Harriet Olson stellar pixie part 2

The story so far

The stellar pixie Harriet Olson, and her elf friend Takeshi Trescothik, are running from the troll king and his army. After badly hurting her ankle Harriet ran away with Takeshi into the dark wood in search of a cave in which they can hideout.

Chapter 3

Harriet awoke the next morning; the sun was shining brightly above her. She was still wrapped in Takeshi’s arms, everything was perfectly fine, except for the fact that she was now a wanted criminal, and her ankle hurt worse than ever. She closed her eyes, thinking of what trouble may lay ahead.

   “Ah well,” she thought, “What’s the point of worrying about the inevitable? It’s bound to happen in the end, I just hope Takeshi doesn’t get too caught up in it. I would hate for anything bad to happen to him.” She rolled over to face Takeshi. He looked so calm when he was asleep, like there wasn’t anything wrong in the world. Harriet gave him a half-smile, closed her eyes and snuggled in closer. It was warm and cozy in his arms, then she realized something; for once in her life, she felt safe. She fell back asleep..

   Hours later, it seemed, when it was nearly dark, Harriet awoke, sitting up suddenly, as she realized Takeshi was gone. A thousand thoughts raced through her head, as she scanned the trees. "What happened to him? Was he taken away by trolls? Was it all her fault? Why would he just disappear on her like that?" Panicked, and unsure as to what to do, she cried out.

   “TAKESHI!” she screamed her voice breaking. “I NEED YOU.” No reply. She started to cry. “WHERE ARE YOU?” Still no reply “Please.” She begged, through broken sobs. She slumped back, tears streaming down her cheeks. Why was it always those she was close to that got taken? She heard a rustle in the bushes, and looked up waiting for a troll to jump out of them.

“Jeez, no need to yell.” Takeshi emerged from the trees. “I could hear you from a mile away. What is it?” Harriet felt as if she could murder him.

   “What is it? WHAT IS IT!” Harriet had enough of trying to calm down. “I JUST WOKE UP AND YOU WEREN’T THERE. I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD, OR KIDNAPPED, OR THAT SOMETHING ELSE HORRID HAD HAPPENED TO YOU” 

   “Aww do you really care about me that much?” Takeshi said teasingly and then on seeing the murderous look on Harriet’s face “Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left without you.” And then after a pause to think he added; “I promise I won’t go for a walk ever again without your say so.” 

“Next time you decide to go on a little stroll, maybe wake me up and tell me. Or so help me I’ll…” and she started muttering nasty things under her breath.

Chapter 4

When she had finished her mumble and grumble, Harriet began asking Takeshi about the cave that they were going to.

“That was what I was doing today” he said “And it’s not actually that far from here. If we leave now, we could probably get there by morning, if we go on foot.” And then, as if he only just remembered mothers’ day, he added “Well, we could, if your ankle wasn’t all messed up.” He looked down, as though he was ashamed of what he had said.

“What’s the matter?” Harriet asked, noticing the look on his face. “It’s not like it won’t get better.” 

“Yeah, but we don’t have the time to rest. We need to get moving. The troll king could find you at any moment now, and I mustn’t let that happen.

“Okay, so, what do you propose we do? I’m not exactly in the best of moving conditions at the moment in case you didn’t notice” she indicated her now bruised and swollen ankle. 

“It’s getting dark; I think I might go get some wood so we can start up a fire.” And with that he got up and left into the ever-growing darkness of the forest around.

Once Harriet could no longer hear Takeshi’s footsteps, she began to worry.

“What if he doesn’t find his way back before it is fully dark?” she thought to herself, wishing she could do something besides sit there and wait. She turned her head around to see if there was anything that she could do, and then at the edge of the clearing, she saw a long stick, with a fork, at the end of it. Dragging herself across the ground and fighting through twigs and leaves, she finally managed to get it.

“Perfect,” she said, to no one in particular. She sat up and used the stick to push up onto her good leg. It was the perfect crutch. Next, she hobbled around, looking for another, slightly smaller stick, in which she would later, turn into a broom so that she could sweep the twigs and forest debris from the clearing.

After what seemed like forever, Takeshi finally came back, his hands full of logs and twigs, and within a few moments, they had a nice warm fire, its' flames dancing merrily in front of them. Harriet had found some edible roots and mushrooms by the trunk of a big tree, just out of their clearing, and was making a salad on a piece of bark that had come off one of the logs.

“You know,” went Takeshi through a mouthful of roots. “You did a pretty good job today with that ankle of yours. Good thing that you found that stick or we’d still be sitting on twigs.” He faked a shiver and took another mouthful. “Never want to do that again.”

After they had finished their salad, they both laid down beside the fire, Takeshi immediately wrapping his arms around Harriet. Not even twenty minutes after they did this, Harriet fell fast asleep, warm and safe as ever.

It was nearly morning when Harriet woke up. She wriggled out of Takeshi’s arms. He barely stirred. Quietly picking up her crutch and standing up, she walked to the edge of the forest to get something for breakfast. They had eaten most of the roots last night for dinner, so she had to go a little farther in. 

After a short while, she found a blackberry bush, and it was full of dark, ripe berries. As she began to pick them, she heard a quiet shuffling in the forest behind her. Thinking it was Takeshi getting up, she continued with the blackberries. All of a sudden there came a loud grunt of pain from the clearing and dropping the blackberries she went hobbling as fast as she could back to Takeshi.

He was standing in the middle of two dwarves, clutching his waist and swinging his sword wildly.

“Where’s your little friend?” asked the smallest of the two. He was brandishing his pickaxe menacingly, a wide toothless grin on his face. “We need little miss pixie for our buddy the troll king. He says, she made him hurt, real bad.”

“Leave my friend alone,” Harriet shouted, from the shadow of the trees. Distracted by the voice of the one they were trying to capture, they looked into the trees, trying to see where the sound had come from. That split second was all it took, soon they were both lying on the ground dead, Takeshi had struck them with his mighty sword.

“I think we should probably get going.” Declared Takeshi, as if he wasn’t stating the obvious.

“Yeah, that’s probably the best idea.” And they began to walk through the bushes, to the place that would soon be both their savior and their doom…