As he peered through the lenses towards the waterfall, he could see past the falling water and into the cave behind it. He wasn't sure but he thought he could just glimpse seeing something purple leaving the tunnel but that was all he could make out before it disappeared. Following the tunnel in the cave, he noticed something moving! Off in the higher part of the cave he realized there was a Wysp hovering in the air. "Your Highness, something has left the cave but there is still a Wysp in the tunnel," Dulbbe told the King as they made their way towards the waterfall. The King commanded the water to part for him so all of them could enter and at the same time he used his magic to freeze the Wysp in mid-air. Wysps are quick and think themselves to be quite clever, but the King was in no mood to have to track it down when he knew that the Wysp would disappear. As they approached the Wysp, still hanging in the air trying to figure out why it could not fly away, Dulbbe started asking it questions. "Was there a Borrower in the cave with you? Who was it?"
Realizing this tactic was not working, decided a different approach. Turning to the Shadows' King, he said, "Your Highness, this Wysp is just a dumb imp who doesn't know anything. I think we will have to search out the cave for ourselves since it probably is just lost in this cave." "Lost in this cave am I," screamed the Wysp! "I would have you know that I outsmarted that stupid Borrower, tricked her into following me, and then left her in the dark at the end of the cave where all the water was. I even know her name!" "Nevermind this one, your Majesty, it is only talking to try and get some attention," Dulbbe told the King. "Do you want me to begin the search for the Borrower or a smarter Wysp?" Ffion, standing behind the King, had never seen a Wysp so upset. Later she would almost swear that the blue imp had turned bright red - it was that mad!
Hearing the Wysp's answer, immediately the King started towards the end of the cave in a run, leaving behind both a confused Ffion and Dulbbe. It was at that moment the Wysp realized that it could move and in a puff of blue smoke, vanished. "Good riddance," muttered Dulbbe. "Dulbbe, what do you think has gotten into Dad? I have never seen him this nervous before..." Dulbbe could only shrug his shoulders before they both turned to start down the tunnel to follow the King.
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"Well, this was a dud," thought Arnie. As her eyes adjusted to the dark tunnel, she realized that the Wysp who had led her to the falls was no where to be seen. "At least that's something," sighing with relief. "I will get even with that little troublemaker when I have more time," she vowed, remembering how it had abandoned her in the dark cave earlier.
"Here is a smoother and even trail the Wysp could have taken me on instead of the winding and rock covered trail it had lead me over!" Arnie whispered to herself "Grrrr - I will find the time to get even with that Wysp," she growled. As Arnie was walking in the tunnel and Hunter, the Shadows' King, who was pacing back and forth while waiting for Dulbbe to show up, asked Ffion, his daughter "Where did you see this stranger?" "It was over by the waterfall. Actually, it had come out of the waterfall," replied Ffion.
Hunter, ignoring her reference to it being 'her garden', started walking even faster now towards the waterfall. "Has someone found it?" he wondered to himself. "It is one thing to be curious what a Borrower had found, but if it was MY dragon tablet that I have been guarding, then I need to find that Borrower NOW!" the King was shouting in his head.
As he stood, he also realized that he had drank more than his share of his magical brew (coffee). Enough to float a whole galley of the King's boats at this point.
Reaching up to rub his tired eyes, Dulbee was careful to first remove his special glasses. They not only helped him to read but the darker lenses helped him to see what was hidden. Whether it was someone hiding in a cave or field, or a text hidden in a obscure line in a book, when he used these lenses all hidden objects appeared clear. "Maybe it's time to take a break and a short nap," he realized as his mind had certainly been blown away with all this new stuff to learn and he was beginning find it difficult to keep it all straight. "Better to start with a fresh mind and fresh quills again in a few hours," he told himself as he packed up his bag and headed out of the library and to his room in the castle. But like so often, he barely got out of his clothes and his head hitting the pillow before there was a loud rapping on the door. "You are wanted by the King," a voice was shouting through the door. "There is an intruder in the garden and he commands you to bring your glasses." (Click here if you want to know who is the intruder.)
Realizing that this was going to take longer than he expected, he decided to pull up a chair to one of the tables in the room and taking out his notebook and quill, started jotting down his thoughts so he could organize them. "What knowledge do I seek?" he mumbled to himself as he began to write. "First, I need to know what is on the tablet the Borrower has," he thought to himself, but his question to the crystal orb was still unanswered. Tapping the feather part of the quill to the side of his head (this kept him from smudging ink onto the paper) he pondered his options. The analytical side of this rock troll was in full force as he started to create a list of what he wanted. Like if there were so many tablets, what language was used on them? Would it be a Mathematical one or a Ancient Dragon tongue? On the top of the list was his one true desire, to have Ffion notice him as something more than just another person in the castle staff. Thinking about what the orb had said about it possessing all of the ancient Dragon lore, an idea started to form. Once again he looked into the crystal and waited for the Orb to ask what is it that he wanted, he had made his decision. "I seek the ability to be able to read ancient Dragon script."
And this is why he found himself down in the lowest, dankest, and most secluded part of the Shadows' King's library looking into scrolls and the old tomes stacked on the shelves. Many in the castle did not even know of this part of the castle which is why Dulbbe was sure that he would find what he was looking for.
What he hadn't figured on was the number of books in the library. He had been to Atian's library once looking for some light reading on numerology (Dulbbe even remembered the title - it was something like "By the Numbers" by The Count somebody or other...) and at that time had thought the library was fairly large, but now realized that compared to the King's library, Atian's was just a news stand. That was probably because few knew about the hidden doors to the connecting rooms. A casual wanderer would only see one small room filled with books not knowing that there were a hundred more such rooms if only they knew where to look for the hidden doors. Being a numbers person, Dulbbe was probably the only one (other than the King), who knew there were exactly 103 other rooms after the first, all filled from floor to ceiling with reading materials!
As he turned the page of a tome he was looking into, a small scrap of parchment fell from the book to the floor. Quickly he picked it up as he thought that he might have just ripped the page and did not want to lose it. As he picked it up and gave it a quick glance, he realized that it was just a note that had been used as a page marker. "Somebody else must have been looking in this book and they marked the page," Dulbbe thought. As he was putting the scrap back, he noticed that there was some writing on it. "What's this? The note says, 'Don't forget R101 3rd S R4 in the D section. Should have a green cover'." "Now here's a challenge," he decided. "Let's see how the numbers add up. This is no more cryptic than some of the receipts I have received from the cook." Smiling, Dulbbe started to figure out the note. Talking out loud (since no one else would overhear him here in this room of the library), "If I assume that 'R101' is room 101, then '3rd S R4' would be the third set of shelves and in the fourth row. I don't recall a 'D section' there though." Shrugging his shoulders and putting the book he was reading back on the shelf, he decided to check it out. "Who knows," he thought.
As he was about to lift the cover, he also realized that everything else in the shelf had a fine layer of dust covering it - everything except the green cloth! "Someone must have been in here recently," Dulbbe realized. Now even slower, (and a little bit more gently just in case), he pulled the cloth off of the thing it covered. Aw, it's just a crystal ball... nothing new here he decided. As he started to put the green cloth back, suddenly the crystal ball started to glow and a head appeared. It was a Dragon! It took a moment before Dulbbe realized the head was speaking to him... and a moment longer before he realized it was asking him a question! "What knowledge do you seek?" asked the Dragon.
Dulbbe was happy to hear that Hewy and Awena were able to become good friends now that he found her again, but that still did not solve Dulbbee's problem. Yes, he has often heard others in the castle say that he was a "gem" of a guy, but he was never sure if that was because he worked hard for the King or that because he could be counted on to help his fellow workers shine as well. Being a Stone Troll who is normally a very solitary individual makes him aware how precious friends and the heart is.
Either way, he knew for now that he is just another member of those that disappear into the depths of the castle carrying out the many orders of the Shadows' King - never to have his love be noticed by the one he wants to see him the most! "Oh Ffion. What am I going to do?"
"Ffion, that is no way for a faery princess to enter a room." "But Father, there is a stranger in the garden!" Ffion wailed. "It came out of the water and is walking over my flowers!"
Now the Shadows' King knew that it couldn't be Druzzy, the Troll King, or Hir'aeth, the Gooblin King, or even one of their minions as Meen had just updated him of their whereabouts after telling him what happened at the weekly COGS meeting.
He also knew that Hewy, Efem, Parsley and Cornelia were busy helping Hungry, the young Wish Dragon, to learn his lessons. "So it wouldn't be one of them," he reasoned. "What are you going to do about it?" he heard his daughter ask while he was mulling over who it could be. Vaguely he heard her saying something about the stranger looked like it had a tail... If it had a tail then it didn't sound like Dewin's Spite either. "I need to remember to call her Sprigg'n from now on," he reminded himself, "besides she is never very far from the wizard, Dewin, or The CAT and Hunter knew that Ffion would have mentioned The CAT if it was in the garden. "It's dressed up funny too," said Ffion. "It's wearing a jacket with lots of pockets on it and has a funny looking hood that looked like it has two pointy ears". Jumping to his feet he started towards the garden while his startled daughter followed him close behind. "What is it? What was the going on?" Ffion asked.
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GreetingsWelcome to my blog. This is where I will reveal the magic of my Fae and their stories and share with you some of the success and pitfalls through the journey of doll making, sculpting, and other crafts that all come back to my dolls in many ways. Archives
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