Story: Part Three

(Find Part One Here, and Part Two Here.)

 Hazel had slept badly and woke early when the sun came through the window. She didn't know if the watery sunlight was because, as the physicists had suggested, the sun was weaker here, or if it was just winter. They had left at the height of summer but she hadn’t felt warm since she’d arrived. She looked out of the window and saw the yard below had turned to mud overnight. The rain had stopped now, but people were still moving around in large coats. She got dressed and repacked her bag. She wasn’t sure if anyone had gone through it, but her hope was that if it was neatly packed, she’d notice if they did.

The General had walked her back to her room the previous evening after sharing his magic with her. Part of her brain was still trying to work out how he did it, but if it was an illusion he gave Paul Daniels a run for his money. Once he had seen her inside she had waited for the click of the lock, but it never came. She had waited a couple of minutes to be sure he'd gone before opening the door. Either he didn't know that they'd been locking her in, or had forgotten. She felt better knowing the door hadn’t been locked from the outside, but she couldn't lock it from the inside. She’d rammed a chair under the handle like she'd seen in movies, or possibly cartoons, which made her feel better. She removed it now and quietly opened the door. Everything was quiet. She was sure the servants were busy below stairs, but not a whisper up here. She tiptoed down the corridor to Robin’s room and tapped at the door.

“Roro, it's me.”

He opened the door a crack to check before opening it enough to let her in. His hair was mussed up but he looked alert, like he’d been awake for a while. “I thought you were mad at me.”

“I was.” She shrugged. “But we can't change it, so we move on. I’ve been mad at you before, I’ll probably be mad at you again. But we’re still friends.”

“When have you been mad at me before?” He sat on the edge of the bed.

“When you snogged James Bishy at the year 11 disco. You knew how much I liked him.”

“Well, you dodged a bullet there because it was not a good kiss. And he spent weeks following me around. If anything, I did you a favour.”

She smiled slightly. “Just promise you won’t do it again.” 

“Easy. I promise I won’t snog James Bishy again.”

She frowned. “You know what I mean.  Promise you won’t glamour me again.”

He chewed his lip. “I promise that, unless it is absolutely necessary, I won't glamour you.”

She cocked her head. “ ‘Absolutely necessary’?”

He nodded. “We're not at home, things don't work the same way here. Words have power. I don't think I can break a promise, but if anything were to happen… if I hadn’t helped you after we came through the pillar you might have been sick for longer. Or worse.”

“Why do you think that?”

He gestured to the rest of the bed. She hadn't noticed it was covered in bits of paper, some looked old, maps on brown paper, and some looked new. There was a notebook with a WHSmith logo on it. “Yama gave me a pack of stuff that was meant to help.” He picked up the notebook. It was full of handwriting belonging to several different people, but she didn't understand the script.

“What does it say?”

“A lot of things. It looks like she got loads of people to contribute. People's memories about this place, where it was safe, what can be eaten. I can't read it all yet but I'm piecing it together.” He put the notebook down carefully.

“Why did Yama choose you? I thought she was just an old friend of the family. What was this House of Mor…Mar…”

“Moeric. They were the ruling house of where my parents came from. A bit like the Duke is here.” He mumbled the next bit.

“”What?”

“And I'm the only male heir, and youngest of the line. The only one that she thought was fit to do this. The only one who believed her.”

“So you're like a prince? You should mention it more often. You’d get laid more.”

“I wouldn't go that far.” He looked a bit embarrassed. “We’re a distant branch of the family tree.”  

“Who she sent to take back the family lands.” She looked at the documents on the bed and spotted a large map. “Is that where we're going?”

Robin pulled it towards them. It was beautifully hand-drawn, features and populations carefully labelled and at the top was a castle carefully labelled and decorated in gilt. 

“I think we’re down here,” he pointed at where a black square had been marked by a small symbol. “That's the Stone but this is marked as a farm. I expected the map to be out of date but I don't know by how much. I'm hoping the roads haven't changed that much.” 

“The mountains will still be there at least.”

Robin nodded. “We’ll have to get through them.”

“Is that the sea?” The landmass they had located the pillar on was separated from their destination by a wide stretch of water. Hazel was glad to see that there was no ‘here be monsters’ drawn on it.

“Yes. We’ll have to find passage on a  boat or something to get across.”

There was a sharp knocking on the door that made them jump. 

“Quick, hide, behind the door.” He hissed at Hazel, while trying to cover up the papers on the bed. “Hold on,” he called out in Elvish. She didn't have time to argue and was barely in place when the door opened.

“Where is the girl?” The General demanded, as he barged in.

“Which girl?”

“Hazel. She's not in her room. She's in danger. You're both in danger.”

Hazel couldn't follow what was being said but Robin unconsciously glanced over at where she was hiding. The General saw him look and turned around.

“You need to get out of here. I overheard the Duke, he's found some foretelling, a prophecy, and thinks you two are a key part in it.” He dropped Hazel's pack on the floor. “I'm going to get you out of here and back to the stone so you can go home. Be ready to leave when I return.” He turned and left, long coat swishing behind him before they could ask any questions. Hazel shut the door behind him.

“Fuck.” Robin broke their stunned silence and started folding all the papers on the bed. “Fuck.” He repeated.

“What are we going to do?”

“We need to leave now, or I do. You can wait here for him to take you back to the pillar and go home. I didn't bring you here to get you killed two days in.”

“I know, I thought we’d last at least a week.”

“This isn’t funny, El.”

“I know. I'm not going home though. We can strike out from the pillar if he gets us there, or tell him where we’re…”

“No! I don't need help from a Tallese, especially not that one.”

“He can't be that bad, he is trying to help us.”

There was a knock at the door but it opened immediately. The General frowned but Robin was packed.

“I have horses, but it won't be too long until you two are missed.” He hurried them out of the room, but paused to lock it behind them before leading them away. He had a long stride and Hazel almost had to jog to keep up. He led them out of the house by a side door. Three horses were waiting. They seemed massive to Hazel. Robin walked up to one with his hand out, letting the horse smell him before resting his forehead against the horse’s.

“Come on,” the General said gruffly. Robin swung himself into the saddle easily. “Do you need help mounting?” he asked Hazel.

“I'm not very good with horses. I never…we didn’t… I can ride a cow.” Hazel managed to get out.

The General looked confused. “I will help you up, just hold onto the saddle.” He gave her a boost and she sat awkwardly. “Just hold on tight here,” the General patted the pommel at the front. He uncoiled a thin rope from his saddle and attached it to the bridle of her horse. He mounted and looked back at her. “Keep close, sit tall.”

“And try not to fall off.” Robin added. The General shot him a sharp look.

“Since when did you become a master horseman, anyway?” Hazel asked Robin.

“I was seeing a horsey girl a while back.”

“So she taught you?”

“No. I told her I could ride, read a book and blagged it. Fell off quite spectacularly the first time out too.” The General snorted. “Never done anything stupid for someone you liked?” Robin asked.

The General ignored the question. “Just keep quiet until we’re out of the keep.” He clicked his tongue and their horses started walking. Hazel tried not to look down. The horses had seemed huge from the floor, but they seemed even bigger now she was sitting on one.  She gripped the front of the saddle as she’d been told. 

They crossed the yard and no one paid them any attention. It was suspiciously quiet in fact, and she wondered if the General had kept his men out of the way or created some kind of diversion. They passed through the outer wall, between the heavy looking gates. In the daylight Hazel noticed that there were marks on them; deep gouges and scorch marks that she hadn’t seen on their arrival. She tried to draw them to Robin's attention, but that meant she had to let go of the saddle with one hand. She didn’t immediately fall off which she was pleased about. Robin looked at the marks and nodded. The General had said last night the area around the castle was dangerous, but it looked more like an organised attack rather than wild animals. Unless of course those animals could breathe fire…

“We should speed up.” The general broke her train of thought. “You can stay sitting but you'll be more comfortable rising. Heels down, back straight and when you feel the horse rise, stand, and sit as they lower.”

Hazel gave Robin a worried look, but the General kicked his horse and hers hurried to catch up. She did try to do what he said but it didn't make sense. Dear old Daisy had never moved like this.

“You're off beat,” he said looking at her. “Sit down for two bumps and try again.”

She did as she was told and it was slightly less uncomfortable. She was going to feel it in the morning though. Her usual exercise routine was walking to the coffee shop on her lunch break. The General gave her a satisfied smile and went back to looking around them. Hazel did the same. The castle was in a forest. The trees had been cleared from near the walls but otherwise it was surrounded. The road they were on was well used, so even though they were leaving tracks there were many others for theirs to blend in with.

They slowed as they came to a crossroads. There was a signpost and Hazel recognised one of the destinations from Robin’s map. The General appeared to be listening for something in the woods. She saw Robin check his map and dismount. She dismounted too, but she landed awkwardly and fell over. The horse whickered and danced sideways away from her.

“What are you doing? The gate is still some way off.” The General steered his horse towards them.

“We're not going home,” Robin said as he pulled Hazel to her feet. “Thanks for getting us out though.”

“You cannot be serious. There will be search parties all over these roads. You won't make it far on foot, and that's it nothing else finds you first.” He looked around at the trees again.

“Well, we'll stay off the roads for a bit. Horses don’t exactly have silent running. We can lie low when they get close.”

“They’re your men, can't you just order them not to look, or look elsewhere or something?” Hazel asked.

“Any interference on my part might seem like I was helping you escape, and that would be treason.”

“But you are helping us escape! What happens if they catch you? How were you going to explain our disappearance this morning? All those people saw us leave with you.”

“No one saw us leave this morning, I guarantee it. I will get back before absence is discovered. I will lead the search but there will be nothing to find. Rhasplund is a wasteland. There is nothing to find but dead rock. Don't throw away your lives for it, because if you are found that is what you will have done.”

“El can go back, but I have to see for myself.” Robin shifted his backpack.

“I said I would come with you, so I will,” she insisted.

Three short, sharp horn blasts sounded in the distance. Hazel and Robin looked back the way they’d come and then at the General. He said something sharply in Elvish, Hazel guessed he swore.

“You’ve been discovered missing. That was the Huntmaster. They'll be leaving any moment.”

“Then you’d best get back now.” Hazel said.

“It's too late.” He looked pale.

“Then come with us.” Hazel looked over her shoulder at Robin, who didn't seem happy about her offer but he shrugged at her. “I can guess the outcome of treason charges if you're found guilty, so why not take a chance with us?”

“Potential death over almost certain death.” Robin said. It was Hazel’s turn to look unhappy  at him. She didn't want to use the ‘D’ word, it felt like she was catastrophising, although that was often the penalty for treason in a lot of cultures as far as she knew, and if it was against your own brother she doubted they went easier on you.

“Get back on your horses.”

Robin gave her a boost before leaping on his own horse. In the distance they could hear the faint sound of dogs barking.

“We're going to ride very hard. Sit tight and hold on.” The General kneed his horse and they seemed to go from stationary to galloping. They had gone down the road Robin had wanted to. It was still a wide road but seemed less used than the one they had been on. Hazel copied the others and bent over her horse's neck. The trees rushing past made her feel sick so she closed her eyes but that made her wobble and lurch to the side.

“Eyes open. Look between the horses ears at where you're going,” the General snapped. They were riding for their lives and he was still giving her a lesson. She looked straight ahead and it wasn't great but it was better.

The trees thinned a bit and the General ordered them to pull up.  He led his horse off the path, Hazel’s still attached to his and following behind. The ground dropped down into a riverbed which they entered. Hazel could feel her horse's feet shift on each step as the pebbles on the bed moved under their weight. The river was wide and shallow, the horse’s feet splashed with each step.

“Is this not a bit noisy?” Robin asked in a low voice.

“The water will mask our scent from the dogs. We need to get out far enough downstream that they won't find it by spreading out here. I think we have enough time for this little noise.”

Robin made a noise to suggest he didn't think much of the General’s timing, given he’d miscalculated when they would be discovered missing, but didn't say anything.

Eventually they left the river and walked through the woods. They dismounted and had to lead the horses because the branches were so low they threatened to knock them out of their saddles. Hazel was having trouble stopping her horse from eating everything as they passed. Suddenly the wood stopped and they were standing beside a road.

“Should we be here? Won’t the riders be checking the roads?” Hazel could feel the panic rising in her throat.

“It doesn't meet the roads we were on, it will take time for them to get here. There's a village ahead but we’ll skirt around it.”

“Wouldn’t that raise suspicions? Wouldn’t we be better just passing through like everybody else?”

“No. These are good horses and they’ll be remembered if anyone asks. We won't be seen going around. We'll have to stop and rest the horses soon if we want to move at speed again this afternoon. If we did that there, people would notice that you were… different. Even if they don’t know that Antelé is after you, they might decide that you could be of interest to someone, for their own financial gain.”

“What's the name of the village? We’ve come away from the road on the map.” Robin was pulling out his map from a bag.

“I know where you want to go, and I doubt this village is on that map of yours. When we stop for the night we can consult it and see how much use it is to us.” 

They did stop for lunch to give the horses a break. They’d left in a rush so no one had a chance to pack supplies but the General found some sort of field rations in his bag. He wasn't sure how long they’d been there but was happy to share. Robin had actually packed some useful kit in his bag, he produced some flasks they could fill with water. They sat in a small clearing, the General seemed slightly more relaxed as they sat around listening to the horses eat some browse he had found for them.

“So, what do we call you?” Robin asked. 

“Sorry?”

“You have a name we can call you, I assume. I'm not going to be calling you General Gosht all the time. You're not my commander.”

“I see.” 

“It doesn't have to be your true name, obviously. And Antelé might have people listening out for that name.” Hazel jumped in.

“You don't get to keep your rank if you commit treason either, of course,” the General said quietly.

Hazel looked horrified. “You saved us from who knows what. You could have just got on your horse and gone out on patrol until Antelé had done whatever he was going to do to us, without looking back and returning when he was done.”

“I would have had to have been gone for a long time.”

Hazel tried not to think about the images that sentence conjured up. “But if he would take your title for saving our lives then maybe it wasn't a good title. Yes, you had to save us but we want you to think of us as your equals, not your men at arms to boss about. We have our own skills and stuff to bring to the group, probably…”

The General was silent for a while. Hazel was sure that the longer he was silent the more likely he was to get up and leave them.

“Mika. You can call me Mika. It was my father's name. There aren’t many people who refer to me by something other than my rank.” 

She put her hand over his. “Thank you, Mika. I'm sorry that helping us has caused your life to change so much.”

He squeezed her hand back. “I'm not sure I'm sorry.”

Robin cleared his throat. “I'm going to go and check the road or something.” He practically ran from the small area where they were sitting.

“I should check the horses. We need to move soon.” Mika got up too. 

Whatever moment they had been sharing was gone. She brushed down her jeans as she stood. “What can I do?”

“I thought you said I wasn't to give you orders?”

“I’m asking for a job, not being ordered to do it. There's a difference. I don't know what needs to be done.” 

“Packs need packing, water topping up…”

Robin burst through the trees. “There’re riders coming this way!” 

“What sort of riders?” Mika demanded.

“I don't know. The kind that are blokes on horse and coming this way. They’ll be here in a couple of minutes.”

“Right. Get the horses ready. Go through there,” he indicated a gap in the trees. “Get Hazel in the saddle. If we need to ride, we need to be able to go. And if I say go: you go.”

“We're not leaving you!” Hazel was indignant.

“Go where?” Robin asked, ignoring Hazel.

“Towards the mountains. There should be a town on that map of yours called Trebut. The innkeeper is a friend. They’ll look after you.” He put a hand on Robin’s shoulder. “When I say leave, you leave me behind.” Robin nodded and started getting horses together.

“I will not be shunted around like baggage! We won't leave you behind.” Hazel put her hands on her hips.

“Do you have weapons?”

“No.”

“Can you fight? Against men that do?”

“Probably not.”

“Then I need to keep you safe. If they take you then I've risked all for nothing. Is that what you want?”

“Of course not, but still…”

“Get on the damn horse. I'll catch up with you. You are the ones they want.”

“But the treason…”

“I will think of something.” He lowered his voice. “I can make you get on that horse, but please, do it because I ask.  Because you trust me.”

She quickly turned and found Robin had saddled the horses and got their packs together. He helped her to get in the saddle and then stood waiting by the horses. She could just hear him talking to them quietly, keeping them calm. They were waiting in silence. Hazel had to force herself to breathe, even though it sounded loud to her. Even the birds had fallen silent. She tried to see Mika through the trees, but she couldn't. He’d vanished. Then there was a lot of noise coming from the direction of the road. She tensed, and saw Robin stiffen too. She hoped the riders would just keep going past and miss them. They hadn’t lit a fire and they’d been careful when they left the road to minimise their trail.

The noise from the road got quieter again as the group moved past without noticing them. Hazel breathed out in relief. Mika appeared from the trees and stroked the neck of his horse.

“They passed by. I didn't expect them to catch up so soon. We’ll have to find a different route or they’ll catch us when they turn around.” His horse suddenly snorted, ears flattened and pulled back. Mika turned, not towards the road but the heart of the forest, and drew his sword.

An inhuman scream came from the trees and a giant beast came lumbering towards them. It was the size of a bear but no bear Hazel had ever seen in a zoo looked like this. It was covered in dark, shaggy fur, except its head where the fur gave way to feathers. It had large, round, golden eyes. Instead of a snout it had a beak. David Attenborough had never filmed an animal like this.

“Back. Out. Get up, get to the road.” Mika shouted at them. 

“What about the men?” Hazel shouted back over the strange animals screams.

“They may kill you, this thing will kill you.”

Robin was struggling to control the horses when the riders that had come to investigate the noise burst in. There was a split second when the world seemed to hold still, everyone taking everything in. It was broken by one of the riders throwing a fireball at the creature. Robin was still trying to move the horses when a fireball was aimed at him. Hazel screamed and he held up his hands instinctively. Hazel felt her ears pop as the air pressure around them changed. A pillar of air pushed out from them and the riders flew in all directions. Robin stared at his hands.

“Ride! Now, before they have time to recover. Leave!” Mika was pushing Robin towards his horse. Robin still seemed dazed but gained his saddle and started moving. He had tethered Hazel’s horse to his own. She turned to check on the General, but just as he pulled himself into the saddle the terrifying creature swiped at him with its huge claws. He was thrown to one side. His horse skittered away to follow hers and out of reach of the animal. She cried out but nothing happened. Robin had picked up speed and they were almost immediately out of the woods and galloping down the road.

“Ro! We need to stop and go back! That thing got him!”

“He said to go without him.” There was no emotion in his voice.

“He was coming with us. He might be hurt!”

“No. He said to go.” He was staring straight ahead. She looked at his face and thought she knew what had happened. The only thing she could do was hold on. 

Story: Part One

 I was recently struck by an idea, the start of a story. I used to write a lot, but it's been some years since I wrote fiction. Over the last year I've completed a portfolio for a work qualification which was kind of stressful and lots of work, all on top of the pandemic. My creativity really suffered, I didn't knit much, cooking had become very repetitive, and all my weekends were taken up with writing evidence for work. 

But that has finished, handed in mid-Feb (and I'm still waiting to hear back about it), but the creativity has started to come back too. Knitting mojo is back, cooking is fun again and then I couldn't get this story out of my head. So I wrote it down, hoping it would go. And then the next bit came along. I recently re-read 'Moving Pictures' by Terry Pratchett. For those that don't know, wild ideas sneak into the Discworld reality and start making people act them out. It's very funny. And that is how this kind of feels, I don't know where the story came from, I don't know where it's going, how long it will be or how it will end. Even when I sit in bed and write I don't know what's going to happen next sometimes. But I tweeted about it, so here it is if you have spare time to read my ramblings. Hope you enjoy :)

______________________________________________________

World peace had come at last, for a while at least, and like most SF cliches it was because humanity united against an outside force. But they didn’t come from above, aliens descending to take over; they stepped in sideways, from another place entirely. The first news report of something weird happening came from Brittany, where a large group of elves wandered out of a neolithic stone circle and into a tiny village not far away. It turns out they weren’t actually the first ones through; elves had been seen descending from Glastonbury Tor, but the locals had assumed it was a bus full of tourists and ignored them. They also came through at Stonehenge during the Solstice celebrations, but nobody listened to a bunch of hippies. This was all at sunrise of the longest day, and sunrise being at stupid o’clock in the morning, their arrival was mostly missed. But as dawn travelled around the world, more appeared at ancient points. Not just standing stones, but places where the space between planes was thin, ancient points where stories of Others had been told. Some were well-remembered, and some had been forgotten as people had been moved on or replaced.

There was confusion, not just that they arrived at all, but at how they arrived. They came armed, but with knives and swords and even axes and bows rather than guns, medieval weapons like they’d stepped out of an era when it was normal for everyone to carry things like that. Even that was still enough that in some parts of the world where they appeared there was a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ approach that they did not come out well of. Apart from the weapons, they had more or less nothing with them, and once the news cycles caught up it was clear that they were refugees, although at first they couldn’t tell us that. This is where some of the stories from Stonehenge started to come in, when people finally listened. There weren’t many appearances that were witnessed, but there they didn’t just appear out of a stone, but came through the largest trilithon. Most who saw it described a window to somewhere else. Instead of the sunrise being visible as usual, the view had been of another place: mountains and fire instead of the sleepy Wiltshire countryside. This larger “doorway” probably explained why more elves appeared there than anywhere else.

Perhaps “elves'' is the wrong word, but that’s the name that caught on in the media. They aren’t all the tall, blonde, androgynous people the term might imply, much to the disappointment of fantasy enthusiasts. They mostly just look like humans, with just as much variety in skintone and the colour and texture of their hair. There is one thing though: they all have lilac eyes. It tends to make them sensitive to very bright lights, and some people think that the sun in their world isn’t as bright as ours. 

Governments were interested at first, trying to find a way back through the portals, hoping for abundant resources that their companies could pillage and make themselves rich. But it seems there’s no way back. The thing that brought the elves over was magic, and that works no better here than it ever did. The only way for them to return home is if someone opens the doors for them on the other side, and given what they were running from it’s unlikely we want those doors opening again.

When the initial shock/frenzy/excitement wore off, governments grew bored of the extra strain that these new people put on resources but couldn’t shove them back to where they came from. They had no interesting new technology that they could make money from, no resources to be exploited other than themselves, not even a new and interesting cuisine, and so they were put on the lowest rung of society’s ladder and left to fend for themselves. 

This all happened before I was born. My parents took in one of these lost couples. They had just taken over a run down farm and had a spare, albeit slightly dilapidated, cottage. Yip and Tilly soon became close with my parents, working hard to get the farm going. Yip had a real talent with animals and they won awards for the cows. Tilly and my mum found out they were both expecting around the same time, and once they were too pregnant to help around the farm they sat together and prepared for their imminent arrivals. Mum taught Tilly to knit with wool from the farm sheep, and Tilly sewed and embroidered baby clothes. 

**

Hazel stood on the corner of the high street of the town near where she’d grown up. It had been a long time since she’d been in the town long enough to actually look around. Visits since she’d left had been more fleeting, only giving her chance to spot the odd shop that had changed, the proliferation of coffee shops, but now she could see how tired everything looked compared to her childhood memories. She supposed it would have always happened, but as she wasn’t here to see it happen it looked more shocking. She’d left home after university, got a good job, met a man who… well, the less said the better, and had never really come home again. But since there had been a hiccough in her life, she’d taken the chance to find a job closer to her parents. She’d be living with them for a few weeks while she found her own place and could start over.

“Hey, El.”

She looked around and saw a familiar figure, but not her mother whom she was expecting. The person approaching her was a tall man, tawny gold hair in shaggy waves to just past his ears, held out of his face by the sunglasses propped up on the top of his head. The sunglasses were a permanent fixture to protect his sensitive elf eyes from the sun. He was tanned and muscular, the way someone who works outside all day is rather than from time spent in a gym.

“Roro.” She smiled at her childhood friend. He scooped her up into a bear hug. 

“Your mum sent me to get you while she finishes getting ready for your return. I swear I’ve had to move the furniture around half-a-dozen times. If it hadn’t been so much work for me, I would have been happy you were coming home.” He picked up two of her bags with one hand and put the other over her shoulder.

“I’m not staying on the farm that long, just until I find somewhere of my own. She shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.”

“I don’t think wild horses could’ve stopped her from pulling out all the stops. She’s been baking all morning for the welcome home tea tonight. I helpfully reminded her how much you like her cheese and potato pie.”

Hazel nudged him in the ribs. “Those are your favourite!”

“I know, but your mum wouldn’t make them for me.” He chuckled. “She is also making stuff you actually like, like those horrible mushroom things.

The short drive back to the farm in the dirty Landrover was spent joking about the same old things they’d always joked about. Hazel had been worried that the move to her parents’ farm after so long would be tense, but having Robin, her oldest friend, pick up  right where they’d left off, as if she’d never been away at all made her relax. The rest of her life was upside down but she was starting to feel like it had a silver lining. 

Robin parked the car in the middle of the yard between the small collection of farm worker cottages. The largest (but not by a lot) belonged to her parents who had inherited the farm from a distant uncle. The next one along belonged to Tilly and Yip, Robin's parents. Robin’s dad was a man of very few words, and when they first arrived the only thing he would say was ‘yep’ which with his accent became ‘yip’. He’d always been very cagey about giving his actual name; some kind of tradition from before they’d crossed over. Hazel wasn’t even sure if Tilly was Tilly’s real name, but that’s what they’d been called for so long it didn’t matter any more. One of the other cottages looked like it had been renovated more recently. Maybe Robin had finally moved out of his parents’ and into one of his own. 

Hazel slid out of the Landrover and shooed the chickens that had run over, hopeful for food. She opened the rear door to grab her bags but a shrill call made her turn around. Her mum was hurrying towards her, chickens flapping out of the way as she rushed down the path. 

“I’m so glad you're here,” she said, hugging her.

“So am I, Mum.” She squeezed her mum before extricating herself and retrieving her bags. “I’ve heard my room has had a makeover.” 

“Oh, has Robin been complaining again? I asked you to move the wardrobe once,” she chided him.

“And the bed, and the dressing table. At least twice,” he said low enough for only Hazel to hear. She stifled a laugh.

“Well, you’re needed up at the cowshed now you’re back.”

Robin gave Hazel a wink before pulling down his sunglasses. “See you later, Nutterbutter.” He nodded to her mother before sauntering off in the direction of the cowshed.

Bags finally in hand, Hazel followed her mother into the house. It smelt as amazing as always. Bread was rising, cakes were cooling on the side and savoury pastry smells drifted from the oven. Tilly was sitting at the large kitchen table, carefully decorating the top of a large cake. As her mum started clattering around making tea, Tilly finished what she was doing and rose to give Hazel a warm hug. 

“You look pale,” she said, “probably all that working indoors. We’ll soon get some colour back in you.” She gave Hazel a pat on the cheek.

“Probably just tired from all the travelling, Tilly. You look well though.”

Tilly waved her hands and sat back at the table. “Knees are giving me grief but I won’t complain.”

Hazel caught her mum rolling her eyes behind Tilly as she poured the tea. They sat around chatting about nothing very much until Hazel's dad, Yip and Robin all returned. There was quite a spread to welcome her home, and Hazel was impressed because her mother hadn’t seemed to do anything for the last few hours other than sit and drink tea. Tilly insisted on opening the first bottle of this year’s homemade mead, which was normally saved for midsummer, but she declared this a most important event. 

Yip briefly disappeared to fetch the instrument he had brought over from home all those years ago, and played a rousing song that only Tilly knew the words to. This was probably the most gregarious Hazel had ever seen him - he even clapped her on the shoulder and said he was glad she was home before he weaved his way down the footpath to his own cottage. Robin tried to ruffle her hair as she saw him out. He stopped at the end of the footpath to look up at the moon. It was half full and out here you could see so many more stars than what she lived in the city. She’d forgotten how many stars there were.

“I'm glad you've come back to us,” Tilly said, making Hazel jump. She’d forgotten there were other people while she looked at the stars. “I've been worried about Robin. I think he's hiding something, hopefully you'll keep him out of trouble.” She gave Hazel a warm hug.

“There's only so much one woman can do,” Hazel smiled,  but the joke fell a bit flat as Tilly looked so serious. She forced a smile though, and followed her family down the path. Hazel shut the door behind them and thought about what the elf woman had said and tried to think if she'd noticed anything old about her old friend that afternoon.

**

The next morning Hazel woke to a quiet house. It wasn't late for most people, but this was a farm and her parents always seemed to be up at the crack of dawn. She probably wouldn’t get too many days of freedom before they started finding chores for her to do until her new job started. She looked around the room. It wasn't her childhood boxroom - that had turned into her mother's craft room. When she lived here it had been the special guest room (not that they had ever had many guests). The bags she’d brought had been dumped in the corner so Hazel took some time to unpack them. There wasn't a lot, mostly just clothes that she didn't mind wearing around the farm. The rest of her stuff had been put in storage, although her mother tried to insist she bring it here, but she didn’t want to squeeze her life into one room. She’d need to start looking for her own place soon. Her job started in a few weeks and it would be good to be settled in before then. But not today. The sun was out and it was already warm. She decided it would be nice to walk up to the top pastures. The lambs wouldn’t be tiny but they’d still be cute. She grabbed some of the leftovers from the previous night and a bottle of water and regretted not having brought her paints with her. They were in storage along with everything else. 

In the boot room she found her old walking boots, so caked in mud and who knows what else they were now a weird grey-green colour, their original colour long forgotten. She left the house by the back door, wandered through the cute but scruffy back garden her mum never seemed to have enough time for, and then through the small gate at the end into the orchard. It was shady under the trees and the temperature drop was noticeable, but Hazel had always liked it in there. It was a mixed orchard; apples, pears, and gages all growing. The hives were in the orchard too, generally under Tilly’s care but that didn't stop Hazel from wandering over.

“Hello, Bees, I'm back.” She listened to their industrious buzzing. There was an old folk tradition of ‘telling the bees’, usually about somebody dying, but she’d always told them everything just in case they felt left out. With no response other than the hum that they always made, she moved out of the other side of the orchard to where it joined the farmyard by the edge of a field. As she opened the gate into the field she heard the growl of a quad bike’s engine from the yard so she stepped to one side, holding the gate open.

“It's not a public footpath you know. Not just anyone can come through here.” Robin was on the bike and stopped it as he drew level with Hazel. She stuck her tongue out and closed the field gate behind them. It was a bright day so he was actually wearing his sunglasses instead of propping them up on his head, so all she could see was her own reflection in them.

“Where's the lady of the manor off to then? Does she require a guide?”

“I don't need help from a lowly farmhand, thank you.” She put on the best posh voice. “I know these fields just as well as you.” Robin made a dismissive noise. “Alright but I know them well enough. I'm heading up the top.”

“Well, my lady, I am going the same way.” He made an extravagant bow from his seat. “Your carriage awaits.” 

Hazel climbed on behind him, but before she was completely settled he took off, causing her to let out an involuntary shriek as she grabbed hold of him. She heard him laugh, before it was taken away by the wind. The ride was bumpy and she didn't let up her grip around his waist. She had learnt to drive a quad long before she’d learnt to drive a car, but after coming off once she never felt that confident. Robin had always driven too fast anyway, and she knew he was doing it to wind her up.

“Slow down,” she shouted at him, her words immediately whipped away. She jabbed him in the ribs for emphasis. Immediately the bike slowed to a pace she was more comfortable with. They had to pass through a few more gates before reaching their destination, with Hazel getting off each time to open and close them and Robin pulling away a little each time she tried to get back on the bike. It was a joke that was as old as time itself and hadn’t even been funny in the first place, but he still did it.

“Maybe on the way back I'll drive you and you can be the gate bitch.”

“At the speed you drive we won't be back home before dark.” Robin pulled the quad to a stop and they both got off. The top of the field was at the crest of the shallow valley the farms sat in and gave great views. it was also the furthest point from the farmhouse so it had always been where teen Hazle had trekked to. Again adult Hazel regretted packing up her art supplies. She let out a deep sigh at the view.

“What did you want up here?” Robin asked.

“It was more the walk, have some lunch, and then walk back.”

“I could take you back and let you walk it,” he offered.

She smiled at him. “It's fine. Blew a few cobwebs away on that thing. What are you up here for?”

“A couple of sheep got into next door's field, so I’ve been sent to check the hedge. Did you say lunch?”

“I did, and you must have used your evil elf mind powers because I even bought some of those potato pasties.”

Robin waved his fingers at her to demonstrate said powers. “Definitely my evil powers.”

“Well, if all you use them for is making me bring you questionable foods the world probably isn't in too much danger.”

One of the things that people who wanted the elves gone had always accused them of was having secret powers. Those that had crossed over hinted that where they came from they’d been able to use magic of some kind, but they had apparently lost that ability here. They didn't speak about it to humans if they could help it, and this led to some groups assuming that they still had it and would use it for nefarious purposes. Their offspring, like Robin, had never had anything and were still targeted by these groups.

They split up to find the hole in the hedge that the sheep were escaping through. Hazel considered the sheep to be the most annoying of the farm’s animals, never going where you wanted and somehow ending up where they shouldn't be. Even the chickens were better than the sheep. They did find the hole though, and it was hard work cutting the branches to fill the gap until the hedge naturally grew back. By the time they were finished they were both hot and sweaty. They flumped down under a large tree that was growing in the hedge and Hazel divvied up the food that she’d brought with her. They ate in silence, watching the sheep that had moved away from them and the noises made by their repeairs slowly come closer again. Some of the lambs seemed to play a game of dares, where they’d walk closer before running away again.

“So what happened with Ernie? Edmond? What's his face. Ma said your life fell apart.” Robin didn’t look at her, he just watched the latest group of lambs that had come closer. He threw pastry crust towards them, causing them to scatter, binkying away as they did so.

“Eric. And my life did not ‘fall apart’. It just hit a bump.” She looked over at him, still watching the sheep, and sighed. “Ok, it fell apart a bit. He cheated on me. After all this time. I was working a few weekends ago and didn't feel well so they sent me home, and I found him with someone else. Another girl from the company we worked for. It had been going on for a while apparently. So I couldn't stay there with him, and I couldn't stay on at work with both of them there, so I left.” She realised there were tears running down her cheeks. She hadn’t really cried about it until now. She’d raged at the time, felt numb while doing all the things she had to do to move, but she hadn’t cried. She didn't want to tell Robin that she had gotten drunk with the friend she'd been staying with for a while and wanted to call Eric to make up, to fix whatever was wrong with her that made him feel the need to see someone else as well, but her friend had stopped it.

Robin put his arm around her and pulled her into his side. A safe, reassuring space. He didn't say anything but let her cry. Even without the cheating, Eric had been a dick. Hazel didn’t visit home much because she worked weekends, and the free weekends inevitably interfered with some football match or gathering they just had to attend. Although given what she found out, surely it would have been better for Eric to carry on with the other woman if Hazel hadn't been around so much. But she couldn't understand any of it.

Eventually she pulled herself away from Robin’s side, feeling cold where they’d touched. 

“Feel better?” he asked, pushing some of her hair behind her ear which had come loose from the plait she put it in.

“Not really,” she smiled weakly, “but thanks for listening.”

“That berk never deserved you.” It was something a lot of people said but it felt more meaningful coming from her oldest friend. Robin got to his feet and held his hands out to pull her up.

“Come on, I've got something I want to show you.” They climbed back on the quad and Robin drove, now at a much more sensible pace, along the hedgerow. They passed through a few more fields before stopping at the edge of a small copse.

There were small woods scattered all over the farm, not for any agricultural use but managed enough to supply some wood for fires through the winter. Most of them were fine, full of light and birdsong, but the one that they had stopped in front of was probably the largest on the farm and was densely planted with gnarled trees. It was hard to see much beyond the edge of the tree line. There wasn't even a lot of birdsong here. Robin got off the bike and walked along a faint trail Hazel could now see heading through the trees.

“Come on, it's not that badly overgrown once you're inside.”

“But… we’re not allowed in there.” She realised how ridiculous that sounded as she said it.

Robin pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head, now stood in the shade. “Not allowed? El, your in your thirties, your Da can’t ground you or chase you about the yard with a stick.  His heart wouldn’t cope for a start.”

“It's alright for you, but I've still got the scar from the last time I followed you into that wood and got caught on that barbed wire. I had to have tetanus shots and antibiotics and all sorts.” That was how much of their childhood and teens had been: one leading the other into trouble, but of all the places on the farm their parents tried to keep them from this was the oddest and therefore the most alluring. Yes, slurry and silos were banned because they were dangerous, but there'd never been any good explanation to why they had to stay out of this copse. She couldn't even remember much about the last time she'd been here, other than that it was dark which was probably why she tripped on the wire and ended up in A&E needing stitches and the rest.

“Its safe, this path is clear. I really want to share this with you.” She followed him, ducking under the low-hanging branches on the field’s edge. Further in, the path had been cleared, and she wondered how often he came here, what could possibly be in the small scrap of wood and if this is what his mother had been worried about. It really was very quiet in the wood, still no birdsong, nothing scurrying through the leaf litter, not even a breeze to move the leaves about. Just their footsteps. They walked for longer than Hazel would have expected them to. She knew the bounds of this wood, and she was sure it would have taken less time to walk all the way around it. They hadn’t turned either, so she was pretty sure they weren't just going in circles.

“It's just here,” Robin said, answering the question she was about to ask. The clearing that opened up ahead of them was small, but still larger than it had any right to be in this wood, and in the middle was a tall standing stone. There was a large pile of vegetation to one side, that looked like it might have been removed from the stone itself.

“What is it?” It was clearly a giant rock but she couldn’t stop herself from asking the question.

“I think it's one of the stones my people came through.” He stepped closer to it and placed a palm on it. “Come feel it.” 

Hazel wasn’t sure she wanted to but she did go and stand next to him. The rock towered over her, at least twice her height, and there were symbols carved into the surface. She didn't know if they were merely decorative or supposed to be some sort of writing. They didn’t look like any writing she’d ever seen, but they didn’t look like anything else either. This was not the sort of stone that anyone had ever danced around or welcomed the sunrise to. It was full of foreboding.

“Is this where your parents came across, do you think?” It felt a bit odd talking to him about it. It wasn't something his parents ever mentioned. Apart from the big party at Midsummer Hazel had never even really seen other elves coming to visit the farm.

“No, they came across near the Cotswolds with a big group. Your parents would have noticed the long line of them coming out of this wood.” His voice had a far away sort of quality, like his mind was elsewhere. Hazel reached out and put a palm against the stone. She wasn't sure what she was expecting but was quite pleased she didn't feel anything other than cold rock.

“Do you remember Yama?” He asked her. Hazel thought back. There had been an elf that came for midsummer, and sometimes Yule. As a child she had assumed it was Robin’s grandmother. She’d had quite dark skin which made her pale lilac eyes stand out, and looked so very old. Her face was like a wrinkly apple, she smiled a lot, not speaking much English and she didn't have very many teeth. She nodded.

“She told me about this stone. She thinks something is going to happen soon.That the gates are going to open.”

At first Hazel was more shocked that Yama was still going - she’d seemed ancient when they were little - and then the meaning of Robin’s words hit her.

“You'll be able to…go back?” It felt like a weird thing to say, since he’d never been there - he was born and raised on this farm, just like her - but he understood her meaning, and nodded.

“I don't know when it will happen though.” 

“What about your parents? Will they go too?”

“No, they say there's no point. They don't want me to go. They say Yama has been predicting things like this for years and even if the gates did open there would be nothing but desolation on the other side.” 

“Do you believe Yama? That the gates will open? What does she say is over there?”

“I want to believe her. She doesn't say what's there but I want to find out.” He dropped his hand to his side. “Maybe my parents are right.”

Hazel shivered. “Come on, let's get out of these creepy woods.” 

She stayed with Robin for the rest of the afternoon, helping where she could. Robin seemed cheerful enough but she got the sense that the chill of that wood and its cold stone monolith hadn't really left him.

**

“El, wake up. I need you to wake up.” The voice was a hoarse whisper and her shoulder was being shaken. The room was lit by the light of the full moon, and a torch. She sat up slightly. 

“What's going on…?”

 “Shh,” Robin was sitting on the side of her bed. Now that was she was awake he got up and threw some clothes at her. “Quick, put these on.” 

“What's going on?” She repeated. “What time is it? What the hell are you doing in my room and how’d you even get in here?”

“It’s just after midnight and I came through the window. I really need to show you something so put those clothes on.” He turned away from her and seemed to be opening her chest of drawers.

“Normally a guy has to buy me a drink before I let him go riffling in my knickers,” she joked as she pulled the clothes he’d thrown at her.

“Har har.” He was holding the torch in his mouth so the laugh came out oddly. He was shoving stuff into a bag. She walked over to him to see what he was doing. “I just want to be prepared if what I think is happening is actually happening,” he said, removing the torch.

“And what is that?”

“The gate. I want you to come with me.”

“Don't be ridiculous. I can't leave. I get that you want to go explore but…”

“But what? You’ve got no job, the flats you’ve seen have been awful, and you've just been floating around here. Come with me. Be the first human in the elf lands. Please.” He had put his hands on her shoulders. “You're my oldest friend and I want you to come with me. I don't want to do this alone.”

“I'm just waiting on HR for the job, the flats weren’t… ok they were awful but I don't belong in the elf lands. You don’t even know what's there!”

There was a noise elsewhere in the house as she realised her voice had been raised. They both stood still,  the only movement the curtains in the breeze from where he’d left the window open, waiting to see if they'd woken her parents.

“I'm happy to come with you to the stone,” she continued in a low voice, “and I get this is important to you, but I can't come with you.”

His shoulders dropped. “Fine. But it would have been fun, like that trip we took to Cornwall.”

“I don't think you remember that trip the same way I do. My dad had to come rescue us after we lost the tent in that storm, and a hostel accused you of stealing and kicked you out.”

“But the rest was fun. Bonfires on the beach, fishing for dinner, scallops from the shell.”

She smiled at the memory. “Yes, that was all fun.” He moved towards the window but she crossed quickly and shut it. “You may have climbed in that way, but I'm not going to explain to our mothers why you broke your neck falling out of my bedroom window.”

Instead they snuck quietly through the house, only pausing once at a surprisingly squeaky stair.

“So why do you think the gates are open now?” she asked as they closed the kitchen door behind them and walked out into the warm night.

“There’s a sign. You'll see it in a minute.” She looked at him and could see his teeth as he was grinning so much. They picked up the pack he had prepared for himself and headed to the field where the spooky wood that contained the stone was. As they started across the empty field, now that they were away from all the outbuildings the sky was huge. Hazel gasped. Above them were green lights, gently drifting like the curtains in her bedroom.

“Are those…”

“Yes. The Northern Lights. Extremely rare to see this far south. And a full moon the night before the longest day.”

“The sign.”

“I think so. Are you sure you don't want to come? We can still go get…” 

“No.” She interrupted, although under the lights she felt her resolve waiver. The flats had been horrible, she didn't have a job, but her parents would be fine without her a small voice said. The resolve melted. “Wait here.” She sprinted, at least a little way, back to the house. Not having brought much with her made stuffing the bag easier. She left a note for her parents and wondered if Robin had thought to do the same. She said she wouldn't be gone long, and she hoped she was right. Robin hadn't made it sound like a one-way trip. There had to be a way back, that's how his parents were here in the first place. She got back to Robin, trying to outpace the bit of her brain that was starting to wake up and tell her what a bad idea this was. Robin looked relieved and agitated, the former presumably because she had come back and the latter that she’d taken so long. She hoped that was all it was anyway. He put his arm around her shoulders and they marched across the field under the weird green light of the aurora. 

They stopped at the edge of the wood. It was even more forbidding in the dark. The interior was pitch black as the moon and aurora didn’t penetrate it. They slowly made their way in, following the light of Robin’s weedy torch until they found the monolith.

“What now?” she whispered. It didn't seem right to speak aloud and break the silence. Robin took her hand and stood in front of the stone. He lifted his own hand, placed it at the centre and…

Nothing happened. Hazel opened her eyes.  She didn't realise she’d even closed them. Robin looked devastated. He pushed firmly against the rock, like it was a door that was stuck.

“I was so sure…” He stood for a moment, not understanding why nothing was happening.

“Maybe there's a particular carving or something.” With her free hand she reached out and as her fingers brushed the surface everything went black.

**

She gasped, sucking in as much air as possible because it felt like she hadn’t breathed in a week. Then she vomited. Everything was wrong. Her ears were ringing so much, her vision was a white out, every muscle was screaming at her. She heaved again but nothing came up. She tried to stand but her body wouldn’t respond. 

“Hazel, it's ok, you're ok.” Somebody was pulling her hair from her face. It sounded like Robin but the ringing in her ears was distorting everything. Plus he never called her Hazel.

“Hazel, it's ok, can you hear me?” Her vision had cleared a bit. It was definitely Robin next to her but something wasn't right.  Then she realised that they weren't alone. Somebody was speaking but she didn't understand. There were people standing about, she could sense their movements. Should she get up or feign sickness until she knew what was going on? Her stomach heaved and she remembered she didn't have to pretend to be sick.

“I'm going to pick you up.” She hated being lifted but she couldn’t really stop his arms as he pulled her towards him. He picked her up a lot easier than she would have expected. He held her close to his chest.

“Are we safe?” She breathed it so only he could hear her. She realised this is why he’d picked her up.

“I don't know.” He shifted her weight. “Can you stand?” Her body was starting to return to normal. She still ached, but her vision was returning. She nodded, and he gently set her back on her own feet, but kept a protective arm around her. She slowly looked around. They were in a clearing that was much larger than the one that they had left, but the stone was still in the centre of it. The markings that she’d seen on their one, the other half of the gate, had been faint and weathered away, but here they were sharp and glowing with a similar sort of light that the aurora had given off. The sky above was just as clear as the one that she’d left, but there was no moon visible, and although she was no expert, the stars didn’t look the same either.

They were surrounded by what could only be described as armed warriors. They were tall, all wearing dark armour with helmets that covered their faces. They also had swords. They weren’t drawn, but they looked on high alert. Behind them she could see campfires and tents. They’d been waiting here at the stone, ready for someone to cross. She felt a knot in her stomach and her knees threatened to give way. Robin’s hold on her tightened; he either felt her weaken or he’d just come to the same conclusion she had.

One, their armour more elaborately decorated than the others, stepped forward and removed their helmet. It was a man, pale in the darkness, with dark hair that was slightly ruffled where it had been pulled at by the helmet’s removal. It must have been a trick of the light, although from where she didn’t know, but his eyes seemed to glow blue, like sapphires. Blue, not lilac like every other elf she’d known and thought was the unerring marker of their heritage. He held out his hands wide in greeting and said something in elvish.

“Welcome to Clach Mordubh.” Robin translated.