Elf replied, with a sad smile. “It’s the only hope any of us have of seeing Paddy again, and of getting out of here.”
Seamus stood up straight, a determined look on his face. “Let’s go and get that egg,” he said.
Mr. Elf nodded and shook out his wings. “Stay here and keep quiet. I’ll fly above the mist and see where the rainbow is.”
Seamus and Mody huddled together and watched, as Mr. Elf disappeared into the mist. He soon reappeared, landing gently and folding his wings back into place. “It’s over in that direction,” he said, indicating behind Seamus and Mody. “And it’s not far off; we should get there soon.”
“What are we going to do when we get there?” Mody asked. “The guardian is very large, easily as big as Hag Head’s house.”
“I don’t know yet. We’ll have to come up with a plan when we see what we have to deal with,” Mr. Elf replied. “Come on. The sooner we get started, the sooner we get Paddy back.”
Seamus stopped his companions and said, “Thank you, both of you. You don’t know what this means to me. Paddy is my brother and we share a very special link. We haven't been separated before and I’m very scared for him.”
“Brother?” Mr. Elf said, sounding surprised. “But you both look to be about the same age.”
“Yes,” was Seamus’s only reply.
Mr. Elf waited, hoping that Seamus would say more, but he didn’t.
Mody broke the silence. “Shouldn’t we be going?” she prompted.
“Of course, yes, let’s get moving,” Seamus agreed.
Mr. Elf shook his head, wondering just what he’d gotten himself into. Things were becoming more and more complicated; at a rate, rate he could barely keep up with.
Mody turned and headed in the direction the Aelf had indicated. Seamus and Mr. Elf followed her silently into the mist.
⚔
“There,” Mody whispered. “Do you see it?”
“The She preserve us!” Seamus whispered back. “That thing is as big as a house. It’s no wonder the rainbow is so beautifully bright. That’s enough gold to power every rainbow the world over.”
The companions were peering out from behind a blackened, dead tree. When the mists moved, they could catch glimpses of a huge golden shape looming in front of them.
“I take it that is the guardian,” Mr. Elf said, under his breath.
“Yes. There’s a hole underneath it. I stayed to watch once and I saw the hole when it went to eat the food.”
“Where did the food come from?” Mr. Elf asked.
“Some of the other things that live here bring food to it.”
“Great,” Mr. Elf said, disbelievingly. “This just keeps getting better. Not only is the guardian a Gold Dragon, and a big one, but now we also have to worry about the creatures that feed it.”
“I’ve never seen a Dragon before,” an awestruck Seamus said.
“That’s probably why you’re still alive,” Mr. Elf teased. “Gold Dragons tend to be a bad-tempered lot, at the best of times, and they’re not too fussy about what they eat. Although, you wouldn’t even make a decent snack,” he added, with grin.
As they watched through the mist, from their hiding spot, the Dragon lifted its backside off the ground, squeezed with concentration and a pile of golden pellets erupted from its bottom.
The Dragon turned its head to look at its droppings. A small and tightly controlled flame came from the Dragon’s mouth, fanning over the golden droppings making them glow with a golden light.
When finished tempering the droppings with its fire, the Dragon reached down and gripped one of the golden pellets between two claws. Holding it up to her right eye, she examined it closely, turning it this way and that. Satisfied, she dropped the pellet back with the others and used her great tail to sweep them into her nest.
“So that’s where Dragon gold comes from,” Seamus whispered. “That’s kind of gross, and kind of neat at the same time.”
“Even a small handful of those things would be worth a fortune to the right buyer,” Mr. Elf whispered. “Make sure you grab a few, if you get a chance. Don’t forget, you still have to pay me for the swords.”
“So what do we do now?” Mody prompted.
“Stay here while I have a look around. And don’t do anything to let Goldy know you’re here.”
Mr. Elf moved off quietly into the mist. Seamus and Mody waited for what seemed like a very long time, but, quite suddenly, Mr. Elf was back with them. “All right, I have a plan,” he whispered. “This is what we’re going to do.”
⚔
Seamus snuck cautiously through the ever-moving mist. Now that he was all alone he was really scared.
A range of sounds came from all around, from strange chirping noises to quick and violent sounding snarls. He hurriedly glanced back over his shoulder, but could see nothing unusual; nothing unusual, that is, for Boggy Marsh.
Reminding himself he was doing this for Paddy, he continued his forward course. As he went, he counted silently under his breath. When he reached 150, he changed direction slightly, towards where he thought the Dragon should be.
Sure enough, there in front of him was the silent golden mass of the Dragon. He scanned around for a large boulder and found one that would meet his needs. Tiptoeing to it, he checked his sword, which as expected, glowed brightly.
It wasn’t long before he heard Mr. Elf call out, loudly and rudely, “Hey, you there, Dragon!”
The Dragon lifted its huge head sleepily and swung it toward the voice.
“Yeah, you, you great lummox,” Mr. Elf shouted.
Two large, green, catlike eyes blinked in confusion, as the Dragon peered through the mist, trying to find the source of the annoying shouts.
“May The She help me, but it’s true, Gold Dragons are the stupidest, slowest creatures in all the world,” the Aelf yelled, now thoroughly enjoying himself.
The Dragon blinked again, not quite able to believe some rude creature had woken her up, just to shout insults at her.
Without warning, an enormous blast of fire shot out of her mouth, aimed directly at where the rude noises had come from. The ever-present mist evaporated, as the Dragon fire roared through the damp air.
Seamus could suddenly see clearly for some distance.
The Dragon peered intently in the direction of her fire, to see if there were any cooked remains that could be eaten. The mist, however, quickly filled the clearing and she could not see anything interesting. Letting out a loud sigh, she set her head back to her resting position, qu
ite sure the situation had been dealt with.
Seamus waited patiently, watching the Dragon to see what would happen next. He didn’t have to wait long.
An arrow shot out of the mist and bounced off the Dragon’s left ear.
Now an arrow isn’t going to hurt a Dragon; it isn’t going to get through the very tough plated skin. The Dragon, however, was not impressed.
This really was just too much; first some rude thing had shouted at her, and now there were arrows bouncing off her head. The Dragon roared in anger and got up from her sitting position, just as another arrow bounced off her nose.
Seamus had to try very hard to suppress a nervous giggle, while at the same time marveling at how quickly a creature the size of the Dragon could move.
The Dragon shot another burst of flame, this time aimed in the direction the arrows had come from. As the Dragon fire evaporated the mist, the Dragon rushed forward, searching this way and that for the source of her annoyance.
Seamus heard Mr. Elf laughing loudly, from a point much further away. The Dragon roared loudly in frustration and set off after the sound of the laughter.
“Come on, Goldy, you can do better than that,” Seamus heard Mr. Elf shout.
Seamus snuck forward until he could see the hole Mody had talked about. He watched, as a large egg rolled out of the hole and wobbled away from the direction the Dragon had taken.
A loud chirping noise made Seamus turn and stare intently through the mist, searching for the source of the noise. Seamus quickly realized if he stayed where he was, he wasn’t going to be able to see what was making the noise, before it saw him. Hurrying back to the boulder, he hoped the egg would be gone, by the time the chirping thing arrived.
Seamus made it to the boulder, just as two strange creatures walked by, seemingly wafting through the mistiness. Ducking for cover, he peered around the boulder to observe the two creatures waddle stiffly toward the Dragon’s nest, chirping as they went.
Seamus had never seen creatures like these and he wondered what they might be. They had bodies shaped like balloons, with bloated arms and legs that looked like they had been just jammed on to the bodies. And the creatures had no necks; their heads were joined directly to their bodies. Seamus thought this would make it easy to sneak up on them, as the creatures couldn’t possibly turn their head, without turning their whole body.
The loud chirping noise came from the short, rotund legs of the creatures, as their thighs rubbed together when they walked.
The creatures didn’t notice Seamus, as they hurriedly waddled past his hiding place. Seamus held his breath, hoping the egg was now out of sight.
Unfortunately, one of the creatures spotted the egg, just as it rolled through a shallow pool of water. The creature gave a loud shout. “Hey!”
Seamus didn’t hesitate; he had his sword out in a flash and dashed across the open ground towards the creatures. As he reached the first creature, he stabbed it in the back of the thigh, just below its bottom. “That’s for Paddy!” he said, as he pulled the sword back out.
The other creature tottered around clumsily, with a look of surprise on its round face. Seamus lunged with the sword, stabbing the creature in the front part of its leg. “And that’s for making me have to do this,” he said.
Both creatures were completely frozen, in the exact positions they had been in, when the sword had stabbed them.
Seamus looked them over, feeling surprisingly calm and confident. “Boy, you guys are really ugly,” he said, to himself. The sword in his hand glowed fiercely. “Thank you, Grace,” he said, to the sword. “But, if you wouldn’t mind terribly, could you not glow quiet so brightly? You’re very easy to see when you glow like that, and I need to be able to hide.”
To Seamus’s utter astonishment, the sword dimmed down to an almost feeble glow. “Wow!” Seamus exclaimed, “That’s a neat trick.”
The sword gave a quick pulse of light, as if acknowledging his words.
Mr. Elf chose that moment to flap down through the mist and land next to Seamus. Flicking his shoulders to settle his wings, he turned and examined the frozen creatures. “Urgh! Fugglies. I didn’t know there were any of those still alive. Boggy Marsh really has been the dumping ground for the worst of the peoples.” Pulling out his own sword, he gave each one a quick bang on the back of the head with the hilt. The Fugglies, however, didn’t fall to the ground, or even move; they really were frozen in place.
“Just to be sure,” Mr. Elf said, seeing Seamus frown. “We don’t want them unfreezing on us too soon. So, is the egg on its way?”
“It is,” Seamus replied.
“Right, we best get the gold and get out of here quickly. The Dragon will be back any moment,” the Aelf instructed.
Seamus and Mr. Elf ran to the hole and, sure enough, there was the biggest pile of gold Seamus had ever seen.