If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel

◊ Chapter 27 ◊

Previously on Onward...

In order to help Ian take on gremlins if necessary, Barley has his brother engage in a playful pretend battle with him as they take off for Dangarnon. But as the brothers conclude their scenario in the middle of the forest, they run into a group of Whispering Elms, who—after revealing to be in the middle of a love rectangle—confirm to the boys that Gedeon is hiding out in the village.

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◊ Dangarnon ◊

Approaching the threshold of the village was like approaching the aftermath of a terrible war. No building was perfectly shaped and the sounds of dripping water could be heard. But Ian and Barley readied themselves as they were about to enter gremlin territory.

At what appeared to be the entrance to Dangarnon was a welcome sign on the right side—at least, they were sure it was a welcome sign. Neither brother could tell at first glance. It said WELCOME on it with big, bold letters—though the letters themselves were fading quite a bit. Under it was the word: Population, with several different numbers written next to it, each with question marks. 25? 38? 50? 100? 113? 121? 200? 500? 1000?! And next to 113? was a large capital "A" cutout that randomly sat there next to the sign amongst other miscellaneous pieces of junk. Finally, below all of the numerous population guesses was a comment written in black chalk that read: aw, forget it!

"Huh, looks like they gave up counting ages ago...," Barley remarked.

"Yeah," Ian agreed, then nervously looking around, he asked, "so...do we just...go in?" A part of him was expecting to see gremlin security standing at the front of the village, making sure to not let any non-gremlin folk inside.

"Well, we're not going to find Gedeon or the S.S. Medallion by just standing here admiring this welcome sign," Barley said.

"True," the younger elf nodded. Then taking another breath in and letting it out, a determined Ian said, "it's now or never." 

With that, he and Barley marched forward. They entered the town with both their heads and faces still covered so that no gremlin could recognize them as the Lightfoot brothers or as elves.

Now on the inside, there was much more to see on every corner for a slum village that only seemed to have no more than ten streets. Even at the early hour the brothers were up on their quest, the town was as active as one would expect a regular town to be—crowded even, maybe too crowded. After coming face to face with Gedeon, Ian was amazed to witness this many gremlins all in one place.

There were gremlins sleeping out on the street, gremlins that wore eyepatches, gremlins with missing limbs and legs, gremlins drinking alcohol, gremlins smoking joints, gremlins playing poker, and loads of sketchy gremlin vendors on the street selling either extremely tacky products or forgery items one would most likely mistake as the real deal—like paintings or pirated DVDs.

Then the ears of both elves were attracted to the sound of snapping fingers and out-of-tune strings playing on their left. Barley and Ian both stopped when they noticed that it was a gremlin band, and they all played makeshift instruments made from scraps and garbage. The gremlin up front and center had a cheap toy microphone in his hand and began to sing a verse.

"I was bornth one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain," he sang, snapping his fingers along to the beat. "Fightin' and trouble is my middle name, I was raised in the caves by an ol' mama sprite, can't no high-toned faerie make me do what's right."