Orona (Book 1)

Chapter 4 - The Elden

"AGGGH!" screamed Geoff "The little bugger bit me! Guys, get over here and help us!" The tiny man kicked and squirmed, trying to break free.

"Watch his hands, Troy!" yelled Jack. The little man had freed one hand and was frantically trying to grab something attached to his thick black leather belt.

Just then, Cubby, Drew, and a few others woke up and ran over to us, helping to hold him down. The more the faint dawn light shined on this little man, the more confused I became.

He had dark black curls that dropped midway down his back and smelled as if they had never been washed. He had tan skin, big bright forest green eyes, and rugged, weathered features with dark bushy eyebrows and cracked lips. He was dressed in worn-out black and brown leather from head-to-toe. The leather was stitched together with some sort of bright blue thread, and he wore a thick leather belt with all sorts of mysterious gadgets attached.

"Who is that?" asked Aly, stumbling over, still trying to wake up.

"We don't know," I said as I held his hands so Geoff could finish tying them with the vine rope. "Not one of the passengers, that's for sure. No one we know."

"What? What do you mean?" asked Jack, still unaware of what we just wrestled. He reached over to turn the man's face, which was now smashed in the cold black dirt. He gently turned it to the side.

"Aga conch e popo lye!" the little man barked to him as their eyes connected for the first time.

"He keeps saying that," I said, feeling both curious and annoyed.

Jack was speechless for the first time in his life. He just gawked at him with his mouth wide open. "This is beyond weird," He said in a whisper, staring at our captive, who was now tied up and motionless. "What is this guy? He's dressed from the Middle Ages and doesn't speak a language any of us has ever heard. On top of that, he's half our size but doesn't really look like a dwarf."

He lifted up a flask he had taken off the little man's belt, taking a cautionary sniff, "The only thing I can make out is this word carved here. It looks like it says... Elden."

"Let me see," I said, holding out my hand.

The flask was beautiful and intricately detailed. It was made of what seemed like hard, metal-like wood. On one side was the emblem of an eagle, colorfully painted in different shades of blue, and seemed to almost glow as I studied it. Below the eagle, was the word ELDEN, just like Jack said. Many of the other carvings looked like writing but were in a language none of us had seen before. Cubby was busy playing with another one of his gadgets. It looked like a mini telescope, made of wood and metal with a leather strap that could be worn on your head leaving one eye open.

"This is incredible! If I change these settings I can see different distances," he said as he looked through it and pressed on a small lever on the side of the shaft. It made a clicking sound each time he did. The design looked just as finely detailed as the flask with tiny engravings of mysterious markings.

"I think this is a weapon," said Drew, closing and opening a type of collapsible wooden rod that resembled a long pointing stick. "These tiny darts on his belt can be put in this small hole here and then shot out like a blowgun. They must be laced with something; they're so tiny, I can't imagine they would do any damage otherwise."

We all heard a faint high-pitched hissing sound. I looked over at Jack, who was blowing on what looked like a tiny whistle.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Not sure. Almost seems like a dog whistle," he responded, handing me the minuscule wooden whistle. It had dozens of tiny eagles engraved on it.

"Finally something I can use!" said Geoff. I looked over at him and saw a smug look on his face as he opened the small wooden flask and smelled it. "This better be worth the bite. Whatever it is, it smells potent. Like a mix of gasoline and rum," he noted, taking another deep sniff.