When Magic Goes Askew

by Cubby250

What happens when an elvish magical token that's demonstrated on Cubby doesn't quite work the way it's supposed to.

Rain is not an uncommon occurrence on the island. Unless some weather wizard has been messing around, it doesn't rain any more or any less frequently on the island than any other place. Personally, I like the rain. I learned a long time ago that it doesn't make me melt. It doesn't make me shrink either, although there are certain times I'm not sure that wouldn't be a bad thing. Most of us felt pretty much the same about getting rained on so it came as something of a surprise when Roo grabbed me and announced he wanted me to come with him to the elven marketplace to buy a rain protection token.

Magic tokens are sort of like low-level spells. Once activated they work until the magic runs out, the token expires or the token is overwhelmed by whatever magic it may be working against. It's a way that a wizard can charge you again and again for the same spell. They're normally used for simple stuff like starting a campfire, keeping someone warm, help keep a person afloat in the water, or in this case act like a magical umbrella. Elves made most of them, but there were a few dwarven ones that dealt with rocks, gems and the like.

"Why are you getting a token against rain?" I asked as I hurried to try and keep up with Roo. We were about the same height but I always had to almost break into a jog to keep up with him when he was walking.

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe to keep the rain off me?"

I sighed because I knew he knew what I was really asking him. "No. I mean, why do you want to keep the rain off?"

"If that's what you meant, then you should have asked that to begin with." Sometimes Roo could act almost grown-up, but since he also was the only one who could patch us all back together, we cut him a lot of slack concerning it. "Haven't you ever heard that saying about fools and coming in out of the rain?"

"Sure, all the time back in the 'real' world. Course that was because when it started to pour I could go out without having to worry about anyone attacking me."

He nodded in understanding. Trying to escape others was pretty much something every Lost Boy had done in the 'real' world. "Have you ever tried to sew up a wound while the rain was pouring down on top of you?" I shook my head no, although he already knew the answer. "It's bloody hard to do and you lot never seem to get injured when the sun is shining."

"I'm sorry," I said with a grin. "It's pretty inconsiderate of us to do that. Maybe we can talk the pirates into only having fights when it's sunny outside."

He rolled his eyes. "It's not the pirate fights. You guys always decide to play rugby with the orcs or troll soccer when it's raining."

I stopped talking while we climbed a short but steep hill then asked why he'd wanted me to come along with him. He hadn't exactly pleaded with me to come but did let me know he'd be extremely grateful if I did. In fact, he kept telling me how grateful he'd be until I finally gave up and agreed. It wasn't that I minded the elven marketplace it was one of the neater places I'd been on the island, especially when you considered the fact that elves ran it. It's just that the place was always packed. The dwarven marketplace wasn't nearly as big but the stuff there was a lot cooler. Then there was the fact that if you accidentally bumped into a dwarf, normally they'd just shove you back and it would be forgotten, although you might get a mug of soft cider out of it if you fell spectacularly well. If you bumped into an elf, though, it would mean almost a quarter day of determining who might have been at fault, the risks involved, why it happened in the first place and the possibility that the whole event might have to be reenacted for some reason. When you bumped into an elf, there was never any cider, soft or otherwise.

"Cuz I might need your help in buying this token," Roo explained in answer to my question. "I've never dealt with this elf before, he's from one of the eastern realms, and I don't know how much he's going to charge for this."

"So how can I help?" Roo knew I was notoriously shy and would rather cut off my own foot than try to bargain with someone.

"Are you kidding? You look like an overgrown St. Bernard. You look at him with those sad eyes of yours and he'll cave immediately. I hope." He hedged for a moment. "Um, there's also a chance I might be able to get a better price if we move a couple of things for him too."

"Whatever," I muttered. I couldn't be sure, but I thought that being called an overgrown St. Bernard might not have been the best compliment I'd ever received before. The part about things to move sounded a little suspicious as well. Before I really had a chance to ask for clarification, though, we topped another small rise and stood looking down at the mass of confusion that was the elven marketplace.

The elves held their market in their common grounds. They only held it the day before, the day of, and the day after the full moon, so it was always extremely crowded. Of course, being in Neverland, the moon might be full for a week's worth of days and then not be full again for three or four months. Astronomy was always a bit sideways when it came to the island. Half of the commons were overflowing with tents and wooden stalls that sold every elven thing one could imagine. The other half was overflowing with people who were taking a break from shopping and picnicking, recovering, or simply watching the flow of people. As always, when there was a crowd of more than ten people, I began to get nervous and started chewing my thumbnail. I followed Roo down one row of tents and up a row of stalls as he started looking for this wizard he'd been told about. There was no such thing as shade in the rows and the sun was blazing down. I started to take push back the hood of my pelt, but then got worried that might upset Roo's plans, so I just left it up. I wondered why it never seemed to work so well in the winter.

Eventually Roo stopped in front of a small canvas tent. It looked as bright and shiny as a new penny compared to the other vendor's tents. Unfortunately, this didn't mean that the owner was a stickler for cleanliness, but meant that he hadn't been selling stuff very long. When the elf who owned the tent came out to talk to Roo, the impression intensified. The elf's hair was short as was his beard and moustache. His robes were worn and patched which instead of meaning he'd worn them for a long time, usually meant that he'd bought them second or third hand. He shook Roo's hand as though he was a long lost relative and the two began a discussion with a lot of hand gestures. I'd have liked to have gone into the tent to get out of the sun, but doing something like that was considered extremely bad form without an invitation when it came to elves.

"Hey, Cubby. Can you do me a favor?" I snapped my eyes open from where I'd been dozing. I had gotten amazingly good at being able to doze while standing, especially when it was hot and humid outside.

"Yeah. I guess so," I said with a yawn.

"Reinolthosistian has six casks that he needs moved from his cart to his tent. He said he'd knock off half for the token if we'd move them for him." I sighed. "Aw, c'mon Cubby. It's only six, that's just three trips for each of us and it's not like it's uphill or anything and it's just a little ways away."

I sort of figured that my St. Bernard act wouldn't be needed, just the muscles in my legs and back. Rolling my eyes, I agreed to help. Rhinoser… Rhinyplaseee… The elf gave Roo directions on where to find the casks. I followed Roo to the wagon next to which six barrels sat. All we had to do was push them over on their side and roll them to the tent. I went over to the first one, shoved the top, and watched as absolutely nothing happened. I tried again, then once more. On the fourth try it slowly toppled over as I pushed as hard as I could. There was a deep indention left in the ground where it had sat. "What's in these barrels?"

Roo shrugged. "I dunno. Some sort of stuff he says he can sell. He said he got here too late to take his wagon, so he has to move them this way."

"You mean I have to move them this way," I grumbled. Normally it wouldn't have been any big deal, but I guess the heat was getting to me. For the next four turns of the hourglass I moved barrels from the wagon to the tent. Roo wasn't able to move any of them even after I'd managed to knock it over. At first I'd been worried that I might lose control of them and have them go crashing through the crowd. As heavy as these things were, there was no way that was going to happen. By the time I got the last barrel moved, I had sweat pouring down my face and my hands felt like I'd rubbed sandpaper all over them. I'd pushed back the bear pelt hood, but all that did was cause the sun to pound on my head before I pulled it back on. Roo stayed with me the whole time, giving me encouragement and telling me what a great job I was doing. It freaked me out so much to hear Roo saying stuff like that, I finally asked him to stop. I think he might have been a little hurt by it, but I also believe it was mostly cancelled out by the fact that it freaked him out a little too.

"Excellent job, Master Roo," the elf fawned as Roo went to purchase the umbrella token. "Obviously the things I've heard about Lost Boys are much made up and maligned. So, shall we strike a bargain?"

Roo nodded, and then stopped. "Can I test it first?"

"Test it? Why young master, what need would you have to test a token made with such care and attention. I guarantee all my work." He looked at Roo. Roo just stood there staring flatly back at him. "Well, I suppose a small sample could be arranged, although I am somewhat hurt that you feel such a thing is necessary. However, I know that there are those who are unscrupulous in the magic business and give all of us a bad name because of their isolated practices. Soooo…." Roo continued staring. "Oh, very well. Here." The elf went into his tent and a moment later came out holding a token. "Let's try it on your servant here to get a better test. He's bigger and you'll be able to see that the range adjusts for such things."

"Servant?" I said, giving Roo his flat stare back at him. Roo blushed and started to correct the wizard, but the wizard was too busy to pay any attention. He walked over to where I was standing, still in the sun naturally, and waved the token over my head a few times. Then with a wail of noise and a click of his shoes, the elf broke the token over my head.

It felt wonderful. Right after the elf activated the token by breaking it, there was a tiny peal of thunder. A small rain cloud formed above me and in a few moments I was drenched as it rained all over me. At first it was just a sprinkle but quickly worked its way to a downpour. The rain was about a diameter of six inches beyond my body. Beyond that it stayed dry. I threw my head back and let the rain run into my mouth and down my throat. Although it didn't bother me, Roo was not nearly as happy.

"What are you trying to pull here?" he demanded of the wizard. "That doesn't look like any umbrella spell I've ever seen before."

"Uh, yes. There does seem to be a problem with the labeling, doesn't there? Let me see." The wizard examined the pieces of the token, trying to piece the two halves back together. He did a lot of hemming and hawing. "You're going to find this very amusing, Master Roo. It appears that there was a slight mix up in the labeling. This is neither an umbrella token nor a sample token."

"Really? You don't say," Roo said, quietly. I took a step back knowing that Roo was building up to being furious. The rain obediently took a step back as well.

"It's certainly not my fault," the elf protested. "I get these through a distributor in the snowy realms. Sometimes the weather can wreak havoc with the integrity of both container and labeling. I apologize but assure you that I do have an umbrella spell that will suit you. I will also provide it for half price because of this unfortunate error."

"Wait a second," Roo demanded. "You already told me you'd give it to me at half price because of the work Cubbs did for you."

"Oh, yes. That's quite correct, isn't it. Very well, I will give it to you at a third."

"A fifth."

"A fifth? I would be losing money on such a proposition. How about a quntiple?"

"I don't think so," Roo said with a look of disgust. "Perhaps a quarter?" I tried to do the puppy dog look, but every time I tried that, rain ran into my eyes.

"Is your friend okay?" the elf asked Roo. "It looks as though at some point he may have suffered a head injury and perhaps lost a marble or two."

I don't think it was really fair that Roo broke up laughing at that point, but I suppose I can't blame him. In the end, Roo got the token he wanted for a quarter of the retail price after all and was even able to verify that it was really an umbrella token. They shook on the deal and a couple of shillings and a doubloon traded hands. "Uh, Roo?" I said. "I hate to, you know, rain on your parade, but could he do something about this rain?"

"Oh, sorry Cubby. Can you turn off the rain on him?" Roo asked the wizard. The wizard snapped his fingers and looked quite surprised when nothing happened. He did that a couple more times with the same result.

"Just a moment, please," the wizard said and went into the tent. There was the sound of crashing, banging and the tinkling of broken glass. The wizard came out again with a wand. He waved it three times over my head and then brought it down smartly on my nose while saying what I guess was some sort of magic word.

"Ow," I said. The wand was heavy and I knew there was going to be a bruise on my nose now. The rain continued to fall. It was not longer refreshing but had soaked me to the skin and was kind of cold. My hair hung down over my eyes and the bear pelt hood felt liked it weighed ten pounds as it sat limply on the top of my head. "Nothing's happening," I said just in case Roo, the wizard, and the crowd that had gathered around hadn't noticed.

"Well it should be," the wizard said in a tone that sounded as though he blamed me for the whole thing. "I don't understand this at all. It should be working. Why isn't it working?"

Playing in the rain can be lots of fun, but not when it continues to come down in a deluge. It wasn't only the rain, or the fact that wherever I was standing tended to become muddy quite quickly but I noticed that a number of frogs had appeared seemingly out of nowhere to get soaked. Of course once they finished, they were able to go someplace drier. "Hey! If you can't stop the rain, what if I used an umbrella token like I was supposed to get? Wouldn't that keep me from getting rained on?" Roo looked at the wizard.

"Oh, no. We couldn't mix tokens attuned to the same thing. That would cause a disaster."

"Like this isn't?" Roo said under his breath.

"An umbrella token and a rain token would probably cause a hurricane or a tornado or something bad." I wondered why a hurricane or tornado weren't considered something bad too but was too busy trying to keep the water out of my eyes to ask. "I just cannot work on a solution under these circumstances. You're going to have to go and I'll simply figure out how to get rid of this… problem and get in touch with you. I can do that, you know, I have magic. I can communicate over very long distances."

"What if you can't fix it?" I asked. It sounded a little garbled because of the water.

"Nonsense. I can fix anything. It just may take a little while to accomplish, that's all. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a problem to solve and sales to undertake." With that, he disappeared back into the tent and tried to slam the tent flap. It didn't work.

I looked at Roo who just shrugged at me. "Can we go home now?"

Roo agreed and we headed for Hangman's Tree. Before we got halfway there, I'd been stopped twice and asked to stand in the middle of gardens and stopped once again while a troll suspended me over a well for half a turning of an hourglass. It was after the well that Roo suddenly looked at me. "We can't go back to the Tree."

"Why not? I'm hungry. Even stew is starting to sound good." Being at the elven fair normally meant I was able to snag a pastry or two or occasionally a dozen (My appetite is kinda big). I had quickly discovered that it was very hard to sneak pastry when it was raining around only you. It was almost as hard to persuade anyone to let you buy something. I didn't succeed in either one.

"Look behind you."

I turned around. "Yeah? So what?"

"Notice anything?"

"Just the stupid water from this stupid rain that won't stupid stop raining on me."

"Uh-huh. And by now everyone knows that you're being rained on. So what do you suppose is going to happen when a group of pirates runs across the trail you're leaving?"

Now that he'd mention it, it looked like an arrow pointing straight to where I was standing. "But that's not fair," I wailed. "What am I going to eat? Where am I going to sleep? What's going to happen to me? Look at this," I said, holding my hand in front of his face. "My fingers look as though I'd been in a bathtub for a month."

"How would you know? I bet you've never spent more than a minute in a bathtub."

"Yeah? Well… Uh… If I had, I bet they'd look just like this."

Roo nodded. "I think your hair is beginning to turn green too. Like algae or something is growing on it."

"What?" I galloped over to a pond and tried to look at myself in it. Unfortunately, the rain kept dissolving the reflection so I couldn't see anything at all. "Aw, this sucks giptels. You're lying. Aren't you? Please?" He just grinned, so I knew my hair probably hadn't gone green quite yet. The whole thing was still too much like a shower for my liking though. I stood there, head hanging over the pond trying to think. Thinking is harder than you… uh, think, when rain is falling on your head. Pelt hood or not. There had to be a way to stop this. "Let's go this way," I said, leading us away from the Tree."

"Where are we going?" Roo asked. Normally he'd have complained about the detour but I think he felt a tiny bit guilty about how things had turned out.

"You'll see. This might help my rain problem." Roo didn't say anything and followed me until we got to a wishing well site. "Wishes can be stronger than magic," I explained. I pulled a doubloon out of my pocket. "And since I didn't ask for this magic to be on me then it's not really a wish for me. Right?"

Roo looked skeptical. "Maybe." His tone was just as skeptical as his look.

I shrugged, made my wish, and dropped the coin in the well. The rain didn't appear to have any effect on the business of wishes. There was the sound of magic being worked. "Yes," I whispered ecstatically. There was a rumble of thunder and a few moments later it was pouring. Pouring both within and without the diameter of the token spell.

"I told ya it wouldn't work, Cub. It really was a wish made for yourself."

"It worked perfectly," I said, gesturing at the rain that was falling. "Now I can go to the Tree and no one can follow any trail I might leave."

"Cubby!" he exclaimed.

"I know, pretty cool, huh?"

"No. If you were going to make a wish like that, why didn't you just wish that the token would stop raining?"

"Well that'd just be…" I reached up and scratched my head. One good benefit about this was that most of the fleas seemed to have abandoned me for drier climes. "But…" I started to explain and then realized he was absolutely right. "Aw, rats."

I have to give it to Roo. He didn't laugh. I probably would have if the situations had been reversed. I actually thought about laughing but was pretty sure it would have been that type of laugh that would have caused Roo to look at me in concern. Still, he made sure I was looking at him when he activated the umbrella token. For a brief moment I kinda hoped that it would turn out to be like mine. Instead, it worked as we'd been told it was and a circumference of rain free space opened up that extended six inches beyond him. I refused to sigh. We continued on to Hangman's Tree and each went in through our trapdoors.

"Cubby, what are you doing?" Tig asked as he stared at me. It had gone back to raining within my circle. I sighed since I'd hoped that maybe, somehow, it wouldn't rain inside. I should have known better. I looked down at my paws were a circle of water was slowly expanding across the floor. Starting towards the common room table, I suddenly realized that any stew I ate was going to be pretty watered down by the time it got to my mouth. I was going to have the same problem with my pallet too. After a couple of minutes, the blankets and stuff were going to be soaked. The thought of hysterical laughter was beginning to sound better and better.

"Maybe if we sprinkled him with pixie dust then he could float above the cloud and it would disappear or go someplace else," Surefoot suggested.

"What if the someplace else it went was one of us?" Leo said.

"Why would it do that?" I asked.

"The same reason it's still raining on you, I guess."

Stumble searched until he found a couple of old mealy apples that I could have instead of stew that would have been instantly diluted. I sat and ate them as the water continued to fall around me. "So what should I do now?" I asked as I swallowed the last piece.

"Well, ya can't stay here tonight," Leo said. "You're raining faster than the ground can absorb it."

Tig reached down under the chair where I was sitting and scooped up a handful of mud. "So? When was the last time we played Mudball in the tree?" He hurled the ball of mud at his brother who ducked causing the mudball to catch Red squarely in the face.

"What was that for?" Red demanded, picking up his own ball of mud and proceeding to chase Tigger around the common room with it. He let fly about the same time Tig tripped over Stumble's raccoon tale. The mud didn't come anywhere near Tig, but dropped into the stew pot with a splash. All the boys turned and looked at one another.

"I guess this means it'll be thicker next time," Surefoot finally said with a shrug. He dipped a gourd into the pot and sampled the muddied stew. "Actually it's not too bad," he decided as Tig and Red doubled over and made fake retching sounds.

"You better cut that out or I'll start adding it and not tell you," Stumble said.

"The only bad thing about that is we probably won't know when it's been added."

"It doesn't matter about the stew," Leo reminded his brother. "We gotta figure out what to do with Cub. If he stays in here we might drown. Look at the floor." Naturally everyone looked down to see that the floor was awash in about a quarter-inch of water. I glanced under the common room table to see my pallet was soaked and looked as though it would start floating any time.

"I guess I'd better leave," I said. Not that there was anything else I could do. I started towards my trapdoor and noticed Roo starting towards his, with a face that looked uncharacteristically guilty. Even the tail of his kangaroo pelt was dragging. Not that it didn't normally drag, but in this case it was a very depressed looking dragging. "You don't have to leave too. It's not like you did it on purpose or anything."

His face brightened up, but he sighed at the same time. "Yeah, but if I hadn't dragged you to the market you wouldn't be leaking all over the floor right now."

"Raining," I corrected. 'Leaking' didn't sound nearly as cool as 'raining' when it came to what was happening. "Even if you hadn't dragged me along against my will with me yelling and arguing every step of the way, I'd have still managed to get in trouble somehow. That's just what I do."

"You were not screaming and yelling every step of the way. In fact, you went pretty willingly when I explained what I needed." I nodded agreement. "Oh," he said. "Yeah, but still, you can't go out there all alone. You might drown."

He had a point, I was clumsy enough to manage that. "What if I sleep in a tree? Then I won't drown. I might fall out of it but I won't drown." Roo considered the sideways logic to that and finally agreed.

"But you gotta stay close by so we can check on ya."

I agreed and climbed out through my trapdoor. It had gotten dark outside and was still raining which I considered a plus. There weren't a whole lot of things around that would eat Lost Boys that also traveled through the dark and the rain. There were a couple of things, but they probably wouldn't want to eat something that was continually getting soaked, especially after it was inside them. For a moment I thought about the possibility of something eating me and then exploding because of the rain that would still be raining. I quickly thought about not thinking about that at all.

It didn't take very long to figure out that lying down on the ground to sleep wasn't going to work. As we'd sort of figured, the ground got muddy real fast and I found out that there really was a possibility of me drowning. Next I tried a tree, but tree bark gets slippery when it's wet and I catapulted out of two different trees before I figured that wasn't going to work either. Finally, I headed to the hill where we played 'King of the Hill.' It had a pretty good slope on it and most of the loose dirt had been worn away by generations of Lost Boys being thrown down the sides, sliding, and being hurled. Sleeping on something that was basically rock wasn't real comfortable, but there wasn't enough mud to cause me to slide down the hill and the slope was enough that the water didn't pool deep enough to drown me. Sleeping in the rain didn't bother me a whole lot but getting a mouthful of water when I snored was more than a little irritating.

At some point in the night I must have fallen asleep. I opened my eyes to see a couple more apples next to me and a sprite staring at me in amazement. When she saw I was awake, she pointed. "It's raining on you." I looked around to see a brilliantly clear, sunshiny day. Everywhere, that is, except for six inches around me. It was still merrily raining away and didn't appear to have let up at all. I stood up and learned that if you sleep while it's raining on you, it causes all sorts of stiffness, pain, and other good stuff. It also causes an unhealthy dose of chattering because I was freezing. The goosebumps were more like emu-bumps as big as they were. It's not like a blanket would do any good. The thought briefly crossed my mind about what would happen if I got a warming token and added it to the mix. Briefly because as I thought about it I figured with my luck the rain would end up boiling as it fell. I decided I could live without that.

"You shouldn't let it rain on you like that," the sprite said in a very serious manner, "You might get wet and waterlogged." I was pretty sure there wasn't any 'might' about it, but thanked her for her concern and told her as soon as I found a way to stop the rain, I'd do it. "The dryers can help you," she said after spending some time considering the water that was dripping from my face. I'd discovered that it was very hard to wipe the water off your face if it was continuing to rain on it.

"Dryers? What dryers? What are they? How can they help?"

"Wise and mysterious are the ways of the dryers. They can get to the root of any problem as well as the root of any tree. They can tell you what you need to know." All of this was said in slow measure as though she wanted to be sure I didn't screw it up.

"But what are the dryers? Where are they?"

"The dryers are everywhere. They will find you if they want you to find them." She did an elaborate curtsy and then zipped off out of sight leaving me to wonder if she was just a few acorns short of a tree or if there actually were a group of mysterious people known as the dryers who practiced removing magic spells or maybe dehydrating fruit or something. Either one was as probable as the other. I munched on the apples which tasted as though they'd already been dehydrated, even though they were, strangely enough, soaked. From the look of the paw prints, Leo had brought the apples at some point while I was sleeping. That meant I wouldn't have to try to turn around and try to see what had been tied to the bear pelt's tail like I would have if Tig's or Red's paw prints had been there. I finished the apples, cores and all, and was trying to figure out what to do when I had a sudden brainstorm. It took me a moment to realize it wasn't a rainstorm.

I galloped as fast as I could, which was slower than usual because of the mud that now seemed to be instantly forming wherever I went, until I reached the western portion of the Southern Wood. This area was sorta swampy but also had three or four hot springs that seeped up from the ground. The odor was pretty bad but the water wouldn't take off your skin and it was nice and warm. I rushed over to the nearest one and cannonballed into it. The sudden change from cold to warmth was amazing but the sigh of relief died as the water around me suddenly turned cold. I put a hand under the water to find it was raining under the water too and making it colder. I was pretty sure that should have been impossible. Not that impossible really meant a whole lot on the Island. I yelled, "It isn't fair," to the skies above, but they, whoever might have been up there, wasn't impressed at all and refrained from commenting on the whole situation.

I was beginning to feel like a certain blue-gray donkey as I headed through the woods. There wasn't really anyplace in particular I was going to since I'd run all out of ideas. Since it had stopped raining I was once again leaving a trail so I couldn't go back to Hangman's Tree. I thought about the wishing well, but making more than one wish on the same 'event' can be sort of unpredictable and with the way everything had turned out so far, I didn't think I really wanted to add that to the mix. I thought about going back to the elven marketplace, but I was sure there were probably about a zillion rules against someone raining within the boundaries of it. Not to mention that when a dispute between us Lost Boys and elves occurred, it was always the elves who won.

If I hadn't been so busy wiping water out of my eyes and listening to the sound of the rain hitting my pelt, I'd have probably been able to avoid what happened next. From behind me there was a yell of "Lost Boy" and the sound of thudding feet that seemed to shake the pine needles from the pine trees. I dropped into a gallop again but was nowhere near as fast as those pursuing me. Not that it really mattered. Not only was I still leaving a trail but the water in my eyes blurred my vision so much I managed to run into a tree. Red told me later that while the story about water in my eyes was good, he really didn't believe it since I managed to do it just as often when it was a sunny day and I didn't have any spells flinging moisture about.

Bouncing off the tree, I landed on my back and looked up at the sodden looking stars that slowly circled my head. They eventually faded away to be replaced with five young trolls looking down at me. At least it wasn't the pirates I thought it was going to be.

Adult trolls grow to be about eight or nine feet tall and have a lot of strength. The cubs looking down at me were probably around my age and were about a foot taller than I was and just as broad. The major difference being most of that was muscle. Troll cubs and Lost Boys get along for the most part although Roo has had to set numerous bones in the past. There's also a firm rule, even though we don't normally have any rules, against playing 'King of the Hill' with trolls. They could be a little bullying, but it was hard to hold it against them because that's just the way they were. They didn't really mean anything bad by it.

The leader of the pack looked down at me and grinned, his tusks appearing over his lips. "Play tag?" he asked.

"Uh, not really. I'm not feeling real well." This brought chuckles from the rest of them for some reason. I didn't think it was that funny. The leader reached down and gently, for a troll, picked me up, not quite dislocating my shoulder. He set me down on my paws and then frowned.

"What that?" He looked at the rain, put a hand that was bigger than my foot out and caught a few raindrops on it. He brought it to his nose and sniffed. "Rain. Why just there?"

"Uh…" Trolls really aren't dumb although they sound like it and may look like it. Trolls didn't believe in magic and didn't practice it. If they wanted something they simply used brute force to get it. It had a great success rate, although they wouldn't fight pirates because they didn't like the sea. Even when the pirates were on land they equated it with the sea and refused to fight. It made trying to explain spells to a troll a little iffy. However, there was good news seeing from which group my troubles stemmed. "Elves," I said.

The leader took a step back and two of his gang crossed their fingers as if trying to ward anything elven away from them. The leaders frown of puzzlement became one of puzzled understanding. "Elves. We fix."

"Huh?" That didn't sound at all good. "That's okay," I started stammering. "I'll, you know, take care of it or something. Then maybe we can play tag or even hide-and-seek."

The troll shook his head. "Nope. Elves need lesson. Come." He gestured at one of his gang and the command became unnecessary as the junior troll grabbed my arm and effortlessly pulled me along in the gang's wake. About now was when I'd normally begin to wonder if things could get worse, but I was tempting nothing at this point. We traveled through the woods until we came to one of the tallest trees I'd ever seen. Aside from being tall, it was also branchless for about fifty feet up. It would have been a horrible climbing tree. The leader said, "We wait." The junior troll dropped me to the ground, which had turned muddy. There was a quick exchange of trollish and two of the trolls headed back off into the woods, chortling loudly. I lay there shivering and sneezing while wondering if maybe the warming spell idea wasn't too bad after all.

A few minutes later there was a high squealing noise as the two trolls dragged an elf from the woods. I didn't know whether I should be upset by the fact it took two trolls to drag an elf while it only took one troll to drag me along. That thought was quickly replaced in my mind by a feeling of awe as I saw one of the trolls climb the tree trunk just using his fingers and toes. I watched while he made it to the lower branches. Sitting there in the mud, I was pretty sure that he never fell out of trees. That thought didn't make me feel as bad as it probably should have. Once the troll was comfortably sitting on a branch, one of the trolls on the ground threw two lines up to him. Throwing a line fifty feet up was pretty impressive. Almost impressive enough to make me forget the rain, but not quite. What did make me forget about the rain was when one of the trolls tied the 'ground' end of the line to my left ankle. Naturally it took two trolls to tie the 'ground' end of the other line to the elf's ankle. The elf's squealing which had turned into righteous indignation quickly turned back to squealing as the elf was hauled up by his ankle until he was about a yard off the ground.

My contribution was, "No, no, no, no, no," as I found myself hauled a yard into the air as well. That turned to a simple unintelligible "aaaaaahhhhhhh" as two trolls started running me around the tree trunk as fast as they could. Before the world started moving too fast to see anything I saw one troll (yeah, now it was only one troll) running the elf around the trunk in the opposite direction. I had a really bad feeling about the whole thing. A very, very, very bad feeling. My bad feeling was proven a minute later as I ran into the elf causing the ropes holding us to snap and causing both of us to fall to the ground. I saw more stars than I'd ever seen before at one time during the day. I tried standing up which turned out to be a very big mistake since I was extremely dizzy. I looked over at the elf who looked as dazed as I felt, but his daze was a soggy, rainy one. The collision had jarred the raincloud so it was raining on him. I didn't want to feel good about it, but I was feeling warmer. Being an elf, chances were excellent his plight would be looked at as needing a bit more attention than when it was just a chubby Lost Boy being rained on. The elf started to protest, but seeing who was standing around him, left rather hurriedly, the raincloud following after him. The trolls probably made a bigger impression on him than I did.

I breathed a great sigh of relief now that my worries were over. At least they were until I watched as the troll in the tree jumped from the branch and landed with a ground-jarring thump. The leader walked over from where he'd been watching the elf with great satisfaction. He looked down at me, tusks appearing once again as he grinned. "We play tag now."