Ralph and the Pixie

The Thane did not tell her that gröeling was the Elf word for a Human child. ‘What did the bad Pixie look like?’ he asked her.

She shifted uncomfortably. ‘I don’t remember exactly,’ she replied. ‘I think she had claws. It was her face that scared me the most. Her eyes were sort of pink, and pointed, with a hole in the end. She wasn’t wearing a dress, and her skin was an awful grey colour.’

‘Why would something like that remind you of Prince Cir?’ the Thane asked her.

‘It was the way she behaved,’ Satu replied, ‘when she was caught. Like something bad caught in the act.’

The Thane nodded. ‘That would made sense.’ But he was thinking, wondering how Pixies like the one before him had become so maligned, to the point where many elves believed all Pixies were as bad as the one Satu described. ‘We are going to make camp soon,’ he told her. ‘Are you going to go off somewhere, or would you like to stay with us?’

She had not considered this. But she was very tired, and sleeping alone in the open was hazardous. And, she reasoned, if the Elves meant her any harm, they could have done something by now.