Chapter 20

A small hunched creature made its way to a small opening in the mountain face. He entered and walked through the long, narrow and poorly lit cavern till he appeared at a dead end. He waved his hand and muttered words in an unknown tongue and a grey mist appeared and he entered it.

The creature soon found itself in a well furnished room hidden behind the seemingly dead end, and the only entrance through the smoke-like mist.

The room he was now in had doors running down each side and a pair of double doors at the end. The creature hobbled its way to those doors and knocked.

"Enter." A smooth, deep voice answered.

The creature did so and soon saw that all of its masters were present. He bowed slightly trembling at the presence of those in the room.

"Ah, Pixie!" A different voice exclaimed, "Come, tell us what you have learned."

The creature, or Pixie, stood trembling and with a shaking voice spoke. "M-mylord El-kor, the Lycans prevailed in their attack and took the mansion."

One of the Pixie's masters slammed his hand down on the table, which had a detailed map of North America.

"Damn! What about the Alpha there, and where is Lord Miraz?" He asked angrily.

The Pixie began to tremble anew at the mention of that Lord, "L-l-lord Miraz is dead. He was killed by a black Lycan who was followed by lightning bolts." He was still perplexed by what he had seen on the battlefield, before his master, Lord Miraz had ordered him to kill the Alpha they had detained. Lord Miraz then entered the fray of battle using his mysterious dark magic.

"Dead!"

"Thresh. He did this!"

"What of the girl?!"

A dozen voices rose up the Pixie shook in terror at the uproar he'd caused by his words.

"Silence." A stern, feminine voice rang out into the din. "Pixie. What happened to the girl?" The fearsome Lady Nerwin asked.

"The girl was taken by the Lycans, I fol-" he was cut off by another clamour of voices, to which Lady Nerwin silenced again, "Let the Pixie finish." She said exasperated, she turned her head to the Pixie, "Please continue."

"I followed the girl, she was taken to the Lycan's base camp. I waited for her to exit the tent she had been brought into and when she did she exited fully shifted in her lioness form." The Pixie paused and took a shaky breath, "I followed her for a short distance than created a portal for her to enter. She fell in and is now in a realm known only to the Pixies."

"Well done Pixie. But how did you dissuade the Lycans from thinking that your deceitful magic was at play?" Another one of his masters asked raising his brow.

"O-once I removed the girl from this realm, I then made a false path and false scent for them to follow all over the entire area."

"Indeed? Very well done Pixie." Lady Nerwin congratulated.

The Master who told him to enter into the room had been silent since he'd uttered those words, and now spoke, "What of Alpha Thresh? Where is he now?" He asked the Pixie with his smooth voice. But the fear that showed on the Pixie's face when asked this question showed that this person was far more dangerous than he appeared.

"The black Lycan? He left their camp shortly before I did, I heard that he was going back to his pack." The Pixie said a sheen of sweat appearing on his forehead from under the intense stare of his master's blue eyes.

"Back to his pack?" Someone else spoke, "Who all stayed behind?"

"His Beta and three of his heads, his head tracker, and healer, and his head warrior." The Pixie answered.

"What about prisoners, do they have any?" Lord El-kor asked.

"Four Shapeshifters. They brought them to the mansion."

"Hmm, very good Pixie. You can put the girl in one of the cells, and then return to your post." By post he meant spying on the Lycans.

They then returned to what they'd been previously talking about and ignored the Pixie.

"M-m-masters, if I may." He timidly spoke. Lady Nerwin turned and looked at the Pixie.

"What is it Pixie?" She said slightly annoyed that the creature was still there.

"L-l-lord Miraz said something the day he died." He stopped, feeling all of the eyes on him at that moment, "H-h-he s-said that the Lycan whose mind he had taken control of saw someone, a shadow of a girl who appeared in the Lycan's room then disappeared. Lord Miraz said that it was important."

His masters nodded, "Thank you Pixie." Lady Nerwin said, then dismissed him.

The Pixie went through the doors he came through and then went into one of the doors on the side of the first room.

He entered this door and descended a flight of stairs and in the bottom of them he found the dungeons. There were dozens of cells floating in the air. The Pixie raised his hands and muttered a phrase in that unknown tongue, then the grey mist appeared and a girl fell through the mist.

She started yelling at him, and he turned and walked up the stairs to return to his post.

~~~~~~~~~

MEANWHILE, IN THE ROOM THAT HELD THE PIXIE'S MASTERS…

"Well, what do we do now? We can't very well attack him now that he's in his Pack!"

"No, no we can't, but we can lure him out again, get another Alpha, like Spruce, and use him to our advantage."

"But where? All of the Alpha's here are loyal to Thresh."

"Then we go south." He said while sliding his finger acrosss the map, "Maybe Oregon, or California? They don't get a lot of visits from Thresh."

This conversation between Lady Nerwin and Lord El-kor had been present since the Pixie left. The rest of the masters, or Elves, just stood back and nodded or shook their head to encourage the two speakers.

The master who had frightened the Pixie, had taken to a chair in the corner sipping a mysterious glowing liquid from his glass. He watched as the others debated over their next objective, who to kill? Who to deceive?

He rested his head on the back of the chair. He was the elder Elf, Nerwin was the youngest here. His daughter, he was proud of her, she had become a fearsome warrior and a beautiful lady.

He thought back to when he first met that cursed Lycan.

While ruminating on that bitter memory he unknowingly had broken his glass, and the sharp fragments and strange liquid had scattered to the floor, but his hand remained uninjured.

"Father. Are you alright?" His daughter looked at him with her blue eyes and red hair that reminded him so much of her mother.

"Yes, I'm fine." He got up and took his leave.

He followed the same path the Pixie had, down to the dungeon. He emerged at the same place the Pixie had and soon found the girl he was looking for.

"Well! Look what we have here!"