by Sam Ferguson
“Come on,” Jason said as he tugged on Jonathan’s arm. “Let’s go inside to the wildlife refuge.”
Jonathan nodded his head. He glanced back toward the guard that had let them in. For a moment, the two locked eyes. The elf’s golden eyes were no longer welcoming as they had been when Ziegler gave him the papers. They were studying Jonathan carefully, seemingly boring into his very soul. The boy felt his brother tug at his arm again and broke the guard’s gaze.
Something about the guard didn’t sit right with him, but he kept it to himself for now, thinking there would be a better, more private opportunity to discuss the matter after they were inside the city.
Within the walls the city was much like the larger settlements Jonathan had visited before. The streets were filled with the hustle and bustle of daily life. Elves pushed handcarts, or drove carts pulled by large elk through the streets while pedestrians walked along the outer edges in a rather orderly fashion.
Jonathan kept pace with his brother and Miranda, but his eyes were constantly moving through the crowds. He scanned the buildings, and the small, but elaborate, flower gardens that lined the grounds between the buildings and the street. He saw a pair of short elves with tan skin tending to a particularly large rose bush with fiery orange blossoms. One of them turned and looked at him with icy blue eyes that lingered upon him only for a moment before he returned to his work.
Looking back to the elves in the street, Jonathan realized that the pair of short elves he had seen were not simply shorter than most others here, they were a different race of elves altogether.
“They are Nizhni’Tai,” Miranda said as she nudged him on the right side.
Jonathan almost jumped when she touched him, but managed to crack a weak smile. “That means ‘little elf,’ right?” He had read the term in his travel guide that the scholar had given him.
Miranda giggled and shook her head, her smile drawing her lips tight across her face. “Not exactly. Nizhni’Tai actually translates better as ‘lower elf’ or ‘shorter elf’ actually.”
“Lower elf,” Jonathan echoed as he thought about it. He wondered what else the scholar might have gotten wrong in the travel guide.
Miranda pointed with her chin, indicating the trio of elves walking in front of them a few yards away. “Those are Svetli’Tai,” she said.
Jonathan studied the trio and then looked at a group of four walking the opposite direction. “And those?” he asked with a nod of his head.
Miranda smiled. “Those are Vishi’Tai,” she said.
Jonathan stopped to study them all, but couldn’t see much difference. Both groups wore similar, flowing robes of silk and fine cloth that shimmered and moved elegantly as they walked along. They all had long hair, and he was able to see that one group had both gold and white hair, while the other group had only white hair. But the two groups appeared to be similar enough in other respects. The book the scholar had given him had talked about some of the various physical differences between the elf races, but seeing the elves in person it was hard to put the knowledge to use confidently.
“Look closely,” Miranda said. “The Svetli’Tai have skin that is a golden tan, almost shiny appearance if the sun hits it just right. The Vishi’Tai have skin that it much whiter. Even those who are tan appear different, for a Vishi’Tai who is tan will have a brown tint to his or her skin. A Svetli’Tai will always have the golden tint. Also, if you look closely, the Vishi’Tai are taller than the others.”
Jonathan could see that as the two groups passed each other.
“Vishi’Tai males average between six and seven feet tall.”
“So are all Nizhni’Tai short then?” Jonathan asked.
Miranda nodded. “Nizhni’Tai are like the pair you saw, usually averaging three to four feet tall, but they are built like an elf, with elegant proportions and nimble bodies, whereas a dwarf is much stockier.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Vishi’Tai also see themselves as the rightful rulers of the elven peoples. There are some families among the nobility that believe Icadion favors them because he made the Vishi’Tai first, before all other sentient beings.”
Jonathan snorted derisively and shook his head. “We all bleed the same,” Jonathan quipped.
His comment had been loud enough to draw the attention of a tall Vishi’Tai passing by. The elf looked down on him, arching his left brow and drawing his lips into a thin, straight line across his face. The look was enough to make Jonathan squirm.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said.
The three of them broke off down a street to the right while Ziegler and the others pressed forward.
“Where do we go?” Jason asked.
Not wanting to reveal his book to them, Jonathan suggested asking one of the elves on the street for directions. Jason huffed, obviously starting to question his little brother’s intentions. As Jason and Miranda turned to ask someone, Jonathan whipped out the travel guide. He shot a quick glance over his shoulder to ensure that Ziegler and the others were far enough away so they wouldn’t see his book either. Then he flipped through it to find a map of Tirnog. He traced his fingers down the lines that represented the streets and quickly memorized the way to the preserve, then he stuffed the book back in his pocket just as Miranda and Jason finished talking with a tall elf.
“All right, let’s go,” Jason said. Jason seemed to know well enough where he was going thanks to the other elf’s advice, so Jonathan let him lead for a bit while he and Miranda walked behind him a half-pace slower.
“There are other races of elves as well,” Miranda put in as they walked, restarting the conversation they had been in.
Jonathan looked to her with an expectant expression.
Miranda smiled matter-of-factly and listed them off one by one. “Vishi’Tai, which means ‘tall elf,’ or ‘high elf,’ then Svetli’Tai, which means ‘bright elf,’ or ‘golden elf,’ Nizhni’Tai we covered, and then there are Korr’Tai, which are the wood elves, Pes’Tai, which means ‘sand elf,’ and then there are the two drow races.”
“Drow races?” Jonathan had not seen that term in the travel book.
Miranda nodded. She glanced around and then leaned in and spoke in a more hushed tone. “The drow are elves in all respects, but they are very different. While occasionally you might see a dark-skinned elf among the Korr’Tai or Nizhni’Tai, all of the drow are dark-skinned.”
“You mean they look like Konnons?” Jonathan asked. He had seen a Konnon once come through Holstead. The man was quite old, but he was nearly as large as Moose, with skin as black as the night and hair the color of snow. Pa had told Jonathan that Konnons were among the fiercest and best warriors to ever set foot upon Terramyr, but Jonathan remembered the old man as a friendly, gentle giant who told stories to the children that would gather around his knees. The man had passed on from Holstead only a couple of weeks after his arrival, but it was enough to leave an impression upon Jonathan.
“Not exactly like a Konnon,” Miranda said. “The drow are broken into two main races, the Sierri’Tai and the Tomni’Tai. The words Tomni’Tai mean ‘dark elf,’ and their skin can actually be black, dark blue, or even have a purple tint to it.”
“That sounds beautiful,” Jonathan said as he pictured what a dark purple she-elf might look like with silver hair and green eyes.
Miranda continued. “Sierri’Tai means ‘gray elf,’ and their skin is usually a shade of dark gray, or sometimes black. But, their skin isn’t the main difference between the drow and other elves. The Sierri’Tai often live in underground tunnels or caves, which most of the other elf races find abhorrent and unnatural. It’s said that the drow used to live in Tanglewood Forest, for it is the birthplace of all elves, but they had a falling out with the other races, and eventually were forced out for their bloodthirsty ways and abhorrent customs.”
Jonathan looked at her curiously. “Where did you learn all of this about elves?”
Miranda shrugged. “My fath
er taught me some of what he knew, but the rest I learned from Ruben.”
There it was again. He had almost managed to forget about her fiancé, but now his mind was forced to remember the truth of this outing. He was not touring Tirnog with Miranda on some fanciful get away as they had once discussed. He was here on a mission to find her father, and she was with her future husband.
“If you two are done lollygagging, can we get a move on?” Jason asked as he turned around to face them. He turned back around and moved to ask another elf for more directions.
“Seems like he is lost a bit,” Jonathan said with a smirk.
Miranda nodded and turned to catch up with Jason. Jonathan waited for just a second and put some distance between himself and the other two so he could glance at the map in the book one more time. He opened it, checked their progress, and then oriented himself to the sign he saw on a nearby building. As he moved to put the book back in his pocket, he felt a piece of paper that had not been there before. He replaced the book and pulled the paper out and looked at it curiously. He spun around, suspecting someone had just put it into his pocket, but he didn’t see anything suspicious.
Jonathan unfolded it and read it.
You’re in danger.
Jonathan looked around again, scanning the passersby for any sign of who had slipped him the note. He didn’t see anyone that he could pinpoint as the culprit. Elves walked in an orderly fashion, some talking amongst themselves in small groups, others carrying books or walking alone, but none seemed to even notice him, let alone have taken interest enough in him to place a note in his pocket.
He turned and jogged to catch up with Jason and Miranda just as they were veering down a side street on the right that Jason was pointing out to Miranda.
“Wrong way,” Jonathan called out. The preserve is down this street,” he said as he pointed to a side street on the left side of the main road they were on.
“Are you sure?” Jason asked.
Jonathan nodded and grinned boyishly at Miranda. “I’m certain, come on then, slowpokes.” When they caught up to him, Jonathan pushed the note toward Jason. “Someone put this in my pocket just now.”
Jason took it and read it, then he showed it to Miranda. The two of them looked out over Jonathan’s shoulders, surveying the streets, but obviously came up empty when they both shrugged.
“We’ll keep our eyes open, but let’s go along with the plan for now,” Jason said.
The three of them walked down the side street until they came to a large building with a golden door.
Jonathan smiled and pointed to it. “Here it is,” he said. He would have been excited normally. He had fantasized about coming to this very building for months, but now he was too busy worrying about the letter in his pocket.
“Wow, I guess they spared no expense for the refuge,” Jason commented. “If I could get a door like this sent to Mortimer, then I bet he would finally treat me like an equal.”
Then, at the other end of the street, a shadowy form moved along the side of a building.
The hairs on Jonathan’s neck stood on end.
He reached forward and forced the door open, then he shoved the others inside.
CHAPTER 4
“What in Icadion’s name do you think you’re doing?!” Jason shouted as he stumbled into the building.
Jonathan slammed the door shut and looked for a way to lock the door. “Someone was out there.”
“There were a lot of elves out there,” Jason said. Jason pushed Jonathan aside and reached for the door. Jonathan protested, but Jason pulled the door open and stuck his head out. He looked to the left, and then glanced right for half a second before ducking back into the building.
A blast of red fire struck the doorway where Jason’s head had just been.
“Believe me now?” Jonathan quipped as he threw the door shut.
“We have to take cover!” Miranda said.
Jonathan turned around, expecting to see some sort of office, but instead he saw only a sign set upon a bronze marker with the words ‘Mystical Creature Preserve’ written across the plaque. There were no workers that he could see. There was only a large area of grassland inside the building. Jonathan looked up and saw that the ceiling was made entirely of glass.
“Is this a joke?” Jonathan asked. The building wasn’t nearly large enough to house one Wyrebin, let alone a whole colony of them as the scholar had claimed to have seen.
Miranda shook her head and spun around. “There has to be more to it than this,” she said.
The room they were in was maybe forty feet long and thirty feet wide. All of that space was filled with a level pad of grass, except for the three-foot-wide walkway that ran along the outer edges.
“This is hardly enough for more than a pair of exhibits, let alone an entire preserve,” Miranda said putting words to Jonathan’s thoughts.
“This has to be the wrong address,” Jason said.
“No, this is exactly it should be,” Jonathan replied. “I know it!”
Jonathan spied a door on the opposite side of the room, across the large pad of grass.
“Come on,” Jonathan said as he pulled the others along and darted into the grass.
No sooner had they crossed the golden line in the floor that separated the stone floor from the grassy ground in the middle of the building than they all fell to their faces. The grass rushed up around them, stretching higher and higher until each blade of grass was the height of a fully grown pine tree. They all tumbled to the ground, huffing and puffing as they shook themselves off.
Jonathan was the first to his feet. He looked around, confused by the sights around him. Had they fallen down into tall grass? Maybe what he thought was the ground was really just the top level of some large pit filled with tall grass. No, that couldn’t be it. The grass wasn’t just tall, it was huge. He walked to a blade of grass and placed his right hand on the warm, rough surface. The blade hardly moved under his weight. The width of the blade was twice as wide as he was.
They hadn’t simply fallen. They had shrunk!
“Welcome to the first exhibit in Tirnog’s Mystical Creature Preserve,” a shrill voice called out from behind them.
Jonathan turned to see a young woman with long, black hair and olive-colored skin. She had big, black eyes and a warm smile on her face. The white dress she wore seemed to float with her every move as she approached them.
“Where are we?” Jason asked.
The young woman looked puzzled. “Why, you are here, of course.” She held her hand out to the side as if the simple gesture explained everything.
“You shrunk us?” Jonathan asked.
The young woman smiled and a pair of wings unfolded behind her as she floated up into the air. “I am Vindriel, and I will be your guide through my homeland.”
Just then, an incredibly loud boom erupted around them and the ground shook. Jonathan looked up and saw a shadowy form move into the area near the grass. The form looked enormous now that the others were so small. They could hear his breathing and feel his every step. The large form turned and slammed the door shut, creating a sound so loud that each of them had to clasp hands over their ears.
“Where are you?” a raspy voice called out.
Jason turned to speak, but Vindriel fluttered in front of him and placed a hand on his mouth. She pressed her finger to her lips and then motioned for everyone to follow her through the enormous grass. The three of them ran while the fairie hovered through the air before them, leading them through the winding grass until they came to a door built into the side of a mushroom stalk. Vindriel waved her hand and the door swung open, then she ushered the three of them inside.
Jonathan found the inside of the mushroom to be much larger than he had thought. From the outside he had figured they might be able to fit easily enough and have a bit of room to spare, but once he was actually in the mushroom he found the inside to be like that of a large manor. There was an entryway with a long bench along
one wall and a washbasin set upon a credenza on the other wall. Beyond the entryway there was a large foyer with a grand rug stretching to the walls of the rectangular room that had a staircase twisting upward at the end of it and a pair of doorways on the right side.
“Quick, into the first room on the right,” Vindriel said.
Jonathan and the others dashed across the foyer as Vindriel locked the door behind them. They rushed into the room and then halted in the doorway, nearly tripping on each other when Miranda and Jason froze. Jonathan looked past them and saw a massive creature munching on a strange, green creature that was squeaking and gasping as the larger one ate it.
“What in Hammenfein?” Jason whispered.
Miranda was the first to spot the tell-tale red shell with black spots. “It’s a ladybug,” she said. “Come on, it won’t hurt us.”
“Ladybugs don’t bite big people, but have you ever seen a ladybug that was the size of your house before?” Jason said.
Miranda shrugged off the comment and moved in toward the ladybug. She reached up and petted the beetle on the side of its face. The ladybug swallowed the rest of the aphid it was chewing and then turned to regard Miranda. The beetle had a pair of antennae that twitched and swayed as it let out a clicking noise.
“Miranda,” Jason said cautiously.
Miranda shook her head and continued petting the large beetle.
Vindriel entered the room then and pushed Jason and Jonathan further inside.
It occurred to Jonathan then that perhaps the fairie was about to sacrifice them to her giant pet, but his fears were put at ease when the ladybug saw the fairie and then laid down lazily upon the floor.
“This is Alfax, he guards my home.”
“He?” Jason echoed.