Chapter 12

“How did the humans find them?  They haven’t found them before!” Lady Jade said

“Apparently their king left them, because he didn’t want to live there anymore.  He was the one who was keeping them hidden.  When he left, they didn’t have anything to keep the humans from spying on them,” King Gregory explained.

Mary was confused.  “Why do the humans want to start a war with the elves?”

“Because a long, long time ago, the dragons had a civil war.  That means they were fighting each other.  After the civil war ended, the humans wanted to have a war with the dragons because they were very, very mad at the dragons.  The dragons were tired of having wars, so they went into hiding,” King Gregory said.

Lady Jade added, “The humans didn’t like that very much.  They asked the elves to help them find the dragons, because the elves’ magic could do that.  The elves didn’t want to help the humans find the dragons, because the elves didn’t want there to be a war between the dragons and the humans, so they went into hiding as well.  There are too many humans for the humans to go into hiding, but there weren’t as many dragons or elves.  It didn’t take long for them to find a good place to hide.”

King Gregory nodded.  “Now the humans are mad at the elves for refusing to help them find the dragons, and they want to start a war.  The elves are asking the dragons for help to find their lost king so they can stay hidden.”

“How are we going to find a lost king?  When kings are lost, they usually stay lost,” Lady Jade said.

“Like socks!” Mary giggled.

Lady Jade and King Gregory laughed with her, and after they were done laughing King Gregory said, “I have no idea where the lost king might be, but if we’re going to find him before the humans start the war, then we’re going to have to look quickly.”

Mary asked, “How powerful is one elf all by itself?”

“One elf isn’t very powerful.  When you get a group of them together they’re stronger.  The only elf that’s powerful by itself is the king of the elves, and he’s missing right now,” King Gregory explained.

“When are we going to the elf city, Garden Plaza?” Lady Jade asked.

King Gregory frowned in thought before replying, “I think we should leave tomorrow.  Only you and I have to go, but you can bring your friends if you want to.”

Lady Jade smiled at Mary.  “We get to go on another trip!”

Mary made a face.  “Just when I thought we were going to have a nice day to just sleep.”

“No chance of that,” King Gregory laughed.  “Jade always has to be busy.  It’s in her nature.”

“Is not.  It’s just boring to sit around all day.  I’ve read all of the books that I wanted to read, so I have nothing left to do,” Lady Jade explained.

Mary sighed.  “I still would have liked to sleep.”

“You can sleep on the way.  Russell and I didn’t fully unpack, so we can leave first thing in the morning,” she replied cheerfully.  Yawning and stretching, she added, “I think it’s time for bed.  Come on, Mary.  I know this place is probably confusing to you.”

“Very,” Mary agreed, following her out the door and to her bedroom.  It still seemed like it was too big for her, but she only had to spend one night sleeping there.  That wasn’t too bad.

Mary couldn’t sleep very well that night.  She stayed awake thinking.  how could the elf king just leave his people?  She was sure that he must have promised to protect them.  How could he break a promise like that?

Mary sat up in her bed and looked at the clock on the wall.  It was midnight.  She decided that she might be able to sleep if she got up and walked around for a little bit.  Putting on a robe over her pajamas to keep herself warm in the chilly mountain air, she grabbed a candle and stepped out into the hallway.

The entire was silent except for the creak of the windows in the wind.  Her small candle, glowing bright, was the only light in the enormous hallway.  Mary stood in front of her door, taking in the nighttime quiet.

At first she thought that there was no sound in the castle at all.  But after a while she thought she could hear something.  Walking slowly, she tried to follow the noise.

The noise led her up a staircase.  Halfway there she thought it sounded like two people talking, a guy and a girl.  Eventually she was in front of a large metal door.  Two guards were asleep.  Mary yawned, finally tired.  But she wasn’t going to bed.  She wanted to know what the voices were saying.

Mary walked up to the door and leaned against it, trying to hear.  She heard, “Jade, you really should go to bed.  We’re getting up early tomorrow.”  Mary recognized the voice as King Gregory’s.

“How are we going to get there anyway?  We need a guide.  No one knows how to get to the Garden Plaza anymore,” Lady Jade argued.

King Gregory sighed.  “We’ll think of something.  We always do, don’t we?”

“I guess, but it’s not like we know where an elf is that we can ask to guide us.”

Mary gasped slightly.  She knew where an elf was!  He wasn’t even that far away!  There was only one question.  Would he guide them, or would he want to stay in that room he had made?

“Something will come up by tomorrow.  We’re not leaving until after breakfast, anyway,” King Gregory added.

“Very well.”  Lady Jade yawned.  “I guess it is time for bed after all.  I’ll see you at breakfast.”

Mary gasped again, even more softly and raced down the staircase to her room so she wouldn’t be found.  Quickly blowing her candle out and putting her robe on a hook, she slipped back into her bed.

Unfortunately, Mary didn’t fall asleep that night.  She stayed up awake, staring at her ceiling, trying to decide how she would ask the elf, Aaron, to guide them to Garden Plaza.  She couldn’t think of any good ideas, so she decided she would just have to be straightforward about it.

Her problem was that she couldn’t find her way around the palace, so she didn’t know how to get out.  Then she remembered that Brad’s bedroom wouldn’t be that far from hers.  When the first rays of sunlight streamed in through her window and hit her face, Mary got up, got dressed and brushed her teeth, and went to see if she could find Brad.

Just as she was leaving her room she heard a stomach rumble.  Turning around, she saw Brad sneaking off into the direction of the kitchen.  Mary laughed to herself.  Leave it to a boy to get up an hour before breakfast to have a snack.

“Brad!” she whispered.

He turned around quickly, afraid that he had been caught.  When he saw it was only Mary, he walked over to where she was standing.  “What are you doing up this early?”

“I wanted to go see the wishing well again,” Mary replied, “but I don’t know how to get there.  I was hoping that you would show me where it is.”

He frowned.  “You’re not going to go see that elf again, are you?”

“His name is Aaron.  And yes, I am.  I have to ask his something.  Are you going to show me where it is or not?” Mary asked impatiently.  She could hear some dragons starting to move around, and she wanted to get back to the palace by breakfast.

He sighed.  “He doesn’t seem very nice.  Are you sure that you want to talk to him?”

“Just because he doesn’t seem nice when you first meet him, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t nice.  But what does it matter?  You don’t have to come with me.  After you show me where it is, you can go and have breakfast,” she pointed out.

He licked his lips.  “Breakfast?  What do you think they’re going to have?  I hope they have scrambled eggs and sausages.  Those are my favorite.”

“So you’ll show me?” she asked eagerly.

He sighed again and mumbled, “Fine, but if I miss breakfast, you’re going to have to make it up to me.

“That’s fine!” she say, skipping down the hallway.

“Um, Mary?” Brad asked.  “That’s the wrong direction.”

She giggled and walked back to him.  “Oh.  Right.  Sorry.”

A few minutes later they were standing in front of the wishing well.  Mary looked down in, knowing that she had to jump in but was kind of scared to do it.  It looked so far down!  But she had done it the day before.  Would it really be that hard?

“Do you want me to come with?” Brad asked.

“I thought you wanted to have breakfast,” Mary pointed out.

He shrugged.  “Yeah, I’m hungry, but I’m not dying from it or anything, and if you’re that nervous, then wouldn’t it help if I came with you?”

She nodded.  “Thank you.  You’re a good friend.”

Brad smiled.  “Don’t mention it.  Now, let’s get going.”  He offered Mary his hand, and she gladly took it, knowing that it would make her less scared to know that he was there with her.  Together they splashed down into the wishing well and found the door to the elf’s room.

Again they were amazed at the size of the room, but they were immediately distracted by the elf calling out to them, “Well, what do you want now?  Why are you back here?  I thought I told you to leave me alone!”

“You did, but we have a favor to ask you,” Mary said.

The short, old elf stroked his long white beard.  “Well, if it involves leaving my room, I don’t want to do it.”

“Why?  You’re all alone here!” Mary pointed out.

“I don’t mind so much.  I mean, sure, I jump at loud noises because there’s no one else here to make noise, and I’ve taken to talking to my books, but that’s not so bad.”  He looked at them worriedly.  “Is it?”

Brad laughed.  “Sure.  For a hermit.”

“I’m not a hermit.  I’m an elf!”

“If you’re an elf, then you would have no problem showing us the way to Garden Plaza.  Would you?  That wouldn’t be a problem at all, for an elf, but I guess it would be for a hermit,” Brad said.

Aaron puffed and grumbled, but finally he said, “Oh, fine!  I’ll lead you to the stinking city.  But as soon as you’re there, I’m gone.  I’m not waiting.  I’m coming right back to my room where no one will bother me!”

“That’s fine by us,” Brad replied.

Mary asked excitedly, “So you’ll do it?”

Aaron sighed.  “Yes, I will.  But I won’t be happy about it, and if you get lost, you can find your way by yourself, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir!  Oh, I can’t wait to tell Lady Jade and King Gregory that you’ve agreed to take us!” Mary squealed.

Aaron gulped and asked, “Y-y-y-you’re going with the k-k-king and the p-princess?  I didn’t know you were going with them!”

“Is that going to be a problem for you?” Mary asked, confused.

“No, of course not!  Why would it be a problem?” Aaron said quickly.  “Well, we should get going now.  I don’t need to bring anything.”  He started walking towards the staircase that would get them above ground again, and he was walking so fast that Mary and Brad nearly had to run to keep up with him.

In just a few minutes they were in the courtyard again, walking towards the castle.  Aaron was fidgeting nervously, like he didn’t want to see King Gregory and Lady Jade, but soon enough they were in the dining hall where the two dragons were eating.

“Mary!  Brad!  We were wondering where you had run off to.  Everyone was so worried about you.  Who is this?” Lady Jade asked, setting her fork down.

“This is Aaron.  He’s an elf, and he’s going to show us how to get to Garden Plaza,” Mary explained excitedly.

Lady Jade laughed cheerfully.  “See, Father?  I told you everything would work out before we left!”

King Gregory didn’t reply.  Instead he looked at Aaron and asked, “You aren’t Aaron Silversmith, are you?”

“Nope, no Silversmith am I, King Gregory.  I’m just a humble elf, living under your courtyard for a little while now.  Heh heh,” Aaron laughed sheepishly.  Mary was about to ask what he meant by that, but she was interrupted by Lady Jade saying, “We don’t have a moment to lose.  We have to get to Garden Plaza before the humans do!”

King Gregory nodded.  “Very well.  Let’s finish breakfast and then leave.  I assume you’re all packed.”

Mary was about to say that she wasn’t, but then Lady Jade said, “Yes we are.  I packed for Brad and Mary while they were out getting us a guide.  Now all they have to worry about is getting a good breakfast so they’re ready for the day ahead of us.  We’re going to be very busy you know.”

“How long do we have to get to Garden Plaza?” Aaron asked.

“I’d think two or three days should be good, right, Father?” Lady Jade replied.  He nodded in agreement.

“So, we should get to Draco City by tonight, then, otherwise we wouldn’t get there in time,” Aaron explained.  “These mountains are in the southern part of the island of Dragon Land, and Garden Plaza is way in the north, on the sea coast.  We have to go through a forest to get there.”

“Sounds like a good place for an elf city to hide,” King Gregory commented.

“It is.  It’s the best.  And that’s why we should leave now, so we can find it in time.”  Aaron sat down, grabbed a plate, and started eating to emphasize that they needed to hurry.  Mary and Brad did the same, and in just an hour they were leaving the dragon castle and heading to the elf city.

They were going to have a great adventure!