Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A king and queen had two daughters named Anne and Kate, who were truly devoted to one another. Anne was the most beautiful maiden in all the land. The queen was jealous of Anne’s beauty and conspired with an apothecary to ruin Anne’s face. At first they tried a powder that made Anne’s face break out in a rash, but Kate washed her sister’s face in cool, clear water and healed her. Next, the queen paid the apothecary to cut Anne’s face with a poisoned blade, but Kate put healing ointment on Anne’s face and bandaged the wounds. Finally, the queen and the apothecary turned to a darker magic, enchanting Anne and transforming her head into a sheep’s head. Kate wrapped Anne’s head in a cloth. They left the castle on foot to go out into the world to seek their fortunes.

After many days of walking the girls came to another castle where the king had two sons. One of the sons was hale and strong, but the other sickened from a strange disease, and whoever watched in his chamber at night vanished. Kate begged shelter from the king for herself and her “sick” sister. At first the king said that he did not have room for the girls, but Kate offered to watch at the bedside of his sick son. The agreed.

The first night, Kate watched at the bedside of the sick prince. As the clock struck midnight, the sick prince rose from his bed. Kate followed. He saddled his horse. Kate jumped up behind and rode with him through the woods, collecting nuts from the trees as they rode along. They rode to a green hill where fairies danced in the moonlight. The prince and Kate passed through unnoticed and returned to the castle.

The king was so surprised to see that Kate was still there that he allowed the girls to stay another night. The second night passed as the first, except that while riding through the fairy dance, Kate noticed a fairy baby playing with a wand. She heard a group of fairies say that three strokes of the wand would cure any deformity. Kate rolled the nuts she had collected from the trees in order to distract the baby fairy and took the wand.

Kate used the wand to cure her sister of her deformity. The well prince was quite taken with Anne’s beauty and asked to marry her. The third night passed as the other two, but when Kate saw the fairy baby it was playing with a bird. She heard a group of fairies say that three bites of the bird would cure any illness. Kate rolled the nuts she had collected from the trees in order to distract the baby fairy and took the bird.

When they returned to the castle, Kate cooked the bird and fed it to the sick prince. He became well and asked to marry her because she had been so kind to him while he was sick. So they all married �" the sick brother to the well sister, and the well brother to the sick sister.

I bounced along on Stella’s back. Our gardens are quite extensive, so we trotted along for some time on manicured lawns. We had ridden for perhaps twenty minutes when we reached the verge between the sculpted flower beds and the summertime orchard. Although not as fragrant as in the spring when the blossoms cascaded to the ground, the infant fruits swaying from the branches heralded the approach of pies, preserves, and other autumn delights. We passed row upon row of apples, peaches, pears, and even some exotic citrus, my head bobbing at the height of the low trees.

           Beyond the orchard our property turned to a brief vineyard filled with white and purple grapes sweetening on the vine. Some of the canes did not hold grapes; these were filled with raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries warming in the sun. Some people would say that winter is the hungriest season, but to me, summer is the hungriest �" anticipation of the delights to come is much crueler than even the deepest frozen months.

           Our lands stretched on past the vineyard to brown fields brimming with vegetables and grains. We followed the rutted wagon road through this part of my father’s property that I had rarely seen. Waves and waves of green growing things flowed past me in such a way that it seemed as if I were stationary and the land were moving. I floated farther and farther away from my parents’ home on a sea of summertime.

           It seemed like hours before I rode clear of my family’s estate, but the sun was still in the morning half of the sky. Shadows met me. The edge of the forest held sudden cool and a breathtaking stillness. The trees in an old forest are so much taller, so much broader, much older and wiser than the trees in our gardens. Forest trees have memories, too, memories of the times before my father’s war.

           We paused for a moment. I could not decide if it would be better for me to ride or walk beneath the thick shadows. “Ride” turned out to be the wrong answer, for almost immediately I was forced to duck branches looming in the pathway. Stella stood placidly while I hoisted myself off the saddle. I took her halter in my hand and began leading her slowly along the path.

           Was the path the right choice? When I left the gardens with my horse, I had attempted to follow in more or less the same direction in which Alpinolo had disappeared. But by now, after skirting hedges and following the wagon-road through the fields, I felt uncertain as to my orientation. Could I call the fairy’s name, now that I was safely away from my family? I opened my mouth to shout, but the dark stillness of the forest flowed into my throat and stopped the sound. What if the noise I made alerted some dangerous creature to my presence? What could I do if a bear or wolf found me? Even worse, if fairies still existed, was I in danger from more sinister magical creatures?

           Under the huge trees I had no way of seeing the sun to guess the time, but my stomach alerted me to approximately midday. Stella and I each had an apple, and I ate one roll. For water I dared a few sips from a tiny, frigid stream running across the path. The path? I was no longer so sure I was on any path, and I had long since given up knowing my intended direction.

           As we walked further into the trees my mind turned to hopeless thoughts. I felt so unprepared for this adventure: very little food, no protection for the night, no companions, no direction for travel. Did fatigue cause the meager light in the forest to dim, or was the sun in fact setting?

           I stopped after a while to rest my legs and look around. I leaned against Stella’s neck, and she nuzzled my shoulder with her soft nose. Without warning, the ground beneath us gave way. After a moment of dust and bruises, I was finally able to see that my horse and I had fallen into a pit. We had fallen into a square pit. Just the right size and shape for a person and a horse to be trapped, the pit had obviously been intentionally carved out of the ground. I felt stupid for not being more aware of my surroundings.

           What were my options? I could not climb the vertical banks of the pit on my own, and Stella could not walk or jump out, either. If I climbed on her back, would I be able to grab the edges and pull myself free? But what about Stella? If I tried to go for help, would I be too lost or exhausted to escape the forest before nightfall?

           It seemed our only chance for me to attempt the escape and hope to come back with help for Stella. I climbed stiffly into the saddle and began to reach for the nearest edge. Sadly, my attempt was denied. The shifting of our weights was enough for the ground to give way a second time! We fell into a hollow darkness.

Obviously, this was not one of my finer moments. I cannot relate exactly what happened after we fell because I was unconscious, but I surmise that the second floor through which we fell was actually a door that closed again after we had fallen. I say this because when I finally opened my eyes. Darkness flowed in. If you have ever opened your eyes in a cave, you will know what I mean.

           My head pounded, my joints ached, and Stella made an unpleasant grunt as she raised herself to standing beside me. I preferred to lie on the floor for a moment longer to get my bearings. I rested on stone, for sure, but it was not cold as I expected it to be, rather it was a pleasantly even temperature. Stranger still, it felt incredibly smooth, almost polished. Definitely an intentionally built structure, the double trap above and this room below, I thought as I stood. But to whom did it belong?

           I stood slowly. I listened for a long moment and heard nothing. I strained my eyes further into the darkness and saw nothing. I sniffed hesitantly, but smelled nothing, either. Feeling strangely calm and even more uncharacteristically brave, I took a step forward, my arms stretched ahead of my face. Nothing. Another step, and then another, but still nothing. After I had taken five such steps, my hands touched another smooth stone surface, a wall. I ran my hands along the wall for several steps until I touched something thin and silky.

           I screamed. I may have been on an adventure, but spider webs are beyond the pale. My scream echoed briefly off the six polished surfaces of my prison, and I froze. Would the sound be heard? If so, by friendly creatures, or angry ones?

          The answer was not long in coming. I only had a moment to wonder if the spider web was an indication of infrequent use of this room before I heard a sound outside. I say outside, but at the time I was unsure where “outside” was, since I appeared to be trapped in an isolated underground room. On the contrary, a slight scraping sound alerted me that a door was being pushed open, but I still saw nothing. Quite suddenly, something small and very strong gripped my arms and pulled me through a space in the wall into a tunnel of sorts filled with sweet air. I gasped as I realized I was leaving Stella behind, but there was no way for me to pull myself free.

           The tunnel tapered to a point at which I was forced onto my hands and knees. Quite a disgraceful position for a young lady, but at the moment I was far more concerned with my captors. I still saw nothing, not even any light, but I could hear faint squeaks and grumbles emanating from all around me. Suddenly, I heard light footsteps approaching, and the squeaking and grumbling rose in a crescendo. All at once, there was silence while one tiny squeak continued and then too fell silent. I waited, hardly daring to breathe.

           Ten tiny points of warmth appeared on my face under the lightest of touches. What was it? Another squeak, and then all at once my senses were bombarded with smells and sounds and lighted images.

           Oh my goodness. “Alpinolo!” I croaked, hardly daring to believe that I had managed to find him after all.

           “Hello, hello! My, I am so glad, so very glad. I knew you would come!”

           For a moment, I was too stunned to say anything more. “You knew I would come? Then why did you leave?”

           “Well,” he said with a self-important air, “one of us had to get started, eh? Besides, I knew you would find me!”

           Incredible.

           I looked to my left and right in order to determine what or who was holding me. Looking did not answer the question. My right arm was held captive in the grip of a stout figure just under four feet high wearing thick boots, britches, a jerkin, and a craggy scowl in varying shades of grey and brown, with a pitch black curly beard and eyes sharp as obsidian. A similar figure held my right arm, but minus the pants and beard. Instead, the figure on my left hid all but the toes of its boots under a long sooty skirt, and on one hand it wore a curiously large green gemstone ring.

           “Al,” growled the figure on my right, “what didje do that for? It doesn’t need to see nothin’ down here!”

           “You tell ‘im, Parchy!” said the figure on the left in a slightly higher growl as it squeezed my arm. “Fairy sight ain’t fer them.” The final word was punctuated by her spitting onto the ground before my face.

           “What?” I cried, perhaps imprudently. “Could somebody please tell me where I am, and what is going on?”

           “Certainly, my dear.” Alpinolo eyed my captors. “Would you two be so kind as to release her? Parchibald and Sonify do not mean you any real harm, of course, but we are rather suspicious of strangers here.” The two scowling figures looked as if they did mean both Alpinolo and myself some harm at this point, but they released my arms at his request.

           “Intruders, ye mean,” huffed Parchibald, crossing his arms over his barrel chest.

           “Semantics,” Alpinolo waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “If you have not already guessed, Parchibald and Sonify are dwarves, and we are currently standing in a gorgeous tunnel that they personally built with their four skilled hands.” This comment caused the dwarves’ swarthy complexions to brighten slightly. “They also built the door you used to visit us.”

           “Door? I fell into a trap!”

           “And a right good ‘un, too!” snapped Sonify. “Ye had no idea where ye was, or where ye was going to, I reckon.”

           Alpinolo intervened. “Indeed, Brina, to you it seemed a trap, or a trapdoor, because you did not have fairy sight. Now that I have given it to you, you can see and understand all of us, as well as all other magical creatures. But beware, and do not abuse the privilege �" it has been given to precious few.”

           Parchibald looked as if he wished to comment on this point, but the fairy ignored the dwarf’s open mouth. “Where were you planning to take her?”

           “To Trixie, Dixie, and Moxie,” grumped Parchibald.

           “Excellent! I shall accompany you,” beamed Alpinolo. “And I trust, now that I am here, you will not feel compelled to restrain her?”

Author's Note

I'm serious about finishing this book and making it appealing to the YA audience -- please help me polish it!

Reviews

[SweetNutmeg]

I love that Kate and Anne go out adventuring. In the common fairy tales only men do so.

My one comment is about "craggy scowl." I am having trouble seeing a scowl as craggy. When I think of craggy, I think of craggy features, not a facial expression.

Otherwise, this is an interesting turn of events. I like Alpinolo's personality.

[DaughterNature]

I know, right? I was so excited to find some fairy tales with different kinds of characters! Wait till you hear what the elves have to say.

I understand where you're coming from on that one, but I guess I wanted to imply the "craggy facial features" at the same time I told you he was scowling. But, if it doesn't make sense, it's always worth re-thinking.

I'm so glad to hear that! I know I need to spend some more time making each of the characters' personalities more distinct, but it's good to know you like where he's going.