"I am so not touching that sock," Fidget said. "Even to get the hair."
"It's making me gag," Aphid said. "I totally won't take the sock as long as it has a hair inside."
"Suit yourselves," Elliot said, laying the socks on the ground. "But I did what you each told me I had to do to get Tubs and Mr. Willimaker back. The Fairies have their sock, and the Pixies have their hair. It's not my problem if you don't want them now. But you have to keep your promises."
Fidget stamped her foot. "Whatever. " She waved her wand and then with a glare at Elliot said, "Pixies don't like to be tricked. Anyway, that human, Tubs, is home now. If there's any good news, it's that he's out of my hair. My beautiful, beautiful hair."
"The Fairies don't like to be tricked either," Aphid said. "And for the record, we have way better hair. But all we really wanted was to stop the Pixies, so at least after all this, nothing has changed."
"Actually, a lot has changed," Elliot said. "What you did got me to wake up Kovol, which means the entire Underworld will have to defend against him one day. My friend Fudd Fartwick was blinded in saving me from the Shadow Men. And I used to think Pixies and Fairies were pretty cool, but I don't think so anymore. If you want the Brownies to help you when Kovol does attack the Underworld, you'd better start being a lot nicer to me."
Aphid and Fidget glared at each other. "Gag me," Aphid said at the same time as Fidget said, "Totally gross." Then their eyes widened and they looked back at each other.
"Surfer Teen?" Fidget said.
"Awesomest kid on the scene?" Aphid added.
The Pixie and Fairy squealed in some high pitch that probably caused a lot of dogs on the surface world to howl.
"So whatever about the war, that's so my dad's thing anyway," Fidget said. "We can at least hang out to watch the show, right?"
Aphid nodded, then turned to Elliot. "Like, I totally thought you'd be killed in Demon Territory, human. No creature has ever come back from there. So I guess when Kovol attacks the Underworld, the Fairies will fight with you in battle."
"The Pixies too," Fidget said softly. "You were awesome. Totally."
"And you saved my dad," Patches said. Elliot wondered how long she'd been there. She handed Elliot some clothes. "I helped our tailor with the design. I think you'll like them."
"We'll take care of Fudd," Mr. Willimaker said.
"Can you fix his eyes?" Elliot asked.
Fudd shook his head. "We don't have that kind of magic or medicine. But you shouldn't worry about me. I'll be fine."
"And I'll be there to help you." Mr. Willimaker clapped a hand on Fudd's shoulder. "Sorry I lost trust in you, old friend."
Fudd smiled. "We're friends? But I don't even know your first name."
Minutes later, Elliot had cleaned up and changed into a T-shirt and brown cotton pants. The pants were a little goofy, but at least they were from the right century. He wasn't sure about the T-shirt, which read, Brownies Are For Hugging, Not Eating, but it would have to do until he got home.
Harold had changed back into an Elf to say good-bye to Elliot. "I admit that I'm not totally sad you survived and get to go home," he said. "On the one hand, there's Cami and she's wonderful, but on the other hand, Kyle and Cole are very naughty twins. They dumped a big bucket of ice water on me yesterday while I was outside talking to her."
Elliot chuckled. "Yeah, they do things like that. I never thought I'd miss it."
"So your science project is due today," Harold said. "I've done your share of the work for it. The problem is that Cami never found anyone willing to test it, so she's not sure if it works."
"It doesn't," Elliot said. "I lit up like a glow stick."
"I know. But I couldn't tell her I'd tried it on myself. Obviously I made myself go invisible just to let her be right about the experiment."
"Will I see you around?" Elliot asked.
"I guess if you ever see yourself walking down the street, it's probably me."
"Don't do that," Elliot said. "One of me on the surface gets into plenty of trouble. Two of me would be too much."
"Hmm, we'll see." Harold changed himself to a sparrow. He began to fly away, then fluttered back and tweeted, "By the way, I'm really sorry about your bed."
"What about my bed?" Elliot asked, but it was too late. Harold was gone.
Elliot wasn't sure what things would be like when the Pixies poofed him home. He'd been gone for days. He'd been a prisoner to the Pixies and survived a Goblin's attempt to scare him to death. He'd been trapped in gripping mud--twice, fought off Shadow Men, and defeated Kovol. So it would make sense if things were a little crazy on the surface too.
However, his family didn't know about any of that. Tubs wouldn't even know it, since the Pixies had wiped Tubs's memory of the entire Underworld.
The last thing Fidget had said before she waved her wand to poof him away was, "Okay, so like, I'm sorry about the whole kidnapping thing. I know just how to make it up to you."
He didn't like the sound of that, but she poofed him away before he could ask what she meant.
He returned to the surface just outside his home. It was a cool, crisp autumn morning, and Elliot enjoyed the feeling of sun on his face. Although the Underworld had plenty of light, he had missed the sun. The large bucket of invisibility potion was nearby. It was bubbling more than ever, and Elliot was glad that at least it had not blown up his home while he was gone.
Strange, the things that made him happy ever since he had become king.
Harold had said the science project was due today. Did that mean Elliot had to somehow get the potion to school? His parents were probably already at work, so getting the potion there would be Cami's problem.
"Elli-ot!"
Elliot cringed. There was only one person who said his name that way. If getting the potion to school was Cami's problem, then Cami was his problem.
She began talking even before she rounded the corner to his backyard. "If we can't prove the potion works, then we're not going to get a good grade. So what--" She stopped and stared at Elliot. Her eyes widened, and then she let out a high-pitched scream like Aphid and Fidget had done. Why did girls always do that? More specifically, why was Cami screaming right now?
"Just wait there. I'll take a picture." The words tumbled out of her mouth so quickly, he wondered how she could pronounce them all.
"A picture of what?" he asked.
She began digging through her backpack. "Your legs, silly. I can't believe it worked!"
Elliot looked down at his legs. Or where his legs were supposed to be. He was standing on them, so he knew they still existed, but they were invisible. He sighed loudly enough for her to know he was bothered. This wasn't the potion. It was Fidget's way of making up for having kidnapped him.
"Don't fuss, it's just a photo," Cami said, finding the camera. "Now smile!" She snapped a picture, then said, "I guess you don't have to smile, because the photo is really just of your legs."
She took three or four other pictures and then gave Elliot a big hug (he promised himself to shower as soon as possible so that her girl germs didn't stick to him).
"I can't believe you tried the potion on yourself," she said. "Nobody else dared to do it. You are so brave."
Elliot wanted to say, "Well, I did battle an evil Demon." But all he did was shrug and wonder how long Fidget was going to keep his legs invisible. He didn't want to go to school like this.
As Cami put her camera into her backpack, she said, "You know, Elliot, I always thought you were a pretty cool kid, but I thought you hated me."
Elliot didn't know what to say to that. Calling her Toadface wasn't exactly a sign of burning love. But Cami continued, "Anyway, you've been extra nice to me these past few days, and I wanted to tell you thanks. Sometimes I feel a little out of place, and, well, it was just a good week."
Elliot frowned. He felt pretty bad now for calling her Toadface.
Cami put a hand on the potion. "So my mom's waiting out front in our car
. I can get the potion to school, and I'll see you there, okay?"
"Are you sure you can carry that by yourself?" he asked.
She grinned at him. "Will you help me?"
Anyone who battled Demons and Shadow Men could surely defend himself against girl germs. Elliot went to the far side of the potion and after a "one--two--three" from Cami, they lifted it up.
"It's gotten heavier," Cami said. "Like it all turned to syrup or something."
It was heavy for Elliot too. He couldn't catch enough breath to say anything. They made it only four steps before Cami grunted a "wah," Elliot spat out a "whoa," and the entire bucket of invisibility potion tumbled to the ground. It spilled out like floodwater breaking free of the dam and quickly soaked into the dry autumn grass.
Cami and Elliot stood beside each other for several seconds. Cami made a small sniffling sound, and Elliot took a step away from her, certain she was going to cry floodwater tears as well.
But she didn't. She began laughing. Then she did start crying, but it was only from laughing so hard. "This is terrible," she said, still laughing. "What's going to happen to our grades now?"
"We still have the pictures on your camera," he said, laughing too. "And my legs."
"I can see your legs now," she said. "The potion probably splashed on them and turned them back."
He looked down and saw that she was right. Fidget had returned his legs to him. She probably had made the potion spill too, just so Cami couldn't try it on anyone else.
"Oh, well," Cami said, wiping a last happy tear from her eye. "We had fun doing the project, and I have the picture of your legs, so we'll get a good enough grade." She paused then added, "And I guess we're friends now, right?"
"Uh, right." Elliot scratched his chin, then said, "Hey, a few days ago when you were stuck in that mud my little brothers made, sorry I didn't help you get out."
"I finally made it out on my own," she said. "Good thing it wasn't quicksand."
"Or gripping mud," Elliot said under his breath.
He gave an awkward wave as Cami skipped out of his yard, calling back, "See you at school!"
"Look at this mess!" Wendy said, opening the back door to the house. "Elliot, what are you doing out here? I thought you left early for school."
"Nope. Just finishing up my science project," he said.
"Oh. Hey, that white patch in your hair is gone."
Elliot reached up to the back of his head. "Oh, yeah."
"I guess that bleach you spilled on it must have worn off or something."
Elliot didn't think bleach worked that way, but if Wendy believed it, he wasn't going to argue the point.
"Hey, did something happen with my bed?" he asked.
"Since you gave it to Tubs?" Wendy asked.
Elliot's jaw dropped. "I did what?"
"Don't you remember when Tubs's parents came to pick him up?"
Elliot's muscles tightened. "Obviously not."
"You told his parents he could stay for another night or two. They thought that was great, because he didn't have a bed, because he'd broken it last week. So you said Tubs could have your bed. We all thought it was really nice. Sort of strange, though."
"That is strange," Elliot agreed. "Doesn't sound like something I'd normally do." He planned to talk to Harold about that very soon.
"I think you did it to impress Cami," Wendy added. "Interesting clothes, by the way. Where did they come from?"
"A friend gave them to me."
"Oh." Wendy brushed some flour off her hands. "You might want to change into something more normal if you don't want Tubs to start beating you up again. Luckily, he's been really quiet these past few days, barely even moved off his chair in the corner. While you're changing clothes, I'll dish you up some breakfast. The eggs are a little burned, but the toast isn't too bad if I scrape it first." Then she frowned. "I know I'm not a good cook, Elliot, but I'm doing the best I can since Mom and Dad are so busy. So thanks for being really nice about it this week."
Elliot walked up to Wendy and wrapped his arms around her waist for the best brother hug he could give. "Sorry I haven't been nice about it before this week. I'll be better. I don't know what our family would do without you."
"Our family wouldn't know what to do without you either," Wendy said, walking back into their home. "I mean, it's not like we could just go find another Elliot somewhere, right?"
Elliot smiled. Not if he could help it.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Jeff, for every smile. The only one for me is you. Thanks also to Ron Peters, whose fine-tuned opinions are the first I look to for my writing, and to the late Tom Horner, whose sharp eye and unfailing encouragement I will miss. And to Ammi-Joan Paquette and Kelly Barrales-Saylor, for their valuable input and generous support of both this series and me.
And a final thanks to the old Elf who spent countless hours (181/2 hours--I counted) unfolding to me the secrets of the Underworld. He literally would not stop unfolding things, even when I said I was late for dinner. Any inaccuracies about Pixies, Shapeshifters, or Demons is entirely my fault, namely due to the fact that I don't speak the Underworld language of Flibberish and thus had no clue what the Elf was talking about for all that time.
About the Author
Jennifer A. Nielsen lives at the base of a very tall mountain in Northern Utah with her husband, three children, and a naughty puppy. She loves fresh baked bread, campfires, and happy endings. Jennifer once saw an exact duplicate of herself in a store, so she was certain it was a mischievous Shapeshifter. Looking back on it now, she might have just been looking in a mirror. That would explain a lot, actually. Learn more at her website: www.jennielsen.com.
About the Illustrator
Gideon Kendall graduated from the Cooper Union for Science and Art with a BFA and has since been working as an artist, illustrator, animation designer, and musician in Brooklyn.
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