The Undoing of Giles Crumm Part 2 (standard:fairy tales, 1880 words) [2/2] show all parts
Author: heather	Added: Oct 23 2000	Views/Reads: 3189/2051	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
In this episode of the Giles Crumm Chronicles, Declan and Clancy find a new friend and are shocked by some unexpected news of their foe.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


"Aidan?  Aidan what?" Clancy asked. 

"I have no other.  Me parents died when I was just a ban, and I ended up
here," Aidan explained. 

"Aye," Clancy nodded sadly.  "Me parents died when I was wee too." 

Aidan looked at the elf standing in his hands with wonderment, as if he
had been alone all his life and had finally found a friend. 

"Could ye give me a boost up, me lad?" Declan shouted up to him. 

In answer, Aidan scooped the elf up in his other hand and stood there,
looking at the two elves. 

"Would you be so kind as to place us on the desk, lad, for 'tis a bit
crowded up here," Declan requested, struggling to gain balance in the 
cramped and uneven quarters of Aidan's hands. 

Aidan once again complied, placing Declan and Clancy on the desk gently.


"What are you doing here?" Aidan asked in wonderment. 

"We've come to--" Clancy began, but was interrupted by a sharp elbow in
his ribs. 

"Ye seem a nice enough lad, Aidan, but me grandfather always said to
trust no one til you've mixed blood wi' them, and he lived until a 
hundred and three!" Declan said proudly. 

"D'ye mean I've got to cut meself?  We learned of that in history
instruction one day.  The Indians used to--" 

"Nay, nay, me lad, a figure of speech.  It just means until we know ye a
bit better than we do as now," Declan explained. "I knows as well as 
any that the nicest child has a mouth like the ocean, and the word 
spreads like wildfire once out." 

"Oh, but you can trust me!" Aidan insisted. 

"Ye wouldn't be off tellin' all yer friends that ye found us and what
we're about, then would ye?" Declan asked suspiciously. 

Aidan looked at the floor, shuffling his feet a bit. 

"I've got no friends to speak of, sir, and no family as I said before. 
No one to tell nought," he said quietly. 

Declan looked ashamed, and Clancy looked up sorrowfully at the boy. 

"Aye, well," Declan began softly.  "I suppose you're the one they spoke
of.  We'll be your friends, me lad, for ye are the nicest lad I've ever 
come across, and you drove that blasted cat away from us." 

Aidan smiled, and Declan's story began. 

"We elves live in the Tweens of the world.  That means anything between
light and dark---shadowy places, like.  There's a whole land of us that 
none of your kind could ever reach.  Sure, there's good and bad elves, 
but the place I and Clancy come from is filled with elves such as 
ourselves--itchin' to liberate nice lads and lassies such as yourself 
from blaggards like Crumm." Declan said. 

"From what we've seen o' Crumm, he's got nought kind about him, and we
aim to do somethin' about it!" Clancy proclaimed. 

Aidan looked doubtful. 

"Not offending either of ye, but Master Crumm is right more powerful
than you know.  He ain't just cruel...he's got...powers." 

Declan eyes widened with a start. 

"What do ye mean, lad, by powers?" he asked slowly. 

"He's got a special room downstairs, no one knows how to get to it but
me--" Aidan explained. 

"How came you to this chamber?" Declan interrupted. 

Aidan blushed. 

"I was no' where I was supposed to be, sir, insubordination he called
it.  I was hunting around for ghosts and such, and I leaned on a wall, 
and lo and behold, I was in a strange and dark chamber.  It was filled 
with all sorts of odd books and bottles.  It was dusty, makes me sneeze 
to think on it," Aidan said. 

Declan turned quite pale and looked at Clancy. 

"This is worse than we studied it to be, Clancy," he whispered hoarsely.


"Powers!" exclaimed Clancy worriedly. "The Grand Elf spoke nothing of
powers!" 

"Aye, well, he's a strange sort, as I've always said.  He just happened
to leave that out for some good reason, I'm sure, but this will mean a 
great deal more effort on our part...Tell on, lad," Declan muttered. 

"Aye, so I thought that I might give a look around, and I studied on a
few of the odd mannered books lying about, but could read none.  All in 
gibberish, some foreign language I s'pose." Aidan said carelessly. 

"Foreign language!  What sort?" Declan asked sharply. 

"Oh, well, I'd have to get parchment and write what I think 'twas.  Hang
on." Aidan said anxiously.  He opened a desk drawer and found some 
parchment and a pen.  He made a few writings on the page, and pushed 
them over to Declan and Clancy. 

"Jesus, Mary, and St. Anne help us!" Declan gasped. 

"A Jinn," Clancy confirmed sorrowfully.  "Declan, this is out of our
control." 

"A Jinn?  What's a Jinn?" Aidan asked, confused. 

Declan turned desperately to Aidan. 

"Have ye no' heard of the Jinn?" he inquired. 

Aidan looked blank. 

"The genies?" Declan rephrased. 

"Oh!  The merry spirits that give ye wishes and ye get tons of money and
all that.  Aye!" Aidan said happily. 

Clancy shook his head and groaned. 

"No!  No, who told you that?!  It's no' that way at all!  Was it Crumm
who told you that?" Declan questioned anxiously. 

Aidan looked alarmed. 

"Aye, he told us all.  He told us they were a friendly people long ago
that gave wishes, but that they didn't exist any longer. He made us all 
wish, me included, they were still around with all his tales of fame 
and fortune," Aidan replied. 

"Nay, lad, lies twas all it was.  The Jinn are the mortal enemy of the
Elfin people.  They came from the Druids, an evil faction of wizards 
and sorcerors.  They mixed with the necromancers of Egypt and---Am I 
confusing you?  I am.  Well, to put it simply lad, they're a bad lot of 
twits and I wouldn't mess wi' one if ye paid me to!" Declan said 
gravely. 

"And either this Crumm is a Jinn, or he is just studying up to see what
nasty things he can brew up..." Clancy said.  "Neither is better than 
the other." 

Declan paced back and forth over the desk, sweating bullets, when a door
two rooms over creaked open.  Aidan's eyes widened. 

"It's Crumm!  Quick, jump in me bag!" he cried.  The two elves leapt
into the open satchel at Aidan's hip and remained still. 

"Aidan, what mischief are you to now, you rotten bugger?" Crumm growled.


"I'm to no mischief, Master Crumm!" Aidan squeaked nervously. 

Crumm raised an eyebrow and stepped close to the boy. 

"I smell something on you, boy...Have you been stealing sweetmeats from
the kitchen again?" he asked sharply. 

"No!  No, I swear it, Master Crumm!" Aidan answered. 

"Well...what are you doing loitering in the hall?  Why aren't you in
class?" Crumm snapped. 

"It's recess, sir." 

"Recess!" Crumm scoffed.  "In my day, there was no recess.  In my day,
there was no school!  Ye just got put in a sack and beaten with in an 
inch of your life and told not to talk!" 

Aidan, not knowing quite how to respond, remained silent and hoped Crumm
would say something else. 

"Why aren't you out with the rest of the little devils, pilfering and
pillaging the garden, throwing rocks at the birds, and what ever all 
you do else!" Crumm growled. 

"I have none to speak with," Aidan said quietly. 

"None to speak with what?" Crumm roared. 

"None to speak with, Master Crumm!"  Aidan replied stoutly. 

"Aye, and see that it stays that way!  Know your place in life, me lad,
and you will go far!" 

"Far to Hell," muttered Declan sourly from inside the satchel. 

"What was that, Aidan?" Crumm asked sharply. 

"Er...I said, was that the bell?" Aidan improvised. 

"The bell?  You twit, it's only ten thirty, it's nowhere near lunch
bell!" Crumm rebuked him. 

"I apologize, Master Crumm," Aidan said, blushing. 

"Very well, we're finished." Crumm said darkly, hobbling off on his
gnarled cane to his chambers. 

Aidan breathed a sigh of relief and removed his two friends from the
bag. 

"Good Lord, lad, take that dead bird out of there, it smells as foul as
a troll's mother!" Declan said. 

"That was close," Aidan said. 

"It certainly was...but we're in for a lot more danger, Aidan!" Declan
proclaimed.


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