Chapter 16

“When are we going to get there?  I’m so tired!” Brad complained, sitting down on a rock.  “Why do we have to walk to the elf city, anyway?  Dragons know how to fly!”

“Because we don’t want anyone to see the dragons flying,” Aaron replied sharply.

Brad made a face.  “We’d get there a lot faster than they would, at least.”

Aaron sighed.  “Don’t worry, we’re nearly halfway there.  We’ll be there soon.”

“But I don’t want to be there soon,” Brad complained impatiently.  “I want to be there now!”

Mary giggled.  “I’m sure we’re going fast enough.  Besides, aren’t you having fun?  I saw a tiger yesterday!  I had never seen a tiger before, so I thought that was pretty fun.”

Brad shrugged.  “I guess that was cool, but I would have more fun playing games with my friends.”

“This is better,” Mary decided.

Lady Jade called back to them, “It’s time for lunch!  I wash your hands in that river we saw earlier.”

Brad, complaining as usual, stalked off into the forest.  However, Mary stopped a little ways in to look at some pretty flowers on the ground.  Just as she was standing up, she thought she saw a person in the bushes.  When she looked again, the person was gone.  Mary decided that it was just her imagination.

“What took you so long?” Brad asked when she finally got to the small, sky blue pond running through a large clearing.

“I thought I saw something,” she explained.

“Was there anything there?”

She shook her head.  “I think it must have been a bird or something.”

When they got back to where the others were, Mary told Lady Jade, King George, and Aaron that she thought she had seen something.  They exchanged a worried look.  Mary was really confused.  It had only been a bird.  Hadn’t it?

They started walking again as soon as they finished eating.  Mary wished that they could ride horses or something, but they horses didn’t like the dragons, so they had to walk.

That night, as they were getting ready for bed, Mary saw the person again.  When she blinked, he was still there.  It was a teenaged boy that was a little older than Brad with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes.  His clothes were completely black so he could sneak around at night without being seen.  Mary wondered why.  Was he spying on them?

Aaron was just walking by, and he saw her staring into the forest.  He asked, “Do you see something?”

She nodded and pointed to where the boy was standing.  Aaron’s face went really pale, and he ran to where King George was.  Mary was still really confused.  What was going on?

Mary couldn’t sleep well that night.  Who was the mysterious young man?  Why was he spying on them?  Did he work for someone, or was he working by himself?  She stayed awake thinking of this while gazing at the stars for most of the night.

The next morning, King George told everyone to start walking.  They didn’t even have breakfast!  Brad complained but didn’t ask why.  Mary whispered to Lady Jade, “Why can’t we eat breakfast?  It’s the most important meal of the day!”

“Because my father and Aaron think that the person you saw following us yesterday is a human who’s trying to find out the location of the Garden Plaza.  We don’t want that to happen, so we have to try to lose them,” she explained.

“How are we going to do that?” Mary asked.

Lady Jade sighed heavily.  “I really don’t know.”

They continued to travel for the rest of the day, only stopping for fifteen minutes to eat.  Brad said to Mary, “I don’t know how they expect us to do this.  When are we going to get to the Garden Plaza?”

Mary shrugged.  “We’ll get there when we get there.  I don’t think there’s really anything we can do about it.”  Brad grumbled and stuffed his face with a loaf of bread, uncut and unbuttered.  That made Mary giggle.

That night, when everyone else had gone to bed, Mary crawled out of her tent to look at the forest around her.  It was eerie and scary and yet so beautiful at the same time.  It was mysterious.  She looked around, and to her surprise she saw Aaron sitting outside his tent, gazing into the darkness.

She walked quietly over to him.  “You couldn’t sleep either?”

Aaron jumped and gasped.  When he saw it was only her, he said gruffly, “You startled me.”

Mary sat down next to him.  “I didn’t mean to.  Can’t you sleep?”

He shook his head.  “I’m a little nervous.”

Mary was confused.  “Why are you nervous?  We’re just going to see the elves.”

He laughed.  “I haven’t seen another elf in a very long time.  I don’t really know what I’ll do when I meet them again.”

“Why haven’t you seen them in so long?” Mary asked.  “Aren’t you lonely?”

“I guess I’m a little lonely,” he admitted.  “But I ran away.  I was scared and angry, so I just left.  That wasn’t the smartest thing to do, though, and I regret it now.”

Mary nodded.  “But you’re going back again.  Doesn’t that make you happy?”

“Yes, but like I said, I don’t know what I’ll do.  Are they going to be mad at me for leaving, or are they going to welcome me back as an old friend?  I’m so confused.”

Mary laughed.  “That makes two of us.  Why don’t you go to bed and sleep.  You won’t be so worried that way.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Aaron said, standing up.  He looked down at the girl and said, “I’m glad we could talk like this, Mary.”

“I’m glad we could, too,” she replied, also standing up.  “I think I’m going to go back and try to sleep again.”  Mary went back into her tent and fell asleep right away in the warmth of her blanket.

A few days later, Aaron stopped walking and told everyone, “We’re almost to the Garden Plaza.  I don’t know how the elves are going to greet us, because they haven’t seen any of us for hundreds of years, but if I know them like I think I know them, then we won’t have a problem.  Is everyone ready?”  The two dragons and the two humans nodded, and Aaron smiled.  “Well then, follow me!”

Mary was getting really excited as they walked down the little rock path.  She could hear a crashing in the distance, and she asked Lady Jade, “What’s that noise?  I’ve never heard anything like it before!”

Lady Jade laughed, “That’s the sea!  The Garden Plaza is on the sea.”

Mary gasped and her eyes widened.  The sea!  She’d only ever seen lakes, rivers, or ponds before.  Now she was really excited!

They turned around the corner, and then they saw it.  The Garden Plaza.  Mary gasped and her eyes went wide.  It was so beautiful!  The walls of the buildings were made of a pale yellow brick that sparkled in the sun, and in every window were flowers of all shapes and sizes and colors.  Milling around the cobble-stoned streets were pale people with dark hair.  Mary glanced at Aaron and noticed that he was pale, like they were.  She hadn’t thought of it before.  She looked back at the amazing sight before her, and saw a wide expanse of blue behind the city.

“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered, feeling strangely breathless.

Brad nodded.  “I’ve never seen anything like it!”

Lady Jade laughed quietly.  “I wouldn’t have expected you to.  The elves love beauty.  They marvel in it.  They always take great care to make the things surrounding them pretty.  That’s what I love about them.”

Aaron snorted.  “A waste of time, if you ask me.  It’s all going to become ugly eventually.”

King Gregory replied, “That’s not true.  There are a lot of things that have remained beautiful.”

“Like what?” Aaron challenged.

“This ocean,” King Gregory countered.

Aaron stayed quiet for the rest of the walk.  Mary worried for him.  He was so nervous!  She didn’t think he needed to be.  She was sure that the elves would welcome him back, no matter what he had done.

As they were approaching the big silver gates at the outer edge of the city, they were approached by big elves that looked a little mean.  Mary was scared, but Aaron didn’t seem to think anything of it.  The elves asked him, “What is your business here?”

“I’m coming home,” he replied.

“We don’t recognize you.  Who are you?”

He stood up a little straighter and replied, “I’m Aaron Silversmith, the missing elf king.”