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Figgy glared at Pixie furiously.
“Figgy,” said Pixie in exasperation. “I can feel your glare.”
“Hmph.”
“You should have explained the rules better. How was I supposed to know??”
“How were you supposed to—what? You don’t know that it is NOT ok to steal other peoples resources?”
“Wel–.”
“OR, destroy their houses that they worked very, VERY hard on?”
“I thought it was—.”
“And for goodness’ sake Pixie. Everyone knows that you are never, under any circumstances, supposed to dig…STRAIGHT DOWN!”
“Hem-hem.”
Figgy and Pixie turned to see a small, tiny really, elf waiting patiently in front of the Toy Shop.
“Oh, hello there,” said Pixie. “We were just, er, debriefing from last night’s job.”
“Hmph.”
Pixie rolled her eyes at Figgy and then turned back to the tiny elf. “You must be Tinsel?”
Tinsel nodded once.
Giving Figgy a “we’ll-talk-about-this-later” look, Pixie pulled out the folder on Tinsel’s assigned home. “Yes, of course. Let’s see, you have…Molly and she refuses to go to bed?”
Tinsel nodded a second time.
“Oh, that is a problem,” said Figgy.
Tinsel nodded a third time.
“Well, let’s get to the house and see what we have to work with. I’m sure we can figure some way to tire Molly out.”
Tinsel shot into the air toward Molly’s house, Pixie and Figgy close behind.
***
Fifteen minutes later, all three elves, having run down the hall and into the pantry, were panting and trying to catch their breath.
“She’s a menace!” grumbled Figgy.
“A terror,” added Pixie.
Tinsel nodded…again.
“Tinsel,” said Pixie, noticing that the elf had yet to speak. “Can you…that is to say, are you able to…”.
“Can you talk?” finished Figgy. “It’s just, you haven’t made a sound beyond clearing your throat.
Tinsel sighed and when she finally spoke, Pixie and Figgy were shocked by the tone of her voice. Expecting a high squeaky voice from one so small, what came out was a deep, baritone voice belonging to a much larger elf. Like Santa or the abominable snowman.
“I try not to. My voice is too loud, even at a whisper.”
“You’re whispering?” asked Figgy.
Tinsel nodded. “I think it might be why Molly doesn’t want to go to sleep. You see, she heard me on the first night and I’m pretty sure she thinks there is a big scary monster under her bed, so she finds any excuse not to go there.”
A loud gasp came from below. The elves peeked down to see Molly staring straight above the spot where they were hiding, a look of pure terror on her face.
“See,” said Tinsel, trying to be quieter. “She can—AGH!—hear me—AGHHHH!—even when I’m—AGGGGHHHH!—whispering.”
Pixie and Figgy could only stare. They were still unable to believe that such a deep voice came out of such a small body.
Tinsel nodded.
“Ok,” said Pixie, snapping out of her reverie. “We are just going to have to show Molly that there is absolutely nothing to be scared of.”
“How are we going to do that?” asked Tinsel.
“We’ll have to get a little goofy,” said Pixie.
“And a little messy,” added Figgy, picking up on Pixie’s plan.
Minecraft forgotten, Pixie and Figgy filled Tinsel in on the plan and got to work.
***
“Are you sure about this?” asked Tinsel staring at all the candy, sprinkles, icing, gummies, sugar coated chips, and ice cream cones strewn over the table.
“Trust us! Molly is going to love it. You said yourself she likes to do crafts. What better craft is there than sugar cone Christmas trees?”
“No, not that. I mean this!” Tinsel pointed to the sugar cone hat on top of his head. Icing and candy dripped down the sides into his eyes and all over his clothes. He felt ridiculous.
“Oh,” giggled Pixie. “Well, this way, maybe Molly won’t be so scared of you. It should work.
“Should? SHOULD??”
Pixie and Figgy backed away slowly. Tinsel was getting angry.
“Let us know how it goes!” shouted Figgy on his way out the door.
It was their cue.
a pinch of homestead 