He waved his hands to get everyone's attention and said, "I know you're scared. You might be thinking that we have no chance. When I first became king, I wasn't sure we could stop the Goblins either. The Brownies had been losing that war for so long, we forgot that we are strong and clever and that we never give up! We won the Goblin war, and now we will fight Kovol and his Shadow Men. Whatever else happens, Kovol will not collapse Burrowsville while I'm king!"
Then he looked up as small bits of dirt landed on his head.
"What--" He jumped back as a large chunk of dirt fell on the ground, barely missing him.
"It's starting!" yelled a Brownie in front of the crowd.
"Burrowsville is collapsing!" another cried.
"Wait!" Elliot called. "I know about a kind of magic that all Brownies can do. You can make a cold fire in your hand. Get anything you have to hold that fire. Sticks or papers or anything made of wood! Surround Burrowsville with it, and then light the wood with the fire. The Shadow Men won't be able to cross it!"
"They can still collapse the town," a third Brownie cried.
"I'm taking care of that. Now move!" Elliot ordered.
Still in a panic, Brownies scurried in all directions. Elliot turned his back on them and called, "Fudd! What's taking so long?"
"Like, I had to do my hair!" a voice behind him said. "Totally chill out."
Elliot turned again. Fluttering in the air in front of him was the Pixie princess, Fidget Spitfly.
Fidget was a foot high and looked about the same age as Elliot. Except she dressed like every flavor of fruit candy and had learned to speak Elliot's language by watching the totally awesomest television show ever, Surfer Teen. Her tiny wings were round, her ears were long and thin, and she had an explosion of curly yellow hair.
She and Elliot weren't exactly friends. But since it was Fidget's fault he had awoken Kovol, they had always known they'd have to work together one day to stop him.
Fidget held her hand out to examine her nails. "Oh, fruit rot! I had to dodge a falling piece of the Underworld and broke a nail. Kovol's totally going to pay for this!"
"The Brownies need your help," Elliot said. "I need the Pixies to spread light all over Burrowsville so that we can keep the Shadow Men out. And if they try to collapse it, have the Pixies poof the chunks away before they fall."
"But what if the Shadow Men attack the Glimmering Forest while we're gone?" Fidget said. "My daddy wouldn't like that."
"We're testing this plan to see if it works," Elliot said. "Better to test it here than on your own home, right?"
Fidget tossed her hair back. "Totally!" She snapped her fingers and instantly hundreds of Pixies appeared. Then she announced, "We're going to make the awesomest ever dome of light to cover Burrowsville! For some strange reason, the Brownies actually like this place and want to keep it. Also, I'm making a scrapbook all about me. So if anyone takes my picture while I'm poofing away some collapsing pieces of the Underworld, that would be, like, totally and completely awesome!"
Together the Pixies flew up into the air. They separated until they were as wide apart as the distance they could spread their light. Once Fidget gave the order ("Okay, so like totally, y'know!"), within seconds a ceiling of light widened across all of Burrowsville.
Elliot kept an eye on the smoke as it continued moving closer to Burrowsville. The Shadow Men were almost here. He hurried over to where the Brownies were building up kindling for their cold fires. They were working hard, but there was still too much to be done. Elliot joined the Brownies in piling up kindling, making sure there were no gaps.
"Hurry!" he said.
"Elliot!"
Surprised, Elliot jumped a little, then turned. When he saw who had come, he jumped again. He wasn't surprised, really. Startled might be a better word.
Dear Reader, even though the two words mean nearly the same thing, there is a very big difference between being surprised and being startled. Surprised is when it's your birthday and you get a large gift from your brother that you had not been expecting. Startled is when that gift turns out to be a giant python. It's a good thing that it's not necessary to explain what the word horrified means, because otherwise we would have to discuss that giant python swallowing your birthday party guests whole. The good news is there will be lots of birthday cake left for you. Surprise!
Unfortunately, it was not Elliot's birthday. And his brother probably wouldn't give him a giant python anyway, mostly because it wouldn't hold still long enough for Reed to wrap it. So when Elliot was startled, it was because Agatha the Hag had just appeared beside him.
Elliot had first met Agatha very soon after he became the Brownie king. In most ways she was the exact opposite of Fidget the Pixie. Fidget was young, fashionable, and beautiful. Agatha was older than dust and wore ragged clothes that were held together by little more than cobwebs. Her skin was dry and wrinkled, and she was dotted with warts. Worst of all, her left eye bulged out so far from her head, it seemed likely to fall out and land on him at any minute.
"I came to help," Agatha said. "It's about time the Underworld started fighting back."
"The Underworld has some powerful magical creatures," Elliot said. "Why aren't they fighting?"
"Nobody knows what to do. Kovol is stronger than any one of us. And we haven't had to work together for a thousand years."
"Not since the first Underworld war." Elliot remembered what the Brownies had taught him about the war that happened a thousand years ago when all the creatures of the Underworld had stood up to Kovol and the Shadow Men. "They worked together then, and now it's time we do that again."