The Warble (20 page)

Werrien closed his eyes and was about to
drift off when he felt something touch his shoulder. He turned his head very
slowly and saw Ugan and Retzel kneeling over him. Ugan quickly lifted Kristina
up off the icy slope. Then Retzel reached down to Werrien and helped him to
stand up.

“Are you okay?” Retzel
asked, looking very concerned.

“I’m fine. It’s
Kristina I’m worried about,” Werrien replied.

Ugan felt Kristina’s
pulse in her neck. “She’s still alive!”

“How long has she been
unconscious?” Retzel asked Werrien.

“I’m not sure because I
dozed off.” Werrien looked ashamed.

“It’s a good thing
Roage told us to follow you two,” Retzel said.

A strong wind blew at
them. “We’d best get out of this area, before all of us get blown over this
cliff,” Ugan said.

Ugan carried Kristina
up the slope. Retzel picked up Raymond’s container from the snowy ground and
followed him. Werrien was just about to follow also, but then he noticed
something on the ground where Kristina and he had been lying. It was a little
pouch. He picked it up.
This is Leacha’s. Kristina must have had it
. He
untied its tassels and looked inside it. “Fairy blossom!”

“Hurry up, Werrien. We
need to find a spot that’s sheltered from the wind,” Ugan called down to him.

Werrien quickly closed
the little pouch and put it inside his cloak. He made his way up to where Ugan
and Retzel were standing. “Does either of you have a canteen?”

“I do, inside my
cloak,” Ugan replied. Since Ugan’s arms were holding Kristina, Werrien reached
inside his cloak and took out the canteen. “I’m sorry to say that there is only
a little bit of plain water inside it. The zelbocks have destroyed every trace
of fairy blossom, even the small amount that had been growing on the lower
mountain.”

Werrien opened the
canteen, took the little pouch out of his cape, and poured the small amount of
dried blossom into the canteen. He put the lid back on and sealed it tight.
Then he shook the canteen to mix the blossom with the water.

“Is that fairy
blossom?” Ugan asked, looking startled.

“Yes,” Werrien said.

“Do you know how
fortunate you are to have that? Not a single dwarf, gnome, or fairy has a trace
of it left.”

“I didn’t think we had
any either, but then I found this little pouch on the slope where Kristina had
been lying.”

“We must give it to her
right away,” Retzel said, his eyes growing wide with anticipation.

“That’s my plan.”
Werrien unscrewed the cap off the canteen again.

Ugan held Kristina in
his arms, and Retzel helped to open her mouth while Werrien poured a small
amount of the fairy-blossom water mixture over Kristina’s lips. Her mouth moved
a little, and she seemed to be drinking it fine, but she didn’t wake up.

“You’ll have to give
her some more,” Ugan said, looking confused.

Werrien poured a little
more into her mouth, and again the three of them eagerly waited to see if this
time it would be enough to wake her. Her lips moved a little again, though she
still didn’t wake.

“Could the fairy blossom
be losing its powers?” Werrien asked Ugan.

“In all of my life, I
have never heard this to be possible.”

“You must give her some
more,” Retzel said nervously.

“This is the last of
it.” Werrien slowly poured the few remaining drops into her mouth.

Kristina’s lips moved
again, and then, like the sun breaking through the clouds on a dreary, cold
day, a pinkish-rose color filled her cheeks, and she opened her eyes. At first,
she saw six faces staring down at her—of course there were really only three,
but she was seeing double. Slowly, the six faces turned into three, and she
smiled as she began to recognize them. “Werrien, Ugan, Retzel! Is everything
okay?” It was like nothing at all had even happened to her.

“It is now.” Werrien
smiled down at her.

Feeling puzzled as to
what was going on, Kristina asked Ugan, “Why are you holding me?”

Ugan chuckled. “It
would take much too long to explain right now, child. I’ll leave that up to
Werrien to tell you about it a little later. Right now, we need to get going.”

It was then that he
heard a voice that he was unfortunately familiar with: “Werrien will have
plenty of time to explain all kinds of stories to her, in the afterlife that
is!”

The four of them looked
up the mountain to see the wicked Queen Sentiz and three of her disgusting
zelbocks standing above them. She was wrapped in her bear stole, and the look
on her pale face was a mixture of utter disgust and hatred.

As Ugan slowly put
Kristina down on the ground, the queen looked at him and Retzel and said, “And
you two good-for-nothing traitors will be joining them.” She turned to the
three zelbocks and yelled, “Seize them!”

While the three
zelbocks started down the mountain, the lid to Raymond’s container popped open.
Raymond stuck his head out of the top of it, and being unaware of what was
going on, opened his mouth very wide in a yawn. He looked up to see Retzel, who
had his container tied around his waist. “Oh, fancy seeing you again,” he said
nonchalantly.

Suddenly an arrow flew
toward them and hit Raymond’s container, right below the lid. Raymond’s sleepy
expression quickly turned into a look of terror. “You best get back inside
there, if you want to keep your head,” Retzel said to him urgently.

Raymond’s head quickly
disappeared back into the container. Then he reached up with his little paw and
pulled the lid down. Another arrow came at his container, and this time, it hit
it directly in its center, denting it and tossing Raymond around inside. At the
same time, one of the other zelbocks shot an arrow at Werrien and hit him
directly in his chest. Fortunately, the chainmail vest he was wearing stopped
it from penetrating his skin. He pulled the arrow out and threw it down the
slope. Then he turned to his left and saw an arrow heading straight for Kristina’s
head. It was moving so fast that there was absolutely nothing he could do to
help her. The arrow was less than an inch from her, when suddenly, from out of
nowhere, Roage swept down from out of the sky and snatched it up in his talons.
It caught Kristina by surprise, but she had no time to dwell on it. Out of the
corner of her eye, she could see Ugan, with his knife drawn out, defending
himself from the third zelbock, which was lunging toward him. Luckily, Ugan was
able to duck out of its way. He turned quickly and thrust his knife into the
zelbock, stabbing it in the middle its back. It fell to the ground and tumbled
down the snowy slope until it finally disappeared into an abyss of white.

Queen Sentiz stood up
the slope, nervously watching as Werrien went to help Kristina, who was now
drawing out her knife. Another zelbock was quickly approaching her, holding a
spiked flail. It began to spin it violently in circles above its head. Then it
let it go, and the flail flew toward Kristina’s head. Werrien pushed her out of
the way, just in the nick of time. The flail missed her head by less than an
inch and fell to the ground. Then it rolled down the mountain until it
disappeared out of sight. With their knives drawn out, Werrien and Kristina
both stood up to face the gruesome zelbock. It, too, had a knife and was
backing them up to the edge of the same cliff where they had almost gone over
not long before. When it had them very near the edge, it thrust the knife at
Werrien, but he was quicker than the zelbock and able to duck out of its way.
The zelbock tried again to stab him, and this time Werrien slipped and fell
very near the edge of the cliff. Fortunately, Kristina was able to get away
from the cliff’s edge, but Werrien was not so fortunate. With a wicked grin on
its face, the zelbock stood over him, revealing its rotten teeth. It began to
laugh, and a greenish-gray drool dripped out of its mouth. Werrien could smell
its foul breath, like smoke in the ice-cold air. It lifted its knife high up,
and then began to bring it down to stab Werrien in his chest, but halfway
there, Kristina stopped it by thrusting her knife into the back of its neck.
The zelbock dropped its knife and fell forward. It would have fallen on top of
Werrien, but he was able to push it over him, and it tumbled over the cliff’s
edge. Kristina reached her arm out to Werrien and helped him up. Then they both
turned to see the last zelbock, the largest one, holding both Ugan and Retzel
up in the air by the scruff of their necks.

“We need to help them,”
Werrien said. They started off toward the zelbock, but then Werrien said,
“Stop! I have an idea.”

Kristina waited
expectantly, as Werrien yelled to the zelbock, “Hey, you great big oaf!” The
zelbock quickly turned its attention to Werrien. “Don’t you know you’re wasting
your time on them? Isn’t it us you want?”

Seeming a little
puzzled, the zelbock looked at Ugan and then Retzel. Then it dropped them onto
the snow and began to make its way toward Werrien. Werrien headed back toward
the cliff. The snow was falling so hard that the zelbock couldn’t see the
cliff’s edge.

Werrien began to tease
and entice the zelbock. “What’s taking you so long, you overgrown, mutated
dwarf?” He quickly glanced beyond the zelbock to see Queen Sentiz, still
standing a distance up the slope, intensely watching everything.

“Watch out, Werrien!”
Kristina yelled.

He looked back toward
the zelbock and saw that it was charging as fast as it could down the slope
toward him. Then when it got close enough, it let out a loud horrifying growl,
jumped up in the air, and hurled itself toward Werrien. It was just what
Werrien hoped it would do. He ducked down as it flew at him and went clear over
him, headfirst, over the cliff.

Now that all three of
the zelbocks were dead, Werrien’s next plan was to go after Queen Sentiz, but
when he looked to where she had been standing, she was no longer there.

“Sentiz has left!”
Werrien yelled to Ugan and Retzel.

“Yes, she has and she
is most assuredly on her way to the Warble’s resting place. We must get there
before she does. I know she will do anything she can to stop you from
delivering it,” Ugan said.

Ugan’s judgment about
Queen Sentiz was most certainly right, for she had already made it back to her
tent, which was not far from the place where the Warble needed to be placed.
She entered her tent, extremely angry and covered from head to toe in snow. She
found Rumalock sitting in her very own plush chair, with a warm woolen blanket
wrapped around his shoulders. He was looking through the Book of Prophecy and
sipping a cup of hot fairy-blossom tea. He looked up to see her enormous
stature standing across the tent from him. The snow that had stuck to her bear
stole made her look like some kind of snow monster. Not recognizing her,
Rumalock was startled and jumped up out of his chair.

“How could you just sit
there, warm and cozy, while I stand here freezing to death,” the queen growled
through chattering teeth.

“Oh, it’s you, my dear
lady.” Rumalock seemed somewhat relieved after finally recognizing her voice.

“Get this snow off me
at once, before I tear all your clothes off and throw your pathetic naked body
out of this tent!” she yelled.

“Oh yes, of course, my
queen.” Rumalock scurried up on a chair so he could reach her shoulders, and he
began removing her bear stole. Then he took the woolen blanket that he had
wrapped around his shoulders and placed it around her shoulders. Feeling stiff
and cold, Queen Sentiz slowly made her way over to her plush chair. Once she
was seated, Rumalock handed her a mug of steaming-hot tea.

“Now, now, that’s much
better,” he said, in his most soothing voice, trying to calm her nerves. “At
least now that you have finished off the two brats, all we have to do now is
get back to your warm and cozy palace.” He massaged her cold bony shoulders.

Queen Sentiz took a
large gulp of her tea and then turned toward Rumalock and spat it directly in
his face.

“Ow-w-w!” Rumalock
winced, as the hot tea splattered in his face.

“I thought you were at
least smart enough to read. Didn’t that stupid book tell you that the boy and
girl killed three of my strongest zelbocks?”

Rumalock rubbed his
eyes. “No, my dearest queen, I must have overlooked that part, or else it
hadn’t showed on the page yet.”

“It’s just as I
figured. I always said you brainless dwarfs are good for nothing.”

There was silence,
except for the sound of the wind howling outside the tent and the tapping of
the queen’s claws on the side of her tea mug. She finally broke the silence,
saying “We’ll have to resort to our last defense.”

“Oh yes, yes, our last
defense,” Rumalock said enthusiastically.

Queen Sentiz took
another large gulp of her tea. Then she turned to him and said, “Well, don’t
just stand there. Go out and get them.” Rumalock continued rubbing her bony
shoulders, but she pulled herself away from his soothing hands and stood up.
She turned to face him. “What are you waiting for? Get going, lazy dwarf!”