“We live in a lawless realm,” Grimsby said gravely as he slammed his bony fist on Aurora and Simeon’s kitchen table for emphasis. “In times of old, such thievery would have been met by the King’s swift justice, whether the noose or the axe. But now we are expected to accept such acts of banditry?” The skeleton shook his head in disgust.
Of their single remaining pie, all that was left was crumbs. It had been even more delicious than Gideon had expected. Aurora and Simeon had shared it with those who could eat, so Gideon, Berenyn, and Shylvena had all taken a slice.
“I think you might be overreacting a little,” Aurora said, leaning back in her chair and sighing contentedly. “You can bring more pies next time. Honestly, I’m quite full anyway.”
“Agreed,” Simeon said, patting his belly. “Sadly, one can have too much of a good thing.”
“Ah, if not for yourselves, I figured you might share the extras with some of the other inhabitants of Emberly,” Grimsby explained. “Perhaps explain to them that the dessert came courtesy of the head chef at the Rattlebandit Inn.”
“Still not the name,” Gideon said with a sigh.
“Then what is?” Grimsby retorted. “You’d better let me know soon so I can properly market our new enterprise.”
“How about ‘The Good Knight’s Rest’?” Clonk said. “Knight with a ‘K,’ of course.”
“We can talk about it later,” Gideon said, throwing up his hands. “While I’m sorry your public relations campaign has been delayed, Grimsby, I’m still wondering who Melissa Mossbrook actually is. By her laugh, she sounded young. Like a kid, maybe?”
“She was quite a large bear, however,” Clonk noted.
“A druid can shape themselves into larger or smaller forms, as needed,” Berenyn said. Though Aurora and Simeon had been surprised to see the elves at first, they’d warmed up to them after Grimsby had told the story of how they’d all met. The skeleton, of course, had made it sound like it had been his idea to rescue them, which had elicited a chuckle from Gideon.
“Fair point,” Gideon said. “Otherwise, how would any druid ever shift into a bird?” He had enjoyed reading stories of druids as a child, especially the ones where they could fly. “But if there’s a young girl in the wilderness, shouldn’t we help her? Where are her parents?”
“Help her?” Grimsby cried. “Maybe we should help my pantry. How am I going to find more apples now? Those apples were two centuries old, Gideon! The harvest is months away.”
Aurora and Simeon looked at each other. “Two centuries?” Aurora said, looking suddenly ill.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Gideon explained. “They were perfectly frozen. Um, in time.”
Aurora raised an eyebrow and looked to Simeon, who shrugged. “Tasted great to me,” he said.
“Isn’t the wilderness where a druid belongs?” Berenyn said, looking to Gideon. “Though your sentiment is admirable, the girl may not wish for, or even require, assistance. There are many druids in Lorindel and throughout the Elvish realms. But they avoid civilization, and even the company of their fellows, quite deliberately.”
Gideon nodded. “I take your point. I guess we don’t know.”
“Well,” Aurora said, standing up from the table and brushing some crumbs off her apron. “If that’s settled, you want to see the window or what?”
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After laying a bed of straw in the cart, they loaded the new glass window inside. It looked pristine and had the perfect dimensions to replace the pane in the castle’s conservatory, just like Gideon had requested.
Gideon and Sir Clonk did a circuit of Emberly, helping a few more farmers with their pest problems. Meanwhile, while Grimsby stayed with their cart, Berenyn and Shylvena went to the train station to check the schedule.
With practice, casting [Quake] had become much easier for Gideon. This time, he was able to root out a couple more Blight Tunnelers in little time, allowing Clonk to efficiently dispatch them once they had surfaced.
They traded their services for extra lumber, clay roofing tiles, and various odds and ends. Clonk carried most of their new supplies balanced on both his shoulders while Gideon lugged a crate of tiles.
When Gideon and Clonk returned to their cart in front of Aurora’s glassworks, they found a small crowd around Berenyn and Shylvena, who must have returned from the train station before them.
Gideon raised an eyebrow at Clonk. They watched as a young man wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat moved to the front of the group and kneeled before Shylvena.
Shylvena looked panicked, turning to Berenyn, who began to laugh. As Gideon drew nearer, he started to hear the man’s words.
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“…the first moment I laid eyes on you,” he said, “I knew you were the one my heart has been waiting for. When I saw you looking at the train schedule, dear maiden, I could only throw myself before your radiant beauty!”
Berenyn shook his head and sighed. Shylvena’s eyes widened. Perhaps she had understood enough of the man’s words to discern his intentions. Or maybe it was the look of absolute devotion in his eyes as he kneeled in the dirt before her.
“What’s going on?” Gideon asked, trying to sound casual as he elbowed past a few villagers.
At the sight of him, Berenyn smiled. “The train will come in three days and departs at noon.”
“That’s great, but I meant all of this…” Gideon said, gesturing towards the crowd.
“I don’t think they’ve seen many elves before. It began harmlessly enough, asking about Lorindel and our journey. A few villagers wished to speak with us as we walked to the train station and returned. However, this is a new development…” He turned to the farmer. “I’m afraid my sister is uninterested in your overture.”
“I have a large homestead outside the village,” the man said, a hint of desperation entering his voice. “Eleven cows, nine goats, nineteen chickens. And I’m getting more every season!”
“You could have a hundred goats,” Gideon said. “But they’re just passing through. They’re headed to Prospera on the next train.”
“Oh,” the man said, looking dejected as he rose from the ground and dusted off his knee. He shot Shylvena one last embarrassed look as he walked away. “Prospera,” he muttered. “Everyone goes there eventually… Should I? But no, I can’t abandon…” Gideon couldn’t hear the rest of what he said.
Meanwhile, a woman approached Berenyn and asked him to autograph a piece of parchment with a pen. A red color crept into his cheeks as Berenyn quickly signed the parchment and handed it back to her.
“What lovely penmanship,” she said, bowing toward the much taller elf. “Thank you kindly.”
“Why doesn’t anyone ever ask for my autograph?” Clonk asked after the woman departed. The knight sounded a bit gloomy.
“If they knew you were a spirit,” Gideon offered, “maybe they would. But they presumably think you’re just some guy—hey, what are you doing?”
Clonk had stepped into the center of the crowd and loudly declared, “Greetings, I have no body!” He raised his visor, revealing the empty helmet within.
Gideon watched as the nearby villagers reacted with horror, confusion, and in some cases, a complete lack of interest. But it did the job of causing the crowd to disperse quickly.
“Thank you,” Shylvena said to Clonk, making the hand sign for peace towards him.
“I don’t know what I did,” he replied. “But you’re welcome.”
“Wait, where’s Grimsby?” Gideon asked.
“I’ve been hiding in here,” Grimsby said, emerging from the bed of straw within the cart. “With my newfound fame, I didn’t want to steal their thunder.”
“I wish you would have,” Berenyn said.
The front door of the glassworks opened, and Aurora poked her head out. She seemed relieved to find only their group. “Now that things have settled down, I take it you’ll be heading back to the castle?” she asked. Turning to Gideon, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small crystal. Gideon realized it was an Etheric Communicator. “Before you go, I thought it would be best if we shared contacts. It might save you some trips down the mountain if we can call each other. I only got it recently, but it’s a handy little device.”
Seeing the magical crystal, Gideon was impressed that such devices were now becoming commonplace even in a village this far from the center of Acretan. When Gideon was a child, they hadn’t even existed.
“I would like to call you,” Gideon said, laughing nervously, as he remembered throwing his communicator off the castle's balcony. “But mine broke.”
“Ah,” Aurora said, chuckling. “Hate when that happens. The old ones lasted much longer, didn't they? Well, no matter. Let me know when you get a new one.”
Gideon nodded, adding a new task to his mental to-do list while in Prospera.
To his surprise, Aurora handed him a small bundle of brown paper, tied with a ribbon, that he hadn’t even noticed she was carrying.
“What’s this?”
“Open it, ya goose.”
Goose? Gideon wondered. He still wasn’t used to how they talked out here. Carefully, he untied the ribbon and began to unwrap the paper.
Within was a set of small glass sculptures. There were three figures, a man wearing robes, a skeleton wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and an armored knight. Each sculpture was intricate, especially considering they were made from glass and fit easily in the palm of his hands. When the sunlight hit them, they gleamed with a shimmering spectrum of color.
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you, Aurora, they’re beautiful. I’ll cherish these.”
Aurora smiled and clapped him on the shoulder with her gloved hand. “You seemed to like my others, so I thought it would be fun to make some of you lot. I said I don’t sell them, which is true. But I never said they couldn’t be a gift. See you soon!”
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On their way back up the mountain, Gideon felt they were being watched. His eyes kept scanning the trees to either side of the trail, expecting to run into the druid again. But by the time they’d gone halfway up the mountain, Gideon had started to feel like he was being paranoid.
It didn’t stop him from constantly looking behind them, however.
“Don’t worry,” Berenyn said. “I’ll keep an eye out for her.”
“If you see her, tell her she’s a dirty thief,” Grimsby muttered. “Does she think it’s easy to bake a pie from scratch?”
It seemed like a moot point, however. Though elves were known for their excellent perception, Gideon had to admit he was skeptical that any of them would be able to spot a druid in their natural environment who did not wish to be found.
Their cart was laden with everything they’d picked up in the village. As always, Clonk pulled it easily, and the rest of their group followed behind him.
Gideon had rewrapped Aurora’s sculptures in paper and carefully placed them in a pocket of his robes. He thought they would look great on the bedside table in his room. As of now, they were the first and only decorations he had here.
When he began decorating his living space, he wondered if that would make it feel like home. Or would that only happen later, when he packed up his old place and said goodbye to Prospera for good?
They had almost reached the fork in the road when Clonk stopped again. Ahead of them, right in the center of the trail, was a large basket that appeared to be woven from sticks and leaves. It was packed with fruits and vegetables of many varieties, including apples, pears, carrots, corn, an eggplant, and even a tiny pumpkin. Next to the basket, a message had been drawn in the dirt with a stick:
“No theef. Good pie. Thank U. - Bear.”
After Gideon read the message, his eyes wandered down to some smaller words written underneath it as if they were an afterthought:
“Got more?”
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