Thanks to all the patient readers who waited for chapter 7, but now I should write a lot faster, so you shouldn't have to wait as long this time.

'Smile for the camera,' Mulch dodged around a cluster of children having their picture taken in funny Christmas hats. It was hard to keep track of the small, cloaked stranger what with the hordes of characters and children gathering outside the shopping mall. Characters from almost every company were there – a giant burger for McDonalds, Fairies for the party shop, and giant carrot for the vegetable shop. The stranger blended in perfectly, and luckily, so did Mulch. He looked right at home with all of the other crazy characters. He slipped behind a Pretzel stand and kept his eyes fixed on the small black figure. He wasn't entirely sure what the thing was going to do – all he knew was that he had been a notorious criminal in Haven and it was bound to be up to something now.

A lovely, warm, rich smell wafted out of the half–open pretzel cart, distracting him considerably. He could see the man who owned the pretzel cart going over to the soft drink stand, temporarily leaving it unguarded. Mulch couldn't resist and took a handful of pretzels, stuffing them into his mouth. He savoured them before snapping back to the present. Black-caped man had disappeared. Mulch swore under his breath before pushing through the crowd.

Stupid stomach, he thought. Then, Mmm...pretzels.

He wandered round aimlessly for a bit, until he saw what he was looking for. A flash of black material climbing through a window of the shopping complex. This confirmed what he had suspected – this was no elf or pixie – this was a dwarf with years of experience under his belt. How did he know this? The hooded dwarf was climbing through a window four stories up a glass wall. Mulch had prepared for this and had been collecting up a small stash of cam foil pieces from Foaly's workshop, quilting them together to make a cloak just large enough to wrap around his body and protect him from prying mud man eyes. He held his breath and pressed a palm against the smooth glass surface. It stuck fast.

From there it was easy – all he had to do was place a hand or foot on the glass and it would stick. No harnesses or cables necessary. With the cam foil securely on he quickly scaled the wall, out of sight of spectators and more importantly, the cloaked man. He felt slightly dizzy, but put up with it. There was no time for fear of heights now.

Once he had reached the storey just below the open window he stopped, pausing to listen. There was no crashing or screeching, just a muffled clink, clink, clink. It was too organised, too systematic. Mulch crept closer to the window.

Clink, clink, clink

He peered through the glass to see the floor littered with black, egg-sized stones, each flashing hundreds of different colours. He was confused. They were beautiful and looked precious, making him wonder why he would just leave him there. He could see the cloaked dwarf carefully placing more stones at the other end of the mall.

Mulch positioned himself behind the counter next to the open window and waited, snatching a chocolate bar along the way. If there's one thing the mud men got right in this world, it's how to make good chocolate, he thought. He rested on his haunches, waiting for the sound of the cloaked figure approaching the window to escape. He had quite a few questions that needed answering.

Suddenly he found himself with his head pressed up against the floor. His sharp ears had just caught a slight shuffling sound on the other side of the counter when a heavy object slammed into him. He struggled against the dead weight, finally heaving it off him. It was a giant model Chinese temple. The cloaked dwarf stood staunchly across by the door of the shop. Mulch realised he must have thrown the temple all the way from the entranceway to behind the counter where Mulch was crouching. The Temple had to weigh over 30 kilos.

The thing removed his hood to show a middle aged dwarf – enough experience to know all the dwarf tricks, but young and heavy enough to crush Mulch if he wanted to. Mulch quivered slightly.

'How stupid,' the dwarf said. 'How very, very stupid'

'What?' Mulch spat.

'There you are, cowering behind a counter, thinking you are safe when I could clearly see your reflection. This whole building is made of glass.'

Mulch struggled to hide his embarrassment. 'What are you doing anyway? Who are you?' he said, changing the subject.

The dwarf smiled evilly. 'That will spoil the surprise now, won't it? You just need to be patient' Mulch noticed him edging towards the window before making a dash for it. But when Mulch tried to grab him, all he got was a fistful of empty material. He cursed when he found the dwarf had locked the window from the outside, trapping Mulch inside. The rest of the building didn't seem to have any windows that would open – the dwarf must have sneakily glued all of the other windows to their panes, leaving only one left, which he must have sealed when he quickly fled. Suddenly he knew why the dwarf had been so quick to flee. He also knew what all the small, black, rainbow stones were.

Miniature bombs.

A FIELD SOMEWHERE IN CHINA

The first thing Holly Short registered was sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. One minute she was slowly descending, the next she was dropping like a stone down a well. For once she felt absolutely helpless, with no weapon that could protect her and no soft landing. She swallowed and looked down at the rapidly approaching ground. All she could see was grass – no trees, no cars, no people. There was only a narrow road. In the odd way in which some things come, Holly almost felt like laughing – why, she didn't know. Artemis would later explain it as a common reflex within fairies, and the occasional human too.

Foaly was saying something to her, but she turned off her helmet mic. If she was going to die, she would do it at peace with the world, not with an annoying centaur chattering in her ear. She shut her eyes as the ground rushed up to meet her and crossed her arms over her chest.

Her feet never touched the ground. Instead she was yanked up as if a giant geyser of air had just opened up under her. The impact on her legs was exceedingly painful but didn't seem to break any bones. She seemed to bounce and cartwheel in the air as if on an invisible trampoline. Eventually she stopped and the thing keeping her up seemed to disappear, making her land in a tangled heap on the grass. Her bruises were already starting to fade. As soon as she caught her breath she switched on the helmet mic to find Foaly continuing as if he hadn't realised she had ever stopped listening to him at all.

'...so instead of using the primitive devices I attached the alpha mechanism to the –'

'Foaly'

' – which caused a chain reaction in the – '

'Foaly'

' – Which probably caused high amounts of magnetic particles into her system...D'Arvit...'

'Foaly! Shut. Up.'

'Holly! Are you finding any weird mutations on any part of your body?' Foaly sounded stressed.

'No. I'm fine!'

Foaly kept muttering under his breath.

'Foaly...what exactly was that? It felt like I was landing on a safety cushion of some sort'

Holly heard Foaly take a deep, horsy breath. 'Well, I actually adapted the idea from the air pillows they use on film sets when they do scenes where the characters jump off buildings. Then I simply took magnetic particles and fused them with – '

'Foaly. Short. Version '

'- which created a negative magnetic force with the natural metals in the ground, causing you to never be within a metre of it. Anyway, I incorporated it into the suits and even though there wasn't enough power to work the wings, there was just enough power to use the air pillow briefly. I had never tested it before...well...now'

'I guess that explains all the panic about whether it had worked or not afterwards'

'I thought I might have mutated you or something.' He paused before continuing. 'Anyway, you need to get back to the task at hand. The last thing we need is a mad dwarf on the loose at a grand opening ceremony for one of the biggest shopping malls in China.'

'Good point. But how exactly am I supposed to get there?'

'Do you still have those fake round ears Artemis gave you?'

'Yes...wait, how do you know about those?'

'Put them on. You may have to hitchhike.'

Holly slapped her forehead. 'It only gets worse'

'Of course it does. This is the LEP, remember?'

Author's note: PLEASE COMMENT. That's all I ask of you, and most amateur writers would know feedback keeps you motivated and makes you write faster. So the more you comment, the sooner the next chapter will come out.