Looking down at the top of the stranger’s head, Thaddeus noticed his fine blond hair hanging halfway down his slender back and his pointed ears, and thought I’m holding on to an elf, just as the elf’s feet came free and they all fell backward.
“Thank you,” the elf said. “Oh, thank you.”
“Thank us later,” Teofil said. “Everyone run!”
They all got up and started to run, but the elf cried out. “My feet are sticking to the ground!”
Astrid ran back and turned around so he could jump on her back. Holding him piggyback style, she ran ahead of Teofil and Thaddeus just as something big pushed down the last of the trees that stood between it and them.
The air left Thaddeus’s lungs in a rush, and his feet seemed rooted in place as he stared at the monstrosity before him. Pale and soft-bodied, it was ten feet tall and twice that wide. Small eyes on either side, black as pitch, stood out in contrast to its white body. The mouth was a beak, serrated along the edges, and tiny hands stuck out from the slick flesh beneath it, pushing against trees and grabbing at everything in its path. It was like a giant maggot with the beak of a squid and small, pale hands.
“Reaper grub,” Teofil said, grabbing Thaddeus by the hand and pulling him along. “Killers.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Thaddeus ran behind Teofil. He glanced back to see the reaper grub slithering through the underbrush after them, black eyes shining and beak parting to emit its deep, terrifying roar.
“Now you have!”
“It’s still coming after us,” Thaddeus said. “We’ll never outrun it.”
“You won’t have to.” Astrid stepped out from behind a tree. She held her slingshot and swung it high over her head, her face set in grim determination as she watched the reaper grub approach.
Thaddeus and Teofil stopped a dozen feet behind her and turned to watch as they caught their breath. Movement in the underbrush to Thaddeus’s right caught his attention, and he looked over to see the elf they had rescued hanging by his legs from a tree branch, a bow and arrow in his hand.
The reaper grub closed in on them. Just when Thaddeus was about to shout at Astrid to get out of the way, she let the rock in her slingshot fly. At almost the same time, the elf fired his arrow, and both shots hit their marks. Astrid’s rock punctured the reaper grub’s right eye, while the elf’s arrow took out the left. The roar that followed nearly deafened them, and Thaddeus dropped into a crouch and covered his ears. The reaper grub flailed, banging against trees and bringing down leaves and branches on itself. A large dead branch snapped right above the reaper grub’s head. It fell, splintered end down, and impaled the monster. With a shudder that shook its entire fleshy body, the reaper grub collapsed and heaved a final, horrible-smelling breath. The tiny arms beneath its gnashing beak trembled, stiffened, and then went lax.
“Wow,” Thaddeus said, straightening up and staring at the mammoth grub not twenty feet away.
“Those things smell awful,” Astrid mumbled as she turned away from the monster. “You stepped in its spit, you know.”
Thaddeus sneered and looked down at his foot. “I did?”
“It leaves puddles of it around to trap prey,” Teofil said. “Then it follows the scent of its spit on a continuous circuit.” He looked at Astrid and shook his head. “I never even thought of a reaper grub.”
“Me neither,” she said. “I’ve never seen one before, only heard tales of them.”
Standing behind Thaddeus, the elf cleared his throat. He stood only as high as Thaddeus’s waist, about three and a half feet, and his blond hair seemed to gather what little sunlight struggled through the heavy canopy of leaves, shimmering like spun gold. His eyes were brilliant green, and tiny specks of light sparkled within the wide irises. A dark green jacket held together with delicate yellow thread lay over a shirt made of soft white material. He wore brown pants and calf-covering brown boots made of some kind of animal hide. A wide brown belt held a short sword on one side, and a dagger on the other. A bow and a quiver hung from his shoulders, the straps crisscrossing his chest.
“I give you thanks a many for saving my life,” the elf said bowing deeply, his hair piling on the leaves beneath him.
“You are quite welcome,” Teofil said. “I am Teofil, of the garden gnome Rhododendron clan. This is my sister Astrid and my boyfriend Thaddeus.”
Thaddeus’s heart jumped at Teofil’s introduction, but he kept his wits about him enough to nod to the elf once he had straightened up. Never before had someone called him their boyfriend. A surge of excitement ran through him, followed quickly by a rush of loneliness and something very much like grief. He wished his father had been there to hear it.
“I am Dulindir,” the elf said. “Son of Tulusdir and Celeblaswen.”
“What tribe do you belong to?” Teofil asked.
Dulindir looked down and clutched his hands together before him. “I have been cast out of my tribe.”
“Cast out?” Astrid stepped closer. “What for?”
“I became involved with a non-elf female.”
Astrid and Teofil exchanged a “so what?” look, and then Astrid asked, “They banished you for that?”
Dulindir looked at her. “It is not permitted within elf culture. There are strict rules.”
“I guess we gnomes have it easier than I thought,” Astrid said, waving toward Thaddeus and Teofil. “These two are in love, and Thaddeus is a human. Well, a wizard. But still, he’s not a gnome.”
“Love?” Thaddeus said, his cheeks and ears burning. “Well, I don’t know about that. I mean, we like each other, yeah, but I’m not sure it’s love.” He glanced at Teofil, surprised to find him blushing as well. “You’re not in love with me, right? I mean, it hasn’t been that long, and—”
“Ugh, stop talking.” Astrid waved him into silence. Thaddeus risked another glance at Teofil, surprised to find him staring at him, but quickly averting his eyes.
Thaddeus’s belly cramped with a curious mix of tension and excitement. Could Astrid have been right? Did Teofil love him? Was that possible after so little time? Did that mean he loved Teofil?
Before Thaddeus could pursue that thought much further, Astrid kept questioning Dulindir.
“Have you been on your own very long?” Astrid asked.
“Just over one hundred years.”
“Oh my God,” Thaddeus blurted out, all thoughts of his and Teofil’s relationship banished to the back of his mind. “What? One hundred years?”
Dulindir nodded. “It has been a long time. And I do get lonely.”
“How old are you?” Thaddeus asked, looking Dulindir up and down with wide eyes. The elf was child-sized, at least in human terms, and Thaddeus couldn’t put his claim of being at least a century old in context with his physical appearance.
Before Dulindir could respond, Fetter stepped out from behind a tree and gasped at the sight of the dead reaper grub. “You killed a reaper grub?”
“Dulindir and I did,” Astrid replied, crossing her arms and giving him a steady stare. “No thanks to you.”
“What?” Fetter asked.