For some reason that Solveis and Arlendr could not understand, the parents seemed to encourage a continuing intimacy with the aepsis family (who’s family name had been mentioned many times, but the faun siblings could only seem to remember that it started with the letter B). Consequently, the B siblings, Girselle and En, showed up at the Eigeroy family’s island weekend after weekend.
Either by the hand of fate or of chance, Livia had been away for the first few weeks when Girselle and En inserted themselves into Molil. One Friday evening, Livia finally came back around.
Hearing footsteps approach the cabin, Solveis nursed all her feelings of bitter dislike at the intrusive siblings who were yet again walking up to her place. Discerning the sounds of happy skipping, and then seeing the glowing, young countenance of her friend, Solveis was taken by surprise. For a short time, she had forgotten that a Livia had existed. Faced with the remembrance of this reality, she learned a sudden increase in the value of Livia’s virtues. Little Liv was kind, loyal, and happy. What a treasure! Abruptly, Solveis realized that Girselle would likely arrive soon. That malicious presence would poison this good thing. Solveis had a desire to scoop Livia up and hide out with her, but then maybe that was unfair. Just because she didn’t like Girselle didn’t mean that Livia couldn’t. Maybe the fact that Livia was so young would temper Girselle’s behavior and be a good influence.
Solveis learned from the father that Girselle and En wouldn’t be coming by until the next morning, so the darkness could be put off until then. Solveis didn’t even mention it to Livia. Arlendr did at lunch time.
“Hello Leave-Ya. You know we had intruders here?” Arlendr voluntarily spoke to Livia, though calling her by a mispronunciation of her name. Both girls were taken aback, but Arlendr acted as though it had not been remotely out of character for him.
Phased, but only for a second, Livia’s bubbly happiness came out through words. “That’s so crazy! Sometimes intruders are aliens. Maybe it’s a for-na-ner, or like a mole from under the ground.”
Arlendr liked the ideas presented. He liked the idea of seeing the two intruders as aliens or mole-people. He would decide later exactly what kind of intruding monsters they were, but at any rate, he liked the idea.
The parents, their three offspring, and their little oggo guest enjoyed a pleasant evening. The change from the other guests to this one was felt, consciously by some, and unconsciously by others. It caused general good will and comfort among the cozy little family circle. The parents even offered a fancy frozen custard desert, topped with syrups and fresh cut fruit, for no reason at all.
In the morning, the father made breakfast for all the kids. Solveis, sitting with Livia, felt that she needed to warn her little friend about the malevolent force that was about to land on their place. She wasn’t sure exactly what to say. She never wanted to plant a bad seed in anyone’s mind, but she didn’t want Livia to go into battle unprepared either.
The two girls ended up deciding to mark the hopping spots with chalk. Solveis approached the subject. “Remember the intrudes that Arlendr told you about?”
“The mole people!” Livia shouted excitedly. Then she crouched down and pretended to be a mole poking its head out of the ground.
Solveis giggled and then continued. “Remember at the fair, …”
Livia interrupted her, “I love the fair. Juju said maybe we can go early next time and help them put the stuff up, and talk to all the people, and walk around, and pet the animals!”
Solveis let Livia finish, then she went on, “Remember the aepsis lady?” Then rushing to prevent Livia from answering, she continued, “she had kids too. She and her kids came here the last few weeks. They're our intruders.”
Livia’s face grew pinched in trying to remember, “the running kids. I never saw them close up.” Livia said unassuredly. She remembered having a generally negative feeling from the aepsis lady, but the idea of new kids was fun. “Are they nice?! Maybe they can play hopping spots with us.”
“The girl one killed the doll queen,” Solveis answered in a warning tone. Then, wanting to be charitable, “Maybe they could be nice.”
Deeply stricken at the loss of her beautiful, husk haired friend, Livia ran off toward the cave. Solveis followed her, surprised at her speed and agility in getting in the cave. Generally no one could match Arlendr’s or Solveis’s speed in getting into the tricky entrance of the cave.
Livia saw no trace of the doll queen inside. Solveis could see that she was truly distraught at it. Solveis went to a tin that was protected with a lock, put in the lock code, and opened it to show the doll laying at the top of the tin. Solveis and Arlendr had safe guarded some of their cave things by installing locks on a couple of the tins and moving valuables into there. Livia picked the broken doll up from her tin, looked over the crumbling and foot printed body, and fell to a sitting position with it in her hands. She pulled its remains into a hug and cried, actual tears, a short little flow of them. Solveis was shocked. She realized that maybe she didn’t know her friend as well as she’d thought she had. How could Livia be so moved over someone else’s doll? It was just a doll. Honestly, it was more of the malicious intent, than the destruction, that had hurt Solveis. The destruction of the doll, though upsetting, was nothing to cry about.
“Oh my queen!” Livia stroked the battered doll and cooed. She looked longingly at Solveis and asked, “Can you fix her?”
It hadn’t occurred to Solveis, but she supposed she could fix her, but the skeleton was destroyed, so it would have to be a nearly complete reconstruction. “I can try. But I have to keep her in the locked box for now though.”
“Yes. In the locked box,” Livia repeated mournfully.
After some coaxing Livia back to happiness, Livia agreed to go with Solveis back to the hopping spots.
Solveis had no idea how to prepare Livia for Girselle and her brother, and she felt that the little episode over the corpse of the queen doll would be enough, hopefully. On that hope, Solveis didn’t bring up the subject of the intruder siblings again.
They finished chalking the hopping spot. Then, they started jumping from one to the next, singing ‘Treaty of Peace’ as they hopped, just like they did in hop scotch. They sang:
Treaty, treatise, treatment, tea
On that day it was going to be
They came, they sat, listened and told
Except the eptill forgot
And the frople wouldn’t go
Decisions, discussions, pleas
In the end they had to agree
A new nation with a new name
Amalga would serve to fix
Three problems at the time same
Language, anguish, angles, and
All the grains make one beach of sand
They must have a language to bridge
So the attos tongue won out
The rest are left on the edge
Visitors, visors, advice
The aepsis are common as mice
Some squeeze in and others run home
But the visited cant gripe
Since none leave aepsis alone
Luxury, land, livelihood
Each wanted a cut of what’s good
The natives asserted first claim
Then the rest battled it out
Each slice gave riches and gains
Treaty, treatise, treatment, tea
On that day it was going to be
Each one asserted their own wants
After discourse long and frought
Maybe ten years peace was bought
They got through the song only one time before Livia lost interest in hopping. From there, Livia led Solveis over to the north beach. She played in the water, splashing her bare feet in the freezing waves. She spun and played, and ended up singing.
“Sing the other part of the song!” Livia pleaded with Solveis, referring to a duet from her favorite musical. Solveis had no interest in singing the song, besides Livia always sang every song wrong. Livia’s eyes, as well as her tone of voice pleaded, so Solveis gave in. She was in a mood to make Livia happy today.
Solveis spoke her part more than she sang it. Solveis performed haltingly and awkwardly, but it made Livia happy. Livia sang loudly, she randomly sang her thoughts in the middle of the song, and she switched over to some other song halfway through.
While Livia was singing, Solveis heard movement nearby. She turned around to see Girselle walking slowly toward her and Livia. Solveis heard aggressive play noises in the distance and figured that En must be around somewhere playing with Arlendr.
Solveis turned to face Girselle, positioning her body between the striding Girselle and the frolicking Livia.
Girselle looked at Solveis in her cruel way, then she shifted her expression into a fun, kind one.
“Hey! You must be Livia!” Girselle shouted kindly in Livia’s direction. “I’ve heard all about you. I was so excited for you to finally be here today. Do you want to come play with us? We’re playing up there,” Girselle pointed up to the cliff overhanging the beach, to where the boys’ noises were wafting down.
Livia stepped forward, out of the lapping water, and a little behind Solveis, looking out from behind her older friend. She wasn’t sure what to think. This was the murderer of the queen doll, but she didn’t seem like a murderer. She was so nice. She was so cool. Solveis’s hand-made faun clothes were cool, but this girl was so cool. Livia herself mostly wore clothes she got from family, old stuff, not stylish stuff like this older girl. The girl had a small shirt, with fancy straps, tight on her skinny body. She had a short flared skirt with sheer colored tights under, like the famous kids wore. She also had chunky black boots which were wonderfully shiny. She didn’t look scary. She looked cool.
Livia came out of Solveis’s shadow a little.
Girselle entreated the uncharacteristically timid Livia again, “Why are you scared of me?” Girselle laughed it off. “I don’t think you’re a scaredy cat. I think you're tough.”
Livia’s bubbly speech came to her, “I am tough, expect when I fall, ‘cuz I cry then sometimes.”
“You’re not scared of me. We can all go play together,” Girselle entreated, then acting like a new thought had just occurred to her, she asked, “did they tell you I broke that doll? Do you think I did? That’s totally stupid. It was really, really an accident.” Girselle’s voice dripped with soothing friendliness. “Come on, let’s all play together.”
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Livia didn’t know what to think. The girl seemed sorry, but the doll had been murdered. It didn’t all added up. She looked at Solveis, who was doing her best not to influence Livia. Livia asked Solveis, “Sulvi, Maybe we could go play with Arlendr,” unsure of what else to do.
Solveis led the way to where Arlendr and En were playing. They were playing swords with big sticks, and Arlendr was being unnecessarily rough, but En was taking it in stride. Girselle followed Solveis and Livia from a respectful distance until they all joined the rest of the group. Once all the kids were together, Girselle stepped into the middle and took charge.
“Livia was singing the song from everyone’s favorite play!” Girselle announced to the group in order to both flatter and embarrass Livia at the same time.
Livia shrunk a little, but remained mostly happy.
“Let’s do it all together!” Girselle suggested to the company.
Livia, forgetting herself, clapped in excitement.
En looked bored at the suggestion at first, but after a glance from his sister, he became a proponent of the scheme.
Arlendr flatly refused to participate in any way.
Solveis had absolutely no interest in participating, but at pleading from Livia, and encouragement from En, she was willing to be a non-speaking background character.
Girselle, with Livia’s active but useless help, led the charge. She chose a scene to do and gave everyone characters. No one knew the lines exactly, so each practice went differently. Solveis didn’t know what the catch would be, but she had to admit that everyone was having fun.
Arlendr played by himself, but stayed near enough to hear the goings on.
After hours of ‘practice’, Girselle announced that they were ready for a performance.
“Under no circumstance, ever, will I perform for the parents,” Solveis pronounced firmly, staring at the ground in the direction of Girselle.
“We weren’t going to, stupid,” Girselle said, as if it were obvious, and as if she had never planned to in the first place.
The group decided on a place to perform. In the west hill there was a relatively flat area with sparse trees that would be a good place for their play. They would make Arlendr be their audience.
Girselle set up the scene, then she and her brother went off to prepare themselves to enter.
Livia was up first, she sang her own version of the very short intro song. Then En entered. He and Livia did a scene together, with Solveis as a non-speaking background character. Finally Girselle entered the scene; more dialog. Last of all was a large group number where Livia, Girselle, and En sang three of the more prominent singing parts of an ensemble piece. A few lines into the song, Girselle and En unexpectedly walked out of the scene, leaving Livia singing alone and unnecessarily loudly in the quiet island atmosphere.
Livia’s projecting voice filled the otherwise quiet hillside until she became aware of being alone in her performance. Then her voice quavered and dropped out. In her confusion she was placed on the precipice of nervous excitement, just a hair away from falling into the chasm of mortification. She felt so stupid. What had she missed? Being alone on a stage is a terrifying thing in general, but being left so unexpectedly felt like being stripped naked. Livia was close to tears, saved from them by her constant hope that something fun might happen next. She looked all around her to see what had happened about the play acting. Girselle and En were standing a distance away, just watching her.
Solveis thought that Girselle looked smug and En looked ashamed.
Arlendr was confused at the whole thing. He didn’t know much about musicals, and hadn’t particularly been enjoying this one, but he was pretty sure they were all supposed to keep singing.
Arlendr was about to ask her why she stopped at the wrong time, stupid. Then, all the kids were ripped away from their reflections by a cheerful clapping coming from behind Arlendr. Startled, they all looked toward the sound and forgot their previous concerns because an adult was among them.
There was an old aepsis man sitting a distance behind Arlendr, at the base of the oldest, most glorious tree, the big and old one with the wide stretching branches and huge trunk. It was the tree that the blue birds loved most. In fact, just then, a particularly small, pale blue bird was sitting on a branch, seemingly watching the children.
“Why did you stop? You are a star. They gave you the stage, so you could shine. I loved to hear your voice,” the man entreated Livia with genuine pleasure. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I’m Old Lou. Remember from the other day?” The man directed this comment mostly at Arlendr and Solveis.
As soon as he mentioned the other day, Solveis remembered that the parents had actually had him at their mainland house a few days ago. In fact, they had met him a few times throughout their young lives. He was some kind of family friend. When he visited most recently the parents had said something about him visiting the island. Solveis and Arlendr hadn’t taken in much of the conversation at the time though, and they hadn’t thought of it since at all.
Solveis realized that the old man was appealing to her and her brother to vouch for him among their friends, since an unknown man in the woods could potentially be alarming. Arlendr spoke up before Solveis did. He said, “You were on the mainland before. But now you’re here, watching them do the bad play.”
Arlendr’s comments were cryptic, but they let the other kids at least know that the man was not a stranger.
Solveis tried to clarify. She spoke primarily to Livia, “He’s a friend of the parents. We saw him at the mainland house. I knew he was gonna visit here, but I forgot until now.”
Arlendr grew tired of rehashing history. He wanted to know more about this adult who was unlike the parents. He didn’t stay all day in the boring cabin. He was sitting at one of the nicest trees on Molil. He knew what was good. Arlendr asked the man directly, “So who exactly are you then? Why are you here on my mountain?”
“I am the old man of this mountain. I have known it and your family for a long time. I have known this place far before you did. And she knew it even before that,” he pointed to a small blue bird flitting in the breeze at the top of his tree. “I’m here because I like the place. Isn’t that why you are here?”
Arlendr was suspicious of him because he was suspicious of anyone who entered his most favorite place. Arlendr had appreciated that the man had referred to Molil as the mountain though. Maybe he had more sense than most adults. Arlendr was done grilling the old acquaintance for the time being.
Livia picked up the conversation. (Girselle was still measuring the situation, not ready to talk yet.) Livia asked the old man, “Did you see the whole play!?” She asked half in excitement and half in embarrassment. She had made some blunder at the end which had been upsetting, but he had seemed not to think badly of it, so she still had hope that maybe the blunder didn’t really matter.
He responded enthusiastically, “I really enjoyed it. I feel bad that I was an unintended audience, but once you started I didn’t want to rush loudly away and disturb you. I am glad that I got to see it though. You did so good… but you didn’t need to stop there at the end. Everyone gave you the stage. You’ve got to go back and finish the song you were doing.”
“Really!” Livia asked in pleasure.
“Yes!” he answered. “I can go if you don’t want an audience, but you should finish. And… if you can get your friend to do more than just stand like a tree, it would be good for her.” He said that last part as a gentle scolding to Solveis.
Livia laughed and pulled Solveis’s arm in a playful way.
“I don’t really perform,” Solveis stated matter-of-factly.
Girselle was ready to take her part in the conversation. She was uncomfortable with this man. She hadn’t liked it when he had interrupted her torment of the young girl, right when it was about to do maximum damage. She didn’t know what spin to put on the situation though, because he caught her in the act of intentional cruelty, but he wasn’t letting on that he had seen anything at all. It would probably be best to pretend that she had not been being cruel, and to take his view of the performance, that had been wonderful. She complemented Livia to the group to see how he would respond. “Yes. Little Livia our star. She sings the loudest!”
“Thanks!” Liva responded to the complement.
The man then asked, “So I know Arlendr and Solveis, but I haven’t met you all properly yet.”
Livia answered, “I’m Livia! I just met them two, but their names were like ‘For Sale’ and ‘Hen House’. What are your names again?”
‘For Sale’ and ‘Hen House’, both Arlendr and Solveis found this quite pleasing. Glancing at each other, they stored it away for later.
Girselle spoke authoritatively. “I’m Girselle and this is my brother Henrdrix, En for short.”
En nodded.
“Anyway,” the old man continued. “Don’t let me interrupt your fun. Finish your play. You were doing so well.”
Solveis didn’t know the man super well, and she didn’t care about the play, but she was incredibly grateful that he had been able to help Livia recover from the very real embarrassment that she had been placed into. Solveis had really been worried about the fallout of the potential injury to her friend’s fragile feelings. Solveis thought it could have ended up being the kind of thing that Livia would never quite recover from, except that the man came and rescued her from the embarrassment. He had done it well too. Livia didn’t even see that there had been malicious intent to hurt her feelings. She had no reason for embarrassment or displeasure at all.
Solveis and Arlendr were now as at peace as they could be with a new adult in their forest. He had used their language, calling the place the mountain. And, apparently he had been around all morning and had disturbed nothing so far. This was better than most aepsis could do.
Livia fully trusted the man, partially because she unconsciously sensed a lessening of Arlendr’s and Solveis’s tension, and partly because he was so nice.
Girselle was still left off kilter by him, but she wouldn’t let on. En was stiff, but no more uncomfortable than his sister's shenanigans usually left him.
Apparently Livia would rather talk to the new friend than go back to her play. She bubbled out speech, “Did you really like it?! We practiced all day.”
The old man was kind to them both, “I can tell. It’s my favorite version I’ve seen so far. You are a talented little star of the show. Your co-stars are pretty good too. Except for you, you tree. You’d be better if you actually performed,” he directed that comment at Solveis, who wasn’t hurt by what he said, but who never planned on acting on his advice. For the time being, Solveis would just look hard at him.
He looked hard at her in return, and then his expression warmed and he smiled gently at her.
Livia continued to make conversation, as she sat near him and started [laying with the grass near her feet. “How come you are here this week? You didn’t know we were gonna do a play or anything?”
“To answer that, I’d have to bore you a little,” he explained. Then he went on, expecting that they actually did want to know why he was there, “I lived on this island a while ago. I’ve been around here in you Eigeroy kids’ lifetime too, just not often enough for you to remember me. – Recently I felt that I really wanted to come back and spend time again in my old favorite place. That’s why I visited your parents. – In return for their hospitality, I’m going to re-plant the old, dried up garden, all dead and gone.” He said this in a mournful voice, seeming to look back at some former glory through the backs of his eye sockets. “I’ve actually been hanging around for a few days now, but staying too quiet and boring to disturb you. Today though, I just had to clap for that wonderful performance.” He continued, “So you see, I’m the old man of the mountain.”
“Old man,” Arlendr repeated rote-ly in order to download the information into his mind.
“Will you finish your performance? Please. I didn’t mean to disturb you all,” the old man pleaded with the troop.
Not sure exactly what to do, but feeling that his plan would probably be the best for her little friend Livia, Solveis tried to act on the old man’s advice. She awkwardly walked back to where she had been standing during the performance, and took her place.
With willing playmates and an engaged audience, Livia took her place too. Girselle and En did the same.
Without discussing it, they seemed to know that they should start back with the ensemble piece. Just as Livia was about to start belting, the old man addressed the group.
“You. Tree. Don’t you know one of the parts? Even just the chorus?” he asked Solveis. Then in a tone which implied that she was already planning on doing what he was suggesting, he stated, “Sing some part with your friends.”
Somehow, the expectation that she must do it seemed to make Solveis suddenly have the ability to do so. The troop sang together. The piece ended with Livia belting out a flourish.
Then Livia ran back to the man, sitting by him. The old man clapped heartily for them. He gave Solveis a reassuring look, seeming to say, ‘See, you did it.’
Solveis wasn’t sure how she felt about his advice and his approval. She was impressed with herself though, for having done something she considered herself incapable of. But then again, who was he to direct her?