The sound of metal hitting the floor greets my ears and I decide that that is probably a sign that I should wake up. Though that’s probably not good.
“Mom! Is everything alright down there?” I shout as I roll out of bed and I pull a simple whitish tunic over my head, then hurry out the door to my rather small room. Making my way downstairs I hear some quiet swearing and metal being tossed into the kitchen basin.
“Mom?”
My mother turns around and looks at me from the basin. She is by no means a tall woman, only standing around five feet and two inches tall. As usual she has her dirty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail that she drapes over her shoulder. She is also wearing her usual outfit, a simple brown dress with a light green apron over it. Currently she is looking rather miffed about the fact that she had just dropped a majority of our cookware onto the ground and is going to have to clean it to use it, we aren’t gonna just use stuff that was on our floor to cook afterall.
“Oh, good morning Oliver. Sorry, did I wake you Dear?” She places her hand on her cheek and gives me one of her patented smiles. The kind that makes you feel like everything is gonna go great and fills you with that fuzzy feeling. Mom really is the best, I just wish I could do more for her.
“No, I just didn’t wanna get up yet.” I say as I pull a chair out at our table. Like most places around here in our small village of Hemlile, everything is made of hornbeam wood. From our three chairs and table set to the floorboards and doors.
I take a moment to look out the window at the early morning sunlight, it honestly feels great now that the summer solstice is right around the corner. It means I can start doing more for Mom.
“So what were you making anyways?” I ask as I pull my gaze from the beautiful blue sky and aim it towards my mom who is currently trying to balance a bunch of ingredients as she walks over to the stove. I almost get up to help before she stops and sighs to herself and tosses the ingredients onto the counter next to the stove with relative grace. Where was that when she dropped like half the pans in here?
“Well I was planning on surprising you with some hotcakes for your birthday, but that chance is gone so I might as well just do it in front of you.” She moves over to the stack of firewood in a small box near the stove, not close enough to catch on fire though, and takes a log back to the metal fireplace.
Before I can make a comment about how that isn’t necessary, a loud knocking comes from the door behind me. I stand up and begin to reach for the handle, but before I can the door flies open and hits me square in the nose. “Ow!” I reach up and rub my face. It doesn’t hurt that much but it did take me by surprise.
As I stand there, rubbing my nose, someone enters our kitchen. A girl around my age who happens to be my best friend since like forever ago. She has bright golden hair, which is a major trait in people around here where we live, that has been pulled into two half-twintails half-buns on either side of her head. A smattering of dirt and fresh looking scrapes cover her tomboyish face, along with a wide grin that is just begging me to get revenge. But that’s a later thing. She wears a slightly more detailed dress than my mom, lighter brown and shorter length.
“Good morning Mrs. Giterale!” She cheerfully shouts, not caring at all about the not really that big of a deal of pain she caused me. Yes I am a petty person, get over it. “Where’s Ollie? Thought he’d be up by now. And what are you making?”
Mom just gives out a light laugh as I sneak up behind my friendly intruder. “Good morning to you as well Charlie. Oliver is awake, you’ll see him soon enough. And as for what I’m making, just some hotcakes.”
Charlie gasps in delight, unaware of my presence behind her, at the mention of food. “You’re making hotcak-” I lunge and begin to tickle my friend relentlessly. When I eventually let up, she is nothing more than a giggling ball on the floor of our kitchen. “What the heck man?”
“That’s for throwing the door in my face, you dork!” I laugh and pull out another chair for her to sit at.
Mom just sighs and goes back to the stove, placing the wood inside the fuel box. “Oliver, Charlie, if the two of you are done with your silliness I’m about to do something neat that I feel like the two of you are always interested in seeing.” Charlie immediately runs over and crouches down next to Mom and I hurry to her other side.
No matter how many times I see it, watching magic is really cool. I’m sure Charlie can barely contain her excitement for getting an Inkling of her own in a matter of days, and to be fair I’m having a hard time too. Mom holds out her left hand to the open door of the stove and a small navy blue splot of color forms on the back of it. The spot of color quickly reshapes into something that looks like a spool of thread with a needle at its side, standing to attention as if it were some soldier’s blade. Lines of navy crawl down Mom’s forearm, some curling and ending at various places and others wrapping around the inside of her elbow before making their way a little further up her arm.
“Sparkight.” Mom whispers as the marking glows for a brief moment. Then a small ember of flame appears in front of her hand and flies into the fuel box, setting the wood inside a blaze. She quickly snaps the metal grate that keeps the fire in, back into place, and places a pan on top of the stove. Then she goes and starts mixing the ingredients she had pulled out earlier together into a thick batter.
“So what do you two have planned for today?” Mom asks as she’s cooking breakfast.
Charlie and I sit down at the table. “I’m not sure, maybe go to the church and see if Sister Abigail needs any help. Anything you wanna do Charlie?”
“Mmm, nope. Mom doesn’t need me at the shop today and Dad’s out running a few errands for the festival. The whole day’s open for me to do whatever I want!” Charlie exclaims with excitement as a tower of hotcakes is placed in front of her.
Mom puts one down in front of me as well and another, smaller, plate for herself. We stop talking and begin to dig into the meal. Mmm no matter what, I don’t think anything is better than Mom’s hotcakes. Something about how fluffy and sweet she makes them, I’ve tried to recreate them but haven’t quite got it down to pat yet.
“Ahh! Mrs. Giterale, you’re the best cook I’ve ever gotten to eat from!” Charlie says as she stuffs another slice into her mouth.
“Thank you Honey, but if your mom caught you saying that well…” Mom trails off with a not so nice smile, kinda feels like a threat almost. Charlie chokes on her food for a moment and hits her chest.
“Please don’t tell her I said that…” Charlie says, looking out the window for a quick glance to check if someone was coming for her or something.
“Oh ho ho! But of course, I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Thank you.”
We finish our meal and I clean up the dishes while Mom and Charlie chat about the recent adventures we’ve been on. A quick glance towards the window and I can tell that it’s getting close to the later half of the morning, so I go and get my bag and a few snacks together before we head out to the church.
“Bye Mom! See you later!” I call out as Charlie and I leave.
“Be safe out there Dear! Pick up some salves from Sister Abigail just in case!”
“Will do!”
“And keep Charlie out of trouble!”
“Always!”
The two of us run off into the village after that and pass by all the people who are busy putting up decorations. Colorful flags and simple lanterns are being hung up between the wood and stone cottages that form our little town. I don’t even think that Hemlile counts as a town, but whatever. There’s a lot of talk as well, other kids my age are talking about what Inklings they’re hoping to get and the adults are talking about some big shot priest coming to visit.
Eventually we arrive at the smallish stonebricked church, with massive glass windows that almost take up all of the walls. A large sun emblem is carved into the wooden doors that lead inside. Before I can open the doors, Charlie runs past and dashes through them. The few nuns who were cleaning or praying ignore her except for the one who was sweeping the floors, she glares at us as dust and dirt follows Charlie in her path.
“We’re here to see Sister Abigail, do you know where we can find her?” I ask the nun who is sweeping close by the door, who had just given Charlie the stink eye.
“In the infirmary room as usual.” She responds and points to a door towards the back with a crescent moon carved into it.
“Thank you for your light.” I say as I grab Charlie and pull her away from bothering anyone else. The nun gives me a grunt and we leave her alone to clean the mess we brought in.
We make our way to the back end of the church and push through the moon marked doorway. Inside a line of beds, with mostly open curtains in between them, and a large glass and wood medicine cabinet greet us. It’s a pretty familiar sight for us, mostly ‘cause Charlie would end up getting hurt and I’d have to bring her back here.
Standing in front of the medicine cabinet is another nun, but instead of wearing the usual white and gold like most others who worship the Sun Chaser she is dressed in a white and red outfit. A large cross being cradled by the moon is boldly presented on her chest in red to contrast the white of the habit. She’s a bit taller than Charlie, only around five feet and eight inches or so. Of course she also has a similar blonde hair color as Mom and Charlie.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Hello Oliver, Charlie.” She says without turning to look at us enter. Her voice is really soft, like I’m talking so soft you’d think if a strong breeze came by it could steal her words. And yet she always gets her message across.
“Hello Sister Abigail.” The two of us say in unison.
“It’s awfully early to be hurt, so I’m guessing the two of you want to help me with some chores.” Sister Abigail takes her head out of the cabinet and looks us up and down. She smiles and pulls out a small piece of parchment from inside a drawer in the cabinet.
“Yeah! I need something to do, so I thought maybe I’d help out!” Charlie runs over to the nun’s side and reaches for the paper, which the sister holds out of reach.
Sister Abigail lets out a light laughter, similar to windchimes, and continues to tease Charlie by holding what I’m guessing to be a list just above her head. “Really? Just out of the kindness of your own hearts? Forgive me if I sound a little rude but you, Charlie, rarely offer to help unless you want to get out of practice.”
The girl in question stops her jumping and blushes. “N-no! I can be nice without needing anything in return!”
“Mmm, I’ve heard that before.” The nun lowers her hand and lets Charlie grab the list. “Tell you what, you find me the things on that list and maybe something else not on there, I’ll let you off the hook for skipping class.”
Charlie gives her a stupefied look, as I walk over and snatch the paper out of her hands.
“Filler fern heads, horned rabbit’s root, young hornbeam bark, mewler weed, and you said something else?” I ask the Sister.
“Yes, if it isn’t any trouble I’d like you to find some sunset moss. Just if you are going to look for some, please be careful. I’d hate for one of you, most likely her.” She points at Charlie who has begun to dig around in the cabinet drawers. “To get hurt trying to gather any.”
“Well we can still keep an eye out. And besides most of the monsters out in the nearby woods are pretty weak.”
“Still, the both of you won’t be getting your Inklings till a few days from now. I’d rather have you come back before sun down.”
“Okay. I’ll be sure to try and get us back before then.”
Sister Abigail smiles at me, as she grabs Charlie by the collar of her dress with surprising strength, and guides the two of us outside.
“Now remember.” She begins.
“Don’t climb any trees, don’t jump around on top of rocks by the brook, don’t pester the spring golem, and run for an adult if something weird is happening.” Charlie cuts her off mid sentence. “And I brought my first aid kit as well. Don’t worry, we’ll be super careful!”
“As compared to every other time you’ve been ‘super careful’.” Sister Abigail says as she cocks an eyebrow at Charlie’s remarks.
“I’ll keep her from getting into any major trouble. It’s my job at this point.” I sigh as Charlie sticks her tongue out and runs towards the woods. I rush to catch up to Charlie and wave goodbye to our motherly nun.
By the time I catch up to her, we’ve already entered the woods. Semi-tall trees begin to surround us and give a nice shade from the sunlight that filters through their leaves. The air is fresher here and the sounds of the nearby brook bubbling make me feel at ease. Until Charlie grabs a fallen branch and begins to wave it around like a makeshift sword.
“What are you doing?” I let out an exasperated sigh. Charlie looks at me like I had just asked her why the sky is blue.
“What’d you mean what am I doing? I’m obviously taking this stick with us for protection.”
“I mean why. Why do you think we’ll need your stick, we both have our knives and even if we needed to fight something I don’t see how useful that thing is.”
“Well then, you’re just blind to the possibilities.” She sticks her tongue out at me and darts off into the underbrush.
I seriously wonder how someone so weird and silly could also be one of the smartest people in town. I get that it sounds like I’m setting the bar low and everything but I assure you that Charlie is definitely smarter than she looks. Still it’s a miracle that she doesn’t get into worse trouble than she already does.
While I’m walking and monologuing to myself, I happen to spot a small fern in between the roots of a nearby tree. I approach with mild caution, filler ferns happen to look a lot like wristsnap roots, and inspect for the details to identify it.
After making sure it wasn’t going to try and trap me, I pull the small, bulbous, curly head from the plant. It comes free with a satisfying pop sound and the leaves curl inwards, as if they were trying to protect the plant from harm. I make sure that the outer layer of the head isn’t broken and place it into my bag.
When I turn to continue my search, Charlie is standing behind me with a large clump of roots in hand. “Here ya go!” She says cheerfully, tossing the bundle of roots at me. I fumble a bit but manage to not drop them and carefully place them into the bag as well.
“Do you wanna look for some more of the ferns or maybe some mewler weed? I’m gonna find a sapling and peel a strip of bark off it.” I ask. I know that Charlie knows the woods better than me, so it’s a good idea to see if she can find stuff quickly.
“Sure. Bet I can find enough of both before you can get enough bark!” She yells before running off and leaving me before I can give her an answer. I shake my head and walk back a little ways to one of the younger trees we had passed earlier, pulling out my knife to get a good start on the peeling.
A while after I finish debarking, I of course only took a small sample from each sapling, I look around for my rambuncis friend who surprisingly hasn’t returned yet. Before I can call out though the ground begins to shake a bit. I turn towards where I know the brook is and lo and behold, Charlie is currently running away from a large, mossy, rocky man who seems to be yelling.
No words are coming out but there sure are a lot of mouth movements and pebbles flying to make it seem like there are. I run over towards the troublesome child and begin to pull out some of the horned rabbit’s roots from earlier. I cut off a piece and call out to the golem.
“Mr. Golem! Please forgive my friend! I’ll give you some of our gatherings if you do!” I yell, waving the piece of root around in the air. The golem pauses in its tracks and turns, then it starts to charge at me.
Thankfully this isn’t the first time I’ve had to do this and I stand my ground. Right before the monster can barrel into me it stops and kneels to be at eye level. It doesn’t really have eyes, more like empty sockets or cracks that could have had eyes at one point. Most of its features are pretty easy to describe, stony, light brownish except around the feet, mossy back and head like hair, and a wide crudely chiseled mouth that is currently widening into a craggy smile.
“Hey buddy. Did she climb on your back again?” The golem nods and makes some hand gestures. “Oh? She was pulling at your moss?” Again the giant nods.
“It wasn’t like that! He just has this spot of sunset moss growing and I kinda wanted it…” Charlie calls out from behind a nearby tree.
The golem gives her the approximation of a golem glare before turning back to face me. I reach out and hold the root for it to take.
“I’m sorry about her. You know that she doesn’t mean to be rude, she just doesn’t think about the consequences all the time when she sees something neat.” The golem gives an earth shaking ‘laugh’ and gently takes the root from my hand. It then stretches out an arm towards me. “Huh?”
The golem ‘rolls’ its eyes and picks me up, putting me on its back and then walking over to where the trouble maker is hiding. It repeats the process and begins to carry us back the way they had come.
“So you tried to cut some moss from the spring golem again?” I ask, a light tone of teasing in my voice.
“Well I tried, but taking a closer look it wasn’t what I thought it was. But I couldn’t explain myself to him as well as you can so I just ran away.” She looks away and curls in closer to the stone giant’s back. The golem gives another ‘laugh’ and places the two of us down near a pile of herbs and a small bubbling spring that leads down into the brook.
It turns to me and points at the pile, making a few hand gestures before turning and pointing towards the nearby cliff side that leads up and towards the east where the Sun Vatican’s land ends. It makes another series of gestures and then walks over to the spring, sitting down with its feet in the water.
“Welp, I guess we have to give it some of your haul.”
“What?! But I worked so hard!”
“Yeah and then you made the spring golem mad. You’re lucky he likes us, despite the numerous times you’ve poked him with a knife. Plus he told me that some ‘almost dark time soft plant glow’ is down that way by a cave in the cliff.”
Charlie looks at me and then at the pile of herbs she had found. Eventually she sighs and grabs a large chunk of it and pushes it over to the golem who was still sitting in the water. It gives a satisfied rumble and places some plants into its maw. Smooshing plants and rock sounds fill our ears as we sit down a little bit away under some trees.
“So… lunch?” My friend looks at me with big eyes.
I roll mine and take out a few sandwiches from my bag. I hand one over and begin to munch on my own.
“You know that he doesn’t hate you right?” I say as I absentmindedly eat my food.
“It sure seems like it…”
“Nah. I think he likes having you around. Whenever he talks about you, he always calls you ‘almost master kin’. I think you remind him of someone and he just likes to mess with you.”
“Then maybe he’d give us a ride again some time?”
“Only if you apologize and stop poking his back with a pointy blade.”
She smiles and stands up, walking over to the stone man. The two ‘talk’ and eventually the golem scoops her up and she whoops with joy. I envy her ability to make up with people, it’s honestly impressive how much she gets away with.
I think that Charlie could be a lot more responsible though. I’ve seen her serious before but she just doesn’t like to do it that often. I don’t know why…
Before I can continue to ponder the question of what made Charlie so carefree, she bounds up to me with a smile from ear to ear.
“I think you were right! He does seem to like me.” She says as she plops down onto the ground next to me.
“Told you.” I remark as I watch the golem go back to sitting in the water. Charlie takes another sandwich and stuffs it in her mouth as we take a short break from our little hunt.
“This feels nice doesn’t it?” I say as I relax against a tree.
“Yeah… but we should get back to work soon I guess. I mean it is getting to mid afternoon.”
I look up and she is right, the sun is getting lower and that means that we should probably finish up. We pack our things and wave goodbye to the rock man as we head towards where he had pointed earlier. After a few minutes of walking I spot the cave and point out a patch of greenish, orangish moss growing near the mouth of it.
She nods and walks over causally, but for some reason when she gets to the mouth of the cave she stops. I start to walk towards her and see her leaning towards the inside of the cave. Getting up close I almost ask her what’s wrong before she holds a finger up. I wait and then, a sound greets me. Not the sound of the forest, not the sound of animals, not even the sound of the brook but rather it sounds like… voices?