Tales From Elliseran Book Two Hidden Gorge

By Ken Long

Giggles continues her adventures on the islands of Elliseran and demonstrates how brave she has become as a result of all her travels. In Book 2 her friend, Brogan Kragbeard, will guide you through her adventures and the fascinating world of Elliseran.

Giggles’ ultimate goal is to complete another task set by Urlaith Lialynn in order to release her brother, Alwin. The egg of the Shadowleaf bird, Urlaith Lialynn had decided was not enough to release him from his glass bottle prison. Will this second task be good enough? Giggles has no way of knowing until she completes this next challenge. Giggles must travel to the island of Hidden Gorge in order to begin to tackle her new task.

Urlaith Lialynn has told her that she must find and take the Lordly Orcs Brew from Hagglemead who lives on this new island. But, who is Hagglemead? Giggles soon discovers that some people are fearful when she mentions his name. Why? How will Giggles cope with having to travel across the sea to reach Hidden Gorge? She has never even seen a sea as it is a long way from her warm home tunnels. Giggles finds the journey much more difficult than she expects after speaking to the ship’s Captain. Will the island match that of her home island, Hooded Bluff? But, a new island means yet more unknown creatures for Giggles to meet. What will they expect from her? Will they talk to her and help her or will she have to be even stronger than she has been so far? Maybe, she will be lucky enough to make some new brave friends who will be able to help her to face Hagglemead? Could he be more dangerous than Gildryd, the dragon?

Goblins, what are they? Did you know there are many types of Goblin on Hidden Gorge? Brogan will introduce you to them all as he follows Giggles on her adventures and you will be surprised at how many there are. May be some of them
will be able to help her to find the Lordly Orcs Brew? Are there such things as friendly Goblins?

Giggles will be introduced to yet more magic that she did not realise existed, but, it will help her in this adventure too. She hopes beyond hope that, this time, Urlaith Lialynn will be satisfied if she completes this task. So for the second time, follow the words of Brogan Kragbeard as he takes you through Giggles’ journey and introduces you to all the many interesting characters on the way.

The Mines of Gravenholm Hollows, Men from the mud, a year in Fantasy Forest and the gigantic Hagglemead's castle are just a few of the places Giggles will need to travel through in her quest to release her brother from the glass flask.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ken Long
• Release date: Jan 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463990513

Ken Long

Ken Long is a retired teacher. After retiring from teaching Ken worked as lead programmer on the two highly successful education programs, LessonMaker and the Primary Explorer Series. Both packages were used in primary schools in the UK and across forty countries worldwide. Ken now lives in France where he works on his creation, the fantasy land of Elliseran - Land of Five Islands. on which he bases his books as told by Brogan Kragbeard of the Mountain Dwarfs. Ken uses his skills in IT to enhanced the stories with 3-D character pictures unique to Elliseran. These same characters can be seen singing, dancing and moving around Elliseran on the Elliseran website. This multitasking has allowed Ken to produce and continue to produce a unique total book experience.

Book preview

Hello again. I knew you would be back. Excuse me whilst I finish my lovely bath in this warm river on Hooded Bluff.

My camp is just over there, I will join you in less than ten shovel loads.

That was a nice bath. Well, I’m glad you are back because I have another story to tell you about my friend Giggles and her many adventures to free her brother from the glass jar. You will remember he was put in there by Urlaith Lialynn.

Urlaith Lialynn had promised Giggles that she would release her brother after Giggles had bought the egg of the Shadowleaf Bird to her. But really she needed Giggles to get other things for her too. And the other things were not on the island of Hooded Bluff…..

So that is why Giggles now found herself on a boat heading for the island of Hidden Gorge.

Now you know Grelfs live underground and never, never go to sea, so Giggles was very unhappy to be on a boat. The distance from the island of Hooded Bluff and Hidden Gorge is a long way. And, unlike the calm rivers Giggles had seen around the Bog Knolls homes on Hooded Bluff, the sea was very bumpy.

Giggles did not like the way the boat climbed to the top of one wave and then went helter-skelter down the next. Up and down. Up and down. Giggles did not feel at all well.

However, Captain Roshi Morwynn and the rest of the crew seemed to be enjoying the trip. They laughed in a good-natured way and pointed out that Giggles’ skin was a nice shade of green just like the rest of her. But they kindly tried to avoid as many of the big waves as they could to help her.

Now Urlaith Lialynn had given Giggles a letter telling her what to do when she got to the island of Hidden Gorge. Here is the letter so you can read it yourself.

Giggles had no idea where the town of Merrihollow was and neither Captain Roshi Morwynn or any of her crew knew where it was or anything about it. They all said they knew the sea, not the land.

With regards to Grund the Cave Goblin they knew nothing of him either but knew that Hagglemead was the ruler of Hidden Gorge and that every creature on the island feared him. One crew member also said he could tell Giggles all about sea monsters such as Brusels, Crocwer and Goscas and even the Gigantic Chaos Lobster, but Cave Goblins he knew nothing about.

So the small ship sailed on. Up to the top of a wave and then down the other side. Giggles thought the journey would never end.

And then suddenly it did.

Hidden Gorge

‘Land ahoy!’ shouted the lookout in the crow’s nest.

Do you know what a crow’s nest is on a ship?

Well it is a small platform at the top of one of the ship’s masts. The idea is that a member of the crew climbs up to the platform and can then see farther than those on the deck. He is then called the lookout.

In the case of Captain Roshi Morwynn’s ship the platform, or crow’s nest, was an old barrel.

Anyway, ‘land’ had to mean the island of Hidden Gorge.

The entire crew started to rush around preparing the ship for what the sailors called landfall.

Giggles just breathed a sigh of relief. Soon she would be able to leave this up and down ship and once again stand on good solid ground.

As the ship got closer to the land Giggles could see there were wooden platforms at the side of the sea. One of the crew told her that each platform was a jetty and that they would soon be in port.

Behind the jetty there were lots of wooden buildings, some big and some small. This was the harbour town of Perthlochry Port, Captain Morwynn told Giggles, and it was where they would part company. After some loading and unloading the ship would then sail for the island of Serpent Ravine.

‘But how will I get back to Hooded Bluff?’ asked Giggles.

Captain Morwynn looked long and hard at Giggles before saying ‘I fear you will need to do a number of tasks before worrying about getting home.’

Giggles asked what she meant but the captain would say no more.

So the ship docked in port and crew and other people on the jetty started unloading and loading all kinds of barrels and boxes and crates.

Giggles wasn't sure what to do now so she just watched them for a while. Finally the Captain came to her and said ‘It's time for you to leave Giggles. You have the letter, so you know what to do. Good luck.’

Giggles knew she had to get to the town of Merrihollow and find Grund, the Cave Goblin. But she had no idea where to find Merrihollow or even what a Cave Goblin was.

Giggles thought it would be a good idea to ask some of the people who were loading and unloading the ship if they knew where the town of Merrihollow was. But they were all too busy to give her any answers.

‘Don’t know.’ ‘Where?’ ‘Never ‘eard of it’. ‘Ask ‘im over there.’ was all she got.

So Giggles decided to go into the town of Perthlochry Port to see if she could find anyone to help her. She saw a board shaped like an arrow that said ‘Town Square Market’ and decided that would be a good place to start.

Giggles started up the hill on the path that led to the town square.

She was very sure that there would be plenty of people in a market in the town square and that some of them would be able to help her.

But what a disappointment. It was not market day and the town square was completely empty. Just empty wagons and barrels. Most of the people were at the jetty helping to unload and load the ship and she had already asked them.

But they were all men at the jetty. Where were all the women and children she thought?

‘This is a town of only men.’ a voice said.

Giggles realised she had said the words out loud and not just thought them. But who had just answered her?

‘Who are you and where are you?’ she said trying to sound just a little cross and very brave.

‘Here in the stable,’ came the reply.

Giggles turned and looked at the stable then realised there was in fact someone standing there. It looked like a young boy. But a very small boy.

‘Oh sorry,’ she said, ‘I didn’t notice you there.’

‘That’s all right,’ said the boy, ‘No one ever notices me.’

Then Giggles noticed the boy had pointed ears.

‘Oh,’ she said again, ‘you’re an elf.’

‘I am not an elf,’ said the boy sounding a little cross. ‘I’m a Fixle.’

‘Oh dear, I am sorry, but you see I have never heard of a Fixle and the only folk I know with pointed ears are elves.’

‘You say ‘Oh’ a lot,’ said the boy with a rather cheeky grin on his face.

‘Do I? Oh, I am sorry,’ said Giggles and they both laughed.

‘So, what is a Fixle then?’ asked Giggles.

‘What is it? What is it? Well it’s a Fixle isn’t it.’

‘Of course,’ said Giggles ‘But why are you called Fixles?’

‘Because that’s what we are,’ was the reply. ‘We are what Pixies and Fairies were before they became, well, Pixies and Fairies.’

‘Oh,’ said Giggles

‘Oh again,’ said the Fixle. ‘So what’s your name and what are you?’

‘My name is Giggles and I am a Ground Elf. But we like to be called Grelfs.’

‘Grelfs? Never heard of them.’

‘We live on Hooded Bluff,’ Giggles continued.

‘Never heard of that either,’ said the Fixle.

‘So now, what is your name?’ asked Giggles.

‘Newt Driftdrew but you can call me Newt.’

‘And you can call me Giggles.’

‘All right,’ said Newt, ‘why have you come from this place I’ve never heard of and what are you going to do now you are here?

Giggles thought it would be a good idea not to mention that she was here because of Urlaith Lialynn or what she had done to Alwin.

‘I must meet Grund the Cave Goblin in Merrihollow,’ she said.

‘Grund the Cave Goblin,’ repeated Newt ‘I don’t know anyone that wants to meet him.’

‘Why not?’ asked Giggles a little puzzled.

‘Well, if you do meet him, you will find out,’ said Newt with a wink of one eye.

‘So how do I get to Merrihollow?’ asked Giggles.

‘Well, it’s a long, long way. You’ll need