The falling sensation didn’t stop when I woke up and I realized very quickly why when I hit the floor beside the bed with a loud thump. It didn’t really hurt but it was very disorienting to wake up falling out of bed. With a groan I picked myself up, the stiffness of sleep already starting to fade. I have no idea why, but I expected it to hurt when I fell, for Aggy’s body to be brittle even with the memory of smearing a bandit into a tree with a light kick still fresh in my mind.

[“Given how most of the elderly would be in this situation, I won’t take offense to that,” Aggy said with a smirk I could feel.]

I shook my head at her with a small smile and began to do some stretches. For nine-hundred-ninety-two years old, Aggy’s body was shockingly flexible. I remembered her mentioning that she had summoned a spirit to help clear up her bad back and arthritis but her back felt great, better than mine in all honesty, and I had zero issues with joint flexibility or soreness, so it seems that summoning me did at least partially fix the issues.

[“Thank goodness for that,” Aggy chuckled, “I didn’t really want to have to do another rejuvenation ritual, especially with how that last one went.”]

Why couldn’t you just use a healing ritual like we did with Barkly? I asked, curious. If a healing ritual could so quickly and easily restore a kid from the brink of death, why couldn’t it defeat arthritis or a bad back?

[“That’s a question asked by a great many scholars and healers,” Aggy answered, “a lot of them think it has to do with time, some of them think it has to do with the cells in your body only allowing a finite amount of regeneration, but no one knows for sure. Magic works how it wants to, and the sooner one accepts that, the better the mage they’ll be.”]

Wait, cells? Does this world have microbiology? My confusion was palpable. As far as I was able to tell, this world was like any other fantasy setting in that magic took the place of science, although considering how little of it I’d seen I had no idea why I had that assumption.

[“Yes,” she answered simply, “and good on you for realizing you didn’t have a view to stand on, considering you’ve seen my cabin and a little bit of the woods. I’ll save you from your curiosity though, science and magic both advanced fairly well. From your memories I can tell you that we aren’t quite as advanced scientifically as you are but we’re also not too far behind either. Magic has advanced us in leaps and bounds where your world was restrained by the laws f physics ad the sciences your people already understood.”]

Is this world not constrained by the laws of physics? I asked, my confusion growing.

[“eh, kinda,” I could feel the shrug, “I’m not gonna lie to you sonny, I was never really that big on science. I’ve learned a lot in my near thousand years, make no mistake, but the sciences like physics and chemistry never really interested me, especially not when you add magic to the mix. Gets all wibbly-wobbly.”]

You know what? That’s fair. I thought back to her, I never had much of a head for science anyway, but this is all very alien to me.

[“well, you’ll have plenty of time to ponder it, but children will be waking soon and wanting breakfast, I’m sure.” Aggy told me with finality, ending the conversation.]

I finished doing my stretches and walked over to the heavily curtained window. Throwing back the curtains let in the light of a sun just starting to crest the horizon. Not that I could see the sun, being surrounded by trees in a forest, but its light managed to make it through the foliage. I smiled as I saw one of the small golems trotting across the lawn to one of the garden patches. Then the confusion came back because I didn’t remember seeing a window facing the garden.

[“Well that one’s simple,” Aggy said, answering before I even asked, “my cottage is magical. The layout can change at will, although with our current situation it might decide to just rearrange itself.”]

I pictured the room I was in suddenly deciding to be a different room and any way I pictured the transition scared me, just a bit. I could feel Aggy laughing at my very active imagination.

[“don’t worry its not going to change the room you’re in,” still laughing slightly, “it does have safety features.”]

Huh, a magical cabin with safety features. I immediately shook the thought from my head, I’d have plenty of time later to go through all my lines of questioning later, for now I had to get dressed and go make the children breakfast. I pulled off the clean white cloth and pulled on a dress that was laid out and ready, then I slid my feet into the large black boots. I started to look for the large spectacles before realizing I could see fine without them.

[“No dear,” Aggy sighed sadly, “they’re also magical. I prefer the glasses, but the default form is the lenses that are on our eyes now.”]

I blinked, now noticing that there was something on my eyes, and as soon as I noticed they shifted int glasses resting gently on my nose. My brain churned with questions, but I forced them down, telling myself because magic is a good enough answer for the time being. I could feel Aggy’s approval, and she trickled in a bit of knowledge to passively answer some of my questions. Turns out the glasses can do lots.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I went out to the hallway and looked at the pictures again as I made my way to the kitchen. They were different then the ones I’d seen before, this time showing a variety of landscapes and geographic features. I slowed down as I walked past them, but I knew I could spend all day looking if I stopped. There was scenery I was familiar with, forests, jungles, hills, plains, stuff that I’d seen pictures of before like volcanos and glaciers, but then there were also pictures that were downright bizarre, looking like an Escher painting or something like that, with nonsensical geography that defied everything I’d ever known. There were definitely a few here that I’d have to come back to eventually.

The best word to describe the kitchen, in my opinion, would be cozy. It wasn’t a large kitchen, but it wasn’t too small either, it had a stove that looked almost like an electrical one, something that looked suspiciously like a fridge, as well as a sink set into one of the countertops. There were cabinets and shelves all over the walls full of everything from cookware and jars to various plants and herbs, the only open space was the window, which had a couple little plants sitting on the sill soaking up the early morning sun. not everything was kitchen related, some of it was just decoration, and a lot of it seemed magical.

An entire shelf of tiny porcelain cats watched me take in the kitchen with bemused looks on their artfully crafted faces. They climbed tiny cat trees, rolled around miniscule balls of string, and their tiny meows sounded like the tinkling of bells. They were adorable. Just above them was a shelf full of fat little cherubs, fluttering about and frolicking, not nearly as cute as the cats though. The more I looked the more motion I saw on various shelves, most of the various knick-knacks doing something other than just sitting there being a decoration.

[“They’ve been there for years,” Aggy scolded “they’ll be there after breakfast.”]

I started pulling out the various items I needed to make breakfast, Aggy guiding me to the different shelves to grab things like a pan, spatula, some plates, bread, eggs, a handful of herbs, and then over to the cabinet that I thought looked like a fridge. It was. I pulled out some cold milk, juice, cheese, and bacon, as well as a couple sauces that Aggy insisted I add.

Then I made breakfast on the stovetop, the burners working identically to an electrical stove. It made me wonder about things like convergent evolution, and whether the boxy design was the optimal stove shape. Aggy didn’t care much for the line of thinking and scolded me for almost burning some of the bacon. It was crispier than she would’ve liked it but definitely not burnt. The little black bits would add flavour.

Once I was done cooking, I plated some of the food and set it out on the dining room table, then went to go see if the kids were up yet. The hallway that connected to the guest room was much shorter today, the wall taken up by a picture of a forest meadow dappled by morning sun, grass and leaves swaying with a slight breeze. It was almost like looking through a window instead of at a painting. It was a serene scene, made me feel peaceful inside.

Smiling, I knocked on the door, waited a few moments, then entered. I wasn’t sure what to expect, probably the three of them still passed out in bed or something along those lines. All three of them were awake, huddled together in a small circle on the floor discussing something. They got quiet and looked up at me when I opened the door, expressions on their faces like they were hiding something. It didn’t look guilty, just hard and untrusting. I gave them what I hoped was a warm and caring smile, then gestured back towards the dining room.

“I made breakfast,” I said softly, “please wash your hands at the sink before eating.”

I gestured for them to follow me and went back to the kitchen sink, washing my own hands with a little bar of soap before handing it to each of the children in turn. They diligently washed their hands, mimicking what I’d done exactly, then they followed me to the dining room where I got them each sat down in the ornamentally crafted, very heavy, wooden chairs. They didn’t seem that heavy to me, but the children were struggling to move them at all, and they made an audible thunk sound when I set them down gently, so they had to have been fairly heavy.

The children stared at the plates full of food on the table then looked back at me pleadingly, none of them so much as touching a fork. I gave them a smile, then told them to eat up. As soon as I said it, they started devouring the food like they were never going to be able to eat again.

[“Goblins don’t live easy lives, Jake,” Aggy explained sadly, “They live off the land competing with things are stronger than they are for the resources they need to live. Most of their encounters with the so-called higher species involve slavery, murder, and pillaging. They probably think you’re just fattening them up to eat them or something macabre like that. When you ask them to come with us, they’ll probably agree without question because of what the alternatives are. Barkly was willing to die for his siblings, in fact he almost did. A lot of people probably would’ve finished the job, because they don’t value goblins as anything more than pests. These children are probably almost as confused about what’s going on right now as you are.”]

After breakfast, I let the children have a bit of time to themselves, to talk or play or whatever they wanted to do. They decided to spend the time talking in whispered tones about their plans moving forward. Barkly thought they should head out as soon as they could to go find somewhere to set up camp, and just live off the wilds. Sap wanted to stay with the nice granny. Twiggy agreed with Sap, he liked the idea of eating breakfast each day. It was a convenient discussion for me because it led into the conversation Aggy, and I had planned to have with them. So, I took them outside to the yard where I let them know that we had to have a serious talk. They looked absolutely terrified, and I tried to comfort them with a smile, but it didn’t seem to do much to help.

“I was wondering what you three would like to do,” I told them, “If you’d like, you can stay with me, or you’re free to go at any time. I just want all of you to feel safe and protected.”

The look of fear from their eyes had quickly vanished. Barkly looked at his siblings who looked to him with their eyes wide and pleading. He seemed to fight with himself before letting out a sigh and drooping his shoulders slightly.

“we’ll stay,” he said, slightly downcast, before turning his head up in defiance, “for now.”

I gave them a wide smile, which sap and twiggy shyly returned, and Barkly just pouted.

“Tell you what Barkly, we can go on an adventure if you’d like? I know an old wizard who I’ve gotta visit and I’d love a strong young escort like yourself.”

He perked up and nodded, a smile starting to creep onto his lips.

[“You’re handling this better than I thought you would,” Aggy said with approval, “time to get packed up and head out, its probably going to take us a few days to get there with the kids.”]

“Well kids, its probably going to take us a few days to get there so why don’t we go in and pack up some bags and get some camping and picnic supplies and then we can head out.” I gave them all a big smile, then took the children in to do exactly that.