Day 22

While soaking in the tub last night, I thought about all the things which had upset me. I had been hurt when Lucky decided he’d rather snuggle up to Greg. It wasn’t that long ago when Lucky was afraid of Greg. Maybe I should be pleased that they are bonding.

The fight with Greg over the furniture and other household goods - does it really matter whose things we use? Greg has already given up his home for me. Perhaps it’s only fair that I should also make some sacrifice. Or maybe we should get rid of everything if possible and start fresh.

Neither one of us is being very logical. If I want a smaller home, then it would make more sense to use his smaller scale furniture. On the other hand, if he wants a grander home, why doesn’t he want to use the things that were specially designed to fit a larger house?

The thing that really rankles is no longer being a person in my own right. As far as the world is concerned, I’m merely Greg’s possession. How can I be considered good enough to make financial decisions for the kingdom, but need to consult my husband if I want to buy a dress?

During dinner, I tell Greg to do whatever is necessary to pay off the debt. Sell my things, his things, whatever. Once it’s not so crowded in here we’ll be able to see if we need more space. I’m almost certain we will have to add on a room for all the armor and weaponry. I’m just worried that if we spend any money before the debt is paid that it will anger the people I owe.

The next morning, I head to Town Hall and Greg stays home to tackle our list of creditors. Looking over the requests for help, I can see that a lot of people are interested in Dawnshadow Lake. Blessilda would like me to feed the frog there, Triffledore would like me to unlock the Shadow Pond, Fahleed is curious about the portal there, and Quinn reports that Mossbeard told him there was a lantern there which would come in handy if I wanted to search Darkbark’s stash at Mystic Copse.

Of course, it’s not just as simple as going to Dawnshadow Lake and doing all these things. Blessilda needs ingredients to make the frog a tasty snack, Fahleed need rune stones which will enable him to locate the special rune stone that unlocks the portal, and Triffledore needs material to make a Sun Gem to open the magical tree bark.

Miracle of miracles, I already have everything they need. After dropping off the things Blessilda needs, I head down to Faire of Light, drop things at Fahleed’s and then go see Triffledore. Then I return to Town Hall and wait.

Fahleed is the first of the three to show up. He’s used the rune stone to determine that the special rune stone can be found in Coral Cove. This is not good news. I’ve already ruined one dress there. I could stop home and see if I can find something else to wear, but Greg will probably be there, selling off our excess things. I wouldn’t want him to think I was checking up on him.

My choices are: go swimming in my undies or go skinny dipping. I opt for skinny dipping and pray I have Coral Cove to myself. Once again Lucky decides to keep his feet and everything else dry.

After finding the special rune stone, we return to Town Hall to pick up the potion for the frog and the Sun Gem. Then it’s on to Dawnshadow Lake. First we feed the frog who then obligingly moves and allows us to explore Sunshape Cave. Next we use the Sun Gem on the magical tree bark and gain entrance to Shadow Pond. Then we find the lamp Quinn told me about, and finally we unlock the portal using the special rune stone.

There’s still time to take the lamp to Mystic Copse and explore Darkbark’s stash. Quinn was right, there was a relic fragment hidden there. We’ve accomplished a lot today.

Greg has also had a good day. There’s less furniture crowding the Great Hall and all the items destined for the armory we have yet to build have been gathered in one place. He hasn’t sold anything of mine. I’m not sure whether to be pleased or insulted. Maybe nobody wanted my things.

It’s a matter of logistics, Greg tells me. It made more sense to make decisions about pieces closest to the door. Now that we’ve cleared some space, we can put things we’re keeping on one side of the room, and things we’re willing to part with on the other side of the room.

I inform Greg that since he’s doing such a good job, I’m willing to let him choose what stays and what goes. There’s really only there’s only two things I won’t part with. Lucky...and you.

Day 24

Greg was quite pleased when I showed him the monogram I have been embroidering on our sheets and towels. He thinks it captures the essence of our relationship perfectly. Hmm. I need to think about this.

The ‘G’ certainly makes a statement about Greg. It’s a sturdy-looking masculine ‘G’ similar to the one found on a set of baby blocks, sewn with a metallic silver thread and the stitches I chose resemble chain mail.

The ‘B’ is very feminine, a copperplate script flowing and embellished with curlicues which wrap around the ‘G’, stitched with a blue-green silk thread. But what does Greg think it means? That I lean on him for support? That I’m a clinging vine?

Lucky doesn’t look pleased with my handiwork. Sorry there’s no ‘L’ included but it isn’t the custom for couples to include their squabbit’s initial in their monogram. Be good today and I’ll make a blanket just for you and embroider your entire name on it.

Requests to upgrade buildings have been piling up. And the exterior of the Castle still needs repairs. Since nobody knows when (if?) Queen Sophia will be returning, the Castle can wait.

Quinn wants to give shelter to more animals. He did remember his promise and hasn’t brought any more to the Squabbit Den, but if it were enlarged...This request gets approved, as does the request for resources to build a sturdier fence.

The Forester wants to expand the Orchards so that he can offer a greater variety of food. Greg thinks this should get priority. Maybe the Forester will resume selling that delicious chunky meat stew and we wouldn’t have to eat lobster every night. How he suffers!

No sooner do I give the Forester permission to proceed with the upgrade than he asks for additional funds and resources. He does offer me a free serving of that stew Greg craves. And after I grant the Forester his requests, he utters the same phrase he’s used before, that it’s time he gave back to everybody as I have helped him.

Fahleed shows up carrying a large box. I had completely forgotten about the utilitarian cloak I had ordered what seems ages ago. However the cloak inside the package is anything but utilitarian. It’s made of soft blue wool and has a blue silk lining. Isn’t that the silk Greg had been looking at when I thought he was ordering a gift for Miss Sunstone? No matter. The cloak fits me perfectly. Like Greg, it’s mine now.

It’s a busy morning here at Town Hall. Next to arrive is Troglid. He has also brought me a present. Nothing as nice as my cloak, though. It’s a ladder. Troglid is sure I can find some use for it.

Troglid leaves as Quinn arrives. He wants to help the tiger at Apricus Plaza and thinks we could do it if we found some catnip. I hope he’s not planning to bring the tiger back to the Squabbit Den.

Quinn thinks we can find catnip at the Forgotten Glen, Dawnshadow Lake, and Rosetum Gardens. I decide to bring my new ladder with me. I can use it to climb up to the balcony in Apricus Plaza. I’ll leave my new cloak at Town Hall. Don’t want it to get tangled in the shrubs at Apricus Plaza.

We find a large amount of catnip at all three locations. At Apricus Plaza, giving the catnip to the tiger calms it enough so that it can free itself from the shrubs. I also put the ladder to good use and explore the balcony. There’s a telescope up there.

Quinn tells me that Greg had a telescope but it got destroyed when Leodici crashed landed on the Castle’s balcony. Really? What was Greg’s telescope doing on the Castle balcony? Next time I see Blessilda, I need to bring the conversation around to telescopes and see if she can enlighten me.

Day 25

I returned home yesterday to find that the furniture had once again been rearranged. This time everything has been crammed into the middle away from the walls. Construction on the armory will begin tomorrow.

A new room, ten feet wide and thirty feet long running parallel to the Great Hall, will be added on one side of the house. A similar amount of space will be added on the other side of the house. Why? Greg informs me that is where the bedroom and dressing rooms will be.

When I protest that it’s too narrow, and anyway, I thought we agreed to just add the armory, I’m told that an additional ten feet of width will be taken from the Great Hall. As for the cost, he’s written to Queen Sophia and received funds to cover part of the expense.

He did what? Without consulting me? Greg calmly replies that everybody else has received help from the kingdom. We need to have a place where visiting dignitaries can be welcomed and entertained while Queen Sophia is away.

Fine. Whatever. Just help me find the pots and pans so I can make some dinner. Greg hopes we’re not having lobster again. No, I snap, we’re having mass produced chunky meat stew, just like your mother used to buy.

A week. We’ve only been married a week. By the time the Yura Festival arrives, we won’t be on speaking terms. I’m no longer sure we like each other.

I had planned to sew after dinner, but I wasn’t able to find my sewing basket. It was easy to find the beds. They were standing side by side. Nice try, but no. Not until the Yura Festival. I manage to push them apart by three feet.

Lucky and I arrive at Town Hall very early. We’re there before the Mayor has come back from his ‘morning walk’. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

When the Mayor shows up, he asks me to find him some banners. Wonder if he’s also doing a bit of redecorating. Better find him the banners before Greg hears about it and decides that we should hang banners in the Great Hall.

A quick check of the storage cupboard shows that I already have most of the banners. Just need to go to Rosetum Gardens to get three more. I haven’t been there yet since my return to the kingdom. It will be nice to visit someplace new.

When we return with the banners, the Mayor actually pays me for them! It feels good to have money of my own. But I’ll have to find a place to hide it away from Greg.

The Mayor has another task for me. He’s lost the draft of the work orders to clear the path at the Forgotten Glen. While he looks for them, he needs me to put up some posters.

I never learned the Goblin alphabet so I can’t read the posters. But I bet the one featuring pumpkins is an advertisement for Blessilda’s General Store. Did I say one? I need to hang six of them.

By the time I finish with the posters, the Mayor has only found one of the drafts. Now he thinks he might have dropped the other two while he was gathering items for the village. I wasn’t aware that he also went out foraging for the villagers. I thought I was the official gofer.

Lucky and I search Mystic Copse and Ancient Pond and find the two missing drafts. I return them to the Mayor who hands them back to me to sign. I again attempt to hand them back. No dice. I’m to show them to the citizens who will help me clear the path at Forgotten Glen.

Just then Greg arrives at Town Hall. Just the citizen I need to see. I show him the work order and ask him to find some citizens or soldiers - anybody - to clear that path. Meanwhile, I’m going to stop at the Orchards for some more of the stew he loves. I’ll meet him at Forgotten Glen for lunch and he can tell me all about what’s been happening at the house.

It’s been less than two weeks since our previous picnic at Forgotten Glen but it seems like a lifetime ago. Then Greg was impressed that I knew how to cook. Now he’d rather eat canned stew. What did I do wrong?

Greg arrives and thanks me for the stew. He chatters away about the construction work being done, but doesn’t really tell me anything that I want to know. He does promise me that things will get better. Right now, with everything so chaotic, it’s natural that we’re feeling stressed and...

And not liking each other very much? I hope that’s going to change because I can’t begin to imagine living like this for the rest of our lives. I had thought the time between signing the marriage contract and the Yura Festival would be more like the courtship stage we missed out on. Greg just pats my hand and says it will get better.

This isn’t the right time or place to disagree with him. Lucky and I need to return to Town Hall and tell the Mayor the path has been cleared. And to see if anything else needs to be done immediately.

Ria is waiting to see me. She’s very worried because the baby fennex is not with its mother and she’s afraid that it may have been caught in a basket trap. Could I go with her to Forgotten Glen and Dawnshadow Lake to look for it?

I can and I do. It will be a good opportunity for me to get to know Ria better. She’s very quiet and reserved, but she appears to be very observant.

We search Dawnshadow Lake first. The baby fennex is not in the basket trap. Next we go to the Forgotten Glen. The basket trap, which is empty, is near the statue of Queen Sophia.

Ria tells me how she, Quinn, and Old Man Seth had been turned to stone by the basilisk and how Dreadmyre had stolen their magic. Queen Sophia had been able to save them, just as I saved Prince Edric, because she had been born without magic.

That’s very interesting. It probably explains Greg’s strange behavior toward me when he heard how I had rescued the prince. Ria tells me how Greg tried to save the residents of the kingdom by locking himself in the barracks with the basilisk, which gave the other soldiers enough time to lead most of the residents to a safe place to hide.

Blessilda had failed to mention Greg’s heroics when she told me about Queen Sophia rescuing him. Her focus had been on whether Greg and Sophia had feelings for each other. Why?

Ria suggests we search Mystic Copse next. Maybe the baby fennex got locked in the tree house. Sure enough, that’s where we find it. Now all we have to do is reunite baby with mama in the Rose Garden.

On the way back to Landsong Village, Ria thanks me for my help and tells me we’ll ‘cross paths’ again. I hope so. It’s nice spending time with a member of my own sex, especially one as observant as Ria.

Day 27

Last night, Greg had been so pleased that the work was finally done on our house. It seemed a shame to spoil his mood, so I decided not to tell him about Artist Myke. And really, what was there to tell? Artist Myke hadn’t actually done anything illegal. He most certainly was not our mysterious cloaked man. He’s just a not very organized artist. Nevertheless, I made some sketches of him. They might come in handy.

While I had been traipsing around with Artist Myke, work had been piling up. Today I’ll approve Troglid request to expand the carpentry shop. And Gobie, the friend of the Forester, wants me to help him find gold flies so that he can catch a Scarjade lizard. If I help him, he’ll give me the lizard to feed to the griffin at Rosetum Gardens.

The first places we search for gold flies are Apricus Plaza, Mystic Copse, and Dawnshadow Lake. We find a fly in each location. I also keep an eye out for any sign that Artist Myke or his princess may have been about.

Next Gobie suggest that we try searching Ancient Pond, Forgotten Glen, and the Rose Garden. Again we find a fly in each place. While at Ancient Pond, we also find a fragment of the Faire Vibrancy relic.

Gobie uses the six gold flies to lure the lizard. Once the lizard is captured, Lucky and I hurry to Rosetum Gardens to give it to the griffin, who soon departs. Now I can enter the Songrose Gate and see another section of the Gardens.

 When I return to Town Hall, Greg is waiting for me. He’s found my sketches of Artist Myke and demands an explanation as to who the man is. Is he somebody I met while I was away those five years? How long have I been meeting him in secret? Is he the reason why I’m so reluctant to be a proper wife?

When I try to relate what happened yesterday, Greg’s eyebrow goes into overdrive. Did I really think it was proper to meet strange men in the forest? Obviously I must find him attractive, why else would I draw him? If there was nothing going on, why didn’t I mention what had happened?

Okay, that’s enough! I tell Greg he’s already made up his mind about what happened and isn’t interested in what I have to say. But on the off chance that The Captain of the Queen’s Guard wants to investigate Artist Myke and his activities, I’ll write up a full report. Thanks to my sketches, he’ll know exactly who he’s looking for.

Then I’m going to the house to pack my things.

Day 29

I have to admit I’m impressed by how hard Greg is trying to please me. Last night he spent some time reviewing our joint finances with me. He even asked if, now that the gReat Hall isn’t overcrowded with our belongings, I would resuming cooking our dinner instead of reheating that stew the Forester sells.

To my surprise, I didn’t like the new sleeping arrangements. The room was too large for one person, and too quiet. I was lonely. Lucky wasn’t pleased either. He was restless and spent most of the night scampering from one room to the other. None of us got much sleep.

Consequently when we arrived at Town Hall, we are not pleased to find Princess Emilia waiting to see us. She, on the other hand, is very pleased to see Greg and couldn’t stop fluttering her eyelashes whenever he looked her way.

Princess Emilia is not happy. Artist Myke had painted her portrait and since then, she feels she’s been aging rapidly. Her evidence is that she’s found a wrinkle and a grey hair. Since she had been meeting the artist at the Rose Garden, she feels the painting and/or the artist may still be there

I don’t think she’s quite as young as she’d like us to believe and she’s a bit of a drama queen, exclaiming that she is a princess from a nearby kingdom, and there is a criminal in mine!

So off to the Rose Garden we all go. No sign of Artist Myke but we find the enchanted portrait and Princess Emilia goes off to undo the spell, while Greg and I return to Town Hall.

There’s another irate princess waiting for us. This one is called Princess Melody. She claims that Artist Myke stole her magic cloak. The cloak grants invisibility to whoever wears it and Princess Melody herself claims he’ll be impossible to find, yet she expects me to go to the Rose Garden and investigate some suspicious noises

So Greg and I return to the Rose Garden with a different irate drama queen princess. No sign of Artist Myke, but we find the cloak. Princess Melody decides that the artist must have known about the cloak’s magic properties before he stole it. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do with that information.

Linea shows up to tell me the obvious: that the artist is a common thief who’s become a menace to the kingdom. Blessilda has heard all about the artist and his deeds and decides the best way to deal with Artist Myke is to lure him to a place where he can be arrested. She’ll need to make a love potion first.

I’m not quite sure how Blessilda found Artist Myke or how she got him to drink the love potion, but before long he comes looking for me. He wants me to go to the Rose Garden to help him find the ‘True royal beauty’ he’s been seeking.

When we get there, he’s very surprised to find Blessilda waiting for him. He’s even more surprised when Greg announces ‘You’re under arrest, you scum!’

Linea solemnly announces that this incident is a reminded to us that just because Dreadmyre has been banished from the Skyward Kingdom, it doesn’t mean evil no longer exists.

Greg hauls Artist Myke off to the dungeon, Blessilda returns to the General Store, and Lucky and I return to Town Hall. There’s nothing urgent that needs to be done. My turn to go home a bit early and rearrange some furniture.