Finally, and actually quite quickly, the new horrible edifice finished construction. The parents hosted a picnic to celebrate. The regular weekend crowd was invited, along with a few other families. Some of the deer-hu swam over when they discovered the commotion. A party was thrown. Solveis and Arlendr participated in the communal eating time, as was required, but they spent most of that time playing with their little brother Oskar and not making eye contact with any adults. They shuffled off, and away from the worship of the head pike, as soon as they could. They spent most of the day playing Arlendr’s pretend battle games, high up in the trees of the west hill, where they would be safe from wandering visitors. Strangers rarely roamed into those thicker trees. When the siblings occasionally heard the noises of visitors strolling about, they grumbled to each other and increased the intensity of their game.

Solveis and Arlendr were not missed at the party. No one noticed that two, out of many, children had wandered off. The parents and all the visiting children had a fabulous time in worship of the edifice. They ate, and had sweets, and ran around.

The faun siblings’ sulking went unnoticed all weekend, even after the visitors left and the normal Sunday routine kicked in. Everyone else on the island continued to have a celebrating time all weekend.

The next weekend, the normal gang came and inhabited the island, except that now all the grown ups stayed in the new cabin – the head pike, as it were – and the children were given possession of the true cabin. They were made to understand that it had officially become the habitat of the youths. This was one positive side effect of the change. The increase in freedom and the autonomy was effective in softening Arlendr’s disdain more than Solveis’s.

The children were invited into the head pike for a fancy breakfast early in the morning. Solveis opted for a granola bar and some solitary tree climbing. Arlendr was tempted into joining by the smell of cooking meat, and by his sense of adventure. He could poke through the enemy’s lair.

Solveis’s solitary morning gave her the opportunity to survey her lands, which needed to be done occasionally.

She started on the beach – since it was the most likely to not be left undisturbed for long, then down to the center of the island (where the west hill, the cabin path, and the plateau met), then to the plateau, and to the hopping spots, and finally up and west through the trees. All throughout her survey, she felt as if all the things were slightly different.

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‘Maybe it was just a symptom of the general disturbance caused by the head pike’, Solveis told herself, ‘or maybe from the visitors at the party’. She was satisfied by the survey she had done, so she went to rest, to sit on the west cliffs. There she could drop little stones down onto the rocks sticking out of the water’s surface.

Solveis’s little mind bird took the opportunity to have a soaring adventure. It was distracted mid flight though. It went back to her person and alighted onto her little shoulder. She remained facing the water while the yellow spirit looked behind her and cocked it’s little head in the direction of the un-hushed noise of crushing leaves.

“Still sulking?” Sinews questioned Solveis’s back.

Solveis shifted her weight back, away from the cliff edge, and pulled her legs up, so as not to be in danger of being pushed off the cliff. She didn’t answer. Instead, she closed her eyes and laid back on the earth, arms crossed above her head. When she opened her eyes, Girselle was standing above her, looking down into her face, with Girselle’s own head crooked in curiosity.

“People are gonna think you’re stupid if you never answer them,” Girselle informed Solveis.

Solveis just closed her eyes again. She consciously found and dwelt on the sensation of warmth on her torso, where a bit of sun made its way through the trees and touched her tunic. The warm breeze swished down her horizontal body, from head to foot. Solveis decided that she didn’t need to answer. She might choose to reply though; she hadn’t made up her mind yet.

“Nobody missed you at the picnic. At least you kept your weird mood away for that.”

“Yes,” Solveis answered, as if in a pleasant dream.

“I get it, you’re in a new weird mood today. What are you dreaming of, you fairy thing?” Girselle asked in a tone that was an equal mix of nurturing and sneering.

Solveis didn’t like to be teased about being a fairy thing. She loved fairy things. She loved that her own people, fauns, had so many fairy stories about them. It made her feel like she was part of a higher, more magical world. It wasn’t to be made fun of.

Letting her dreamy mood speak for her, Solveis replied, “I’m dreaming of too many things for to say”.

Girselle sat on the ground, across from Solveis’s laying head. Girselle finally succeeded in pulling Solveis from her dream by attacking her with the words, “You’ll have to come in the new cabin sooner or later you know. Arlendr even came in today.”

Solveis sat up and turned around to face her opponent. “I don’t know yet what I will have to do.” She looked very seriously at Girselle’s devious eyes.

“Whatever,” Girselle shot at Solveis. Then she got up and left, feeling like she achieved her goal of upsetting the faun girl.