Journey to the Elf World

chapter 7

       As we stood on the outskirts of the city we both knew we were in a fix. Our eyes would give us away, not as elves for everybody expected pointed ears, but as none human. Our flight to Washington DC was not until noon, but we decided we would be safest in the airport where there were armed guards. As we stood in the outskirts of the city thinking about what to do, I suddenly spied an alleyway. "Sarah" I said nodding in the direction of the alley, "do you think we could take that?" Sarah nodded.

       We started forward. We crossed a street; there were a few people so we kept our eyes on the ground. We reached the alley that ran a good ways behind some houses. It smelled bad, not like the smell of the Alukai. Like tobacco or drugs. I wrinkled my nose; I really did not want to go down this alley at all. But we had to.

       Sarah continued walking; I could see disgust on her face, the same as mine. We continued walking until we were almost halfway through the alley. Then I heard something, and saw a glint of silver. I slipped into elf sense. I ducked into a small side alley and started to climb up the fire escape. I was about ¾ of the way up when I came back to real time.

       I heard a shout, "keep your hands where I can see them elf girl!" I reached the top of the building and looked down. There was a man, a human man, holding a gun pointed at Sarah. The man yelled again, "now I know there were 2 of you, where did the other get too?"

       Sarah looked behind her where I had been. Her eyes widened, she turned back to the man and saw me standing over the man on top of a building. Sarah smiled, "you better surrender, I don't want you to get hurt." The man laughed, "Honey I am holding a gun, what are you holding?" Sarah laughed back, "the element of surprise!"

       With that I drew one of my father's black knives and hurled it at the man. The knife twisted and turned in the air until it buried itself in the man's neck. The man let out a frightened little squawk of surprise, and then fell over, dead. Sarah ran over to him, grabbed the knife and the gun and the sunglasses and ran. I followed on the rooftops, jumping from roof to roof.

       Sarah tossed the gun to me. We approached another side alley. An Alukai stepped out, before he could so much as blink, I put a bullet in between his eyes. We were finally at the end of the alley I jumped from on top of a 2 story building and landed next to Sarah, on my feet.

       Got to love the new elf abilities. Sarah put on the glasses and handed a second pair to me. I put them on and walked into the bright sun. I put the pistol in my pocket for safe keeping. We walked down the street, now filled with people. Sarah saw 2 skateboards leaned up against the house. As we walked by she picked them up and handed one to me.

       I didn't like that, "O so are we thieves now?" I asked scornfully. Sarah turned to me fire in her eyes, "we will do what we have to, to survive." with that she took off on her skateboard. I sighed then followed. We skated down the street for about a half-hour.

       We came to a park and the street came to an end, we had to walk down stairs to keep going, Sarah got off of her board and started to walk down the stairs, I jumped and landed on the rail. I did a mean grind all the way down. As a passed Sarah I said, "Well, if we are going to steal stuff we might as well enjoy it." Sarah smiled; we made it to the airport that day without any more disturbances. We did have trouble getting through the security check though, we had to remove our glasses and avoided our eyes being seen by others, and finally we were aboard the airplane and resting.

       I had several questions so I began to ask. "Sarah?" "Yes Jake?" "What was that metal ball?" Sarah looked at me. "You do not know?" She looked surprised. Once seeing that I truly did not know what the ball was despite how obvious it apparently was, she decided to explain it to me, "The ball as you called is the thing that that change your body." "So it made me an elf?" "No" Sarah shook her head. "You were already an elf, but you were in human form, your human DNA was blocking the elf DNA, the smoke unblocked the elf DNA and accelerated your growth, even by breaking your bones to grow faster, to stretch."

       Sarah's face softened," I know it was painful, it happened to me, but it was necessary." "I understand" I stated flatly. Another question came to mind, "what do the Alukai look like? I know I fought one the other last night but I didn't get a good look at it." Sarah shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, as if to warm up. "They are horrible creatures. They love to eat elf flesh; in fact the only food they can eat is elf flesh. They are capable of eating other foods but they refuse to eat anything else. They would rather starve than eat other food. As for their appearance they have our basic shape, but are made different from us. Their eyes are like the eyes of a fly, hundreds in a cluster that is shaped like our eyes. They have an exoskeleton too. From the elbows grows a spike of bone. It has a sharp point and the Alukai use them for weapons. Also the males have a blade-like bone that protrudes from the right wrist. Trust me Jake; you don't want to mess with one of those."

       I grinned, "He can grow a knife out of his arm, and I have the tendency to slow down time and get super strength, it would be interesting to see who would win." I gave a short laugh. We were silent for almost an hour. During that time I thought about the knives that had belonged to my father. When we arrived at the airport I had asked Sarah what to do about the knives because of the metal detectors.

       Sarah had told me to tape them to my chest; Elf metal was different from the metal here so the detectors would not be able to detect them. I fingered the edge of one of the blades under my, pretending to have a scratch. When I withdrew my finger there was a line of blood across my finger. I had not felt the cut.

       I saw Sarah sniff the air, she turned and looked at my finger. She raised an eyebrow but said nothing; she soon turned back to the window to watch the ground race by far below us. I looked around bored. Some attendants were walking down the aisle offering refreshments. We had very little money, but I wished we did because I was thirsty.

       The attendants walked on by and the only movement was the occasional person standing up to stretch or head to the restroom. Throughout the flight several girls had been staring at me. They appeared to be younger, 13 or 14 years of age. I ignored it after a while. Then I noticed somebody out of the corner of my staring Sarah and I.

       He was behind us. I turned to Sarah and whispered, "There is man behind us about 3 rows back, and he is staring at us constantly." Sarah took a quick look back. Her eyes widened. "Jake that is the man from the alley!" I glanced back, "he does look similar, but I killed the man in the alley."

       Sarah looked me in the eye, "Jake, please trust me, I know it is hard to believe but I got a good look at the man earlier and this him, I can guarantee it!" I nodded I could not believe what Sarah was telling me but it was suspicious. Sarah leaned over to me and whispered, "What are you going to do?"

       I was stunned for a moment, Sarah was always the one to decide what to do, and now she did not know what to do? She was frightened and looked to me for leadership. I would not let her down. "I will go to the restroom." I stood and made my way to the back of the plane. As I passed the man he looked me in the face. It was the same man! I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

       "No more surprises from my enemies" I decided. I drew one of the knives from my father and put it in my sleeve. I readied myself mentally and physically. I stepped out of the restroom, the dagger ready in my sleeve. As I approached the man who was sitting alone I called out,

       "How are you doing, I almost didn't see you there!" I slid into the seat next to the man. The dagger came out of my sleeve and into my hand and I pressed it into his side threateningly. "Talk!" I demanded. "You cowardly elf!" Spat the man. "you killed my brother and now you will do the same for Me." "Your brother?" "Yes my brother, he was my best mate, we did everything together.

       When we were offered the one hundred big ones we jumped at the chance to take it. And now he is dead, and I swear on his body I will see you dead too!" the man's face was tuning red with anger. "What was the money for?" I asked. "To kill you and the girl!" hissed the man. With that the man made a motion with his left hand (I was holding his right securely) and a hidden stone knife popped out. He made to stab me with it but I blocked his arm with my free hand.

       The man pricked himself in the leg. Surprise shot across his face. I grabbed the knife from him and put it in my pocket "I am going to die!" the man whispered. "What!" I exclaimed. "You merely pricked your leg." The man gave me a miserable look, "I used the venom of a sea snake on that knife, I will fall asleep soon, never to wake up." I left him and returned to Sarah. I explained what had happened. Later when we arrived in the airport a flight attendant tried in vain to wake the man up.