The Corgi Chronicles Page 2

  The Prince held up five necklaces of finest silver chain, each with a dangling emerald pendant that glittered green in the sunlight. Although the jewels were identical in style, they ranged in size from miniscule for the sprite to enormous for the cougar.

  When the Prince fastened my necklace around my furry neck (along with the collar I wore from my human home, with its identification and rabies tags), he whispered, “Farewell, elranor.”

  The snow started up again soon after our departure. I had trouble plowing through with my short legs, and after a while I decided to let Nelathen and his cougar blaze the trail. I followed behind in their footsteps, which made for easier going.

  Birgitte, the sprite, flew for the first few hours, but a fierce cross-wind began to gust. We were afraid she would be blown right into a tree trunk. Nelathen offered to carry her, and tucked her tiny body into the hood of his cloak. She sat on his shoulder, peeking out.

  “Are you keeping up, little brother?” the cougar asked.

  I felt fatigue in my legs but certainly wasn’t going to admit that to an overgrown kitty. “I’m fine,” I replied. “I could keep running for hours. That’s why the fairies chose us Corgwyn, you know. We’re nimble, fast and strong.”

  The cougar made a laughing sort of rumble in his throat. After he turned back to the trail, I bared my teeth at him. Aliiana lightly swatted my rump to remind me of my job.

  Crack!

  A loud percussion sounded, echoing off the valley walls, and was followed by a high-pitched whizzz overhead.

  “Get down!” yelled Nelathen.

  Aliiana leapt off my saddle and we took cover behind a snow bank. Nelathen and the cougar shared a glance, exchanging silent words, and nodded. Nelathen’s form wavered, turning translucent lavender before completely disappearing. Although he was invisible, I could tell by his slight footprints in the snow that he dashed off to the north. Barrol took off to the south, bounding through the snow while keeping to the shadows.

  “What do you think that was?” I whispered to Aliiana.

  “Gunshot,” she replied. “Where’s Birgitte?” she asked, looking around.

  “Over here,” came a whispered reply from a small shrub.

  Crack!

  There was another shot, and a huge pile of snow slumped down from a tree, landing right behind us.

  I couldn’t see Nelathen or his cougar and I was worried for their safety—and ours.

  Then I heard a human male voice swearing. “Missed him again,” the voice grumbled.

  Soon another voice said, “Oof! Who do you think you are?” and was silenced.

  Nelathen’s voice called out. “All clear! Birgitte, I think we have need of your skills.”

  Birgitte emerged from the shrub and flew off, her tiny wings whirring. Aliiana hopped back on my saddle and I ran to follow.

  We found Nelathen and the cat in a small clearing. Two human men lay face-down in the snow, quietly moaning. They both wore insulated camouflage jackets, pants, and boots. Their rifles stuck out of a snow bank twenty feet away. Nelathen stood over the men with his unstrung bow, which he had used as a staff to knock them on their heads. Barrol stood on the other side of the humans, rumbling deep in his throat and baring his huge fangs.

  “Poachers,” the cougar growled. “They were shooting at me. Fortunately, their marksmanship was amateur.”

  I gasped. “They were shooting at you?” Even though I was intimidated by the cat, I couldn’t imagine humans trying to harm him.

  “Indeed, little brother. But the season closed a month ago in this area, so they were trying to poach illegally.”

  “How do you know about hunting seasons?”

  He smiled his big furry lips. “Think about it, little brother. If there were a Corgi-hunting season, wouldn’t you pay attention to it?”

  I nodded, my big ears drooping. One of the hunters stirred, starting to revive.

  “Quickly, Birgitte,” called Nelathen, waving her over.

  Birgitte fluttered to the hunters and dipped a tiny hand into the bag at her waist. She pulled out a handful of a sparkling yellow powder and sprinkled it on the men’s heads. She muttered a few Elvish words in her high-pitched voice, and then turned to the rest of us. “Let’s go,” she said, “and don’t forget to cover our tracks. When they wake up, they won’t remember any of this, and they’ll find the idea of hunting to be repulsive.”

  Nelathen chuckled as he and Aliiana brushed out our tracks with pine branches.

  We were a few miles past the hunters when the sky started darkening. “We’d better find a place to set up camp,” Aliiana said to Nelathen.

  “Aye,” he said. “Barrol, would you scout a spot?”

  The cougar bounded up the slope and disappeared into the underbrush. He reappeared a few minutes later and growled, “Follow me.”

  I scurried up the slope after him, anxious to settle into our camp. He had found a dry nook that was protected by a large boulder and several pines. The fey began to set up camp. Nelathen spread a weather-proof elven blanket from the boulder to the tree trunks to give us shelter.

  Aliiana rummaged in the packs, retrieving a pan and some food. She quickly laid a fire of dry twigs, with pine needles as kindling. Within a few minutes, the fire roared and crackled. Aliiana melted snow in the pan and added some delightful elven ingredients to make a hearty stew. I lapped at the delicious stew, and also munched on some meat jerky. Feeling satisfied, I curled up near the fire with my nose tucked under my forepaws and fell asleep.

  The storm passed over during the night, leaving a fresh, sparkling blanket of snow the next morning. The sky was crisp blue with just a few high clouds. The sun glistened on the snowy bare branches of the aspens. We quickly broke camp. I did my part by vigorously digging snow onto the embers of the fire, which hissed and steamed as they were extinguished.

  Nelathen and Aliiana checked the map. Although we Corgwyn have an excellent sense of direction, we have difficulty interpreting maps. After the fey had decided on our route of travel, Aliiana summarized it for me.

  “The Gem’s resting spot is in the high mountains near a glacier which the humans call Sperry Glacier. It’s in the humans’ Glacier National Park.” She gestured to the mountains. “We need to continue northwards for several more days. When we get to areas with sparser human populations, we’ll be able to travel through the foothills instead of the high mountains. We’ll need to cross a few wide interstate highways, which we’ll try to time for early morning when the humans aren’t around.” She tickled my ears. “Are you going to be able to keep running, Pippin?”

  I stood as tall as I could on my short legs. “I will carry you all the way, Mistress.”

  “Good,” she said, and bent to kiss my wet nose. “I think you’re the noblest steed any fairy has ever ridden.”

  The next few days passed uneventfully. The weather cleared, although temperatures grew colder as we went farther north. When we needed to cross the human highways, we tried to locate the occasional paths cut under the highway which are meant to allow wildlife to cross safely. The paths were designed for moose and mule deer, but worked just fine for our odd group.

  Late one day, we passed near a small town in northern Montana, close to the national park.

  “Let’s camp here for tonight,” Nelathen said. “I’ll go into town to restock some of our supplies. I can also ask the humans about any unusual events in the park.”

  Nelathen pulled a bright red hat from his pack. It bore a logo for a human snowboard manufacturer. He put it on, pulling it down to cover his pointed ears. He unstrapped his sword belt, quiver, and pack and laid them in a sheltered area in the trees. Taking a deep breath, he tucked his shoulders forward and loosened his posture. In an instant he was transformed from an ageless, elegant elf to a slouching human snowboarder. “Humans see only what they expect to see,” he said. “Come on, Pippin. You can pretend to be my dog.”

  I barked in excitement as Aliiana removed my saddle. I trotted
along beside Nelathen as we approached a convenience store on the outskirts of town.

  “Remember not to talk,” he said as we entered the store through automatic sliding glass doors. I woofed obediently.

  “Hey,” a poorly-groomed human teenager said from the counter.

  “Heyyy,” Nelathen drawled, perfectly imitating a Utah human accent. Nelathen wandered around the store, grabbing several bags of organic trail mix, some fresh fruit, and a loaf of whole-grain, organic cranberry bread. “Not as good as elven bread, but it’s passable,” he said in a low voice. He also picked up a bag of Uncle Rover’s Super Yummy Bacon Strips for Dogs. “You deserve a treat,” he said, smiling down at me. I wagged my little nubbin of a tail enthusiastically.

  Nelathen laid our purchases on the counter, and added a Montana road map.

  “Cool dog,” the teenager behind the counter remarked as he scanned the items. I remembered that I was supposed to be posing as a regular dog, but I couldn’t help but bark at the compliment.

  “We’re on our way to the park,” Nelathen said. “Anything we should know about?”

  The scruffy teenager shrugged. “Snow pack’s good for boarding. They said it sounded like someone was dynamiting east of Lake McDonald Lodge last week, but they couldn’t find anyone. Maybe seismic activity, they said.”

  “Hmm.” Nelathen paid for our items with human cash. “Thanks.”

  “Okay, dude. Have fun.”

  When we returned to the campsite, Aliiana was fixing supper and Barrol was gathering large branches for the fire. Birgitte fluttered near Aliiana, babbling excitedly in Elvish.

  Aliiana smiled at me. “Did you have fun, Pippin?”

  “The clerk liked me!” I wagged my stubby tail. “Oh, and we heard some interesting news.”

  Nelathen nodded. “The clerk said there were reports of loud sounds in the area of Sperry Glacier. Authorities weren’t able to determine the source of the disturbance.”

  Aliiana frowned. “What do you think it might have been?”

  “Before we left the Prince, he and I spoke about what creature could possibly have removed the Gem. I’m not sure even a troll could manage that task; whatever creature is involved might be quite large and noisy.”

  Large and noisy and worse than a troll, I thought. That sounds like something that might eat a Corgi.

  Nelathen saw my worried expression, tore open the bag of dog treats and tossed me a bacon strip.

  Mmmm… I gobbled down the first, and he threw me another. Remembering my manners, I politely asked the cougar, “Would you like a bacon strip?”

  Barrol wrinkled his snout. “No, thank you, little brother. I’ll catch some hares later tonight.”

  After we ate a meal of meat jerky, fruit and organic whole-grain bread, the fey continued the discussion of the Gem. Now that we were getting close to Sperry Glacier, the next part of our mission loomed uneasily in our minds.

  “Do you expect trouble from the humans when we enter the park?” Birgitte asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Nelathen said. “It’s a large area of land, very rugged. There are humans at the entry stations, so we’ll have to enter overland. We should be able to maneuver up the mountains to the glacier without being seen.”

  “And where will we find the dwarves?”

  “They have a series of tunnels dug into the mountain above the glacier. The Prince gave me written instructions from King Latrak to locate the entrance.”

  Aliiana looked troubled. “Did the Prince say whether any of the dwarves were injured during the theft?”

  “The King’s message was brief, but my impression is that the dwarves were unaware of the theft until after the fact.”

  “Despite the noise the clerk reported?”

  Nelathen shrugged. “I hope we’ll be able to learn more when we meet the dwarves.”

  Chapter 3

  The next morning we started early. The sun was barely peeking over the eastern mountains as we approached the park boundary. Coming from the south, we had to slip across the human road and scale the park fence. Birgitte fluttered over the fence, Aliiana nimbly climbed, and Barrol clawed his way up a pine tree to jump down on the other side. Nelathen had to lift me over, though.

  We were still about forty miles from Sperry Glacier. We made our way along ridges and saddlebacks, and passed several other glaciers.

  Barrol usually ranged out ahead of us, scouting the path. At one point, he suddenly bounded back to us, growling a warning. A pair of human heads popped up over a ridge.

  “Hey!” yelled one of the humans. “Look out!”

  Barrol and I ducked out of sight, and the smaller fey made themselves invisible. Nelathen quickly tossed his sword and bow behind a boulder and pulled his hood forward to cover his pointed ears. I peeked out as he approached the humans.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Cougar,” said one, a tall man in a bright yellow coat. “We saw a cougar run up this way. You need to be careful if you’re hiking alone.”

  “Hmm, thanks. I didn’t see one, but I’ll be careful.”

  “Okay, well, have a good day.”

  “Yeah, you too.”

  After the humans were out of sight we regrouped. Nelathen pulled out the map. “There’s Gunsight Lake, and that’s Gunsight Mountain, so we need to climb up that ridge. Sperry Glacier is just on the other side of the ridge.”

  We crested the sharp, bare rocks at the top of the ridge. There were patches of snow caught in the crevasses, and the wind whipped furiously around us. The cold made my eyes burn and my nostrils freeze. Nelathen pointed down at the glacier. From above, it looked like a massive mound of snow slowly leaking down the valley. Below the glacier were several frozen lakes, glistening pale blue.

  Nelathen pulled out the parchment of instructions from the dwarven king. He chuckled to himself and said, “Too bad the dwarves refuse to use human technology. A GPS would make this easier.” He handed the parchment to Aliiana.

  “‘From the third rise sunward of the father peak,’” she read, “‘stride earthward for one thousand, seven hundred and thirty-four paces, turn moonward and stride for eight hundred sixty paces, then delve beneath the skystone.’” She looked at Birgitte. “I think a ‘skystone’ is a meteorite, but do you understand the rest of the directions?”

  Birgitte buzzed her wings and nodded. “I believe from my studies of dwarven culture that ‘sunward’ is east, ‘moonward’ is west, and ‘earthward’ would mean to descend the mountain.”

  It wasn’t hard to find the third rise east, but once we started down the slope, we realized that we didn’t know the dimensions of a dwarf’s pace. Dwarves are shorter than elves, but taller than fairies, so a pace would probably be somewhere between their strides. We scrambled down the mountain a fair distance, clambering over boulders and at times slipping on icy pebbles.

  Nelathen stopped, held his hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun, and looked around. “It could be anywhere, and I don’t see any rocks that look like iron ore.” His voice was strained from frustration.

  Aliiana leaned forward in her saddle and said to me, “You’ve got a strong nose, Pippin. Do you think you might be able to sniff our path for us?”

  I looked back and saw her encouraging smile. “I can try,” I said.

  Aliiana climbed off my back and quickly removed my saddle. “So you can move easily,” she explained. I gave her a quick lick on her cheek and set my nose to the ground.

  Sniff sniff sniff… I smelled the two human men we had passed earlier. Sniff sniff sniff… Then something big, maybe a bear, and little rodents hiding in the rubble. I moved away from the group to concentrate. Thirty yards away, I smelled another scent. At first I thought it was Barrol’s, but I realized this scent was different—earthy and damp. I followed the scent further down the mountain and to the west, and it grew stronger. I was on the trail! I turned around and barked at the others, then waited while they scrambled down to me.

 
; “Did you find something?” Aliiana asked.

  “Yes, Mistress, a scent I don’t recognize.” I put my nose to the ground again and followed the trail a few more minutes.

  Suddenly, I came across another scent—strong, bitter and hairy. I was so startled that I barked aloud. It reminded me of an opossum I had chased once, but much stronger. The two scents seemed to converge at a smooth, dark red boulder.

  “The meteorite!” said Aliiana. “Good boy, Pippin.” She rubbed my ears and kissed the top of my head.

  “Good job, elranor,” said Nelathen. “Now we ‘delve,’ as the dwarves say.” He put his hands on the meteorite and slowly circled around it. Aliiana bent low and put her hands on the granite underneath our feet. Both were quiet. I sat down to rest my paws.

  After a few minutes, Nelathen spoke. “I can’t figure out how to get under it.”

  Aliiana shook her head. “The granite hasn’t been disturbed from digging, so we must be meant to move the meteorite.”

  Nelathen looked at the meteorite, then at our meager party. “Dwarves have considerable strength.” He nodded to Barrol, and then hunched low to put his shoulder against the meteorite. Barrol also leaned against the iron boulder, digging his huge claws into the rubble. They both groaned with the effort, but the meteorite didn’t budge.

  I hurried over and tried to push as well, bracing my paws against a rock. Above, I saw Birgitte flutter over, sprinkling her golden dust on the three of us. All of a sudden, I felt as strong as a mastiff. We all pushed one more time, and the meteorite rolled to the side.

  “I did it!” I barked, and the others laughed.

  Aliiana knelt by the hole which had been revealed. She placed her hands on the rim and concentrated. “This tunnel extends straight into the mountain, and seems to be dwarven-crafted.”

  I sniffed the air. “Both scents are getting stronger.”

  “Let’s go,” said Nelathen.

  We had no need of light as we entered the tunnel, as all of us—a Corgi, a predator, and three fey—had excellent night vision. Aliiana and I took the lead because Nelathen and Barrol had to duck their heads under the low ceiling. Aliiana walked beside me as I sniffed along. Both scents were getting much stronger—the earthy smell that I thought was probably the dwarves, and the foul opossumish scent.