Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Kinderling 31

  In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress...


I quickly found out that Mizzy hadn't so much tackled me as such.  By the time she reached me, what little strength she had left gave out and she "tackled" me by the expedient of falling in my general direction.  Luckily, she didn't miss.  This left me in the situation of being underneath a very collapsed Mizzy.  Normally, this wouldn't be so much a problem.  While Mizzy normally outweighs me by half and is a good bit taller, this new, rescued Mizzy didn't seem to outweigh me by much if at all.  It wasn't a question of if I could lift her off me, became a question of how to do so without harming her.

After a few moments, Mama rescued me.  

"Off we go Mizzy.  Safe and dry inside."  Mama said, and with that Mama carefully lifted the skin and bones Mizzy and carried her though the ferns covering the cave opening and disappeared.  I collected my things, and...  the opening was gone.  I knew it should be there, but where was it?  Apparently my new no-see-me charms were good enough to even fool me!

"Mama?"  

Mama came back out and dragged me inside by my hand.

Then it hit me.

"Mama, how do you go in and out without losing the way like I did?"  I asked.

"I don't look for it.  I know where it is, so I just go where I need to go."  Mama replied.  "If I stopped to look for it, I probably wouldn't be able to find it either.  This version of your no-see-me charms are a lot more powerful than the previous ones.  It's almost like the act of looking actively confuses the mind.  I know that part of rune crafting is tied to the intent of the crafter.  That's why different runes work differently for different Kinderlings."

Leave it to Mama to so easily circumvent even my best tricks.

When I entered the cave entrance, Mizzy was laying on some fern fronds off to the side sleeping, wearing nothing but Mama's tunic.  We didn't take spare clothes or blankets into the Stump with us.  We didn't want to chance being weighed down, so we left them in the fort intending on picking them back up on our way out.  Only Mama didn't go to the fort, she came directly here to the cave.  That would mean...  Yep, Mama was topless.  In my daze, I hadn't even noticed.  That explosion must have really rattled my brain around.  

Luckily, I hadn't wanted to leave anything for Daggi, and packed up as much as I could before I left the fort.  I gave Mama the pack after pulling out my blanket and carefully covering Mizzy.  Along with the blanket, out came Smoke, who was happy to curl up with Mizzy.  I worried about both of them.

I noticed that Mizzy was no longer wearing the harness which was lying on the cave floor a few feet away.  When I went to pick it up to examine it, Mama stopped me.

"Tandy, before you touch that thing, I want you to brace yourself.  That thing is evil.  It was a good thing we got to Mizzy when we did, because I don't think she could have survived much longer wearing it."

Forewarned is fore-armed.  I touched the harness and immediately wished that I hadn't.  I could feel it sucking at my will, draining my energy.  I became light headed and everything started going fuzzy.  Then everything went black.

I vaguely remember waking up for a few seconds, being carried by a large Gorf.  I wasn't able to stay awake long enough to figure out if it was a friend, one of Daggi's slave soldiers, or a wild Gorf taking me to his cookpot.  

When I woke up again, it seemed like almost no time had passed, but I was in a nice Kinderling bed, with nice Kinderling pillows, and everything smelled nice.  My head was still a bit fuzzy, and I still hurt all over, but it was a dull ache, not the sting of still-new wounds.  

"You've been out for days."  Came Mama's voice from the corner.  

I looked down at myself , I was covered in bandages.

"Whatever you did, it nearly shredded the whole front half of you."  Mama continued.  "Are you up to sitting up and sipping some soup?"

Mama was treating me like an invalid!  I'd show her!

I tried to get up...  Then I laid back down, nice and slowly.  OUCH!   Clearly I was hurt more than I thought.

"No it is then."  Mama observed.

"I can try to sit up Mama.  I just overestimated my gumption."

With Mama's help, I was soon sitting up and quickly had a tray set in front of me with a bowl of soup that was more broth than anything.  It was good though, and I quickly realized how famished I was.  I drank the soup down as quickly as I could, and asked for more.

"I think we'll give you a bit of time before more."  Mama said, "You didn't get a chance to tell me what happened to you."

"First, is Mizzy ok?" 

"She's fine." Mama replied, "She's in the next room over, probably on her third bowl of soup this morning.  Smoke has been frantically going back and forth between the two of you.  She's probably with Mizzy now."

"The other mission?  Did Uncle Zon make it back?  Did he have all the people with him?"

"Yes, Zon is fine.  They succeeded better than we expected.  In fact, I suspect that the distraction we used to get Mizzy out of the Stump was Beso calling Daggi to task because they found the caves empty.  Zon and company got in, and got everyone right out from under their very noses.  Zon says it helped that the Gorf soldiers are even more dopey than regular Gorfs."

"The kitchen Gorf?"  I asked.

"When Watcher, Flower, and Mouse found me in the fern cave, Flower almost had a fit.  Apparently you were right to bring it along, because the kitchen Gorf is none other than Flower's sister... or cousin... or niece...  or whatever it is.  Gorfs family structures are confusing."  Mama said, then added, "Now, out with it, what happened to you?"

I could tell that Mama was getting impatient.

"You remember those explodey arrows that I designed with Tilly?"  I asked.

"No, you designed... explodey... arrows?"  Mama asked confused.

I guess in my excitement, I never got around to telling Mama about them.  Indeed, I only took them along on a lark.  I didn't consider them usable since there wasn't a good way to test arrows that explode without... well... exploding one.  We didn't do that, because the noise might attract too much attention.  

Guess they're tested now.

"Tilly and I, or really just me after Tilly taught me some new runes and ways to connect runes, invented and crafted two arrows that are designed to explode when it hits something.  I was thinking along the lines of a no-King-day firecracker, but apparently they explode a bit bigger than that."

"A bit?"  Mama said raising an eyebrow like only Mama can do. 

"And I kinda, accidentally grabbed one of them when I re-loaded the arrow-chucker and took a shot at Daggi."  I cringed expecting Mama to be mad, but the anger never came.

"I would suggest aiming at things further away in the future when using these."

I agreed.


Monday, February 22, 2021

Kinderling 30

    In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress...


It was a little after noon, which gave us a good amount of light to take a look at what was going on in the village.  I could barely make out the scorched, bare area where my home should have been.  I didn't know that it was burned down.  After all that had happened since the village was over-run, I found that I couldn't muster up enough emotion to be upset at the loss.  That worried me more than anything.

The tree fort was almost perfect.  It wasn't exactly across from Old Stump, but it was close enough, and it had an easily accessible branch where Old Stump could be observed without being seen.  I hung up a no-see-me charm just to make sure anyway, but I don't think it was really needed.

Mama hung up the improved no-see-me charm that I had given her at the entrance, and hung up another under the bush to make sure that if a Gorf patrol happened by there wouldn't be any chance of them seeing us.  After looking at it for a few minutes, I recognized the that second no-see-me charm as one of my prototypes from when I started getting the charms perfected.  I had given it to Mama as a present on her birthday.  I had no idea that she still kept it.  It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

I spent the afternoon watching the Old Stump.  Nothing much happened until what I initially thought was a Gorf patrol stopped in front of the stump.  It wasn't until I saw Daggi come out and bow that I noticed Baot, and his nephew, Beso, were in a little carriage amidst the Gorf platoon.  I was shocked when I realized that the carriage was being pulled by a couple of Kinderlings, and those Kinderlings where in chains.  What kind of person would do that to their own kind?

At first I worried that one of the Kinderlings pulling the carriage might be Mizzy, but that was rediculous.  Mizzy is way too small to pull something like that.  I couldn't get a good look at them at first with all the Gorfs in the way, but eventually was able to make them out, and was shocked once again.

It seems like many years ago, a much younger me tried to make friends and found herself on the wrong end of an argument with a bully.  That bully was Beso.  The two Kinderlings pulling the carriage carrying Baot, and Beso where none other than Ghead and Weph.  Ghead and Weph have been Beso's henchmen for as long as anyone can remember.  He never went anywhere without them.  On the day Beso threw me in the ravine and pelted me with rocks, those two stood right up there with him alternately fetching stones for Beso to throw, and throwing stones themselves.  I don't know how I managed to escape with my life that day, but it was a near thing.  Once Mama saw me, she had me on bedrest for a week, and Mama doesn't coddle anyone.  Now those two henchmen were apparently being treated like slaves by Baot and Beso.  I almost felt bad for them.  Almost.

After an animated conversation involving a lot of waved arms and loud enough shouting that I could hear the noise, if not the actual words, Daggi climbed into the carraige and the whole group of them sprang away as Baot started laying about himself with a whip, yelling the whole way.

I slid down the ladder as quickly as I could.

"Mama, that was Daggi leaving with Baot and Beso, and they looked like they were in a hurry."

"I wondered what all the noise was about.  They were too far away to hear what they were saying from this distance."  Mama replied.  "But with this distraction, now sounds like as good a time as any.  I wonder if Zon had anything to do with it.  I hope everyone is safe."

We had already decided what we would take with us on "the assault".  Mama's term, not mine.  We each carried a much smaller pack with only the essentials, and our weapons.  Mama also insisted we each carry at least one canteen.  I didn't think we would be so long that we would need them, but Mama insisted, and I have learned over the years that when Mama insists, it's best to just go along.  

We also took our improved no-see-me charms just in case.

"Remember, the retreat points are the fort, then the cave entrance with the ferns if for some reason you can't safely get to the fort."  Mama said, for at least the third time.  I could tell she was scared, because Mama never repeats herself.

As we planned, we split up and took a different route to the Old Stump.  The ground between the forest and the Stump didn't offer much in the way of cover, but it did roll a little bit and wasn't completely flat, so I was able to follow a natural low spot in the ground where water generally drained through when it rained.  It was shallow, and covered in grass, but that wasn't too bad, I'm small and ran as low to the ground as I could, hoping the grass and the small depression would hide me.  

Mama used the forest for cover until she became even with the Stump and then threw stealth to the winds and ran straight to the Stump, depending on speed and the fact that this part of the village was mostly deserted.  

We must have timed it well, because Mama made it to the Stump only a few moments before I did. 

Mama strapped her bow to her back, and pulled out her long knife.

"You use your arrow-chucker Tandy.  Since it is easier to handle in tight quarters than a bow, you should be fine."  Mama said.  We had already planned all this, but I appreciated that Mama cared enough to go over it again, just in case.

The doorway into the Old Stump was rotten.  It was locked, but it only took a swift kick from Mama to break it open.  The stench that wafted out from inside was incredible.  My eyes started to water.  Good thing I carried a handkerchief in my pocket that I could use to wipe away the tears and cover my nose and mouth.  It didn't help much, but at least it was something.

I after a moment I began to recognize that stench.  I smelled it almost every time I found myself in a Gorf settlement.  It was the smell of lingering death and cooking.  I tried to warn Mama before she entered, but she had already gone in.  There was nothing for it but to follow.

The inside of the Old Stump was surreal and terrifying.  The place had the look of a workshop, much like Tilly's, only dirt and dust were everywhere.  On top of all that, there were cages, and various animal body parts hanging here and there as if they were decoration, or maybe staged for use in some demented experiment.

I am ashamed to say, I screamed in terror when a dark, furry something landed on my shoulder.

*"sssshhhh, loved one, it is good you are here.  your --- needs you.  come quickly"*  Again with the --- thing.  I still didn't understand what it meant, but I knew Smoke was talking about Mizzy.

"What happened!" Mama exclaimed sweeping back across the room with her knife looking ready to chop someone, or something into bits.

"Sorry Mama, Smoke is here, she startled me."

*"not my fault you can't see in the dark, and you have such an inferior nose"*  I could hear the smile in Smokes sending.  *"but dear one, you must come quickly, your --- needs you!"*  

With that Smoke jumped off of my shoulder and guided us through a doorway, and down some steps to a lower level.  At the bottom of the steps was a kitchen and dining area.  What I saw there almost had me scream again.  There was a Gorf woman, cleaning an already clean kitchen, wearing nothing but a harness and an oddly shaped thing on her head.  I might call it a helmet, but even then it was oddly shaped for a helmet.

*"never mind that one, that one is blank"*

With how horrible the mess was on the level above, the clean kitchen was almost surreal.  That it was being cleaned, and apparently re-cleaned over and over, by a Gorf woman who seemed to not even notice us, made the wrongness of the scene so much worse.  Then I noticed the shape of the Gorf woman's hands.  Two thumbs, three fingers.  I wondered if this could be one of Flower's people.

*"come come, no time to dawdle"*  Smoke sent more urgently.

Across the kitchen and down another flight of stairs.  I didn't know that any Kinderling homes went down three levels.  It didn't seem natural, although I guess if you don't have a tree above you to expand into down was the only way to go.  

The stench of the next level down was hard to handle.  There were no windows to let air in, and thus smells out, this far down.  How could there be, we were under ground? 

The stairway let out into a low room lined with cages.  I followed Smoke to the other end of the room, trying to catch a glance into the cages as we passed.  A few of the cages contained what I was sure were dead bodies that included both Gorfs and Kinderling.  There were also a few large animals.  Well... large to a Kinderling anyway. 

At the end, in a cage where Smoke stopped lay Mizzy, all wrapped in a ball.  She wore a harness and helmet much like the Gorf above, in the kitchen.  

"Mizzy, I have come for you.  Sorry it took so long."  I had to get a hold of myself, I was tearing up and if I started crying I would be worthless to anyone.  C'mon Tandy, suck it up and get the job done! Plenty of time for bawling like a weakling later!

Unlike the Kitchen Gorf, who didn't make a sound that I could hear, Mizzy was a constant barrage of crazy.  Giggling one second, groaning another, and cursing in anger a third.  I tried to open the cage, but there was a stout lock on it.

"Smoke, do you know where the key is?"  I asked.

*"the bad one's pocket."*

"Never mind that Tandy." Mama said pushing past me.  Mama pulled a needle out of her pocket, stuck it in the lock and turned it.  The lock popped open with an audible pop, along with a tell-tale puff of black smoke.  The device worked, and then disintegrated, much like all my early devices.  I wondered how it worked.  It was just a needle, and I had a vague idea of how locks worked, so what turned the lock?  I also wondered what runes the device used and how they were connected.  I would have to ask Mama later.

"Can she walk?"  Mama asked, always the practical one.  "If not, I'll carry her."

I didn't think Mizzy looked in any condition to walk,  I checked her for any injuries as quickly as I could, just like Mama had trained me when you have to move a possibly injured patient.  Mizzy seemed whole, no broken bones or anything that I could tell.  The only thing I could find wrong was that Mizzy was only about half as big around as I remember.  Don't get me wrong, Mizzy could never be described as fat, but she did have a softness to her that wasn't there anymore.  Now she was skin and bones.

"Can you get up Mizzy?  Can you walk?"  I asked softly.

"Tandy?"  Mizzy said softly as if far away.  "You came?  Daggi will get you, run away."

"Daggi just left in a hurry,"  I tried to tell her "We will get out of here before he gets back."

*"your --- not move for days"*

"Mama, you'll have to carry her." 

The whimper that came from Mizzy when Mama picked her up almost made me tell Mama to put her back down, but we really needed to get out of there.  I was terrified that Daggi would be back with a platoon of Gorfs, so I lead the way with my arrow-chucker, ready for anything.  

I almost murdered the kitchen Gorf.

It wasn't on purpose, of course, I reached the top of the stairs from the lower level and there she was sweeping the floor right in my path.  The arrow thankfully missed, but not by much.  

"Go GO!"  Mama yelled as she passed me standing there like an idiot.  "Don't stop for anything."

I'm not sure what made me do it, but when I was passing the kitchen Gorf, I grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me.  She didn't seem to go willingly, but she also didn't seem to have the will to resist either, so in spite of her being a least three Tandys tall I was able to pull her along with me.  

We climbed out of the Stump as if all the minions of the Below were on our heels and made directly for the forest.  Just when I thought we were about to make it, I heard a yell from behind.  

"STOP THEM!"

Mama wasn't far ahead, and I could tell she wasn't running as fast as she could because she didn't want to leave me.

"Mama!  GO!"  I said, and turned around, readying my arrow-chucker. 

"Oh no you don't!  There's got to be a reason Tandy wants you!"  Mama said as she grabbed the kitchen Gorf by the harness as the kitchen Gorf tried to meander back to the Stump, presumably to her kitchen.  "Give me a few minutes head start and then get out of here, we'll meet at the fern cave."

Part of me felt abandoned as Mama sped away towards the forest with Mizzy over one shoulder, and a kitchen Gorf in tow.  That feeling was instantly swept away by a wave of anger as I saw Daggi running towards me, directing a squad of Gorf soldiers.

I grabbed for an arrow, unthinkingly snagging the very first fletching my hand landed on, and loaded it into the arrow-chucker.  I aimed at Daggi.  Father was right, I should have made that decision.   I thought I had.  I warred with myself over unleashing the arrow.  

Too late, I decided and the arrow flew.  By that time, there was a veritable mountain of Gorf soldier between Daggi and me.  I was still shooting at Daggi, but I couldn't really even see him for all the Gorfs.  

THWUMP!

I found myself flying through the air.  Something enormous had smacked me in the.. well.. the entire front of me, and I was flying backwards.

My face tingled, everything was black, I couldn't see.  I had dirt in my mouth, and when I tried to brush it away, there was something there in the way.  It took me a moment to realize it was my lips because I couldn't feel my hand touching them.  The air around me was hazy as I started being able to see again.  I shook my head... big mistake.

Looking around, I found myself a lot closer to the edge of the forest than I thought I should be.  Not far past where I was standing a moment ago, it seems like longer, there were humps on the ground.  As my vision came back more, I realized it was Gorf Soldiers, laying on the ground, being covered by the dust cloud that was settling.  

It hurt, but I managed to get to my feet.  My pack was still on my back.  My arrow-chucker was broken, so no help there should more Gorfs come after me.  Through the ringing in my ears, I started to hear someone cussing in Kinderling.  It was a male voice that could only belong to Daggi, so I guess he escaped... whatever just happened.

Time to go.  I turned and headed towards the forest.

*"..."*

"Smoke!"  I said out loud.  The mental cry was almost silent, but we are bonded, so I knew where she was and hobbled over to her as quickly as I could.  Poor Smoke.  She had been flung right into the forest and landed in a bush.  I picked her up and carried her with me.

One of the things I have learned in the few years of roaming the forest, in an emergency situation, take inventory of yourself and be honest.  If you can't run, be honest and acknowledge that you can't run.  That way, when you start planning what to do next, you don't do something stupid like relying on speed to get you out of whatever your emergency is.

I couldn't run.  For that matter, I could walk, but I wasn't going to be walking very far, very fast, or very long.  I checked my pack for my no-see-me.  It was there.  

"Right then, the fort it is."  I told myself. 

Talking to myself.  Not a good sign.

I took a curved route to the kids fort under the tree, being careful not to leave a trail for someone to follow.  When I got there, I made sure that weeds and grass covered the outside of the entrance hole in as natural looking a manner as I could manage.  I wanted to give my no-see-me as much help as I could give it.  I couldn't hear any pursuit, but my ears were still ringing, so I wasn't sure if I would hear any if they were stumbling through the woods as loudly as Father.

I ducked inside and hung the no-see-me at the entrance like Mama and I did before.  I was both happy and sad to see Mama's old no-see-me hanging under the bush on the other side where she left it.  Maybe in my daze I wasn't thinking clearly, because the plan had been to bring Mizzy back to the little fort to watch for trouble before heading back to the caves.  Mama had called it exfiltrating.  

I was tired.  More tired than I should have been, which worried me.  I checked on Smoke.  She seemed to be okay.  *"just need some rest dear one"*  was all she said before curling up on a blanket that I left behind when we set out for the Stump.  Unable to stay awake, I curled up on the blanket that Mama left and dozed off.

I woke to the sounds of someone, or more a group of someones, searching outside.

*"enemies outside.  many enemies"*

We stayed as quiet as we could, and barely moved.  I did go as far as to peek out through the bush, being careful not to move the bush and give our position away.  There appeared to be an entire platoon of Gorfs searching for us.  If they found us, there was nothing I could do against so many.  

I started taking inventory to see what, if any, options I could come up with.  To my surprise, I managed to get to the fort with most of my belongings.  The pack and both quivers had stayed on my back, and because Mama had drilled me and drilled me to always fasten my pack shut, everything seemed to all be in place.  

That's when I figured out what happened when I shot that arrow at Daggi.  My quiver of regular arrows was still full.  All accounted for except the one I accidentally shot at the kitchen Gorf.  The other quiver, on the other hand was missing precisely one arrow.  That arrow was one of two that Tilly helped me make that were designed to explode on impact.  I had no idea that it would work so well, I was expecting more of a pop, if it worked at all.  Like one of the firecrackers the village used to celebrate No Kings day.  

As a child, like nearly every other child that had any talent with runes, I tried every year to make a No Kings day firecracker.  The only ones allowed to set them off were the villagers who made them.  It was one of the few rules that the village council made that was universally accepted.  The few who could make them kept the secret to their construction very closely only handing it down within their family.

I don't think I cracked the code on the No Kings day firecrackers though.  What I set off was something far far larger.  I wondered how many Gorfs I killed.  Certainly the one that was hit with the arrow.  Others?  Daggi?  I didn't know.

The last, and probably most important thing I found was my go-stick.  YES!  We had a chance.

I'm pretty sure that the Gorfs knew I was in the area, because the platoon kept searching.  I was thankful for the new version of no-see-me with the upgrades that Tilly had helped with.  Without it, I have no delusion that I would have already been found.  

I waited till it started getting dark.  I had everything that Smoke and I would take with us staged and ready to go.  My plan was simple.  Use an inertia light to distract the Gorfs, and then climb up to the look-out branch above and fly out from there.  Before I started, I quickly checked the go-stick for proper operation.  Hey, no harm in testing.  While it's unusual for a magic construct to fail without disintegrating to dust, it did happen on a rare occasion.  

Once I was all ready, I lit the inertia light and tossed it along the forest-line to the West.  Then climbed the ladder for all I was worth.  When I got to the lookout and made sure everything was fastened and tightened, I could see Gorf soldiers chasing the inertia light, but I could also hear someone coming up the ladder from below.  I risked a peek, and it was a battered and bruised Daggi, along with Ghead and Weph who were very determined looking.

I didn't have an arrow-chucker anymore, and I didn't think my little knife would work to ward them off for long.  Nothing for it but to not be here anymore when those three arrived.  I hopped on my go-stick and took off heading East.  I could hear Daggi hollering curses after me.  I didn't look back, I had my hands full keeping myself from hitting a tree branch or falling off.  

After a while, I turned North, towards the Fern Cave.

It took a while, and it had become full dark by the time I managed to find the Fern Cave.  I was began to worry that Mama had put up her no-see-me charm and that Smoke and I were flying past it again and again without seeing it.  Sure enough, when I started to call out quietly, the ferns a few feet away split open and out came Mama.

"You're not dead."  Mama observed.  I could tell she was so happy she was about to burst, but I don't think anyone else would be able to.  I did notice a tear in her eye.

Then a stumbling, crying, mess of Kinderling half-ran, half crawled out and tackled me right off of my go-stick.

"Tandy oh Tandy oh Tandy!!!"  Mizzy cried over and over as I held her.

"We should get inside." Mama said calmly.


Friday, February 12, 2021

Kinderling 29

   In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress...


The tunnel that Mama and I were faced with was rough hewn from the rock.  It was plenty big enough for me, I'm small.  Mama's head, on the other hand, almost reached the ceiling.  

"I think the way ahead has a shallow incline, and twists to the right a bit."  I told Mama.

"Agreed."

The rough hewn tunnel eventually let out into a natural cavern that lead on, rising more quickly.  The climb wasn't hard, there were places where we - or at least Mama - had to squeeze through, but most of it was walkable.  It did seem to go on forever though.

After a while, we finally came upon  evidence that someone had past this way before.  We stopped for a rest on a nice smooth bolder, perfect for sitting on and having a snack.  I put a string on my floating light and tied the other end to a rock in order to light up the area.  Off to the side, I saw an ancient bag that had been left by some long ago traveler.  It was falling apart and it's contents had turned to dust long ago, but it gave me hope that we were on the right track.  After all, who would leave a bag in a tunnel that went nowhere?

After a rest, and some food and water, we continued on and soon had to start climbing as our path curved sharply upward.  I was thankful for the floating light on a string, I just tied it to my backpack and had my hands free to climb with.  After a short time, I made a realization.

"Mama, why are we climbing?"  I asked.

"Our path goes up that way."  Replied Mama pointing, not catching my meaning.

With that, I pulled out my go-stick and hopped on.  After all the practice I got teaching Mama how to use a go-stick, hovering upward was easy.  I heard Mama call out "Cheater!" after me, but when I looked down I saw Mama was pulling out her own go-stick.

It's not like we couldn't have climbed up, it wasn't that hard a climb, but flying was so much easier.  It was also faster even for Mama.  I have to say, Mama must have been practicing in secret because when she caught up with me at the top, she looked almost serene sitting on her go-stick like a lady perched upon a comfortable seat.  Nothing like the near-panicked concentration, holding on for dear life look that usually accompanied Mama on a go-stick.  If I wasn't so proud to my very ear-tips of Mama's improvement, I would almost be jealous at how unflappable Mama is.

After the close dust and rock smell of the underground tunnel and cavern, the smell at the top of the incline was wonderous.  It was the dark, earthy smell of the forest floor.  The smell of life and renewal.  We had come at last to the end of our underground excursion.  The cavern let out under a tangle of fern fronds.  The subdued green light glowing through the fern fronds was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  I decided that Kinderlings aren't meant to be underground.  The forest, with it's air and light, trees and green growing things is our life-blood.  Where we belong.  One whiff of the forest air, and I felt the tiredness drift away.  I was ready for whatever came next.

"Well, looks like we made good time.  It's just past noon."  Mama reported.  If that was the case, we started out from the Outcropping yesterday morning, and with only a few short rests here and there, made it all the way to the other side of the village in not quite a day and a half.  It didn't seem possible that a whole day had passed, but there it was.

"Being underground really messes with our perception of time doesn't it Mama."  I said.

"Yes, that and the lack of regularly timed meals."  Mama replied.  "I think we should take a rest and get some food in us."

Now that we were out of the cave, we didn't want to risk alerting anyone to our presence, especially this close to the village.  So we ate some of the mushroom stuffed travel bread that Tilly had given us.  I don't know how she made them, but they were wrapped in the biggest sage leaves from one of Tilly's herb gardens, and the bread had a hard, almost water-proof shell.  That wasn't even my favorite part though.  Sure, that hard crust was nice and crunchy and satisfying to crunch into, but inside was an almost pillow-like bread surrounding a cooked mushroom.  I had seen others try to make something similar, but their bread crust was never that crunchy, and almost inevitably the inside was a soupy, squishy mess.  I'd have to ask Mizzy if she could figure out how Tilly did it once I found her.  Tilly refused to let go of the secret.

Mizzy...  Was she ok?  Would she ever be ok again?  

I stuffed the rest of the mushroom bread in my mouth and started preparing to move on.

"Tandy?  Are you all right?"  Mama asked.

"Sorry Mama.  Eating made me think of Mizzy.  She must hate me, I should have been here for her."  Yep, I was crying again, and I didn't understand why.  I mean, I understood that I felt like I had an obligation as a friend to come to her aid.  I just didn't understand why it was eating at me so.

Bless Mama, because instead of asking a bunch of questions that I couldn't answer, she shoved her mushroom bread in her mouth. which was so un-Mama like it almost made me smile... almost... and started getting ready to go too.

"I had a talk with Zon before we left.  We'll have to go carefully, but hopefully we won't encounter too many Gorfs.  Zon said the Patrols that work the North side of the village keep the Gorfs cleared out as much as possible because the North side doesn't have the crevasse that the South side has, so a Gorf could just walk right into the village if it wanted to.  They don't usually, though, because the North Side Patrol keeps... kept... them too scared to come this close.

Soon we were ready to go.  Mama had us practicing packing up and going the day before we left the Outcropping also.  I've never been the fussy type that needed an hour in front of the mirror to leave the house, but I could tell that Mama's insistence on practice was really paying off.  Not only was I able to get ready to go in a fraction of the time, I did so in a way that I still knew where everything was in my pack, so anything I needed would be right at hand.

The trek to the forest edge was a quiet one. This part of the forest had larger, taller trees than the forest on the South side of the village that I was familiar with.  I'm sure Tommil would know what kind of tree they were, but I didn't.  They were huge though, with trunks that were bigger around than our home, and incredibly tall.  Underneath these huge trees, the way was relatively clear, with little of the bushes and undergrowth like the forest on the South side of the village.  

Then we came at last to the edge of the forest.  Mama lead the last part of the way, because she had been here before and knew right where she wanted to go.  I had to laugh when I saw the place Mama lead us to.  Under a rather large old tree, there was a hole.  When we entered, Mama barely fit, it became obvious that this was a play-fort made by Kinderling children, one of which had Tommil's talent for tree shaping.  

When I explored the fort a little more, I found that it had an outlet on the other side of the tree that let out under a berry bush.  The area under the bush was opened out so that it was comfortable, but shouldn't be noticeable from the outside.  Whoever built this fort really knew what they were doing.  The tree also had a ladder that lead up to a branch high up in the tree.  From that vantage point, you could see almost the entire village.

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Kinderling 28

  In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress...


The morning of the rescue finally arrived.  Mama and I had our gear packed up and ready to go.  The night before, Mama insisted on helping me pack, then proceeded to make me unpack it and repack over and over again, calling me on it anytime I didn't repack something in the exact same place.   I didn't understand what she was doing until she pulled out a blindfold.  

"Inertia light, you need it now!"  Mama commanded.

I failed.

"Unpack it, and pack it again."

It took some time, but eventually I got to where I could reach into my pack and pull out any given object without having to look for it.  I tried to trip Mama up, but when I called out "Suture kit!" out of the blue.  Mama didn't even look, she just pulled it out of her pack.  

"You understand that you might need any given item, at any time, and you might not have time, or be able to see, to retrieve it."  Mama explained.

I could only agree.  

When we walked out of the Garrison that morning, Father gave Mama and I the oddest look.  We were both weighed down with gear and implements of war.  Well, at least I thought we were.  What do I know about war anyway?  Mama had her big knife, her bow, and a couple quivers full of arrows, along with a backpack stuffed with everything she thought she might need.  I was likewise equipped, but the knife I carried was tiny by comparison.  One of my quivers carried regular arrows, and the other carried the special arrows that I made.

The Mizzy rescue team consisted of Mama and Myself.  We were going to rely upon stealth, so we decided more people would mean more chance to be seen.  The villager rescue team consisted of Uncle Zon and his remaining patrol members, Zenna, Fendt, and Toff.  Added to that, surprisingly enough, was Adiz.

"With both you and your Mama going after Mizzy, they needed a medic."  Adiz explained when she saw me looking at her.

"Tommil wanted to come too,"  Adiz laughed, "but I persuaded him that he was best able to help by getting the Garrison ready for the refugees."

I have to admit, I was a little surprised that Tommil even thought of coming along, but considering the way he looks at Adiz, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.  If I had a girl so wonderful, I wouldn't let her go off on a dangerous mission without me.

When we emerged from the Garrison, Flower was waiting for us alone.  I guess sending one's loved ones out on dangerous missions without you isn't contained to Kinderling kind.

I have to admit, I started to get a little nervous when Flower started guiding us in the opposite direction from the village at first.  I had to laugh at my self a moment later when I realized that, of course, the entrance to the caves and tunnels we would need wouldn't necessarily be in the direction of our destination.  That was above-ground person thinking.  Thankfully, we didn't have to go too far, and reached the entrance by mid-morning.

Mouse met us at the entrance to the caves.  I looked around for Watcher, but he was nowhere to be seen.  I guess he really wasn't kidding when he said that he was not allowed to be involved.  I dreaded not having Watcher to act as an interpreter, already I was seeing Mouse watching us out of the corner of his eye as if any moment he expected us to get with the biting and chewing.  I can't really blame him, I've seen what remains after a Gorf tribe gets ahold of one of my kind, so I was fighting similar thoughts myself.  I was once hired to find out what became of a poor hapless Kinderling who had gotten lost in the forest.  I found his trail just where his family said he was going, and then followed it to where he was ambushed by Gorfs.  Tracking them back to their cave wasn't difficult.  I felt responsible for recovering what was left of the body.  That I could carry the remains of an adult Kinderling back to the village all by myself, in one trip, should tell you how little was left.

That thought made me realize just how daunting the task of brokering a peace between our peoples was going to be.  I hoped that task would fall to someone better equipped to handle it than me.  I am not my father, diplomacy was never part of my skillset. 

We managed well enough with Flower using universal hand signals for "come this way", and pointing to say "watch out for that", and a pushing motion for "stop" or "wait there".  Mouse was there more in a hiding-as-best-as-a-giant-Gorf-can-in-a-tunnel capacity, yet he watched Flower like a hawk.  I'm guessing in case one of us got hungry judging from how nervous he was being.

That Gorf should have been named Squirrel for how twitchy he was being.  At least he wasn't smiling, I don't think I could have handled it if he was smiling.

We made surprisingly good time, or maybe I was too busy with my own thoughts to realize how long we had been walking, because I found myself looking at a very familiar looking little stone bridge long before I expected to.

"Uncle Zon, Is that the same bridge?"

"Yes Tandy, it appears to be."  Uncle Zon answered puffing a little to catch his breath.

I looked around and everyone seemed to be a little winded.  Even Mama.

"You really drive a hard pace Tandy," Mama said. "but I think it's time for a rest.  Zon, is this water safe?"

Uncle Zon waved to get Flower's attention and then mimed scooping up some of the water and drinking it.  She looked at him confused for a bit, apparently puzzled at what Uncle Zon was asking.  Then it must have clicked, because she pulled out her canteen and started filling it, waving for the rest of us to do likewise.

"Appears so Bonnie."  Uncle Zon replied.

When I realized how empty my canteen was, I was glad for the re-supply.  I had no idea that I had drunk so much.  I really had a lot on my mind during that march.

We all took a much needed rest by that little bridge.  While we were resting, Flower came over to me and handed me a parchment.  On it, written in the most graceful, if florid, hand was a note from Watcher.  

Tandy,

    I am sorry that I can not be there to help your people.  I have been given orders to not get involved.  Flower will show you to the tunnel that will take you north of the village.

Watcher

Watcher had told me that the Priesthood didn't want him involved in Kinderling or Fallen business.  So none of that was surprising.  What was surprising was that there was a second note on a much thinner material.  This one Flower didn't hand me, she just opened and allowed me to read.

Tandy,

    Be careful, the Priesthood is against Kinderlings and the Fallen forming any kind of alliance.  I am afraid that they might have something planned if that should come to pass.  I have gone to see what I can find out.

W.

Once I finished reading the second note, Flower pushed the edge of the note into nearby a lit torch and poof, the whole thing went up in smoke.  Flower gave me a meaningful look - or at least I expect it was meaningful.  It's so hard to tell with Gorfs.  I handed her the first note, and she burned that too.  Were we just being paranoid?  I don't know, but paranoia isn't always a bad thing, right?

Once Mama and I were ready to go, Flower signaled for the rest to stay at the little bridge and beckoned for Mama and I to follow her.  We followed the underground waterway up-stream for a short way along a ledge that I hadn't even seen in the darkness.  I lit up one of my lights - one of the floaty ones, not one of the inertia ones - and carried it in my hand.  I had some string for the purpose of pulling it along, but it seemed more bother than it was worth.  Perhaps I should have just made one into a hand-held light.

After a short walk, we came to an opening which Flower guided us through and indicated that we should follow.  She reached out and held my hand for a few seconds, then turned back the way we came and was gone.

"What was that all about?"  Mama asked, curious.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Mama."  I replied.  Secretly, I hoped it was Flower's way of saying that we were now friends, but I had no way to know for sure.



Thursday, February 4, 2021

Kinderling 27

  In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress....


I could tell that neither of my parents were well pleased that I spoke up, promising to help Mouse and Flower find their tribe.  Indeed, I really didn't know what I could do.  All that I knew was that my people were in danger, and I would do anything in my power to help them.

And I didn't really even like most of those people.

Huh...  That was a heavy revelation for an odd Kinderling girl.  Why would I?  Why should I stick my neck out for these people?  Then I remembered Mizzy.  Sweet, weird, wonderful Mizzy.  Willing to be my friend in spite of how vastly different we are.  And I thought about Granny Odey, the old Kinderling woman who went out of her way to have conversations with me and play cross-hatch when I was a lonely child, all but ostracized by the other children.  Granny Odey was practically my first real friend.  Then there's Uncle Zon who risked everything to take his patrol into the forest to find me, and Bez, and that widowed Kinderling Mom with the two adorable babies who sold bread-sweets out of her kitchen just to make ends meet.  Where was she?  Was she Okay?  Where the babies?

These were my people.

It was time to get serious.

The plan to rescue the villagers from the camps in the mines was simplicity at it's best.  According to Uncle Zon, any plan they made was bound to fall apart as soon as they encountered the enemy, and a simple plan was easy to modify or cast aside at need.  A complicated plan wasn't so easy to let go of because people worked so hard on it. 

I think I get the sentiment.

Mama and I set to planning the rescue of Mizzy.

"We follow Zon's group to the Upper Halls, there is a tunnel there that lets out on the other side of the village.  We split from Zon when we reach that tunnel." Mama said, "It doesn't get us exactly where we want to be, but close enough that we can hike the rest of the way in.  When I was there before, there was a raspberry shrub just inside the forest across from the Stump.  If we get separated, we'll meet there."

"Yes, Mama."

"Then it's as simple as watching the stump for Daggi to leave, and pulling Mizzy out."  

I sure hoped Mama was right and it would be that easy.  

We spent some time the evening before we left for me to, at least try to, teach Mama how to ride a go-stick.  It wasn't pretty.  I think she got the basics down pat, but where I stood on mine and flew around with ease, Mama ended up sitting on hers.  She didn't go nearly as fast, nor did was she able to maneuver as well, but it worked.  Secretly, I tried it later when nobody was watching and nearly broke my head when I fell off.

Just for fun, a little post about writing.

 Characters characters and more characters.

In a way, writing is how I get all the characters that are stuck in my head out of there before they die and start stinking up the place.

Hearing that - because I'm sure you read everything I write out loud... why wouldn't you - it probably doesn't surprise you that my writing process consists of coming up with character(s), making them "real" in my head, then winding them up, letting them go, and watching the fun.  Then, of course, writing about it.  

Some of the characters love me, some of them hate me, some of them find me mindlessly boring and run off to have fun elsewhere (those are probably the best).

The other day I was having a conversation with a young wanna-be writer who was all excited about the story she is writing (Note, I use wanna-be writer for any writer who hasn't published, and might or might not, ever get around to publishing.  I don't mean it as a derogatory, and indeed often use it to describe myself.)  So naturally, I start asking about characters, because to me story = characters doing interesting things.  Nope!  She wanted to talk about the world that she was building.  She obviously loved what she was doing, and loved talking about all the details of the setting, much the same way I love talking about my characters.  

Then she dropped the bombshell.  Apparently, she has friends who are doing the character design because she doesn't like that part.

???  EEeeeerrrrrtttttttt-CRASH!!

What is this thing?  World building before characters?  OUTSOURCING CHARACTER DESIGN? 

Yep, sometimes the universe just slaps you in the face with how different some people think.  For me, the characters are the fun part.  Sure, I get around to world building... sorta... no really I do...  Oh, Okay, world building for me is done on the fly and mostly amounts to "the place where the characters do the things."  I do make an attempt to keep it consistent and reasonable, and I try to add some world background in there, but let's face it, most of that comes from the characters and tends to be exposition on why a character might do something, or why something might happen to a character.

On the other hand, it might surprise you to know that the Kinderling story is set in an already established (in my own writings at least) world.  There is already one story written in that world (or at least 3/4 of one) that deals with a fairy glade stuck deep in the middle of a swamp a few hundred miles south of the Kinderling village.  You, of course, would be forgiven for not knowing that, since the story is hand-written in a notebook in the other room, never having been digitalized.  Unfortunately, that one will probably never be finished, because a lot of it deals with class-struggle (yea... among Fairys... go figure) and apparently it read as too realistic for some readers who assumed things about me based upon what they read into the story.  So, now I'm self-conscious about letting anyone read it.  (funny aside for Kinderling readers... that one features Gorfs also, but they are all mostly less than a foot tall.  Apparently Gorphom enjoys ridiculous variation.)