The Warble

by Victoria Simcox

  “It’s not that bad. Besides, it beats walking all the way.”

  Kristina pulled her hand away. Was that the horse talking?

  “What’s the matter? Haven’t been around horses before?” Werrien asked her.

  “I’m sure that I just heard it talk.”

  “What’s the big deal? All animals talk.”

  “Not where I come from.”

  “Well they do in Bernovem. Come here; I’ll give you a lift up on Taysha.”

  Kristina had never ridden a horse, and she was a bit nervous to do so, but there was no way she was going to let Werrien know—she’d had enough of his sarcasm as it was. She calmly walked over to Taysha’s side, where Werrien was standing with his back toward her. When she came close enough, he turned around to face her, holding a knife in his hand. Kristina looked shocked. “Don’t be afraid. I just thought that this would go good with those old clothes of mine you’re wearing. Besides, it might come in handy along our journey,” Werrien said.

  Kristina wasn’t sure if she should take the knife. Her mother and father would have never allowed her to carry one around. Werrien sensed her apprehension and was about to put it away.

  “What are you doing?” Kristina asked.

  “By the look on your face, I figured you didn’t want it.”

  Kristina laughed nervously. “I’d love to carry that knife.”

  Looking a little puzzled, Werrien handed it to her. “Now you look like a true warrior.”

  Kristina blushed. Even though it wasn’t a compliment she would have expected, she kind of liked it.

  Werrien helped her onto his horse, and then he jumped up onto the front of the saddle. They said good bye to Leacha, and as they headed into the moss-laden forest, Leacha stood outside her tree house door, sniffling and waving farewell with her handkerchief.

  11

  After tripping over a rock, Ugan toppled down a slope and landed on a nasty thorn bush. He moaned with pain as he looked to see that his bottom was stuck with many thorns, some as large as toothpicks. Just above in a tree, a black raven cawed down to him. “Oh, quit your squawking, or I‘ll knock you out of that tree,” Ugan’s voice strained from the intense pain.

  “Give me some of your food, and I’ll pull those thorns out for you in a jiffy,” the raven said.

  Ugan ignored the raven and tried to reach around himself to pull out the thorns. The raven felt Ugan was ungrateful and so he flew away.

  Ugan realized that he wasn’t able to reach the thorns with his short arms, so he yelled after the raven, “Okay! I’ll take your offer, but just for a few crumbs of bread.”

  Brushing the top of Ugan’s head, the raven landed on a rock next to him.

  “Well, come on, I don’t have all day.” Ugan leaned against the rock and stuck his bottom out.

  The raven hopped to the ground behind him and took a thorn in his beak. As he pulled it out, Ugan’s face went scarlet red, and his usually straight beard hairs curled up from the agonizing pain. The raven kept pulling away at the thorns, and Ugan stuck his fist in his mouth and bit down on it to take his focus off his pain. Finally, the raven pulled the last thorn out of Ugan’s bottom. Then it hopped back onto the rock, and Ugan stood up with a very stiff back from bending over so long. The raven watched with large, hungry eyes as Ugan began untying his lunch sack from his waist. Just as he had finished untying it, the raven snatched the small sack from Ugan’s hand and flew off with it.

  “Why, you good-for-nothing…” Ugan yelled. With fumbling hands, he tried to untie his slingshot from his waist. But it was no use; by the time he finally held it to the sky, the raven was a mere speck off in the distance. Ugan sank down against the rock, and as his bottom touched the ground, he moaned in pain. Now what am I supposed to do?

  He had neither food nor the measly amount of fairy blossom rationed to him by the queen. Feeling such despair, he drifted off to sleep and began to dream about his life in the past, when things had been much better. Prince Raspue was still at the palace and had treated him with kindness. The prince had allowed Ugan to have clean and comfy sleeping quarters, healthy meals, and plenty of fairy-blossom tea, which gave him ample energy to do his job, for which he formerly had been paid. He would have two days a week off, during which he could spend time outdoors, fishing, working in the garden, or just basking in the sun. His dream was so relaxing and peaceful, but then it suddenly changed. Four zelbocks were taking Prince Raspue as a prisoner. They handcuffed him and dragged him out of the palace. Queen Sentiz watched from the palace window, laughing at the sight of her husband being humiliated as he was dragged away. While she stood there, her face grew larger and larger, and her laugh grew louder and louder, until her mouth was about to swallow Ugan’s head. Ugan woke up, shocked from his dream. Sweating and shaking, he sat there with his eyes wide and his breathing heavy.

  It was dark out and hard to see. An owl screeched loudly and made him jump to his feet. He realized that it would be too dangerous to travel any farther in the dark, so he made the decision to find a safe place to take cover for the night. He would try to sleep and would get an early start in the morning to Rumalock’s house. He hoped that he could make it by mid-afternoon the next day. He crawled up the slope that he had fallen down earlier and when he reached the top, he felt winded, so he stopped to rest. He poked his head between a thatch of grass to view the trees in the forest ahead. He could see a small fire burning, and he noticed a dwarf coming toward the fire, carrying wood. The dwarf placed the wood down and then knelt by the fire to stoke it. Ugan sat quietly, hoping the other dwarf wouldn’t notice him. He didn’t want to take the chance of any more bad encounters, for he had had enough for one day.

  The other dwarf rolled out a sleeping mat beside the fire and then laid down on it. Ugan waited until he was sure he was asleep before he tiptoed closer to the fire to get a better look. He could see a large knapsack across the fire from the sleeping dwarf. Ugan was usually not one for stealing, but he had not eaten since the day before, nor had he had any fairy blossom, which he desperately needed for his stamina.

  The other dwarf began snoring away, so Ugan cautiously approached the knapsack, but as he did so, the sleeping dwarf tossed himself over to lie on his other side. Ugan hid behind the knapsack, hoping that the sleeping dwarf wouldn’t wake up. He waited a few more minutes until the dwarf was snoring again. Then he untied the tassels of the sack. As it opened, a pot and a spoon fell out, clanking loudly on the ground. The sleeping dwarf sat up abruptly, and Ugan quickly hid behind the sack and tried not to make a sound. The other dwarf glanced nervously about the woods, and when he didn’t see anything, he went back to sleep. Ugan cautiously dug his hand into the sack to see if he could feel any food. He pulled out an apple and some fairy blossom—finally, something to ease his nervous mind. He took only enough for a few days; after all, he didn’t want to leave the sleeping dwarf without any for himself. He retied the tassels on the knapsack and quietly tiptoed off into the forest to find a place to rest for the night. He found a large tree with a smooth base where he could build a fire as well as sleep. Then he settled down for the night.

  While sitting by his own cozy fire, drinking the fairy-blossom tea he had stolen, the raven, named Roage, picked through his stolen lunch with some other ravens. As they rummaged through it, Roage came across a napkin with the queen’s face on it. Queen Sentiz had made sure that her portraits were on almost everything in the palace. The largest ones were in gaudy, ornate frames that hung on all the walls of every room in the palace, and the smallest ones were on the sides of each and every quill pen. Captured fairies were made to work as slave laborers to paint many of the portraits.

  Noticing the portrait of the queen on the napkin, Roage became very angry. No animal in Bernovem, even the most sneaky and conniving, supported the queen. Anyone from her household would have to be pretty brave—or pretty stupid—to travel alone in the deep woods. Ugan really was neither of those—except maybe a smidgen of the latter.<
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  “We can’t let this imposter loose in our forest,” Roage said to his comrades, who were busy gobbling down some stale bread. “The little sneak.”

  While the other ravens fought over the last few crumbs, Roage spread his wings and cawed loudly to get their attention. They dropped the bread out of their beaks and stood silent, looking at him with their beady black eyes. “We must leave at dawn to find him,” Roage said.

  As dawn rolled in, the ravens left their tree to find Ugan, but after searching for a long time and finding nothing, they were ready to give up. The five of them flew up to a tree and perched on a branch to rest. It was foggy, damp, and miserably cold out. “It’s no use; he’s not out here,” one of the ravens said.

  “That’s what I’m thinking, and I’m getting hungry,” another raven chimed in.

  Then suddenly, they heard some rustling.

  “Quiet!” Roage said, tilting his head sideways to look down from the tree where they were perched. At the base of it, huddled under a small gray blanket with the queen’s portrait embroidered on it, lay Ugan, sleeping soundly. The five ravens dropped to the ground and hopped toward the gray mound. They grabbed hold of the blanket with their beaks and, all at once, yanked it off of Ugan.

  Ugan woke abruptly. “What, when, where am I?” he said, still half-asleep. With their wings stretched out, the ravens circled around him, cawing loudly. “What do you want from me?” Ugan backed himself up against the tree.

  “We know who you are,” one of the ravens said.

  “A dirty traitor,” another one said.

  “You work for that wicked Queen Sentiz,” Roage said.

  “You don’t understand. I’m really only her slave,” Ugan responded.

  But the ravens had no mercy, and they began to close in on him. They pecked at him with their long, pointed beaks. Ugan managed to kick them away, but they had already torn his pants and nipped his legs until they were bloody. When he finally broke free of them, he began to run as fast as his little legs could carry him. Through the foggy forest, the ravens tailed close behind him, swooping down and pecking at his head, making it very hard for him to see in which direction he was going. But he dared not stop; he had heard stories of ravens like these actually killing dwarfs. These stories were always thought to be no more than old dwarfs’ tales, the kind that would be told late at night while sitting around bonfires, nevertheless, he wasn’t taking any chances.

  As the chase went on, the weather changed, and it started to rain heavily. Lightning struck a tree and it fell, almost hitting Ugan on the head; luckily he managed to outrun it, but just barely. The ravens were also having a hard time chasing him in the heavy rain, and so they flew up to a tree branch to rest.

  “He’s lucky this time—the traitor! But I’d better not catch him again in our neck of the woods,” Roage said as he and the other four sat drenched on the branch.

  As Ugan kept running, the forest started to look familiar. The rain began to lighten up, and he noticed that the ravens were gone. He finally stopped and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. While panting heavily, he stared through the tall, mossy trees, and to his surprise, he could see, directly in front of him, his brother Rumalock’s cottage.

  12

  It was quite a surprise for Ugan that he had run all the way to Rumalock’s cottage, for he was expecting the journey to take much longer. He leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath, and with a shaky hand, he wiped the sweat off his brow and thought about the task that lay ahead of him. He really wasn’t looking forward to it, especially with his nerves so wrenched from the frightful chase and his legs in pain from the cuts that the nasty ravens had made. Leading the three human children into Her Majesty’s trap only gave him a sick feeling in his stomach to add to it all.

  Her Majesty—what an unsuitable title for such a horrible being, he thought. But that was beside the point; his life was at stake, and what had to be done just had to be done. He hated to be deceitful, but at the same time, he wasn’t going to risk maybe being banished to Treachery Island. He had been there many times with the queen, and it was not a pretty place. Prisoners were held in locks and chains, in cold damp cells, and he could still recall their screams of anguish. Most of them would go insane over time from being there too long. The mere thought of it sent a chill down his spine.

  A hope of a new Bernovem was something Ugan didn’t have. The reality of living in the dismal palace with the self-absorbed queen was as far as he could see. He was a dwarf of little faith, and he envied his brother, Rumalock, for opting to live a simple life. Though Rumalock had to live poorly and spend a lot of his days in search of the almost-extinct fairy blossom, it still seemed much better than Ugan’s life at the palace. Luxuries and riches are not always what they are chalked up to be. If he’d only listened to Rumalock’s advice years ago, about not taking the position at the palace, he would have been much better off. But then again, how was he supposed to know that Queen Sentiz had such a plan to oppress and dictate over Bernovem? Her beauty and charm were so convincing, and it just seemed too farfetched, all the talk among the so-called believers about a Warble being returned someday to bring peace to Bernovem. Besides he wasn’t the only one not taking it seriously; most dwarfs and gnomes didn’t believe it. The believers were in the minority.

  Ugan thought again to the task that lay ahead, and he hoped that Rumalock wouldn’t be home, so that he could pretend that the cottage was his own. He took a deep breath and started off toward it, hoping what he needed to do would just come to him as he went along. He walked very quietly, so as not to be seen or heard. As he drew near the cottage, he could see a light coming from the front window and smoke coming out of the chimney. He peeked in the window. There was no sight of Rumalock, but sitting on the couch were two girls, and in Rumalock’s armchair sat a boy. The three of them were playing cards, and the boy was smoking Rumalock’s pipe. They were arguing over the game.

  “Graham, I saw you looking at my cards, you cheat!” one girl said.

  “I was not, Hester!” Graham replied.

  “That’s why you’ve been winning every time,” the other girl added.

  “Right, Davina. He’s nothing but a dirty rotten cheat!” Hester went on.

  Graham took a big puff from the pipe and then blew the smoke in Hester’s face.

  “That’s it! I’ve had it with you!” Hester yelled, throwing her cards down. She reached out and grabbed Graham by his hair, and just as they were about to fight like wild barbarians, Ugan walked into the cottage. Hester let go of Graham’s hair and the three children stood up, looking very surprised.

  “Well, well! I wasn’t expecting company, but even so, I must say that I’m glad to see I have guests,” Ugan said.

  The children looked at each other, and then Davina said, “Aren’t you even upset that we broke into your house?”

  “Upset? How could I be upset at the sight of three lovely children as yourselves. An old chap like me rarely gets such fine company.” Ugan hung his cloak on a wall hook.

  Graham hid the smoking pipe behind his back, but Davina and Hester gave him dirty looks because of the smoke and strong odor it was putting out.

  Ugan also noticed the smoke seeping up from behind Graham’s back and said, “Oh, I see that you’ve found my pipe.”

  Graham’s freckled face went tomato red, and he became tongue-tied.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” Ugan continued.

  Once again the three children looked oddly at each other because of Ugan’s reaction to the pipe.

  “You hardly look human. What are you?” Hester asked.

  “I am a dwarf, and my name is Ugan.” Ugan offered his hand to Graham. Graham thinking Ugan to be strange, hardly touched his hand and when he did, he pulled his away quickly.

  “Welcome to the land of Bernovem,” Ugan said and took each girl by her hand and placed a kiss on it.

  Hester gave Davina another weird look at this gesture. “We wa
nt to know how we got here,” Hester said, her snootiness rising up once again.

  Ugan didn’t know how to answer, so he thought quickly and made something up. “You see, children, you may not realize how very fortunate you are,” he said. “You have been chosen by the most honorable Queen Sentiz of Bernovem to visit her in her beautiful palace, where you will be treated as royalty.” Ugan hoped this would entice them.

  Davina’s and Hester’s faces lit up, but Graham looked very suspicious.

  “When do we get to go?” Davina asked excitedly.

  “We must leave at once, for the sooner we get there, the sooner your pampering will begin.”

  Graham did not quite believe what Ugan was offering them. “How do we know we can trust you?” he asked apprehensively.

  Ugan thought hard for a moment and then said, “You know, I can tell you are a very smart young man, with much concern for your friends’ and your own safety, and this tells a lot about you. I must tell you that Her Majesty is longing for such a nice boy as yourself that she can spoil as she did her own son, whom I’m sad to say”—Ugan lowered his head as if from great sorrow—“has passed on.”

  Graham’s suspicious look suddenly changed to an annoying grin. Hester stomped her foot hard on Graham’s toe to let him know that he’d better not ruin this once in a lifetime opportunity.

  “Ouch!” Graham yelled. Not only did his toe hurt, but he’d also burnt his finger on the hot pipe. As he did so, he stepped backwards and hit the top of his head on the underneath of the fireplace mantel, causing three books to fall off, one of them being the Book of Prophecy. The three children began to bicker among themselves and so paid no attention as the book lay open on the floor—with their names on the open page.

  Ugan snatched the book up quickly, and as he did so, he could see the word “zelbocks” very faintly appearing, and then the word “pillage” and then his brother’s name, “Rumalock”. He glanced out the window to see eight zelbocks coming out of the forest, carrying torches. “We really must leave now!” he said, urgently.