Fairy Rock

Chapter 17: Richard Wakes Up

Richard wakes up shirtless in a dark room full of lit candles. He feels the sticky cream over the wounds on his arms.

He bumps his head on the dirt-filled ceiling, trying to get out of the makeshift bed full of black leaves and grass. What is this place? Am I still in the fairy world?

A pointy-eared man who stands about three feet tall enters the room. "Hello, boy."

Richard's eyes open wide, and he quickly searches for his gun.

"I am not here to hurt you," the man explains.

"Who are you?"

The man combs his white beard and adjusts the green beanie on his head. "My name is Elroy, and I am the leader of the elf army."

"Are you the one who saved me?"

"Yes, I am."

"Thank you!"

Richard reaches for his torn bookbag in the corner of the soiled-covered room. He glances up at the ceiling, realizing that black grass is growing out of it. "Are we underground?"

"Yes, we are ten feet below the surface."

Richard digs through his bookbag. "Where is my gun, and where is my beer?"

"Your gun is in the other room with the other Elves, and I drank your beer."

Richard gets snappy. "Listen, man, thank you for saving me, but I'm petrified. I need to find my friend Tevin, and I can't function without my freaking beer."

Elroy leads him through his tiny home as Richard crawls to avoid banging his head on the low ceiling again. He takes him to another candlelit room with three other elves with white beards growing down to their knees. They have rum all over their green robes as they eat dragon meat at a small wooden Chester table in the back of the room.

A fourth female elf poses in her tight green robe and shows off her thin, hairy legs to everyone in the room. "I see the human is awake. Do you like what I did to your hair, boy?"

Richard touches his hair, noticing that he no longer has braids and now has an afro. He bites his lip and tries not to curse. "Why did you do this?"

"My name is Melinda, and I thought you were cuter that way," she responds.

"Listen, stop calling me boy, my name is Richard, and I need to find my friend, Tevin. That's all I care about right now," Richard announces.

Elroy hands Richard a cup of rum.

Richard grimaces from the bites he has endured from the dark wolves. He sits on the filthy floor of the underground bunker.

Richard downs the cup, coughing while swallowing the strong liquor. The room starts spinning, and he becomes dizzy. "What did you put in this cup?"

He closes his eyes, and visions of Elroy as a human dressed in a purple poet's shirt and pants come into his mind. It's the afternoon, and heavy rain pours down as Elroy appears on a long pirate ship in the ocean. He's mopping the deck.

Captain Vanessa is next to him. She puts her purple captain's hat on, buttons her purple trench coat over her dress, and lectures him. "This is your punishment for not killing those villagers back in Pimoria. Because of this, you are now demoted from first mate to cabin boy."

She goes toward her army of pirates dressed in purple trench coats with rifles on their backs behind her. "We are approaching Fairyville shore; get your muskets ready."

Melinda runs to Elroy.

"If we don't kill anyone, Captain Vanessa may kill us for being insubordinate again," she mentions.

"Melinda, I only joined the crew to travel the seas, not to be a murderer."

"I don't want to die."

Elroy hugs her. "When we get to Fairyville, we will escape in the commotion."

The ship lands on the shore of the beach. Captain Vanessa's pirates fire cannonballs from the side of the vessel at the poor villager's wooden houses, caving in the roofs. The pirates run off the boat and into the woods, shooting and killing innocent people. They steal their gold as the deceased bodies fall into the shrubs.

Elroy, Melinda, and three other cabin boys escape as Captain Vanessa takes her eye off them to rob a home.

The five of them hurry through the burning town until Gilbert III stops them. They bow to the angry wizard.

"We are nothing like Vanessa. We want to get away from her and live a life of peace. Please don't kill us," Elroy says.

Gilbert III's enchanted eye patch blinks a green light. "I'd be believing your story, but the king gave me a job, and that's to punish the pirates. I'd not turn you into fairies, but I'd be turning you into elves to separate you from your twisted captain as I'd send you away."

"Why do we have to be elves? Please don't send us to the dark world." Elroy begs.

"I'd don't care about you pirates; just be lucky that you won't be as tiny as your captain will be," Gilbert III says.

The wizard laughs as he shocks the five of them with his eye patch's green light. Their bodies shrink, their ears become pointier, and their noses are longer as they transition into elves and vanish to The World of The Fairies.

Richard opens his eyes from the dream, and he's no longer dizzy. He feels Elroy's small hands massaging healing cream on his shoulder. "Why did you spike my drink?"

"I put some of my visions cream in it. I wanted you to understand the elves' plight and our story."

"You, elves, are nothing like the fairies. I'm sorry for what has happened to you."

"We have information on your friend, but it will be challenging to get to him as we are at war with the fairies. Our intelligence tells us that he is in a treehouse. He has transformed into a very muscular man and has a rather attractive female companion with him."

"So, Tevin is Rock, and the female companion must be Serenity."

"You may want to rescue him, but Queen Vanessa will kill you before that happens."

"Can you help me?"

Elroy pulls out his bow. "Yes, we both have our reasons to kill the queen. Your gun will not be enough to bring down the fairies. I can teach you to become an archer."

"No time! I must save Tevin now."

"Relax, my friend. Queen Vanessa will not kill Tevin yet because she needs him to kill Gilbert III."

Elroy fixes himself another cup of rum. "We elves are afraid to face Queen Vanessa, but Richard, you are brave. If I train you to be an archer, you can use these special arrows to fight her. I know you will fight her to save your friend and be the key to getting us out of this evil world."

Reginald, Jason, and Bartholomew crowd around Elroy.

"Here is the outstanding bow we created for Richard," Reginald says.

"I'm hoping the boy can do this because I'm scared to stick my head outside the hole we live in," Jason cries.

"I don't know how you saved the boy from the dark wolves. I haven't left this hole in years. These creatures out there are just too terrifying," Bartholomew says.

Elroy puts his hand on Richard's chubby body. "Richard, you showed so much courage by coming here to save your friend. Little do you know that you may be the one to save us all."

"Train me, and I will stop the fairies," Richard says.