A Choice

Chapter Fourteen

​Fredrick led us into a slightly larger building than the rest. Although the building looked like it could fit a human inside, the ceiling was lower than it looked. I had to bend my neck and go on my knees to fit and even then I was hitting the ceiling. Nia changed into her cat form to fit fine and not have a stiff neck like I would soon.
​The building we walked into seemed to be a sort of huge dining room. A long wooden table stretched across the room with a bunch of little wooden chairs around it. Fredrick whispered to some of the elves and the ones he whispered to moved away a chair and put a cushion instead. I was guessing that was for me, since the chairs seemed like a tight fit to be in. Also when I sat down I didn't have to bend my neck to fit, although it was still a tight fit for me.
​When most of the elves where settled around the table in chairs, Fredrick started to speak.
"My dear friends we have visitors!" he announced to the elves. This statement was followed by a bunch of cheers. Fredrick quieted down them down and continued.
"They have traveled a far way to come bless us with their presence. Tell us travelers, your names and why you have come to our beautiful Windola?" All the elves eyes moved to me, as if I was the leader and needed to speak first, when in reality, I just followed the others.
"Ummm, hello, my name is Evangeline," I started, awkwardly, feeling as if all the elves little eyes dug holes into me, "The black cat is Jasper, the grey one is Nia, and the fairy is Fiona, we come to..." I started to explain our quest when Nia cut me off.
"We have come to visit the most amazing tribe of elves," Nia said with a big grin, the elves, seeming satisfied with that, nodded with agreement. When they weren't looking Nia gave me a death stare. I was so confused, what was wrong with telling the elves the truth?
"They like flattery and will probably let us go earlier. Also they don't like people coming through unless they are there to visit them," Fiona said quickly in my mind.
Fredrick again calmed down the elves and spoke, "Well then friends, may we bless you with our presence and eat!" As he said those words food magically appeared in front of them. It seemed that every place we go, everyone loved giving feasts. There were pies of every kind and a huge turkey. There were even weirder desserts that I didn't know what they were but they tasted delicious. There were huge cakes stacked up on top of each other and put into weird shapes. Finally after that was done Fredrick spoke again.
"Now that the feast is done, we must let the visitors eat our special food," the elves seemed delighted to see us eat this and with the taste of the rest of the food I'm sure the special food would be even better. When a clap of Fredrick's hand, an elf went and came back with a wooden bowl. Inside I saw a green slimy substance. Just looking at it made me want to puke and the smell didn't help at all.
"Worm green stew!" announced Fredrick as the elf put a helping on each of our plates. The elves eyes again were all on us.
"We have to eat all of it or we're going to be the next course of this feast," Fiona explained in my mind. Fiona, shrinking her plate with her magic, finished the stew first. Then Nia and Jasper. Then all eyes were on me. I could almost hear the voices of the elves screaming at me to eat this disgusting dish or die. I looked over at Fredrick. I blinked and then saw something horrifying. Fredrick's eyes turned a deep red and his teeth were bared. His nails turned as sharp as knifes and his hair stuck up everywhere.
"Eat," he told me in a low voice, "Eat!" he said louder.
"Eat it, Evangeline!" Fiona yelled in my mind, knocking me out of my daydream. I looked back over at Fredrick who was smiling and had brown eyes, not red. I looked down at my plate, saw something moved, and chocked the whole dish down. Right when the last bite was gone, the elves cheered. Someone took my hand and led me to a place across the street from the dining room. Here there was a band set up and another table on one wall with more food. Also the ceiling was regular sized. We started dancing to the upbeat music the band made. Even though I hadn't danced in a long time, I knew every step, and my dance partner helped me. I saw glances of my friends throughout the dances. Nia changed into a human again, and looked like she was having the time of her life.
After a while, I got hungry again and excused myself from the next dance. I walked over to the table and saw someone sat in the dark corner. The person was human size and had a long beard.
"Hello," I said to the man, "Don't you want to dance."
"No, after that big feast today, I'm stuffed," he said.
"But I didn't see you at the feast, I'm sure I would of remembered another human there," I said confused.
"No you're wrong, you weren't there. Fredrick was, he is a very handsome looking fellow, deep brown hair and face without any wrinkles," said the man.
"No he's old," I said. Suddenly, a memory came to my mind, something else Vladmire said about elves. He told me about how some elves have things to keep human in a prison that doesn't seem like a prison. They poison special food that the visitors think they have to eat or they will die and then are sent to a place to stay forever. The only problem is that the poison makes the user feel like time goes slower than it actually does. We were prisoners.