by Trista Shaye
Their pace seemed to quicken as they descended the gentle incline, but maybe that was just because they were going downhill. Though Diana figured it was also Andante’s eagerness to get home, and she couldn’t blame him, having seen the place for herself. He had a family, he had a home, he had such a nice life. Diana sighed wistfully inside and thought how nice it would be to have something like that. She tried to remind herself that she had Trizet waiting for her back in her practically empty hollow tree in the woods. She hoped he would be fine for so long without her.
As they crossed the rock bridge, she looked over the side at the small stream that ran under it and it reminded her of the one they crossed daily to get to school.
“Home.” Andante smiled.
As Diana looked up, she spotted a couple of figures standing by the cottage together. Not having noticed their visitors, they appeared deep in conversation. They looked about her size in height, though their build was definitely more stocky and stout. They wore simple clothes of greens, browns, and yellows, and their hair was curly and wild.
The giant moth stumbled across the bridge as fast as he could and toward the two gnomes that still had yet to see them. He looked rather adorable to Diana, with the smile taking up his entire face, eyes wide and sparkling, fur bouncing, and the same humming sounds from their flight yesterday pouring out of his half open mouth. She let him run ahead and caught a glimpse of the mage on his back, nestled in his fur; he looked to be asleep again. She rolled her eyes. At least he wasn’t all upset or mopey.
Andante let out a loud chirp and the two gnomes turned in surprise to see who was coming up their path. Diana thought she might have teared up a little when the gnome – she assumed was Farran – let out a cry, threw his arms in the air, and ran towards the giant moth with great enthusiasm and joy. It was a sweet reunion, to be sure.
Diana felt a little awkward, but walked up behind them and looked around, not sure what to do or what to say; she didn’t want to butt in.
As Andante was going about his excited bouncing, Diana noticed, a bit too late, that Kendel had rolled over and was even now falling off the moth’s back! He opened his eyes mid-fall and would have yelled but he hit the ground with a thump before he could make a sound.
“Oh great.” Diana cringed and rushed to his side. The poor fellow had landed on his face and wasn’t moving.
Andante stopped his revelry and turned in shock and surprise. “Oh dear,” he said, realizing what must have happened.
Both the gnomes peeked around Andante’s legs to see what was going on and who these people were.
“Are you alright?” Diana asked, poking Kendel and shaking his arm. His reply was a simple grunt, though it did sound a bit weak.
“Who are these, Andante?” Farran asked, his voice was sweet and nice.
“My friends,” the moth replied. “Miss Diana helped to heal my legs and encouraged me to come home sooner than I would have otherwise. If not for her stumbling across me in the woods, I might not be here today, or ever. And the other …” he paused as they watched Diana turn Kendel over. He spit out some grass and looked a bit sour.
“His name is Kendel and he’s a mage.”
“Why is he tied so?” the female gnome, Matilda asked, her voice had a long sound to it and her bright orange curly hair bounced when she talked.
“Well …” Andante weighed the options of how to say it in the nicest way possible. “He might be involved in the terrible occurrences going on in our realms, as of late. Or he might not be,” he quickly added as Matilda rolled up her sleeves and marched towards the girl and boy. “We’re not sure yet, we’re in the process of proving his innocence and finding the true culprit.”
Matilda loomed over Kendel as he lay on the ground, though she wasn’t very much taller than either the fairy or mage she had an imposing presence. Kendel gulped and Diana backed up a few steps.
She stood there for what felt like five minutes – but was probably only one – before she spoke, her hands clenched at her sides. “You want me to sit on him?”
“What? No!” Diana said, rushing back to the mage’s side and helping him sit up in his tied state. “Why would that help the situation at all?”
“He couldn’t get away then, he’d be stuck,” the gnome said, crossing her arms over her wide chest. Diana thought maybe she could pull a small tree right out of the ground if she wanted to, sitting on Kendel would likely crush him.
“He’s quite fine just being tied,” Diana assured, working on getting him standing.
“Quite fine,” Kendel squeaked and swallowed.
“Thank you, though. Maybe you could help get him to the house,” Diana offered, steadying him on his jelly legs and looked to Farran and Andante. “If that’s alright if we drop in for a moment.”
“Of course!” Farran jumped into action. He appeared quite shocked and had been standing there with his mouth open. “Please, please, come in. I’ll put tea on and we’ll have biscuits and lovely soup. A friend of Andante’s is a friend of mine, especially since you saved his life!”
Diana smiled, “Thank you.”
“Alrighty then.” Matilda nodded. “You leave this one to me, a girl like you shouldn’t have to be in charge of no criminal.”
“Oh it’s no trouble, he’s also my friend. Well, he was, is …” she let her words fade and blinked into Matilda’s confused face. “Never mind. Yes, thank you, please take him in.”
Diana walked away and headed towards the house, following Andante and Farran. She heard a grunt behind her and suddenly, Matilda was striding past them with Kendel slung over one shoulder like a sack of seeds or carrots.
“Oh!” Diana said, and covered her mouth.
Farran turned to her with an apologetic expression. “Sorry about that, she lacks finesse in most things, but her heart’s in the right place.”
“Oh well.” Diana shrugged as the gnome woman entered the house before them. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. It’s alright.” she said to Farran, assuring him that she wasn’t offended.
The gnome chuckled and shook his head at Matilda’s antics. “Well, you’ll eat well here today and, if you can stay, sleep well tonight. It looks like the rain’s about to pop up pretty soon.”
“Yes, I had hoped for them to stay the evening,” Andante informed, chirping delightedly. “There’s something I need to show Diana in the morning.”
“What’s that?” Farran asked, holding the door open for them to enter before him.
The moth hesitated for half a second, he’d never not been honest with his gnome and he wasn’t about to start. He didn’t want to cause a panic, though, so he said it softly so Matilda wouldn’t hear. “The fire and fairy ring.”
Farran’s face took on a panicked look as they slipped through the doorway into the cottage. It was as cozy and warm feeling as Diana had imagined and immediately she felt welcomed and like she could stay forever.
Despite Andante’s attempts to keep his words for certain ears alone, Matilda had heard his quiet thrum – but only the place and not their intent to visit – as she set Kendel down in a chair in the corner by a pile of firewood.
“We thought you were dead,” she said bluntly, slapping her hands together to brush them off.
Farran paused and then nodded quickly, walking swiftly towards the kitchen area. “Yes, yes we did.”
“Saw the fire, saw the smoke and things,” Matilda moved a few extra chairs about a table and then walked to the fireplace to stoke the flames.
“I never saw you again after you’d left me to my gardening that morning and though I waited for hours in our normal pickup spots, you never came,” Farran continued, bringing the kettle over to place on the fire for tea. He had to carry it with two hands and he looked to struggle a little. Diana thought she would drop it had she been asked to carry it, the kettle was quite large! The gnomes must hav
e liked their tea very much.
“He was so worried.” Matilda tsked after the fire had been set back alight and the water was on to boil. “He wouldn’t go to sleep, and I wouldn’t just go home and leave him. So we sat all night out in the gardens waiting for you.”
“But you never came,” Farran said again with a sigh, remembering the sorrow. Then, as if pushed, he popped back into motion and scurried to the kitchen once more.
“After the fire died, and the smoke cleared a bit, they found some moth dust in the ashes and that, that was when we knew it must have been you.” Matilda finished, nodding sadly.
Outside the rain began to fall steadily and tap lightly against the roof in a soft pattern. Diana felt suddenly sleepy and blinked several times to keep herself awake.
“Can I help with anything?” she asked. She needed to keep herself engaged or she would nod off for sure.
“Here,” Farran said, handing her a bowl. “Would you mind helping Matilda make the biscuits?”
“Of course I can.” The fairy smiled and followed the gnome woman into the small space where they would prepare the food for afternoon tea.
Andante and Farran settled by the fire to talk more and Farran worked on removing Andante’s braces so he could have a look at his legs – Diana learned the gnome knew a good bit of medicine.
After he unwrapped the vines and removed the sticks of wood that wrapped the moth’s legs, he threw them into the fire and began feeling along the furry appendages.
“You did a fabulous job treating this,” Farran called from the other side of the main room. “It’s still healing, but doing very well. Good job.”
Diana blushed a little. No one had ever really told her that before; good job. “Thanks,” she said, rolling the dough out a bit harder than she had at first.
“Do fairies know a good lot of medicine themselves?” Matilda asked, pounding the biscuit mixture with her fists.
“Um.” Diana shrugged, shaping the tiny cakes in her hands and placing them on a large flat rock. “Not all of them. Not many, actually. I just … just try to learn everything I can.”
“It’s a good skill to have,” Farran replied, patting his moth friend on the neck. “Lucky for Andante, anyhow.”
Matilda asked a million other questions about the fairy realm and eventually, the biscuits went into the oven on the rock to bake. Diana went to sit down by the fire with the others but Matilda hung around the oven, saying they could burn in half a second if you didn’t watch them and serving burnt biscuits to their guests would be unacceptable.
Diana didn’t know what to do with Kendel, who still sat in the corner where Matilda had put him and was looking around, minding his own business. She felt a little bad they had kept him tied up and were kind of ignoring him. Then she shook herself and pointed out in her mind that he was the reason they were here in the first place and because of him, lives were in danger, and this nice family might not be a nice family much longer.
Diana shared of what was going on in The Magic Vale, of Andante’s help to get her here, of Kendel’s possible involvement, and her plan, more like a hope rather than anything solid, to save the realms. She explained it all very quietly so Matilda wouldn’t interrupt with a million questions. She was still in the kitchen and humming to herself rather loudly.
Farran’s expression was grave and Diana noticed the only features that were different from a fairy’s, was the broader nose and wider set eyes. Their ears were also more rounded then a fairy’s and she found it funny that the grown-ups were all her height or even a little shorter.
“I’ll go with you tomorrow to the Great Razing site,” Farran said, remembering back to Andante’s words about taking Diana there in the morning. “Extra pairs of eyes can help to see things one, or even two and three, cannot.”
“Thank you,” Diana said, truly grateful.
She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting of the gnomes and how they would act towards her, but somewhere, deep down, she had been clutching at a secret fear that they would be angry at her for coming to their realm, even if it was on the back of one of their own moths. She was glad this unfounded concern was being demolished right before her eyes and there was hardly any need to be anxious about them – except for the business of Matilda sitting on Kendel, of course.
“No,” Farran said, rising to his feet. “Thank you, Miss Diana. We did not know enough about this fungus magic to think our very home might be in danger. But you, though knowing little, decided to help save not only your own home, but ours as well. And for that, we shall all be forever grateful.”
“If I manage to rescue us,” Diana whispered to herself, suddenly doubting herself very much and realizing the enormity of the task ahead.
“Tea time!” Matilda cried out, carrying the massive flat rock over with the piping hot biscuits atop it. The aroma was enough to make Diana’s mouth water profusely and she rose to sit at the table with Farran and his soon-to-be wife.
They decided to let Kendel loose from his vines, at least enough so he could use his hands to eat the hot bread and drink the steaming tea. After having severely warned Kendel not to try anything or she would sit on him, Matilda sat across from the mage, quite sure he would behave but also still watching his every move.
Diana had never tasted anything quite like the tea biscuits before. They were warm and melted in her mouth almost before she could close it from taking a bite. All the flavors mixed well and she felt her insides warming. Maybe it was because they were fresh from the oven, but she thought it might have been what was in them that warmed her so.
“These are amazing!” she exclaimed, sipping her tea and declaring that it, too, was fantastic.
Matilda and Farran laughed happily at her enjoyment of the gnome food. “It’s an old family recipe of mine, from way back,” Matilda began, and the rest of tea was spent listening to how her grandparents’ grandparents had passed the recipe down through the generations.
Diana learned gnomes ate often throughout the day – breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea (what they were having right then), dinner, and of course evening tea, with a wrapping up of dessert right before bed.
She learned gnomes didn’t live nearly as long as fairies did. Their lifespans only going on for a little less than a century, whereas fairies lived many, many centuries. She thought it odd and rather sad, that she would outlive her new friends for years to come. That is, if she figured out how to stop the infestation of the evil magic.
Diana learned Matilda was from a clan that lived further to the north of them, near the border to the trolls’ realm and that her family had had issues with the trolls for generations. Apparently, since the gnomes could move through solid earth and out on the border lands of The Garden Glade some of the gnomes lived underground, they had accidentally breached the border of the two worlds when digging out a home for themselves. The trolls had discovered this and there had been skirmishes and trouble ever since.
The border was now a war zone, as it were, where you only went if … well, you never went there unless you were a part of Matilda’s family line and willing to help fight off the trolls’ continuous attacks and pull a few pranks of your own on the troublesome neighbors.
Evidently, this little war had been going on for some time. The gnomes would throw rotten vegetables, or burrow underground and destroy the trolls’ hideouts from below. The trolls would hurl mud and stinky globs of marsh goo, as well as stuff handfuls of it down the gnomes' tunnels to keep them from using them more than once if they left them open.
Matilda was proud of where she came from and Diana could see why her character was shaped the way it was, as well as her physical nature.
As the story went, one day Farran had fallen off of Andante’s back when they were still just learning to fly together; after Andante had hatched from his cocoon and was working out how to use his wings properly wit
h someone on his back. Farran had landed in the middle of a full blown raid by the trolls. He had been captured and taken back across the border. Matilda was the one from her family to catch sight of him during the gnomes’ retaliation attack and had rescued him from the trolls’ clutches. She had returned him to Andante and a friendship had begun between the two gnomes.
Matilda would often come to visit when on furlough from active combat or guarding the border and she had fallen in love with the quaint ways of the countryside and with a certain gnome whom she had rescued. After much confrontation with her side of the family, they had worked it all out and were to be married come the next full moon.
It had taken them five years to work out the arrangements with the O’Brien family, Matilda’s side, and they were so looking forward to their life together. But now, things seemed a bit more bleak with the news about the fairy rings and the doom of both the realms.
Farran, Diana, and Andante kept their visit for the following morning a secret. Farran didn’t want to upset his bride-to-be with graver news than was already believed about it.
The day passed with plenty of eating, and for Diana, a base education of the gnomes’ realm and culture. She was told how they gardened and planted and took care of their world, and she was sure there would have been some hands-on examples if it hadn’t been pouring outside. The Garden Glade was such a beautiful place and they did such a marvelous job of tending it.
Matilda lashed Kendel to the bed he would be sleeping on, insisting she knew how to tie a good strong knot so he wouldn’t be able to escape in the night. Her behavior towards the mage now also made more sense, since she was used to having to fight off dangers and she knew the peril of a loose enemy.