I traded a weeks worth of stories for it, vervain pollen is very rare, but my mistress needed it for her experiment. She was trying to make a new spell; something about being unseen by imposing threats. I didn't care, this was the first time she'd let me out on my own since I'd tried running away.
Wonderfully pungent smells greeted me as I entered the courtyard. Ah, the smell of a nice good market, for once not marred by Lady Elizabeth's musky perfume. Colorful foul were nested in coups lining the sides of one of many streets, which tangled like a ball of twine in the heart of the faerie-city Eyah. My mistress had told me to meet any price for the precious vervain. But that wasn't bothering me at the moment; I was lost in the smells of foul, livestock, food and cloth. At first I hardly noticed someone calling my name.
"Golden-tongue?!" A voice questioned in my ear, I heard it that time.
I looked up to see a pair of shimmering bronze eyes staring down at me. Attached to those amazing eyes was an avian body. I smiled looking over the blue-black feathers that looked like a mane of shimmering hair. "Hello Jay."
"I thought it was you," She sang. "Where have you been? I've not seen you way from that Elizabeth witch in so long."
I shrugged and thought for a moment. "She thought I might run away again. But she really needs some vervain pollen, and I'm a better storyteller than she is. So she sent just me. She's heard most of my stories by now. And she needs to keep working on her newest spell. Last time she left it alone for a while the workshop was in ruins."
Jay looked over me for a while; her bird-like face the picture of calm with her bronze eyes brushing over me. I could see my reflection in those eyes. I looked pale and skinny, my quills bristling and my bat-like wings flexing lazily on their own.
Even for a faerie I looked odd; with the body of a hedgehog, wings of a bat and a shrewd feline face. I was nothing like these birdlike faeries, the humanoids with pretty wings, or any faerie creature. I shrugged looking away as she spoke again.
"Well you better get to it. That will cost you a lot of stories. It may ever take a couple days worth. Vivian Witherwings may have some. She's decided to only carry stuff that has a 'v' in their name. Her stall is just a few more down with the giant violet in the window. Get along now, maybe you can sing me some limerick for a slice of pie later." She winked at me and turned to welcome a kelpie who'd come to look at some of her meat pies.
I shrugged and wandered over to Vivian's stall. Sure enough, there was a flower big enough for me to live in comfortable during a game of faerie hide and seek peeking from the window. I felt lost but I crawled under one of the giant flower's leaves to get inside the little shop. I was greeted by the sight of violets, vases, vegetables and cuts of veal lining the shelves.
I was lost as to where I might look so I struggled up to the top of the leaf I'd crawled under and looked around for Vivian. It appeared that no one was in the store; so trembling I cupped my hands around my mouth.
"Vivian Witherwings! I'm looking for something I think you would stock. Do you have any Vervain pollen?!"
"Don't shout, I'm right here." A female voice whispered from behind me.
I tuned to see a kind red face attached to a long willowy figure. She had violently pink wings that seemed to break into three sets of sharp spikes. She smiled a mysterious smile, flew to one of the shelves, and took one of the vases from the shelf.
"Vervain Pollen… This is very, very rare, my deary. And, of course I love it so, it has two 'v's in it's name. This will cost you many tales. I do not wish to hear the same tale slightly changed each time. Ponder carefully and see if they are worth the price."
"I've always got a new story to tell. And my lady needs the pollen for a spell. I think that any price is worth the freedom to walk through this market every day to sit and tell stories. I think, I will be able to oblige you."
"Very well then. I set my price long ago so it is fair, I should think. A week's worth of stories. That is for but a small amount. I will give you a little extra for your trouble. If you first give me a sample of the tales you have to tell."
I blushed furiously at the price. A week is a long time. What if I ran out of stories before I could finish telling her? Would she take the pollen back? I shrugged and made myself comfortable enough for a story or two. The leaf I was on was surprisingly soft. So A sat on it, leaning against on of the flower's immense petals.
"Would you prefer I tell a story of intrigue or a story of heroics?" I asked innocently, my mind planning as to what I would tell her. I never did like starting a story. I enjoyed only the middle of stories, after the characters are introduced and faced with some conflict. I like the best parts; the parts that you could hear over and over again.
"Whatever you wish to tell first, I'm not picky. I just want to hear a good story. But do make it a good one. I have no time for badly told stories. If you've no skill with words I may have to take many more stories." Her smiled at me a sat inside the flower, laying her head in the center here eyes closed as if waiting to be lulled to sleep by my words.
"Well, first, my name is Golden-tongue, and this is a story my lady told me when I was younger." I began, selecting my favorite story Lady Elizabeth would read to me. "When the human world was young, there was a beautiful garden. This place was named Eden. Every kind of plant imaginable grew in that garden. There were violets, blue vervain, and foxgloves all in lovely flowerbeds with ever other kind of flower. There were giant oak trees ringed with stubby little bushes and every kind of animal ever seen. Voles, and snakes, dogs, cats, and horses; all living in this vast garden that took up most of the world."
I carefully added 'v' words to my description, hoping Vivian approved. The story, as Lady Elizabeth told it, was very bare to begin with. "This was a place made by powerful faeries for the first humans to live. In the very middle of this garden stood a tree that was taller and prouder than any of the other trees that filled Eden; A faerie-apple tree, which held all knowledge unknown to humans. Humans were not allowed to eat from this tree, it was for them to respect, protect and warship. But, humans hadn't been made just yet, so the tree held all knowledge in its fruit.
"The most powerful, and oldest faerie at the time was Victoria Willowleaf, a green woman who tended to the Faerie-apple tree. She was the one who made the first human. She took clay and pollen and leaves and mixed them into a smooth paste, which she used to form the body. Then she took the essence of fruits and flowers, mixed them into a thick red liquid to form the blood. And then she gave a part of herself, to make the soul.
"The first human she formed was a little child, a boy no bigger than a full grown hare. His eyes were pale blue with glints of grey and green; his spider-silk thin hair was the color of dirty straw. She named him Adam. He was a calm child that drank the milk of a cow without fuss. He also was a willing student who wanted to learn about every thing around him.
"Adam soon learned about plants and poisons, fruits, vegetables and animals. He was a good fixer and could cure almost any ailment for his little animal friends. He was skilled with herbs, and he was a good cook. Using scraps of meat he scavenged from the kills of predators, he would concoct new dishes for himself and Victoria.
"But Adam was growing up fast, and he was beginning to get very, terribly sad. He's helped countless animals with mating and births. He's taken care of baby rabbits and dogs. He even breathed life into a kitten, but he had no mate of his own. Adam was the only human.
"So he went to Victoria and asked her if she could find him a companion; a mate to which he could show affection and share the splendor of Eden with. Victoria nodded slightly to acknowledge him, but she never said a word. He wasn't sure what would happen but he found sleep easily that night in a bed of ferns and dried leaves.
"While he dreamed, Victoria came close to him and used a spell to take two of his ribs. Then she hurried away in the night to help her creation. She still had a lot left over from when she made Adam. Though dusty and grown over with lichens, she used that, and Adam's ribs to make the first female human.
"This female human was named Eve, because it was the eve of the summer solstice when she was created. Her skin was dark where Adam's was fair and her hair was brown with glints of red and black. Here eyes were deep black brown and she had soft tender skin, though it was rough in places."
I paused and looked up to Vivian. Her eyes were wide open and she was on her side looking down at me with interest. I flashed her a smile and looked around. A customer had come in and was sitting on the stem of the violet listening to my story. He smiled up at me and leaned back stroking one of the vole-fur coats that Vivian kept in her stock. I smiled back at him and continued.
"When Adam woke up the next day, he found Eve sitting in the ferns not far from him looking lost and scared. He crooned and cooed and handled her like he would a frightened animal. When he was finally close enough to her he took her by the hand and slowly lead her around the garden. He used well-worn deer paths and he began teaching her everything that he knew.
"But Adam was a proud creature. Once Eve began to understand and learn more than he'd know, he was ashamed of himself. It took them a full year to be able to live with each other in harmony. But once they were equals, they found a peace that is now only associated with the faerie realm.
"Adam was entering his seventeenth summer and Eve her third when trouble began to arise. In the garden there was a new snake that thought himself superior. He was a proud creature with shimmering black scales and a body as long as six humans lying head to feet. Adam had named his kind Anaconda.
"Eve was still naive to the wiles of some of the animals. She thought there was no thing as trouble or bad in the world. But She soon learned the truth. She was picking pears from a tree near the faerie tree when one of the golden faerie-apples rolled to her feet. Not thinking she picked it up and began walking back to set it at the foot of its tree.
"But a voice hissed in her ear 'Why don't you eat it, my dear?' Eve looked up to see Anaconda tangled in the branches of the Faerie-apple tree. 'Oh… Because I'm not supposed to. Victoria said we aren't allowed. We're supposed to protect the tree and take pride in it.' Eve whispered looking at the snake's many coils hanging among the branches.
"But the snake was far more cunning than even Victoria would have thought. 'Pride?' He said, 'What better pride for a fruit tree than to be picked and have its fruits eaten, and seeds planted?' His face hovered just inches from the ground now as he nudged a fallen apple to Eve's feet.
" Picking up the apple Eve looked into the snake's eyes. 'I suppose you are right. If it's never eaten, how will we grow more of these trees?' She picked up another apple and took them with her pears to Adam for lunch.
I fell to silence. Looking up Vivian had noticed the customer stroking the vole fur and she was sliding off of the flower to attend to him. I stretched and looked outside. Judging by the change in traffic, I'd been telling the story for about an hour. I looked down as Vivian gave the customer a violet and three voles. She smiled up at me?
"So, Will you continue your story now, or does your lady need her pollen soon." Her voice was hopeful for me to stay.
"I do believe that Lady Elizabeth needs it quite soon. But I can come back tomorrow to finish my story for you. And perhaps begin another one." I smiled as she nodded me out of her shop.