Grump by Liesl Shurtliff

Author:Liesl Shurtliff [Shurtliff, Liesl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2018-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

I slid down the hole. The tunnel was narrow, and my eyes had to adjust to the darkness. Only a few glowfish floated along the ceiling, their light flickering and fading. It didn’t seem like anyone had been in this tunnel for a long while.

The rhythmic pings and clinks of hammer on rock echoed in the distance, and I heard the barest hum of a song. The crew. If they were still mining these tunnels, they didn’t know about the Surface hole I’d created. Gilpin must have kept my secret all this time, hoping I’d return.

Snow White was just up ahead, walking cautiously through the tunnel, drawn by the crew’s song.

“Princess,” I whispered. “Come back!”

“Who’s down there?”

“Come back!” I said. “We can’t stay here. It isn’t safe!”

A shadow stretched along the wall. The dull thud of footsteps and the squeak of a rusty wheelbarrow grew louder. Someone was coming!

I caught up to Snow White and snatched her by the hand, pulling her down another tunnel so we were hidden from view.

“What is it?” asked Snow White. “Is it a dragon?”

I pressed my finger to my lips to silence her. She nodded. I peered around the corner. It was Gilpin, rolling a wheelbarrow down the tunnel. He stopped at the site of my escape. He lifted his lantern and looked around, making sure he was alone. He moved a small stone and peeked through the opening, then quickly put the stone back. He then went over to the picture he had drawn of us on the wall. He looked at it for a moment, frowning, then picked up his wheelbarrow and went back down the tunnel, toward the song of the crew and away from us.

“All right,” I whispered. “I think it’s safe for us to go back now. Princess?”

She didn’t answer. I turned around. She wasn’t behind me anymore. Down the tunnel, I saw the faintest shadow entering a dim cavern. The crew’s quarters.

“Wait!” I called. “Come back!”

I ran after her.

When I entered the quarters, I found Snow White sitting on the row of beds, crying. Tears streamed down her mud-spattered cheeks, but when she saw me, she drew her knees up to her chest for protection. “You’re that dwarf,” she said accusingly. “You’ve been plotting with my stepmother. Did she send you to kill me, too?”

“No,” I said. “I’m here to protect you.”

“Oh,” she said. “Why?”

I let out a long breath. I didn’t really want to go into the details of my beard. The less Snow White understood about that, the better. “I just didn’t think it was right, what the queen was doing.”

Snow White nodded. She seemed to accept this, but then she suddenly broke down in tears again, her whole chest heaving so she could barely speak through her sobs. “Father is d-dead. He always said Stepmother would take care of me, and now she wants to k-kill me. Why does she want to kill me? I’ve done everything I can to please her! I’ve kept from getting dirty, mostly.

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