Diana Alderoot and the Gilded Mage

by Trista Shaye

  Nods were then sent around in general agreement, for it made all the sense in the world.

  “No one is to leave The Magic Vale and no one is to tell another soul of the fairy ring – we shall place a concealment spell over it so that at least it won’t be seen by accident.”

  “And I shall tell Diana not to speak of it to anyone,” Marrow decided, hoping to help at least a very little.

  “No. We cannot let her know of its power or she may tell others and then panic would ensue and the mage would know he had been found out. He must be allowed to go about life here as normal and we must not disturb what has begun, for he may catch wind of it and our time be cut even shorter.

  “No, say nothing to the girl of this, nothing at all. She must go on believing whatever it is she already believes for we must keep this all from getting back to the mage, at all costs.”

  Six

  “I think you should spend less time with that Mage – ”

  “His name is Kendel,” Diana interjected, looking through the goods on the baker’s shelves.

  It was after school a few days later and Kendel had just gone off to his guest house after Diana had shown him around another section of the town.

  “Kendel, yes, him. I think you should let him do his own thing and you should do yours,” Marrow said with a small swallow, hoping the girl wouldn’t ask prying questions. She couldn’t say anything about the magic, the fairy ring, or about the mage being the one who wanted to destroy them all. But she couldn’t, in good conscience, allow the girl to hang around the crazed fellow any longer without speaking up.

  “Is this about your orders?” Diana asked, looking over her shoulder from the shelf to the woman behind the counter. “You haven’t given me any in the past few days and I know you need things. Do you think I’ve been too busy to continue them for you?” Suddenly the girl seemed genuinely troubled.

  “Oh no, not about those. Though it has been a few days and I am running out of things,” the baker reasoned.

  She and Diana had made a deal years ago that Diana would bring her the things she needed for her recipes – spices, herbs, mushrooms, and the like – and in return Diana always had her choice of what she wanted to eat from her store. Diana, being unlike most of the fairies in The Magic Vale had been more than thankful and pleased with the arrangement – it was quite helpful for her general well-being and survival. But now Diana was wondering if Mrs. Marrow would drop her service because of her lack of time and attention that had recently been taken up by summer school, their new teacher, and magic.

  “You’re not going to …” Diana paused, “Let me go, are you?”

  The baker almost said yes – that would keep the girl’s mind off of her strange find in the woods and maybe out of her shop for a while, which would give her time to recompose herself and not have to lie or hide things – or at least, not as much anyway. But she caught the word in her throat at a look to the young girl’s face and she mentally berated herself for ever thinking she could do that to one so sweet and unfortunate as Diana. After all, it wasn’t her fault she had found the fairy ring and it wasn’t her fault the mage had chosen her to be the gullible fairy by which he found ways to seep his evil magic into the world.

  Mrs. Marrow sighed.

  “No, I won’t be letting you go, dear,” she replied, finally. But Diana had seen the war within her eyes.

  “I promise to get you anything you need!” Diana exclaimed, rushing over to the counter, trying to make amends for whatever it was she had done to cause this trouble. “I can go out now, if you’d like. Any and everything you might want, I can get it for you before tomorrow morning.”

  The baker shifted uncomfortably and looked out into the tree branches through the open door of her shop.

  “Well …” she thought aloud. This would keep the girl busy and away from her for a moment. She would send her far from the mushroom grove and off to find other things that were more exotic and that she had need of less often. Truth be told, she was running out of frog floss and moss flower. She could probably also use a bit of stream salt and a touch of bark dew. Yes, she would ask for those things.

  “Alright, it would be good if you could get me these,” she said, swiftly writing a list on the counter top and handing the paper over to the girl after it was finished. “You can bring them tomorrow morning before school, that’s fine. And I’ll probably have another list for you tomorrow after school, if you come straight here,” the baker added the last bit, knowing she could come up with something for Diana to find so as to keep her away from the trouble-making mage.

  Diana looked over the list and bit the inside of her check to keep from saying something or letting her eyes get big. She didn’t want to lose her deal with the baker and she needed to get back in her good graces. If getting these four ridiculously hard items for her was what it took, then it was worth it.

  “Okay, you’ll have them tomorrow,” Diana promised, grabbed her backpack, and swung towards the door.

  “Grab a cake or something on the way out,” Marrow called. “It’ll be late when you get home, best to eat something before then.”

  “Thanks,” Diana chimed, swiping her favorite cake from the display near the entrance. She bounded out the door and into the lengthening afternoon sunlight. It was going to be a long evening.

  Diana flew out past the train station at the edge of the city and beyond the stream they passed every day on their way to school with the centipede bridge. She flew off past the school building and deep into the edges of The Magic Vale where she hoped she would be able to find some frog floss, moss flower, stream salt, and bark dew.

  “This is a lovely pickle I’ve put myself in,” she muttered under her breath.

  She had only wanted to help the poor mage out and show him around so he wouldn’t be lost in the fairy city, but in her attempts to help another she had lost track of her helping of the baker and of the needs she had for herself. She had to eat after all, for goodness sake!

  She supposed she could make her own food, and she did snack on things such as dandelion seeds or sap candy on occasion as she was flying about, but she didn’t really have the means to bake things like Mrs. Marrow did, or to create such delicious delicacies.

  “I really am quite lucky,” she told herself again. “Not every fairy child gets the goodies I get every day, not even once a year for some. I should be more thankful for what she’s let me do for her. Maybe I’ll get her something quite hard to find that she didn’t even ask for, maybe then she’ll see I am truly sorry to have been ignoring her orders and ingredient lists.”

  Yes, she decided, she would gather the four things on her list and then find some marbled leaves or silver silk.

  She hastened toward her first stop, the pond on the western edge of The Magic Vale. She could find frog floss there and maybe, if it wasn’t too late in the year, some moss flower.

  After some time and after having been covered in mud, scraped a bit on the arm for her attempts at the bark dew – which she had finally retrieved – and her hair all in a fumble, Diana set out for the last piece she wanted to collect, the extra ingredient as her gift to the baker.

  She walked, as she was close to where she already wanted to be, her backpack full and bouncing with every footfall. She unwrapped her cake and began to munch on it, a small smile spreading over her lips. She was dirty, tired, and it was late, but she felt accomplished, the cake tasted marvelous, and there was no way Mrs. Marrow wouldn’t forgive her after she brought back the surprise ingredient. She might even give her an easier list for tomorrow.

  Diana stuffed more of the cake into her mouth and chewed as she walked and looked about, keeping an eye out for her prize. She wasn’t watching where she was going, however, and nearly spit the cake out of her mouth when she tripped over something soft and it let out a little cry.

  She fell to her hands and knees,
the remaining dessert and leaf package skittering further away as she dropped it to catch herself. She took a breath and caught it inside, waiting to hear if the thing would make another noise. Nothing stirred and she breathed a sigh of relief. It must have been her own yelp echoing off the trees nearby, she reasoned to herself – as people who are afraid and alone often do.

  Slowly, Diana crawled forward on her hands and knees then turned herself around to see what it was she tripped over in the lingering light of the sun. She gasped as she got her first glimpse of the thing and then skittered away from it, unsure exactly what it was. After a moment of watching the creature, and seeing no movement, she hoisted her backpack up and stood, feeling her courage coming back.

  “Hello?” she asked tentatively, hoping no one would answer her. But if no one answered, did it mean the thing was dead? And what would be worse, in that case? She pushed those thoughts aside and took a step nearer.

  The thing was fuzzy, so fuzzy and warm looking. And it was large, quite large. She couldn’t see all of it and she had no idea what it was, for it lay on the ground in a heap and the darkness was beginning to set in. But for all she could make out in the stretching shadows, she knew she had never seen anything like it before in The Magic Vale.

  Diana took another few steps forward, her dropped cake and the extra ingredient she had wanted to collect utterly forgotten. She picked up a stick that was laying on the ground near her left foot and reached it towards the creature – if it was a creature at all, maybe it was a strange fungus, they could be fuzzy at times – and poked it gently. A small moan escaped the heap and it shifted upwards, then back down, like it had taken a deep breath.

  “Eep!” came her startled cry and she jumped back a little ways, holding the stick up like a club for batting away flying apples or pears.

  For several heart pounding moments she stood frozen, her mouth half open in the scream and her eyes wide in surprise. But the thing made no more noise and didn’t move again.

  It was such a large thing, but it seemed to either be sleeping or hurt and Diana didn’t want to leave it be if it was hurt because there was no place for it to get help way out here in the western end of the realm. She knew she’d have to see if she could wake it and ask it if it was alright – if it even spoke her language.

  “Hello?” she called again, laying the stick back on the ground and approaching the fuzzy mound from a different angle. “Are you ok? You look a little hurt, can I help you?”

  The thing didn’t reply or move for a time. Then, slowly, it unfurled its large wings from underneath itself and began to shift. Diana had known it was big, but now she saw it was massive as compared to her.

  The thing’s head uncurled from under its belly and the creature stared at her with large, glossy black eyes and a softly sloping face with only slits for a nose at the end. Its large furry antenna moved about in the night air like they were two partners in a dance, listening, seeing, and responding to each other but more importantly, to the things around them.

  Diana gasped as she looked on in wonder. It was a moth, a giant moth. They had little, every day moths in The Magic Vale, but not large fairy shrinking moths like this. It was so beautiful, and so, so fuzzy! She resisted the urge to hug its brown furry thorax.

  “Are – are you hurt?” she asked again, taking in the large dusty wings that almost surrounded her as they stretched out to either side.

  She could feel the sun fading to the horizon and the cold of the night creeping in.

  It bobbed its head, took a step, and half fell over as two of its three left legs gave way. Diana made a little squeaking sound as she felt her heart go out to the injured creature. Somehow it had hurt its legs and it needed help.

  “Don’t worry,” she said soothingly, “I’ll help you.”

  Its left wing also looked a bit tattered about the edges. “Poor thing. Whatever happened to you?” she wondered aloud as she came under the moth’s painful legs and helped to support him on his other four.

  Slowly, they began to walk forward. She would take the injured fellow to her house and there, hopefully, she could find a way to help him so he could return home. Wherever home was for him.

  “Don’t suppose you can fly like this, huh?” she grunted, he was quite the weight to help bear.

  He shook his fuzzy head and made a trilling sound that was low and sounded like a “no”.

  “Didn’t think so.” Diana nodded knowingly. “Well, it’ll be a long walk home tonight.”

  The moth trilled again as if saying a thank you for the trouble.

  At least, Diana thought as she stumbled along through the dark forest paths, the warm fuzzy body pressed up against her back kept her mostly warm from the chilly summer night. And at least she wasn’t alone. But then, there never was anything to be afraid of at night or by day in The Magic Vale. But, for some reason she couldn’t explain, she felt exposed and nervous. Not the nervousness one feels on a day when a pop quiz is revealed and you haven’t studied for it in the least. But the nervousness that comes with feeling like you’re being watched and if whatever was watching you were to surprise you, you might very well not even be able to scream from being so afraid.

  This feeling was new to her and it felt odd and she didn’t like it at all. So she tried her best to concentrate on getting her new friend home and mending his feet, while she also mentally kicked herself for completely forgetting the extra gift for the baker.

  Seven

  “Kendel, can I talk with you a moment?” Diana asked after the lunch bell had rung and they were packing up their things to head back to class.

  The mage nodded and waited back with her as the dining hall cleared, though he looked distracted as she supposed he wanted to follow the students back to the classroom. At last they had all warmed up to him and were starting perhaps to even like him. Midge didn’t talk about skipping class every day now and finally spoke about some of what they had learned from the wizard’s realm. He was even excited to learn general magic, though he still held true to his original opinion, that they wouldn’t be able to use magic as the mage did because they were fairies.

  “Can’t linger long, we have class,” the mage said folding his hands behind his back to keep them from fidgeting in his haste to return to what they were learning.

  “Do you have giant moths in your realm? At Castle Majestic, I mean?” Diana asked, trying to learn where her guest from the night before might be from.

  She had gotten him home late, almost at midnight, and squeezed him into her house in the tree trunk. He had slept on her floor on some moss she had gathered for him and that morning when she’d flown off to the bakers with her ingredients and then off to school, he had still been sleeping. Diana had informed Trizet of her plan to try and find out where the moth was from and to see what she could do for him once she returned. But first she had to go to school and the bakery shop or she would be in bigger trouble than she was already. She’d asked her inch worm friend to watch out for the large fellow and to let him know she’d be back if and when he woke while she was away.

  Trizet had thrown her a salute and looked to be watching over their new friend quite studiously when she slipped out her front door and flew up into the middle branches of the forest.

  “Hmm, no not really. Just must moths there, not even the pretty ones you have here. They’re smaller and just eat clothing. Quite annoying, I’d say. You’re not talking about one of those, are you?”

  “Oh no, not one of those; they do sound annoying. I’m talking about something quite large, like a bird in size, but bigger. I don’t know how to describe it more. Just big, and brown, and quite fuzzy.” She tried her best to explain the creature to him.

  “And it’s not from here?” Kendel asked, thinking about her question and description.

  She shook her head. “No, I’ve never seen one until yesterday. In the state he was in, all sl
eep deprived and dehydrated, two broken legs and a tattered looking wing, he couldn’t tell me where he was from.”

  “Oh dear.” Kendel gave her a look that was both concerned and upset. “He sounds to be in terrible shape. I hope you didn’t just leave him there, did you? Wherever you found him.”

  “Definitely not!” she replied, her hands going to her hips. “I’m not a heartless brute.”

  “Never said you were, sorry,” he apologized at her irate rebuttal. “I honestly don’t know where it would be from, then. But that seems so odd,” he commented, “no other being has crossed the boarders of the other realms in … well, never. We stay in our own homes and leave each other alone. He must have been rather out of it to have stumbled into the forest here.”

  “Yes,” Diana said thoughtfully, a hand on her chin. “I was near the western border when I found him, all crumpled up and lying on the ground. Do you think he came from the west? What realm is to the west?”

  “Hmm,” Kendel looked to be wracking his brain for the answer. “We never learned much about the other realms, but we did have a map of the kingdoms. Let me try to recall it to mind.” He paced a moment and then nodded slowly. “Yes, I think it’s The Garden Glade, the realm of the gnomes.”

  “Gnomes?” Diana said the word with curiosity.

  “Yes, the three other kingdoms are home to gnomes, trolls, and dragons. Then there’s my realm and your own. Perhaps I’ll give the quickest of lessons about that and draw the map in class, but nothing in depth. As I said, we never learned about the other realms, just that they exist. Now come on, or I’ll be late to my own class.”

  Kendel made Diana promise to take him to see the giant moth after school was out and even though she knew she should be going to see Mrs. Marrow to get the new list from her for more ingredients, she decided taking care of an injured creature and learning why he was there and where he came from was more important.