Wood Sprites(182)
Crow Boy had his face set to an unemotional stare but the nervous flutter of his wings showed his fear.
“And no one came in with them?” the officer asked.
“They were dropped off by a sports car. We checked the video but the camera that covers that entrance went haywire about ten minutes before they showed up.”
The twins had nuked the security cameras while en route so the police couldn’t backtrack them to Yves.
“I’m police officer Jayden Cohen.” The man paused, waiting for the translating machine, which decided “laedin-caste Fire clan royal marine” was as close to peace keeper as it could get to “police officer.” His given name came out as “God will Judge Priest.” Obviously the translator wasn’t the most sophisticated piece of hardware. “What is your name?”
Crow Boy stared. His face stayed neutral but his quickly tracking eyes betrayed that he was trying to think of a safe answer and failing.
Louise hadn’t considered what they would tell the staff if a translator showed up.
Luckily, Jillian had. “He is Crow Warrior Boy of Wind.” Crow Boy’s eyes widened and he gave Jillian a panicked look, which Jillian ignored. “I’m Sweet Lemon Scent on Wind and this is my twin sister, Flowering Lime Tree Swaying in Wind.”
The police frowned at the machine as it butchered their names to “Child Boy Fighter Crow, Candy Stink Lemon, and Tree Waving Limbs Madly Lime” and after a moment of thought, added “Facilitating Outcrossing.”
The police officer then eyed Jillian and Louise. He reached out and tugged one of the antenna out of Jillian’s hair. “What exactly are you?
Jillian raised her arm—covered with a blood-soaked sleeve—to wipe at her eyes. Life lesson number five kicked in: adults will believe the stupidest things when you’re covered in blood. “Those that kidnapped us put those into our hair and then laughed at us and told us that if we took them off, they’d cut off one of our fingers. Please put it back.”
Louise acted out comforting Jillian. “We don’t understand. Why did they do that? What is that? What does it mean?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart, but you don’t have to be scared.” Officer Cohen produced an evidence bag and dropped the antenna into it. “We’re not going to let anyone hurt you.” He collected the other three antennae. “Are you elves? From Elfhome?”
Jillian used the time it took the machine to translate out the questions to launch into a series of distraction questions, just to muddle things. “This box that talks? Magic speaker voice thrower? Ham loaf? Pickle questions?”
Crow Boy looked confused as the machine faithfully attempted to put the garbled Elvish into some reasonable English translation.
“This box that talks? Fling voice orator magic? Bread of smoked pork? Questions preserved by anaerobic fermentation in brine?”
Jillian obviously was hoping that if she garbled the replies enough, that the police would assume any holes in their story was from bad translation and not because they were fabricating almost everything.
The policeman frowned and replayed her answer. A very good sign. “Yes this is a translator. It translates what I’m saying in English to Elvish.” And then obviously not trusting the machine now, he pointed to his mouth and said “English” and then pointed at the machine. “Elvish.” And then muttered quietly. “I hope.”
The twins waited for the translation, which was perfect.
“Oh! How clever!” Jillian stated.
“Yes, it is wonderful!” Louise cried.
“Please help us!” Jillian cried. “Madly galloping into the night, we transfix. Please help Crow Warrior. His leg is broken! They put us in cages and fed us zombie donkeys. Pickle questions? They stomped on his leg and broke it and they had knives and they were going to cut him up!” Jillian mimed the elves attacking with the butcher knives. “Dirty dog! Train biscuit train! If they find us, they’ll kill everyone and put us back into the cage!”
“You’re safe,” the police officer stated after the machine struggled to translate the mix of good and purposely garbled Elvish.
“They have a hidden army here on Earth!” Louise warned. “The EIA has been infiltrated. The ambassador to China is one of them. Ambassador Feng!”
“Female dog breath yelping,” Jillian added quickly.
“Purple!” Louise stated firmly, nodding.
Crow Boy stared at them as if they’d grown two heads each.
“The ambassador of China?” The police latched onto the first clear lead they given him.
“Purple!” they cried in unison.