#the trees inside the wall are a lot shorter and their roots are a gnarled mess

[darkmatter-swordsman]

Marluxia dream

[aleinnilatibae]

Trouble in Álfheima part 2, for real this time

Okay this is the actual part two, the LONG one. THought i wouldn’t finish it but i did. Big giant shoutout to @greykolla for helping me with the icelandic parts!!

In comparison to their trip to the moon, the rocket trip to Iceland was just a quick hop.

But, to Stephanie, it seemed about a thousand times longer.  Sportacus was in TROUBLE! She was BURNING with purpose and the need for action, and this rocket just couldn’t fly fast enough, no matter how hard she pedaled!

After what seemed like an eternity of flying over the ocean, with the five of them swapping off turns at the pedaling and eating the sportscandy from the dispensers, they finally caught sight of an island.

“Scanning terrain for potential landing sites…” Pixel said as they circled the rocket around the island, “Got one! Zone 4-2, prepare for landing protocol!”

The rocket tilted into landing position and slowly, gently, touched down to the earth below.

Stephanie threw the door open, and a blast of cold air barreled its way into the rocket.

She slammed the door shut again.

“Coats!” she blurted, “Everybody needs coats!”

Once they had all slipped into their winter weather outfits, Stephanie cautiously opened up the door again, climbing down the ladder and taking in the scene.

They had landed at the bottom of a gently-sloping hillside.  There wasn’t much around, besides a gigantic gnarled tree and a house in the distance. It appeared to be daytime, but the grey sky overhead made it impossible to tell what time it was.

“Maybe Sportacus just went to, ah…visit that house?” Stingy asked hopefully.

“I don’t think so, the trail ends before that house,” Pixel said, looking at his wrist computer, “Follow me, we are super close!”

They all walked together through the damp grass, Pixel in the lead, up the hill towards the ancient tree.

“Brr, I thought Greenland was the cold place,” complained Ziggy.

“Well, Greenland certainly has a higher volume of ICE, but we ARE still basically at the Arctic Circle,” Pixel explained, “Hey, did you know that there is a volcano that went off here that stopped air traffic across northern Europe for almost a week? It’s called-“

He was interrupted by his wrist computer letting out three quick beeps.

He gasped. “Stop!”

Everyone froze mid-step.

“This is it! This is where he was last seen!” Pixel said, taking a couple more steps and standing underneath the branches of the big tree.

“There wouldn’t be a chance that, he was, I don’t know…still HERE, would there?” Trixie asked hopefully.

“The chances are…low,” admitted Pixel. “The connection between our computers was severed hours ago. He could be ANYWHERE by now. Wherever he is, we have to find him another way.”

Everyone looked to Stephanie, who suddenly felt the pressure to make some sort of decision.

“We should look around a little,” she suggested, to four affirming nods. “He could still be here somewhere, maybe even in a sugar coma! Let’s check here first before we look around anymore.”

They all set to looking around the base of the enormous tree.

Stephanie looked up into the branches, looked in amongst the tangled roots, rifled through the grass, as the tiny spark of unease inside her grew and grew into a simmering panic. She recalled all the times that Robbie Rotten had hidden Sportacus away, and only an accidental slip-up on his part had given them the upper hand to save the day.

If there was an even bigger, BADDER bad guy out there…who knows IF they would ever find Sportacus again!

“Hallo?” called a distant voice, interrupting her thoughts.

Everyone looked at each other.

“Behind the tree!” Stephanie said, and they all clumped together, close enough to feel each other breathing.

Stephanie’s heart pounded as the footsteps got closer.

“Benedikt?” a woman’s voice asked.

None of them moved, fearing what lay behind that innocent-sounding voice.

The footsteps took a step to the right.

The kids shuffled to the left, keeping the tree inbetween.

“Jósafat?” the woman asked.

She stepped.

They shuffled.

She stepped.

They shuffled.

Stephanie reached into her pocket and gripped the apple she had stored inside. This game couldn’t go on forever, and she had to be prepared.

The mysterious figure feinted to the left, stepped to the right, and came face to face with all five kids.

“BOO!” she shouted.

Stephanie screamed and threw the apple as hard as she could.

THWACK!

“OW!” said the mysterious figure as she stumbled a few steps backwards, clutching her head.

Adrenaline pumping, Stephanie paused as she FINALLY got a good look at this person.

Taller than Stephanie but shorter than Sportacus, she wore a bright red shirt adorned with a daisy design smack dab in the center, hanging down over blue jeans. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail, which exposed the face of a young adult…

She was just a regular woman, not an Álfheima monster.

Stephanie’s mouth dropped open as she connected the dots. There was a house up on that hill, and they had been making a bunch of noise, of course whoever lived there would want to come down to investigate…

And Stephanie had just ASSAULTED her with an APPLE!

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Stephanie exclaimed, “Please don’t call the police!”

“Oj…the-the police?” the woman said in accented English, rubbing her forehead, “Wh-why would I call the police on five little-“

She stopped mid-sentence and looked over their shoulders.

“Is that a ROCKET?!” she gasped, voice cracking with excitement, “Wow!”

The kids were all speechless as her careful, cautious manner completely disappeared, and she pushed past them to examine their rocket.

“Is that how you GOT to Iceland?” she asked, touching one of the boosters.

“Um-“

“With your American accents, I figured that you weren’t from around here,” she was saying, starting to climb the ladder, “But I’ve never seen any-are those, what do you call them…ellipticals?” she asked, poking her head inside.

The kids looked at Stephanie, but Stephanie certainly didn’t know what to do with this…extremely enthusiastic lady crawling around their rocket either!

“There’s nowhere to put the fuel, and I don’t even SMELL any exhaust,” she was saying, “How do you POWER this thing?!”

“Exercise and sportscandy!” Ziggy said cheerfully.

“EXERCISE?!” she gasped, going in for a second look, “That is CRAZY!”

Stingy smacked Ziggy. “Stop telling her about MYYYY rocket!! For all we know, she could be some sort of SPY!”

The woman peered back down at them. “A spy? ME?” she laughed, “This is my house, and my garden! For all I know, you could be the spies here!” she smiled mischievously.

Stingy made an offended noise, and stamped his foot. “NO!!! YOU are the spy!! I bet YOU are the one who kidnapped Sportacus, and are just admiring our rocket to distract us from rescuing him from Alfheima!”

The maybe-not-a-spy gasped from atop the ladder.

“Álfheima?” she repeated.

She jumped from the top of the ladder straight down to the ground, her mirthful demeanor completely gone. “How…how did YOU learn about Álfheima?“

Stingy clapped a hand over his mouth.

“Should we run for it?” Ziggy whispered, a little bit too loud.

“No! No, no, no, please don’t run away, I’m human, see?” she said, wiggling an ear at them. “I’m not from Álfheima.”

“What on earth does being HUMAN have to do with it?!” asked Trixie, echoing what they all were thinking.

“Be-because HUMANS don’t come from Álfheima, obviously??” she sputtered, “Don’t you know anything about the place that you are looking for?”

That gave Stephanie pause. What DID they know about Álfheima?

One. It was very dangerous.

Two. Sportacus was headed there when he sent Robbie that message.

End of list.

“We…we don’t know much,” Stephanie said in a small voice, “But…we got a message, from our friend, who said he was in danger there. Pixel, can you show-”

Pixel nodded and projected a picture of the paper airplane message out of his wrist computer.

The woman squinted at the holographic letter, mouth moving wordlessly as she deciphered Sportacus’ atrocious handwriting.

“He never, ever, EVER asks for help, and…we are all really, really worried about him,” Stephanie said, honest words tumbling out that she had thus far been too afraid to say.

“Danger in Álfheima,“ she muttered, thinking hard. “And your friend is involved with it?”

“Usually is,” Trixie said.

The woman straightened up. “Okay, come inside,” she said, motioning them to follow her in her walk back up the hill, “We have a lot to talk about.”

“What do you mean?”

“You aren’t the only ones who have friends in Álfheima,” she said, “And if things are as dangerous as this implies, they might need my help as well. Now come in! I will make some tea.”

“Wait a minute, lady, Sportacus is MISSING, and you’re inviting us in for TEA? Who even ARE you?!” Trixie demanded.

She stopped walking, and turned around.

“My name is Dídí,” she said, after a pause, “And I might be the only human being on the planet that can help you right now.”

-

When Stephanie crossed the threshold into the house, she was suddenly enveloped in heat. Dídí’s fireplace was roaring, contrasting starkly with the cold from outside. She sighed contentedly and put her coat up on the coat hanger.

The kids tentatively looked around the living room while Dídí went to the kitchen to make some tea. Her house wasn‘t exactly gigantic, but it looked…underused. There was a couch that was about the same size as the one that Pixel had in his room, and there was a teeny table over by the windowsill, and there were a FEW nice paintings and wooden decorations on the walls, along with a tall cabinet of ancient knick knacks.

The kids all piled onto the couch, halfway sitting on each other to fit.

Dídí came in and served them all tea, but she ran out of mugs and had to serve Ziggy in a sundae glass and Stephanie in a cereal bowl.

Dídí lived alone, it was becoming apparent.

Stephanie slurped at her nontraditional soup. Dídí just seemed like a normal, run-of-the-mill Icelandic woman.  If Stingy hadn’t accidentally mentioned Alfheima to her...

Stephanie was just happy to have a lead after their fruitless search beneath the tree.

Dídí pulled a chair up and fixed her five visitors with a stare.

“You are…Stephanie, Trixie, Ziggy, Pixel…” she was met with a nod with each correct name she assigned, and then turned to Stingy with a pause.

“Is your name really Stingy?” she asked him.

He sniffed. “I have many names, that belong to me,” he said haughtily, “And Stingy is but one of them.”

Stephanie tried to send a “sorry-about-him” look to Dídí, but she seemed unfazed by Stingy’s antics.

“Tell me about this elf friend of yours,” Dídí said, putting down her cup, “You must really care about him.”

“Elf…friend?” asked Stephanie.

“Yeah, the one you are looking for,” explained Dídí, “The one who went to Álfheima.”

“Pfft, SPORTACUS? He’s not an ELF!”  Trixie scoffed.

“Álfheima means ‘elf world’,“ Dídí patiently explained, “He’s GOT to be, if he got there on his own. Humans generally can’t show up uninvited.”

“Well, Sportacus isn’t LIKE everybody else,” Ziggy said proudly, “He’s a hero!! He flies around in his airship and-and helps people all the time, wherever his magic crystal tells him they need him!”

Dídí raised an eyebrow. “He has a magic crystal and you still can’t believe he’s an elf?”

“Well, uh, when you put it THAT way…” said Stingy.

“Does he have any…strange physical characteristics?” asked Dídí.

“Just his silly MUSTACHE,” Trixie snickered.

“Trixie! Be nice,” Stephanie scolded.

“What? It’s like two cat whiskers!”

“Hm,” Dídí took a sip of her tea. “Can he do…a lot of things that most people can’t do?”

“He did 74 flips in about two minutes yesterday,” Stephanie said.

Dídí‘s jaw dropped, but she composed herself and continued. “Okay, big question, have you ever actually SEEN his ears? Or does he keep them covered?”

“That’s a weird question, Of COURSE we have seen-“ Stephanie began, and then paused.  When she really thought about it…

“Guys. Have we ever seen Sportacus without his hat on?” she asked her friends, urgently.

They all thought hard, but the answer was no, Sportacus had always had that hat on, during every single rescue, every single holiday, every single FLIP, for the multiple YEARS that he had been in LazyTown.  

They had never seen his ears even ONCE.

“Oh my god,” Trixie said in awe, “Sportacus is an elf.”

“A SECRET elf!” said Ziggy with a similarly reverent tone.

“It really explains a lot, if we are honest with ourselves,” admitted Stingy.

Dídí nodded slowly. “It’s the only way he could get into Álfheima without assistance.”

“But…how are WE going to get there?” asked Pixel, “You said that humans can’t go to Alfheima.”

Dídí put her cup down, and stood up. “That’s where I come in!  I have what you call…a special arrangement,” she said, touching her necklace. “I can take you all to Alfheima, and I can help you save your friend.”

“Hooray!” the kids cheered.

“The bad news is…” she sighed, “Álfheima…it can be a pretty dangerous place, even on a good day. And if an ELF calls it very dangerous, that’s even worse. We have NO IDEA what we are getting into, kids. Are you sure you want to go looking for him?”

“Lady, our lives at HOME are pretty dangerous, too,” Trixie said, scoffing, “We are always falling out of trees, planes, crashing rockets, getting kidnapped, dealing with Robbie Rotten in disguise trying to steal our sports equipment-“

“Who?” Dídí asked, looking concerned and confused.

“But Sportacus is the guy who always saves us from all that! He’s probably the reason that we are all alive right now, and we really owe him,” she continued.

Dídí nodded brusquely. “Then, we shall go to Álfheima.”

-

They all followed Dídí out the door and back down the hill.

While they walked, Stephanie caught a glimpse of the raised red mark on Dídí’s forehead and felt guilt surge in her gut.

“Um…” Stephanie said tentatively, “I’m…sorry for throwing an apple at your head, Dídí.”

“What? Oh, don’t worry about it,” Dídí waved a hand at Stephanie dismissively, “I would have done the exact same thing at your age, probably.”

“Really? You’re not mad?” Stephanie asked.

Dídí chuckled. “Trust me, I’ve been through MUCH worse things than five Útlenskt kids showing up in my garden and pelting me with apples.”

“That was DEFINITELY only Stephanie who did that,” Stingy supplied unhelpfully. “Not the rest of us. Just saying.”

Stephanie sighed.

“Hey, I’m glad that you were prepared for the worst, in case I WAS the bad guy who took your elf friend,” Dídí said, nudging Stephanie playfully. “But, I shouldn’t have scared you. I actually thought you were my elf friend, Benedikt, playing a trick on me, or I would not have in the first place.”

“Wait a minute, we’re heading right back to where we started!” said Trixie, pointing at the tree. “What gives?”

“Well,” Dídí said, ducking underneath its branches and standing on top of a root, “Like I said before, Álfheima translates to Elf World.”

“Do we need to use the rocket?” asked Stephanie.

“Oh, no, no, no need,” Dídí said, trying to hide a smile, “Just watch THIS, you’re gonna love it.”

She cleared her throat.

“Hlynur!” she called, looking toward the tree. “Hlynur minn, vaknaðu!”

“Is she talking to the tree?” whispered Stingy.

“She said we’re going to the ELF world! I’d believe ANYTHING at this point!” said Trixie.

“Hlynur minn, við þurfum að fara til Álfheimaaa!” she called, hands cupped around her mouth.

She went closer to the tree and touched one of its branches. “Heyrir þú í mér?” she spoke, loudly and slowly, “Má ég fara til Álfheima?”

“Ó, Dídí Álfavinur,” came a deep voice from the tree, startling Stephanie, “Alltaf getur þú farið til Álfheima.”

The kids gasped as the tree shifted in front of their eyes, opening up a cavernous hole at the bottom of its trunk.

Dídí stood near it, arms crossed, smugly smiling at all of their gaping jaws.

“Well, let’s not waste any time,” she said, clapping her hands together, “Follow me!”

Stephanie was feeling the tingling excitement of adventure already, and as she looked around at her friends, she saw that feeling mirrored back to her.

Taking a deep breath, she crawled in after Dídí.

Once inside, it was complete pitch blackness.

“Where are we going?” asked Stingy from the back.

“Into a tree, obviously.” Trixie said.

“Thanks, Trixie,” Stingy deadpanned back to her.

“I don’t even know where we’re going,” admitted Pixel, “Because my GPS is going HAYWIRE in here.”

“And also, it’s DARK,” Trixie said, a smirk in her voice.

“Thanks Trixie,” deadpanned Stingy again, “Neeever would have noticed that one without you.”

“Wait, what’s that up ahead?”

“Are those lights?”

“AAH!!!”

They all screamed as they stopped just before a precipice.

Stretching out in front of them, was the BIGGEST cavern they had ever seen.

The walls held twinkling lights, reflective crystals, and glowing plants, all of which fed off of each other, making the cave walls shine and sparkle as bright as the sun with a million different colors.

And the cavern…

The cavern was ENORMOUS. Stephanie wasn’t even sure that it WAS a cavern, it seemed to stretch back and downwards into infinity, the lights twinkling and scintillating both near and far, like the night sky itself had come down to settle into this cave.

“Hey!” called Dídí, waving at them from the very very edge of the cliff, “Watch THIS!”

She saluted the five of them, and then LEAPED off of the edge into the cavern!

Stephanie screamed, rushing forward to try to catch her, but-

Dídí hadn’t fallen.

In fact, she was suspended in the air right where she jumped, lit from all sides by the twinkling lights inside the cave.

“It’s okay!” Dídí assured them, with a huge smile on her face, “The cave won’t let you fall!”

“This is officially the CRAZIEST day,” Pixel murmured in awe.

“Hold onto each other, kids, and follow me to Álfheima!“ Dídí shouted, turning around and floating deeper into the cavern.

The five of them exchanged incredulous looks, but shrugged, and joined hands anyway.

“Everybody ready?” Stephanie called, hearing affirmations in response.

“One…two…THREE!��

They all leapt off the precipice together.

There was a heart-stopping moment where Stephanie was filled with instant regret for JUMPING OFF A CLIFF, but…as she hit the apex of her jump, she felt her body get lighter and lighter, like being filled up with helium, and she hung in the air just like Dídí did.

And then, a subtle force began to gently tug her forward, like gravity had changed its mind about abandoning her, but it pulled her forwards slowly instead of slamming her to the ground.

“We’re FLYING!” Trixie said, vibrating with excitement, “WOOOOO!!!”

“Actually, I think we are more like floating,” Pixel noted.

“Don’t ruin my dreams with science, Pixel, or I’ll let GO of you!” she shot back.

“Ohh, don’t let go, PLEASE,” Ziggy said, voice quaking, “I’m so afraid of HEIGHTS! Why do we have to float up so HIGH?!”

Now that they had floated a little ways into the cave, Stephanie could see that they were actually passing by some of the starlike balls of light, rather than them all being unreachably distant like the night sky.  She reached out her hand to brush one of them as they went by, but her hand was pushed away from it by what felt like a repelling magnetic force.

“What IS this place, Dídí?” asked Stephanie.

“This place…is the place in between the human world and the elf world,” Dídí called back to them, voice reverberating and echoing off the huge walls, “Benedikt said something like…it is made of the same stuff as dreams are.”

“I think I’ve SEEN this place in my dreams before,” Stephanie said, kicking her dangling feet and looking at the lights that passed by below her.

Strangely, she felt absolutely no fear in looking down, now that she knew that she wasn’t going to fall.

“Hmph. MY dreams usually have more MONEY in them,” Stingy said from the other side of Pixel.

As they went further and further across the expansive cavern, one of the lights in front of them grew stronger, brighter, and bigger.

Stephanie realized that it was that light that was drawing them forward, like metal to a magnet.

And the pull was getting stronger.

“Brace yourselves, we are going to land!” Dídí yelled, and Stephanie tightened her grip on Trixie.

They got heavier and heavier as they headed for the bright light, flying faster and faster, until finally-

CRASH!

They all tumbled out over each other, landing in sweet-smelling grass.

“We made it!” came Dídí’s voice from above them, “Great job, kids!”

She helped them all back up to their feet, and gave them all high-fives.

“That was, hands down, NO contest, the COOLEST thing I have ever DONE!” crowed Trixie, punching a fist in the air.

“Yes! Me too!” Dídí agreed, nodding enthusiastically. “Now, all of you stay here, please. I will be right back. I need to go find Jósafat and uh…” she took a deep breath, “Break this to him…GENTLY. Stay right there, please.”

And she was off, leaping through the clearing and dodging the trees like they were her home.

The kids peered around the clearing. There was a grassy hill, eerily reminiscent of the hill next to Dídí’s old tree, but there was something…different about it, somehow. It looked brimming with life, teeming with sparking magic, little flitting glitter spots shining among the too-green grass.

The enchantment of the scene was…captivating.

“Ugh, NONE of my instruments WORK in here!” cried Pixel in frustration, pressing buttons to no avail.

“Well, duh, we are in the ELF WORLD now!” Trixie said, “Doesn’t technology hate magic or something?”

“Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Trixie,” Pixel sighed. “They probably have technology here that we can’t even understand.”

“Guys?” Ziggy said, quietly.

“Gee, I don’t really see any COMPUTERS around here,” Trixie said, looking around exaggeratedly, “Do you?”

“Guys?!” Ziggy said again.

“Well, there still could be ELF technology, maybe they just developed some sort of…alternate type of tech!”

“Are you telling me that they make computers out of-out of STONES or something?”

“Why not? They did it in MINECRAFT!”

“PFFT, MINE-craft?!” Trixie sputtered.

“GUYS!!” shouted Ziggy.

“What?” said both Pixel and Trixie.

Ziggy was stock-still with terror, and raised one trembling finger to point off into the distant fog.

That’s when they, too, saw the shape.

It was a humanoid shape, striding menacingly towards them from far away, wiggling its extra-long fingers at its sides.

And, as it emerged from the fog into the light of the sun, it got WORSE.

The terrible creature was HUGE, about the size of Robbie Rotten, and had a pale, sickly white face and a boyd that looked to be covered in dripping tar.

“Is that a g-g-goblin?” Ziggy asked, terrified.

They drew in closer to each other as he began to stalk around them, knees up high, movements quick and jerky like an animal. His wild eyes scanned the children, back and forth and up and down, as if he were trying to comprehend what he was seeing.

His eyes narrowed, and he raised up a finger, appearing as if he were counting them.

Suddenly, he stopped.

The kids were frozen to the spot.

The creature opened up his mouth and SCREAMED.

The children screamed, and ran up the grassy knoll to hide behind one of the trees.

“I th-th-think that guy ATE Sp-Sp-Sportacus!” said Ziggy, shaking in his boots.

“Shh!” Stephanie shushed, swallowed hard, and chanced a glance around the tree.

The creature didn’t even seem to be LOOKING at them anymore, nor interested where they went. He was just…screaming at nothing, jumping around the clearing in some sort of fit, waving his arms all over the place and making blubbering noises.

“NÓG! NÓÓÓÓÓG!” he screamed, his voice screechy and reedy, hands clutching his head, “EITT MANNABARN VAR NÓG!”

Stephanie was at least eighty percent sure that those were words, and maybe even in a language that humans spoke. But she couldn’t be completely sure, because even when this goblin creature made wordlike noises, they were still in the same high, screeching register as his gibberish moans and groans.

“AF HVERJUU!!!!” he screamed out, arms splayed to the side and face raised up to the heavens, “AF HVERJUUUUU!!!!”

He froze, and turned his whole body to fix Stephanie’s exposed face with a wide-eyed stare.

They stared at each other.

He raised one sickeningly-long finger to point at her and screamed again.

STEPHANIE screamed again.

“BUUUUURT!!” he screeched, full-tilt sprinting towards her as he wiggled his extra-long fingers in front of his as he ran-

“JÓSAFAT!” came Dídí’s voice from the opposite direction.

She was running with all her might, hair flying behind her, stretching out one hand as if to try to stop him from where she was. “Hætta þessu! Þau komu með mér!”

He froze in his tracks. “Dídí...Álfavinur?” he said cautiously, turning around to see her.

She smiled toothily.

“HÆ!!!” they said simultaneously, wiggling their fingers at each other.

“Þessi...mannabörn eru með þér?” He asked in disbelief, lip curling with disgust.

“Já, svo ekki hrella þau!” Dídí said, jabbing a finger at him.

“E-en-en-biddu nú-” Jósafat looked almost offended, as he gestured back and forth between Dídí and the children, but then slumped.

“Allt í lagi þá,” he mumbled.

Dídí looked up at Stephanie, peeking her head out from behind the tree, and waved.

“It’s okay, come on out!” she called, “He won’t hurt you.”

“You-you KNOW him?” asked Trixie.

“Is he going to e-e-eat us??” Ziggy asked, voice shaking in fear.

“No, he is NOT going to do that,” Dídí said, throwing a hard look at Jósafat, “Anyway, I would like you to meet… Jósafat Mannahrellir!” she presented.

He smiled uneasily and waved a hand at them as they crept slowly out from behind the tree.

“He is a…guard of the elf world,”  Dídí explained, “He protects it from humans who would do it harm, and? He has been one of my greatest friends since I was a little child!”

“REALLY?” Ziggy gasped in disbelief.

“Yep!” she said, smiling wide.

“Afsakið,” said Jósafat, voice still just as high and reedy as it was when he screamed, “Sæl og blessuð, eh heh heh heh,” he said, in a tone that showed that he was taking GREAT pains in an attempt to be nice.

Five sets of eyes blinked up at him.

Jósafat crooked a finger at Dídí and gestured to the children.

“Biddu nú en,” he said, fairly quietly, crossing his arms, “Afhverju geta þau ekki talað mannamál?”

Stephanie didn’t understand what he had said, but Dídí’s face looked like he had said something ridiculous.

“Mannamál?” she repeated, face grimaced in confusion.

“Þau-þau skilja ekki mannamál, eru þau…” he put a hand up to shield his mouth from the children, “Heimsk?”

“Heimsk?!” exclaimed Dídí, “Nei! Þau eru bara að tala ensku.”

Jósafat looked back at the children, and narrowed his eyes. “Jæja, ég skil ekki þessa…ensku, segðu þeim að tala mannamál.”

Dídí rolled her eyes.

“Ahem!” said Trixie, “If this...guy is some Elf World guard, then has HE seen Sportacus?”

Dídí turned to Jósafat. “Hefurðu séð álfar í dag?”

Jósafat harrumphed. “Ég sé svo marga álfar allan daginn!”

Dídí facepalmed. “Æ, hver er Benedikt?! Farðu og finna hann!”

“Okay!” said Jósafat, throwing one last pained grimace of a smile to the children as he crept away into the forest.

“Benedikt is a little more…welcoming, let’s say,” Dídí said, looking back at where Jósafat had disappeared to. “And he has friends all over Álfheima. If anybody can find your friend, he can.”