Robert and the Goblin Tree

Fairies and Brownies

The rain had stopped, his chores were all done, and it was still an hour until lunch. Reluctantly, Robert removed himself from the family abode and wandered in the garden. When weather permitted the previous days, he had been helping Mother to trim shrubs and weed flower beds, so the garden itself was looking much more civilized. Small birds sang from the larger, bushier plants, and a gentle breeze move the upper branches of the tall tree where the tire swing swayed. Where the rocks lined the back of the garden, the boundary no longer appeared so stark and defined. The dark, bracken grass appeared among and on the garden side of the rocks, and moss had started to grow on some of the stones.

Hmmm. Robert thought to himself and stepped over the stones and into the forest. He did not travel very far when he was accosted by a light and unfamiliar voice.

"What have you done?! What have you done?!" the voice called, but Robert couldn't locate the source. He looked up and down, and made at least three or four circles before he located the small creature fluttering about a foot above his head.

"I haven't done anything," Robert replied, squinting at the creature. "What are you?"

"What am I? As if that has anything to do with it. I am a fairy, that's what I am. See the wings?" and the creature gestured over her shoulders to her wings, a blur of glittering gauze. Then the fairy turned her attention back to Robert. "And you have too done something! I saw you take the key stone! You blumbering human! You've let them all loose!"

Any one would have been quickly overwhelmed at the rapid fire of the fairy's accusations, the words coming almost as fast as the beating of the effervescent wings. Robert tried to sort out all the fairy's words and got no where. He had no idea what the creature was saying. So he rephrased his question: "What is your name?"

The fairy seemed confused by the question, which worked to slow down the quick fire bombardment of words.

"I am Tiera," she fluttered up and down, to and fro. "I saw you take the key stone. Where is it?"

"Key stone?" Robert repeated. He thought briefly. "Oh, key stone. It's gone."

"Gone!" Tiera's voice rose and became almost inaudible on that single word. "What do you mean gone?!"

"They took it."

"Who took it?"

Robert shrugged and pointed to the house. "In there. I can't find my stuff."

The fairy looked back and forth between Robert and the house several times before a light came on in her eyes. "Brownies!" she exclaimed. "That stinking house is infested with brownies?! I might have known." She sighed, covering her forehead with one hand but still moving in an alternating horizontal and vertical motion. It was almost a circle, but not quite. She dropped down hovered eye level with Robert.

"Brownies?" Robert repeated.

"Yes. Brownies. Little people with a nasty tendency to take things that don't belong to them. They insist they are just 'borrowing' but that would assume an intention to return, which rarely happens and never on purpose."

"Borrowers?!" Robert's eyes light up with excitement.

"No," Tiera answered. "Brownies. And they have the stone."

"Yes," Robert answered. "They have my stuff."

"Whatever are we going to do?" the fairy muttered and began to flutter back and forth in a pacing motion.

"Tell them to give me my stuff back."

"Good luck! I remember an argument I had with a Brownie once. It didn't go so well. You will just have to find it."

"Where?"

"I don't know! In there somewhere! I don't go in the house! Horrible, nasty, closed in place. You will have to find it."

"Why?"

"Because of this!" and the fairy pointed at the ring of stones. "See this!" and she fluttered close to the ring, hovering over the grass that had darkened outside the ring. "You broke the spell. The goblins can cross the line. They don't appear to have noticed yet, thankfully. But they will soon. We need to get that key and restore the spell."

"Goblins?"

"Yes, goblins!" the fairy was getting a bit exasperated. "They come from the dark tree, deep in these woods. If they realize the ring is broken, the tree will send them out to break things and hurt animals and fairies and even people if they can."

Robert didn't say a word, but the curve of his eyebrows and overall vacant look in his eyes made it abundantly clear to the fairy that he didn't understand a word she had said.

"Come on. I'll show you."