6 Ch6-A Trick

CHAPTER 6 A TRICK The fairies smiled up at Drake. "You want me to march with you forever? You can't make me do that!" Drake said. His legs were still moving, marching in place. "Yes, we can!" one of the redcaps said cheerfully. Then they all spun around and began to march again. Drake's legs followed them. "Here we go marching on and on, here and there and over and yon." Drake looked at Breen. "You could have warned me about the redcaps!" he said.

"I did," she replied. "I told you they liked to have fun." "This isn't fun," Drake complained. Breen shrugged. "It's fun for them." Drake marched along the path, thinking. I need to find a way to get the redcaps to let us go. But all I know about them is that they like to have fun. Fun... Drake repeated the word in his mind. Back home, the younger kids always wanted to pull him away from the field to play games. Games like sticks and stones, hop and skip, hide-and-seek... Drake tapped the nearest redcap again, and the fairies all stopped marching. "What is it?" the redcap asked.

"I know a game we can play," he said. "It's more fun than marching." The redcap's eyes lit up. "More fun! What is it called?" "It's called hide-and-seek," Drake replied. "You close your eyes and count. Breen and I will hide. When you open them, you have to find us." "Ooh, that does sound like fun," said the redcap. "What happens after we find you?" "Then it's your turn to hide," Drake said. The redcaps all huddled together. They whispered to one another. Then they turned back to Drake.

"We will play your game!" they said at once. "Great!" Drake said. "First, you have to release your magical hold on us, so we can hide properly." "Done," the redcaps said, snapping their fingers. Drake tested it. He turned and took a step. My idea is working! he thought. He turned back to the redcaps. "Perfect!" One of the redcaps nodded. "Now we close our eyes and count, right?" "Yes," Drake said.

The redcaps all closed their eyes. One redcap opened his. "How high do we count?" "Ten thousand, six hundred, and twenty- three," Drake replied. "Okay!" the redcap said, and he closed his eyes. Then all the fairies began to count. "One, two, three..." Drake motioned for Breen to follow him. They hurried back to the fork in the path, away from the redcaps.