Alosha

by Christopher Pike

  “No. They will shift back into their own dimension. The forest will be free of them . . . Unless you want some to stay.”

  “You have been here only a few days, Paddy,” she said. “But already you’ve made a bag of gold for yourself. I imagine leprechauns are pretty industrious. In our dimension we would call you guys self-starters. But I think it’ll be harder for you to make money here if there are thousands of leprechauns. The competition will be terrible. Do you see what I mean?”

  His bushy eyebrows frowned. “Not sure, Missy.”

  Ali knelt so she could talk to him face to face. “I’m going to close the Yanti with or without your help. But when I do I can choose which elementals will remain in this dimension. If you help me, I’ll make sure you’re the only leprechaun left on this side.”

  Her proposal interested him. He put a hand to his chin. “What if you don’t make it up there? What if Lord Vak catches Paddy helping you and cuts off me toes?”

  “He won’t catch me. I have powers.”

  Paddy frowned. “Are you a fairy?”

  “I’m a human being. But I fought three trolls yesterday and defeated them easily.”

  He was thoughtful. “Paddy heard a bit about that. But Lord Vak is smarter than trolls, and more powerful. Will your powers work on him?”

  “Yes,” Ali said.

  “I don’t know about . . .” Cindy began.

  “Shh!” Ali snapped, before turning back to Paddy. “Think how much money you’ll make as the only leprechaun in the United States? Why, you might end up with your own talk show.”

  “Shows talk?”

  “Never mind. You’ll get rich no matter what you do.” She suddenly handed him his bag of gold. “Take this back as a sign of good faith.”

  His face brightened. He weighed the gold in his hands, perhaps to see if she had stolen any while he was in the store. He nodded his huge head.

  “Paddy will go with you,” he said. “But you must give your word that Paddy will be the only leprechaun left on this side when you close the Yanti.”

  “Agreed. You must give me your word you will do all you can to help us reach the Yanti safely.”

  “Agreed.” He reached in his pocket and drew forth a silver flask. “Let us drink to our bargain.”

  Ali wrinkled her forehead at the flask. “What’s in that?”

  He took a gulp and sighed with pleasure. “Whiskey.” He offered her the flask. “Drink, and the deal will be sealed.”

  “You have my drink for me.”

  “ ’Tis not the custom of a leprechaun to drink for another.”

  “I’m not a leprechaun. You can have my drink.”

  He paused and gave her an unusual look. “Very well,” he said, having another gulp. Then he closed the top and put the flask back in his pocket. He held out his hand. “Paddy will be needing a few dollars for supplies.”

  “We’re buying the food,” Steve said. “We’ll buy enough for all of us.”

  He shook his head. “Paddy prefers to buy his own things. Be needing whiskey for me stomach and tobacco for me pipe.”

  “The Surgeon General has warned that smoking is harmful to your health,” Cindy said. “And excess alcohol can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and a host of other medical problems.”

  “Cindy,” Ali said patiently. “He’s a leprechaun. Tobacco and alcohol are probably good for him.”

  “ ’Tis true,” he said, his hand out. “Can’t travel without drink and smoke. A few dollars please, don’t be stingy.”

  Ali nodded to Steve. “Give him forty. I’ll pay you back after I go to the bank.”

  “Sixty,” Paddy said quickly.

  “Forty,” Ali replied firmly. “You’re to meet us back here in one hour. If you’re not here on time, our deal is off. I still don’t trust you, Paddy. None of us do. You will have to earn that trust. Do you understand?”

  He saw that she was serious. “Aye, Paddy hears you, Missy.”

  Steve gave him the money and he walked off in the direction of the liquor store. Cindy nodded her approval. “You handled him well,” she said.

  “I agree,” Steve said. “Except at the end. I think it was a mistake to let him out of our sight before we take off.”

  “I did that on purpose,” Ali said. “If we can’t trust him in town, we won’t be able to trust him up on the mountain. But if he’s back here when I told him to be here, then at least he has shown good faith.”

  “How do we know what good faith is to a leprechaun?” Steve asked.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The rest of their preparations went well—except, in Ali’s opinion, they took too long. At the market they shopped carefully. Ali insisted they stock up on nuts and granola, two light items that were easy to eat on the run. They also bought two loaves of bread, a pound of dried fruit, and several cans of tuna. Steve insisted they get a few giant Hershey bars, and Ali was not hard to convince. Quick energy, Steve called the candy. But Ali drew the line at potato chips, which annoyed Cindy.

  “The bags are mostly air. They’ll take up too much room in our packs.”

  “I’m willing to carry them,” Cindy said.

  “But then you wouldn’t have room for more important items,” Ali said.

  Cindy sighed. “I feel like I’m in the army.”

  “We’ll probably all lose some weight on this trip,” Steve said, already munching on a chocolate bar.

  “I doubt it,” Ali and Cindy said at the same time.

  Paddy was waiting for them outside the pawnshop when they walked up with their groceries. He had a couple of bags of his own. Ali insisted on looking inside. Four quart bottles of whiskey, three bags of tobacco, and two pounds of beef jerky. Ali thought his last item was a wise choice and told him so. She wished they had bought some.

  “Aye, Missy,” he said. “You don’t want to be doing any cooking in them woods. Lord Vak and his people can spot a fire miles away.”

  “Can’t we at least make coffee in the morning?” Steve asked.

  Paddy slapped Steve on the leg. He seemed to be getting into the idea of going on an adventure with a bunch of humans. “Laddie, you don’t need coffee when you have whiskey!” he said.

  “But we don’t drink,” Cindy said.

  Paddy frowned. “You don’t drink? You have to drink to live.”

  “We’re kids,” Ali explained. “In our dimension no one is supposed to drink alcohol until they’re an adult. Even then it is considered a bad habit. All we drink is water and soda, mostly soda.”

  Paddy was dumbfounded. “ ’Tis a strange land.”

  “Tell us more about Lord Vak,” Steve said.

  Paddy glanced around and lowered his voice. “Let us speak of him when we’re sure we’re alone,” he said.

  Grocery bags in hand, they headed for Ali’s house, with Ali pushing her bike. The weather was mixed—clouds came and went, as did the sun. She hoped it did not rain on them during the night. They did not have a tent. She wondered what Karl was up to, if he had completed his tasks.

  Along the way Ali asked the leprechaun if he was comfortable in his black boots.

  “Aye, Missy,” he said. “Paddy’s worn them all me life.”

  “They haven’t worn out?” she asked.

  He blinked; he did that when he was confused. “What does that mean?”

  Ali wondered if anything ever wore out in the elemental kingdom.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  Ali stopped at her bank on the way home. She had three hundred and twenty dollars in her savings. She had earned the bulk of it baby-sitting. Withdrawing the lot, she gave half to Steve for the groceries. He was obviously embarrassed to accept the money but took it anyway.

  Karl was not at Ali’s house but he had left a message. He was still showing Barney Adams his paper route, but said he would be done by ten-thirty. He told her to be ready. He was not delaying them, Ali figured. They still had to arrange the food in their packs.

  The backpack Steve h
ad found for Ali was much larger than her daypack. When it was full, and on her back, she had a hard time walking. Steve adjusted the strap around her waist.

  “How does it feel?” he asked.

  “Heavy. I don’t like it.”

  “It feels heavy because it is heavy. Backpacks are that way, when they’re full.” He added, “But I can take more of the food if you want.”

  “No,” Ali said. “We each carry our fair share.”

  “I am in the army,” Cindy groaned, struggling with her own backpack.

  Karl appeared shortly afterward. He took one look at Paddy, doing his nails on the couch, and pulled Ali aside. To make matters worse Paddy had washed off his facial makeup. As green as a dollar bill, he gave Karl a lot to take in at once.

  “Who’s that?” he asked. “Or should I say, what is that?”

  “That’s Paddy. He’s going with us.”

  Karl glanced back at the leprechaun. Still on the couch, Paddy was painting his toenails green. His feet were as hairy as his arms. Ali was not looking forward to seeing the rest of him.

  “Is he a leprechaun?” Karl asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How did you meet him?”

  Ali gave him the short version. “I think we can trust him,” she said in conclusion.

  “But everything you just told me says we can’t trust him,” Karl said. She had never seen him annoyed before. Once again, she glanced at Paddy. He had his hairy foot almost into his mouth, blowing on the nail polish to dry it.

  “He’s a crook, I know,” she said. “But I don’t sense any cruelty in him.”

  “You don’t know that for sure. In the legends leprechauns are always tricksters. You’ve already told me what a liar he is.”

  “All these stories about leprechauns and other elementals—how do we know any of them are accurate?”

  “Most myths are based on some fact. I believe the books. Let’s leave the guy behind. I’m sure Steve doesn’t want to bring him.”

  “I hate to go into the woods without any idea what we’re going to face. Paddy can teach us a lot. That’s another reason I want to visit the tree. I have questions to ask.”

  “The tree will take us more than two hours out of our way.”

  “I think the delay will be worth it.”

  “I’ve hiked these mountains with my father. The going gets tougher the closer you get to the top. Remember the snow.”

  “Did you ever go all the way to the top?” Ali asked.

  “Close. But we turned back. That tells you how hard it is. We’ve already got a late start. Ali, we need every hour we have left.”

  His words made sense. Time was crucial, and to return to the tree would be like backtracking. Yet a part of her felt uncomfortable leaving without checking in with Nemi.

  “Let me think about it some more,” she said.

  It was eleven before they were ready to leave. Karl had bought four pup tents in Tracer—cheap plastic things that could hold one person. They were light and they would keep the rain off. Ali insisted on paying him for the tents and the crampons he had picked up. He refused the money.

  “I charged them on my dad’s card,” he said. They were alone in the living room for the moment. Cindy and Steve were out on the street, helping load the taxi. Paddy was in the bathroom. She just hoped the leprechaun knew what toilet paper was for. He had already showered and asked to borrow her hair dryer. Of course he was probably going to steal it after he was through with it.

  “But I have enough. I want to pay,” she told Karl.

  “Let’s talk about it when we get back.”

  “Is Barney okay with the paper route?” she asked.

  “You know him. He has the memory of a pumpkin. He might miss a few houses. It’s not the end of the world.”

  “Not yet,” she added.

  He nodded gravely. “I don’t think the others know how serious this trip is.”

  “They will if Lord Vak attacks.”

  “Who’s he?” Karl asked.

  “Paddy mentioned him. I don’t know who he is but he sounds nasty.” She paused, troubled. “He sounds familiar, too.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like I’ve heard his name before.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know.” She added quietly, “Maybe before I was born.”

  Karl stared at her. She hoped she was not freaking him out.

  The taxi driver’s name was Frank. He was originally from New York. He looked like he had been scraped off skid row with a greasy spoon. Besides not having shaved in days, his clothes were dirty; they could have been plucked from a Dumpster. Ali supposed they would look no better after a few days on the mountain.

  Frank seemed to know how to mind his own business. One look at Paddy and he didn’t bat an eye. Steve told him that Paddy was from Los Angeles—like that explained why he was three feet tall and green.

  “Paddy’s been in a cult,” Steve went on, motioning for the leprechaun to keep his mouth shut. “We just got him out. We’re deprogramming him—he’s doing a lot better.”

  Frank burped and got behind the taxi wheel. “Been to Los Angeles. Strange place,” he said, nodding.

  Karl sat up front with Frank. The rest of them were in the back—a tight fit with their backpacks, not to mention the leprechaun. Paddy practically sat on Ali’s lap. He gazed out the window as they started up the mountain. She wondered if he had ever been in a car before. For that matter, she wondered where he had learned to speak English. Could elementals hear human beings from their own dimension? Could they see them? There was so much she didn’t know.

  Again, she smelled Paddy’s breath—Ireland in the summer, the odor as fresh as a field of grass and flowers. For all his lies and tricks, there was something innocent about the leprechaun. She studied his green and gold eyes as the trees flew by. He could have been a small child seeing a forest for the first time; he appeared hypnotized.

  Maybe it was her imagination, though. Karl’s warning came back to haunt her. She would have to keep an eye on the leprechaun.

  They came to the roadblock, parked, and got out and stretched. Karl moved the barrier aside. The others were watching Ali, waiting for her to push the talking tree issue. With the taxi driver out of earshot in the cab, Steve made his feelings clear.

  “I’m not hiking to the tree,” Steve said. “Karl’s right, we’ll lose too much time. Now that we’ve met Paddy, we believe you about the invading elementals.”

  “Yeah,” Cindy said.

  “You didn’t believe me before?” Ali asked.

  “No,” Cindy and Steve said at the same time.

  Ali saw she could not push the issue. “Okay. We’ll keep going,” she said.

  They got back in the taxi and continued up the mountain. Eventually they reached the logging site, found it empty. Ali had half expected to see the three trolls playing with the lumberjacks’ equipment. She wondered if the beasts would run the next time they saw her. The higher they drove, the less powerful she felt.

  At the logging site she made them stop, however. From that part of the mountain she figured she could see Nemi’s tree. Getting out of the taxi with a pair of binoculars, she stepped to the edge of the road and focused in the direction of the meadow where she had taken her long nap. Impatient, the others gathered at her back.

  “What are you looking for?” Karl asked.

  “Reassurance,” she whispered.

  She did not get it.

  In the spot where she remembered finding the tree, she saw what looked like a large pile of ash. It was gray and flaky, stacked like a ghostly pyramid that could be destroyed by a gust of wind.

  “Oh no,” she gasped. Her heart sank when she saw the ruin; she felt tears coming. It had meant so much to her to find Nemi. And now he was gone.

  “What is it?” Steve demanded.

  From such a distance, it was impossible to be sure, but it did not look as if any other tree in the same area had been to
uched by the fire.

  “The tree—it’s been burned down,” she said, handing the binoculars to Steve. She pointed out where he should search. He found the pile of ash, but was unsure what he was looking at.

  “That could be ash,” he said, giving the binoculars to Karl.

  “What else could it be?” Ali asked.

  Steve frowned. “I’m not sure.”

  “It sure looks like ash to me,” Karl said, studying the area through the binoculars. “I think I see burned bark.”

  “Let me see!” Cindy demanded.

  Karl handed Cindy the binoculars, spoke to Ali. “What do you think happened?”

  “I can’t imagine,” Ali said.

  Cindy got excited. “Maybe this is a case of spontaneous human combustion. You know, when people suddenly catch fire for no reason and burn to cinders?”

  “Cindy,” Steve said.

  “What?”

  “This cannot be a case of spontaneous human combustion.”

  “Why not?”

  “This was a tree, Cindy. It was not a human being.”

  “I know that! But what if there was another person inside the tree, talking to it, and he or she caught fire, and burned the tree down?”

  No one wanted to answer that one.

  Karl was thoughtful. “It’s odd how the trees right next to it look fine. Maybe it’s like Ali said—it was no ordinary tree. It probably did not burn down the same way another tree would.”

  Ali wiped her eyes. She did not want them to see how badly she was shaken. “Why did it burn down at all?” she asked.

  “If it was a magical tree,” Steve suggested, “if there are such things—then maybe this was its way of going elsewhere.”

  “Where?” Cindy asked.

  “Beats me,” Steve said.

  “Do you think someone intentionally burned it down?” Karl asked Ali.

  “I guess the trolls could have got it. Or other elementals—they might have known about it, seen it as an enemy. But . . .”

  “What?” Karl asked.

  Ali shook her head. “I thought it would have been able to protect itself. It was so wise.”