I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song. Or the smurfs. Or Dumbo.

I would like to thank speederina, BalletGirl98, JayLah, and SiriusBlackisSeriuslyfunny333 for their reviews. I got a total of four for the last chapter, and made me feel special. Hopefully I'll have just as many for this chapter.

When I See An Elephant Fly

The talk with Finn lifted Alex's spirit and she soon found herself renting camping equipment. With her spirits bolstered, she planned to start the first of many nights in the forests. While she packed her equipment, some energy drinks, and other items needed, she started to get herself psyched. I'm doing this, I'm going to find Alice. Despite never having camped before in her life, Alex had determination on her side. Along with a wilderness survival book. She left a note for Miranda in her room so nobody would worry about her missing for a while, and then headed out into the forest.

Her first stop was the tree circle. It was the site of the supposed gazebo incident and was close to where the 'investigators' had been a couple months ago. The site took about an hour to reach, but was well worth the walk. As Alex stepped into the center, past the huge circle of trees, she felt a calm that she hadn't felt in months since... well since Alice had been snatched. She sat down and as she looked up at the night sky, she could understand why somebody wanted to build a gazebo here. To get a view like this of the night sky back home, she would have to drive a half hour out of her way to Little Grassy. And then, put up any drunks or druggies that had the same idea. She sighed, Finn would be jealous of a view like this. It was a pity that the gazebo thing didn't work. Alex was willing to bet that the gazebo would be more comfortable than sitting on the ground. Then again, she supposed that she better get used to resting on the ground. She'd be doing a lot of it in the next couple months.

Get your head of the clouds, Alex, think about Alice. You can come back here later, after you find out what happened to her. Alex soon went to work unpacking and setting up her gear. She put the ear piece into her right ear and brought out Finn's glasses that he had made her. They looked like a bulky pair of safety goggles, but doubled as night vision and heat vision whenever she wanted. All she had to do was flip a switch on the side. She had also brought out her taser and mace just in case. Finally, she looked slowly around herself to make sure the trees were tight enough around her so nobody could sneak up from behind.

Satisfied with her preparations, she began to wait for something to happen. And waited. And waited. She checked her watch only to see that barely fifteen minutes had passed before she had started to be bored out of her mind. What am I expecting exactly? Her kidnapper to come out of the woods screaming I did it? Alex started to wonder. But if the gazebo and investigation incidents are true, somebody has to be responsible.

She put her phone on vibrate so it wouldn't alert anybody close of her presence. It was shortly afterwards, that her head started to go up and down like a bobble head's. Can't go to sleep, must stay awake for Alice, she muttered tiredly to herself. Alex then grabbed for her bag and pulled out a couple of energy drinks. She quickly gulped a Redbull and a Monster down, figuring that between the two she should be awake for the next couple nights.

Feeling her body full with energy, Alex decided to put on the goggles. She hadn't had them on earlier due to how awkward they were, but now she felt like walking around in them. Yay for caffeine, a college student's best friend she giggled to herself. She stood up and started to stretch her body to get her blood pumping to help with staying awake. Once done, she grabbed the goggles on the top of her head and switched on the night vision setting. At first she didn't see that much while walking around. But then her right ear heard a twig snap off to the side while her left ear heard nothing. Apparently Finn's earpiece worked, which he would be happy to hear. She then slowly turned her head in the direction of the noise and saw a quick figure dash behind a tree.

Don't get excited, it could be nothing. She then switched to heat vision which caused her heart to race. For outlined behind the tree, was a bright red human-shaped figure. Stay calm, don't let him know you see him. Let's see... maybe I can fool him into attacking me. "Tripping" over her shoe she fell to the ground spilling the items in her bag everywhere: right in front of where the figure stood. Come on, Alex thought, as she began to pick everything up, except for the taser and mace. Come on, attack me already. I'm a poor defenseless female. Almost as if hearing her thoughts, the figure moved a little closer and then a little bit more. By that point she was finally able to hear the figure just a few feet away from her on the right. And that's when she made her move.

"Finn?"

"What's wrong?"

"I think I just killed Dumbo."

Alex paused to let what she just said to Finn to sink in. His response, was certainly not what she expected.

"Do you have some Dip in your possession I was unaware of?"

"What?" was the only word she managed to get out. Here she was freaking out about potentially killing somebody, and all Finn could talk about was dip. Freakin' dip. What did that have to do with anything?

"Dip. A solution used to kill animated characters as seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which Dumbo might I add, had a cameo in. Did you know it was the only time in animation history that Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny appeared on screen together?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Starting to sense Alex was becoming impatient, he decided to clarify. "Well you said that you just killed Dumbo. The last time I checked the only way to truly kill an animated character is by using the Dip."

Alex rolled her eyes. Leave it to Finn to take things too literally. "I didn't mean the actual Dumbo. Just some guy that looks like him."

"Then why didn't you say so in the first place. Now explain about the Dumbo look-alike. I assume he wasn't animated."

Alex took a quick breath in and said, "I decided to explore the tree circle part, you know where the gazebo was suppose to have been built, when I used the glasses-"

"How did they work?" interrupted Finn.

"If you would let me talk you would find out," said an annoyed Alex.

"No need to be so snarky. Continue."

"I was using the glasses and saw somebody duck behind a tree. They came after me and I tasered them," Alex said matter-of-factly.

"Your story makes sense, but I fail to see how killing Dumbo fits in."

"The guy I tasered looks like Dumbo. He has gray skin, a trunk, the ears. The only difference is he walks upright and looks like a human."

"Can he fly?" asked Finn randomly.

Once again, Alex could only manage one word. "What?"

"Despite the improbability, Dumbo could fly." Finn's voice was full of admiration. An elephant had supposedly manage to achieve what he never had.

"You're missing what's important. I just tasered a stranger that looks like DUMBO! It's not a mask, Finn. I felt it. It has heat and feels like skin. And I couldn't find where the mask ends."

"Hmmm... send me a picture of him and I'll analyze it," offered Finn.

"Okay."

"I take it he's alive then?" Finn finally, thought to ask.

"Well since he's breathing I'm assuming so."

"You know what happens when you assume. It makes an ass out of you and me," quoted Finn.

"You do realize you just implied you're an ass," replied Alex, with a smirk on her face.

Finn was silent for a second. He then said, "Send me the picture," and hung up.

"Somebody can't take a joke," muttered Alex under her breath. Taking the picture and sending it to Finn, she then turned her attention to Dumbo. She padded him down for weapons and found a couple knives. After that was done, she duct-taped his hands and feet together. "What do you know, I did learn something from T.V. after all."

"What are you doing to him?" Alex looked up and saw another figure in the shadows. As the figure stepped closer, Alex let out a gasp. For what she saw standing in the tree circle was a smurf.

**Author's Note**

A bit of a cliffie, but it will be resolved in the next chapter, Poor Unfortunate Souls. I would also like to add, that "Dumbo" has been seen before in Ever, and the "smurf" was mentioned in Ever.

JayLah and speederina pointed something out in their reviews from the last chapter that I want to address: the journals. Specifically, why didn't Alex scan all the pages, and shouldn't there be more in the journals concerning goblins that Alex may have missed.

I came up with the journal idea after I had written the chapter. I thought it would be a fun thing to add, and wondered what people would make of the Assyrian in them, if people ever read them. In the end, they were suppose to be nothing but a red herring for Alex and Finn, something to give them false hope.

Now for Alex scanning the journals. I don't think I said the exact amount, but let's go with three journals. Now let's say each journal is roughly 100 pages each. It takes me about a minute to scan a page. So 3x1x100= 300 minutes scanning pages. This means that if Alex had scan every single page, she would have to spend 5 hours doing so. Even if she was able to scan 2 pages at a time, it would still take her 2.5 hours to scan the pages. That's not including the time to attach them all to an email and send.

Mrs. Richardson didn't have to let Alex use her scanner. Because Alex does have some manners, as demonstrated when she was in Mrs. Bigelow's shop and bought items after questioning her, she's not about to take over the computer when she knows the Richardsons use it for business. Now if it was Finn who was doing the scanning, it's a whole other story. So Alex hopes by taking a couple pages from the beginning, middle, and end of each journal, will be enough to get the main points.

Even if Alex and Finn had come across Miranda writing about the goblins, they wouldn't have taken it seriously. They know of the stories of the area go back hundreds of years. They probably would have written it off as a little girl playing pretend. Remember, Alex is logical. For her to believe in goblins, she needs more than stories. She needs to SEE them.

Hence, she actually captures one in this chapter. Of course being Alex, she thinks it's a mask, and sends a picture to Finn to help her figure out what is going on, not even bothering to think she captured a goblin.

Does all that make sense? If I had known that it would cause so many questions and plot issues, I never would have included it. I just thought it would be a fun bonus, and could be a red herring for Alex and Finn, throwing them a bit off the track.

Done with the explanation. Did it help? Anybody else have questions? Let me know in reviews!

Also, don't forget, submissions for the August writing challenge can start be submitted on the 1st, a Monday. And there are more threads in the forums to check out for plot help.