Tubs stood in front of them. His eyes were open, but he didn't appear to be seeing anything. "No more pretty mist?" he mumbled.
The not-a-Fairy who had spoken before said to the others with her, "Wow, humans are so lame-brained. Grissel should've told me."
Grissel? Was this the Pixie princess, Fidget Spitfly? He wondered if she liked to spit on flies.
And she talked funny. He knew it wasn't Flibberish, the language of the Underworld, but he didn't know any humans who talked like her either. Not even his sister Wendy's giggly friends.
Fidget stood and fluttered into the air so that she was directly in front of Tubs. "So, dude, it would be totally awesome if you released Grissel from the Brownie jail," she said, tossing her pile of curly blond hair behind her shoulders.
"Sure," Tubs mumbled, clearly still asleep. "He's released."
Above them, Elliot kept silent. Tubs had been sleeping in Elliot's bed, so they must have thought Tubs was king of the Brownies. Elliot hoped the Pixies would think Grissel had been released and would leave long enough for him to get Tubs safely back to the house.
But it didn't happen that way. A Pixie poofed beside Fidget a moment later and whispered something in her ear. Fidget angrily sliced her wand through the air. Responding to her magic, hundreds of fall leaves lifted into the air and began swirling like a tornado around Tubs. The wind it created rushed up into Elliot's face.
"Not awesome!" she said with a shrill, high-pitched voice. "You totally tried to trick me!"
"Totally uncool," Tubs agreed.
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Her voice got even higher and angrier. "You want to keep Grissel in jail? Then I'll keep you in jail!"
The tornado tightened around Tubs until in a flash of light he was gone.
"No!" Elliot cried. "Bring him back!"
Fidget seemed to have forgotten about Elliot until then. She fluttered up beside him, then said, "Human, you totally have to look at me so I can do this little forgetting spell on you. What you saw was just between the Pixies and Brownies. Way not any of your business."
"I'm afraid it is," Elliot said.
Her eyes narrowed. "Like, why?"
"Bring him back, and I'll tell you."
With a wave of her wand, the tree dangled Elliot higher. It had loosened its grip, and Elliot felt sure if he wiggled too much he'd go crashing to the ground. Even if his head was still attached after he fell, he would probably get one monster headache.
"That human has no power to release Grissel," Elliot said. "Only the Brownie king can do that."
Fidget's eyes darted to where Tubs had stood, then back at Elliot. "What's your name?" she asked.
"I'm Elliot Penster, king of the Brownies. I'm the one you want."
"Oh, fruit rot!" Fidget scowled. "You're the king and not him? Okay, so you heard the whole speech before. Are you going to release Grissel or not?"
"Not," Elliot said.
"Whatever." Fidget flicked her wand and the tree released Elliot. Wind blew up at him as the dark ground rushed to greet his fall. The last thing he remembered was the ground about two inches from his face.
Some kids wake up to the sun shining through their bedroom windows. Others wake to an alarm clock on their bedside table. For some kids, their mother sings some annoying good-morning song while bacon sizzles on a pan in the kitchen.
Elliot Penster woke up to Tubs punching his arm.
"What?" he scowled, swatting Tubs away. "Stop that, I'm awake!"
"Where are we?" Tubs asked. "How'd we get here?"
Elliot slowly sat up and absorbed their surroundings. They were deep underground, in the Underworld obviously, and in a small cave with thick tree roots serving as the bars of their jail cell. This must be a Pixie jail.