I walked out of the halls in something akin to shock. Except I wasn't,
because shock is when you don't think and I was thinking furiously. I
couldn't for the life of me understand why he hadn't just order the tree
returned. It would have taken one sentence instead of the couple that he
needed to order me to start a four-tree grove.
Which was of course, ludicrous.
Anyone can see I'm clearly a three-tree grove kind of girl.
Either way, something had to be seriously upsetting his majesty for him to make such an order. Even on other council days grove owners always got the better part of his judgment. This latest change could be a new wave of change for the grove owners, and not a positive one in the least. Or he could just be having a bad day.but he was the King, a simple bad day couldn't break a tradition that's gone on for centuries. It's practically a refined play!
I say. "My neighbor has stolen a tree."
He says. "By royal decree that tree is to be returned unharmed and with all it's fruit."
It must have been something seriously substantial to break the ritual. Seriously substantial like massive labyrinth rearranging substantial, besides the council, that was normal. What else could have caused such an abrupt change of mood? What else had caused massive Labyrinth rearranges.
I almost slapped myself. Of course! It had to be a girl; whenever guys got in one of those strange girl-hating moods it was always a girl. He had been serious with every petitioner up to me and they had all been guys and then.
BAM
Me the physical representation of exactly what he didn't want to see. No wonder I got the short end of his patience. I don't remember his majesty having any affairs lately though. None of the aristocracy wanted a serious relation either since he did, after all, rule the "Goblin Kingdom". (It was only called that because they outnumber the rest of us.)
Either way, there hadn't been any talk of marriages, engagements, betrothals or any other royal slang like that in the last few weeks. I wonder if something happened at the council.did he propose and get turned down or something? I wouldn't be surprised.
Well.I wouldn't be surprised if the girl turned him down but he hasn't proposed in over.X millennia or something because that last one laughed when he asked.
Poor guy, I'd almost feel sorry if he hadn't listened to the rest of the Labyrinth's citizens going on about how she was a stuck up snob and was just using him. For the land where lies is one of the traits a surprising amount of truth is told.
Either way, they would have had the ugliest kids in the Underground. The last female anything that he really paid much attention to was the last wisher. What's her face or another. Either way, word was that more went on in the castle than the usual 'fine-go-home-then' ceremony.
The goblins say that he led her into the stair room and offered himself. But then again the goblins claim that he turn into a goblin when the sun goes down and that he collects peach pits as well. The goblin part may just be some sort of punishment from the council but he would never collect peach pits. That's just wrong. Peaches are sacred.
Yeah he wouldn't do that.
He wouldn't offer himself to that girl either.
Nah.
I stopped short, causing people to twist to the side to miss me as I halted. There was an awful lot of rearranging going on while she was passing through. He had been really rather depressed afterwards though, more of his quirky humor popping up in his judgment just up until a few years ago.Woah! Three weeks would be the anniversary of the day she came!
That had to be it! He was getting in a post-..post-whatever-her-name-is slump! Old memories reawakening and reopening old wounds. All the heartache and rejection rushing back into vivid memory of a time when love was young.relatively speaking anyway. That wouldn't give good reason to take it out on me though. It's not my fault she rejected him, she was only a baby too, double-digit years at most. Even if she were my age he would still be robbing the cradle.really really badly.
I can't say I've ever been in love. I've got my trees. Right! Gotta get back to the trees. They're probably wearing themselves out by now with the knives. I started walking again, I could walk and think at the same time. I'm a grove owner, we can do anything.
I wandered out of the Goblin city, the stream had moved. Thank goodness. But the Labyrinth wasn't back to normal yet and probably wouldn't be for a while. If, it did go back to the way it was. I picked a likely looking direction and began walking, after living hear a couple of years you develop somewhat of an instinct for direction.
Or you get hopelessly lost and starve!
Either way, I had a vague idea of where I needed to go and what direction it was in. That would be enough to get me back to my trees.
Actually it might be the girl. I still can't remember her name(another Labyrinth citizen trait). I've never really fallen in love, not enough to consider marriage. If she knocked him off his feet in under a day she must have been something. That's the way his majesty fell last time too, one glance was all it took. One laugh to end it as well.anyway.
I needed to get my tree back. I have very special trees, we share a bond me and them. They're nice and polite and have my sense of humor, we get along perfect. They also produce some of the best fruit in the realm and that makes me look good. Either way, if that girl was the source of the problem she was most likely the answer too. I don't have enough magic to zap myself across worlds but that doesn't mean that there aren't doors already open. It'd just be a matter of finding her and then making her eat the right peach.
Truth Peach = instant answers. It would solve my problem if her presence got his majesty back into his normal mood and then maybe I could go back and ask again. Fate knows if I try to steal my tree back she'll take it to him and he'll act normal or something. That would be horrible. My poor tree.
So it's off to mortal land I go then, after I check on my trees of course.
The underground is riddled with those paper-thin weak spots where one only has to think of microwaves and toasters and zap, you're on the other side. On the other side of the equation if you're thinking of unicorns and fairies and walk across the particular spot, bam you're on our side. The trick is knowing right where it is and what you have to think of to get across.
See, these spots are made by incredible spurts of belief and magic. It takes a whole lot of belief or a whole lot of magic, either way. Stories are whispered of exiled fae who don't want to run their entire lives and dreaming of that peace find themselves above ground. Likewise for humans only on a more.humane scale I suppose.
There are three of these 'thin ice' patches in the Labyrinth. The first is in the bog, go figure no one uses that one. The second is in the alpine forest, which is similarly unused, and the third is in a fountain in the stature garden. How they got there, I don't know.
I do know the pass thoughts for each of them though.
I decided on the alpine forest. No one would see me crossing, like they might on the other two and no one would steal peaches off my trees if I left them there.
My trees were right where I left them, amongst the spring gardens. I clambered up in their branches after taking the knives away and tucking them under my belt. We started off for the minor mountain range that had just shifted to the northwest. The alpine forest was on the lower end of the three peak chain and peach trees travel a lot faster than I do. I would have ridden them to the castle except they hate cobblestones.
Ah yes, my trees, their names are Apple, Pear and Kestrel. Pear is currently the one being held by Isabelle. As soon as the girl is over here, I'll ask again for her return.
All my peach trees are very clever, not always as you can tell by their names but they've gotten considerably more intelligent as the years passed.
Kestrel started off the least bright, but she's now the smartest of the three with something of an attitude, if I let her have the knives for too long she goes around terrorizing other citizens. Apple is somewhat less aggressive but similarly smart with a nasty streak that rises now and again which produces plans and tactics of a far different cry than Kestrel. Apple tends to produce the more dangerous peaches, Kestrel the more complex ones.
And Pear, pear is the odd one, she's mixed with an actual pear graft on one bough, which I guess is why she chose to name herself that. All trees name themselves by the way. She's always been very.pious if you can use that term for a tree. She gives me all the 'nice' peaces that'll make you prettier, or fall in love, or make you a ball gown until midnight. All that fun sort of stuff. Not nearly as useful as Apple or Kestrel but she had that quality that just made you content to be with her.
Apple and Kestrel make me want to go out and do mischief.
We arrived at the spot just after midday, which was incredible as far as navigating a newly formed Labyrinth goes.
I slipped off and prepared the recalled the image of bicycles in my mind as I gave last minute instructions to my trees. They had to be quick to otherwise it would be last-two-minutes instructions.
"I'll be gone for about a few hours alright. I want you to stay in this area, no terrorizing, and don't magic any of your fruit while I'm gone, that includes invisibility peaches, okay. Now before I go I need a truth peach."
Kestrel was kind enough to make one of the juicier looking ones into the object of desire and it fell with a soft whiff into my outstretched hand. I rubbed both their trunks and gave them hugs. I would only be going for a short time, but it seems like forever whenever I'm away from my trees. I climbed up the rock in between them, closed my eyes, and brought the two- wheeled image of the mechanical device to mind.
The wind swirled around me and then stilled a more acrid warmer wind than the alpine frosted breeze. I opened my eyes and got my first look at aboveground.
Which was of course, ludicrous.
Anyone can see I'm clearly a three-tree grove kind of girl.
Either way, something had to be seriously upsetting his majesty for him to make such an order. Even on other council days grove owners always got the better part of his judgment. This latest change could be a new wave of change for the grove owners, and not a positive one in the least. Or he could just be having a bad day.but he was the King, a simple bad day couldn't break a tradition that's gone on for centuries. It's practically a refined play!
I say. "My neighbor has stolen a tree."
He says. "By royal decree that tree is to be returned unharmed and with all it's fruit."
It must have been something seriously substantial to break the ritual. Seriously substantial like massive labyrinth rearranging substantial, besides the council, that was normal. What else could have caused such an abrupt change of mood? What else had caused massive Labyrinth rearranges.
I almost slapped myself. Of course! It had to be a girl; whenever guys got in one of those strange girl-hating moods it was always a girl. He had been serious with every petitioner up to me and they had all been guys and then.
BAM
Me the physical representation of exactly what he didn't want to see. No wonder I got the short end of his patience. I don't remember his majesty having any affairs lately though. None of the aristocracy wanted a serious relation either since he did, after all, rule the "Goblin Kingdom". (It was only called that because they outnumber the rest of us.)
Either way, there hadn't been any talk of marriages, engagements, betrothals or any other royal slang like that in the last few weeks. I wonder if something happened at the council.did he propose and get turned down or something? I wouldn't be surprised.
Well.I wouldn't be surprised if the girl turned him down but he hasn't proposed in over.X millennia or something because that last one laughed when he asked.
Poor guy, I'd almost feel sorry if he hadn't listened to the rest of the Labyrinth's citizens going on about how she was a stuck up snob and was just using him. For the land where lies is one of the traits a surprising amount of truth is told.
Either way, they would have had the ugliest kids in the Underground. The last female anything that he really paid much attention to was the last wisher. What's her face or another. Either way, word was that more went on in the castle than the usual 'fine-go-home-then' ceremony.
The goblins say that he led her into the stair room and offered himself. But then again the goblins claim that he turn into a goblin when the sun goes down and that he collects peach pits as well. The goblin part may just be some sort of punishment from the council but he would never collect peach pits. That's just wrong. Peaches are sacred.
Yeah he wouldn't do that.
He wouldn't offer himself to that girl either.
Nah.
I stopped short, causing people to twist to the side to miss me as I halted. There was an awful lot of rearranging going on while she was passing through. He had been really rather depressed afterwards though, more of his quirky humor popping up in his judgment just up until a few years ago.Woah! Three weeks would be the anniversary of the day she came!
That had to be it! He was getting in a post-..post-whatever-her-name-is slump! Old memories reawakening and reopening old wounds. All the heartache and rejection rushing back into vivid memory of a time when love was young.relatively speaking anyway. That wouldn't give good reason to take it out on me though. It's not my fault she rejected him, she was only a baby too, double-digit years at most. Even if she were my age he would still be robbing the cradle.really really badly.
I can't say I've ever been in love. I've got my trees. Right! Gotta get back to the trees. They're probably wearing themselves out by now with the knives. I started walking again, I could walk and think at the same time. I'm a grove owner, we can do anything.
I wandered out of the Goblin city, the stream had moved. Thank goodness. But the Labyrinth wasn't back to normal yet and probably wouldn't be for a while. If, it did go back to the way it was. I picked a likely looking direction and began walking, after living hear a couple of years you develop somewhat of an instinct for direction.
Or you get hopelessly lost and starve!
Either way, I had a vague idea of where I needed to go and what direction it was in. That would be enough to get me back to my trees.
Actually it might be the girl. I still can't remember her name(another Labyrinth citizen trait). I've never really fallen in love, not enough to consider marriage. If she knocked him off his feet in under a day she must have been something. That's the way his majesty fell last time too, one glance was all it took. One laugh to end it as well.anyway.
I needed to get my tree back. I have very special trees, we share a bond me and them. They're nice and polite and have my sense of humor, we get along perfect. They also produce some of the best fruit in the realm and that makes me look good. Either way, if that girl was the source of the problem she was most likely the answer too. I don't have enough magic to zap myself across worlds but that doesn't mean that there aren't doors already open. It'd just be a matter of finding her and then making her eat the right peach.
Truth Peach = instant answers. It would solve my problem if her presence got his majesty back into his normal mood and then maybe I could go back and ask again. Fate knows if I try to steal my tree back she'll take it to him and he'll act normal or something. That would be horrible. My poor tree.
So it's off to mortal land I go then, after I check on my trees of course.
The underground is riddled with those paper-thin weak spots where one only has to think of microwaves and toasters and zap, you're on the other side. On the other side of the equation if you're thinking of unicorns and fairies and walk across the particular spot, bam you're on our side. The trick is knowing right where it is and what you have to think of to get across.
See, these spots are made by incredible spurts of belief and magic. It takes a whole lot of belief or a whole lot of magic, either way. Stories are whispered of exiled fae who don't want to run their entire lives and dreaming of that peace find themselves above ground. Likewise for humans only on a more.humane scale I suppose.
There are three of these 'thin ice' patches in the Labyrinth. The first is in the bog, go figure no one uses that one. The second is in the alpine forest, which is similarly unused, and the third is in a fountain in the stature garden. How they got there, I don't know.
I do know the pass thoughts for each of them though.
I decided on the alpine forest. No one would see me crossing, like they might on the other two and no one would steal peaches off my trees if I left them there.
My trees were right where I left them, amongst the spring gardens. I clambered up in their branches after taking the knives away and tucking them under my belt. We started off for the minor mountain range that had just shifted to the northwest. The alpine forest was on the lower end of the three peak chain and peach trees travel a lot faster than I do. I would have ridden them to the castle except they hate cobblestones.
Ah yes, my trees, their names are Apple, Pear and Kestrel. Pear is currently the one being held by Isabelle. As soon as the girl is over here, I'll ask again for her return.
All my peach trees are very clever, not always as you can tell by their names but they've gotten considerably more intelligent as the years passed.
Kestrel started off the least bright, but she's now the smartest of the three with something of an attitude, if I let her have the knives for too long she goes around terrorizing other citizens. Apple is somewhat less aggressive but similarly smart with a nasty streak that rises now and again which produces plans and tactics of a far different cry than Kestrel. Apple tends to produce the more dangerous peaches, Kestrel the more complex ones.
And Pear, pear is the odd one, she's mixed with an actual pear graft on one bough, which I guess is why she chose to name herself that. All trees name themselves by the way. She's always been very.pious if you can use that term for a tree. She gives me all the 'nice' peaces that'll make you prettier, or fall in love, or make you a ball gown until midnight. All that fun sort of stuff. Not nearly as useful as Apple or Kestrel but she had that quality that just made you content to be with her.
Apple and Kestrel make me want to go out and do mischief.
We arrived at the spot just after midday, which was incredible as far as navigating a newly formed Labyrinth goes.
I slipped off and prepared the recalled the image of bicycles in my mind as I gave last minute instructions to my trees. They had to be quick to otherwise it would be last-two-minutes instructions.
"I'll be gone for about a few hours alright. I want you to stay in this area, no terrorizing, and don't magic any of your fruit while I'm gone, that includes invisibility peaches, okay. Now before I go I need a truth peach."
Kestrel was kind enough to make one of the juicier looking ones into the object of desire and it fell with a soft whiff into my outstretched hand. I rubbed both their trunks and gave them hugs. I would only be going for a short time, but it seems like forever whenever I'm away from my trees. I climbed up the rock in between them, closed my eyes, and brought the two- wheeled image of the mechanical device to mind.
The wind swirled around me and then stilled a more acrid warmer wind than the alpine frosted breeze. I opened my eyes and got my first look at aboveground.