The Warble (8 page)

Kristina, Werrien, and Raymond slept
peacefully under the stars, but unfortunately, not far off, things were not
quite as peaceful. Queen Sentiz’s zelbocks had split up into bands and were
scouring the land in all directions. One of the bands was not far off from
where the two children lay asleep. Their fire torches lit up the dark, damp
forest as they carefully looked for any clues of the whereabouts of the
children. Werrien had done his best to cover up all of Taysha’s tracks, but
unfortunately there was one that was left behind.

The lead zelbock of one
of the bands noticed something white hanging from a tree branch, so he stopped
and dismounted his horse. “Look here,” he said in a gruff voice.

The rest of the band
brought their attention to where he stood, holding a few strands of white horse
tail in his hand. He sniffed them and said, “This is not one of our horses; it
must be the boy’s horse.” A wicked smirk filled his grotesque face.

“They’re not far off,”
another zelbock said.

The leader got back on
his horse and quietly led his crew onward. They rode under the tree where
Roage, the raven, and his fellow mates were perched, sleeping. One of the
ravens woke from the sound of the horses passing under them. He pecked at Roage
to wake him.

“Can’t I get any
sleep?” Roage snapped.

“Sorry, Roage, but a
band of zelbocks just passed under us,” the other raven said.

“Ah, you’re just
dreaming. Go back to sleep.”

“No, I saw them with my
own eyes.”

“All right, I’ll go
take a look.” Roage flew off to see for himself, and it wasn’t long before he
was back. “It’s the zelbocks, all right, and they’re traveling in bands. I have
no idea what they’re searching for, but we can’t take any chances. We must
notify the fairies at once.”

“Would you like me to
go to tell them?” another raven asked.

“No! I’ll warn them.
You all stay here and keep watch for anything else that might look fishy,”
Roage said. Then he flew off in search of the fairy colony.

~ ~ ~

While Kristina and
Werrien slept peacefully under the stars, the zelbocks grew closer and closer
to where they lay. The leader of the zelbocks stopped again and suspiciously
sniffed the air. “I smell the remains of a fire,” he said. They were now less
than an hour away from the two children.

Meanwhile, Roage was
flying through the dark forest in search of the fairy colony, and he was having
a hard time seeing in the dark. He’d stop occasionally to perch on a tree
branch to figure out what direction to take. Finally, while in flight, he heard
the trickling of a brook, and he knew he was near.

Fairies always lived by
brooks, where they had access to clean water for daily living. Their homes were
high in the tall trees, in holes made by woodpeckers.

Roage flew amid the
trees until he found the tallest and largest one, where Oreades, King of the
Fairies lived. Roage landed on one of the branches and then hopped his way up
to the highest branch at the top of the tree, where there was a very large
bulge in the trunk. Inside was King Oreades’s home. He found the tiny door in
the bulge and pecked on it. There was no response, so he pecked on it a second
time. He waited patiently and then a light shone through a tiny stained-glass
window in the door. The door opened, and King Oreades, dressed in shimmering
royal blue, stood in the doorway, holding a tiny lantern.

Roage bowed and said,
“Sorry to wake you, Your Highness, but we have seen a band of zelbocks passing
through the forest.”

King Oreades’s face
went pale, for he knew that this could only mean something bad was about to
happen. “They must know that the Warble has returned,” he said.

“The Warble has
returned?” Roage was taken by surprise.

“I will wake my
daughter at once and have her go to warn the children.”

King Oreades said
farewell to Roage and watched through his window until Roage disappeared into
the dark forest. Then he went to his daughter’s bedside and held his lantern
over her. “Clover?”

Clover sat up and
rubbed her eyes.

“You must leave at once
to warn Werrien and the girl that zelbocks are in the forest, searching for
them.”

“I was afraid that this
would happen. Werrien would be better off to deliver the Warble by himself.
That girl will only get him caught,” Clover said disdainfully.

“Do I detect a bit of
jealousy?”

Clover didn’t respond.

“I expect more from
you, Clover. Remember, you are a fairy princess, and it is your duty to be kind
and help all in need. But that is not how you are behaving.”

Clover sighed. “I’d
best be going.” She got out of bed and headed for the door.

King Oreades watched
again through the window, this time as his daughter flew away into the dark
forest.

Looper, who had been
listening from his bed, wanted to go with Clover but he knew his father wouldn’t
let him go out so late in the night. He waited for him to go back to bed and
when he was sure the king was sleeping, he snuck out of the house to catch up
with his sister.

While flying through
the forest, Clover heard strange noises, like owls hooting, frogs croaking, and
spooky hissing sounds. She had never before left her house so late at night to
go into the forest. Being alone in the deep, dark woods was a lot different
than just going a few trees away from her own to visit a fellow fairy—and it
was much scarier.

She suddenly heard a
weird noise very close to her, and she quickly flew up to a tree branch to
hide. Standing very still, she glanced about the dark forest. She could feel
her heart pounding hard in her chest. She took a deep breath to calm herself.
Soon after, she decided that what she had heard was probably nothing to worry
about, so she decided to carry on her search for Werrien and Kristina. Though
just as she was about to leave the branch, she felt something cold, wet, and
stringy tickling her on her back. She jumped around and at the same time,
something jumped down from above and onto the branch where she was standing—and
it growled. Clover quickly broke a small twig off the tree and held it out in
front of herself, like a sword.

“It’s just me, silly!”
Looper said laughing.

“I should whip your
behind with this branch!” Clover said angrily.

“Calm down, Sis. I just
didn’t want you to have to go all alone, so I caught up with you.”

“Aren’t you sweet,”
Clover sneered.

Looper looked over
Clover’s shoulder and saw a light coming through the trees ahead of them.
“Clover, we must hide quickly!”

“If you don’t stop
playing pranks on me, I’ll—” Clover was interrupted by the sound of something
coming toward them. Looper quickly pulled her close to the tree’s trunk, and
the two of them stood straight as pins against it.

A band of zelbocks
walked under the tree. The leader stopped his horse and looked around
suspiciously. “We’re very close to the two children,” he said.

Clover and Looper stood
very quietly, hardly breathing, as the zelbocks stood beneath them.

Finally, the leader
said, “Move on,” and the band of zelbocks moved onward.

“That was a close one,”
Clover said.

“Yeah! Aren’t you glad
I snuck out of the house? You’d probably have been caught by the zelbocks and
brought to Queen Sentiz’s palace, where you’d spend the rest of your days as a
slave fairy,” Looper said.

“Looper, you’re lucky
that I don’t have time to argue with you. We have to beat the zelbocks to
Werrien—or else.”

“Or else what?”

“Or else the zelbocks
will surely capture him, and maybe even kill him, and then they’ll take the
Warble and destroy it.”

“And what do you think
they’ll do with Kristina?”

“Oh, yeah, her.”
Clover’s lips pursed. Then she said, “I suppose they’ll do the same to her.”

The two of them jumped
off the branch and flew as fast as they could through the dark forest until
they were very close behind the zelbocks.

“What are we going to
do if we don’t get to Werrien and Kristina first?” Looper whispered.

“That can’t happen. We
just have to get to him—I mean them—before the zelbocks do.”

The band of zelbocks
stopped again. “We are very near. I can smell them,” the leader said.

“Look between those
trees. There they are!” another zelbock said.

The leader grinned,
revealing his rotten, spike-like teeth. “Our mission is almost accomplished,”
he said and laughed in a horrible way.

“What are we going to
do, Clover? They’ve found them!” Looper whimpered.

“We’ll have to get to
them before the zelbocks do.”

“We’ll never make it.”

“We must!” Clover
pulled her brother by his arm to head in a different direction.

The fairies flew as
fast as they could through the trees to try to beat the zelbocks to where
Werrien and Kristina lay sleeping. But they were too late—the zelbocks had
already arrived.

The leader stopped his
horse and quickly dismounted. Werrien heard him and woke up. He stood up and
tried to draw his knife, but the zelbock threw a burlap sack over Werrien’s
head. Taysha reared up at the zelbocks in an attempt to stop them, but they
whipped her, and she ran off.

Werrien strained to
fight his way out of the sack, but when two more zelbocks joined in, he was
outnumbered. They carried him to the leader’s horse. Looper, having arrived
only a few seconds after the zelbocks, flew over to Kristina, who was hiding
with Raymond behind a tree. “Quick! Follow me,” Looper whispered.

Kristina followed
Looper, but a zelbock noticed her. “Grab the girl! She’s trying to escape!” the
ugly creature yelled to another zelbock.

The zelbock grabbed
Kristina and carried her to his horse. She kicked at him and pounded him with
her fists, but the zelbock was much stronger than she was. Then, just as he was
about to throw her onto the back of his horse, Raymond crawled out of
Kristina’s vest and bit the zelbock, hard, on his hand. The zelbock dropped
Kristina, and she ran with Raymond as fast as she could into the forest.

“After her!” the
zelbock shouted.

Three more zelbocks
chased after her, but Looper guided her to a hiding place inside a thorn brush.
“Quick! Hide in here,” Looper said, showing her a small hole in the bush that
was just big enough for her to crawl into.

Kristina crawled inside
the tangled thorn bush, trying to avoid the large, sharp thorns that stuck out
at her from all directions. When she was inside, she sat very still, trying not
to breathe too hard, but after being chased by the zelbocks, she was
practically out of breath.

The zelbocks searched
for her and came very close to finding her. They even stood right beside the
thorn bush where she was hiding. As they sniffed the air, she sat very still.
They were so close that she could see their ugly greenish-brown feet with their
long, cracked yellow toenails. It felt like an eternity, but sitting still in
the thorn bush paid off—the zelbocks finally decided to leave.

As the zelbocks were leaving, Kristina
could feel the heat from their torches as they passed by her. The leader
suddenly yelled, “Halt!” The horse that was carrying Werrien stopped right
beside the thorn bush where Kristina was huddled and its zelbock rider got off
to check if the sack in which they’d placed Werrien was tied down securely.
Kristina was so close to the sack that she could have reached out and touched
it. But that would have meant doom for Werrien and her, and she felt hopeless
as the zelbock leader mounted his horse and rode away. After she was sure they
were gone, she crawled out of the prickly thorn bush. The air was still as she
stood in the dark forest, with only Raymond for company, but that was about to
change.

Like a flash of
lightning, Clover flew down from a nearby tree branch. “Hurry! There’s no time
to waste!” she said, urgently. “We must get you and the Warble to the top of
Mount Bernovem before Queen Sentiz tortures Werrien—or maybe even kills him!”
She began to fly away and expected Kristina to follow her, but Kristina stood
still, not knowing what to say or do. When Clover noticed that she wasn’t
following her, she flew back and stopped abruptly in midair, very close to
Kristina’s face. “What’s the matter with you? Why won’t you come?”

“There’s somewhat of a
slight problem,” Kristina said.

Clover put her hands on
her hips. “And what might that be?”

“I…don’t have the
Warble.”

Clover clenched her
fists angrily at her sides. “You lost the Warble? I knew it! I just knew you
would fumble this mission,” she ranted. Then she turned around and began to fly
away.

“Wait a minute!”
Kristina yelled after her. Clover didn’t turn around to acknowledge her, so
Kristina yelled again, “I gave it to Werrien!”

Like a speeding bullet,
Clover flew back to her. “You gave what to Werrien?”

“The Warble.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted him
to carry it.”

“Aww! Isn’t that
sweet?” Clover taunted her. “Now look what you’ve done. You ruined any chance
of Bernovem gaining back its freedom.”

“Well, it wouldn’t have
mattered anyway, because I have no way of knowing where I need to bring it,”
Kristina yelled.

In the midst of their
argument, Looper flew up to them. “I know where they’re taking Werrien. We must
hurry and follow them!” he panted.

“Where?” Clover asked.

“To a horrible prison
in the city of Salas.”

“How do you know?”

“I followed the
zelbocks, and I overheard them discussing it.”

“If our father knew you
were out here, following zelbocks, you wouldn’t be allowed out of the colony
for the rest of your childhood years.”

“Look, Sis! If not for
me, you won’t be able to find Werrien in time, and the zelbocks will surely
deliver him into the hands of Queen Sentiz.”

Clover sneered at
Looper. “If you wouldn’t talk so much, we could already be on our way.”

The fairies flew ahead
of Kristina, lighting the way.

“It’ll still be a ways
before we’re out of this forest,” Looper said. Then, as if from nowhere, they
could hear the sound of something running toward them. “Quick! Take cover!
Something’s chasing us!”

The fairies flew up to
a high branch in a tree, but Kristina couldn’t find a place to hide, so she
began to run. She ran as fast as she could, with Raymond clinging to her for
dear life. Whatever it was that was chasing her was quickly gaining ground on
her.

Was this going to be
the end of her life? Did she survive the arrows of the mysterious black-cloaked
figure, and then almost drowning in the raging Indra River, only to be murdered
by a disgusting foul creature like the zelbock? The thought of this was so
horrifying. Tears began to stream down her face. She tried her hardest not to
give up, but the cramp was back in her side, and the more she ran, the more it
intensified, like a sharp knife piercing her. She soon couldn’t run any
farther, and so she stopped behind a large tree to catch her breath. As she
leaned against the tree, she could hear whatever was chasing her had stopped
dead in its tracks—on the other side of the tree. It, too, was breathing
heavily from the chase.

Raymond poked his head
out of Kristina’s vest and whispered, “Well, if we have to go, at least we’ll
go together.”

“Thanks, Raymond. That
really makes me feel better,” Kristina whispered back.

Raymond crawled back
inside her vest. Kristina closed her eyes, as whatever had been chasing her
slowly came around to her side of the tree. She could feel its warm, moist
breath on her face. “Open your eyes,” it said.

Kristina opened one
eye, and then the other. To her surprise, standing in front of her was Taysha,
and at her side were Clover and Looper, giggling.

Kristina swatted at the
fairies but of course they were too quick and agile for her to hit them. “You
little brats!” she said.
“Taysha! Why didn’t you say that it was
you?”

“You should know by now
that the quieter we are in these woods, the better. We can’t take the risk of
your getting caught by the zelbocks,” Taysha answered.

“You have a good point,
but you scared me almost to death.” Kristina reached her arms around Taysha’s
neck and hugged her.

“We must hurry. There’s
no time to waste. Get on my back.”

Raymond poked his head
out of Kristina’s vest again. “We’re going to ride on her again? How can you be
sure she won’t rub us off against a tree—or something even worse? I surely
don’t trust her.”

“Don’t be so rude,
Raymond,” Kristina said.

“She almost stepped on
me.”

Taysha snorted at
Raymond, and he ducked back down into Kristina’s vest.

This was the first time
that Kristina rode Taysha by herself, and everything was going quite smoothly
until they came across a large fallen tree that was blocking their way. All
around the tree were overgrown thorn bushes.

“How are we going to
get around this?” Kristina asked.

“You’re just going to
have to hold on!” Taysha said.

Kristina grabbed hold
of Taysha’s mane and with that, Taysha leaped high in the air and over the
tree. Kristina slid sideways a little but didn’t fall off. “Wow! That was
actually quite fun,” she said.

As the group traveled
on, the darkness started to fade and the early-morning light set in.

“Look! We’re almost out
of the forest,” Looper said, pointing toward the east.

“And it’s a good
thing,” Clover said to Looper, “because we’ll have to get home before father
wakes and sees that you’ve left the colony.”

“Do you really have to
go?” Kristina asked Looper.

“I’m afraid so,” Looper
said sadly.

“How am I to know how
to get to the city of Salas?”

“It’s easy; you head
south until you come to the Citnalta Sea. Then follow the cliffs and bluffs east,
along the sea, until you see a small cottage off to your left. Then head north,
over the hills, until you come to a dwarfs’ burial ground. At that point, you
will head east, and then you will run into the city of Salas.”

After Looper finished
explaining the directions to Kristina, they said good-bye, and Kristina headed
out of the forest. She would miss Looper’s company; as for Clover, maybe not as
much.