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“Why?”
It was a challenge not to reveal to him that I had made a deal with the Goblin King. “I just do, and I have four days to do it. Can you help me or not?”
“Hmm, that's not a place I'd go, but,” Jesper leaned his chin on his claw, contemplating before he said, “I can, for a price.”
“What would that be?”
“Twenty acorn nuts,” he replied firmly.
“Twenty?” The number seemed high, considering the trees in the area were all but dying. I wasn't certain where I could find that many.
“Yes.”
“That seems a bit steep. Where can I find twenty acorn nuts?”
He shrugged his furry shoulders before resuming his work. “No idea. That's for you to figure out.”
“To find that many, I'd have to travel back to the Mortal Lands. There are no trees here that could produce that many acorns, especially in their current condition.”
“That's too bad. Good luck on your journey,” he replied, disinterested.
“Can't you at least take me part of the way? I can travel the rest on my own.” I was exhausted and needed a place to rest. Anywhere with shelter would suffice.
“I'm afraid not. Times are tough, and one must be prepared. Twenty nuts,” he said, tossing another nut into the hole of the tree. It immediately flew back and hit him on the head.
I suppressed a chuckle as he brushed his fur and peered into the hole. “Will you at least help me find a place to rest?”
Jesper turned to face me. “I'll tell you what, I'll take you as far as the rock caves, but no further. Will you leave me alone then? You can help me collect whatever nuts you can carry along the way.”
I nodded in agreement. “Deal.”
ChapterFourteen
SERRA
Any normal person have figured out by now that they should not make deals with anyone on this side of the Ebony Woods. I, however, had yet to learn that lesson. Jesper had taken off ahead of me as quickly as he could. Only to stop and wait until I was in his sights again before he scurried on. It took more energy and effort to keep up with him than I had used all day.
The pockets in the navy skirt started to feel heavy the farther we traveled; the weight of the gathered nuts bringing them down. Before long though, we had reached the edge of a large rock face. Here the land was divided by a large river that had dried out- a small amount of water sat at the bottom, turning the banks to mud. There was no way across the deep embankment without slipping and sliding and no way back out again.
The mud made the climb impossible. But Jesper had led me away from the river. Taking me along its edge, sandwiched between the rock and the looming bottom of the river.
“Um, do we have to climb?” I asked.
I was not in any shape to do such a thing. I was done with cliffs and rock climbing for a while. If not for the remainder of my mortal life.
Jesper whirled on me, I could see the whites of his beady black eyes, “Are you crazy? No. There’s an entrance to a cave just there that you can use to cross the Dried River. It runs down under the rocks.”
“A cave?”
“More like a passage.” he said, holding his tiny paws out. I dug around in my pockets and pulled out the nuts I had gathered before handing them to him.
He would not be able to carry all of them back. “What are you going to do with all of these?”
As he stuffed some of the nuts into his cheeks and grabbed as many as he could, “Store them. What else?”
“There’s no way you can carry all of them at once.”
“Just leave them there next to the rock. I will come back for them.”
