Chapter Seventeen: Edward Endless
905 Words
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Edward Endless, May 1941, England
“Eddie Endless, you put that away!” Mother swatted a roll from my hands. “You know we don’t have food to waste, and those rolls are for dinner. Now, go outside and keep out of trouble until then.”
“But Mum, I’m starving!” I whined.
There was never enough food to eat anymore. Even on a farm, everything seemed scarce.
“I don’t care!” Mother chided. “So is the entire country. Now, out!” She ushered me out of the kitchen, and I ran away.
From the farmhouse that had been in our family for generations, I ran out into the green, wide fields. It was Spring, there was only a slight nip in the air, and off in the distance I could hear the neighbor’s sheep bleating, loudly.
All I wanted was to be some place where there wasn’t such thing as rations, where my brother was home, and my father was alive. Perhaps then, Mother wouldn’t be so angry and sad all the time.
I walked through the nearby fields, aimlessly, without any real idea of where I was going to go. I walked to keep my mind off of the hunger, the rumbling of my stomach, which was making my stomach ache.
I wrapped my hands around my side, as it rumbled, and tried to focus instead on the green field in front of me. Even though I was focusing, I didn’t see the hole. I didn’t see anything.
What I knew was that one minute, I’d been walking. The next minute, walking had turned to tumbling. “Ahhhhhh!” I hollered as I fell, and it echoed down the long, empty dark hole. I landed, hard in the middle of a forest.
A forest that I had never seen before, that was nothing like the British Forests that that I had spent so much of my time. I knew it was nothing like the forests I had grown up in, because there was a man standing there with long, blond hair, and pointed ears. He wore golden robes.
“I could hear your stomach rumbling a mile away,” the man drawled, “I thought that perhaps you might like some food.”
I pushed myself up off the ground, my knees scraped from the fall. “Who are you?” I n ears. “What are you?”
He smirked. “I’m Oberon, King of faeries. And you…. you are Edward Henry Endless.”
I stared at him. “How do you know my name?”
“I know everything. Just as I know of The Wolf that’s lurking. I could sense him. There was something in the air, a hate that’s taken over. Makes the air acrid.” He snapped his fingers, making a ripe, peach appear. “Do you know what wolfs do to children?”
“Eat them,” I answered.
“Yes,” he said, “I want to help the children, Edward. But I cannot go amongst the humans the way that you can. I might frighten them. You would blend perfectly. Eddie, if you were to bring the children to me, so that the wolf doesn’t eat them, I would be able to keep them safe. I would also be able to make sure that you never feel hungry again.”
I licked my lips. “What about my family?”
“How many are there?” Oberon asked.
“My Mum,” I answered, “and my brother. Well, not my brother. My brother he…”
Oberon lowered himself so that he was right down next to me. “Is he where the fighting is?”
I nodded. “He’s been away for a long time. We don’t know if he’ll come back.”
Oberon smiled. “Do this for me, Eddie Endless, and I will make sure that your brother comes back, and that you and your mother always have enough to eat.”
“What do I have to do?”
He took a coin from deep within the folds of the golden robes that he wore. “Take this coin. When I need you to save someone, it will appear with a name, and the image of that person on there. Once you hold it, you will be taken to where you need to be. Bring that person back to me, and I will take care of you.”
I nodded, taking the coin, and putting it deep in the pocket of the shorts that I wore. “How do I----”
I was falling again. This time, falling up, up, up, through the rabbit hole, until I landed on my back in the middle of the same field that I had been looking around. I breathed heavily, stunned what had happened. Wincing, I pushed myself up.
I remembered the coin. Did I lose it during the fall? Frantically, I rummaged through my pockets. When I found the coin, it was there. The faerie kings face looked back at me. It was real. It was all real.
I ran through the fields, all the way home, clutching the coin in my hand.
- Writer
