The Finders Keepers

by R.G. Strike

  This was not the first time that Eliezer had walked out. She had been accustomed to this since she was younger, but getting to ditch them seriously now was entirely different. She felt something terrible like she always did. She was aware that it was not a good action to take – unethical at all sorts.

  She remembered what Alex had told: Just for a gift. . . . Eliezer knew that it was not an easy feeling to endure . . . to watch them receive each of their own fantastic presents while she had none . . . while she just waited for her own – for a nonexistent one.

  Her eyes were tearful and she felt heavy inside her chest. This was not the time to cry, not the place to cry. All that mattered was for her to reach home and tell everything that had happened to her father. Maybe he would give her a far better gift, she thought.

  She wiped her falling tears away as she trekked the snowy steepness of Christmas. The snowstorm was terrible and she regretted the fact that she had not brought a jacket or anything to keep her warm. On the other hand, she was determined to stand what she chose . . . she knew that she would reach home in a short while, though the castle appeared too far and small on top of a snow-blanketed mountain through the moonlight.

  She kept walking in the wintry forest, no sense of direction as the total darkness covered everything. She crept past gigantic roots she could feel and climbed yet higher mountain. She was now crying without control and without noticing because she was focused on getting home the sooner she could.

  A soft hiss erupted somewhere on the right.

  Eliezer jumped and veered left and ran quickly with her adrenaline, occasionally stumbling whenever her foot hit a large and thick spreading tree root. She began panicking, her heart pounding fast and skipping beats, sweating constantly though the air around was freezing cold.

  The hiss somehow disappeared, but she felt that she was headed to peril as she jumped and ran along the darkness. A very big, twisting root crept upwards the elevation of the mountain, bumping rocks that now rolled down into the frozen creek. Eliezer did not see that. She was sent face down on the heap of snow with a thump.

  A cracking sound drew from below, and the heap of snow sank deeply afterwards. She fell, startled, and dropped against a warm ground.

  I’m dead, she thought. She could feel warmth and coldness damp upon her soul, clashing but never mixing. She sensed herself snap and felt ethereal, as though she was now being taken to heaven.

  But when she opened her eyes, she was not dead. In fact, she was lying on her back facing the sunken space overhead, with snow falling on her pale face. Yellow lights were glinting against the walls of the burrow.

  Eliezer stood and dusted herself. She was muttering soft curses as her blond hairs looked shaggy and untidy when –

  The three Allimans of Mr. and Mrs. Luciens were staring at her in wonder.

  “Sorry, I just . . . but I –” she said the moment they gaped at her. “Er – eh?”

  The curiousness and eagerness were nothing less distinguishable upon the three Allimans’ emotion. They glanced at each other for a few seconds of silence but a serene fire crackling in the grate, then the one in the middle stepped back and ran to rummage something there.

  He was holding four flat, black, and thick triangles (she suspected it to be spoiled pizza) when he came back. On the bottom of each piece was coated with blue line that was glowing easily even in the brightness. The Alliman laid it on the bare floor and all three of them looked at those pieces then to Eliezer.

  No one talked or sounded as the staring moment crept longer. Eliezer finally decided to speak.

  “That is your gift, isn’t it?” she asked them stupidly, though she was aware none of them would respond. “You’d better be thankful than having nothing like me. . . .”

  Once again, the three of them just looked at her, not sounding.

  “But you know how to use them?” she intoned as she squatted in front of them.

  No answer came as usual but a liter of silence and three pairs of wide eyes darting from the smithereens into her. She looked back in return.

  “Oh my . . . you don’t?”

  No response.

  “Oh, poor . . . you really don’t know? Don’t worry, I’ll teach you ’cause I’ve heard that old knight talk about it. Okay, here you go. . . .”

  She extended her hands and glided the four pieces of flat triangles in her front, the Allimans were inattentively and uninterestedly watching her put the pieces together. The middle Alliman shrieked just as she was putting the last piece.

  It was swift. The Alliman snatched the last piece from her hand and angrily scowled at her. He hissed and gently laid it on the floor.

  “What did I do?” she barked. “I was even the one teaching you how to use it. . . .”

  The two other Alliman shook their heads. They crawled towards her and disassembled the other three pieces. When they were done, they gave Eliezer one triangle. She was awed and dumbstruck as she held the triangle on her hands.

  “T-thank you!” she cried. “Such sweet. . . . Y-you bothered to give me a gift. . . .”

  The three Allimans protruded jubilant smiles, taking their own triangle.

  “But I really need to go now,” Eliezer concluded. “I need to see my father, you know.”

  Their faces melted, disagreeing.

  “I’m really sorry,” she said, tucking the triangle on her pocket.

  In a blink of the eye, a set of cakes and chairs popped out of the ground, dusts flying out. A smoking kettle, a pan with soft cream cake, and a round plate materialized when the dust subsided.

  She coughed. “For me?”

  The three Allimans nodded: Her face bloomed bright and gleeful. She quickly went on the table and poured everything to her mouth. When she finished satisfying her temporary hunger, she looked at them and said, “Okay, goodbye. . . .”

  She faced aback and walked on a wooden stair leading upward. The three Allimans quickly came after her as her shape vanished overhead.

  She was running now, thinking that she still had miles and miles to walk away, and the sky was glowing dark blue. She did not dare to abandon them after she ate what they gave to probably convince her. She left them because she felt something good about going home.

  The three Allimans were following vaguely at her back, though they were gradually losing sight of her every ticking second. They scattered after a minute for easier way of tracking Eliezer.

  Worf was advancing like a flash wolf; wind rushed and howled past his scaly green ears. The forest at dawn, indeed, was treacherous especially in the darkness because a loud snapping branch echoed in the distant, followed by a flapping away of something that must be owl.

  He continued on his way, ignoring what had happened. Somewhere beyond the woods, someone was running. Worf could hear the subsequent drawing of steps thumping against the heightening pile of snow. He tried to get a clear sight of who that was, but his night vision only had him to see a set of bushy hairs and a dark, elongated face.

  The running figure stopped on the nearby tree. It was now hooded, its back against him, head down and was crying.

  Worf was taken aback. It was Eliezer, he thought.

  Blinking at once, he slowly crawled forward. The hooded figure shot its face against him, the hood slithering to reveal an Alliman’s face, hissing awkwardly at him. The rest of the coat fell on the ground. The wings spouted from its back.

  “Where are they?” Alfrendo demanded in the animal language. “Where?”

  “I – I don’t know – I really don’t!” Worf responded.

  Alfrendo unsatisfied and frustrated face burned rage. Worf flinched and began crawling backwards, fearful. Alfrendo turned to follow him, but Worf swiftly dashed towards the spaces in between the large barked trees.

  He was actually fast in terms of flying and was perfectly sure that Alfrendo would not be able to see him or catch him now. He remained soaring in the air for so long.

  Rectangular pieces of papers were nailed o
n every tree that Worf could see. The light coming from the sky was sufficient enough to make the texts inscribed there visible.

  PRINCE & PRINCESS

  Kidnapped by two rabbits!

  REWARD: ETERNAL GLORY

  Worf’s flapping paces gradually abated as he stepped right in front of one tree. He could not easily take in what was legibly written in astounding letters. In fact, he stood there motionless and dumbstruck when –

  “That’s what we’re about to tell you.”

  It was Meow and Tweet. They were levitating without effort flapping their bat-like wings, and they were looking at Worf with intensely worried eyes.

  “They might probably have misunderstood it . . . I mean they can’t. . . . The Luciens never kidnapped them,” Tweet hissed. Worf was still shocked.

  “No, they didn’t!” Meow had agreed. “There’s no reason for them to. Well, I’d say that it was us who had suggested to save them when those three ogres were about to feed them to Alfrendo.”

  “They’re Cyclops – not ogres,” Tweet said, eyeing Worf. “I hate this! I really hate this! If we could just talk the way humans could, perhaps we could make ideal explanation to the king!”

  Both of them glanced at Worf when he began clenching his teeth.

  “Did you see the little girl?” he asked rather slowly.

  They nodded, but that was not enough for Worf to get his blurry thought palpated. He faced them.

  “Then where is she if you found her?”

  “A lady on hooded coat took her to the palace,” said Tweet straightly.

  “A hooded lady – but that was . . . that was Alfrendo!”

  The two gasped for air at what Worf had just been said. They flashed him wide eyes unbelievingly.

  “It – it can’t be!” Meow bellowed. “We trusted her to take the little girl to the king!”

  “I told you. That was Alfrendo – he tricked you!”