Page 54 of The Elves and the Shoemaker
Henrik peered out from behind the blanket only to see Elias launch himself at the red-haired man shouting, “What have you done to Henrik?!”
Pandemonium broke out then. The dark-haired man plucked Elias off his friend and held a knife to his throat while Johan stood in the doorway with his hands raised defensively, unable to speak.
What an unmitigated disaster.
Henrik crawled out from underneath the table and ran for Johan, who tucked him behind him protectively.
“Where didyoucome from?” the red-haired man asked, sounding more amused than anything.
“I-I-I heard you c-coming and hid. W-we don’t want any trouble,” Henrik said, even as his whole body trembled in fear.
“Your friend here seems like he might want some trouble.”
“In my defence, I thought you’d eaten my friend,” Elias spoke as though having a knife held to his throat wasn’t an especially new experience for him.
“I would never eat… your friend.” He smirked in an incredibly unnerving manner.
“Now that we’ve established you didn’t hurt my friend, could we be a bit more civilised and drop the knife?” Elias asked.
The two strangers looked at each other and shrugged before the dark-haired man lowered the knife, and Elias slowly backed away until he was standing with Johan and Henrik in the doorway.
“What do you want?” Henrik asked.
“It’s always good to know who one’s neighbours are. What if we run out of honey for our tea?”
Elias’ entire demeanour changed to one Henrik had never seen, the lightness of his tone before gone in an instant. “We don’t have any honey,” he said. “Please leave our home.”
Surprisingly, they were met with looks from the men that held more curiosity than animosity.
“You are running from someone?” the one with the knife asked.
“If we were, it would be unwise to discuss that with strangers who could give away our location. I’m sure you understand.” Elias’ jaw was clenched hard enough Henrik feared he might crack a tooth.
“Strangers? I am Hansel,” the red-haired man said. “And this is my… brother Gerhardt. Now we aren’t strangers. We’re friends.”
“You have a low bar for friendship,” Henrik muttered, momentarily forgetting that being snarky to knife-wielding, probable outlaws, was not a good idea.
As if reading Henrik’s mind, Gerhardt threw his knife into the air before catching it again by the handle.
“Nobody lives this deep in the forest who isn’t hiding something. You never know when you might need an ally, elf.” Gerhardt somehow made it sound more of a threat than an offer, but there was no malice in the strange man’s expression, so Henrik dipped his chin in deference.
“Consider us acquainted,” Henrik replied.
“Indeed,” Gerhardt said as the three of them stepped away from the doorway to let the two men past.
“Farewell… for now,” Hansel added.
When they left, Johan shut the door behind them, and they all watched through the sash window until they were no longer visible in the dense, dark trees.
“Will we ever really be safe?” Elias whispered, and dread pooled in Henrik’s stomach.
Was he destined to forever look over his shoulder? To never sleep peacefully again?
Johan put his arm around Elias and kissed the top of his head, the gesture reminding Henrik of why the two of them had been gone in the first place.
“For now,” Henrik said. “We’ll need to sleep in shifts again to keep a lookout.”
“I hate that,” Elias replied.
