Part 31

I barely made it up to the Castle to check out the tower and the Castle’s interior pillars before sunset yesterday. Repairs to the interior of the Castle’s entrance hall are nearly complete. The staircase has a big, gaping hole, the carpet needs to be replaced, and that painting still needs to be restored.

While eating dinner - stew - I told Greg about what Triffledore had said about his artist friend. If he moved to the kingdom, he might be willing to fix the painting. As for the staircase, I hope somebody comes forward and volunteers his services.

Once again Lucky sat next to Greg and begged for some of the stew’s carrots. I’m glad they are bonding but Lucky is going to get pudgy if Greg continues to feed him table scraps.

As it turned out, Lucky and I got plenty of exercise today. Blessilda, Triffledore, and Fahleed had each expressed an interest in helping me access new areas of Dawnshadow Lake. Of course each of them needed my help in fetching the things they needed to make something to help me.

Blessilda claimed that in order to make better potions, the General Store would need to be expanded. I didn’t understand why she needed a bigger place to make frog food, but didn’t feel like arguing. Somebody’s place had to be the next one expanded, might as well be hers.

I started to check the various lists I received yesterday to see if I had any of the requested items on hand when Quinn and Mr Vanderkins dropped in. Quinn looked quite disheveled. He had lost his belt, hat, and vest while out sketching and wanted to help me find them so his grandfather wouldn’t yell at him.

We had to search the Forgotten Glen, Mystic Copse, and Fairy Dragon Nest for Quinn’s missing clothing. The two squabbits got along - for a change - probably because there were plenty of carrots and sunflower seeds to go around. And I found a lobster, so a good time was had by all.

After dropping off the lobster at home, and checking to make sure nobody had entered the place while I was gone, Lucky and I returned to Town Hall to see if we had everything that Blessilda, Fahleed, and Triffledore needed.

I was able to give Blessilda the ingredients she needed, and I had the rune stones that Fahleed requested. I also had the materiels for Troglid to make that ladder he promised me. But I was missing the runes needed by Triffledore so we would have to make a trip to Ancient Pond.

The General store was still under construction, so I put Blessilda’s things aside and headed down to Faire of Light, left the building supplies in front of Troglid’s shop, gave Fahleed his rune stones and while he went off to divine where the special rune stones were, went searching for what Triffledore needed.

When I returned to the Faire of Light to drop off the items Triffledore needed, Fahleed had figured out where I had to search for the special rune stones and Troglid had finished building me a ladder.

I needed to go to Coral Cove to find the special rune stone and I had no intention of dragging a ladder with me, so it was necessary to stop off at Town Hall. I also needed to consult a map because I had no idea where Coral Cove was.

Construction on the General Store was almost finished, so after I ditched the ladder, I dropped off the things Blessilda had requested and promised to return later to pick up the frog food.

Seth was right, there was a walrus at Coral Cove. But its presence didn’t prevent me from finding the special rune stones nor the final piece of the Landsong Serenity Relic. Maybe moving the walrus will be tomorrow’s task.

Back at the Faire of Light, I stopped to tell Fahleed I had found the rune stones, then picked up the Sun Gem from Triffledore. At Landsong Village, I admired the expanded General Store and took the frog food from Blessilda.

As I was about to leave for Dawnshadow Lake, Quinn stopped me. He had spoken to Mossbeard and learned that there might be a relic fragment hidden in Darkbark’s stash at Mystic Copse. But I would need a crystal lamp and there could be one at Dawnshadow Lake.

When we got to Dawnshadow Lake, Lucky was assigned the task of finding the crystal lamp. I fed the frog, who then moved and allowed me to access Sunshape Cave. Next I used the rune stones to open the portal, and lastly used the Sun Gem to cast a shadow of the correct shape and enter the shadow pool.

I decided that we would wait until tomorrow to search Darkbark’s stash. I wanted to get back to Landsong Village while it was still daylight and see what happened when the Serenity Relic was completed.

Word had gotten round that I had found the final relic fragment. There was quite a crowd milling about when we arrived at the pedestal, Greg among them. My hand trembled as I inserted the final piece.

Then there was a flash of light. Momentarily the waterfall ceased to flow. When it resumed, the water flowed stronger than before. The grass was greener, more lush and flowers bloomed everywhere. The deciduous trees grew leaves colored green, yellow, orange and red.

According to the Mayor the Serenity Relic is supposed to bestow a sense of calm and hopefulness in the people. It didn’t have that effect on me. I was nervous and wondered if everything was as good as before my grandfather had trashed the place.

Greg shook his head no and my heart sunk. But then he added that things were better because now I lived here.
 

 

Part 33

I sent Greg and his fish packing, but not before I had given him an earful about his ideas of courtship. I had suggested having dinner together so that we could get to know each other better, but all we do is discuss work.

I’m grateful for his advice and guidance. The Queen’s Steward and the Captain of the Queen’s Guard make a good team, but when do we get to be Greg and Berengaria? I had thought courtship would involve holding hands, cuddling and kissing, and that he would bring me flowers. Instead, I get fish to clean.

Lucky was not pleased when Greg left. Of course not, he is getting courted. Greg feeds him tidbits during dinner and strokes and pets him. I think I’m jealous.

This morning Lucky was still down in the dumps, so I stopped at the Squabbit Den on the way to Town Hall and bought him a new hat, a straw boater. I had also packed a picnic lunch to take to the Forgotten Glen. And my art supplies. Lucky and I have earned a little rest and relaxation time.

I had wondered which of the kingdom’s citizens would come forward and offer to repair the Castle’s staircase. I wasn’t expecting the Mayor to offer to help. Not that he did, exactly. The Mayor was acting as spokesman for ‘everyone’ who he claimed was pitching in and wanted a donation of ten thousand bolgins.

It seemed a rather large amount, but I handed it over. The Mayor assured me it would not go to waste. In addition to repairing the staircase, there were other interior renovations that needed to be done. And those renovation would require some golden oak, obsidian, and bolgite.

The Mayor also had a personal request. If I found any banners during my travels, he wanted them. He even offered to make it worth my while. I looked over the list he provided, smiled, and said I would see what I could do. Then I left to go to the Forgotten Glen.

What the Mayor didn’t know was that I already had most of the banners sitting in the storage closet. I needed to visit Rosetum Gardens to look for the remainder, but that could wait until after lunch.

Lucky enjoys visiting the Forgotten Glen. It’s one of the few places that doesn’t have a pond or stream or some other body of water and he can run around without getting his feet wet.

I reminded him we need to do some work before we took some time off for play. We needed to find poster glue. It has been some time since there’s been a crisis, but when the next one comes, the Mayor is sure to want posters plastered everywhere.

Once enough glue had been found, I unpacked the food and nibbled on the sandwiches I had made. In between bites, I sketched Lucky wearing his new hat. I was startled when a shadow fell across my sketchpad until I looked up to see it was Greg.

He sat down beside me and sheepishly handed me a bunch of Tender Touch flowers then cautiously put an arm around my shoulders. At this point, Lucky exhibited a jealous streak and started pulling on my skirt.

I glanced at the sun. It was getting late and I still needed to go to Rosetum Gardens to find some House Orwen banners for the Mayor. Greg’s face darkened when he heard where I was going and why. He was a member of the House Orwen, not just a member but head of the house, and didn’t understand why the Mayor would want or need those banners

I just shrugged and suggested he ask the Mayor. He could tell me the answer over dinner. Meanwhile, I needed to leave. Greg offered to take the poster glue back to Town Hall for me so I could go directly to Rosetum Gardens.

At Rosetum Gardens, I found the banners and picked some Puppylove flowers. Then we hurried back to Town Hall, stopping on our way at the Orchards to buy some stew for dinner.

At Town Hall I gave the Mayor the banners and he gave me the news that the Castle’s interior renovations were competed. The staircase had been repaired, new carpet had been laid, and new banners had replaced the old tattered ones. He also gave me a door tile.

Before heading home, Lucky and I went up to the Castle to check out the new staircase and put the door tile in place. Greg was there, presumably looking for the Mayor. But given the choice between fighting with the Mayor and joining Lucky and me for stew, Greg chose dinner. Crisis averted. For now.

Part 35

Today I bought two paintings from Triffledore, portraits of Queen Sophia’s father and of the Goblin King Crookshank. Triffledore claimed his artist friend had found them and wanted to sell them to raise some capital.

I think this friend is the same friend who hopes to open a gallery. Whoever he is, Triffledore intends to invite him to come settle in ‘our’ kingdom. I’m sure I can find some place to display these portraits. If not in the Castle, maybe the Mayor would like them for his office.

As I had pointed out to Lucky, the Mayor was long overdue for a crisis. Today turned out to be the day. He wanted the path at the Forgotten Glen cleared but lost the draft of the Work Orders.

Writing a new draft wasn’t an option. He preferred to search for the lost papers, which meant that he wanted me to help put up posters while he searched. I think he hates working on those posters as much as I do and will use any excuse available to get somebody else to deal with them.

The first poster featured a picture of the usurper King Grimble, a cat-fish, and another Goblin. Half the written material was in the Fairy alphabet which I never learned to read.

Then there were six posters advertising fresh fruit, claiming that honeydew melons are a sweet and juicy fruit. This may be true, but the pictures looked more like pumpkins to me.

By the time I had dealt with the last poster - a picture of King Crookshank standing in front of his castle - the Mayor had found only one copy of the draft order. He had decided that he must have dropped the other two copies while out foraging in Mystic Copse and Ancient Pond. Rather than make new copies, he wanted me to visit those places and find the missing ones.

Anything was better than hanging posters. Lucky agreed. He wanted us to take our time finding the missing papers. I had to remind him that other citizens needed our help, so the quicker we finished helping the Mayor, the quicker we could help somebody else.

Unfortunately, finding the missing draft orders wasn’t all the Mayor expected me to do. After presenting him with the draft orders, he gave them right back to me and told me to sign them. So I did and once again gave them to the Mayor.

He looked at my signature, and handed them back to me yet again and informed me that I could now start clearing the path at the Forgotten Glen. Excuse me? The Mayor quickly added that all I had to do was show any of the citizens the work orders and they would help me clear the path.

Right. I’ve already shown them to him and he hadn’t offered any help. I was relieved when Greg showed up. He looked at the work orders, gave the Mayor a scornful glance, and then went outside and ordered some soldiers to go to the Forgotten Glen to start clearing the path. My hero. In return for his help, I offered to fix him lunch.

Over lunch, I told Greg about buying the portraits and how I hoped that Triffledore would be able to convince his friend to move to our kingdom. He just nodded absentmindedly. Something was bothering him, but whatever it was, he didn’t want to discuss it with me.

After lunch, we went to the Forgotten Glen to check on the path. It had already been cleared. At the end of the path stood an open air rotunda. Beneath its domed roof was a statue of Queen Sophia, armed with a bow and arrow, riding a unicorn.

For a woman who had spent so little time in the kingdom, Queen Sophia had certainly made quite an impression on its citizens. All their artwork in some way honors her. I would have expected to find some statues and paintings of her parents and of the kings and queens that preceded them.

Instead, everybody is obsessed with Sophia. Even Greg. He kept staring at the statue and then glancing at me when he thought I wasn’t looking. Obviously he was making comparisons and I had not come out on top.

Part 37

While fixing dinner last night, I realized that somebody had told me what to do about Greg. Blessilda had given me that love potion. It would have been so easy to mix it into his dinner. So easy and so wrong.

I will just have to learn to live with being his second choice. Considering that I have no dowry or family connections to be proud of, I’m lucky that any man would consider marrying me. Maybe when Sophia returns, she won’t seem as wonderful as he imagines her to be.

When the Queen does return, I hope she’s pleased with the restoration of the Castle. Greg and the other soldiers had been very busy the past couple of days clearing all the debris away. With the ground cleared, the windows could be repaired.

I would have liked to have watched the work being done, but Blessilda was waiting for me at Town Hall. Her family was supposed to visit this week but the trains have stopped running. She wanted me to accompany her to Central Station to find out why.I had expected her to share some tidbit of gossip with me or to ask me about Greg. All Blessilda talked about was the trains. When we got to the station we had a look around but weren’t able to find out why the trains were no longer running. Blessilda thought we should speak with the station master, but we couldn’t find him and his office was locked.When we returned to Landsong Village, Blessilda muttered something about getting to the bottom of things and went to the General Store. Maybe she intended to concoct a potion to force the door of the station master’s office to open.

I didn’t have time to wonder what Blessilda was up to because Ria was waiting for me. She had been visiting the Rose Garden and found the fennex family behaving strangely. Ria wanted me to go investigate. I agreed to go and have a look around but told Ria to remain at Town Hall.

Lucky disapproved of my decision to go alone to the Rose Garden. He thought I should have asked Greg to come along with us. When I saw the reason the fennex family was upset, I knew I should have listened to Lucky.

A strange man was standing next to the tree in which the fennex family made their home. The fennex were hissing at him. The man introduced himself as Artist Myke and said he was a wandering artist visiting the kingdom in search of beauty and inspiration.

I introduced myself, and mentioned that I was Queen Sophia’s Steward. Then it occurred to me that, except for Greg, I had never been alone with a young man. Artist Myke made me feel very uneasy and I hadn’t even thought to bring my bow and arrow with me.

I wondered if I should mention that my boyfriend was the Captain of the Queen’s Guard. Or better yet, that Dreadmyre was my grandfather. But it soon became clear that Artist Myke was a bit of a coward and I wasn’t in any danger. He was afraid of the fennex and he even looked at Lucky uneasily.

Artist Myke had been trying to retrieve a marble necklace that the fennex had taken from him and hidden in their den. He claimed it was a gift for a princess and would perfectly match her beautiful eyes.

I just shrugged and recovered the necklace for him. I didn’t think the necklace was very pretty, not that I got a very good look at it. Artist Myke quickly grabbed it from me and left. When I got back to Town Hall, I told Ria what had happened. She remarked that animals have a kind of sixth sense about humans that shouldn’t be trusted. Lucky nodded is head in agreement.

I had intended to tell Greg about my adventure in the Rose Garden, but on my desk was a note from him saying he wouldn’t be able to see me after work. It wasn’t until I was getting ready for bed that it occurred to me that Queen Sophia was an only child and that there were no princesses living in the kingdom.
 

Part 39

The Castle still needs some grass and some of what Greg calls garden décor, but those things will have to wait. Repairing the Wingferry and expanding Troglid’s shop have become matters of urgency. Since I needed to visit Apricus Plaza today, I said a prayer that the Wingferry would hold together long enough to take me there and bring me back to Faire of Light and authorized the upgrading of the carpentry shop.

Troglid had put many orders on hold until his shop was made larger. Consequently he needed a large amount of blueprints. Lucky and I searched for some all morning and part of the afternoon.

My little squabbit was not a happy bunny. He was disappointed that Greg didn’t join us for dinner last night. I had explained to him that Greg had a lot of responsibilities. More than I had realized when I first agreed to allow him to court me.

And there didn’t seem to be anybody that Greg was willing to ask for help, which is one of the reasons I wanted to solve the mystery about what Artist Myke was up to without consulting him.

The other reason was Queen Sophia. She seemed to have managed to accomplish all sorts of things without asking a man for help. No reason why I couldn’t do the same. But when I suggested leaving the Plaza and having yet another look around the Rose Garden, Lucky shook his head no.

I decided to use a bit of reverse psychology on him and told him he was right. After all, Queen Sophia had a talking owl and a pocket dragon to assist her. I only had a squeaking squabbit. We could spend the rest of the day helping Seth and Triffledore. Maybe Mr Vanderkins and Quinn would be visiting Seth, and Triffledore might give us one of those masks or skulls if we do a good job.

It worked. When we got off the Wingferry, Lucky headed straight for the Rose Garden. But we didn’t stay there long. Artist Myke appeared and once again wanted my help.

He had heard about a legendary canvas that was hidden somewhere in Mystic Copse. Anything painted on it sparkled and Artist Myke believed that the legendary beauty of his princess deserved the very best. But no matter how many times I asked him the name of ‘his’ princess, he just babbled on about her legendary beauty.

It wasn’t difficult to locate the canvas. Artist Myke seemed somewhat surprised that it actually existed and that I had found it. His reaction reminded me of the Mayor and his surprise when I found the Pearl of Purity.Unlike yesterday, I wasn’t asked to paint. This time Artist Myke needed help to prepare his paints, brushes, and palette knives. Once I had done so, he packed up his gear, grabbed the magical canvas, and left.

As Lucky and I walked back to Landsong Village, I told him I didn’t care whose friend Artist Myke may or may not be. I was going to talk to Greg about Artist Myke and this mysterious princess who must also be wandering around the kingdom. Maybe Greg would decide to arrange for some soldiers to escort them back to wherever they had come from.

Too bad that when I arrived at Town Hall, all that was waiting for me was yet another note from Greg stating that he was once again very busy and would not be stopping by for dinner.