Fred started out at a slow trot with Reece and Marvin on his back. Stig ran beside them to help later with the elves. They followed the path that Marvin took to find Reece, so they could find the markings that Cal left with his sword.

Cal trailed the elves that kidnapped Reece's sister, Giorgia. When they got to the spot Marvin pointed out, the markings of the 'X' barely showed. Marvin got on the ground and hopped down the path. He saw the marks but they faded as the wet sand dried. Some looked as if Cal dragged his broken toed foot on them blotting them out.

Edward wandered down the road and approached the group. Edward saw that Reece was upset. He asked, "What is wrong Reece, you look terrible. Have you seen Giorgia anywhere?"

"It ... its Giorgia, she's not here. She's been kidnapped by elves, Kermit's tracking them and Marvin's trying to find the trail for us to follow, so we can go rescue her."

"Kidnapped? By elves, you say. By all that's holy in Mysteria how did this happen? Your mother will never forgive me. I was supposed to watch her. Does your mum know yet or Auntie Ginger and the Queens? Reece, you have to get a message to them. I'm going after Giorgia." Edward chided.

"HELL NO! I'm not telling mum. She will just blame me, just like she did for the cave incident. I have a better idea. You go tell mum and while you're at it, tell her this is not my fault. I had nothing to do with it and not to blame me," exclaimed Reece.

"Uh ... Uhm Reece I want to go with you to get Giorgia back and anyway you did trap Giorgia in that cave."

"Edward you are the best to go. Mum trusts you and she will listen to you. You can keep her calm and tell her that I DID NOT do it and not to blame me. We are going to go ahead and try to rescue her. You go tell the adults and catch up with us. PLEASE," pleaded Reece.

Reluctantly Edward answered, "OK. I will go, but we won't be far behind you. Your mum will never forgive me if any harm comes to Giorgia and I for one, will never forgive myself."

As Fred stood watching Marvin, a dragonfly buzzed around his ears. Reece saw the dragonfly, squealed like a girl and swatted at it. Reece fell of Fred's back causing Fred and Stig to laugh loudly. After Reece fell off, he got up quickly, brushed himself off as manly as possible given the circumstances. When he looked up the dragonfly had landed on Fred's shoulder.

Reece loudly asked, "Hey Fred is this dragonfly a friend of yours?" He watched the dragonfly eyeing its large stinger, which as far as he was concerned was as good as a deadly weapon.

"Relax," said Fred still laughing, "it's just Robert. I summoned him. He is here to help us."

Suddenly, the dragonfly spoke. "Hey, stop that. Yeah you. Dude stop swatting at me," yelled Robert. "I am Fred's friend. I hover around him as a sentinel to protect him and warn him, when his very fat ugly wife is coming. She is always bossing Fred around making him miserable. I watch hysterically most of the time. I watch his back and warn him about things. Just ask Fred."

Fred reached around and swatted at Robert for saying it. Robert flew up out of the way. Fred said, "I would have squashed him years ago for being the most annoying thing in Mysteria other than Kermit, if he didn't happen to be the best spy and tracker in Mysteria." Stig nodded in agreement.

Reece called out, "Marvin, come back here. We may have a better way to track Cal."

Marvin hopped back quickly and looked hungrily at the hovering dragonfly. His stomach growled and his mouth watered. Marvin's first thought was, oh boy lunch! "What's up Reece?"

"The dragonfly you are looking at for lunch is a friend of Fred's. He is willing to help us follow Kermit's trail from the air. What do you think? Stop licking your lips like that and don't even think about eating him. Fred says he is annoying." Robert looked at Fred with an indignant huff and flashed his stinger, which caused Reece to back up several steps. But he was the best tracker in Mysteria."

Reece whispered a warning to Marvin, "Watch Robert's death stinger. Robert heard Reece and knew that he could have some fun even though the stinger was harmless. He kept flashing it at Reece who was clearly unaware of this and poking his tongue out at starvin Marvin.

Marvin sadly looked longingly at Robert, as his stomach rumbled loudly. He sighed in resignation of losing his tasty snack and replied, "That would be good because the wet sand is drying out and the marks are disappearing fast. What are we waiting for, let's make haste."

As the group started again, Cal followed the elves that carried Giorgia and Poppet away toward the city. Cal's pace slowed due to his injuries, the heat of the day and his need for sustenance, but those feelings would not deter him from his quest.

The elves moved slowly because they were in a tight group and Giorgia struggled against being in the sack they carried. She kicked out and kept hitting the elves arms. The elves grumbled amongst themselves because of the struggling girl.

They passed the sack between each other to make her easier to carry and so they could move faster. They dropped the sack a few times, which made Giorgia whimper softly, clutching Poppet more tightly to her.

The elves headed to the city where their boss had a small hovel built into a mound of dirt on the outskirts. Their boss stood atop his mound searching the road for his elves. He muttered, "They should be here by now. What is taking them so long?" He dragged his club behind him as he paced looking up the road.

Cal hopped quickly down the dirt road following the elves. His broken toes made hopping very difficult and he kept tripping and falling down slowing his progress. He could not see the elves, but he saw their tracks. As he moved, he stopped every six hops and made an 'X' at the roadside so Marvin and Reece could follow. Sometimes because his toes were broken, he unknowingly smudged the sign obliterating the trail. He approached a large crossroad where six roads came together. 

A discouraged Cal sat on the roadside pondering what to do. He was so tired and thirsty because the suns beat down on the road making it hot. Hunger quickly approached too. As he sat on the roadside, he looked about. He saw what looked like a shimmering white wall coming down the road quickly at him.

When he saw it clearly, it was a shiny white wolf. He hopped away to escape, but tripped over a fat stick.

As he fell, he plunged into a ditch, which had a large puddle and a swarm of flies. He screamed, "Oh no, help me, I am falling," as he fell into the puddle and came up sputtering. The flies swarmed around him protecting their territory, but Cal quickly spat out his tongue eating a great bunch of flies.

When he had his fill of flies, he looked around the ditch. As he looked behind him, he heard the flapping of wings. He looked up and just caught the liftoff of the heron, which stalked him earlier.

Wondering what caused the heron to flee, he looked up and saw the white wolf staring at him. The wolf smiled at him, which put Cal at ease because he originally fled the wolf.

"Hello little one, the heron's gone. I chased it away. Do you need help out of that ditch?"

"What ho, my friend I owe you my life. You saved me from certain devouring. That heron was hell bent on making a meal of me, since m'lady Giorgia thwarted his first attempt. If you help me up, I pledge my sword to defend you."

"My name is Loxy and I will gladly help you up. Grab onto my leg and I will pull you up." Cal grabs the leg and Loxy flips him up beside her. 

"Thank you, I was not sure I would get out of that ditch. My name is Prince Cal. I am on a quest to find Giorgia and Poppet who elves kidnapped. I seemed to have lost the trail." Loxy like Giorgia fell under the spell of Cal and decided to join his quest and assist him.

"Ugh, I hate elves. They smell, are ugly and so unpleasant to be around. Let's see if we can find their tracks again and get back on the quest." Loxy sniffed the prints and soon had the other part of the path they took. Cal jumped on Loxy's back and they were off at a slow trot.

For Fred and Stig it was slow going because Robert flew ahead, but faded from view and had to fly back to report. When they lost sight of Robert, they slowed until he came back into view. This continued until the crossroads where Cal met Loxy.

Stig stopped and sniffed the air. "Elves have been here and they stopped for a bit. Their smell is everywhere." He continued looking around and saw the wet mess on the roadside over near the ditch. There were dead flies, wolf prints and frog prints around. "Kermit was here, but it looks like he met up with a wolf or something."

Marvin looked over the edge of the ditch and saw frog prints in the mud and more dead flies. "His Imperial Majesty was here. His frog prints with two broken toes are in the mud below."

Fred paced around, but found no evidence of which way Kermit went. "Hey Stig, can you come here and find where the elves and maybe Kermit went. This is a pretty busy crossroads with no obvious tracks to follow."

Stig walked over, looked on the pathways and sniffed. The smell pointed off toward the city and when he walked that way, he found wolf tracks and frog prints. "They went this way. I see elf, wolf and frog prints."

Reece asked Fred, "How close do you think we are to meeting up with Kermit?"

"I don't know, but Stig thinks the mess left behind here is not too old. He thinks we are pretty close. But the real question to ask is where Giorgia is and are we close to her?"

"Let's take the road this way and catch up with Kermit." Reece spoke up.

As Loxy followed the elves tracks, boredom set in with Prince Cal just riding on her back. He noticed that there were fleas crawling amongst the fur on Loxy. He decided to help rid her of the fleas and started poking at them with his tongue. Kermit commented, "Fleas taste good but there is not much to them. Seems like a lot of work to just get a few." This brought a chuckle from Loxy, but she kept her pace to get to the elves.

"Thank you, those fleas have bothered me for weeks. It feels so good that you have taken them off me and they can't come back. I wish I could keep you with me."

The wolf rounded the next curve and stopped. Up ahead she saw the elves had stopped for some odd reason. Loxy lay down in the grass and watched the elves. Kermit perched upon the wolf's head between her ears watching too.

"Let's go rescue Giorgia," pleaded Kermit.

Loxy did not move as Cal pulled on her ears to get her moving. "There are too many elves to rescue Giorgia safely. We should wait for Reece and Marvin."

Kermit reluctantly agreed and sat on Loxy's head watching the elves and catching more fleas.

The elves moved off the road and sat in the grass of the meadow. They appeared to be arguing about something. They put the sack they carried in the middle of them and watched it carefully.

Robert flew down the road and came upon Loxy and Kermit. He buzzed around them and landed on the grass. Kermit jumped off Loxy and went after Robert.

"Stop, Stop! Why does everyone think I am food today? I am with Reece and Marvin. They are nearby and coming down the road. Let's go back and meet them. Once you meet I will fly back and watch the elves." Robert pleaded.

Loxy with a pouting Kermit denied his tasty snack on her back, loped back toward Reece and Marvin. A few hundred meters down the road, they met the other rescuers. Kermit introduced the others to Loxy.

"The elves are just around the next turn ahead. They are sitting on the side of the road resting. Maybe we can rescue Giorgia now." Kermit said drawing his sword majestically causing Loxy to smile and everyone else to wonder, how on Mysteria, he manages to get all the women to adore him.

Fred shook his head, "I think we need a better plan to rescue her. We need to see what they are doing. Send Robert over there to scout the area."

"Great Idea," said Reece still leery of Robert's stinger and wanting him gone. "Hopefully, mum will be here by the time he gets back, with auntie Ginger and the queens and mum will realize I'm not to blame, won't ground me and will go get her back. Great plan, I like it." Stig nodded in agreement.

Robert flew off to watch the elves and as he did, the rescue team sat in the cool grass resting and talking among themselves. No one had a good plan to rescue Giorgia, but knew they had to do something. This went on for an hour until Robert returned.

Robert flew back quickly and landed next the Fred's ear huffing and puffing. He was in such a panic that he forgot to terrorize Reece again or worry about the frogs wanting him for dinner.

"Whoa Robert what is the matter? Why are you so out of breath? We need to know what's going on so we can make up a rescue plan." Fred asked.

"It may be too late to rescue Giorgia. I went to the elves and they just got up and left. I followed them to a small hill, which I saw was the hovel of a red troll. The elves handed Giorgia and Poppet over to the red troll. He was big, mean looking and he threatened the elves. He looked in the sack they gave him and smiled at the elves." Robert related.

At this point Stig piped up, "There are no red trolls. The green trolls wiped them out years ago."

Robert broke in, "I saw a big ugly mean looking red troll with my own eyes not very far from here. Are you calling me a liar boogey colored man type thing type really ugly troll." Stig swatted at Robert. "He has Giorgia and tonight is the night of the full moons."

Stig took over again from Robert, shook his head and looked at Reece sorrowfully, "If that was truly a red troll and it is the night of the full moons, we have a big problem. As soon as those moons rise, the red troll can cast his spell and Giorgia and Poppet are lost to us forever. He will turn them into red trolls and they will become fully evil. When that happens, no one can save them. In all the history of Mysteria a red troll has never been good or kept even a shred of the purity they had. This purity is essential for red troll transformation."

"WHAT THE HECK?" yelled Reece. "Mum is so going to blame me for this and I will get grounded again. I will never get to drive again. Auntie Ginger will put itching powder in my boxer shorts again and most likely Queen Karen will turn me into a stupid slimy annoying frog like Kermit."

Loxy growled at Reece's insult to Kermit and Reece said, "Yeah you're a woman, they all love him, but did he get you grounded for grassing you up for justifying shutting your sister in a cave? No, well when he does, then come tell me. Until then stop growling and tell me what the plan is? Mums not here and I don't know what to do."

Everyone eyed Reece with sympathy and Stig picked him up, put him onto Fred's back. Even Robert looked forlorn at Reece's obvious distress at the possibility of losing his sister and they all became determined.

"The plan is, there is no plan, Reece," said Fred, "but we are all with you. Now in the words of Marvin, let's make haste, get your annoying, yet adorable sister back and kick some red troll butt. Yes?"

"Ok" said Reece and looked around at all the determined faces of the rescue team and he felt hope return, maybe they did have a chance and Robert was wrong.

The rescue team raced after Robert, but the skies seemed to darken and the moons would soon rise and they just hoped to all that's holy in Mysteria that they got to Giorgia on time.