Elendain of the Elvenwood

June 8th, 2009 |

The glow from the faerie crystal was bright enough to light the entire clearing. Now that we could see, Odette started pulling at my leg, trying to find out what had happened to my knee. “Missus…” She struggled with my pants leg. “Missus, a little help please. Lets be having a look at yer leg. Can’t be walkin around with a pain. C’mon, lets see.”

Holding the crystal up with one hand I helped her push the leg of my jeans up with the other until my knee was uncovered. “I’m telling you that it was just the fall.” She glowered at me. “Bruises don’t make pains, now shush and let me look.”

All I saw was a red spot about an inch in diameter. “See? Just a bruise.” Odette looked closer. “No, there’s somethin stuck in your knee, a quill I think, see, just there. It isn’t very long, I’ll pull it out.” She grabbed onto the end of the barb. As soon as her fingers closed around it, it sprouted tiny wings and started to wiggle deeper into my knee. “Ouch! Odette stop! It’s going deeper.”

Odette scratched her head. “It looks like Night Nettle, the barbs have a poison that will paralyze anything they touch. The goblins use it as a trap to catch small animals for their dinner.” She turned and looked back at the stand of ferns we had crawled into. “You must have crawled into a patch when we hid.”

She was right, my knee was starting to go numb. ” Never mind how I got stuck, we have to get the thing out, now, before I’m completely paralyzed!” Scared now that I would never get home, that goblins would make a meal out of me instead, I watched Odette start crawling around the tree we were sitting under, mumbling something to herself. “I can’t hear you with your face buried in the bushes Odette.” She looked up. “Sorry about that, I was saying there is a special moss that grows in these woods, and when placed around the nettle causes it to back out on its own. I’m afraid that’s the only way to get it out.”

The trees and underbrush started swimming around me. “Hey Odette?” Odette was digging around the tree again and looked up at me. “Hum?” I felt like I was falling from a great height, even though I knew I was sitting on the ground. “Does this Night Nettle stuff have any other effect?” She jumped up and waddled quickly over to me, worry flooding her face.

What I saw coming toward me instead, in slow motion, was a huge hairy bird. That’s funny I thought, I didn’t know birds had hair, then I was floating on a leaf in the middle of pond. “I feel so peaceful, I think I’ll take a little nap.” Odette shook me. “Oh no, missus, no, don’t go to sleep!”

A storm came up suddenly, the leaf I was lying on started to pitch back and forth. I heard myself speaking from a distance, “I don’t have a paddle! The leaf is going to sink!” I grabbed onto the edges and curled them around me to try and stay afloat.

Odette is only three inches tall but she had no problem giving orders to the centaurs. “Do be careful, Watch it! You’re going to tip her over.” The centaur looked back at her and sneered. “It would be no problem smooshing you with my hoof little one!” He lifted his front hoof in a threatening manor.

“Serg!” The tall graceful woman stepped away from the centaur and moved back to check the cart. “Do remember your instructions: find the Kind One, bring her back. That’s it. I don’t remember anything about “smooshing”.

“It is lucky we found you before the goblins did! You could see the faerie glow miles away.” Elendain reached over and tweaked Odette’s nose and chuckled under her breath. “Don’t mind Serg, he just doesn’t like pulling the cart and he is a little grouchy.” Serg hoofed the ground. “I didn’t plan on being treated like a pack mule!”

“But he is moving to fast! He will tip the misses out.” Odette paced back and forth along the edge of the cart. Serg growled something under his breath and Elendain patted his haunches to settle him down. “She will be fine, but we must hurry and get her to the Elvenwood before she is paralyzed. I have some rose-moss that will treat the wound.

The storm passed and the pond grew smooth. I let go of the edges of the leaf and floated toward a pale moon that was just setting on the far edge of the water. The leaf began to swirl around and around, rocking as it went.

Elendain signaled to six slender elven men to help carry the sling holding the human up the rope bridge to her quarters and placed her on the downy bed. Odette watched as Elendain mixed rose-moss and dewdrops, then helped her spread the poultice around the night nettle quill, covering it completely.

“How long will it take?” Odette had settled herself to one side, intending to wait all night if need be. Elendain smiled, “You are a true friend indeed, but do not despair, the Kind One will be fine. It won’t take long and she won’t remember very much at all.”

The leaf came to rest on the far shore of the pond where a bed of large white flowers were growing. I laid there, looking at the stars and wondered where Odette was.