The Phoenix Ring(34)

Aidan poured the boiling drink into a cup and muttered "freegaea," which meant cold.

The cup instantly cooled, to the point where ice crystals started to form on the top of the tea.

Aidan shrugged and handed it to Timothy, who opened the creature's mouth and poured in the herbal remedy. Aidan could not do anything but watch as his friend sat back and began to chant a long spell, holding his staff in both hands, with the tip touching the wound.

The older mage was only able to catch some of the words in the spell, such as mahor, eslang, morka, and saneo, which meant heal.

It was incredible to watch the blood on the cut dry into a scab and fall off, replaced by healthy, new skin that was barely even scarred, all in a few seconds.

After about a minute Timothy stopped chanting and fell back, sweat dripping from his face.

"Will it be okay?" Aidan asked.

"Yeah, he'll be fine."

"What do you think it is?"

Timothy thought for a moment.

"At first glance I would say a gnome. He's the right size and shape."

Aidan raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure?"

"No, I'm not, but I am tired. You're gonna have to tie this thing up tonight, so that it doesn't give us the slip in the middle of the night. I'm going to sleep."

With that, the smaller boy walked to the strung hammock and fell into it, asleep before his feet left the ground.

Aidan opened his mouth, then closed it. He pushed down the irrational anger that threatened to rise and tied the creature's hands behind its back, and then tied that rope around a tree.

He strung up his hammock and fell into it, the fire completely forgotten.





Aidan felt someone poke his arm.

Maybe if I keep my eyes closed, they'll go away, he thought.

Then his eyelid was pried open, and he found himself face to face with a greenish, flat nose and a smile full of fierce lizard-like teeth.

The mage let out a yell and instinctively punched towards the creature, who hissed and ducked out of the way.

"Timothy, it's free!" Aidan called, rolling off the hammock and on the ground beside his staff.

Timothy ran into the clearing from the woods just as Aidan was about to clock the creature on the head with the scepter.

"Hey, stop it!" the younger boy said, grabbing the staff before it could strike the unfortunate gnome, or whatever the creature was.

As soon as the green skinned beast saw Timothy it jumped from the ground and landed on his shoulder, an impressive feat for something so little.

Aidan stopped moving, his still groggy mind slowly catching up to the world around him.

"What?" he asked, slightly incoherent.

"It's okay," Timothy said, laughing, "Turns out I was right about Grogg here. He's a gnome. He and his family used to live in an apple tree, until a farmer decided he needed the tree and kicked Grogg and the rest of them out."

Aidan's forehead creased. For one thing, the odds of finding a farmer this far up in the mountains were minimal at best.

"Where is the rest of your family?" Aidan asked the gnome thing.

Instead of answering, the creature hissed at Aidan and whispered something into Timothy's ear.

"He says none of them made it. He got attacked by the farmer but managed to run away, the rest of them weren't so lucky. He also says he doesn't like you very much."

Aidan was starting to feel hot anger rise in the pit of his stomach.

"Timothy, can I talk to you?"

"Uh, sure. Grogg, can you go see if you can find anything in my pack that you can eat?"

The green beast jumped from Timothy's shoulder and made it to the bag in a few lopes.

"Timothy," Aidan said, "are you sure that thing is a gnome? You seem awfully friendly with it considering you only saw it for the first time last night."

Timothy seemed to struggle to understand for a moment.

"Uh, yes, I'm sure. I… looked it up in the book."

Aidan bit his lip but dropped the subject. It didn't matter, as soon as Grogg got finished going through Timothy's food they would leave, and probably never see the creature again.

It was only after Aidan had packed his hammock that he realized his friend had no intentions of leaving the "gnome."

Grogg had found the magic compartment of Timothy's backpack and snuggled up there.

"Why is he in your pack?" Aidan asked.

"Oh, Grogg is coming with us," Timothy answered. "That's alright, isn't it? You know gnomes are good luck." Then he turned and walked towards his pack before Aidan had time to answer.

In the end Aidan decided it would be best to ignore the creature. It seemed to be very quiet, and only ate the dried meat, which Aidan could have done without anyways.

It wasn't until that night that Aidan realized how dangerous the creature was.