“I couldn’t give you directions.
Let the Grorckle lead ya” replied the guard to Emily’s request.
Emily beamed, “Thank you, elf sir!”.
She grabbed Jordan’s wrist again and followed Gavin as it led the way to Gabe’s home.
Jordan looked around nervously at his surroundings, feeling more and more scared out of his mind.
His non creative mind could not possibly grasp all this and still survive.
It was too overwhelming for him to take in.
A magic world, kept in a Rubik’s cube…
full of…
weird creatures that could tear his head off for all he knew.
The elven folk were not all too pleasant to look at.
Unlike Emily, Jordan was not privileged to see the elves at their best on their new moon festival, so the dull, tense aura given off everywhere was not helping him cope.
“Emily, please let’s get out of here…
I- I don’t like this place” he pleaded.
Emily looked up from the ground, where Gavin was marching to his owner’s place, and she turned slightly to look at Jordan, “Why not?” Jordan groaned as he saw huge elves carrying wagons and barrels of heavy metal goods, and some food produce as well.
Clothes on their backs looked old and worn out, like his father would wear, and most of them had scars on their body, which reminded him of a typical bike gangster.
“They…
they scare me, Em.
They have weird marks all over their bodies and they have…” Jordan gulped, “A lot of scars.
What if they’re cannibals?” Emily smiled, “I don’t know what that is, but once you meet Gabe, you’ll love them!
The elves are really nice, trust me!” Jordan wanted to trust her, wanted to believe her, but he was quite too worried and scared to believe a word she said.
He could feel angry pairs of eyes glaring at him from behind, and he didn’t like it.
Emily was focused on the weird reptilian dog creature to notice how uncomfortable he is.
He didn’t like new things; no, not at all.
He didn’t like new hair, new clothes, new food, new worlds, new creatures who were thought to only live in fairytales and dreams but now were very, very much real.
He didn’t like it at all.
Emily’s warm hand never left his, and whenever she squeezed it to stop him from trailing off his train of thoughts, he would feel a small flickering sense of safety.
Too bad, it didn’t last long.
“What else are we going to see?
Dragons?” He whined, shuffling his feet faster to catch up with Emily, who was jogging to keep up with Gavin.
Gavin scratched the door of Gabe’s poor and shabby cottage, and the door creaked open.
A green haired elf with notably pointy ears peaked his head out, and looked down at the snarling Grorckle.
“Gavin?
What are you doing here?
Did you run away from Ed again?” “Gabe!” Emily called her friend and Gabe’s gaze finally landed on her petite frame, and his tail swished in merriment, “Emily, you’ve come early” Emily giggled, “I brought someone!”.
She shifted slightly to reveal her best friend, who looked shaken to the core about what is real and what isn’t.
“This must be the famous Jordy.
Emily’s told me a lot about you” said Gabe, smiling as he picked up the restless Grorckle in his arms.
“Would you like to come on in?” Gabe offered.
Emily grabbed Jordan’s wrist once again ready to pull him in, and Jordan could only succumb.
“So, Mr.
Jordy, you’re Emily’s friend?” Gabe spoke up after the two had settled down.
“BESTfriend!
He’s my best friend” Emily immediately interjected.
Jordan’s mouth was tight shut like a clam, and he felt like he was about to burst open with all sorts of questions.
Gabe brought out some tea for the children to drink but paused to take a long look at Jordan’s face.
“Is there anything wrong, Mr.
Jordy?
You look awfully pale” he asked, then turned to Emily, “Emily, do you know what’s wrong with him?” Emily shook her head, “He’s been like this since we came here.
He wanted to leave.
I don’t know why.
He didn’t even get to meet you yet!” Gabe hummed, staring longer at the boy who avoided eye contact with the elf and subtly tried to attempt to shrink himself.
“Emily, you never told me he was shy” Emily countered, “Well, he usually isn’t with me” Gabe sighed in frustration, “Emily, as a friend, you should pay attention to how your friends are feeling or how they act around you and try to do the things that will make them happy.
You have to compromise in friendship” Emily cocked her brow, “What’s compo…
compo-prize?” Gabe scratched his head trying to think, “Umm…
not doing some things you like so your friend can be happy and…
doing some of the things they like to make them happy” Emily whined, “But I let him play with the cube for weeks!
Isn’t that a good compo-prize?
I couldn’t even watch on my tab anymore!” Gabe felt lost already after the words ‘cube’ and ‘tab’, so he just took in a sharp deep breath, “I’ll leave you two for a moment to talk.
By the time I come back, you should tell me what’s wrong” Emily pouted, but Gabe was already gone.
She turned to Jordan who was staring at her, speechless.
“What?”