The Warble (3 page)

It was early morning when Kristina
awoke. She sat up, stretched her arms in the air, and yawned. Then she looked
around at her surroundings and remembered once again that she was not at home,
and that meeting Rumalock and having tea with him had all been real.

Suddenly, she heard
voices coming from the other side of the window; she got up, drew the curtain
open and could hardly believe what she saw next. Right in front of her, on the
window ledge, were two little fairies no more than three inches in height. One
of them was a very pretty, teenage girl, with hazel eyes, chestnut-colored hair,
and lots of freckles on her nose. She was standing with her hands on her hips,
talking to a younger boy fairy, with curly auburn hair and bright green eyes.
He was sitting on the edge of the windowsill, looking glum, and swinging his
legs.

Kristina stood quietly,
hoping that they wouldn’t notice her. They were the most fascinating creatures
she had ever seen. The window was cracked open slightly so she could hear them
conversing. “Why do you always complain when you don’t get your way?” the girl
said.

The boy frowned at her.
“You know that I’ve been waiting for this event all year, but do I get to go?
No! Instead, I get to come here and miss all the fun stuff.” He crossed his
arms abruptly.

“Stop being such a
baby!” The girl moved toward the boy, intending to push him off the window
ledge.

Kristina sneezed,
startling the girl and causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards off
the window ledge. Quickly, the fairy flapped her wings so she didn’t hit the
ground.

Seeing the girl fall,
the boy couldn’t help from laughing, which in turn almost caused him to fall
off the ledge as well. Kristina found it quite funny also, and she, too, began
to laugh along with the boy.

The girl fairy looked
flabbergasted. “Do you always go sneaking up on fairies’ conversations to try
and cause accidents?” she snapped at Kristina.

Kristina, taken by
surprise, stopped laughing and stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to
answer.

“Well, maybe you were
right, Looper. This does seem to be a waste of our time,” the girl said to the
boy, who was still sitting on the window ledge, chuckling.

The boy wiped the
laughter tears from his eyes. “What did I tell you?” he said. “Let’s get out of
here. I can still catch up with my friends if we leave now.”

Kristina didn’t want
them to leave, so she tried to think of a way to make them stay. She turned and
looked around the room and saw that the chocolate cake from the night before
was sitting on the coffee table under a glass dome. “Could I offer you some
chocolate cake?” she asked quickly.

The girl fairy seemed
about to snap at her again, but instead, she pondered what Kristina had said
and answered, “I guess we could accept your offer, seeing what trouble you have
put us through.”

Kristina quickly went
to the coffee table, removed the glass dome topping the cake, cut a large piece
of cake, and laid it on the plate. “Would you like to come in and eat it? It
might be easier than setting the plate on the ledge.”

The girl looked at the
boy and then back at Kristina. “I suppose so,” she said.

The fairies crawled
through the crack in the window, the boy first and then the girl. As the girl
was crawling through she got her wing stuck and, without thinking, Kristina
reached out with her finger to help pull her wing through. The fairy pushed her
away abruptly. “Well, you sure aren’t very smart now, are you? Don’t you know
that if you touch a fairy’s wing you can prevent the fairy from ever flying
again?”

Kristina looked
dumbfounded and didn’t know what to say.

The boy looked at
Kristina, sympathetically, and then he looked at the girl. “Come on; give her a
break. She is trying to be nice to us,” he said.

“Okay. I guess I should
have let you know about the wing bit. Let’s just forget it,” the girl fairy
said.

The fairies flew over
to where the plate of chocolate cake was sitting on the coffee table and landed
on top of it. They scooped the cake up with their tiny hands and then stuffed
their mouths full of it.
“Rumalock does know how to make great
chocolate cake,” the boy fairy said with his mouth still full.

The fairies were
enjoying the cake so much that they seemed to forget that Kristina was sitting
on the couch. She cleared her throat to get their attention. They looked up at
her, and the boy, whose face was covered with chocolate, said, “Oh, I’m sorry.
I guess we should formally introduce ourselves.” He stuck out his tiny hand,
covered in chocolate. “My name’s Looper.” Then he pointed to the girl fairy.
“And that’s my grumpy sister, Clover.”

Kristina took his tiny
hand between her fingers and gently shook it. Clover didn’t offer her hand.

“I’m Kristina,”
Kristina said.

“Pleased to meet you,
Kristina,” Looper said in a muted voice, his mouth so full of cake.

Clover didn’t respond
but only focused on trying to eat without getting chocolate frosting all over
her hands and mouth.

The fairies ate only
about a quarter of the slice of cake, and when they were done, they flew back
to the window ledge. There was a crack in the wood that had some dew in it, and
they dipped their tiny hands in it to wash the chocolate off. Once cleaned,
Looper stretched his arms in the air and yawned. “I sure could go for a nap
right about now.” He sat down, leaned against the windowpane, and closed his
eyes.     

Clover grabbed her
brother by his arm. “There’s no time for lazing around. We’ve got to get the
human child to the Indra River before nightfall,” she said sternly.

Looper jumped up
suddenly and shook his head to get his wits back. “Well come on, Kristina,
let’s get going,” he said.

Kristina crossed her
arms across her chest. “What do you mean; take me to the Indra River?” she
said.

“We must get you and
the Warble to the Indra River before nightfall, because Queen Sentiz will be
sending out her wicked zelbocks to find you. They’re probably in the forest
right now, and believe me; they’d love to capture you for the queen. So the
sooner we get you on your way, the better chance you have of not getting
caught,” Looper said.

“Hey, hold on a minute!
This all sounds too weird. I’m not sure I’m cut out for all this adventure
stuff. Is it possible to just zap me back to my world?”

The fairies looked at
each other as if Kristina was crazy, and then, in unison, said, “No!”

“Actually, the only way
you can go home, is you must first place the Warble in its resting place,”
Looper said.

“Kristina, go and get
the Warble. We can’t waste any more time,” Clover said impatiently.

“It’s right here in my
pocket.” Kristina pulled it out and held it on the palm of her hand. “Wow, how
cool! Its color is different again. This time it changed from light purple to
dark purple!”

“It won’t be so ‘cool’
if we don’t get a move on,” Clover said.

“Okay, okay, I’ll go!”
Kristina said. Then she pushed up the window and crawled through it, following
the fairies.

Clover and Looper were suspended in
midair as they waited for Kristina to crawl through the window. Their wings
were fluttering so fast that if anyone were to glance quickly at them, they
might be mistaken for hummingbirds.

As soon as Kristina
landed on the soft, green grass, Looper pointed to a trail leading to the
forest.      “Let’s head that way,” he said and made a few loops in the air and
began heading toward the trail.

“Wait a minute! I
haven’t had a chance to thank Rumalock or even say good bye to him,” Kristina
said.

“It’s okay. He had to
leave very early this morning to gather fairy blossoms,” Looper replied.
“Besides, he didn’t want to wake you, knowing you had such a long journey ahead
of you.”

“Speaking of Rumalock,
he had mentioned that the fairy blossoms are rare and hard to come by. I would
think that they grow like weeds in a lush forest like this,” Kristina said
while following the fairies.

“They used to grow like
weeds, but ever since Queen Sentiz had her zelbocks destroy most of the healing
herb, it’s now very hard to come by. She has had her zelbocks plant thorn
bushes in their place; even so, there are still small amounts of the fairy
blossom growing on the lower mountain regions. The problem is, not too many of
the dwarfs or gnomes can travel that far, especially the old ones,” Looper
said.

“But why would the
queen want to destroy the blossoms?” Kristina asked.

“She hates the dwarfs,
gnomes and almost every other creature that lives in Bernovem,” Clover said.

“And she has total
control over everything,” Looper added.

“I don’t get it. How
would she control the dwarfs and gnomes by destroying the fairy blossom?”
Kristina asked.

“Well, you see,
Kristina, before Queen Sentiz took over the rule of Bernovem, the dwarfs and
gnomes were able to harvest the fairy blossom, and they could pick as much of
it as they pleased. It is what kept them youthful, because when they made tea
of it or used it as a flavor enhancer in their food, they would hardly age at
all. They could stay youthful indefinitely, but without it, they age more
rapidly.” Looper suddenly looked sad.

Kristina found this
fascinating. “Go on,” she said.

“Without it, they
become very weak and they can die.”

“Oh.” Kristina felt
slightly awkward. “I’m sad to hear it,” she said softly.

She continued following
the fairies for what seemed hours, and her legs grew very tired. The sun was
starting to set and fog was beginning to roll in, making it hard for them to
see. “How much longer until we get to this river?” she asked.

“Sh-h-h! You mustn’t
talk louder than a whisper. We have already fallen behind schedule, due to your
nonstop gabbing,” Clover said.

“Queen Sentiz’s
zelbocks are surely out in the forest, searching for anyone suspicious who may
have…” Looper flew very close to Kristina’s ear, and in a low whisper said,
“the Warble.”

Kristina reached into
her pocket for the Warble, but stopped when Looper nervously glanced about the
forest. Then he flew to a nearby tree and landed on one of its branches. He
looked all about the forest. Kristina wondered what he was doing and was about
to ask Clover, but then he turned around and whispered, “Quick! Take cover!”

As quick as a flash of
light, Clover flew off to a nearby tree stump. Then Kristina looked around to
see where she could hide.

“Over here!” Clover called
out to her. Clover was sitting with her knees curled up, inside a knothole of a
stump. Kristina ran, jumped over the stump, and hid behind it. “Hey! Watch
out!” Clover snapped at her.

Kristina was about to
snap back, but then she heard something coming toward them. She poked her head
over the stump and saw a horrible creature, slightly taller than a dwarf but
very ugly. Its face was covered in warts. It had a crooked nose, and its back
was hunched over. It stood very near Kristina and Clover, and with a
suspicious, evil look on its face, it sniffed the air like a dog.

 Kristina dared
not make a move in case the ugly creatures see her. She glanced up at the tree
where Looper was standing, straight as a pin, against its trunk, not moving a
muscle. The horrible creature couldn’t see anything, so it started to leave.
But then a branch Kristina was sitting on snapped. She gasped, and the creature
turned around to face her. It stared directly into her eyes and grinned from
ear to ear. Drool dripped out of the corner of its mouth, and it rubbed its
large, gnarled hands together.

Kristina looked at
Looper, who was now motioning for her to run to the tree he was in. Then she
looked over at Clover. “Hurry! Run to the tree and climb it!” Clover said
franticly.

The creature started
toward Kristina, so she ran as fast as she could toward the tree.

“Quick, Kristina, jump
and pull yourself up,” Looper said.

The branch was much
higher than the top of Kristina’s head, but she gave it her best shot. She
jumped once but failed to reach it. The creature was right behind her.

“Don’t give up,
Kristina! You must reach it,” Looper said fearfully.

She jumped again, and
this time caught hold of the branch. Then she swung her legs upward, just as
the creature lunged up underneath her, scratching her back with its long, grimy
fingernails. She got her legs around the branch, and then pulled herself up to
sit on it.

“Give me the Warble,”
the creature hissed.

Kristina was barely
balanced on the small branch; she felt her heart pounding very fast in her
chest. Then, to make matters worse, the Warble slipped out of her pocket and
fell to the ground. Looper swooped down out of the tree to try to lift it. He
strained with all his might to pick it up and managed to get it a few inches off
the ground, but it was too heavy, and he dropped it. The creature dived toward
the Warble but while in midair, an arrow hit the creature in the middle of its
back. It let out a shrill screech as it fell, and then landed, face down,
inches from the Warble. It dug its grimy nails into the ground trying with all
its strength to reach the Warble, but when it was about an inch away from it,
its body went limp.

A boy—Kristina thought
he looked like he must be in his early to mid-teens—came running toward the horrible
creature. His breathing was labored as he approached its lifeless body. He put
his foot on its back and pulled the arrow out of it. Then he turned around and
looked up at Kristina, who was still in the tree.

He’s cute!
Kristina
thought.

He wiped the blood off
his arrow, and said, “What do you think you’re doing, wandering these parts of
the forest? Stupid girl!”

Cute alright, but a
jerk
!
Kristina frowned at the boy and then jumped down out of the tree. She went to
where the Warble had fallen to the ground. The boy was putting his arrow back
in his quiver and wasn’t paying attention when she picked it up and put it back
in her pocket.

Looper flew over to the
boy and landed on a rock in front of him. Then Clover pushed herself out of the
knothole in the stump, wiped the dirt from herself, and flew to Looper.

Looper knelt down on
one knee and bowed before the boy. Clover gave a little curtsy. “Thank you,
Your Highness, for saving us from a most certain death,” Clover said to the
boy.