“Have you remembered any more of the day Yumfuck visited?” Pearl asked. She wanted to be supportive, but as Fuzzy started to feel better, she hoped that they could move on and not go looking for trouble. But really, she wouldn’t be Fuzzy if she didn’t follow her heart, and Fuzzy’s huge heart needed to explore and discover the answers.
Fuzzy went silent for a moment, then admitted with a sigh, “It was all just too much. I loved seeing Yumfuck and was happy to have him visit with his magical foods from Earth, but it was all just too much. The euphoria was hurting my head. I could feel everything from everyone, and I needed quiet for a little while.”
“I walked into the Dark Forest for a little peace and quiet and felt something else—overwhelming fear and panic. I didn’t even think, I just ran toward it to see if there was anything I could do.”
Orville gasped in horror. “You ran toward it? You didn’t think to run back to the village for help? You ran toward it? What have I told you? I will always be there for you. Don’t go toward the bad stuff without me!”
“Well, I didn’t know what it was, so I had to go and see if I could help. If I had come back to the village, I might have been too late,” Fuzzy tried to explain.
Pearl just rolled her eyes. Of course, Fuzzy would run to help with no thought to her own safety, just the safety of others.
“Do you remember which way you went?” Pearl asked quietly, trying to keep the peace. There really wasn’t anything they could do now about Fuzzy’s having run off, but she thought she’d have a good “talk” with her later about how to maybe do things a bit better and safer in the future.
Walking slowly toward the edge of the village, Fuzzy looked around like she was hearing something. With a strange look on her face, she continued stepping forward slowly like she could still hear whatever she had followed days ago. But she couldn’t still hear it, could she?
As she and her friends traveled farther into the Dark Forest, the peace and serenity that usually soothed her in there were missing. It was like there was an echo of the fear and panic she’d felt, and somehow she could still follow it. She needed to find its source and figure out what the hell had happened.
Fuzzy worked through the confusing emotions in her mind as they followed the echo that only she could hear. She realized that she didn’t even know how she had gotten back to the village that fateful day. How had she ended up in the Healing Center?
“Just after Yumfuck left, we felt you. You were projecting panic and fear, but we didn’t know where you were. The whole village started a search and you were found not long after, unconscious by a large old tree that appeared to have scorch marks on it. We didn’t think any more about it then. Our obvious priority was to get you back to the Healing Center,” Orville explained.
“Then let’s get to that tree and see what we can find out.”
Although the usual feeling of contentment didn’t come, it did make her feel a little better to have a plan of action to try to work out what went on. Why did her head still hurt, and why didn’t she quite feel herself? She was sure memory loss wasn’t a great indicator that she was well. The Senior Healer had said it could take a few days to be back to normal, but she might never get the memories of that day back.
Anyone who knew her well knew that she would find that completely unacceptable. She would get those memories back, no matter what. She needed to find out what had happened to her, and she had a feeling she had to do something else. Something important. She just needed to remember what it is.
She'd always enjoyed spending time in the Dark Forest, not just for the peace and serenity, but also the wild beauty of the dense and ancient trees. Yes, there were certain places they had been warned about going as little ones, but she’d never felt threatened or anything. Even the stories about the Gardener didn’t scare her, although she’d never met him. She felt a sense of safety about him. Strange, really; that felt new. Although he had moved to the Sanctuary on Earth, somehow she knew his spirit was still in their forest, ready to summon him if necessary. She wondered if he knew what had happened?
As they got closer to the large old tree she was found next to, they all stared in awe. It was magnificent. Towering hundreds of feet into the sky, its beautiful canopy was full of birds singing the most beautiful songs.
And something else. Something else was up there, she could tell. It wasn’t threatening the birds or they wouldn’t be singing, but Fuzzy could feel it. And she’d felt it before. It felt different, like it was not in its place. It felt almost alien.
Fuzzy’s body tensed, making her fur stand on end. Pearl and Orville looked at her curiously, unsure what was upsetting her.
“Is it being in this place? We don’t have to stay, you know. We can just go home. Maybe you need some more rest?” Orville asked hopefully.
“Can you not feel it?” Fuzzy exclaimed. “Something different? Something not meant to be here?”
Pearl tried to calm Fuzzy down. “We can feel that you’re upset—somehow you’re doing that projecting thing again, so we feel what you’re feeling—but we can’t feel anything else.”
“Trust me, something’s here; I can feel it. It’s different, and it doesn’t belong here. It’s scared and doesn’t know what to do. We need to help it.”
“How do we help if you don’t know what it is or what it wants?” Orville asked, “If it’s all the way up in the canopy, how can we get it to come down? It’s not like we can just ask it to.”
All of a sudden Fuzzy started to grow, her concern for whatever was scared and alone in the canopy forcing her to get taller and taller. She started to smell something strange, like patchouli and wet dog. It smelled like a silver bear. How could that be? What the hell?
Fuzzy wanted to back away from the tree as fast as she could since even she knew not to go toward a silver bear, but there was something in the sad, scared feelings that drew her. Somehow she knew the silver bear wouldn’t hurt her; that it was lost and terrified. As she got closer, she saw multiple shimmering visions of a very young silver bear that was gripping the branches tightly in its panic.
Despite Fuzzy not knowing how her projecting thing worked, she tried to send out soothing thoughts and feelings to the cub to calm it down. The projections the cub had been flashing in defense started to fade and Fuzzy zoned in on the very tired bear, who thankfully crawled into her arms without much hesitation.
It was only then that Fuzzy realized how much she had grown. She looked down, then shut her eyes, pulled the bear cub close to her chest, and shrank back down to her usual size, with the bear cub holding onto her for dear life.
“Seriously, what the hell, Fuzzy? You do realize you just grew to a humungous size, and you brought a silver bear back with you? How the hell did you do that?” Pearl exclaimed. Orville just stood there with his mouth wide open and eyeballs almost falling out of his head.
“I have no idea. I didn’t know I could do that. I just knew I needed to get to this little one. He’s been up there for days all by himself, and I could feel how absolutely terrified he was,” Fuzzy explained.
“Uhhh, so what are we going to do with him now?” asked Orville, “I’m not sure a troll village is the best place for him.”
“I know, I know, but it’s not like we can just leave him here. For a start, he won’t let go of me. And really, how did he get here in the first place? He doesn’t belong here. He’s used to wide open spaces with plenty of room to roam, not the Dark Forest. He’s too young to be away from his family; he can’t look after himself yet. We have to look for his family.”
Pearl and Orville glanced at each other, but they knew better than to argue, especially since they kind of agreed with what Fuzzy was saying. They weren’t sure that adding another mystery to their lives right now would be very helpful, though.
“While you were growing up to the canopy, we found this scorch mark next to the tree, and it looks recent. Have you seen it before?” Orville asked, directing Fuzzy’s attention to the
scorch mark. It looked fresh. Fuzzy had been to this part of the forest many times and she’d never seen it, although it did remind her of something.
Pearl piped up with, “I know what that is; it’s from a portal. Why would there be a portal all this way into the Dark Forest? It’s not like there’s anything here to see or do, other than lots of trees, of course.”
As soon as Fuzzy approached the scorch mark, she felt strange. It was like there were echoes of something here; reverberations of pain and fear and anger. Was this a memory or something else? The silver bear cub whimpered louder the closer they got to the mark, and then he tried to dig into it, wailing. Fuzzy gave him a hug to try to soothe him, but although he stopped wailing, he clung to her and whimpered until he fell asleep.
Fuzzy’s heart was breaking for this little guy, but until they worked out what all this meant, she wasn’t sure how to help him. He needed his family, but she had no idea where to find them or even what had happened. As she turned to walk away from the tree, she tripped over an exposed root and the flashbacks started.
Screeching, pain, panic, roaring; a portal. It was open; there was fighting, so she ran into the middle of it, of course! She really needed to think this running into danger thing through in future!
There were elves and the silver bear cub and a large silver male—his dad—and something else. Something dark. It was trying to pull the silver bears through the portal and the elves were trying to stop it, she thought.
She shouted and distracted the dark thing long enough for the elves to get the upper hand, and they vanquished it, or most of it, at least. Something dark and shadow-like raced off into the Forest. The elves took off after it, leaving Fuzzy there with the two silver bears and an open portal.
Now that the immediate danger had passed, the silver bear cub, with the intense curiosity of the very young, reached out his paw to the shimmering portal and something latched onto him. He wailed in terror and tried to pull his paw back, but it wouldn’t let go.
His dad roared and ripped into the portal with his sharp claws, trying desperately to get his son, but whatever it was, it didn’t let go. All claws and ferocious teeth, the cub’s dad jumped into the portal, forcing the thing to let go of his son…and the portal snapped shut.
The silver bear cub and Fuzzy looked at each other and…
Black.
After Fuzzy told the others what she had remembered, they all sat there a while and stared at each other, unsure what to do next.
There was some sort of black shadow thing roaming the Dark Forest, something equally scary living in portals, a missing silver bear, and a silver bear cub that needed looking after. What was with her projection of emotions? The weird lump on the back of her head? And oh, she had grown so tall she was up in the forest canopy. That wasn’t normal, even for her!
Their discussions went around and around, but they couldn’t work anything out. Things just seemed too strange. The cub started to stir, and all Fuzzy wanted to do was make him happy and give him the life he deserved after being stranded in the canopy of the Dark Forest for the last four days and having to watch his father ripped away from him into a portal to who knew where.
Suddenly there was crackling, and a portal opened right in front of them. They all jumped up and moved away, very aware of what had happened to the silver bear cub so recently.
As the portal steadied, out walked the mythic Gardener of the Dark Forest, holding his twisted vine staff. After eyeing them, he stepped over to the silver bear cub and gently picked him up, cooing soothingly to him the whole time.
“Um, sir?” Fuzzy stuttered, trying to explain. “We didn’t hurt him. We found him here, scared and alone, and just wanted to help.”
“You’ve done well, young trolls,” the Gardener began. “I know you only had his best interests at heart. I could feel it from Earth and followed your love and concern here. I must be going since I have a very anxious father in my Sanctuary, waiting eagerly to reunite with this young one. But before I leave, let me give you a piece of advice: please be careful in the Dark Forest at this time. There are strange things running around, and not all have goodness in their hearts like you do. I believe we will meet again in the not-too-distant future. Until then, take care.”
To say all three trolls were surprised would be an understatement. Stories of the Gardener of the Dark Forest and his fierce protection of his wildlife were rampant, but they had never thought they would actually see or meet him. Fuzzy felt his warmth and watchfulness, as well as a sense of pride in the trolls and something else. What, she wasn’t sure, but there was something behind his eyes that told her he knew more than he was saying.
As the portal closed behind the Gardener and the silver bear cub, the trio started back to the village. Not everything had been answered to their satisfaction, and dangerous and confusing things were afoot in the Dark Forest, but at least the little silver bear would be with his father tonight, so all was good in his world.
Fuzzy wanted to know more about her new abilities. If she could project all the way to the Gardener on Earth well enough for him to follow the projection back to her, she needed to be careful about what she was doing. Although it was a good thing, wasn’t it?
Also, what about the ability to grow enormous? She’d only heard of trolls being able to do that once they were bonded to others, and she wasn’t bonded, was she? She couldn’t be bonded and not know about it, could she?
It would be exciting to go off and see more of the universe, maybe even Earth. The Gardener had said that they would meet again. She wondered when that would be.
Those were more than enough questions for her first day out and about from the Healing Center. She was tired now, and a nap in her own bed sounded like a wonderful idea, but she felt wonderful about doing a good deed for the silver bear cub and finding out what had happened to her. Or was there more to know? They all knew what curiosity did to the cat, but sometimes she just couldn’t help herself.
After Orville and Pearl dropped Fuzzy off at home, they exchanged a look. That knowing look, the one that said they knew Fuzzy wouldn’t be down for long. They expected to delve into more mysteries in the near future because wherever Fuzzy led, they’d follow.
If only to keep her safe from herself.
Author’s Notes
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
To you the reader, who thought this was entertaining enough to read, to Martha Carr for working so hard her whole life to get to the point where she created this Universe, to Michael Anderle for helping to create this Universe and providing this opportunity for aspiring writers all over the world. To everyone who has supported, cajoled, and encouraged the new writers, and the not so new.
This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but I’ve never been sure it would be possible.
My very supportive husband has listened to me speak for many long hours about my dreams and wishes on this subject and has been subtly (or not so subtly) pushing me to sit down and get the damn thing done for a long time. Here it is.
Thank you to everyone,
Mandi
All In A Day’s Work
By Lisa Frett
Stephanie and Trig are in a hurry to find and stop a psychotic and murderous gnome.
The gnome Pembroke is tired of working for the Light Elves in their library on Oriceran. He finally has what he needs to leave his misery behind and bring his own form of misery to the planet Earth.
Will Stephanie and Trig find him in time? Or will the humans of northern Vermont be in danger from the murderous little bugger?
With the help of two child ogres, the witch Stephanie and her wizard partner Trig must find and stop psycho-gnome Pembroke before he turns northern Vermont into his killing ground.
Dedicated to my family, for putting up with their crazy mom and her dreams. Also dedicated to Martha Carr and Michael Anderle for letting us play in their universes.
Prologue
The bitter gnome kicked the corpse
of the dead elf at his feet. “Stupid elf,” he said aloud. “You all think you're better than the rest of us. Well, you're not!” He kicked the body again and spat on it.
He grimaced as he wiped off his daggers on the dead elf's shirt.
The murderous gnome, Pembroke, looked down at his once-clean suit. There was blood all over his clothes. It's just as well, he thought. Once I leave Oriceran, I won't have to wear these stupid suits anymore anyway.
As a gnome working in the Light Elves’ library, it was required that he wear a suit and a bowler hat. The suit itched like mad, and it made him miserable. The bowler hat they gave him was too small for his head and made his ears poke out. All you could see of his face were his big ears and his huge nose with a hairy little wart on its tip. There was an evil little poppy flower on the hat band that had a mouth with sharp teeth that tried to bite his fingers whenever he held the hat in his hands.
The flower on his hat was meant to be an alarm of sorts, one that would warn the wearer of any danger to the library and its books. All Pembroke's hat flower did was terrorize him. He wished that the little flower would wilt and die.
Pembroke glanced at the corpse. Arrogant, self-righteous snob of an elf, he thought. That stupid elf believed that I would actually pay for the amulet? “Bah!” he said aloud as he kicked the dead elf's corpse.
Tales from the Oriceran Universe: Fans Write For The Fans: Volume 1 (Oriceran Fans Write For the Fans) Page 13