The Well on the Mountain
Disclaimer: Some of the characters are mine. Coraline and her friends belong to Neil Gaiman and to LAIKA studios.
There was a pause as Coraline looked at Wybie as if he had gone mad. "Excuse me," she turned to him, "but I think it's a bit far to 'just start walking', Wybourne."
"You don't get it, though she thought about it, didn't she?" Wybie carefully asked Christabell, aware that she was studying in a rather intense, uncomfortable way.
"Yes, she did," Christabell sighed sadly. "Come on, child, we know your intelligence is quick – you have practically figured it out, haven't you?"
Now it was Coraline's turn once again to blush from embarrassment, as she doubted that she had 'figured it out', contrary to what others may think. And, to hide that embarrassment, she began to walk in the direction of the mountain instead, aware that the others were coming along (or trotting along in case of Cat) as well. This surprised Coraline to such an extent (she did not consider herself to be the leader of their little expedition at all) that she kept quiet, and consequently—
[Break]
...she was most surprised when the scenery changed, from the path through the poppy gardens to a mountainside, high above the grounds as well.
"Thanks for proving my point, Jonesy," Wybie spoke from his position next to her. "Since there is no time here, measuring any distances chronologically is meaningless. How's that for science, Jonesy?"
"Lovat, you're standing on my new tail!" Coraline managed to wheeze as she began to pull out the latter from underneath Wybie's feet.
Wybie jumped away so suddenly that he would've lost his balance and rolled down the mountain, if it hadn't been overgrown by flowering bird cherry bushes that smelled so sweet, that Coraline almost imagined herself and others to be swimming through a sea of jam instead. The fact that they had to remove Wybie from one of these shrubs did do much to destroy that fantasy, especially since Wybie wouldn't stop from being contrite in his own way:
"Can't you keep it curled up or something?" he asked in a huff, even as he shook twigs and leaves from his clothes. "Of course, I'm just curious."
"No, I can't," Coraline said crossly, "Not consciously, anyways."
"She's an uldra, wee-ee," the screech-owl echoed, "and ulrdas curl their tails only when they're nervous, wee-eee!"
"Um, right," Coraline said, blushing again – she didn't really care to talk about her tail, especially to Wybie, who actually began this whole situation by foolishly following the now-gone gahonga and... "How about we search for the sprites' well now?"
"And what do you want from the sprites' well?" a giant raccoon, maybe as big as a horse, popped out of the shrubbery, its' eyes somewhat suspicious.
"P'oh sent us to apologize, weee-ee," the screech-owl explained, as it peeked from behind Coraline's shoulder.
"Yes, what it said," Coraline added crossly, rubbing her ear: for such a small bird, the screech-owl was certainly real loud.
The raccoon carefully sniffed the air, and then its' masked muzzle split into a smile. "And I can smell that it sent gifts of contrition with you as well! That certainly changes everything!"
"I say," Cat said calmly. "The hags are dead, save for Terraxia, who's been bound for good!"
The raccoon, however, was not listening to them any longer: instead, it was already crushing through the shrubbery, its stripped tail wagging almost as excitedly, as a dog's.
"Splanxty," it was calling out, "Splanxty! Our poppies are here!"
"And that's what I don't like about them," Cat added, as they followed the larger animal further up the mountain. "They're all just too single-minded by far!"
[Break]
However, single-minded or not, Coney the giant raccoon did the small group a great favour, as its' great mass simply smashed through the flowering shrubs – a process that the others would not have been able to do so easily...
For a while, Coney just strode on as a giant raccoon on a mission should, but then he stopped. "Splanxty," it was calling out once more, "Splanxty! Our poppies are here!"
And then it became a visible: a small well made from wooden logs, with the sound of water splashing deep within-
-or not so deep, as a within moments, a tiny creature, resembling a small, thin child dressed in robes of ever-flowing water, popped out of the well.
It was Splanxty. "Did you say poppies, Coney?" the tiny fey excitedly chattered as it hopped up and down over the side of the well.
"Yes I have," the giant raccoon nodded its shaggy head. "Those kind people brought them over as P'oh's apology – in exchange for the path to the Lady of Summer."
"The Lady of Summer, you say? Certainly!" Splanxty sounded almost giddy as the tiny fey jumped and down the side of the well. "Just give me the poppies and we'll be on our way!"
"Sure, I guess," Coraline said carefully, as she pulled out the bag with dry poppy heads in the direction of the tiny creature.
Immediately, the giant raccoon grabbed it instead and jumped with them into the well, followed by Splanxty as well.
A rapidly vanishing "Wheee!" and a distant splash was all that remained of the pair within moments.
A pause followed to feel the space after the pair just as quickly as the latter had left, but unlike them, it was obvious that it wasn't going anywhere soon.
Coraline had the good grace to be embarrassed. "Oops," she said miserably, "and I'm sorry – they've seemed so nice back when Cat and I met them under a honeysuckle bush!"
"My dear, they're sprites, and just because these ones are members of the Seelie, doesn't mean that they are anymore trustworthy or predictable than their Unseelie cousins."
"Why is that?"
"Because the locals here are spirits – spirits of nature, of plants and animals and of inorganic things. Very few creatures – like your feline familiar – are exactly what they appear to be or follow the path of human thinking."
"What about you?" Wybie spoke-up suddenly. "For all of your buttons you seem to follow human thinking well enough."
"That's because she's a changeling," Cat shrugged, as Christabell glared at him – if black button eyes could glare, of course. "Aren't you?"
"Yes," the latter replied, if somewhat reluctantly. "As I have said before, my father was a knight in the employ of the good king Richard, called by some the lion-hearted."
"Really?" Wybie looked with clear amazement in his eyes. "But that was so long ago! You're, what-"
"She had lived here, where is no time, and thus the human standard to do not matter," Cat explained with a groan. "Try to use your memory for a change!"
Wybie blushed from irritation, and would have had a heated argument with the feline then and there, but Christabell just glared at him with her button eyes, and Wybie remembered what they were doing instead.
"Anyways," Christabell continued, ignoring the little fracas as if it did not happen, "my father was a knight of King Richard, lord of castle Treyermaine. Well," she paused, looking slightly embarrassed, "it was more of a tower, really."
"And your mother? Your human mother, that is," Coraline said quietly.
"My human mother was gone by the time I was born," Christabell's tone killed all the discussion on that subject almost dead, "and my father never re-married, in no small part because he had a falling-out with the king's brother, prince John the landless. He has made some comments about the royal family... and fell out of their favour. As a consequence, our family prospects suffered, and I-" Christabell trailed away.
"And what happened then?"
"Then? Then, one night, our tower burned, and my other mother rescued me, so to say."
"So to say?"
"Aye, for it was she who rescued me from the tower when it burned," Christabell nodded. "In gratitude I agreed to be adopted by her and to put buttons in place of eyes. Of course, when I learned that it was her, who had orchestrated some key events that led me to become her daughter, I made a deal with the local rats and put my other mother into an early grave. And then, when I caught her trying to get out of it, I put here there again, with the help of shovel. And then," she paused and looked at Coraline with her black button eyes, "I swore that that is not what's going to happen to me at all."
"Well, what was going to happen to you?" Wybie asked, as Coraline groaned.
"I'd die in bed with at least my daughter and possibly several grandkids in attendance," Christabell smiled in a way that made Coraline and Wybie blush and groan and sidle away from her. "Well, it was the best dream when I was your age and expected to be engaged already, if it wasn't for the royal disfavour."
"Right," said Wybie and blinked. "Engaged? Really?"
"And you," Cat added to Wybie, still a bit peeved about their aborted argument earlier, "would have already be aiding your father, whether in a field, or in a shop, or at a crusade."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Wybie said cautiously.
"Neither did living with her," Cat flickered his tail in Christabell's direction.
"But didn't you live with her as well?"
"I am a cat! Human rules aren't written to us!"
"They most certainly are not," spoke yet another voice, and it didn't belong to any of them at all.
[Break]
There was a pause as the others stared at the tall figure with the same wood-coloured skin as the duchess of the dryads had, and who had green leaves and white flowers of bird cherry for hair. "Are you a dryad?" Coraline finally asked, somehow suspecting that she wasn't.
"Aye, that I am – Yassa of the bird cherries," the latter noded.
Coraline frowned: for some reason she couldn't believe the newcomer, and yet she sensed no danger from her, either. "So, why are you here?" she asked cautiously, no longer sure what to expect since Splanxty's abrupt departure.
"Splanxty the sprite and his kin and companions have asked me to take you to her ladyship," Yassa said calmly, "since they themselves are not quite themselves."
"Must be some poppies," Wybie said carefully not looking at the very unclosed tree spirit.
"Aye, P'oh knows gardening very well. Nonetheless, I shall take you to her ladyship as easily as they would've, but," Yassa hesitated, "are you sure that that's what you want?"
"What do you mean?" Coraline's voice came out a bit high and tense. "We want to get back to our place, and I, in particular, want to be human once again." Her tail twitched angrily, as did her ears (to Coraline's surprise).
"But why?" Yassa seemed to be genuinely mystified. "You'll make a fine uldra, Coraline Jones. The local clan will easily accept you, and you'll live a much longer and much better life than if you were a human. If you want, we kind find places for your friends here to live as well – not that they don't belong here to begin with, except for the cat."
"It's Cat and look," Coraline exclaimed, "I'm flattered by your flattery, but I don't want to be a local, I want to be a human-" She paused. "No offence, but if there is one thing I've learned from being here, is that being human is better than not-" Another pause. "Um, can you give a moment to figure out how to tell you politely that-"
"There is no need to," Yassa smiled, though it was a sad smile, "ever since your partial change, you have seen for what we are and that does not entice you at all. You are wise for your years, Coraline Jones, and will not exchange power for honesty, though you understand that not. Very well then, I shall take you and your friends to meet the Lady of Summer."
And then it all changed.
To be continued...