Fall of Igneeria: The Half-ling

by Kaylee Soderburg

  Sneaking out after hours isn’t easy, especially at Emily’s house. Her parents aren’t sound sleepers. If we weren’t really careful, they’d wake up and then we’d have some answering to do.

  And I don’t think they’d understand our reason.

  I followed Emily down the stairs, in our pajamas, to the door. We were careful not to make a sound but I listened closely to the sound of her dad snoring. When the snore rang clearly through the house, I breathed a sigh of relief. We threw on our sneakers and snuck out the door.

  The summer night air was cool but a little sticky and clammy, making our bodies feel damp. I followed Emily down to the back of the garage, where we sat down and entered the monsters’ world. I pushed my green hair back and hid behind a tree beside Emily to watch the dwarfs.

  There must have been more than ten of them gathered together. They were parading around a blazing camp fire, mumbling and talking about things I couldn’t hear over the flames. Some more emerged from the woods and joined them, their shadows dancing behind them. Then all of them suddenly broke out into an ominous song:

  “He will rise to the heavens,

  from the very pits of hell.

  To take control of our world,

  and the gift- less ones as well.

  “He will rule with a flaming torch,

  and save those who are worthy.

  And for those who aren’t,

  Well, you better watch out!”

  They all broke out in crazed laughs, which gave me the impression that each and every one of them was mad. Hell, I knew they were already mad. They threw dirt at the fire and continued their wild laughs. Emily shuddered by me as they lifted their voices in another chorus.

  “He will rise to the heavens,

  from the very pits of hell,

  to crush all half-lings

  and to take their very souls.

  “For the King will rule all,

  with his cruelty and rage.

  I wouldn’t want to be that half-ling,

  that he spears through the head!”

  This time they were rolling on the floor, howling in laughter. Well, I didn’t think this was very funny at all. What was funny about getting speared through the head? I had a feeling the King they were talking about was Kojas, and I really didn’t want to be around to meet him, especially if it meant my head was going to become well acquainted with a weapon. That is, if I was even a half-ling like the dwarfs claimed I was.

  They laughed and sat in a tight circle mumbling things I didn’t catch. My hand slipped to my knife but Emily grabbed my hand to keep me from drawing it from its leather case.

  “No Jazell not yet, maybe we can learn a little more from them.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.

  “But Emily, it’s awful to listen to. Can’t we just destroy the camp?” I went for my bow instead.

  “No,” she said a little more clearly. “We have to wait and see what happens. Plus, we can’t just randomly attack them.”

  I didn’t really care. The song was repeating itself in my head, like a taunt. Without thinking, I aimed and shot the nearest dwarf.

  As soon as he went down, the whole camp was facing our direction. I was standing up now where everyone could see me. There was no point in hiding anymore. Emily stayed hidden behind the tree, and I could feel her glare trying to burn me into ashes.

  “You’ll wish you never shot one of his loyal servants.” A dwarf seemed to laugh at me. “Kojas will destroy you, half-ling.”

  “That is it, I’m sick of your riddles! Give me a darn straight answer or I’ll shoot every single one of you,” I spat angrily, leveling my bow.

  “Kill all you like half-ling, but that won’t help you in the end. You will pay heavily in a terrible death worth all the loyal lives you’ve slayed,” the dwarf proclaimed, and his friends bellowed out an agreement.

  “I don’t care what the heck you say about dying because nothing will stop me from killing all of you! You’re making no apparent sense at all, and I don’t care what stupid message you’re trying to send me!” I hissed so bad I think that I spit. Gross.

  “Oh but you will care, half-ling.” The dwarf was now whispering and all the others had fallen silent so they could hear. “You will care because in the end, he will destroy you once he’s done using you.”

  My arms were still tense and my muscles whined in protest as I held my arrow back in full draw. “Use me to do what?” I spoke, using the same tone as him.

  The dwarf’s eyes were twinkling in happiness. He seemed happy to tell me the answer. “To take over the gift-less ones’ world, why else half-ling? You’re the connection between Igneeria and your world. He needs you and he has made that clear.”

  The world had fallen to silence. I spoke in barely a whisper, “Igneeria, that’s your world isn’t it? What does Kojas want?”

  The dwarf seemed to be getting extremely excited now, “He wants your world and all other worlds because he is a mighty king who wishes to expand his kingdom.”

  “So how would we help him do that?” I asked, stalling. “We just exterminate the pests.”

  “You’re a half-ling! You’re the bridge to our world. Now if you don’t mind we would like to finish you now, and bring you to the King.” The dwarf said politely and snickered, approaching me.

  I backed up slowly. “Uh, I mind a lot actually.” I said quickly but I guess they didn’t really want my opinion.

  Emily jumped out from behind the trees and lifted a flame. She twirled it around with the movement of her hands and shot it at the nearest dwarf.

  That started what seemed like a war. All the dwarfs scrambled towards us and I simply shot them and Emily fried them. Then Jason and Seth dissolved from the shadows and entered the clearing.

  “What are you two doing here?” I yelled across to them, annoyed that they hadn’t made their presence known earlier.

  Seth fought his way over to me, “Why do you need to know?”

  “Because you just randomly appeared and I would like to know what you’re doing in Emily’s backyard in the middle of the night.” I pointed out and took down the last dwarf.

  We gathered around the barely burning embers, after we had re-entered our own world. Emily and I quickly summed up what we had learned from the dwarfs. Jason listened and didn’t speak, like usual, and for once Seth didn’t interrupt. When we were finished nobody said a word as they soaked up everything that had happened. It seemed like it was just too much for all of us to take in.

  All of a sudden Seth spoke up. “Why are you wearing sun-tanning penguin pajamas, Emily?”

  Emily glared at him, “What do you have against penguins? And why can’t I wear pajamas? It’s the middle of the night you know.”

  Seth wasn’t bothered by her glare. “So it wouldn’t have been hard to change.”

  Seth should have realized that he was pushing Emily’s limited patience too far and that he should shut up. She reached down and grabbed a small stick. Then she smacked Seth across the head with it.

  “Live with it Seth.” Emily said every word apart and wacked him again.

  Seth made a small, “Ow.” Every time she hit him. He grimaced and said, “Stop hitting me already!”

  “Alright,” She made a motion to put the stick down and hit him again in the head. He glared at her and she threw it on the floor, “Now I’m done.”

  “So Jason,” I faced him and he looked up at me, “since Seth won’t tell me I’ll ask you. How did you guys find us?”

  “We followed a dwarf that was running here. If we didn’t get lost, we would have been here faster,” Jason’s face turned the color of his red Igneerian hair.

  “It’s okay, at least you answered me,” I shot Seth a look.

  “Well if it’s okay with you boys, we would like to get to bed. It’s almost 1:30 in the morning, and I would like to get home before my dad wakes himself up,” Emily said, and walked towards her house. I waved quickly and followed.

  The rest
of the night was quiet and didn’t include singing dwarfs. Before we went to bed though there was a lot of furious writing as Emily tried to write everything down. After that, was all sleep.