"Oh, yeah, sure."
Mr. Tojam held up a book for Elliot to see. It looked very old and dusty, and the pages were wrinkled. "Now, what do you know about Kovol?"
Elliot shrugged. "I know he's the most evil Demon of all time. I know that a thousand years ago, in the first Underworld War, a wizard named Minthred cast a spell that put Kovol to sleep." Elliot also knew from having once been very close to Kovol's wide-open mouth that he had really bad breath. Or maybe that was only Kovol's morning breath. Probably not worth mentioning.
"The Elves believe the only way to defeat Kovol now is to understand how he was defeated the first time." Mr. Tojam held out his arm, inviting Elliot to walk with him. "Is there a private place we can talk?"
Elliot glanced over at Mr. Willimaker, who suggested they return to Burrow Cave. Then Patches reminded her father that Elliot could only barely sit up in the cave, and Mr. Tojam was even taller than him.
"Allow me." Mr. Tojam touched Elliot on his shoulder and then closed his eyes. Elliot felt the tug on his gut poofing him away, but the Elf was a much better poofer than either the Brownies or the Pixies, and Elliot barely felt a thing. They arrived on a thick tree branch very high above the ground, but Elliot was so comfortable in that spot that he didn't worry a bit about falling. Besides, he had much bigger worries on his mind. Such as accidentally calling Mr. Tojam by the wrong name again. Or the end of the world, for example.
Mr. Tojam handed Elliot the book and opened it to the first page. It was an old and faded drawing of Kovol as he would have looked a thousand years ago. Sure enough, he had a full head of Demon hair. No wonder he had been upset when Elliot pulled out the last hair, making him bald. But as everyone knows, baldness is just one of the risks when taking thousand-year naps. Also, your favorite show might not be on television anymore (if television even exists still!).
In the picture, Kovol was facing an army of mythical creatures that were not too different from those Elliot had just spoken to. In fact, right at the front was a Brownie who looked a lot like Mr. Willimaker. Elliot knew Mr. Willimaker's great-grandfather had fought Kovol before. He wondered if the Brownie in the picture was him.
"It was a terrible war," Mr. Tojam said. "Nobody had ever faced a creature such as this, and nobody had any idea of what to do."
"What made Kovol so much worse than any other Demon?" Elliot asked. "And why is he the last of them?"
"That was Kovol's plan," Mr. Tojam said. "All Demons have a certain amount of bad inside, but it had never been difficult for any of the good creatures to keep control of them. One day Kovol got into a fight with another Demon about who would get the last slice of dessert."
"Seems harmless enough." Elliot and his brothers often fought for that same reason. Unless Wendy had cooked it. Then they fought over who would have to choke it down and not hurt her feelings.
Mr. Tojam shook his head. "It should have been harmless, except that the other Demon ate the dessert first. In a rage, Kovol then picked up the Demon and ate him."
"Eww." There had not been a single fight in Elliot's home in which he had ever considered eating his brothers. Seriously. Not even once.
"As soon as Kovol ate him, he realized that he had taken the Demon's powers into his own body. In that moment, Kovol became stronger. And far more greedy. He wanted more and more power, and so he continued eating others of his own kind. With each meal, he grew stronger and more wicked. One by one, he destroyed every other Demon of the Underworld. Until he was the last."
As he spoke, Mr. Tojam turned the pages of the book, each picture showing Kovol becoming larger and stronger. Then he turned the page again, which showed Kovol in front of a wall of black fir
e.
"Kovol then turned his eyes upon the rest of the Underworld," Mr. Tojam continued. "For although he had the strength of all the Demons, he did not have the power of other magical creatures. Not the wisdom of the Fairies, or the grit of the Dwarves, or any of the special gifts the rest of the Underworld creatures have. So began the first war of the Underworld."
"You had to fight it," Elliot whispered. "Because he wouldn't stop until everyone was destroyed."
"But Kovol needed an army." Mr. Tojam tapped the picture again. "He couldn't have an army of living creatures, because he knew he'd end up eating them too, to take their power. So he cursed the fire, and from it came the Shadow Men. They are nothing but smoke and flame, and they have no thought other than to obey Kovol's will."
Elliot went to turn the next page and learn more, but Mr. Tojam stopped him. "The last page of this book is for your eyes only," the Elf said. "This is the wizard Minthred's own journal. He knew that one day Kovol would awake, and when he did, someone would have to lead the fight against him. He asked that the last page be read only by that person--by you. The Elves believe that everything you must know to defeat Kovol will be on that page. Call to me when you're finished, and I'll return you to the Brownies."
Mr. Tojam closed his eyes and poofed away, leaving Elliot alone at the top of the tree. This was great news. If the secret to winning the war was in this book, he could have it ended by dinner. Feeling very happy, Elliot blew out a puff of air and then turned the page.
The very first words he read were, "My name is Minthred, but I'm no wizard. And I don't know how I defeated Kovol."
If Elliot had not been delicately balanced at the top of a very tall tree, he might have stood up and banged Minthred's journal as hard as he could against the branches. What did Minthred mean by saying he wasn't a wizard? From the very first moment Elliot had heard about Kovol, it was that the wizard Minthred had defeated him. And how could Minthred not know how he had done it?
However, since Elliot didn't want to lose his balance by beating up the journal, he only took another deep breath and then read further.
"I'm a poor goat herder," Minthred wrote.
"Oh, good grief," Elliot mumbled. Of course he was.
"Goat herding is a simple life and sometimes a very lonely life. (Which you can probably understand, Dear Reader. Goats rarely have anything interesting to say.) One day, large craters appeared in my field, as if the earth had sunk. In some places they were as large as an entire row of homes. While I was out studying them, thousands of creatures suddenly appeared, most of which I had thought were nothing but the inventions of storytellers. Yet here they were, standing in my field, and not only standing, but fighting an army of smoke and fire. At the center of it all was the terrible beast I now know is named Kovol."
Elliot closed his eyes and tried to picture what that must have looked like to Minthred. He remembered how surprised he had been when he first saw the Brownies standing in his bedroom, and there were only three of them. Minthred's surprise must have been a lot bigger. And a lot worse.
"I hid in my bed for a while," Minthred wrote. "But one cannot hide from anything so awful for long. Besides, my goats were afraid too, and we couldn't all fit under the blanket."