THE ROGUE LEPRECHAUN

Up until recently, most Saturdays were the same as any other Saturday at the O’Conner house. Young Jim had either baseball or football practice. Seven year old Colleen had gymnastics. Their parents Ellen and Big Jim shared the time as chauffeur to the children as well as the other household duties. Saturday was the day they did the grocery shopping, cleaned the house, caught up on the laundry, and all of the other errands that they didn’t have time for during the week. In short, Saturday was pretty much the day when they "did it all" so that they could truly enjoy a rest come Sunday.

It was a routine that they’d all come to expect, but just about 3 months ago, something different started happening on Saturdays. Something that had Ellen and Jim worried, although Ellen more so. Colleen had started to speak of an imaginary friend. At first it was only trivial, but now the friend, whom Colleen had dubbed Sean, had become so real to her he was starting to interfere with their routine. Suddenly Colleen who had loved gymnastics balked at the very idea of going. Often times she had to be practically dragged from the house and Ellen was thinking that perhaps the lessons should be abandoned altogether. The decision would’ve been a no-brainer if it had been for a legitimate reason, but to take her out of it simply so she could spend time with Sean was ridiculous.

As weeks wore on Colleen started becoming less and less responsible about her chores. More often than not instead of cleaning her room she was in there "talking" to Sean. She also started to ignore her friends. She told her parents that she didn’t need any other friends so long as she had Sean. So worried were Ellen and Jim that they went to a counselor. However the counselor assured them that this was normal behavior for a child her age and they should probably not make a big deal out of it. He told them simply that if they ignored the problem it would go away.

Ellen was not convinced and she started spending time "spying" outside of Colleen’s bedroom door to see what kinds of games she was making up with Sean. The more she watched the more worried she became. Sean seemed so very real to Colleen. As Ellen watched she could see her daughter actually seeming to interact with the imaginary Sean and the idea gave her a shiver.

What Ellen didn’t know was that she had every reason to worry for her daughter. What Ellen didn’t know was that Colleen’s new friend was neither imaginary nor a friend. Sean was a leprechaun, but not like any ordinary leprechaun that you’ve ever heard about. Sean was known as a Rogue, a leprechaun turned to evil by none other than the trolls. Sean’s goal in befriending Colleen was to gain her trust for she needed to come willingly and knowingly to Fairyland or no amount of magic in the world would get her there. You might think that most little girls would jump at a chance to be transported to Fairyland, but Colleen had to be aware that she would never see her family again.

This was the most difficult part of the task for Sean. For you see, Colleen loved her parents and her brother dearly. They had a happy home and she had most anything a 7-year-old girl could ever need. An endless parade of toys, dolls, games, and books. She had a TV in her room, which was something that not all girls her age had. She even had her own little vanity table where she could sit and play dress-up for as long as she liked. Her parents were good to her. They played with her and read with her and took her to fun places like the park and the zoo. Jim was much older than her so she didn’t have to share any of her toys with him the way her friends did with their brothers and Jim was usually even willing to take her for a burger or to see a movie.

It had proven quite a challenge for Sean but he’d never been one to back down from a challenge, especially when it dealt with fooling a human. It had taken him 3 long months but now he was nearing the point where Colleen would be ready. He’d all but managed to convince her that her parents held her bound in servitude with their chores and routines and so were no kind of parents at all. He told her that he and his wife had no children of there own and would be more than glad to give her a happy home. As he sat at the little table with Colleen’s stuffed animals and drank imaginary tea he told her that even now her own mother was spying on her. He bade her not to look but to continue on about the game so that Ellen wouldn’t be suspicious and that was what Colleen did. Week after week they played tea party and dress up; they read stories and watched movies and all the while he whispered to her that her parents, her mother especially, were plotting against her.

Colleen didn’t want to believe it at first but soon enough she started to see for herself. She did as Sean told her and told her mom that she didn’t want to go to gymnastics any more. Sean told her that a nice mom would not make her go and since Colleen’s mom was the nicest in the world, she was sure that her mom would not make her. However she had made her go and the next weekend when Colleen was even more adamant about not going, her mother was more insistent that she go. Colleen was starting to worry. She was starting to see more and more that perhaps Sean was right, perhaps her parents didn’t love her as much as she thought.

Little by little she stopped doing her chores. After all wouldn’t she rather play? How could they deny her happiness? But they had. They had punished her for not cleaning her room or emptying the upstairs wastebaskets, which was her other chore on Saturday. The following week when she still didn’t do her chores the punishments became worse. Colleen could see that they only wanted her to be unhappy and to work for them. Colleen started, very gradually, to turn against her parents.

The alarm was going off at the home of Paddy Callahan. Paddy rose, washed, ironed his clean, green uniform, dressed, and fixed his breakfast. This was the way he started his every morning, as he always had. Paddy was very busy these days and so ate a hearty meal, as there was no telling what time he would get his next one, if in fact it came at all. It had been this way for the past few months, since things started to heat up and they lost a few of their best men. Now they were down to four men in his section where they used to have 8. However this was not the kind of job that one can simply hire for. This was the kind of job that one had to be born to. For Paddy, like Sean, was a Leprechaun and also like Sean, he was like no leprechaun you’ve ever read about. But Paddy was not a Rogue. Paddy was a Hunter, a Rogue Hunter to be precise.

Only a few Leprechauns ever had the special gift to be a Hunter. Paddy was one of the last ever to be discovered with the gift. Their only hope was to wipe out the Rogues and Paddy vowed that if it killed him he would see the end of the evil race of Rogues, which had plagued them for many a century. But that dream was starting to become less likely. In times gone by the Rogues had increased in number and become increasingly powerful. As their power increased they were able to complete their evil deeds with greater frequency than before and as anyone knows, it is the completion of this deed that is the very source of their power. There was talk all through the leprechaun community that the Hunters were having less effect on the Rogues and that soon the Rogues would take over entirely.

Paddy was determined not to allow this to happen. But Paddy was only one against many. It was a difficult task to be sure and he mulled this over all the while on his way to work. His commute was not the same as the way we think of it. There was no need for cars or busses or trains. Travel could be carried out on foot or could be carried out via magical means. Most leprechauns were lazy and preferred not to walk anywhere, but Paddy was different. He enjoyed the walk whenever possible. It kept him strong in body and even strong in mind for resisting the temptation of the quicker conveyance. It also kept him in touch with mortal man and since much of his work brought him in contact with mortals this proved to be a near necessity.

Now you may be wondering how it is that Hunters such as Paddy spend so much time among mortals and yet you don’t hear so much more about them or see one yourself. That is because once a leprechaun has left your company your memory of him is completely erased. You might be left with a warm light-hearted feeling that you didn’t have before, but that is about it. Most assuredly you won’t be finding yourself in the possession of a crock of gold. For one thing, no one can recall the last time a leprechaun lost his crock to a mortal and for another, Hunters are different in that they do not come with a crock. They contact mortals only to save their very lives from the Rogue and are not in the business of granting wishes.

When Paddy arrived at work that morning he was greeted instantly by a very frantic Thomas Casey. Tom worked the night shift and had some very important news for Paddy. It seamed that the Rogue Sean was very close to enchanting his victim. He’d been with this same victim now for approximately 3 months and had escaped their sensors up until this point. You see the sensors can only detect a leprechaun when he is visible to a human. The equipment is set to only set off the alarms if a leprechaun is consistently visible to a human for a period of more than 4 hours at a stretch or each day for more than 2 consecutive days. These longer or more consistent periods are the typical marks of the Rogue for he needs to remain visible in order to gain the trust of his victim. When an ordinary leprechaun comes to the presence of a human for the purpose of mischief, he typically only remains visible for short stints and seldom will he tease the same human for more than a day.

However, Sean is more cunning than other Rogues are because Sean is well aware of how the equipment works. He should be because there was a time when Sean was one of the most successful Hunters there was. So knowing the equipment the way he did, Sean had fooled them by only remaining visible to his victim on Saturdays. Colleen, being a girl blessed with a large imagination, didn’t need to see him any more than that. Simply hearing him whisper to her was enough. So Sean was able to gain her confidence without setting off the alarms.

Today however he decided to take that chance. Today was going to be his best opportunity to lure Colleen away from her parents. He had many factors in his favor today. It was St. Patrick’s Day, which meant that his magical powers were at their strongest (and he might get her to Fairyland even if there was still a slight doubt in her). Her parents had made plans to go out for the day so there would be no interference from them, and since they would not be home, they made plans for Colleen to visit her grandmother. Sean knew from talking to Colleen that her grandmother usually just left her alone when she stayed there. She had a room with a TV and as long as Colleen was quiet she could stay there for hours without her grandmother bothering with her at all.

This was good news for Sean indeed. It meant there would be no babysitter wanting to take Colleen out to all sorts of public places or sit with her and play games. It meant he would have Colleen all to himself. So Sean made the decision to risk detection long enough to lure Colleen away that very day. He knew he was close and so he felt it was a good risk. Besides the Hunter would likely show up at Colleen’s home since when they traced his appearances they would see that they had all been made there. It would take some time for them to trace him to her grandmother’s house for the sensors were not very exact at placement. Sure they could find Colleen’s home all right because they would have months worth of back data to study and pinpoint the location. But the grandmother’s house would be too new. They would never find him there, not fast enough at least.

All the while on the trip to Ellen’s mother’s house Sean whispered in Colleen’s ear. He told her that they were going to a party and didn’t want her to have any of the fun. Even young Jim who was older wasn’t allowed to go and at 16 he was practically a grown-up himself. Still they had sent him to his friend’s and her to her grandmother. What kind of parents are they going to have a good time and not letting their own children enjoy it with them? Weren’t they all Irish as well? Colleen thought for a minute because Jim had asked to go to his friend Brian’s for the night, he wasn’t being sent away. He was old enough to stay home alone if he wanted. But Sean reminded her that Jim had been spending more and more time with Brian and maybe that was because he could see what mean parents he had as well. It was only too bad that Jim was too old to come along to Fairyland or Sean would surely rescue him too.

Colleen relaxed. Sean had a way of making her feel comfortable. She felt she could trust him so much better than her old friends. He wasn’t at all like that selfish Judy who never shared her things or Becky who was a tattletale. Sean always listened to her, always played what she wanted to play, always let her use the best dolls. Even if he was a boy he was more a friend to her than any other girl could ever be and she loved him very much. She wanted always to be with Sean.

Sean had spoken to her often of taking her to Fairyland where they could always be friends. She wanted that so much; more than anything else in the whole world. But he was also honest with her. He told her that her family could not come with her and that once she went to Fairyland she could never come back. That was the part that bothered her still. She knew that her parents had been mean to her but she still loved them very much and she knew she would miss them. It was hard for her to think of never seeing them again. Then she would think of her brother Jim who had never been mean to her and would be stuck with two mean parents. She wanted Jim to come too but Sean told her that he was too old. He thought Fairyland was silly nonsense for little girls. Someone who thought that would never want to go to Fairyland and Sean had been clear that you had to want to go.

They finally arrived at Ellen’s mother’s house and Colleen barely said good-bye to parents before heading towards her room. But Sean told her that she should go back and give them a proper good-bye because she might never see them again. Of course Sean realized that if she started feeling sorry that she hadn’t said a proper good-bye he would probably lose his chance of enchanting her. He was determined to not let that happen.

He smiled to himself proud of how cunning he was. The Great One would give him high praise indeed; he just knew it. He also knew that Colleen would please The Great One very much. Of all the mortals he’d delivered she was probably the kindest and most pure of heart. The magic that was extracted from her blood would probably be the most powerful ever. So lost in his daydreams of glory that he nearly didn’t hear Colleen whisper that it was time for them to go upstairs now. In Fairyland where time passed differently than it did in the mortal world Paddy Callahan was still fast asleep. Sean knew that he had hours before the hunt began. He was going to win this one. This would be his greatest victory ever.

One hour after Paddy had gotten the frantic news from Tom Casey they were still no closer to being able to pinpoint the location of Sean’s signal. This was of no great surprise to Paddy. There were too many variables to warp the signals as they passed between dimensions. For locations that they knew well or had studied over a period of time they could adjust for these variables, but for new locations, such as this one, they simply didn’t have enough data to get close enough. They could be off by as much as 50 miles. Time was growing short; too short to be able to cover 50 square miles. They were already starting to pick up a signal on Colleen, which meant that she was nearing a point of no return. Once he had her full confidence he would zap her here instantly and all would be lost.

Paddy was just as determined to make sure that did not happen, as Sean was to make sure it did. He was desperate and he knew that the only thing for him to do was to materialize in Sean’s last known location and see if he could find some clues as to where they had gone. One of the many powers that Paddy had as Hunter was to be able to make contact with things belonging to a mortal and be able to sense things about that mortal. It was a desperate chance, but it was the only one they had. He was going in.

Tom wanted to go with him because Sean was so cunning, but Paddy wanted to go it alone. Sean would be able to sense Hunters coming. His only hope would be to catch him by surprise. If more than one came the signal would be too strong and there would be no hope of a surprise. He knew that on St. Patrick’s Day Sean would be able to bewitch the child even if she had a slight doubt. It was a big risk for a Rogue to take because some of them had miscalculated the strength of the doubt and Rogue and victim had been lost forever in the endless limbo between dimensions. But Paddy suspected that Sean was cocky enough to take that risk, especially if it was a chose between that and getting caught by the Hunters.

So with the right coordinates in mind Paddy landed square in the living room of the O’Connor house. No one was home at the time, which was good. He could work faster if he remained visible. It also meant they’d have a signal on him and so would be able to send someone in after him if something should happen. He moved slowly from object to object. He tried the telephone but he typically could only get the last conversation from the phone. This one happened to be between Young Jim and his girlfriend. That did him no good. He found Ellen’s coat and from it he learned that they had gone to her mother’s but no inkling of a location. An image of a home, but it could be anywhere. He kept searching.

He tried everything he could get his hands on but nothing rendered the location of Ellen’s mother’s house. Time was growing short he could feel it. Sean was going to take this little girl to Fairyland, take her to his evil master and then…Paddy didn’t even want to think about what would happen then. It was enough to set him in an absolute state. Finally in his frustration he climbed up into Jim’s easy chair and sat down. That is when he got perhaps the best clue of them all: the O’Connor’s were coming home. Jim had other plans for this day. Since the kids would not be at home he planned on telling Ellen he felt ill so that they would have to come home. He wanted Ellen all to himself for awhile.

As Jim set about unlocking his front door he expected he and Ellen might put in their copy of The Quiet Man, drink a couple of Irish coffees, have a light supper and then off to bed. He expected that Ellen might be a little put out when he revealed that he was not really feeling ill, but she would get over it quick enough. He expected that they might even forgo everything else and head right for bed. What he didn’t expect when he opened his front door that there would be a leprechaun sitting in his easy chair. But then, who does?

They stood there in the doorway a moment not believing their eyes; not sure of what to say or do. The silence spun out for what seemed hours, years, but was actually only seconds. It was Paddy who broke the silence.

"Good Afternoon Mr. and Mrs. O’ Conner. I expect ye’ll be a tad in shock."

"Who…" it was about all Jim could manage. The words stuck in his throat.

"A leprechaun, laddy. Aye, ‘tis true. Ye haven’t lost your mind. ‘Tis a leprechaun ye have in your great room." He spoke the words calmly and as he did he used a bit of enchantment to get their minds to accept what their eyes were seeing. Paddy did not have time for hysterics or to convince them he was who he said. He needed Ellen and Jim in their right frame of minds if they were going to believe what next he had to tell them, if they were going to help him save their little girl.

With the help of Paddy’s magic they were at once able to move into the house and speak to him. Saner parts of their minds told them this was crazy but they didn’t listen. Somehow they knew this was different. After all its not everyday you get a visit from a leprechaun. At that thought Ellen had an idea.

"You’re Colleen’s imaginary friend aren’t you?" she asked as she moved to sit on the couch.

"No ma’am. I’m not. But I’ve come because of him. I’ve come to take him back where he belongs and I expect I’ll be needing your help to do it." He looked between Ellen and Jim as he spoke, never taking the seriousness from his face.

"You’ve come to take him back? What is he like a fugitive or something?" Jim was understandably confused. They both were. There was so much they didn’t know and Paddy wasn’t sure he had time to explain it all to them. Time was growing short. He was going to have to get straight to the point.

"You’re daughter’s friend is no ordinary leprechaun. I must tell you that your daughter is in grave danger with each passing moment that she spends with him."

"Danger!?" They spoke the word together, half questioning, half alarmed. Then Jim spoke, his voice remaining even due to the hint of the spell that was over him

"What kind of danger? What can we do?"

"The best thing is to get your daughter back here where he can be captured. We cannot risk going to her grandmother’s after her. Ellen, I learned from your picture, there, that your mother is not well. The shock of this spectacle might be too much for her. You should know that I’ve helped you both to accept me as I am, but I cannot do that for your mother. In her ill state I cannot tell what the magic might do to her." Ellen nodded her understanding. Again saner parts of her mind tried to protest a bit louder than they had a moment ago.

"But I can’t just call mom and ask her to bring Colleen home. She’ll wonder why we are not at the party. If I tell her that we came home because Jim is ill, she’ll insist on keeping Colleen until Jim feels better." She had her head in her hands as she spoke. This was getting to be too much. Fear and frustration were starting to override the bit of magic that Paddy had cast over them. He knew he was losing his hold over Ellen and that Jim would not be far behind. Instinct told him to let it go. He felt certain now that Ellen’s need to protect her daughter would be the only thing that could save her.

"Listen to me Ellen. Call your mother and tell her that you and Jim had a fight and that you want your daughter home for the comfort that’s in it." Again Ellen nodded and Paddy continued. "How long will it take them to get home?"

"About 45 minutes." Jim told him as Ellen was already dialing the number.

"That will make things very close indeed, but it should give me enough time to explain what is going on and what we are going to do."

Ellen was busy lying to her mother on the phone and Jim got up to fix himself a drink. But Paddy stopped him.

"No lad. Ye’ll be needing your right mind for what is about to come." This time it was Jim that nodded his agreement.

Ellen returned and told them that her mother understood and was bringing Colleen straight home. When they were seated together, Paddy began his story. While he talked Ellen and Jim asked many questions. But in the end, this is the story he told.

Two hundred years ago a great pall came over Fairyland. The sky turned dark and most of us lost all magical abilities. No one knows the source of the pall. What we do know it was just after this that the one we call The Evil One and the Trolls call The Great One first appeared. He came to the Trolls in dreams but none of them ever saw him, either then or since. However the Trolls worship him and do his evil bidding. In exchange he sees to it that the Trolls have all the riches they could ever want and gradually, little by little he has given them increasing magic powers.

We don’t know how he managed this in the beginning but we do know how he manages it now. He steals the magic from leprechauns. A leprechaun is caught and captured by Trolls. They are able to do this because that is part of the special magic ability The Evil One has given them. Once they capture a leprechaun they make him drink the blood of a pure-hearted mortal. Drinking the blood puts the leprechaun in a state which allows The Evil One to steal a bit of his magic, not much, but enough to make the Trolls happy. He then becomes more powerful and the leprechaun is bewitched by his evil presence. He is under the power of The Evil One and even the Trolls themselves. It is these leprechauns that we call Rogues.

For years we were at a loss. We didn’t know what to do. We could not stand our own people being preyed upon to be sure, but to see your poor innocent sons and daughters being needlessly slaughtered, it broke our hearts. We couldn’t bear it. Leprechauns are a happy breed. We enjoy the making of the mischief and the teasing and tormenting of certain members of your race, but ‘tis all in good fun. No one ever gets hurt and when we leave you, you always feel a happiness on you. There can be no harm to that. So we set out to find a way to stop the Trolls. However the Trolls are under the protection of The Evil One and we have not been able to combat him. So great is his protection that we cannot even find where the Trolls live. So a new plan was formed to stop the Rogues. We thought that if we can capture the Rogues and turn them back to their right minds they would lead us to the Trolls. So far this has proven fruitless. But we keep trying.

Over the years we learned a great many skills for capturing the Rogues. It seemed that a certain few among us had special abilities that made the hunting and capturing of Rogues easier. We formed contingents of these men, myself included and called ourselves The Hunters. Some of us being more technology minded were able to create great sensory machines, which helps lead us to the Rogues. That is how I happened to find you here today. So now here I am and Colleen is nearing this house and our Rogue with her. Now we’ll need to capture him.

Jim and Ellen listened further as Paddy explained his plan for capturing Sean. He explained that since Sean had been a Hunter himself he would be wise to the ways of the Hunter and would know that a trap has been set. He also explained that Sean was cocky enough to want to show that he could slip the trap and to try to take down the Hunter as well as the girl. He also explained that although she had to go willingly and knowingly into Fairyland, he could override that doubt with a special magic. However it is a magic that as much a risk to the Rogue as it is to the victim and he most Rogues would not wish to chance it. But Sean is not like most Rogues, his ego may be enough for him to make a crucial mistake.

All the while that Ellen and Jim listened to Paddy tell his story and explain his plan, Colleen and Sean were having a very different conversation. For one thing, so strong was Sean’s tie to Colleen that he was now able to communicate with her telepathically. This worked out perfectly for they were in the back seat of her grandmother’s car and returning home. He needed every precious moment he had to talk to her because he knew that a Hunter would be waiting for him at Colleen’s house. He could sense it. But there was a good chance that he could still get her to Fairyland even if the Hunter was there. She was just that close to being ready.

So during the ride home he explained to her that her mother had lied. Her parents had not had a fight at all, they just came home from the party early so that they could get Colleen home to do some bit of slavery that needs doing. Colleen was having a hard time with this. They had always gone out on St. Patrick’s Day. Its all her mom had discussed for days. Colleen was a pretty sharp kid and couldn’t believe that mom and dad would miss this party just to make her unhappy. But Sean told her that when they got there she would see that both her parents were there and so were not fighting.

Colleen didn’t want to talk to Sean for the rest of the ride home. This had not been a fun day at all. All day was spent telling her how mean he parents were. But Colleen was hoping that since they weren’t at home and free to do what they want, Sean would want to have fun with her. Now even here in the car he is still talking to her about these same things. She loved Sean very much and she very much wanted to go to Fairyland and never have to worry about school or chores or anything ever again. She decided that when they got back up to her bedroom she was going to have to talk to Sean and tell him that she wanted him to go to Fairyland without her this time.

Sean did not hear these thoughts exactly. When Colleen’s doubt increased he got pushed from her mind. He didn’t know that she had changed her mind about Fairyland only that her confidence in him was waning. He didn’t want to risk whispering to her just now. He figured the best would be to wait until after they got home, after he dealt with the Hunter. He knew once he slipped out of the Hunter’s trap and Colleen saw that he was right about her parents, she would have new confidence in him.

At the O’Conner’s Jim and Ellen were growing increasingly tense. The Hunter had actually left them for a moment because he said that he didn’t want Sean to sense his presence. He would be waiting back at his headquarters for Colleen and Sean to arrive and then he would pop in and catch him by surprise. Within moments after Paddy had left they began to doubt whether or not he had even been there. They knew Colleen should be near home and they knew what they were supposed to do, but it all seemed so surreal to them. If nothing happened soon, they were going to forget Paddy entirely.

However before that could happen Ellen’s mother pulled up out front. Jim and Ellen came to the door together and when Colleen saw them with their arms around each other she could see that Sean had been right. There had been no fight. She approached her mother in tears.

"Mommy please I want to go to Fairyland. Please mommy let me go. Why are you a mean mommy? I want to go to Fairyland." Sean kicked her in the shin and whispered to her to be quiet because her mother wouldn’t understand. But still she continued crying. She was beyond consolation as Ellen took her into her arms. Jim thanked his mother-in-law from behind them and said Ellen would call her later.

Sean couldn’t be troubled with her endless crying any longer. He had to look for the Hunter. He had been certain that a trap had been set for him but now that they were in the house he couldn’t sense the presence of a Hunter anywhere. Sean was getting nervous. First Colleen’s doubts and now it seemed he’d been wrong about the Hunter. He’d never let things get this far out of hand before. He must be losing his touch. All through the house he searched but there was no Hunter to be found. Either he had completely misread the signs or the Hunters have gotten a mite sneakier all of a sudden.

When he sensed the house was clean he returned to Colleen’s room to find her crying into her pillow. He told her that only a mean mom would leave her own darling daughter to cry alone. He patted her head awhile and waited for the sobs to slow down enough that he could speak to her.

"Do ye still wish to go to Fairyland with me Colleen?" His voice was slow, gentle, hypnotic.

"Y-yes," she managed between hitched breath. There was still a little doubt in her and he could sense it but he could wait no longer. If the Hunter wasn’t there now, he would be soon. It was time for Colleen to go and that meant that he would have to force her mind to accept it. The magic he used was similar to the magic Paddy had used when he first met with Jim and Ellen. It would not remove the doubt but it would act like a drug to sooth it down.

Slowly, softly he spoke to her. He told her about the beauty and wonder that is in Fairyland and he spoke no more of the evilness of her parents because she needed only to be thinking of good things. He told her how he and his wife would care for her and comfort her and provide for her as long as she lived. She would have everything that she ever dreamed of because they had the magic to give it to her. As he spoke a hole began to open and through the hole she could see into Fairyland. It was a beautiful green and golden place. He showed her the house they live in and how she would be able to live there too because she would become as tiny as they are when she crossed over.

There was a spec of doubt still because she loved her parents even if they were mean and she loved her brother and would miss him. But when she looked into the great beauty of Fairyland she wanted to go there and see it and touch it and live in that house. He told her she need only lift her foot up and step into the hole and she would place it down in Fairyland.

She was so entranced that it took her a very long time to lift her foot far enough. Slowly inch by inch her foot came off the ground – and then she stopped. There was a noise. Something was wrong. Sean was shouting at someone. She turned and saw another leprechaun there.

"Its too late Paddy. The girl is going in. She’s under the spell. You cannot rescue her now." But Sean was uncertain. This was unexpected. Why had the Hunter taken so long to show up? Could this be some form of trap? But how? She was almost through the portal. One good shove and she would be through.

"Take my hand Colleen. On the count of three we’ll go together." They clasped hands and Colleen closed her eyes and knew when she opened them she would be in that magical wonderful place before her.

"One, two, ready to jump?" That pause was all Paddy needed. At the second before she jumped he grabbed her. When she hesitated the image through the portal changed radically. Instead of the wonder of Fairyland there was the endless abyss of time and space between dimensions. Sean was trying frantically to cling to anything to not get drawn in.

"You see Sean it was your own doubt that was the trap. Her doubt you can overcome with magic but your own doubt you can never overcome."

"Paddy I beg of you, rescue me. We were Hunters together once, we can be again." Sean’s voice was mad with desperation. Paddy knew what to do.

"I’ll rescue you on one condition. You must tell me how to defeat The Evil One."

"Och Paddy, you must have another condition. There is no way to defeat him. His control, his power is too great. He’s been feeding off us for 2 hundred years now. There is no way." Sean was near tears and nearing the end of his strength. In a matter of moments he would be sucked in. But Paddy made one more request of him.

"If we cannot defeat the Evil One, then tell me where he is. Tell me how we can find the Trolls now and perhaps if we destroy them we will destroy him."

"I’ll tell you. Anything. Anything you want. Just rescue me." One arm was already through the portal. It was a close call, but in the millisecond before he would be lost forever Paddy rescued him.

The next Saturday morning was the same at the O’Conner house as all of their most routine Saturday mornings had ever been. They had forgotten all about their trouble with leprechauns but were left with a light-hearted happy feeling, that none of them could explain or cared about. Their lives went on and they were once again a happy family.

Back in Fairyland Sean made good on his word and he showed the Hunters how to find the Trolls and how to defend themselves against being made Rogues. Instead of destroying them they worked on them gradually. One by one, they would capture a Troll and deprogram him. Then return him back to the village. Little by little they all came around and although Trolls will never be the nicest creatures ever created, they were considerably less evil. For one thing they no longer made Rogues. The Evil One lost his power and when the humans stopped being brought to him, he moved on.

Sean did not forget Colleen or the great evil he tried to do to her. He was determined to make it up to her in some way.

A month later Ellen received the news from the doctor that her mother’s heart condition had completely reversed itself. It was as though she’d never been ill in the first place. The whole family went out to celebrate and Colleen noticed something else. After gramma’s heart got better, she was much nicer and happier. She didn’t just ignore her in her room anymore. She played with her and read to her and told her stories from the family. Colleen never knew or cared that it was Sean who gave her, her grandmother back. She was just happy to have her.

They all were.