"We'll take care of Fudd," Mr. Willimaker said.
"Can you fix his eyes?" Elliot asked.
Fudd shook his head. "We don't have that kind of magic or medicine. But you shouldn't worry about me. I'll be fine."
"And I'll be there to help you." Mr. Willimaker clapped a hand on Fudd's shoulder. "Sorry I lost trust in you, old friend."
Fudd smiled. "We're friends? But I don't even know your first name."
Minutes later, Elliot had cleaned up and changed into a T-shirt and brown cotton pants. The pants were a little goofy, but at least they were from the right century. He wasn't sure about the T-shirt, which read, Brownies Are For Hugging, Not Eating, but it would have to do until he got home.
Harold had changed back into an Elf to say good-bye to Elliot. "I admit that I'm not totally sad you survived and get to go home," he said. "On the one hand, there's Cami and she's wonderful, but on the other hand, Kyle and Cole are very naughty twins. They dumped a big bucket of ice water on me yesterday while I was outside talking to her."
Elliot chuckled. "Yeah, they do things like that. I never thought I'd miss it."
"So your science project is due today," Harold said. "I've done your share of the work for it. The problem is that Cami never found anyone willing to test it, so she's not sure if it works."
"It doesn't," Elliot said. "I lit up like a glow stick."
"I know. But I couldn't tell her I'd tried it on myself. Obviously I made myself go invisible just to let her be right about the experiment."
"Will I see you around?" Elliot asked.
"I guess if you ever see yourself walking down the street, it's probably me."
"Don't do that," Elliot said. "One of me on the surface gets into plenty of trouble. Two of me would be too much."
"Hmm, we'll see." Harold changed himself to a sparrow. He began to fly away, then fluttered back and tweeted, "By the way, I'm really sorry about your bed."
"What about my bed?" Elliot asked, but it was too late. Harold was gone.
Elliot wasn't sure what things would be like when the Pixies poofed him home. He'd been gone for days. He'd been a prisoner to the Pixies and survived a Goblin's attempt to scare him to death. He'd been trapped in gripping mud--twice, fought off Shadow Men, and defeated Kovol. So it would make sense if things were a little crazy on the surface too.
However, his family didn't know about any of that. Tubs wouldn't even know it, since the Pixies had wiped Tubs's memory of the entire Underworld.
The last thing Fidget had said before she waved her wand to poof him away was, "Okay, so like, I'm sorry about the whole kidnapping thing. I know just how to make it up to you."
He didn't like the sound of that, but she poofed him away before he could ask what she meant.
He returned to the surface just outside his home. It was a cool, crisp autumn morning, and Elliot enjoyed the feeling of sun on his face. Although the Underworld had plenty of light, he had missed the sun. The large bucket of invisibility potion was nearby. It was bubbling more than ever, and Elliot was glad that at least it had not blown up his home while he was gone.
Strange, the things that made him happy ever since he had become king.
Harold had said the science project was due today. Did that mean Elliot had to somehow get the potion to school? His parents were probably already at work, so getting the potion there would be Cami's problem.
"Elli-ot!"
Elliot cringed. There was only one person who said his name that way. If getting the potion to school was Cami's problem, then Cami was his problem.
She began talking even before she rounded the corner to his backyard. "If we can't prove the potion works, then we're not going to get a good grade. So what--" She stopped and stared at Elliot. Her eyes widened, and then she let out a high-pitched scream like Aphid and Fidget had done. Why did girls always do that? More specifically, why was Cami screaming right now?
"Just wait there. I'll take a picture." The words tumbled out of her mouth so quickly, he wondered how she could pronounce them all.
"A picture of what?" he asked.
She began digging through her backpack. "Your legs, silly. I can't believe it worked!"
Elliot looked down at his legs. Or where his legs were supposed to be. He was standing on them, so he knew they still existed, but they were invisible. He sighed loudly enough for her to know he was bothered. This wasn't the potion. It was Fidget's way of making up for having kidnapped him.