Chapter Fifteen (part b)

"They're mad at you humans I" said the sprite. "Your world and ours are connected, you know. Things that exist in your world often affect what happens here. Both worlds occupy the very same space, inside and out. Yours on the outside, while ours is within."

"We thought that might be true," said Jennifer. "Things seem to fall through from our world to here. Like the porcupine's pennies."

"And the horse and his paper bags," said Jamie.

"So what're the dwarves so mad about?" asked Rachael.

"Your subway tunnels for one thing," explained the sprite. 'When the subway was built in your world the tunnels went right through the very same places the dwarves use for their tunnels here."

"So?" said Rachael. "So what's a couple of tunnels?"

"The way the dwarves see it, everything underground belongs to them," said the sprite. "No-one in you world checked with them first before starting to dig, did they?"

"I don't suppose they did," admitted Jennifer.

"They're mad about all your shopping malls too," said the sprite. "Some of them were built right where they have their secret mines and their treasure caves."

"Treasure!" whispered Jamie. "All right!"

"So how could we know that dwarves were real?" said Rachael. "Nobody believes in that kind of stuff anymore.

"That just makes it worse," said the sprite. "No-one likes to be called imaginary, especially not dwarves."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" asked Jennifer.

"I don't know," admitted the sprite. "But now that I've told you I hope you can help. If we all work together, we might make things better somehow."

"Don't worry," said Jamie. "We'll help you out."

"You can count on us," said Jennifer.

"Sure," said Rachael. "We'll help if we can."

"You might just need our help too," said the sprite. "The dwarves are quite mad and who knows what they'll do."

"Hey, you can help us anytime you like," said Rachael. "We saw how you handled those dwarves!"

"There were just two of them this time," said the sprite. "But there's plenty more where they came from."

"I guess the magic guys that were here in the clearing would help too if the dwarves made trouble," said Jamie.

"Hey, those guys, that's right!" said Rachael. "We were looking for them. Where'd they all go?"

"I don't know," said the sprite. "They're all quite shy and they don't like to stay in one place for too long."

"So listen," said Rachael. "Can we ask you something instead? How do we make the, source stone work?"

"Oh, you can't make the source stone do anything."

"You can't?" said Rachael. "Why not?"

"It knows what to do all by itself," said the sprite. "But it helps if you squeeze it a little."

"Squeeze it?" said Rachael and she looked down at her stone uncertainly. 'Are you sure that's what it likes?"

"Absolutely," said the sprite and then he asked Jennifer for his pendulum back. She returned it and thanked him for letting them borrow it.

"Hey, wait," said Rachael. "We need that to get home!"

"Not if you still have the source stone," said the sprite. "Just hold it tight and you'll know how to go."

"That's all we do?" said Rachael. "Just hold it tight?"

"That's right," said the sprite. "But shhh! Don't tell!"

Then all at once, and without any warning the sprite just seemed to vanish into thin air, one moment he was there and the next he was gone.