Elf Dog and Owl Head

During a hunt in the petrified forest beneath a mountain, a pack of elf-hounds, magical hounds belonging to the Queen of the People Under the Mountain, chases an old wyrm, a dragon-like creature, through underground caverns. A young elf-hound with tall, pointed ears notices the wyrm is leading the pack away from her babies and chooses not to reveal them. The Master of the Hunt, who leads the royal hunting party, kicks the young dog for lagging behind. When the wyrm escapes aboveground by darting across a highway, the young elf-hound lingers too long exploring the human world. By the time she returns to the mountain, the magical gate has closed. She is stranded, separated from her pack and her uncle Greykin, the pack's leader.

In the town of Gerenford, a boy named Clay O'Brian walks through the forest alone. A virus has shut down schools, and Clay cannot see his best friend, Levi, or anyone outside his family. His mother has lost her waitressing job, his older sister DiRossi plays online zombie games and sleeps, and his younger sister Juniper shares his bedroom. While playing alone, Clay senses something behind him. Before an unseen creature with golden eyes and blue scales can reach him, the elf-hound bursts from the woods and chases it away. The dog follows Clay home, accepting food only on plastic plates, having been accustomed to gold and silver in the royal kennels. Clay's family posts about the dog online, but no one claims her. Clay dubs her a "Bulgarian elf-hound," inventing the breed on the spot.

When Clay lets the dog lead him through the forest, she takes him along hidden paths up Mount Norumbega to a village he has never seen. Clay watches two men whose heads swivel to reveal owl faces beneath wide-brimmed hats. They read runes on the dog's collar and identify her as Elphinore, a royal hunting dog of the People Under the Mountain, a magical race living in a kingdom beneath the earth. Clay watches one of them sprinkle powder from a wooden shaker onto cabbages, making them grow instantly. He grabs a shaker and flees home.

The magical powder causes chaos in the O'Brian household. DiRossi mistakes it for bath salts, filling the tub with marsh grass and catfish. Mr. O'Brian uses it in the laundry, transforming his cotton pants into a plant tornado and his polyester shirt into a small dinosaur. Juniper's sweater becomes a five-legged sheep. Mrs. O'Brian uses the last of it on her vegetable garden, which leaps from seedlings to full abundance, easing the family's food worries during the pandemic.

That night, an owl-headed child named Amos appears on the lawn. He explains that the hidden forest paths connect "folds of space" visible only to creatures like Elphinore and warns Clay that the People Under the Mountain would destroy his house if they discovered he was keeping their dog (82). Clay refuses to give Elphinore up, and the two agree to explore the forest together.

Over the summer, Clay, Elphinore, and Amos explore the enchanted forest. Elphinore leads them to a wishing lake: Wishes made on the far shore come true, but only if a wish is taken from someone on the near shore. They discover the Sleepers, enormous giants buried under the forest floor. Elphinore wakes one named Vud, who has slept since the last ice age and is profoundly depressed, refusing to stand. Clay grows closer to Amos but drifts from Levi, withholding his adventures.

One day at a ruined tower, the boys find an old key with a borrowed metal detector. When they separate Clay from Elphinore, they discover he cannot find the magical paths alone. The old blue wyrm attacks. Elphinore fights but takes deep wounds to her hip. Together, Clay and Amos send the wyrm plunging into an abyss. Both Clay and Elphinore are badly hurt, and Amos carries the dog to the owl-head village for healing. The village doctor treats them, but the elders, Sister Hesther and Brother Mordenai, punish Amos with lashes and confinement, ban Clay from the village forever, and force the friends to say goodbye.

The pandemic summer wears on. DiRossi, furious at being trapped at home, storms into the woods with Elphinore and discovers Vud. She visits the giant daily, drawn to his gloomy pronouncements. When Juniper gets lost in the woods without Elphinore to guide her, DiRossi begs Vud to help, but the giant refuses, revealing he is not truly her friend. DiRossi finds Juniper safe at a circle of standing stones, ancient gateways between worlds, with Amos, who delivers a message for Clay: On Midsummer's Eve, the gates will open for a great celebration, and Clay should wear a mask and red trousers so Amos can find him.

Clay builds a dragon mask, and DiRossi insists on joining him. Meanwhile, Mr. O'Brian buys Elphinore a new collar, and Mrs. O'Brian discards the old bejeweled one, not realizing its gems are real. On Midsummer's Eve, the siblings and Elphinore follow strange beings to a vast gathering of creatures from many worlds. Amos warns Clay not to eat any food, as mortals who do are trapped under the mountain forever. DiRossi dances with owl-head teenagers through gateways between worlds, while Clay and Amos play games with other children.

The celebration turns dark when the court of the Kingdom Under the Mountain emerges, accompanied by the Royal Hunt, the kingdom's official hunting party. Elphinore hears her pack and races toward them, but her uncle Greykin attacks her for smelling of humans. The Master of the Hunt kicks her, guards block Clay, and Elphinore is leashed and dragged underground. Clay's mask falls off, exposing his human face. The Hunt sends riders after DiRossi, mistaking her for Clay because of her red pants. She flees home, but the People Under the Mountain ride their horses through the solid walls of the house, destroying everything inside while the family huddles helplessly.

Clay resolves to rescue Elphinore. Amos produces the key from the tower, and they discover it opens a hatch at the tower's base. Disguising themselves as a single tall creature in a stolen four-armed coat, with Amos wearing Clay's dragon mask on top, they descend into a vast underground palace city lit by a gemstone sun. At the kennels, they find a squire trying to cage Elphinore. She smells Clay through the disguise and leaps toward them; Amos knocks the squire unconscious. Rather than heading back to the staircase, Elphinore leads them to a golden gondola, a cable-powered lift, and the boys pump it to the surface. They flee into the forest with the Hunt in pursuit.

Clay leads them to the wishing lake. The elf-hound pack surrounds and attacks the boys before Clay can reach the wishing shore. Elphinore, alone on the opposite shore among apple trees, wishes with all her heart to be with Clay forever and never see the People Under the Mountain again. The lake's magic takes the Master of the Hunt's wish, his claim over Elphinore, from the opposite shore. Thunder and lightning flash; the entire Hunt melts into the ground and vanishes.

At dawn, the owl-head elders decree a final punishment: Elphinore will lose her ability to walk between worlds, and Clay will lose all memory of the village and everyone in it, including Amos. The boys say goodbye. The elders use the lake to strip Clay's memories. He wakes on the path behind his house, covered in dew and scratches, unable to remember why he slept in the woods.

Clay returns to a destroyed house. The police assume vandals caused the damage, and the family moves to Levi's farm, where Clay and Levi finally reunite. When Clay vaguely remembers that Elphinore's old collar had real gemstones, his mother says she threw it away weeks ago. Juniper saves the day: She had removed the gems to decorate her cardboard mask, and the stones prove valuable enough to solve the family's financial problems. Mr. O'Brian suggests moving farther from the forest, but Clay resists. He and DiRossi ride back to their ruined house, where DiRossi tells him everything she remembers about their adventures. His memories slowly return. They walk into the forest with Elphinore. They can no longer find the hidden paths, but they climb Mount Norumbega, where Clay sits with his dog overlooking the vast forest and all the unseen worlds within it, waiting for whatever comes next.