by DM Fike
They chewed on it dutifully, but because they had received smaller pieces, it took longer for it to help with teleportation sickness. Kay’s skin had a greenish tinge as he wobbled in his boots.
“Is that all, Boss?” the blue-haired gremlin asked Mutt.
“All, that is,” Mutt confirmed. He pranced away, snapping his fingers. “Onward, we go.”
Isolde’s mouth opened and shut, unable to speak. Kay looked as if he barely understood what was going on. Avalon decided to call after the retreating gremlin, “Where are you going?”
Mutt paused as the other two crested a hill, drawing them farther into the Quawash. “Stay here with dragons, do you want? Leave, we must. Packed and ready, we are.” Then he too, disappeared over the crest.
Avalon motioned for the others to follow. As they walked over the hill, they found every single gremlin from the river camp, grins slapped on their faces, waiting for them. A few wore some comically enormous knapsacks, while the vast majority of them shuffled from foot to foot, a few even dancing, as if preparing for some lively festival.
“To Emerged Falls, we go!” Mutt declared, although not too loudly lest it tip off their dragon pursuers.
Quiet but still eager, the rest of the gremlins nodded in agreement.
“Lovely,” Kay muttered, but he did not disagree. Mutt waved the gremlins before him, taking the rear with his guests as they filed out of the area. Avalon didn’t need much motivation, eager to get away from the ferocious hunters in the woods behind them.
CHAPTER 22
AS THEY MARCHED into the Quawash, plants thinning and exposing a dark red clay underneath, Mutt explained that the gremlins had seen the beacon of eternal flame. He knew it could not be a good omen and had ordered the tribe to evacuate the area. They had shoved some of their belongings into the Forgotten Bend shop but carried the rest with them, deciding to travel through the Quawash, when Mutt saw the dragons approach.
“In trouble, you were.”
“You came back to save us?” Avalon asked incredulously. “Why would you care?”
Mutt slapped her hard on the shoulder. “You, I like. But reason, it was not. Sanctuary, we ask for.”
“Sanctuary?”
“Dragons, we cannot fight. Food and shelter, Emerged Falls can provide.”
Kay’s ears twitched at this. At least some of his skin had lost its sick hue. “You want to stay in Emerged Falls?”
“Refuge, Lord Emerson provides.”
“To destroyed human towns,” Kay argued. “They have nowhere else to go. You gremlins are nomadic. Surely you can rest at another one of your stomping grounds?”
Mutt gave the fairy a heavy side eye. “Shrunk, our stomping grounds have. Boundaries, Titans and Guardians have drawn. Left out of talks, gremlins are. Whole gremlin ranges, humans and Aossi have claimed for themselves. Room for us, there is not.”
“That’s terrible,” Avalon said.
“Or just a sob story,” Kay warned her. When Avalon gave him a death glare, he turned to Isolde, who dragged her feet behind them, head bowed. “Tell them, Isolde.”
She shook herself out of her reverie. “Excuse me?”
Kay looked ready to strangle something. “Tell Avalon that gremlins aren’t generally considered trustworthy.”
Isolde faced her. “Oh, it’s true. Gremlins are best known for their deceit and trickery. There are numerous tales throughout history where they have backstabbed their allies.”
Kay nodded at Avalon, as if that settled the matter.
Unfortunately for him, Isolde wasn’t finished. “How much of that is true versus historical stigma, though, is unclear. Gremlins lack elemental magic powers, and thus do not possess as much social standing as other Aossi. It’s possible they have been given a bad reputation to keep them in line.”
Kay’s face fell. Mutt tittered behind the back of one palm, not really trying to control his mirth.
“What do you believe, Isolde?” Avalon asked.
Isolde rubbed her chin. “Well, let’s think this through logically. Nobody’s betrayal put us in our current predicament.”
“Right,” Kay prodded.
Isolde continued without paying the fairy any mind. “But we probably wouldn’t be alive right now if not for Mutt and the Gadabout Gremlins.”
Mutt’s chuckles morphed into full-blown laughter. It infected the other gremlins around him, who broke out in snickers without having any clue to their source.
“Well that settles it for me,” Avalon said. “The gremlins saved us. They deserve sanctuary.”
Kay sighed, defeated. “It’s not up to me whether they can stay in Emerged Falls or not, but I’ll put in a word for them once we get there.”
“Your absolute best word?” Avalon pressed.
“On one condition.” He glared at Mutt. “My plea for you to stay as refugees will eliminate any sort of debt I owe you. I do not care to be obligated to gremlins.”
“Deal, it is.” Mutt held out his hand. Kay leaned forward to grab it, missed when Mutt took it away, then extended it again for a real handshake. Kay muttered several choice words under his breath, none of them repeatable.
Conversation ceased soon afterward as the full brunt of the Quawash affected the group. The clay turned to jagged rocks that scattered like dust as their shoes touched the earth. A yellowish haze formed above their heads, a deadly poison Avalon knew all too well from experience. And despite the coolness of the season, a sickening heat washed over them, as if they had stepped onto a muggy island. Once entering the Quawash, they couldn’t stop to rest. They would have to travel through to Emerged Falls with the day more than halfway over. Mutt picked up speed, hoping to get them through before nightfall.
Avalon had been so happy to escape the dragons that she had forgotten how miserable the Quawash was. The putrid air burned her eyes. The crumbling pebble-filled paths made the uphill climb slippery, each step forward resulting in a half-step back. Even the most happy-go-lucky of gremlins adopted a stern look. Adults scooped sniffling gremlin children in their arms. Avalon wished she could help, but felt so physically ill herself, she concentrated only on putting one foot in front of the other. Isolde took the mammoth pack of one gremlin off his back, while Kay lingered near the rear of the group, ensuring no one fell behind.
Just as the night seemed to overtake them, a rush of fresh air hit Avalon’s face. The haze lessened as a moonless sky formed above them, pinpoints of stars twinkling here and there. Avalon for once welcomed the darkness since it was so clean.
Mutt waited until they were well clear of the poison fog before lighting a beacon torch. He led everyone not far away to what must have been a babbling stream, given the sounds nearby. Avalon, achy and worn from an adrenaline-fueled hike, sat next to Kay at one of the half dozen fires. He wrapped a blanket around her before helping Mutt do a head count to account for everyone.
She intended to stay awake until Kay returned, but her mind had other ideas, refusing to stay conscious now that she was safe.
* * *
“Avalon.”
For a second, she half expected to see Mt. Hornley looming up ahead, flanked by fields of heather. The voice could have been Ladybug, whispering in her ear from within a dark cloak.
“Avalon, wake up.”
Her eyes opened the tiniest slit. Bright sunlight filtered through the swaying branches of pine needles. Outlined by that halo, Kay’s face loomed above her, his features cast in shadow by his own head.
“We must go.”
Groggy, Avalon took stock of her surroundings. The night had passed well into late morning, with more snoring gremlins being roused from sleep. Isolde came up behind her and took the blanket off her to store it away.
“I slept the whole time,” Avalon stated dumbly.
“You needed it.” Kay handed her a cup of what she thought was water, so she spurted when she drank the flat, slightly fruity and altogether too warm drink.
“What is this?” she asked, smacki
ng her lips.
Kay shrugged. “Mutt said you’d recognize it. I think he called it ‘Spite.’”
“I knew it was soda,” she grumbled.
“It’s the last of the gremlin’s rations,” Kay said. “Better drink while you can.”
“Are we that far from Emerged Falls?” she asked in surprise.
Kay held out his hand to her. “Not far at all, but I doubt we’ll be welcomed with a feast."
Avalon helped Isolde run around camp and pack up other scattered belongings as the rest of the group prepared for departure. She ran into Mutt at one point, splashing water on a wailing teenage gremlin who refused to let go of his blanket. She waited until Mutt won the power struggle before saying, “Thanks for everything last night.”
“Welcome, you are. Out of the Quawash, it is good to be. Saps our magic, the fog does.”
Avalon recalled her previous trip with Nobody through the Quawash. “That explains why Nobody forced us to walk over that sketchy bridge last time.”
A dark scowl formed on Mutt’s face, so in contrast to his normal demeanor that Avalon shied away from him. “Broke that bridge, someone did,” he seethed. “Find out who did it, wring his neck I will.”
Avalon coughed nervously. “I feel sorry for that guy,” was all she could manage.
Kay appeared at that moment, sparing Avalon from further conversation. “I’m heading out,” he told Mutt, “Meet you at the southern gate?”
A sharp-tooth grin spread from Mutt’s left to right ear. “In a few, we’ll see you.”
Avalon grabbed Kay’s arm before he could take to the air. “Why are you leaving?”
“I’m flying ahead to let the patrol know that a gremlin tribe is coming. It’s only a matter of time before they spot us.”
“Then you should let them find us.”
Kay patted her hand reassuringly. “Trust me, it’s going to be a lot better if they have advance warning. I’ll also make a case to let the gremlins stay as refugees inside our borders, as promised.” This reminded him of something, and he whipped around to face Mutt once more, hand on his sword hilt. “You are to take care of Avalon. If anything happens to her, I’ll make you personally responsible.”
Mutt blew on his fingernails nonchalantly. “Better at keeping Avalon safe than you, I am.”
Kay growled but didn’t press the point. He gave Avalon a quick peck on the cheek before jumping into flight, wings flapping to maintain a low hover. “I shall return,” he promised. Then he zipped up and over the treetops.
Avalon lingered there, heart racing and rubbing her cheek. It wasn’t until Isolde pulled her forward that she realized the gremlins were already leaving.
Compared to traveling through the Quawash, hiking through the Emerged Falls forests felt like a vacation. Gremlin children, recharged from a night of pleasant sleep, ran circles around their elders as they threw sticks and balls to one another. The adult gremlins also took on a jovial tone—some skipping, others swaying to the music of a few pipes, laughter surrounding them all. Everyone had lifted spirits, except for Isolde and Avalon.
Isolde hung out in the middle of the pack, brooding. Avalon, too, allowed a ball of gloom to expand in her stomach. Now that death by dragon was no longer an imminent threat, she couldn’t help but feel weighed down by Gaea’s prophecy, knowing that she alone could stop Scawale.
If only she would make the ultimate sacrifice.
Avalon shivered despite the sunlight and her sweater. How does one choose to die, especially considering this place didn’t even accept her as one of its own?
The tribe came upon a small hill which curved upwards to a break in the trees. The gremlins in front shouted with delight as they took in the view. Avalon found out why as she broke over the crest. Castle towers jutted over even the tallest trees, one made of barren white rock and bearing a blue flag, another jagged-edge tower carrying a yellow flag. Through the trees, an outer wall cut a line through the edge of the forest. Avalon realized she was seeing Emerged Falls from a different angle than she had before, approaching more toward the side rather than directly through the main entrance.
“Halt!” a voice commanded from the air.
The group peered upward into the sky as two fairies wearing sky blue uniforms with pale green trim bore down on them. The large ‘K’ emblazoned on their belt buckles indicated their status as Covert K knights, Emerged Falls elite fighting force. As their metal greaves flashed in the noon sun, Avalon hoped one of them might be Kay until she made out unfamiliar colors in their wings.
A dark-haired fairy landed in front of Mutt. “Sir Marcus warned us of your arrival. You are to follow us into Emerged Falls.”
“Refuse, what will you do?” Mutt asked glibly.
The gremlins tittered with laughter, causing the fairies to take a step back, swords drawn in a flash. Isolde sucked in her breath as Avalon tensed. What was Mutt thinking?
“Then we will be forced to defend ourselves,” the fairy shouted.
Mutt threw back his head and howled with laughter. He slapped his knee. “Joking, I am! Look on your face, priceless.”
The gremlins agreed, their level of laughter rising. The fairies hesitated, hovering over the crowd.
Avalon decided to step up. “It’s just the nature of gremlins.” The fairies jerked their heads toward her. “They mean you no harm, I assure you.”
Mutt wiped away a stray tear. “Of course. The way, show us.”
The fairies didn’t seem completely sure about this swift about-face, so they acted accordingly. The quiet one flanked the back half of the group, keeping to the air to give himself a height advantage, while the speaker walked beside Mutt, body turned so he could keep half an eye on the gremlins behind him. Avalon tried to reassure him that the gremlins wouldn’t attack, but every time she drew near him, he reached for his sword. She eventually backed off and let the Covert K knights figure it out on their own.
They came upon the first outer wall within a half hour. Instead of a full drawbridge, this side had wide doors made of steel that swung outward. Four more knights waited for them inside, a mix of humans and Aossi that further flanked the group on each side as they entered Emerged Falls proper. They walked wide cobblestone streets surrounded by large multi-storied mansions. Avalon recognized this as the more affluent part of town, the Eza neighborhood. The castle itself loomed above the fancy mansions, turret spires poking up above them. Someone had alerted the residents to their arrival, as each gated property had at least two armed security guards flanking the entryway. They poked their pointed weapons toward the gremlins, indicating their capacity for violence. Mutt waved like a princess in a parade to them, much to their consternation.
Avalon let out a sigh of relief when she spied Kay waiting at the castle’s main gate, an enormous metal grid surrounded by smooth, unclimbable stone. Her enthusiasm died when she spied General J.T. Emerson next to him, scowling at the whole lot of gremlins invading his territory.
With a short stature and bulging dark muscles popping out of a white tank top, J.T. Emerson looked more at home in a weight-lifting gym on Earth than leading a medieval army. His ashen gray spiky hair accentuated his hard-chiseled face. J.T. had long wished that Avalon, with her unnatural magical powers, had been held under lock and key as a security threat, but the other Guardians had overruled him on that score. Given Nobody’s betrayal of his sacred charge, he also wasn’t very fond of gremlins, especially not ones from Nobody’s tribe.
“The Covert K knights will keep most of you in the courtyard,” he called over the din of chuckles. “Where is your leader?”
Mutt jumped up and down like a cheerleader. “Here, I am! Here, I am!”
J.T. motioned him forward, scouring the crowd. He finally found what he sought when he pinpointed Avalon. His grimace deepened. “Avalon Benton and Isolde of the boulder elves!” he bellowed. “All three of you will come with me for an audience with Lord Emerson.”
Avalon walked past a frozen Isolde, l
ips trembling. Avalon pulled the terrified elf forward, whispering in her ear, “Just don’t say anything if you don’t want to. Shivant’s got enough on his plate right now.”
Avalon realized her own words gave her cold comfort as J.T. shuffled them inside the castle. She would be the focus of the Guardians’ ire.
CHAPTER 23
AVALON RECOGNIZED THE meeting room as Shivant’s private quarters as they crossed the threshold. She was not surprised to find the room set up in the bare minimum fashion, devoid of all furniture except for one long table and chairs for everyone. The Guardians sat on one side, Shivant in the exact center. To his right sat the pale Halicia, decked out in a white tunic with a few splotches of dirt. To his left sat Kay’s parents—the purple-eyed fairy Symphony and her husband Colin, the tips of his ears covered by a headband. They also had crumpled clothing that indicated recent travel. Avalon did not expect to find all five Guardians at Emerged Falls, much less looking like they had just dismounted a horse. J.T. took the empty seat next to Halicia and folded his arms.
Kay escorted the three of them into the hot seats opposite Lord Emerson, imposing as ever despite his calm demeanor and long hair. Isolde folded her hands in her lap, staring at him as if he might bite her at any moment. Mutt flipped his chair around so he could straddle it. Avalon took the last seat. Kay then took a stand next to Avalon’s chair instead of joining the other two Covert K knights guarding the door.
Lord Shivant Emerson steepled his fingers, leaning his elbows against the long table. He had the beginnings of circles forming under his eyes, marring his handsome face. “I apologize for any curtness on my part. We have entered desperate times.”
J.T. waved his hands dismissively. “You can cut the courtesy and kick the gremlins out immediately.”
Shivant set his jaw. “We agreed to bring this to a vote.”
J.T. leaned forward to give his brother a deep glare. “Then bring it to a vote. I’m sure the other Guardians feel the same about the Gadabout Gremlins.”