Werrien realized that being at the seaside had only been a wild dream, but as for hearing the strong voice, and seeing his mother in the tower, that had been very real to him. It impacted him so much that he decided he wouldn’t give up climbing the mountain, no matter what. And even though he was extremely cold, it was actually a bit of a relief to be back on Mount Bernovem, compared to being attacked by slimy, stinking, rotting crabs. Unfortunately, his relief wasn’t long lived, for lying beside him, looking very pale and almost completely covered in snow, was Kristina. Guilt overcame him. What have I done? Have I been so stupid as to fall asleep and let her freeze to death? The thought of this made him so angry with himself that he began to feel the familiar rush of adrenaline pump through him. It gave him a little bit of strength, enabling him to stand up and begin to remove the snow that had covered her. Raymond’s container lay on the slope next to Kristina, and as Werrien was removing the snow from her nearly lifeless body, its lid popped open. A few seconds later, a very sleepy Raymond stuck his head out into the frosty air. The icy wind blew at him and chilled him to the bone. The weather conditions were just too cold and miserable for him to venture out, and he pulled his head back inside. Before he closed the container’s lid, a handful of snow came at him and hit his face. He shook his head, and then peeked outside again. He looked around suspiciously to see where the snow had come from. He took notice of Werrien, just off to the right of him, removing the snow from Kristina. “Hey, watch where you’re throwing that nasty cold stuff,” Raymond said. When Werrien didn’t respond, Raymond finally took notice of Kristina. He figured that there must be something very wrong, so he quickly made his way over to Werrien. “What in the world is going on here?”
“Can’t you see? Kristina is buried in the snow!”
“Yes, of course I can, but why did you let this happen?”
“Instead of sitting there asking questions, why don’t you lend me a hand?”
Raymond quickly jumped on top of Kristina and began helping Werrien to remove the snow from her. When they had gotten most of it off, Werrien felt her wrist, to see if she still had a pulse. She did, but it was weak. At least she is still alive.
“What are we going to do?” Raymond asked.
Werrien really didn’t know what he could do for her. He could barely stand the miserable cold weather himself. He thought for a brief moment and then said, “Hurry! Get back in your container.”
Sensing that this was no time for arguing or questioning, Raymond obeyed and quickly went back inside, and Werrien closed the lid after him.
Not knowing where he would get the strength, Werrien picked up Kristina’s limp body and started up the mountain, taking one strenuous step at a time. The biting wind blew in his face, and he desperately tried to think of a way to help her, but being so tired and weary himself, his mind drew a complete blank. To make matters worse, that familiar spirit of fear began taunting him again, knocking at his mind, and generously offering him thoughts. “What are you supposed to do now? You hardly have any strength left yourself. You think you can carry the girl up to the top of the mountain? And so what if you get her to the top? You know full well that the spell can only be broken if she places the Warble in its resting place. Can’t you see? She’s not going to be able to do that. Stupid boy, all this hardship you are putting yourself through is really just for nothing.”
The words “for nothing” repeated in Werrien’s mind. Then his foot gave way on an icy spot beneath the snow, and with Kristina still clutched in his arms, he fell forward and began to slide down the mountain. As they went whizzing down, all he could do was close his eyes and hope not to slide off one of the mountain’s many cliffs. Finally, his left foot hit against something hard, and it brought him to an abrupt stop. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but the white slope rising above him. He turned his head very slowly to see a jagged rock protruding out of the snow. This was what had stopped his fall, but it was what lay beyond the rock that made his heart jump into his throat. Another steep cliff, with a drop twice as deep as the one Kristina and Raymond had fallen over, lay just beyond the rock. Even worse, he was now lying on top of Kristina. He needed to somehow change his position. He managed to turn onto his side without lifting his foot off the rock, but after that, there was nothing else he could do. Kristina was still unconscious, and so he couldn’t use his arms to pull himself up the slope. If he let go of her, for even a split second, she would most assuredly slide down, and go over the edge of the cliff. And if he took his foot off the rock, they’d both slide down over the edge. All he could do was lay very still on the ice-cold slope and hope for a miracle.
35
Werrien closed his eyes and was about to drift off when he felt something touch his shoulder. He turned his head very slowly and saw Ugan and Retzel kneeling over him. Ugan quickly lifted Kristina up off the icy slope. Then Retzel reached down to Werrien and helped him to stand up.
“Are you okay?” Retzel asked, looking very concerned.
“I’m fine. It’s Kristina I’m worried about,” Werrien replied.
Ugan felt Kristina’s pulse in her neck. “She’s still alive!”
“How long has she been unconscious?” Retzel asked Werrien.
“I’m not sure because I dozed off.” Werrien looked ashamed.
“It’s a good thing Roage told us to follow you two,” Retzel said.
A strong wind blew at them. “We’d best get out of this area, before all of us get blown over this cliff,” Ugan said.
Ugan carried Kristina up the slope. Retzel picked up Raymond’s container from the snowy ground and followed him. Werrien was just about to follow also, but then he noticed something on the ground where Kristina and he had been lying. It was a little pouch. He picked it up. This is Leacha’s. Kristina must have had it. He untied its tassels and looked inside it. “Fairy blossom!”
“Hurry up, Werrien. We need to find a spot that’s sheltered from the wind,” Ugan called down to him.
Werrien quickly closed the little pouch and put it inside his cloak. He made his way up to where Ugan and Retzel were standing. “Does either of you have a canteen?”
“I do, inside my cloak,” Ugan replied. Since Ugan’s arms were holding Kristina, Werrien reached inside his cloak and took out the canteen. “I’m sorry to say that there is only a little bit of plain water inside it. The zelbocks have destroyed every trace of fairy blossom, even the small amount that had been growing on the lower mountain.”
Werrien opened the canteen, took the little pouch out of his cape, and poured the small amount of dried blossom into the canteen. He put the lid back on and sealed it tight. Then he shook the canteen to mix the blossom with the water.
“Is that fairy blossom?” Ugan asked, looking startled.
“Yes,” Werrien said.
“Do you know how fortunate you are to have that? Not a single dwarf, gnome, or fairy has a trace of it left.”
“I didn’t think we had any either, but then I found this little pouch on the slope where Kristina had been lying.”
“We must give it to her right away,” Retzel said, his eyes growing wide with anticipation.
“That’s my plan.” Werrien unscrewed the cap off the canteen again.
Ugan held Kristina in his arms, and Retzel helped to open her mouth while Werrien poured a small amount of the fairy-blossom water mixture over Kristina’s lips. Her mouth moved a little, and she seemed to be drinking it fine, but she didn’t wake up.
“You’ll have to give her some more,” Ugan said, looking confused.
Werrien poured a little more into her mouth, and again the three of them eagerly waited to see if this time it would be enough to wake her. Her lips moved a little again, though she still didn’t wake.
“Could the fairy blossom be losing its powers?” Werrien asked Ugan.
“In all of my life, I have never heard this to be possible.”
“You must give her some more,” Retzel said nervously.
> “This is the last of it.” Werrien slowly poured the few remaining drops into her mouth.
Kristina’s lips moved again, and then, like the sun breaking through the clouds on a dreary, cold day, a pinkish-rose color filled her cheeks, and she opened her eyes. At first, she saw six faces staring down at her—of course there were really only three, but she was seeing double. Slowly, the six faces turned into three, and she smiled as she began to recognize them. “Werrien, Ugan, Retzel! Is everything okay?” It was like nothing at all had even happened to her.
“It is now.” Werrien smiled down at her.
Feeling puzzled as to what was going on, Kristina asked Ugan, “Why are you holding me?”
Ugan chuckled. “It would take much too long to explain right now, child. I’ll leave that up to Werrien to tell you about it a little later. Right now, we need to get going.”
It was then that he heard a voice that he was unfortunately familiar with: “Werrien will have plenty of time to explain all kinds of stories to her, in the afterlife that is!”
The four of them looked up the mountain to see the wicked Queen Sentiz and three of her disgusting zelbocks standing above them. She was wrapped in her bear stole, and the look on her pale face was a mixture of utter disgust and hatred.
As Ugan slowly put Kristina down on the ground, the queen looked at him and Retzel and said, “And you two good-for-nothing traitors will be joining them.” She turned to the three zelbocks and yelled, “Seize them!”
While the three zelbocks started down the mountain, the lid to Raymond’s container popped open. Raymond stuck his head out of the top of it, and being unaware of what was going on, opened his mouth very wide in a yawn. He looked up to see Retzel, who had his container tied around his waist. “Oh, fancy seeing you again,” he said nonchalantly.
Suddenly an arrow flew toward them and hit Raymond’s container, right below the lid. Raymond’s sleepy expression quickly turned into a look of terror. “You best get back inside there, if you want to keep your head,” Retzel said to him urgently.
Raymond’s head quickly disappeared back into the container. Then he reached up with his little paw and pulled the lid down. Another arrow came at his container, and this time, it hit it directly in its center, denting it and tossing Raymond around inside. At the same time, one of the other zelbocks shot an arrow at Werrien and hit him directly in his chest. Fortunately, the chainmail vest he was wearing stopped it from penetrating his skin. He pulled the arrow out and threw it down the slope. Then he turned to his left and saw an arrow heading straight for Kristina’s head. It was moving so fast that there was absolutely nothing he could do to help her. The arrow was less than an inch from her, when suddenly, from out of nowhere, Roage swept down from out of the sky and snatched it up in his talons. It caught Kristina by surprise, but she had no time to dwell on it. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ugan, with his knife drawn out, defending himself from the third zelbock, which was lunging toward him. Luckily, Ugan was able to duck out of its way. He turned quickly and thrust his knife into the zelbock, stabbing it in the middle its back. It fell to the ground and tumbled down the snowy slope until it finally disappeared into an abyss of white.
Queen Sentiz stood up the slope, nervously watching as Werrien went to help Kristina, who was now drawing out her knife. Another zelbock was quickly approaching her, holding a spiked flail. It began to spin it violently in circles above its head. Then it let it go, and the flail flew toward Kristina’s head. Werrien pushed her out of the way, just in the nick of time. The flail missed her head by less than an inch and fell to the ground. Then it rolled down the mountain until it disappeared out of sight. With their knives drawn out, Werrien and Kristina both stood up to face the gruesome zelbock. It, too, had a knife and was backing them up to the edge of the same cliff where they had almost gone over not long before. When it had them very near the edge, it thrust the knife at Werrien, but he was quicker than the zelbock and able to duck out of its way. The zelbock tried again to stab him, and this time Werrien slipped and fell very near the edge of the cliff. Fortunately, Kristina was able to get away from the cliff’s edge, but Werrien was not so fortunate. With a wicked grin on its face, the zelbock stood over him, revealing its rotten teeth. It began to laugh, and a greenish-gray drool dripped out of its mouth. Werrien could smell its foul breath, like smoke in the ice-cold air. It lifted its knife high up, and then began to bring it down to stab Werrien in his chest, but halfway there, Kristina stopped it by thrusting her knife into the back of its neck. The zelbock dropped its knife and fell forward. It would have fallen on top of Werrien, but he was able to push it over him, and it tumbled over the cliff’s edge. Kristina reached her arm out to Werrien and helped him up. Then they both turned to see the last zelbock, the largest one, holding both Ugan and Retzel up in the air by the scruff of their necks.
“We need to help them,” Werrien said. They started off toward the zelbock, but then Werrien said, “Stop! I have an idea.”
Kristina waited expectantly, as Werrien yelled to the zelbock, “Hey, you great big oaf!” The zelbock quickly turned its attention to Werrien. “Don’t you know you’re wasting your time on them? Isn’t it us you want?”
Seeming a little puzzled, the zelbock looked at Ugan and then Retzel. Then it dropped them onto the snow and began to make its way toward Werrien. Werrien headed back toward the cliff. The snow was falling so hard that the zelbock couldn’t see the cliff’s edge.
Werrien began to tease and entice the zelbock. “What’s taking you so long, you overgrown, mutated dwarf?” He quickly glanced beyond the zelbock to see Queen Sentiz, still standing a distance up the slope, intensely watching everything.
“Watch out, Werrien!” Kristina yelled.
He looked back toward the zelbock and saw that it was charging as fast as it could down the slope toward him. Then when it got close enough, it let out a loud horrifying growl, jumped up in the air, and hurled itself toward Werrien. It was just what Werrien hoped it would do. He ducked down as it flew at him and went clear over him, headfirst, over the cliff.
Now that all three of the zelbocks were dead, Werrien’s next plan was to go after Queen Sentiz, but when he looked to where she had been standing, she was no longer there.
“Sentiz has left!” Werrien yelled to Ugan and Retzel.
“Yes, she has and she is most assuredly on her way to the Warble’s resting place. We must get there before she does. I know she will do anything she can to stop you from delivering it,” Ugan said.
Ugan’s judgment about Queen Sentiz was most certainly right, for she had already made it back to her tent, which was not far from the place where the Warble needed to be placed. She entered her tent, extremely angry and covered from head to toe in snow. She found Rumalock sitting in her very own plush chair, with a warm woolen blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He was looking through the Book of Prophecy and sipping a cup of hot fairy-blossom tea. He looked up to see her enormous stature standing across the tent from him. The snow that had stuck to her bear stole made her look like some kind of snow monster. Not recognizing her, Rumalock was startled and jumped up out of his chair.
“How could you just sit there, warm and cozy, while I stand here freezing to death,” the queen growled through chattering teeth.
“Oh, it’s you, my dear lady.” Rumalock seemed somewhat relieved after finally recognizing her voice.
“Get this snow off me at once, before I tear all your clothes off and throw your pathetic naked body out of this tent!” she yelled.
“Oh yes, of course, my queen.” Rumalock scurried up on a chair so he could reach her shoulders, and he began removing her bear stole. Then he took the woolen blanket that he had wrapped around his shoulders and placed it around her shoulders. Feeling stiff and cold, Queen Sentiz slowly made her way over to her plush chair. Once she was seated, Rumalock handed her a mug of steaming-hot tea.
“Now, now, that’s much better,” he said, in his most soothing
voice, trying to calm her nerves. “At least now that you have finished off the two brats, all we have to do now is get back to your warm and cozy palace.” He massaged her cold bony shoulders.
Queen Sentiz took a large gulp of her tea and then turned toward Rumalock and spat it directly in his face.
“Ow-w-w!” Rumalock winced, as the hot tea splattered in his face.
“I thought you were at least smart enough to read. Didn’t that stupid book tell you that the boy and girl killed three of my strongest zelbocks?”
Rumalock rubbed his eyes. “No, my dearest queen, I must have overlooked that part, or else it hadn’t showed on the page yet.”
“It’s just as I figured. I always said you brainless dwarfs are good for nothing.”
There was silence, except for the sound of the wind howling outside the tent and the tapping of the queen’s claws on the side of her tea mug. She finally broke the silence, saying “We’ll have to resort to our last defense.”
“Oh yes, yes, our last defense,” Rumalock said enthusiastically.
Queen Sentiz took another large gulp of her tea. Then she turned to him and said, “Well, don’t just stand there. Go out and get them.” Rumalock continued rubbing her bony shoulders, but she pulled herself away from his soothing hands and stood up. She turned to face him. “What are you waiting for? Get going, lazy dwarf!”
The Warble Page 19
