The Last Fairy Tale (10 page)

 “Sure, that would be great.” Olivia wiped the juice from her chin and the tear from her cheek with the sleeve of her cloak. “What should I do with this?” She held up the apple core.

 Locke grabbed the apple core, tossed it into the air, and caught it in his mouth. He chewed for a second and then swallowed, grinning. “Mmm, the core and stem are my favorite parts!”

 Olivia laughed. “Good! I was having a tough time trying to eat them.” She wiped her hands on the hem of her uniform and asked, “So, how far is the Great Fairy’s Hollow from here?”

 “Follow me and I’ll show you.” Locke nodded to the edge of the forest. He handed Olivia the small pouch containing the nuts and then pulled the sack over his shoulder, ready to begin moving again. He walked a few paces, pushing vines out of the way for Olivia. Then they stepped out of the forest.

 They were standing on the edge of a vast and picturesque valley. Giant hills of green grass reached as far as Olivia could see to the east and west. A blue stream snaked its way through the bottom of the valley, no view of its beginning or end in sight. To the north, there was a massive range of grey, snowcapped mountains. Olivia saw strange creatures walking in the valley and flying near the mountaintops. Some were small, and she could barely see them, while others were large and magnificent.

 Olivia tried to take everything in at once, but she soon realized that she couldn’t. She found herself focusing on one thing in the distance, as it stretched above all others and made her feel extremely tiny. A massive tree sprouted from a place near where the mountains split. The tree twisted this way and that incomprehensibly high into the sky. Its leafy branches arched over the valley and the mountains, making a magnificent green canopy. Olivia couldn’t see all the parts of the tree because of the clouds and haze coming from the mountaintops. The tree was full of life, watching over the land like a brilliant and loving caretaker. Olivia was astounded.

 “Wonderful, isn’t she?” Locke said. A small string of drool was hanging from the corner of his gaping mouth. Olivia looked over at him. The sack was on the ground and his arms were dangling by his sides. He was staring dreamily up at the tree, as if in a trance.

 “I come out here every day just to get a good look at her,” he said. “She’s the most magnificent tree in the world. What I wouldn’t do to just be able to live in her. Oh, the wood, the bark, the resin! The leaves! The–”

 “Locke!” Olivia giggled as she yelled his name to get his attention.

 Locke snapped out of his trance. “Oh…gets me every time,” he said, cutting his eyes toward Olivia.

 “What is it? And what are those?” she asked, pointing down at the creatures roaming the valley below them.

 “Ah, questions, questions, questions,” he said, chuckling. “Well, that,” he said, pointing up at the tree, “is the Great Fairy Tree. My father says it has been around since the beginning of time. I think it’s had a lot of different names, too, but everyone calls it the Great Fairy Tree these days. And those,” he said pointing down at the creatures, “are ungulhaks, gnomes, and…” he squinted, trying to make out one of the more distant creatures. “I believe those are kettu in the distance.”

 “I’m scared, Locke,” Olivia said. She had finally focused on one of the creatures in the valley and saw that, unlike Locke, it wasn’t shaped at all like a human. The creature had the body of a large black horse and the torso of a muscular man. It frightened her.

 “Of what?” asked Locke.

 “Those creatures look dangerous,” Olivia said. “What if one of them sees me?”

 “Oh, don’t worry,” Locke said, smiling. “You have nothing to fear from the people of Aeldyn, I can tell you that. And hopefully they won’t even notice that you’re a human, because you’re wearing the cloak. They’ll think you’re an imp like me.”

 Olivia pulled the cloak more tightly around her. She trusted Locke, but the open valley and the strange-looking creatures were intimidating nonetheless. She inhaled deeply and let the air back out shakily.

 “It’ll be alright,” Locke said, patting her on the back with one hand and giving her a thumbs up with the other. “I promise.”

 They looked out at the valley for a few more seconds before starting forward again. Locke walked a little way ahead and beckoned for Olivia to follow. He led her to the edge of the valley, where she could see a large stairway that led down into the bottom of it. Large stone slabs placed into the ground every few feet formed the stairs. The many travelers who had taken the route had worn down the grass between the stones.

 Locke and Olivia began the descent.They reached the bottom of the valley after a short time. The river flowing to the west was larger than Olivia had imagined from the top of the valley. The water was quiet and calming as it flowed over thousands of small pebbles. The path continued over the river on a small wooden bridge. Further down the trail there were more stone slabs that led up the other side of the valley. They started to cross the bridge, and Olivia became more and more nervous as they drew closer to the creatures on the other side of the river.

 “Keep your hood up and your head down for a little while,” Locke said. “There’s an ungulhak on the other side of the Elder Brook. But don’t worry, he probably won’t even notice us.”

 Olivia swallowed hard. She pulled her hood down over her face as best she could and looked down at the ground. She clutched her journal against her chest and tucked her hands into the sleeves of her cloak to hide them. She began to shake as they neared the other end of the bridge. Even though Locke had assured her that the creatures weren’t dangerous, she couldn’t help but be afraid.

 “Ho, there!” bellowed a loud, deep voice. “How goes your day thus far, my good fellow?”

 Olivia had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from screaming. The voice was coming from just a few feet ahead. She wanted to turn and run the other way, but she kept by Locke’s side as they continued toward the voice.

 “Good!” Locke replied in a friendly voice. “I can never complain after having a good look at the Great Fairy Tree! How are you?” Olivia continued walking slowly forward until she saw Locke stop when they stepped off the bridge. Olivia could see black hooves out of the corner of her eyes. She immediately closed them tightly.

 “Oh, I’m wonderful!” the creature boomed. “It’s a fine day to gather a few supplies for this fall’s fruit cultivation. I’ll have apples, grapes, figs, and melons of all sorts!”

 “Ah! Sounds great,” Locke said, beginning to walk again. “I’ll definitely be over for the apples. Well, I hate to end a great conversation, but we’re in a bit of a hurry.”

 “No worries, my friend,” the creature said. He stepped back a few paces in order to let them pass. Olivia could see his hands swaying at his sides as he maneuvered his horse body around. “But I haven’t said hello to your friend here.”

 “Oh, she doesn’t talk much,” Locke said, still walking away. Olivia noticed that he had taken his violin from his back. “It’s been nice talking to you. See you around.”

 “Alright, friend,” the creature chuckled. “See you next time.”

 They walked a few paces before Olivia let out the big breath of air that she had been holding in the entire time. She unfolded her arms and began walking normally again, feeling a bit better now that the creature was behind them. Locke looked over at her and whispered urgently, “Not yet!”

 “Say…” The creature had been watching them leave and noticed Olivia’s free hand dangling from her cloak sleeve.

 Locke immediately began playing a soft melody with his violin that reminded Olivia of how she felt when she began to daydream in her general studies class. The song made Olivia lose her focus for a moment.

 “Huh…never mind,” the creature mumbled behind them. It turned and continued on its way to gather supplies.

 “Okay, I think it’s safe now,” Locke said, putting his violin back on his back. “Let’s hurry on up this path.”

 “What just happened? What did you do?” asked Olivia, regaining her focus.

 “I didn’t want to do it because it’s rude.” Locke sighed. “But I have to get you to the Great Fairy as soon as possible, so I confused him a bit.”

 “By playing music?” Olivia asked, a bit confused herself.

 “Yep. Music magic is my specialty.”

 “I thought you said earlier that carpentry was your specialty.” She peered over at him from under her hood.

 “Imps specialize in carpentry and symphology,” Locke said. “Carpentry comes naturally to us. Symphology is something we have to study. But because the study of music magic goes hand in hand with carpentry and instrument crafting, symphology is the easiest magic for us imps to take up.”

 “Then symphology is like a science,” Olivia stated.

 “It is?” asked Locke.

 “Well…yes, in a way. For example, where I’m from, geology is the study of the earth. Kind of like how you were describing symphology being the study of music magic.”

 “But science has no boundaries, right?” Locke asked. “At least, that’s what the fables say.”

 “No…it doesn’t,” replied Olivia. She suddenly remembered Ms. Canterbry and the rules she had given them about science.

 “Ah, see, magic has its boundaries,” Locke said. “There’s a balance in Aeldyn. Magic uses certain resources, and if those resources are depleting, that balance gets disrupted. For example, you mentioned that geology is the study of the earth in your realm. Well, there’s something similar here, called terrology. It’s the study of magic that relates to the land. Ungulhaks are the masters of terrology. They use it to help them cultivate crops. If they use magic to overwork the land, then they risk throwing off the balance.” He chuckled and looked at Olivia. “Confused?”

 Olivia nodded. They had neared the top of the far side of the valley. The mountains to the north were growing closer, as was the Great Fairy Tree. Olivia tried to figure out what Locke was telling her about the studies of magic, but she lost her concentration as they topped the edge of the valley.

 Before them an expanse of plains stretched for as long as she could see. For a moment, Olivia thought she was looking at a sea of white water. She then noticed that it wasn’t water at all but millions of white flowers. They rippled this way and that as large gusts of wind blew across the plain. Many wide, shimmering streams wove through the flowers. Between each stream were neatly tilled fields filled with an array of fruits and vegetables.

 Olivia squinted to get a better look at the fields. She could just make out what appeared to be more ungulhaks, moving up and down the rows of each field, some watering crops and others harvesting ripe fruits and vegetables. Olivia then followed the streams with her eyes and saw that they all merged into one big river to the west. The river flowed into a great forest between the fork of the mountains. She stared in awe as the immense trees in the forest became twigs compared to the Great Fairy Tree that rose above them.

 “Wow,” Olivia said, without realizing it.

 “I know,” Locke said, “it always amazes me that the ungulhaks work so hard each day to bring the people of Aeldyn their food. But, they love doing it.”

 Olivia followed Locke’s gaze over to the fields and stared out at the production for a moment longer. She wondered if people in her realm ever grew food like that. The only knowledge she had gathered about food production was the old factories that humans used to hydroponically produce plants and then mechanically make them into food. She looked at Locke and asked, “So is all of this magic?”

 “No, it’s farming,” he replied. “I mean, the ungulhaks study several types of magic so they can cultivate the crops correctly, the main ones being terrology, like I was telling you about earlier, and imberology with an ‘I’. But other than that, it’s pure hard work. They’re very strong creatures, so they don’t mind it. I sure wouldn’t do it, heh heh…” He held up an arm and tried to flex a nonexistent muscle. “Nothing but lignin here!” He laughed.

 “And what might imberology be?” Olivia asked, laughing. She couldn’t tell if Locke enjoyed that she didn’t know very much about Aeldyn or if he was genuinely forgetting that she had come from a completely different world.

 “The study of magic as it relates to water,” Locke said. “Imberology has many different branches of magic under it, just like with the other studies. The ungulhaks specialize in the most basic type of that magic: moving the water from place to place.” He moved one hand from side to side as he explained and then gripped his sack with his other hand. “We need to keep moving. I hope the Great Fairy isn’t mad at me when we get there.”

 They continued northwest, toward the forest between the mountains. Olivia held out her free hand as they waded through the sea of white blossoms, which Locke had informed her were called huifu flowers. He told her that they were a magical plant that, when grown correctly, would restore the soil after a long year of farming. Some of the petals detached from the flowers as they moved through them. The petals danced around before floating away on the wind. The sight filled Olivia with joy, and she laughed.

 Soon they arrived at the river that flowed into the forest. It was wide and looked quite deep, but it was calm and flowed gently. Sunlight glinted on the surface of the water, making Olivia’s eyes snap shut when a bright beam hit them. The huifu flowers had become sparse, and thick green grass filled the ground around them. In the distance, Olivia eyed a pier farther down the riverside that reached out to the center of the river.

 “Alright! We’re almost there,” Locke exclaimed. He pulled the sack from his back and rummaged through it as they walked toward the pier. “A-ha! There it is,” he said as he pulled something green from the sack. It had an oblong shape and tiny, prickly bumps along its outer covering.

“What is
that
?” Olivia asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

 “A cucumber,” Locke said, handing it to her. He closed the sack and threw it back over his shoulder.

 Olivia turned the cucumber over in her hands. It had smooth, waxy skin, but the tiny prickles gave it an odd bumpy texture. She held it to her nose and sniffed it, but it had no real smell.