Chapter 15

The first thing we wanted to do was to find the gnomes and make ourselves acceptable to them. I had a strong feeling that we were going to need their cooperation to do this job correctly. Aklag went off by himself to meditate while the rest of us concentrated on getting breakfast ready and posting a guard. We had to keep in mind that this was a war zone, and we could never relax our guard.

Aklag returned before breakfast was ready and reported that he knew where to find the gnomes. An entrance to their tunnels was less than two miles away. We ate breakfast, and the women repacked the carts in preparation for us departing for the entrance to the gnomes tunnel.

We had traveled about a mile and a half when a gnome stepped from behind some trees and demanded that we stop. We halted our horses and I talked to the sentinel. I explained who were were, demonstrating my shape-shifting ability to quiet any doubt that he might have. As soon as I told him why we were here, his whole demeanor changed, and he became a gracious host. He showed us where to park our carts and called out some gnomes to help guard them. Holly and Trudy stayed with the carts and all of the children while the rest of us morphed so that we could follow our guide more conveniently through the low tunnels.

We traveled for about three miles until we came to a large cavern. At one side was a throne on which sat a gnome who looked old, even to our uneducated eyes. The ceiling was high enough now that we all morphed back into human form so that we could converse with the king and his advisors.

We were led to the throne, and we all bowed. The king looked pleased to see us and welcomed us to The Burrow Under the Trees. He said, "Greetings, Vilkatas. I have received word from the sentinel of your purpose, and I want to extend to you my personal welcome. We want nothing to do with the stupid war between the goblins and the fairies, but we seem to be caught in the middle. We have tried to remain at peace with both sides, but they both have taken the attitude that 'the friend of my enemy is my enemy.' We have not had any major battles, yet, but there have been some minor skirmishes. No deaths on either side, but some painful wounds. I sincerely hope that you can put a stop to the foolishness, and we will do anything in our power to assist you."

"Excellent, Your Majesty. Thank you for your welcome. We will do what we can. I hope that we don't wind up fighting either side, but we will if we have to. In your opinion, who has been the most belligerent?"

"I think that the fairies have caused the most trouble, but that is a subjective observation. Neither side has done anything to endear me to them."

"Very well, please tell me how to find the king of the local fairies so that I may talk to him." I received specific directions to their lair, so we all returned to the carts. Aklag and I morphed to wolves and set out for the fairies. We got pretty close when we were both struck by thrown spears. Since there was no iron involved, we were not harmed, but I was damned annoyed.

I turned in the direction from which the spears had come, and Aklag followed me as I raced toward the throwers. They were surprised that we were still able to move, since they had seen the spears hit our sides. These fairies may have been dumb, but they weren't stupid; they took off at a dead run which soon turned into flight as they forced their little wings to beat as hard as possible.

They obviously did not have much experience with werewolves, since they apparently thought that they could fly faster than we could run. I used my tail to signal Aklag to stay behind me, and I ran just hard enough to keep up with the flying fairies and nip at their heals, occasionally. This resulted in a wild flight for their lives, with reason left in the dust.

They reached a small hill, and we saw an opening form in its side. We were close enough to the fairies that we were able to gain entrance through the open portal before it had time to close. Both of us skidded to a halt and looked around at a huge chamber that could not possibly exist under that small hill—magic had to be deeply involved, which was not surprising.

I signaled to Aklag, and we both shifted to human form. No sooner had we done that than we were attacked by dozens of fairies not much over a foot tall. Since we did not want to kill any at this stage in our "negotiations," I shouted to Aklag to remain in human form and beat them off with his fists. This was fairly easy, since most of the fairies were airborne and had no way to brace themselves when they were struck by our super strong fists. The few that stayed on the ground were kicked and hardly fared any better.

I don't know how long the fight lasted, but the place was littered with battered and bruised fairies, while Aklag and I were not even breathing hard. Eventually, the fighting stopped when a strong voice, out of proportion to the size of the one doing the shouting, ordered them to stand back.

A fairy no larger than the ones we had been fighting, strode across the floor. He was wearing an ornate and basically ridiculous crown. I don't know how it stayed on his head, since it was much too large for him—magic, I guess. I waved at Aklag before he could start laughing and made an elaborate bow to the king.

The king asked, "Who are you, and how dare you invade our sacred home?"

"Your Majesty, the answer to both questions is easy. We are werewolves. We are here because you people attacked us, and we want to know why."

"You have entered a war zone, and we attack anyone not know to be an ally. You must get out of here, immediately. I will open the portal for you."

"No, Your Majesty. We will not leave until you tell us why you are fighting a war. We don't see anything that needs fighting about. Who is your enemy and why?"

"What!?! You refuse to obey an order from the rightful king? You will be executed for that!"

"You seem to have forgotten that werewolves are immortal. WE cannot be killed, but the same cannot be said for fairies. Now, answer my question before we get mad and start tearing this place to pieces."

"Oh, very well. We are fighting a war with the goblins because they will not acknowledge that we fairies, in the person of myself, are the rightful rulers of the world. We demand that proper respect and tribute be paid to me, to us as their rightful lords and masters."

"OK, so you are a megalomaniac. Just how did you come to this conclusion?"

"It is my right by conquest. I deposed the previous king and took his place. Since then, I have been preparing for enforcing my right to rule the whole world. I decided to start with the goblins. I will get around to the gnomes and humans next on my list."

"What happened to the previous king? Did you kill him?"

"Of course not! What an insulting question! Fairies do not kill other fairies. He is kept in a cell down in the lowest reaches of our glorious chambers. I even visit him on occasion."

"OK, just for the sake of discussion, suppose I deposed you. Would that make me the new king of the fairies?"

"Certainly not! You could not be king of the fairies simply because you are not a fairy."

"Hmmm ... I never thought of that before. I wonder if I could shape-shift into a fairy. Let's see if I can make it work." I concentrated on shifting my physical appearance into that of a fairy. I strained for about two minutes, and then my vision blurred for a moment, and I found myself standing in front of the king in the shape of a nearly 6-foot-tall fairy! The king of the fairies fainted, and I heard laughter behind me. I turned and saw Aklag laughing so hard that he had turned red.