Chapter 3

Krill suspected that, without him, his animals would soon get curious about this new world. He only half expected to see any of them again.

He walked down to the town, where a group of young people were having the kind of argument children always have.

“I never, I never did”

“Oh, you did. Who else?”

“I dun’t do it, I wouldn’t would I? Why would I?”

“You was nearest and it’s scratched so...”

“I never scratch your bike, I swear on my life.”

Krill raised an eyebrow. The girl did not look like a noble lady whose honour was so important that she swore to lose her life if she told a lie. And yet, she had just sworn. Perhaps they held their short lives cheaply.

He walked through the town, admiring the varieties of dress. There were two all in black with metal mouth, nose and ear jewellery; there were two woman with clothing designed to look like they were covered in flowers; a man stood on the corner, all in dark blue with silver buttons and a domed hat. Krill thought he looked funny, but at least he was original; he was the only person he had seen who was armed, and that with only a stick. At the edge of the town, a greengrocer had all his wares displayed outside his window. Krill admired the way people could just take the goods. He went over, he was hungry, and selected vegetables and fruit, loading the copious pockets of his riding coat. Then he walked on. The greengrocer saw a strangely dressed man in a long coat with white or gold (he was never sure)hair take his vegetables and walk on, bold as you like. He decided the man was touched or on drugs and opted to leave it.

Then round the corner, the incident occurred. Sitting at an outside table to the pub, three friends were enjoying a well-earned pint or four. They saw a slim, white gold-haired, old (or young?) man dressed in purple and green, with green leather boots, walking past. They all started to laugh. That would have been fine, Krill suspected they were laughing at him, but he had no desire to cause trouble as he tried to work out where he was. Then they laughed and pointed. A well-borne elf only has so much patience.

“You laugh at me?”

“S’okay, we already are, Ha ha” this joke was lost on Krill, who was still coming to terms with this language.

“Are you laughing at me?” He stood a few feet from the table. “Why?”

“No”

Krill got annoyed and stepped forward, which one of the men took to be a threat and leapt to his feet as well, grasping the bottle he was drinking from. It looked like the precursor to an attack with one of these peculiar weapons that had on the table. He knew they were weapons because his sense was that they would cut and stab easily.

The man froze, how had that happened? One second this weirdo was standing in front of him, the next a slim, silver blade with golden runes on it (though he would only remember those details later, when he had calmed down) was at his neck. The coat swirled round and the man was hit in the groin by something large and hard. The cabbage in one of the coat pockets. Elves are lighter than men, and not as strong as men, but they can move much faster. “Tell me now you were not laughing at me”