Ivy and the Goblins

by Katherine Coville

  “Mistress Peevish, I do need some help. Would you make some willow bark tea for my Grandmother? She needs it to ease the pain in her ankle.”

  Grandmother smiled at Ivy, then looked at Mistress Peevish. “That’s just exactly what I need. Perhaps you would be good enough to help out?”

  Mistress Peevish looked as if she couldn’t believe her ears. “Me? Help you…? Why, the idea…!” Then, as she looked at Grandmother’s swollen ankle, her expression softened a bit. It got a little less red. She even seemed a little sorry for Grandmother. “Well,” she said, “I guess I could make a pot of tea—but that’s all!”

  Ivy smiled. “I’ll get the willow bark,” she said. She placed Burdock in his crate and got a small bag of shredded willow bark from the cupboard. Then she brought in more firewood from the woodpile so Mistress Peevish could make the cooking fire nice and hot. By that time, Burdock had climbed out of his crate and was banging his favorite spoon on the floor.

  While Mistress Peevish poured water into the teakettle and hung it above the fire, Grandmother called out, “Measure four small spoonfuls of bark into the teakettle, and let it steep in hot water until it cools off. Then pour it all through a cloth to take the bark out.”

  “I know how to make tea!” Mistress Peevish returned. “You don’t have to tell me!” She stood with her arms folded and watched Burdock playing and hollering while they waited for the water to boil. The mayor stood behind his wife, chewing on his fingernails, and didn’t say a word. Finally Mistress Peevish cried, “That baby’s diaper is sagging! It’s going to fall off! Doesn’t anybody here know how to properly put a baby’s diaper on?”

  “I guess I didn’t do it quite right,” confessed Ivy. “Will you show me how?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” cried Mistress Peevish. “Bring me a fresh diaper and hold him down!”

  Ivy did as she said, and Mistress Peevish changed Burdock’s diaper, tying the fresh diaper around him firmly. “See?” she said. “Like that!”

  Just then, Grandmother looked at Ivy in a certain way, so she remembered to say, “Thank you, Mistress Peevish.”

  “Never mind!” Mistress Peevish replied. “It doesn’t change a thing. You’ve got to get rid of this goblin! Don’t they?” she said to the mayor, poking him in the ribs yet again.

  “Oh yes! Yes, my dear!” Mayor Peevish responded as Burdock started to squeal even louder. “They certainly do!”

  Finally the water boiled, and Mistress Peevish took the teakettle off the fire and poured the hot water into a pot of willow bark. “Now we’ll go look for my little Foof while this cools off!” she said.

  “But what will I do with the baby while we’re outside? Grandmother can’t chase him,” objected Ivy.

  Mistress Peevish picked Burdock up and thrust him into her husband’s arms. “Here!” she said. “Make yourself useful! You can look after him.”

  “But…but…but,” spluttered the mayor as Burdock screamed in his ear.

  “But nothing! And see that he doesn’t go near that pot of hot tea!” said Mistress Peevish. She took Ivy by the arm and stalked out the cottage door.

  Ivy and Mistress Peevish went outside and looked all over the garden, calling for Foof. Poof stood in front of Cedric’s enormous nest, as if he were guarding it, but Foof was nowhere in sight.

  “Pardon me,” said Branwen when they came to look under the hazel trees. “But when will the new spot-removing potion be ready?”

  “It’s ready now,” Ivy replied, “but Grandmother has hurt her ankle and can’t get out of bed. Maybe I could try it for you. Right now we’re looking for Foof, but I’ll come back again later.”

  Ivy led Mistress Peevish down the path to the stream to see Balthazar. He was trying to nap. He lay under the weeping willow tree with one eye open, moaning softly.

  “Balthazar, are you awake?” Ivy asked. Mistress Peevish stayed behind her, feeling not quite safe so near a dragon, even a smallish one.

  “I’b dot asleep, if that’s what you bean. Who could sleep with all this doise?” the dragon complained. “By code is gettig worse!”

  “I’m sorry the baby has been keeping you up. At least the noise is not as bad down here. I’ve come because we’re looking for Foof. Have you seen her?” Ivy asked, hoping that he had not.

  “I haven’t seed her id quite a while. If she has ady sedse, she’s far away frob here!” declared the dragon.

  “Yes, you’re probably right,” answered Ivy, making sure Mistress Peevish heard her. “She’s probably far away from here!”

  Mistress Peevish insisted that they continue to search the garden anyway, so they went on looking and calling for Foof for a long time, but she never appeared. Finally, they returned to the cottage to see if the tea had cooled off. Burdock was shrieking louder than ever as he ran about the room, with the Honorable Mayor Peevish running after him. The mayor had lost his hat, and sweat ran down his brow as he gasped for breath. Ivy grabbed the little goblin as he whisked past and held him in her arms while Mistress Peevish poured the tea through a cloth, and filled a mug for Grandmother.

  “Thank you most kindly,” Grandmother said, and she took a long sip. “This is the tastiest willow bark tea I’ve ever had.”

  Mistress Peevish didn’t say, “You’re welcome.” She just poked her husband in the ribs and said, “Let’s go!”

  “Yes, my darling,” said the mayor, still huffing and puffing, and the two turned to leave.

  “Just remember,” cried Mistress Peevish on her way out the door, “that goblin’s got to go! And fast! The mayor said so! Didn’t you?” She poked him one more time.

  “Yes, cupcake,” he replied, and then they were gone.

  “Grandmother,” Ivy said, “we can’t just leave Burdock in the forest, can we?”

  “Of course not,” answered Grandmother.

  “Then we’ve got to find his parents, don’t we?”

  “That seems like the only way,” said Grandmother.

  “Please let me go flying with Cedric and look for them.”

  “But suppose you find them? The book said you mustn’t approach them!”

  “I’ll only try to find where they live. Then I’ll come home, and we can decide what to do next. Would that be all right?”

  Grandmother sighed deeply. “If you promise not to go near them. But what will we do with little Burdock while you’re away? I’m afraid I’ll need somebody to help.”

  Ivy thought for a minute. “I know!” she said. “I’ll ask Peter. He can go and get Edwina and Marta, and the three of them can take care of him. Can you hold him for a minute while I run next door and ask Peter?”

  * * *

  Before long, everything was arranged. Peter and Edwina and Marta could come later in the afternoon, and Cedric was happy to volunteer for a flying job that would take him away from the goblin’s noise. While Ivy waited for her friends to arrive, Grandmother sent her to try the new, improved spot-removing potion on Branwen’s spots. Branwen was so glad to see Ivy that she whinnied with excitement.

  “All right, then,” said Ivy, “where would you like me to try it?”

  “On my front leg this time,” Branwen replied, holding her leg up.

  Ivy did as she had seen Grandmother do. She soaked a cloth with potion, then rubbed it all over a small black spot on Branwen’s leg, and waited. Ivy and Branwen watched as the spot slowly turned first red…then purple…then bright blue! “Oh dear,” Ivy moaned. “This is not right at all! I’m sorry, Branwen.”

  Branwen’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she said. “Blue. How colorful. Now I am a black-and-yellow-and-blue-spotted unicorn.” She hung her head down and sighed.

  “Maybe Grandmother can try again. She’s really very good at making up potions. I’m sure she’ll get it right, if she just keeps trying.”

  “Y
es,” said Branwen. “Would you ask her to try again, please?”

  “Of course I will. But I still think you’re very beautiful the way you are! Maybe you just need some more confidence.”

  “Confidence?” echoed Branwen. “Where will I get that? Surely there’s no potion for it.”

  “I don’t know,” Ivy said, thinking. “Maybe there could be. I’ll try to find out.”

  Ivy took the jar back to Grandmother and asked her if she would make another spot-removing potion for Branwen when her ankle felt better. “Or maybe,” Ivy said, “you could make a potion that would give her more confidence?”

  Grandmother said, “Hmm. More confidence. Maybe if Branwen could just believe in herself, she wouldn’t need to erase her spots. Unfortunately, there’s no potion that can do that.”

  Edwina and Marta and Peter just arrived. Ivy invited them in and presented them to Grandmother, telling them about Grandmother’s ankle. Ivy explained to them that Cedric would fly her over the Dark Forest to see if they could find any goblins. Then she showed them how to feed mushrooms to Burdock without getting bitten. She showed them how to burp him and how to change his diaper. She warned them that he could climb out of his crate and up the table leg and even up on the cupboard in less than a minute.

  “He’s kind of cute,” said little Marta. “But I wish he wasn’t so loud! Can I play with him?”

  “Yes,” Ivy said, “maybe he’d like that.”

  Immediately Marta covered her face with her hands and started to play peekaboo with Burdock. When she got to the “BOO!” part, the baby goblin’s usual shrieking noise changed to a shriek of laughter. Soon everyone was laughing, even though the noise was as loud as ever.

  At last it was time for Ivy to leave. She kissed her grandmother goodbye.

  “Remember,” Grandmother said, “if you find the goblins, don’t approach them. Come home safe to me.”

  “I will,” Ivy promised. She went out the back door and shouted up to Cedric, who was sitting on the roof of the cottage. “Cedric, it’s time!” she called.

  “Righto!” Cedric answered, and he fluttered to the ground, making the air breeze on Ivy’s face. He crouched down, so she could climb aboard his broad, feathered back. She arranged herself on his shoulders, with one leg on each side of his neck, and held on tightly.

  “I’m ready!” she said, and the griffin made a mighty leap into the air. Ivy gripped his neck, her heart thumping. It was always a thrill to ride on Cedric’s back as he cut through the air. Up and up they went, circling over the village and then away toward the Dark Forest.

  “Not too high!” Ivy called out as she looked down on the expanse of green. “I can’t see anything but treetops.” Cedric glided lower over the trees. His hind legs almost touched them as he flew. Ivy looked carefully, but the treetops were clustered so closely together that it was impossible to see the forest floor. She couldn’t tell if there were any creatures down there or not.

  “Keep going,” Ivy cried. “There might be a clearing where the forest goblins build their houses. Maybe we can find it.”

  Cedric flapped his mighty wings and swooped to the right. Then to the left. They flew back and forth for miles. On and on they went, Ivy looking below, Cedric looking off in the distance with his eagle eyes. All they saw was a great span of green treetops spreading across the way to the far mountains of the north. The forest spread to Carbuncle Swamp in the east. The village of Broomsweep lay behind them at the edge of the forest in the south. And far off in the west lay another village. They looked until their eyes were tired and stinging, but everything looked the same to them. Finally, Ivy told Cedric to turn back.

  “Let’s go home by way of the swamp,” she said. “Maybe, this time, we can see something at the edge of the forest.”

  Cedric headed east. Soon they were riding a current of warm, smelly air rising from the swamp. “Aawk!” the griffin squawked. “Cedric smells something terrible! Terribly terrible!” The griffin flapped his wings to go higher, away from the smell.

  Ivy said, “No! We have to go in lower to look.”

  Cedric grumbled, but he coasted lower, near the edge of the forest. He focused his eyes on the trees ahead. “Aawk,” he said again. “Cedric sees something! Look, look, look!”

  “Where?” cried Ivy. Then she saw it. A cluster of big brown lumps that looked like they might be mud huts was sitting on the edge of the swamp, next to the forest. “Go in closer so I can see.”

  Cedric swooped even lower and skimmed past the mud huts. Thwack! went something hard, hitting his beak.

  “Aaaawk!!!” went Cedric.

  “Ouch!” went Ivy as something hard hit her on the arm. She looked down and saw a hail of stones being thrown at them by creatures that she knew must be goblins. They looked a lot like Burdock, with their gray skin and bald heads. They were much bigger—about Ivy’s size—and not at all cute. They were very ugly, and they were very angry. “Let’s get out of here!” Ivy cried.

  Cedric didn’t need to be told twice. He flapped his mighty wings and soared higher, as fast as he could. Ivy could see the edge of the forest and the little town of Broomsweep off in the distance. She gripped Cedric’s neck and cried, “Head for home!”

  “Home, home, home!” Cedric replied. He flew straight for Broomsweep as the sunset turned the sky magenta.

  Before long, they had landed safely at Grandmother’s cottage. Ivy climbed down from Cedric’s back and examined his beak to see where the stone had hit him.

  “There’s a little dent here on your beak,” she said, patting him gently. “Does it hurt? Did they hit you anywhere else?”

  “Cedric is not hurt,” he replied. “Cedric flew out of there fast!”

  Ivy examined her arm. “I’m not hurt either—just this tiny bruise. Those goblins were certainly angry!” Ivy could hear Burdock’s terrible noise coming from the cottage, and she hurried inside. There, she found Peter and Edwina and Marta all chasing Baby Burdock as he darted around the room, shrieking. He ran and climbed and jumped from the furniture, faster than he had the day before. When he saw Ivy come in, he ran right to her and reached his chubby arms up as if he wanted her to pick him up. Even though he was still squawking, Ivy’s heart warmed toward the little creature. He must like her! She picked him up and let him scream in her ear as she spoke loudly to her friends.

  “We discovered a village of goblins living next to Carbuncle Swamp!”

  Grandmother spoke up from her bed in the corner. “I hope you didn’t go too close to them. You remembered what the book said?”

  “We couldn’t get near them. They threw stones at us. What can we do now, Grandmother?”

  “I don’t know,” said Grandmother. “Maybe the town council will have some ideas. In the meantime, we’ll continue taking care of Burdock, just as we have been doing.”

  Ivy sighed heavily. “If only he wasn’t so noisy!”

  “And wasn’t so energetic!” said Peter.

  “And took more naps!” added Marta.

  “And didn’t cause so much trouble!” cried Edwina.

  But Burdock continued to squawk in Ivy’s ear, until she put him down. Then he started tearing around the room as he had before.

  “I’m tired,” complained Peter. “I have to go home.”

  “We do too,” said Edwina.

  Ivy thanked them for looking after the baby goblin. Soon she was left to take care of Burdock by herself. All through the evening, Ivy chased him as he bolted about the cottage. She was very hungry, so she took some bread and cheese from the cupboard. She fixed up a plate for Grandmother, then she tried to eat while Burdock bounced on her lap and pulled her hair. At last, she gave up. She fed Burdock some mushrooms and burped him and changed him. She rocked him in her arms until he stopped his noise and went to sleep. By that time, Ivy was so tired she could hard
ly see straight. She dropped into bed and fell into a deep sleep.

  Alas, she did not sleep for long. Twice in the night, she and Grandmother were awakened by the baby’s squalling. Twice in the night, Grandmother helped her feed him, and Ivy took care of him and rocked him back to sleep, with her eyes halfway open.

  When the sun rose, Ivy tiredly went through the motions again. Feeding, burping, changing, and chasing Burdock. Ivy was so tired, and there was so much to do! Finally she took the squawking baby outside to Cedric’s nest. He was covering his ears with his wings. “Cedric,” she hollered, “I need you to look after Burdock while I take care of things!”

  “Oh no!” moaned Cedric, uncovering his ears. “Griffins don’t know how to look after babies!”

  “Just keep him in your nest. Grab him if he starts to climb out. Pleeease, Cedric?”

  He looked unhappy, but he said, “Oh dear, oh dear. All right. But just for a tiny, little, small while. Cedric’s ears are aching already!”

  “Thank you, Cedric!” Ivy said as she held out the baby goblin. Cedric reached up with his enormous eagle talons and carefully wrapped them around the tiny baby.

  Just then, Farmer Higley arrived, carrying a long, sturdy stick that was forked on one end. “Good morning!” he said. “I heard your grandmother hurt her ankle, so I made her this crutch. Do you think she’d like it?”

  “What a good idea!” Ivy said. “Thank you, Farmer Higley. That could be very helpful. You should come inside and give it to Grandmother yourself.”

  “Oh, that’s all right,” he replied shyly. “You take it to her. I have to get home and tend my goats. Tell her I’m sorry I gave her that egg. I didn’t know it was going to cause so much trouble! That little fellow is certainly loud!”

  Ivy only nodded. She said goodbye to Farmer Higley and thanked him again. She took the crutch inside to Grandmother. Grandmother was very pleased. She carefully put her feet over the side of the bed and used the crutch to stand up. Ivy helped her hobble over to the fireplace to sit on her stool.