Robert and the Goblin Tree

Finding Clues

Downstairs, they could hear noises at the windows as the goblins tried to claw their way in, scratching and banging at the glass.

"What is going on?!" Father insisted.

The fairy provided a brief synopsis of everything Robert had tried to explain earlier. Robert hung his head when she talked about the missing key stone, but Father put his hand on Robert's shoulder and reassured him that picking up interesting stones was normal and there was no way Robert could know it was special, much less magical.

Robert and the fairy (and Mother for that fact) were a bit surprised at Father's quick acceptance of their story and calm response to the ongoing goblin attack. Then Father led them into his office, which was technically a study and was still filled with books from owners at generation or two before. They just kept getting handed down with the house.

"I was sitting here working this afternoon, or trying to, when this book caught my attention."

Father removed a rather thick volume with a rough brown cover and strange words on the binding. He opened the book and began flipping through the pages.

"I couldn't read the text, but I saw this," and he turned the book toward mother, who came over and examined the page. "It is an illustration that looks remarkably like the tree Robert showed me this afternoon."

"Tree," mother asked, still behind on the particulars.

"The one the fairy just told us about."

Mother nodded.

"That led me to look through these books more closely. I mean, I barely looked at them when I moved it. None of them struck me as serious works or anything I found interesting. Until now."

Father returned the first book to the shelf and moved further along, pulling out another.

"This book," and he opened this second volume close to the end, "actually appears to be journal kept by a previous owner, someone by the name of Edgar Bailey. He goes into great depth about a dark tree in the forest and binding goblins into a fairy ring. He also mentions something about brownies, but I still don't quite understand that."

"The brownies stole the key," Robert supplied.

"This is bad," Father shook his head, turning pages in the journal. "According to this, if the goblins get out of the ring, the tree will be able to spread to other parts of the forest, spreading darkness and misery along with it."

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" chattered the fairy, buzzing around Father's head. "We must ring the tree again."

"Why can't we just destroy the tree?" Father asked, his eyes following the fairy's unceasing path.

"The roots are too deep. Fairy magic isn't strong enough."

"Yes, but the journal notes," and Father reopened the book, he right hand finger tracing the pages looking for a passage, "that a special sword, I can't read the handwriting of the name, driven deep into the tree, could end the evil once and for all. But then the journal ends."

"That was professor Bailey," the fairy provided. "We don't know if he ever found the sword. He disappeared over 100 years ago when the goblins attacked the house. The silly house brownies think they beat back the attack, but the goblins simply left after they captured the professor. The professor said he could end the tree once and for all, but once he was captured, that is when we set the fairy ring."

"What happened to him?" Mother asked.

The fairy raised her hands and gave what Mother took to be a shrug, but with the fairy's constant movement, it was hard to tell for certain.