“Oh I know, believe me. I wouldn't have survived this long if it hadn't been for Kronk and Aeris and the others.”
Simon made a small movement with the mirror and his view of Daniel's location pulled back so that he could see more of the room around him.
“You're in a nicer spot than the last time we spoke,” he commented as he looked at the cozy room Daniel was sitting in.
“You're right. The elders were transported to a distant settlement, as far from the main group of attacking dragons as possible and they were nice enough to bring me along. They may not cast spells, but they have ways of moving across vast distances very quickly when necessary.”
He looked around the room with obvious pleasure.
“Believe it or not, I'm actually sitting inside a tree.”
“You're kidding!” Simon replied and leaned forward to get a better view.
“Nope. Look at the walls. They're grown, not constructed. In fact, if you could see the outside of this place, it would look like just a section of forest. There are absolutely no signs of habitation at all. With the elves' power to cast a glamor over themselves, it could be quite some time before the dragons track us down.”
“Good. So, any word on whether I can enter the elven realm safely or not?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not yet. Remember, it's only been a few hours, my time, since we last spoke. We just arrived here a short while ago. I have put the question to several of the wisest of the elders and they have agreed to give it some thought. That's actually quite an accomplishment in so short a time. Try and be patient, my friend. You know that my group is safe, at least for now. And the elves aren't just passively sitting back and letting the brown dragons run rampant across their world. They are fighting back. Yes, we're had losses, but so have the dragons. So get your home back in order, make sure you warn all of your allies about those blasted wights and cultivate patience.”
Simon pushed back the hair that had fallen into his face with an irritated gesture.
“Since you obviously aren't going to cut that mane of yours, have you thought about tying it back?”
The wizard looked at Daniel in surprise.
“Tie it back?” He paused and then laughed. “Oh my God, can you believe that never occurred to me?”
“I can, actually. I mean, you were almost as bald as a cue ball back in your old body. I doubt if the issue ever came up then.”
Simon shook his head at his own stupidity.
“Thanks for the suggestion. That's exactly what I'm going to do. The damned stuff gets in my eyes constantly, but I just can't bring myself to cut it.”
Daniel chuckled.
“Tie it back and you won't have to. Now, give me a few more days, your time, and call back again. Hopefully I'll have some news for you.”
“Will do. It will make the wait a lot easier now that I know you're safe, for the moment.”
“Good. Talk to you then.”
Simon canceled the spell and put down the mirror. There was an incessant tapping going on below that wasn't loud, but was continuous and it was setting his teeth on edge.
He got up abruptly, left the study and went into his bedroom, looking for something to use to tie his hair back out of his face. He rummaged through his drawers for a bit and finally found a small paper bag with a bunch of shoelaces that he'd left there. He pulled out a black one, stood in front of his clothes cupboard with its full length mirror and tried for the first time in his life to tie his hair into a ponytail.
“Okay, this is harder than it looks,” he muttered irritably after it unraveled for the fourth time. “Women with long hair make it look so easy. Gees.”
He finally managed to pull all of the hair back at once and hurriedly tied the shoelace around it, making a bow and feeling slightly ridiculous.
Simon stared at his reflection with his hands on his hips. The streaks of white in his hair were more prominent now that it was pulled back tight, but at least it was out of his face.
“Well son,” he said to the young man in the mirror with the blue and brown, mismatched eyes, “you ain't no rock star, but you'll do.”
Then he stuck out his tongue, giggled at himself and went back to the study.
The loud noises from the first floor began to taper off soon afterward, for which Simon was very grateful, but then a sharp chemical smell, so strong that it made his eyes water, wafted through the room.
The wizard got up and went out to stand at the top of the stairs.
“Kronk? What the heck is that horrible smell?”
“Smell, master?” Kronk called out. He tapped over and looked up from the bottom of the staircase. He had a puzzled expression on his face. “What smell?”
“I don't know. It smells like a mixture of turpentine, cat pee and vomit.”
The little guy looked around with a frown and then his eyes widened.
“Oh, I think I know! It's a sealant, master. We are sealing the floor, walls and ceiling to prevent dampness from getting into the wood.”
“A sealant? Okay, that makes sense. But what's it made of?”
Kronk shrugged, a quick movement of his sloped shoulders.
“I cannot explain it, master. We combine elements from the earth, certain minerals and natural oils buried deep below the surface. It dries quickly though, so the smell won't last long,” he added brightly.
“Great,” Simon grumbled. “Okay, thanks. Call me when you're done, please. I'm going a bit stir-crazy up here.”
“I will, master. It won't be much longer.”
The wizard smiled weakly at Kronk and went back into his study, grabbing a book from the bookshelf at random and sitting down with a sigh.
It didn't take long for the smell to fade away, but by that time, Simon could actually taste it and was constantly swallowing to clear his mouth. He looked at the doorway and wished for the first time that he had actually had doors installed on the second floor rooms back when the tower was built.
He glanced at the shuttered windows. The storm was still whipping around the tower and even if he'd wanted to open a window, he couldn't. Kronk had managed to keep a fire going in the fireplace downstairs, so at least the tower was warm, but opening one of the windows for some fresh air would quickly drop the inside temperature to sub-zero levels.
I need a cup of tea, or three, he thought mournfully. Actually, what he really wanted was coffee. God, how he missed coffee.
Once again he wished that the original dragon attacks on humanity's cities and towns hadn't annihilated stores and malls along with people's homes and everything else.
There must be an overlooked warehouse someplace where there are crates of instant coffee just waiting to be scavenged. I mean, I know that the drakes cleaned up whatever the dragons missed, but surely somewhere out there is a stash of frigging coffee.
Simon sat back and frowned in concentration.
Maybe if I got the coordinates for Columbia from the atlas and Gated down there, I could harvest some coffee beans? Surely they're still growing wild in the fields or whatever?
That idea lasted less than a minute and then his practical side kicked in.
Okay, first of all, I'd need to get some volunteers from Nottinghill to even make the attempt worthwhile. Then I'd have to transport us all down there at the proper time of year, spend a day or two harvesting, then figure out what the hell to do with the beans once we had them. Should they be treated with something? Dried out in the sun for however long? And how do you know when a coffee bean is exactly ready to be picked?
Simon stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at himself. Stupid idea. No, when the crisis with Daniel and the elves was resolved, he thought and crossed his fingers, he'd summon the team of air elemental scouts he'd had working for him once before and send them out to search for supplies. Canned and bottled food couldn't be trusted after so many years, but instant coffee and other things like it should be okay.
He nodded to himself, grabbed a
piece of paper from the pile on the desk and made a note for later. Then he slipped it into a desk drawer and looked up just in time to see Kronk tip-tapping into the room, a broad smile on his rough little face.
“We are finished, master,” he said happily. “I hope you weren't too bored up here while you were waiting.”
“You're done?”
Simon leaped to his feet and walked toward the earthen.
“No, I was fine,” he told the little guy, who turned and led the way out of the room. “Ignore my whining from earlier, Kronk. You guys do in a day what might have taken a week or more for a team of workers back in the old days.”
“Thank you, master,” the earthen replied as he began to hop down the stairs. “But we just do what we do because it comes naturally to us.”
Simon reached the bottom of the staircase and turned, holding his breath and hoping for the best. What he saw exceeded his expectations.
The floor and walls were totally repaired. They glowed with a healthy sheen, the rich dark wood showing beautiful veins beneath the clear coating the earthen had sealed it with.
The ceiling beams had been scraped down and resealed as well and if he hadn't known that there had been a fire earlier, Simon would never had guessed the place had been damaged.
The sofa was still missing and he felt a pang of loss. He'd had the comfortable old thing for at least five years; it had been moved from his living room in his last apartment a year before the end of the world. But of course Kronk and his helpers couldn't replace it. They could build in wood, stone and minerals, but a stuffed cushion would be beyond them.
The little guy was watching his expression and jumped in to reassure him.
“There is a woman in Nottinghill who repairs their furniture, master. I have spoken to her once before. In the spring, I can arrange for her to make cushions for a new sofa for you and I will build the frame for it. I am so sorry that we do not have the knowledge to do it for you.”
“No, no, my friend,” Simon hastened to tell him. “It's fine. Better than fine; it's fantastic!”
He turned to look at the rest of the room and smiled with delight.
The earthen had built a new kitchen table and chairs in a lighter wood. Like the rest of the wood in the room, it had a healthy gleam to it and looked homey and comfortable. The counter and cupboards had been repaired and resurfaced as well and all signs of soot and fire damage on the stone surrounding the fireplace had been scrubbed away.
They had even built a new clothes cupboard near the door for his outerwear and Simon took a moment to open it and look inside.
He looked at Kronk and the other five earthen who were waiting anxiously for his reaction.
He smiled warmly at all of them.
“As usual, you bunch always exceed expectations. It's marvelous, really. And I'm not just saying that.”
He looked around and sighed contentedly.
“I've got my home back,” he said happily. “Yours too, of course,” he added quickly. “Thank you all so, so much.”
They all bowed in unison, their little blocky faces looking up at him with smiles of their own.
“Thank you, master. I speak for all of us when I say it is always our pleasure to serve you.”
Kronk looked at the others and rattled off something in his own language. They nodded and murmured a reply and then the group went out, closing the door firmly behind them. They'd even straightened out the latch that the wights had bent back when they'd burst into the tower.
“Where are they off to now?” Simon asked him as he crossed the room to examine the kitchen area.
“I've sent them back to patrol the wall, master.” the little guy said. He tapped over and jumped up on to the table. “I'm sure Aeris is curious to see our repairs and now he can allow my fellow earthen to take over the watch on the wall.”
“Ah, good thinking.”
The wizard sat down and worked his butt around on the new kitchen chair. The elementals had contoured the seat and, for a wooden chair, it was smooth and comfortable.
“Wonderful,” Simon said and sat back to simply enjoy his home.
Aeris popped into the room and flew over to join Kronk on the table. He looked around the room with narrowed eyes and the earthen watched him a bit nervously.
“Well?” the wizard asked. “Are you going to be nice and compliment Kronk and his friends on their work or are you going to say something mean?”
“Mean?”
Aeris looked at him and then at Kronk.
“Of course not. They've done a wonderful job; very efficient.”
The earthen stared at him, obviously speechless. Simon felt the same way.
“What? Why are you two looking at me like that?” Aeris asked irritably. “I give credit when credit is due. Well done, Kronk.”
“Thank you,” the earthen replied weakly.
Simon patted the little guy on the back.
“See? Even Aeris knows you've done a great job.”
Kronk nodded silently, still digesting the air elemental's compliment.
The wizard looked regretfully at the fireplace. His comfy stuffed chair had been destroyed and, like the sofa, was beyond the earth elementals' skills to replace.
Ah but I loved sitting in front of the fire during the long winter nights, he thought with a pang of sadness. Oh well, it could have been so much worse.
He pushed aside his negative thoughts and jumped up. He grabbed his kettle, shined to a dull glow, and filled it from the pump.
“My celebration of this marvelous repair job begins with a cup of tea in my new kitchen,” he told the two elementals with a grin.
He hung the kettle in the fireplace and rummaged through the kitchen cabinets.
“It's good to see how quickly things are getting back to normal,” Aeris said with approval. “And now that they are, did you get in touch with your friend in the elven lands? It's been two days, after all.”
“I did,” Simon told him. He leaned back on the counter to wait for the water to boil.
“Daniel said that they've moved further away from the main center of the dragon attacks, so that's good news. And he looks better than the last time we talked. According to him, the elvish glamor should keep the dragons off of their trail for some time.”
“That is good news, master,” Kronk piped up.
“Yep. He also said that the elves are striking back against the brown dragons.”
He picked up the boiling kettle and started to make his tea.
“You know,” he said over his shoulder. “I wonder just how many elves there actually are? I mean, it's a whole world, right? So are there thousands of them? Millions? I mean, sure, there might be a thousand brown dragons, although I hope not, but if they're fighting against the entire race of elves, maybe things aren't as one-sided as I think they are?”
He sat down with his tea and sipped it gratefully, a contented shiver moving deliciously down his back.
“I don't think there are many elves, master,” Kronk told him in his slow, careful way. “As I remember these things from the old days, there were never that many to begin with. A birth was cause for celebration because it happened so rarely.”
“I agree,” Aeris said as he watched Simon drinking his tea. “Elves are immortal. They were decimated by the dragons thousands of years ago and I'm sure it has taken them this long to rebuild their numbers. Of course,” he added thoughtfully, “their time runs differently than the time on this world, so perhaps their population is back to where it was before the dragons attacked so long ago.”
“Hmm,” Simon murmured through a mouthful of tea. He swallowed and put down his cup.
“I suppose it makes sense. If you were immortal and reproduced the way that humans do, you'd be hip-deep in people in a very short time. So, there may only be a few thousand elves?”
“Quite possibly, my dear wizard.”
Simon stood up and went to stand by the small window near the front door. The wind and s
now still swirled around the tower but he looked through it, thinking hard.
A few minutes passed and Aeris flew across the room to hover near the wizard and stared out the window with him.
“So why the serious face?” he asked quietly.
“Hmm?”
Simon glanced at him from the corner of his eye, smiled a bit and watched the storm again.
“Nothing, really. Just going through the different scenarios that I might face if I get into the elven realm.”
He frowned as he tapped his lower lip.
“If the numbers of elves are sufficient, they may not even need my help, and I should just keep my distance and worry about the primal red and its followers here on Earth. On the other hand, if they are small in numbers, even with their magical weapons they won't be able to stand up to the brown dragons and a wizard could possibly tip the balance of the war in their favor.”
“Or you could go there, use your powers and fail,” Aeris said dryly. “Leaving us and your home world at the mercy of the gods of Chaos. So before you go racing off to save the day, my dear wizard, think about all of the consequences of your actions.”
Simon turned and stared at the air elemental.
“I do think of all of the consequences,” he stated firmly.
“Do you, master?” Kronk asked from the tabletop. “I mean no offense, but some of your interactions with dragons have been...spontaneous at best.”
The wizard couldn't believe that the little guy would take Aeris' side in this, but the earthen's earnest expression stopped Simon from arguing with him. Between the two elementals, he knew that Kronk always spoke the absolute truth, no matter what.
He walked back to the table and sat down, thinking deeply.
“Okay then, let's walk through this whole thing,” he said tersely. “Maybe I'm too close to it because of my feelings for Daniel.”
He watched Aeris float back and looked between him and Kronk.
“So, give me your opinions. And don't hold back.”
Both of the elementals hesitated and then Aeris shrugged.
“Very well, if you want an honest evaluation of the situation, here's mine.”
He settled down on to the tabletop and folded his arms, staring up at Simon.
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 124