A young female head poked in through the tent door. Her face looked more human, being not nearly so skinny, but the ears were still a giveaway. The face looked unsure, though, so Glen felt obliged to speak up.

“No human cooties, I promise,” he said.

“Well.” The elf came in slowly to take a seat beside Macreedy. “As long as you promise.”

“My name is Sandra,” Sandra said. “Daughter of Mona, daughter of Edna, daughter of another woman and another and another who was a daughter of a full blood fairy.”

“Really?” The elf maid found her smile as Sandra nodded and the maid turned to Macreedy. “That may explain how they came to be here,” she said, but Macreedy shook his head.

“Let me see if I can say this the way Master Olerian of the Bean taught the lesson.” He coughed, lowered his voice and affected a very formal tone and look. “The magic is generally well faded by the third generation, and the blood indiscernible by the seventh, though the child is not considered fully human again until the tenth generation.” The elf maid giggled, and Glen decided that this young elf was a simple girl who might have passed for a sixteen or seventeen- year-old human.

“I’m the seventh generation and Melissa is the eighth,” Sandra said, and looked mostly at Glen in case she counted wrong.

“You have a baby?” The elf girl looked surprised. Macreedy still shook his head as if to say that would not explain how they came to be there.

“Ellean.” Glen interrupted and got the elf girl’s attention. He called the girl by name because his inner voice said that was the elf maiden’s name, not because she had given her name. “Just to be clear, how old are you?” Ellean lost her smile. She looked embarrassed by the question. Macreedy spoke for them both.

“I will be one hundred and ten this year,” he said proudly. “Ellean is seventy-three.”

“Only,” Ellean said and she looked down at the fire.

Sandra felt the shame and reached out to the girl. “Women mature faster,” she said.

Ellean did not take Sandra’s hand, but she did look up and smile briefly.

“That’s years,” Glen said, and Sandra looked at him in surprise. She thought something, like maybe a lunar calendar. Macreedy looked about nineteen or twenty and Ellean appeared to be sixteen or so. “Standard counting is roughly seven to one, sort of like dog years except we are the dogs.” Glen concluded, and he pulled himself a bit closer to the fire. After a moment, Sandra also scooted closer in order to close the circle.

“Old Lord Inaros is reported to be fifteen hundred years old,” Macreedy said. “But that is extremely rare, even among elf-kind.” He smiled for Sandra, but Sandra did not pay attention. Ellean kept staring at her.

“What?”

“I was wondering if your real name is Cassandra,” Ellean said.

“Her hair is too blond.” Macreedy interrupted and shook his head.

“There are dyes.” Ellean came back, but this time Sandra shook her head.

“Just Sandra,” she said. “Why?”

The elves paused to look at each other before Macreedy spoke. “Our goddess was once named Cassandra,” he said. “It is not to be spoken of with humans, but I can say this much, that we have many gods and goddesses, but they are all one.”

“I thought maybe…” Ellean began to speak, but Macreedy took her hand to quiet her.

“So, we still do not know how you came to be here,” Macreedy said. “Even if Miss Sandra managed the passage by some virtue in her blood, it does not explain the presence of this man.”

Glen reached for Sandra’s hand and she readily gave it, and her smile, too. “We are thinking of doing a lot of things together,” he said, and Sandra’s smile broadened. “How about you two?”

Macreedy shifted in his seat and looked uncomfortable as he glanced at Ellean and dropped the girl’s hand. Ellean had no trouble matching Sandra’s smile. “We have talked,” she told Sandra, and she held out her hand again, but Macreedy did not take it.

“But about how you got here,” Macreedy spoke hastily to try to get back on the topic. He got interrupted by a new voice from the door.

“How they came to be here is less important than why,” the voice said. An elderly elf came in, followed by the commander of the troop that picked up Sandra and Glen. “I am Alderon and this is Commander Peregrine.”

“The Falcon.” Glen gave a sloppy salute. “But let me ask, why are you here?” Glen spoke quickly, and the old elf raised an eyebrow so Glen continued. “You have brought an army into the wilderness. I hope we have not fallen into the midst of a war.” Sandra suddenly looked concerned. She had not thought of that.

“No fear,” Alderon said. “Wars in our realm are rare events these days. Rather, we had a report of a demon djin crossing close to the border. We sought to destroy it, if we could, or at least keep it from our homes.”

“A ghoul?” Glen asked.

Alderon shook his old head. “Our observers did not see it well enough to classify it, except to say it is one of the lesser djin.”

“But a terror all the same,” Glen thought out loud and turned toward Sandra. “They can possess people and feed off the fear and pain they cause in tormenting their victims.”

“And how do you know the ways of the djin?” Macreedy asked.

“Behavioral Sciences,” Glen answered. “I have studied my Anthropology and my folklore, unless we humans have it all wrong.” Glen looked up at Alderon who smiled, just barely.

“Essentially right,” Alderon confirmed. “But now you must answer a question. Why have you come here?”

“My daughter and mother disappeared.” Sandra spoke quickly. “We were following their trail and found ourselves here. I don’t know how. None of this makes any sense, but now I fear we have lost the trail.” Glen felt the surge of emotion rise-up inside Sandra and watched as a few tears began to fall. He quickly put his arms around her and reassured her.

“We will find them. Hush. It will be all right.” He stroked her hair, gently, and she quieted. “We were following the seeds, but I don’t know if we can pick up that trail again without going back and getting tangled up with the ogre.”

Alderon waved and Commander Peregrine held out his hand. “Were they pumpkin seeds like this?” Alderon asked.

Sandra jumped up and took the elf’s hand, not thinking twice about it. The hand was full of pumpkin seeds. “Yes,” she shouted. “But where did you find them?”

“In this place,” Commander Peregrine responded. “My command was charged with following them to see where they lead, and they brought us to you.”

“So, wait.” Glen said. “You’re saying if we followed the pumpkin seed trail from the beginning, it would have brought us to this place?”

Alderon nodded, and Sandra turned. “Oh, Glen, we haven’t lost them.” She just had to fall into Glen’s arms and kiss him smack on the lips, and she kissed his cheek as well before she grabbed his arm and turned to sit beside him and pull herself together.

At the mention of Glen’s name, Commander Peregrine looked surprised, Macreedy had one eyebrow up, Ellean stayed too busy watching Sandra and thinking her own thoughts to notice, but Alderon smiled that almost invisible smile of his. “But where does the trail go from here?” Glen asked.

“Ahh…” Alderon said as he stepped up behind Macreedy and Ellean. “There are a small number of seeds heading into the caves of Cormac. We have chosen not to explore that way since it leads away from our homes.”

“The caves of Cormac?” Macreedy did not think much of those caves and Ellean looked positively frightened.

“What’s a Cormac?” Sandra drew herself as close to Glen’s side as she could get.

“An ever-hungry troll,” Macreedy said.

“And the caves are full of goblins as well, no doubt trying not to be eaten,” Commander Peregrine added.

Alderon simply looked at Glen and would not let go of that smile that touched the mere corners of his lips. “Somehow, though, I have a good feeling about your chances,” he said. “And since young Macreedy and young Ellean have agreed to see to your welfare, I know you will do well.”

“What?” Macreedy looked up sharply at his elder and tried to stand, but Alderon put a hand on the elf’s shoulder to keep him seated. Then he clapped his hands and stepped aside while two elf maids came and went, quickly. The first had two more blankets and the second carried four little packs, provisions for the expected journey.

“You planned this.” Macreedy accused his elders as Commander Peregrine set down his handful of pumpkin seeds and followed the maids out the tent door.

“Yes.” Alderon finally let out a bit more of that smile. He held up his hand and twisted it, like one might twist a dimmer switch, and the light in the glow-balls dimmed to night-lights. “Sleep well,” he said, and left.

Macreedy did not look entirely happy, but Ellean set about immediately showing their companions what they could do with the Fairy Weave blankets, changing the color, size, thickness and texture, and all with a thought.

“I don’t know why it is called Fairy Weave, though, since it is made by elves. These were made by the elves of the grove,” Macreedy said. Glen just nodded and he got the idea easily enough and made something like an air mattress with covers to sleep on. Sandra had a little more trouble with hers so Ellean helped; but by then with the thoughts and worries about the caves of Cormac getting in the way, Ellean became the only one still smiling.

“This will be so much fun,” she said. “I just know I can learn so much from you.”

Sandra stared at the elf maid in disbelief. “You’re seventy-three years old and I’m just twenty-three. How are you going to learn anything from me?”

Ellean cocked her head to the side and spoke in all seriousness. “You have a baby.” She stole a glance at Macreedy.

“But I haven’t got a husband,” Sandra said, and Ellean looked at her again with eyes that were big and brown and suddenly sad.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, actually he was a jerk. Melissa and I are better off without him.”

“Well.” Ellean did not know what to say until she looked over at Glen. “Glen seems very nice, what do you think?”

Sandra just looked, and since Macreedy and Glen heard everything in that small tent, they also looked. Sandra appeared to be more concerned to find out if Glen thought she was nice, and while Glen did not feel ready to answer that question, he did feel that he ought to say something.

“I think we all ought to try and get some sleep.” He got under his covers and turned his back on them all. Macreedy finished dousing the glow-balls so only the dying embers from the fire provided the light in the tent.

It did not take long before Glen relaxed. He felt certain that everyone else in the tent had fallen asleep by then. He felt a little surprised when Sandra crawled under his covers to curl up beside him. He felt more surprised when the other two spoke.

“I wish I had thought of that,” Ellean said.

“Go to sleep,” Macreedy responded.