Sons of Saoghal: The Five Tasks

Chapter 5

The next morning, Malcolm woke to feel something tickling his nose. However, when he opened his eyes he saw that the others were still, curled up, sleeping soundly beside him. He turned to find a better position to sleep in and came face to face with the cutest creature he had ever seen.

It was tiny, like a frog. It had the same green, bumpy skin. Its knees were reaching over its head as it sat just about a foot away. And, even though it looked like the body of a frog, it had a tiny, humanoid face that smiled from ear to ear. Its long, thin arms lay, lazily outstretched from its body. Almost, like it was casually taking in the sun.

When Malcolm reached out, to gently pat its head, it sprang up. Using its tiny hind legs, it began to jump like a frog away from the sleeping area.

"Come here tiny man," whispered Malcolm, "come here." With a fit of soft giggles the tiny, green creature started to jump even faster towards the forest edge. Malcolm bounded after it calling much louder, "Come here little frog-man."

Meghan woke to hear Malcolm, shouting to the top of his lungs, from some distance away. She jumped up to see him, skipping along the edge of the forest. Then the idiotic boy disappeared, inside the dark, scary forest tree-line.

"Malcolm," she shouted, "get back here!" The others jumped from their sleep when they heard the ruckus.

"What is it Meghan?" asked Mac, looking around. He shouted after her, "Where is Malcolm?" as she started to run towards the forest trees.

"That nincompoop just went into the forest!" she shouted, looking back at him. Mac jogged after her to catch up.

"No. No. No!" shouted Rhynell, stopping both of them in their tracks, "No. We have to go to the fairy first." He said, jumping up and down in outrage.

Edward stayed on the ground. He began to rock, back and forth, as he repeated to himself, over and over, in disbelief, "How is this not a nightmare?..."

"Rhynell, we have to go after him!" exclaimed Mac and Meghan at the same time.

"We have to see the fairy first! We have to see the fairy first!" said Rhynell still jumping up and down as if his pants were on fire. Mac was torn between going after Malcolm and turning back. He decided to turn back, and when he reached the still ranting Rhynell, he grabbed him up by his shirt collar and shook him to calm him down.

"We have to go after Malcolm. We go with or without you." Mac growled, evenly through his perfect teeth.

Rhynell stopped ranting when Malcolm released him. He straightened his clothes with a haughty, "Humph!" and off they all headed, towards the forest trees. On the way, Meghan started to ask about the little creature that Malcolm was following. She was only to be interrupted, once again, by another of Rhynell's fits.

"He chased a sprick! He chased a spri..." he started. Meghan quickly took over from Mac with the shirt collar and he promptly calmed down.

He, frantically, told them about how the ugly spricks were used by forest creatures to lure their prey into the trees. Of the thousands and thousands of them that were used as bait, ammunition for slings, food and fire starters. He went on and on about how foolish they were. However, when he reached the forest trees, he stopped talking and hesitated.

"What is it?" questioned Edward.

"You have to listen..." whispered Rhynell, as he peered into the darkly dense trees, "something is in there... watching."

Suddenly, they heard Malcolm scream Edwards's name. It was Mac who started running towards the sound. Edward and Meghan followed right behind him. Rhynell stood in place for a few seconds to get his nerves under control and then took off after the children, grumbling all the way.