Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-Tailed Fox

by K T Durham

  Then suddenly the hooded man picked up his pace, and she let out a cry and broke into a run. There was a cluster of trees in the distance. The woods! Maybe she could lose him in there …

  “Wait, Goldie!” Sebastian swore and broke into a run to catch up to her.

  Then the hooded man broke into a run, too. Goldie burst into the trees and ran like mad, stealing glances behind her. Where was that man? She started to panic. Where was Sebastian? Perhaps she ought to slow down –

  “Arrggh!” she screamed when she felt hands grab her from behind, and then something covered her face. The stench of the chemical was overwhelming. “Nooo …” She felt the strength drain from her as everything started greying out.

  She could hear Sebastian from a distance. “Goldie!” he was screaming.

  Sebastian! But she was now slack in somebody’s arms, and she fought to keep her eyes open as she felt the putrid, ragged breathing of the short bald man on her face. He was dragging her deeper into the woods.

  The last thing she remembered before passing out from the chloroform was her heart turning cold as she stared into a pair of ice-blue eyes looking down at her, and those shiny red lips shaped into that familiar, cruel smile.

  “Didn’t I always say you shouldn’t make it so hard for us to get along, my dear Goldie?” Veronika said softly, putting a cold, slender finger to Goldie’s cheek. “Come. We should go home.”

  Elly woke up screaming. “Let go of me!” she cried, lashing out with her arms.

  “Aigoo! Get up, you crazy girl, I can’t have you lying here! It looks bad for business!”

  Elly sat bolt upright and jumped to her feet. “Get away from me!” she screamed, not realizing she was speaking in Elvish. Then she froze when she looked into the glowering face of a tiny Korean woman with a head of short, tight curls and small eyes made garish with heavy blue eye shadow. Behind her, people were staring and whispering among themselves, and Elly heard and understood everything they were saying in their different languages. Who is she? Why was she passed out under a tree in the middle of a tourist hot spot? Why does she look so filthy? Should we call an ambulance? She must be a homeless foreigner. Is that a quiver of arrows she’s carrying? She must be mentally ill.

  The Korean woman, dressed in the traditional Korean hanbok in bright yellow and green, was the tour guide. She gulped and stepped back. “Look, I didn’t touch you! Are you crazy?” she cried indignantly, putting both hands up in the air as if in surrender.

  Elly felt her face redden. Then when she looked down, she saw the serpine lying in a heap at her feet. She was in the shade of a huge oak tree, and the warm breeze was blowing her hair across her dirt-streaked face.

  She felt disoriented, as though she had just woken up from a long, lucid dream. Then a moment later, everything flooded back, and her heart clenched.

  Guardian Graille was dead. The orb of light had been restored. She could finally go home.

  Elly staggered to her feet, and the tour guide tutted and backed away. “Crazy girl,” she muttered before turning away and leading her tour group to the opposite side of the hill. “OK, everybody, let’s go see the waterfalls, shall we?” she called out brightly. The tourists glanced back at Elly curiously. One of them, a young man with dark hair and brown eyes, approached her and asked in accented English if she needed help. Elly shook her head and averted her eyes. The young man shrugged and walked on with his friends.

  After the group had trickled away, Elly was alone. She was on some sort of round hill that overlooked a small village. She gazed out and turned in a circle. The wall of stony trees that had defined the petrified forest was nowhere in sight. Then she looked down at herself and groaned. It was no wonder those people were staring. She looked like a train wreck: her clothes muddied and torn and covered in dried blood, her face scratched and dirt-streaked, lips parched and peeling; her long, wild hair had become a mass of tangles with twigs sticking out, and her arms and hands were covered in many fading scars.

  Ellanor, I am sorry that you had to witness the passing of the Guardian. But Graille sacrificed himself so that Alendria could be saved. You must teleport back to Alendria at once. As Graille said, there is little time to lose, as much has already been lost.

  She snatched the serpine from the ground, coiling it around her arm many times before attaching it back to the quiver. Oh, Greymore, how I wish he didn’t have to leave us.

  I know. I am so sorry for the loss. Guardian Graille will not be forgotten.

  She walked out from under the oak tree, and as she felt the sun caress her face, the loss of Graille hit her afresh, and tears sprang to her eyes. She stood there bathing in the warm sunshine, as though it might cleanse her of misery, for a very long time had passed since she last tasted and smelled anything that was good and wholesome. She let her thoughts drift.

  She had dreamed of that girl again. Goldie. Who was Sebastian? She had the inexplicable sense that she dreamed of real events that had happened to Goldie, who was actually a real person and not just a figment of her overactive imagination, as Grandpapa had once suggested. Goldie could be in danger. But why was she dreaming of Goldie again?

  It took Elly several moments to realize that something was odd, and then it registered: she didn’t feel cold. In fact, it was so warm that she longed to peel off her sodden jacket, leggings, and boots. But even if she had lost a month in that time-warped forest, it was supposed to be winter still.

  She whipped out Nebulane and tapped on it twice, and her heart almost stopped as she stared at the date.

  July 4th.

  Graille’s words echoed in her head. You must make haste. Remember, time is warped here. By the time you get out, months would have passed in the real world.

  Aghast, she sank down to her knees. It should only have been two days since she last saw Jong-Min and his grandmother in Seoul. Only two days should have passed since she was stranded in the petrified forest.

  But in the real world, she had been gone six months.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  If Life Was Like a Box of Sweet Dumplings

  “No,” she moaned as she doubled over from shock, grasping the compass to her chest. Six months. She had lost half a year. She had to get back to Alendria right away!

  Then she felt sick with fear when she thought about Mama, Papa, Luca, Aron, and Kaelan. What had happened in the past six months? Had the goblins launched an attack? Had the Beast tried to overthrow the Tree?

  Did she even have a home to go back to?

  Her heart was hammering wildly, and she had to close her eyes and take deep breaths. She had to go home and make sure everyone she loved was safe. Her fingers strayed to Graille’s tear-drop amulet at her neck, and she remembered: she must first teleport back to Seoul to see Jong-Min and his grandmother. Her heart jolted at the thought of the sick old woman. Please, please, please be alive, she prayed.

  She had to find a secluded place to teleport. So she leapt up on her feet and looked out, sweeping her eyes over the rolling hills. Then she spotted one in the far distance that looked particularly steep, with a strangely shaped boulder right at the top. She could hide behind that. There was something forlorn about that boulder, resembling a large-headed old man wearing a bowler hat with a stooped back. Then it registered: it was one of the stone grandfathers she had read about!

  Glancing around, she saw that nobody was in sight, at least not nearby. Should she take the risk? After a moment’s hesitation, she leapt up into the air and flew towards the stone grandfather.

  “Umma!” cried a young voice in the distance. It was a little girl standing at the bottom of the steep hill that was home to the stone grandfather, and she was tugging at her mother’s yellow floral sundress. “Umma, I see a fairy flying in the sky! Look!”

  “Darn it,” Elly muttered as she scooted behind the stone grandfather. She had reached the top of the hill just b
efore the girl’s mother could spot her. Had she been too reckless? She knew it was vital to keep up the human masquerade, but she really had little time to lose.

  The girl’s mother squinted into the sunshine. She couldn’t see anything but that big old statue that cast a long shadow over them. With a frown, she clucked her tongue. “Aga, you watch too much cartoons! There are no fairies; you should know that by now! What do they teach you at school?” She tugged her daughter away, and as they walked back down a winding path together hand-in-hand, the child’s protests faded away.

  Behind the stone grandfather, Elly breathed a sigh of relief. She should be safe from prying eyes now. She drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Erhon, mova,” she said firmly, clasping her hands to her chest, recalling her days with Jong-Min and his grandmother. Then she felt herself being squeezed through that tiny hole again, and she gritted her teeth against the unnerving sensation.

  Then everything came to a stop. For a moment she was confused. Where was she?

  She could hear talking voices through the brick wall of the familiar brown-brick building, and she froze in disbelief. She was standing at the back of the library close to Jong-Min’s house! She had actually managed to teleport successfully on the first attempt. Grandpapa’s voice sounded in her head. See, Ellanor? Practice makes perfect.

  Please, please, please be alive.

  Instead of teleporting again, she ran the few blocks to Jong-Min’s little house. It wouldn’t take long.

  Please, please, please be alive.

  She came to a halt in front of the familiar house with the cracked green roof and pounded on the door. “Jong-Min! Jong-Min! Grandmother!” she hollered. It was a Saturday afternoon, and they should both be home. She tried the doorknob. It was locked. She peered through the windows. The curtains were drawn closed.

  Please, please, please be alive.

  Desperately, she pounded on the door again. “Jong-Min!” she yelled, and her voice broke as she dropped to the ground with a sob.

  Grandmother was dead. Jong-Min had been sent off to an orphanage, lost to his birth mother forever. It had all been in vain. She sagged against the door as tears burned her eyes.

  “Hello? Are you looking for somebody?”

  Elly blinked and slowly turned to face the person who just spoke in Korean. A tall, thin lady with shoulder-length hair and glasses stood at the gate, curious and wary. After a moment, recognition finally came to Elly: it was the neighbour, Miss Choi, the one who had walked Jong-Min to school on the day Grandma went to see the lawyer.

  Elly smiled faintly. “Hello, Miss Choi,” she said in a hoarse voice.

  The lady raised her eyebrows and took a step closer. “Elly! I thought it was you. What are you doing here?” It was hard to forget a foreigner who spoke perfect Korean and had such unusual green eyes that reminded her of emeralds. Not that she could afford any.

  Then she noticed that the girl looked a little worse for wear. Her wild, black hair was sticking up in several places, and the longest strands reached past her waist. Her face was streaked with dirt, and her hands were covered in marks that looked like scars. Her clothes, torn in several places, looked like they had been through a muddy tornado. But it was the expression on the girl’s face that made her walk over and crouch down with concern. “Are you OK?” she asked gently. Why did the girl look like the world had just ended?

  Elly wiped her arm across her face and shook her head. “I got back too late,” she muttered.

  Miss Choi frowned. “Umm, are you looking for Jong-Min and his grandmother?”

  Startled, Elly’s head snapped up. “They’re here?” she demanded.

  “Well, no. They left over two months ago. At the end of April, I think. Didn’t you hear?”

  “Tell me!” Elly cried, forgetting her manners. “Is Grandma still alive? Is Jong-Min safe?”

  Miss Choi was bewildered. “Well, yes. The news spread all over town. It was a double miracle! The doctors were all baffled, but Grandma’s cancer seemed to vanish overnight. She’s in remission, and from what I hear, she’s in such good health that she could live to a hundred!”

  Elly’s mouth dropped open. “She’s not sick anymore? She’s not dying?”

  Miss Choi nodded with a grin. “Yes, Grandmother is now cancer-free. A miracle, as I said.”

  Astounded, Elly staggered back and sat on the front step. “But where is Jong-Min?”

  “I’m surprised you don’t know. Didn’t you keep in touch with them?” Miss Choi raised her eyebrows when Elly stared back wordlessly. “It’s another miracle. Somehow, Jong-Min’s birth mother found him and took him to London to live with her!” She smiled. “Life sure is like a box of sweet dumplings – you truly never know what you’re gonna get, do you?” She had a private chuckle as she thought about Forrest Gump, one of her favourite American films. Then she looked at Elly quizzically. “Umm, are you all right?”

  It was then that Elly realized she was beaming and jumping up and down with joy. Then when her fingers found the amulet at her neck, her face crumpled, and she began to cry.

  Elly didn’t stay to listen to every detail that Miss Choi wanted to impart in regards to what had happened to Jong-Min and his grandmother. It was enough for her to know that they were both safe and sound, that Jong-Min was now in London with his mother, and that his grandmother was no longer sick.

  Elly knew that cancer wasn’t something that would normally go away by itself. It really was a miracle. It could not have been possible, unless …

  Then it struck her: It must have been Guardian Graille’s doing. What did he say before he died? Restoring life to another …

  From afar, Guardian Graille must have healed Jong-Min’s grandmother! That alone could have cost him his own life.

  Elly fingered the amulet. She would find out the details later. Now, she must go on about her business, for she had too much to do and too little time.

  After thanking Miss Choi and saying goodbye, she ran all the way back to the library, much more light-hearted and with a spring in her step. She darted to the secluded place behind the library, looked around to make sure the coast was clear, and teleported to her final pit stop before going home to Alendria.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The Calm

  Horace Cobble yawned as he put his tools away. It was past midnight, and he had been working for three solid hours on the brown leather loafers. It was definitely time for bed.

  He hunched over as he turned off the gas heater and pulled on his housecoat. It was July, already midsummer, but it was still well below ten degrees outside. “What has the world come to?” he muttered. Peculiar things seemed to be happening all over the place. Three countries had been hit by major earthquakes in the past four months, followed by tsunamis and floods that destroyed towns and killed thousands. The weather had been acting up all over the globe, affecting agriculture and economies. Was all of this really the result of global warming? The news wouldn’t shut up about it these days.

  Snowy wandered into his workshop and meowed. “Watcha doin’ snooping around?” he grumbled, switching off the lamp. Miriam would be fast asleep by now. She deserved it; business at her pastry shop had been good that week, thanks to the summer holidays.

  Bam!

  Horace almost jumped out of his skin as he snatched the umbrella from behind the door. “What was that!” he whispered at Snowy, who narrowed her yellow eyes and started hissing, tail poking up. Horace broke out in a cold sweat. It couldn’t be another break-in, could it? This wasn’t good for his blood pressure.

  With trembling hands, he opened the door a sliver. His hair stood up on end when he heard footsteps in the corridor. A shadow loomed up. Gritting his teeth, he grasped the umbrella handle with both hands and got ready to swing at the perpetrator.

  “Horace?” called out a voice softly.

  He blinked
. The door opened wider, and he saw the green eyes before anything else.

  “Elly!” he cried, and he could almost feel his blood pressure dropping several notches.

  Elly beamed and threw her arms around him. “Oh, Horace, I’m so happy to see you!”

  Then Miriam burst into the workshop with a baseball hat in her hands and a wild look in her eyes, her hair all askew. She gave a shout when she saw Elly. “Oh my! I thought it was a burglar!” she cried, dropping the bat onto the floor. She laughed and went to embrace Elly. “My dear, we are awfully fond of you, but you must stop appearing in the middle of the night and scaring us half to death!”

  Elly giggled and bowed her head sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to appear so abruptly.” Snowy had walked up to her, purring. Elly grinned and scratched the cat behind the ears. Then they all sat on the leather couch next to the workbench.

  Horace squinted at her over the rims of his glasses. In the dim light, it had taken him several moments to take in Elly’s appearance. “Blimey, you look like you’ve been through a war!” he exclaimed, peering at her torn, filthy clothes and her dirt-smeared, scratched-up face. He hadn’t spotted the fading scars on her arms and hands yet.

  Miriam looked Elly up and down in alarm. Elly flashed them a rueful smile and shook her head. “Don’t worry, I’m OK! I’m not hurt. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, right?”

  Miriam frowned. “Elly, you look awful,” she declared. “Why don’t you be a dear and go wash up?” It was more a command than a suggestion. “Afterwards, we could all do with some sleep!”

  Elly sighed and shook her head apologetically. “I’m really sorry, I can’t stay long. I must go back to Alendria to, umm, return one of the relics I found. It’s pretty urgent.”