Chapter 8

We drove far enough up on the shore to escape the edge of the water at high tide. We thought to take a day to rest in place since we got almost no sleep the previous night. We ate breakfast and went to bed. Even the children did not complain about having to go to bed, they were so tired.

That afternoon, Trudy stirred around restlessly and finally got up. She was not sleepy, but she was a bit groggy, so she did not notice that the children were missing. Eventually, she woke up fully and noticed that the children were not in their bed. Figuring that they were playing outside, she didn't get upset. After about an hour, she wondered where they were, so she stuck her head out the door and called their names. Trudy was a little surprised when she got no answer, so she slipped on her dress and stepped outside to look for the boys. Nowhere to be seen!

Trudy became alarmed and shape shifted to her wolf form. This much sharpened her sense of smell, as well as her eyesight. She jumped to the top of the cart and scanned the neighborhood—still no sign of the children! Trudy reverted to human form so that she could talk and lay down on the roof of the cart. She stuck her head in the open window and called out, "VILKATAS! THE CHILDREN ARE MISSING! I CAN'T SEE THEM ANYWHERE!"

Orda, Jonga, and I woke up immediately. We dressed as quickly as possible while Trudy told us what she had done since she woke up. Naturally, we did exactly what any humans would do, we did the most useless thing. We all ran outside and looked around, hoping that Trudy had simply missed seeing something. It only took a moment for us to admit that we could not see anything that Trudy hadn't.

Trucy jumped down from the cart roof and we discussed the problem. I asked Orda to fix us a quick breakfast, knowing that we would need food to think straight. Jonga went left looking for sign of the boys and Trudy went right to do the same. Meanwhile, I walked toward the sea, looking for some sign of footprints in the sand. I saw nothing, so I returned to the cart.

We ate breakfast while we discussed the problem. The first idea to occur to us was that a spriggan had stolen both children, but the king had said that they would not bother us, again, and I was inclined to believe him. We could not think of any specific person who would want to harm us, since we had just arrived on the island and had not had time to make enemies.

We agreed that we were just going to have to search until we could find the boys. Fortunately, we had started the boys on their way to becoming werewolves, so there was no way that they could be permanently harmed. Nevertheless, we were going to find them or tear this island apart looking for them.

We decided that we had to do a methodical search, and the place to start was at the boys' bed. There was not room for all of us to gather around the bed as a group, so we went to look at it one at a time. I noticed that there was a residual odor that I could not identify at first. Then I realized that the odor was that of stale air as might be found in a closed room, a cave, or a grave! I didn't say anything to the others at first, but sniffed around to see if I could find a trail of that odor.

None of the women noticed that odor, but that meant nothing. Orda and Jonga were fixated on the odor of their children and couldn't smell anything else. Trudy was so upset that she had not noticed that the boys were missing for so long that she really was not able to concentrate on anything else. We tried to calm Trudy down as we discussed the ramifications of the odors that we had detected. We realized that there was no wind at the moment, so that if we got ourselves off of dead center, we could follow the odor trail at least until the breeze came up.

We started out on the trail rushing as fast as we could go. Orda, Jonga, and I each were intent on following our own key smell, but Trudy had now calmed down and was busy looking for some other key factor that she could follow and, thus, contribute to the search. We had gone about two miles when a breeze came up and dissipated the odors that we had been following. Oh, shit, now we were in trouble!

This was when Trudy chipped in with the comment, "Did you guys see that trail of gold dust that seemed to be on the same trail as the odors?" She pointed it out and we all could see it now. We had been so intent on following our noses that we had ignored everything else. We immediately started following the trail, and it ran for another six miles.

The trail ended at the side of a hill. It was as if the trail continued through the dirt of the hill, but we could not follow it. This didn't stop us, though. We started to dig with our feet, relieving each other so that a rested digger was always on the job. We dug for about an hour and had made considerable progress with our tunnel, but we didn't seem to be getting anywhere useful.

Suddenly, there was a glare of light and we were no longer in the tunnel, but in a large chamber under the ground. I knew that we were in the right place because I could smell the same odor of stale air. Standing in front of us was a creature that looked like a man about three feet tall, but he had a set of four wings, much like a dragonfly. He said, "Why are you trying to burrow into our home? You should know that we don't tolerate that sort of mischief."

I said, "We did not know that this was your home. We are looking for two children who were abducted last night or early this morning."

"Ah, the two new human slaves. Well, you can't have them back. They belong to us, now, and we never return slaves that we have captured."

"Either return the children or suffer the consequences. We will rip your magic home to shreds to find our children; that I can promise you without reservation!"

"Ha, you cannot harm me or mine! I am a fairy, and therefore magical, so you cannot harm me. Furthermore, I can use magic to bind you to my will."

"I doubt that! Now, return our children right now or we will become very angry."

At that moment, a child's voice rang out, "MOMMA, PLEASE SAVE US!"

Orda trotted over to the cage that was holding Big Noise and shape shifted back to her human form. "Don't worry, Darling, Momma will get you out of there and take you home." She released a simple catch on the door, and Big Noise came tumbling into her arms. "Where is Little Noise?"

"I don't know. They took him away when they locked me in that cage."

When I heard that, I grabbed the fairy's arm with my teeth. It was then that I realized that I had been talking to the fairy directly with my mind. Still holding on to his arm, I thought, "Where is the other child? Return him to us or I will crush your arm."

"NEVER! You cannot harm me!"

I understood, now, that I was talking to a very stubborn individual, and he would need some gentle persuasion. I began to clamp down harder and harder on his arm, and the fairy began to scream in pain. I backed off a little and said, "Now, return the child, or I will bite all the way through your arm."

He still refused to give in, so I bit down hard enough to sever his arm! Yellowish-green blood began to pour out of his arm, and he struck at me with a wooden stick he had in his other hand. This was too much, so I shortened him by a head by biting clear through his neck. This is when we were attacked by a mob of fairies.

Orda pushed Big Noise back into the cage and slammed the door, her idea was to keep him safe. Of course, Big Noise did not understand this and began to cry. He lived up to his name, the sound level was actually painful in that closed room. The fairies fell to the floor and tried, unsuccessfully, to shield their ears.

Little Noise, wherever he was, must have heard Big Noise, and took up the cry. Jonga reacted as only a mother could—she was able to pinpoint the source of Little Noise's crying and ran to him. In a minute or so, she returned, carrying the child in her arms. He had stopped crying as soon as Jonga had picked him up, and Big Noise also stopped crying when Orda picked him up.