Chapter 4

Chapter 4

There was once a poor miller who had a daughter who had excellent skill in spinning. In the same region, there lived a powerful but greedy king. The king rode through the land, looking for a maiden to take as his wife. The poor miller, hoping to persuade the king to marry his daughter and provide himself with a fortune, lied and told the king his daughter was so skilled at spinning that she could spin straw into gold. The king was so greedy that he took the girl from her father and locked her in a room in his castle. The king had attendants fill the room with straw and gave the girl a spinning wheel, telling her that if she had not spun all the straw into gold by the morning that he would chop off her head.

The girl fell to the floor weeping, knowing she would be killed in the morning because she could not spin straw into gold. As she wept, an elf appeared in the room and asked why she was crying. After explaining her situation, the maiden begged the elf to help her. He agreed to help her in return for the pearl necklace she wore. The elf spun all the straw into gold and then left.

The next morning, the king was so impressed that he had the maiden moved to a larger room filled with straw. Again, he demanded that she spin all the straw into gold before morning or he would cut off her head. Again the girl began to weep. The elf returned and agreed to help her in return for the emerald ring she wore. The elf spun all the straw into gold and left.

The next morning, the king was so impressed that the maiden had succeeded again, and so enamored with her beauty, that he promised to marry her if she could complete the task one more time. He had her moved to the largest room of the castle filled it with straw, and reminded her that he would behead her if she had not turned the straw to gold by morning. The maiden thought the task completely hopeless, but the elf appeared again. The maiden had no more jewelry with which to pay him, but he agreed to help her if she would give him her firstborn child. The maiden had no choice but to promise. The elf spun all the straw into gold and left.

The next morning, the king was so surprised and pleased that he married the maiden immediately. A year later, the night after she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, the elf entered her chamber and demanded that she keep her promise. The maiden, now safe as the queen of a wealthy king and quite in love with her new baby, refused to give up her child and begged the elf to reconsider. She offered him jewels and other riches, but he refused, desiring only the child. As the maiden began to weep, the elf offered a compromise. He would allow the queen three chances on three nights to guess his name. If, by the third night, she had not guessed his name, then the child would be his. Having no other option, the queen agreed. On the first night, she guessed three very common names. None of them were correct. On the second night, she guessed three very exotic names. None of them were correct.

At this point, the queen was quite distraught. She sent messengers out all over the land to seek the name of the strange elf. All of the messengers but one returned to say that they had no luck. The last messenger to return told a strange tale of climbing up a forest trail and finding a small hut, wherein he heard a tiny man singing about how that night he would win the queen’s son. The tiny man had sung his own name, too: Rumplestiltskin.

The queen was overjoyed with the messenger’s news. When the elf appeared on the third night, the queen guessed two very ordinary names. Neither was correct. As the elf reached for her baby, the queen reminded him that she had one guess remaining. As she called out “Rumplestiltskin!”the elf screamed and stamped his foot so hard that it sank into the ground up to his waist. In his fury, he grabbed his other leg and tried to pull himself out of the ground, but instead he ripped himself in half.

Without a chance to rub my bruised arms, we proceeded down the tunnel. I learned very quickly to be grateful for Alpinolo’s gift of fairy sight; without it, the tunnel would have been extremely treacherous. With it, I made use of the sourceless light flowing through the tunnel to traverse a narrow, winding track on all fours.

           “If only my mother could see me now, what she would say,” I thought to myself as I crawled. Suddenly, without explanation, I felt a lump grow in my throat. I have no special feelings of affection towards my mother. How can I feel strongly for a woman who is either patently uninterested in my life or inanely critical of my slightest dress and deportment? Still, she is my mother. All of the questions about my family’s safety and happiness came flooding back to me. They may not be perfect, but could I really continue on a venture that might compromise them?

I stopped in the middle of the tunnel, and Sonify tripped over my foot.

“Ye big oaf,” she screeched, kicking me heartily in the leg.

“Hey! Knock it off!” Now I was really upset. “Alpinolo, I won’t cooperate with you if you can’t guarantee that my family will stay safe, no matter what we do.”

Alpinolo placed his hand on Sonify’s knee and guided her out of his way. “Brina, why are you worried?”

“Isn’t that obvious? You creatures trap people in holes in the woods, curse people, sometimes even kill people! Who knows what you might do to get the kingdom back?” The small space in the tunnel made me feel frantic, and I wanted to scream.

The fairy did not immediately respond. Instead, he sat down in front of me. “I understand. Please know that I mean you and your family no harm. Nothing I can say right now in this dark space will ease your fears, but I hope that those who you will soon meet can soothe you. After all, I think you know by now that we are not senseless barbarians.”

Parchibald grunted behind him, snorted, and spat against the tunnel wall.

I frowned, but also realized Alpinolo was my only hope to get out of the tunnel. “Alright. I will continue with you only on the condition that you take care of my horse. She’s still back in that room.”

Alpinolo nodded and stood. Sonify sniffed, turned on her heel, and stomped away from us down the tunnel back toward Stella. “Sonify will bring her to the main hall by another way.”

“There’s another way? A way for taller things?”

“Of course,” said Alpinolo, walking away from me.

It was some time before any of us spoke. Alpinolo now took the lead, just barely keeping ahead of me on his short legs. Parchibald brought up the rear, stewing and shuffling. I did my best to move through the tunnel at a speed agreeable to them. As the track widened, I felt free to reconsider my situation. “Alpinolo, who are Trixie, Dixie, and Moxie?”

“Ah!” Alpinolo chuckled and moved to walk alongside my head. “What an excellent question! Trixie, Dixie, and Moxie are the pixies who more or less rule what remains of our world.”

“Pixies? Rulers?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Why ‘of course’?”

My fairy sighed. “Brina, I understand that all of this is unfamiliar to you, but why must you sound so surprised by everything I say?”

I stopped to gape at him, since the question seemed a little ridiculous, but Parchibald kicked my shoe to make me keep crawling.

“Now then. Trixie, Dixie, and Moxie are three pixy siblings who are the current rulers of the remnants of the magical society. Pixies have traditionally held this role due to the superior diversity of their powers. All magical creatures have varying powers and abilities, but most pixies master a broader variety and greater number than other groups. This fact contributes almost exclusively to their great diplomatic prowess. I say ‘exclusively’ because pixies have several unique behavioral characteristics that I am sure you will notice without explanation.” Alpinolo frowned slightly. “I cannot say that I am particularly fond of pixies and their quirks, but I respect them for their powers.”

As he spoke, we approached a bend in the tunnel, around which I could see a brightness unlike the sourceless light in the tunnel. A strange sound also came from around the corner, as if a large group of mice had converged just beyond our sight. Behind me, Parchibald grunted and removed his cap, smearing his hair down with one broad hand. Alpinolo indicated to me that I should stand as the roof rose in front of us.

I stepped into a room filled with color. The bright light glowed from strangely tinted fungi cascading down the walls of an enormous underground chamber. In the center of the room rose a large stone pedestal. Atop the pedestal, and all around it on the floor, stood creatures similar in size to Alpinolo, but altogether unlike him. Each pixy, as I assumed them to be, possessed skin, hair, and eyes of different shades, colors, and patterns from each of its neighbors. Their clothing was equally more exciting than Alpinolo’s. He wore only short green pants, while the pixies wore all manner of pants, skirts, jerkins, and hats in every color and texture imaginable, not to mention an astonishing array of unique jewelry.

Alpinolo tugged on the hem of my skirt, and I realized I had been staring open-mouthed at the scene. I quickly closed my mouth and brushed the dust from my knees. He pointed to the stone pedestal, saying, “Those are Trixie, Dixie, and Moxie.”

One pixie had long orange hair, emerald green eyes, and skin the color of caramel, over which it was wearing a large pink and orange leotard with matching tutu. The second pixie had spiked green hair, chocolate eyes, turquoise skin, and sunshine yellow flared pants. The third pixie had wild bright pink hair, glassy blue eyes, and lavender skin, and was wearing violently green overalls. “Which one is which?” I whispered.

“Honestly, can’t you tell Dixie from his sisters? And Trixie is the sister with the longer hair.” From his expression, I could tell that he did not find any of this remarkable.

The pixy whose name apparently was Dixie at that moment raised his hands high over his head and waved them frantically. Amazingly, the whole chamber went silent. The pixy with long orange hair pointed one thin finger directly at me and screeched. Every pixy in the room turned to me and screeched.

I squinched my eyes tight. My ears rang. Hundreds of tiny voices all raised together screeched at me.

After a moment, mercifully, the awful sound stopped, and I carefully opened my eyes. Dixie was again waving his arms over his spiky green hair. A strange material tickled my shins (isn’t she wearing a skirt?). I looked down to see the third pixy, watery blue eyes widened so far I was honestly afraid of falling in for a brief second.

Should I speak? Could I speak? “Moxie?” It came out more like a whimper than a question. Certainly not the way a young lady conducts herself with strangers, definitely not with royal strangers, if I could call them that. However, at this point I was long past what young ladies do.

Moxie stood on her tiptoes in order to bring those eyes even closer to mine, and a smile began to spread across her lips. “She’s the one!” she whispered. A whisper? From a pixie? Recent experiences aside, I decided I should allow nothing further on this adventure to surprise me.

At that moment, Moxie jumped straight up in the air, licked my nose with a tongue that felt like it belonged on a cat, and screeched even more loudly than her sister had done.

“All right,” said Alpinolo, and again the screeching ceased. “That is quite enough. I am glad that I brought you the correct person, but there is no need to scare her to death before she has a chance to help us. Consider the ramifications of deafening her at this point.”

Moxie turned to Alpinolo and whacked him hard on the shoulder with her lavender hand. “Al! Haven’t seen you in ages!” Alpinolo winced a smile. “You’ve done such a great job! She’s perfect!”

Trixie and Dixie dismounted their pedestal and moved toward us through the crowd.

“Moxie,” said Trixie, a slight edge in her voice, “this isn’t exactly how this is supposed to go.”

“Supposed to go? Is there protocol for this? Oh yes, let’s refer to the last time the royal family tried to kill off all magical creatures! What ever did we do then?”

Dixie crossed his arms over his thin chest and sighed, ignoring Moxie. “Alpinolo, we thank you for your service. If you would be so kind as to surrender her to us, we will evaluate her for adequacy.”

“Surrender me? I’m not going anywhere without Alpinolo!” But everything was again suddenly dark and silent. I felt myself buoyed up off the ground, so I began to flail my arms and legs. After a few moments, however, I bumped onto what felt like another stone floor. I waited. When nothing happened, I did my best to stand gracefully and begin to walk forward, my arms stretched out in front of me.

I walked this way for several minutes at least, all the while feeling and hearing strange things, but not able to see at all. A loud liquid gurgling like a river running over rocks grew and diminished on my left, a metallic swishing breezed my face for a moment, and I believe at one point my hair stood all on end. But still I could see nothing, and I walked on.

My hands brushed a stone wall, and I turned to rest my back against it. Bright light and color invaded my eyes once again. “What the?”

“Hooray!” shouted Moxie as she once again clapped Alpinolo on the back.

“Dixie, please, may I accompany her? I have grown rather fond of Brina.”

I looked down at my fairy. “Accompany me where? What’s going on?”

“We removed your fairy sight for a moment to test you,” Trixie explained calmly, smoothing her tutu with two delicate caramel hands. “Now that you have passed your test, you will be sent on your quest.”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Moxie was positively vibrating. “I’m going, too! Somebody’s got to watch out for Al and make sure this human doesn’t get lost!”

“But please, tell me, where are we going?” I knelt on the floor to see their faces better.

“Brina, the book you have in your bag tells one version of what happened here in Faragwaine,” Alpinolo said patiently. “I promised you that I would bring you to those who would be able to dispute what is in that book. The time has now come to rewrite history!”

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]

This is excellent. Many little details make it rich and vivid for me, especially the pixies. What I would like to see is more detail about the walk (or crawl?) from the chamber she fell into to the pixie chamber. You sort of glossed over that a bit. I'd like to feel the texture of the floor, understand how confined she feels, etc. I'd also like to sense more about her trial of walking without fairy sight. Her hair standing on end was really cool and funny, but it left me wanting more.

Little nit-picky details:

inanely critical of my slightest dress and deportment? ... Her smallest dress? This doesn't quite make sense.

A strange material tickled my shins (isn’t she wearing a skirt?). ... I don't understand this.

This gets better and better. I can't wait to see what happens next.

[DaughterNature]

Thanks! I will definitely work on those two sections - I agree that they need more detail. And yes, I realized a little while ago that she's totally wearing a skirt, so I'll have to figure that one out >.<
Thanks, as always!