You will feel your senses getting clearer, sharper. Goodness becomes amplified in the good, badness in the bad.” This made Alfred afraid and so he checked the pride beginning to swell in his heart.
“Can non-seers ever be taught to see?” he asked the gnome.
“Not in the way you do. They can never see dreams of Elfland, or anywhere else for that matter. They can, however, be taught to see Elfland with their waking eyes. The air here can have the same effect on them. Even when it does confuse it almost always has a positive effect on those who breathe it. But while true seers are born, great seers are first born and then made.”
Alfred pondered this. “You mean the ability is innate, but its application must be practiced.”
“Tried would be truer, but yes, that is the general idea. You must learn how to see with the sight you have been given.”
“How will I learn?”
“By patience, by exposure to Elfland, and by telling me all you see in dreams.”
They marched on for several more hours, with no sign of relenting. It was now that Alfred realized Balthazar was not walking on top of the ground, but wading through the forest floor as if it were water. “Is that how you always walk?” he asked, hoping he was not being impolite.
“Gnomes are at home in the dirt in nearly the same way fish are in water. Or perhaps more like whales, we do not draw our breath from the earth, but we swim and glide through it. It is our home.”
They continued on in silence. Balthazar stopped. At first, Alfred thought he had offended the gnome with an impertinent question. Balthazar, however, turned to Alfred and whispered, “Go stand behind one of these trees, and be quiet. I’ll be back shortly.” With that, Balthazar burrowed into the dirt, or perhaps dove better describes his entrance into the earth so that he vanished from Alfred’s sight.
Alfred did his best to remain quiet as he moved behind one of the trees. He heard voices in the distance and a loud plodding as if feet which were marching to different beats were trying to keep pace with one another. He crouched down behind a tree and held his breath. What he saw frightened him, and had he not been in Elfland for many hours now, he might have fainted from fear. As it was, it took all of his courage not to scream and run away.
Lumbering before him—standing perhaps four and half feet high and three feet broad, with arms that would drag on the ground if not folded, skin a muddy mixture of black, brown, and green, eyes fierce and large, and teeth razor sharp—were two goblins. From how very wicked they looked did Alfred guess rightly that they were goblins.
“Ar, I hate walking in the sun, even if the trees are dense. It hurts my eyes and makes me feel too warm,” said one goblin to the other.
“You’d hate the punishment you’d get if refused to do your duty,” replied the other.
“That’s the truth of it. Oh, I can’t wait to be done. We’ll take over that mountain and never have to venture into the sun again, except when we want to torture someone. Oh it will be nice.”
“Keep your voice down, you idiot. We’re in enough danger as it is.”
“I still say you were smelling things as weren’t there, Hogsnout.”
“And I’m telling you, I smelt human, and a human this close to those accursed elves and dwarves will do us no good. I promise you that. My nose has never failed and I tell you there was human nearby. If the smell’s getting dimmer it either means he’s spent too much time in this accursed place and is beginning to smell like it or he’s gone. Neither option is good for us, nor our mission.”
“Well then let’s get on with what we’ve come to do. Do you think they’ll join us?”
“Oh I’m sure of it. Our king will offer them land, and plenty of human and elfin flesh to eat. The trolls and giants will be on our side, no worries there. The hobgoblins may be harder to convince. Anyway, let’s move on. You’re right about one thing, whatever’s happened with that human, our best bet is to finish with our mission and get back.”
The two goblins hurried off, making more racket than was probably good for them. Alfred breathed a sigh of relief and then jumped with a start when he felt something tapping him on the shoulder. He grabbed stick nearby him and swung as he jumped away from whatever it was that accosted him.
“There you go, knocking my hat off again. I shall have to make a new one, or have the brownies do it for me, before my time with you is done,” said Balthazar as he picked up his crumpled hat and dusted it off.
“So the goblins have found their way out of the mountain. Things are far worse than I feared.” Balthazar soon began mumbling to himself, “Going to get trolls and giants? Things are worse, far, far worse than any of us have imagined. What are we going to do? What am I going to do with the boy? So much for the wisdom of the gnomes.” He said finally as he sat down next to Alfred.
“Is it really so bad?” Alfred asked, breaking the silence.
“My son, Elfland has been at a relative peace for the past 300 years. Now war is upon us and we are so near to being caught unawares that anything we can do or have planned up to now is just as likely to fail as to succeed.”
What can I do? thought Alfred to himself. After all, he was just one man, and a young one at that. He had never been trained to fight and only found out all of this was real this morning. Still, it could be exciting, fighting against the forces of evil, protecting his village, really his whole world from the evils of Elfland. He would be remembered as mythic hero, dying fighting back the advances of darkness like the last of the three-hundred Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae. Yes, to die in battle, a sword in one hand, a shield in another, a true warrior, one who had to look his enemy in the eye, to recognize goodness alongside evil and to fight on and to die fighting for what is right.
It was when he started to think of death that he noticed the forest had suddenly gotten very dark and that coming toward him was a small cavalcade. The music he had heard in his dream or a music very like it was playing.
“Hello, my brothers,” called Balthazar to them.
“Hail, Balthazar!” said an elf who alighted from his horse and walked towards them while the others began to make camp. “Well met, faithful gnome. I see you have the young Seer with you. Word has traveled to us through the forest, that you were bringing him. We have also felt a darkness being awoken. Come, we shall eat and drink. Tonight we feast ere the morrow brings us joys or woe.” Alfred noticed many things about this elf. He was tall, his dark hair was worn long, as was his beard. His clothes were a beautiful mixture of greens, reds, and browns. On his chest there were four beasts: a bear, a bull, a boar, and a lion, all rampant.
The elves prepared a feast, they had clearly been hunting and a large white deer was roasting over an open fire they had prepared. “Tell me, Carlyle,” Balthazar said to the elf who had first approached them, “what are your plans? You have heard our news about the goblins. What are the Queen’s orders?”
Carlyle drained his cup, “The Queen has given but two orders: help the dwarves and trust the Seer.”
Me? thought Alfred to himself. Alfred could not help feeling small, even insignificant amongst all these faerie-folk. To ask questions and observe seemed to be the only things for which he was needed, and those qualities did not seem to be desired. The music still lived on in his chest, making him feel brave, but
