Lili looked up at the creature who had tossed the runes. It gestured towards the runes, obviously indicating that Lili should examine them.

"But I can't read runes!" Lili began but, as she looked at them again, she found that she could. The markings on the stones were definitely runic symbols and not the alphabet which Lili was used to reading, but somehow, unbelievable as it seemed, she was able to understand them.

"Thank you," Lili read.

"You're welcome," she said to the thrower of the runes as well as to the other creatures who had gathered around her.

Almost as one being, the small beings nodded their acknowledgement of Lili's help and stepped back -- there was no other way of describing it -- into the hill. It was as if the creatures had all dissolved into the very fabric of the earth.

Lili stared around her, amazed. She stared and stared at the earth in spots where she knew one of the creatures had stood but moments before, but she could find no trace of them. They had simply vanished, save for the one who had thrown the runes and who still remained standing in front of Lili.

Lili looked to the last remaining creature nervously. She would have liked to examine the places where its comrades had disappeared more closely, but she was not sure what the remaining creature would do now, plus, she really did have to get to her dance class.

With another nod to the earth creature, Lili turned her back on it, certain that the path out from under her porch must lie just behind her. She still saw no sign of it, however, and she was starting to feel really anxious when the earth creature tossed another handful of runes at her feet.