21273 words, 30 chapters.
Chapter 1
Dina followed the young man with the long black hair and his movements for a while, he was clearly searching for something, and then she drifted back into her daydreams again and forgot about him. She was sitting high up in a tree where her old aunt would never find her and she was sketching the figures from her daydreams in a notebook. Cene the Wise and Agie the Good were on their way into the Valley of Chloris and she was not certain that it was the right thing for them to do; perhaps she should have them turn around and go up the Sini Mountain instead? The figures on the paper started to change as she turned them to look up the mountain.
The cat was not on the yard and Kodi turned to the wood instead, it was unlikely that he would find the cat there but it would give him an excuse to be out of his mother's sight for a while. It bothered him that she was looking at him while he thought about the possibility of having to put her in a home, as if she would be able to read his thoughts by watching him. He kept on looking up into tress while calling a half hearted "here kitty kitty" now and again and that was how he first saw her. One of her feet was hanging down, swaying casually, and she was biting her lip as she focused on the notebook in her lap.
She found the wind in the leaves and the murmur from the creek soothing, like a big hug when you really need it. Something had disrupted her thoughts and she looked out through the branches to see if her aunt was out at the yard looking for her. Thankful that her aunt was not there she turned back to her sketches again. "You should be thankful," she thought. "You have a home to go to. That's far better than how many others have it. So much better…" Agie the Good had a problem, she was not as good as people thought that she was and Dina wondered how to show it in her sketches. Maybe something with her eyes?
He could have walked away and left her there but something about her made him want to know more about her.
"Hi there! Have you seen a cat?" he called to her. Realizing how stupid it sounded, of course she had seen a cat but maybe not his mothers cat, he added, "It's black and white!"
The girl did not move she just kept on sketching as if she had not heard him.
"Hi there!" he tried again. "Have you seen a black and white cat?"
Something pulled her out of the daydreaming again and she looked down into the yard again to see what it was.
"Down here!"
She looked down and saw the young man standing below her. Not sure what to do she nodded to him in acknowledgement.
"Have you seen a black and white cat?" he asked again.
She shook her head and turned back to the sketching again.
His heart stuck an extra beat, she was amazing in a magical kind of way, and she was older than he had thought at first. He was about to start climbing the tree when a bell started ringing at the neighbour's front porch. The girl put the notebook away and then she quickly climbed down and ran over there. The copper curls of her hair were shining in the sun and her feet carried her swiftly and lightly through the wood like the hoofs of a doe. He had never seen her before but the world felt emptier and colder when he could not see her anymore.
Chapter 2
"Manner girl, manners!" she whined. "One could think you've been raised by wolves."
Dina nodded to show that she was listening and Aunt Belinda went on talking about her day. She spent most of her days at the hospital with Uncle Jasper, he was very ill but Belinda seemed more concerned with how the personnel dressed and acted than with the state that her husband was in. In the evenings, she would tell Dina all about every little fault she had found in the personnel during the day and Dina would pretend to listen politely though she was not really paying attention. It was the same old story every day and she knew exactly where to nod and agree if needed.
After the dinner, Aunt Belinda would sit in her armchair, watch TV whiles nodding off, and Dina would wash the dishes and prepare something for Aunt Belinda's night meal. Once she was done, she would go up the stairs to her room and wait for Aunt Belinda to start snore loudly, then she would sneak down the stairs again and down into the basement where she could slip out through a small window. The front door was always locked during the nights so she could not go out that way. Aunt Belinda never woke up to notice that Dina had sneaked out and she was too stiff and heavy to get up the stairs and see that Dina was gone even if she did wake up.
Dina crawled out from underneath the bush that was placed in front of the basement window and looked around, the light was fading and she decided to go down to the bridge by the dirt road leading by the fields where they and Mrs. Jones were living. There were streetlights on both sides of the bridge and there would be enough light for her to keep working on her sketches. She had found a comfortable spot in a tree by the bridge where she could sit without passers by seeing her, if there were any, and where she could feel the energy from the water that was flowing in the creek.
She stayed until she started feeling cold and then she went up on the dirt road to walk herself warm while trying to figure out what to do about Cene the Wise that had turned out to be both pompous and obnoxious. People like him did not belong in her dream world and she needed to find a polite way to get rid of him, that he was not real did not mean that she could throw him away just like that. It would be unacceptably rude. Perhaps she could give him a very important mission that he had to go on alone or she could send him to a monastery where wise monks share their knowledge.
A faint sound by the road pulled her out of her thoughts and she stopped to listen and locate it. It had to be an animal and she wondered what kind it was. She kept on listening and moved closer step by step, as she heard the sound again. Down in the ditch she moved some high grass to the side and found the animal, it meowed as she reached out for it and she figured that it was the missing cat. She gently picked it up and shushed it when it cried in pain, something was clearly wrong with it.
Holding it as carefully as possible, she walked down the road, noting that it was black and white as she passed the lights, and all the way to Mrs. Jones house. It was very late and she knew that she would be in a lot of trouble if Aunt Belinda found out that she had been out at night. She put the cat by the door and knocked on it and then she ran and hid behind a bush to see if someone had heard her knock. Nothing happened. She rushed up to the door and knocked it again, much harder. The lights on the porch went on, someone unlocked the door from the inside, and she ran as fast as she could across the yard and into the bushes. The young man called out and she felt certain that he had found the cat so she just kept on running.
Chapter 3
"It's not right," he told himself as he turned into the main street of the town. "She birthed and raised us and now we want to send her away as if she doesn't matter anymore."
The buildings all looked the same though more weathered and faded and the people seemed to be the same too. He greeted a few familiar faces as he turned into the parking lot in front of the grocery store but he did not stop to talk to them. Not now, not today. It took him a while to get the energy to get out of the car; it felt as if the weight on his shoulders was too heavy for him to carry. It was a sunny late summer's day but it felt just as gloomy as a dark and cold winter's day months before spring would come.
Wrapped up in his thoughts he walked through the store picking the groceries they needed without paying it much attention until a high-pitched woman's voice cut through his thoughts.
"Poor Belinda has her hands full with that girl," the voice said.
That girl had to be the girl in the tree he thought and he picked up a can of peas and pretended to read the label whiles listening in to the conversation.
"I've heard that she's retarded, to put it nicely," said a male voice.
"It's no wonder considering her parents…" the high-pitched voice replied.
"So sad so sad," the man agreed.
"What's sad," said a stern woman's voice, "is when people gossip about things they know nothing about. Henry, the peaches are mouldy and there is no baking powder on the shelf. You should focus on your job rather than tattling."
Miss Dora, he thought and smiled, his old teacher had not changed a bit it seemed. Slightly disappointed he but the pea can back and started to walk down the aisle, he had wanted to find out more about the girl. It was she who had brought the cat to their doorstep, he was certain of it even though he had only gotten a short glimpse of her as she skipped over the ditch behind the bushes. He turned and walked back to find Miss Dora on a spur of the moment.
"Good morning Miss Dora," he greeted her. "Remember me?"
Miss Dora looked at him and smiled, "Of course I do, Kodi Jones, the youngest of the Jones boys. How is your mother doing?"
"Things could be better but she's still doing OK," he replied no sure what to say. "Her cat was killed by a car this night and now I'm worrying about how to tell her. A girl brought it back home, by the way. I think she's staying with the Millers. I never got a chance to thank her and I'm thinking that I should buy her something as thanks, but I don't know what."
His heart was pounding and he felt strangely shy as he blurted it all out. Miss Dora did not see it or at least she did not show him that she saw it and she started talking.
"That would be Dina, Belinda's niece, she's a sweet girl, though very shy," Miss Dora said. "You should buy her something that she can draw on or with. It's her main interest in life it seems."
It looked as she was about to say something more but Henry walked up to them and that stopped her.
"These peaches hadn't been unpacked yet. Ripe and fresh," he said and showed Miss Dora a basket with peaches.
"How about the corn Henry, did you find any?" Miss Dora said while she studied the peaches.
Kodi felt it was time to leave and said a quick goodbye to Miss Dora. Dina, her name was Dina and it sounded just as beautiful as an early morning sunrise after a rainy night. The day felt much better and the weight on his shoulders did not bother him as much anymore as he left the grocery store.
He found a sketchbook with a colourful landscape on it at the paper shop and decided that it was the perfect gift for her. They also had watercolour pencils in blue tin boxes, he bought one of those too and had the sketchbook and the tin box wrapped together. It felt good in a silly way and he laughed silently at himself as he drove out of town, maybe things were not as bad after all.
Chapter 4
Dina hurried to get her chores done as soon as they had left; it was much easier when Aunt Belinda was not there to follow her with her hawk eyes, and last of all, she puts sandwiches, fruit and a bottle of water in her bag and left the house. It was a wonderful day and she stopped for a moment to decide where to go, the wood and the trees looked tempting but a butterfly caught her attention and she decided to follow it out into the fields instead. Flowers of all shapes and colours were blooming and the fields were buzzing with life from insects collecting nectar to birds collecting insects and she lay down underneath a tree by a ditch to try to make a sketch of it.
Cene the Wise had accepted an invitation to join other scholars that were teaching at a monastery and Agie the Good was babysitting the children of a widower so Dina was all alone out there on the field. It did not bother her to be alone and it did not take her long to make new friends. There was Buzz a busy bee, Benita a beautiful blue gossamer winged butterfly and Benny the bug and they were all happy to show her their world and the things in it and her notebook quickly filled up with new sketches.
At noon, she decided that it was too hot to stay out on the field and she went down to the creek to follow it back to the wood and the trees. The rocks by the water felt warm and smooth under her feet as she skipped and climbed her way up past the rapid and she started to look for words to describe it. Smooth as silk was not right since it was warm too, maybe smooth as a chicken would be better, chickens were soft and smooth as well as warm. Chicken rocks. She had to stop and pull out the notebook again, chicken rocks it was and she had to make a sketch of it. Smooth chickens guarding a silver clad road for Queen Aurora and her court as they were on their way to visit Prince Bosky that lived down south.
Chapter 5
"Hi mom!" he greeted his mother with a hug and then he unpacked the groceries.
"It's good you're back," said Mrs. Jones. "I think I can hear Steve out in the shed, you have to go and look if that's where he's been all along."
He knew that he could not wait any longer, "Mom, Steve has been found, he was struck by a car. There was nothing the veterinarian could do."
Mrs. Jones looked confused for a while, "It's not Steve, he's in the shed. I've heard him."
"He's not in the shed mom," Kodi hugged his mom. "I took him to the veterinarian myself."
"I've opened a can of his favourite food," she replied. "You take it out to the shed and leave it there for him. I'm sure he's hungry." Mrs. Jones went and got the cat food and gave it to Kodi. "I'll start to prepare the dinner. I'm making beef soup. You love that."
"Yes, mom," Kodi gave her one more hug and carried the cat food out into the shed.
It broke his heart to do it but he could not insist on telling her that the cat was dead when she acted like that, it was better to do it at her own pace he thought. He looked around put the food by the door and made sure that there was no cat trapped in there. Almost everything was as his father had left it, the raincoat was hanging on a deer antler and the boots waited for his feet while the tools on the workbench were waiting for his hands to pick them up again. For a moment he got the insane feeling that it was all a bad dream and that he would wake up soon and his father would be there laughing and showing him what he was working on this time, but it faded back to reality again and he felt sadder and lonelier than ever before.
He walked down to the creek quickly to outrun the gloomy feeling and to see if Dina was still there. The thought of her was as ray of light, and he felt eager to see her again. The words he had overheard at the grocery store bothered him slightly but he also trusted Miss Dora opinion about Dina. "She's a nice girl," she had said and from the little he had met her he thought the same. She was not by the creek where he had seen her earlier and he felt disappointed, he did not want to walk up to the Millers house and knock on the door, the thought of Belinda still scared him a little. His brothers had tricked him into the Millers garden once to filch apples and Belinda caught him. One time was one too many and he had stayed far away from that woman since then.
Chapter 6
Once she slipped out of the house, she found it hard to decide where to go, to the light by the bridge or into the wood and the trees. A soft wind rattled the leaves and she followed the sound into the woods, a magic place where everything was alive, even the things that were commonly thought of as dead, such as rocks. There was on rock in particular that was very friendly and she decided to go to visit her, it had been days since her last visit and there could be something new happening in the world of rocks.
Sela the rock was in a good mood and had many things to tell, there was a cat missing and the rocks suspected that the Shine Monsters had taken it. Dina, that had found the cat, could tell more about what had happened and together they prayed that the cat was doing fine. A dark gloomy haze had also been spotted drifting around in the valley and everybody was buzzing and whispering about it, what could it be and was it dangerous? It was the first time Dina had heard of the dark haze and she promised to ask around to see what she could find out about it.
Lighting cracked the sky open and moments later the rain started pouring down; Dina said a quick goodbye to Sela and ran to a place where she could stay dry, a shed not far from Mrs. Jones house. Her clothes were soaking wet within minutes and she was shivering from the cold air. She had been to the shed before; there was an old potbelly stove in there that she could use to warm herself.
The first thing that happened when she stepped through the door was that she kicked the cat food across the shed so that it crashed into the wall. Alarmed she slammed the door behind her and managed to bump into a pile of tin cans so that they fell over. The silence after all that noise was numbing and not even the thunder outside managed to make a difference. Her heart started pounding again and she took a deep breath, how silly to scare herself that way she thought as she felt her way through the shed and up to the stove. There had been a box of matches beside it the last time she had been there and she was happy to find it, next, her fingers found their way to a candle on a shelf on the wall and she lit it so that she could see. The light alone was comforting and she felt better as she found wood for the stove and started a small warming fire.
Chapter 7
Dina struggled to get the fire going so that it would warm her but it was slow to flare up. Cold, wet and shivering she sat on the floor in front of the stove, wrapped her arms around her legs and waited since that was all that she could do. "How typical," she thought. "I have to investigate the dark gloomy haze and now the rain is pouring down and I'm stuck in here." The haze worried her; she did not like to have strange things happening in her warm and wonderful world. What could it be and why had it come here? She would have to launch a full investigation and talk to every being in the area to see what they knew, but it would have to wait until tomorrow since the rain was stopping her now.
The water drops on the window glass turned the light from inside to a kaleidoscope of tiny images within the greater image and the sight alone had been enough to warm his heart, but what really made him happy was to see Dina's copper curly hair. He would finally get to talk to her! Just as he was about to yank the door open he stopped himself and knocked lightly first. It felt silly to knock on the door of his own shed but he did not want to scare her by simply storming in. She turned to look at him and her big eyes made her look like a deer in headlight.
"Hi," he said and smiled.
Dina knew that she was trespassing and her heart raced as she looked at the young man, he looked friendly and she nodded slightly but she still stayed on her guard. The cold air that was flowing in through the open door made her shiver worse and her teeth started to clatter.
"Got caught out in the rain?" he said and closed the door.
Dina nodded again while her teeth clattered like castanets in a speedy flamenco. The muscles in her legs tensed and wanted her to run but she was too cold to get up.
"You're cold," he said and then he cursed himself silently, why did he keep on pointing out the obvious? "Here, you can take my shirt to dry up." He took off the raincoat and then his long sleeved shirt and gave it to her. "I'll go back to the house and get some dry clothes for you; I'll be back in a bit."
He sighed at himself as he walked back to the house, what a buffoon he was, babbling about while the poor girl was freezing cold and scared too.
Dina thankfully wrapped the dry shirt around her and removed her own wet sweater and t-shirt. The shirt smelled good she thought, warm and safe like a sunny summer's day, and she decided to stay even though he had said that he would be back.
Chapter 8
The fire had started to heat the shed a bit and his warm shirt was a comforter hugging her while reinsuring her that everything would be fine. The gnomes that lived underneath the workbench had peeked out at her to see what was going on and a house mouse had been telling her the good news about the missing cat. Dina was feeling happy and snug so she did not tell the mouse that she had rescued the cat the other night. It would find out what had happened soon enough. She picked up her notebook and looked at it, it was wet on the outside and the bottom but some of the pages had been saved from the water by her bag and she opened it and put it by the stove to dry up.
He knocked lightly before he opened the door and stepped into the shed again, she was still there and she was trying to dry her notebook.
"Hi," he smiled. "I've got a towel so that you can dry your hair and some dry clothes."
He emptied the bag but kept the gift hid in it until later and then he went to a cabinet and got a small pot to warm the milk in and two mugs.
"I'll make some warm cocoa and I have cookies. How does that sound?"
Dina looked at him and gave him a shy smile whiles drying her hair and trying to comb it with her fingers.
"I'm Kodi Jones," he said as he started to make the cocoa. "My father built this shed so that he could get away from us boys and get some peace and quiet now and then. I have four older brothers and one is wilder than the next. It's easy to understand why he needed to get away for a while."
His big shirt was like a big dress on her and it hid her while she squirmed out of her wet jeans and put on the dry sweat pants he had brought. The pants had strings at the waist that she could tie together so that she did not drop them and the long legs kept her feet warm too. She also put on the t-shirt that he had brought her but kept his shirt on top of it.
"It was you who brought the cat back, wasn't it?"
She looked at her hands as they rolled the shirtsleeves so that they did not cover her hands.
"I took him to the vet. Seemed a car struck him. The best thing for him was to be put to sleep."
He instantly regretted that he had told her that the cat was dead when he saw her sad eyes.
"I'm glad you found him so that he didn't have to suffer," he told her as he sat down beside her and gave her a mug with cocoa. "Careful, it's hot."
Then they sat there in silence eating cookies and drinking cocoa while the sad news about the cat faded.
Chapter 9
Her fingers gently touched the soft shiny paper with flowers on it and the deep purple ribbon that was tied around it, as if she was reading it like Braille, then she carefully removed the ribbon and the tape without damaging the paper and looked inside. It looked as the world's greatest treasures to her as she touched and looked at them. The sketchbook alone was a princely gift and the tin box with watercolour pencils was so perfect that her eyes filled with tears. How would she even be able to thank him enough?
"Do you like it?" he asked even though he could see that she did.
Overwhelmed with emotion she did not know what to do at first, then she nodded, hugged him, nodded again, and hugged him some more and then she started to sob. He put his arms around her and held her close while lulling her in an unhandy way stemming from a fear of hurting her. It was heartbreaking to hear her sob and it was even worse to be at loss about what to do to comfort her.
She found comfort in his arms, it had been such a long time since someone showed her kindness and care and it was strange to feel it again. It was as if it was a brand new feeling, like spring flowers opening up into bloom in the sunlight.
"I'm Dina," she said when she had stopped crying.
His heart jumped when she spoke, he had longed to hear her voice and it had been worth the wait, it was wonderful.
Dina remembered her manners and added, "Thank you."
"You like it then?"
"Yes," she hid her blushing face from him, opened the sketchbook and the tin box, and started to draw.
She had turned her back to his chest and he puts his arms around her while looking over her shoulder to see what she was drawing. Black, grey and dark blue lines spread in a pattern and it did not take long until he could see a crow spread its wings across the paper. The colours and shapes changed and the red, yellow, brown and black lines turned into a reddish brown butterfly with thin fragile wings. She picked the brush up and wet it in her mouth and he watched as the colours started to flow over the paper and come to life. Lights and shades lifted and moved the sketch and made it more lifelike than he could have imagined a sketch to be.
"That's amazing," he told her.
She picked a new pencil up and started to sketch the surroundings and not long after the empty space had been filled with strong sturdy stone walls and the light from candles and an open fire. At the lower left corner there was a mouse looking out from a gap between the stones in the wall and at the upper right corner there were tiny windows where a couple of gnomes where peeking out.
She suddenly stopped drawing and got up on her feet, "I have to go."
"You can bring the clothes back tomorrow," he offered at the hope of seeing her again.
She smiled and nodded, picked her things up and then she ran out through the door and into the darkness. Just as the first time he had seen her, the world felt a bit colder and emptier when she was gone.
Chapter 10
"The Millers didn't have any kids, right?" he asked as casually as possible.
"No," his mother replied while sorting through the fridge in the hunt for something. "It's sad. They tried for so many years but nothing happened."
"I thought I saw a girl there…" he left the words hanging.
"Oh that's Belinda's niece," Mrs. Jones found what she had been looking for and turned to the stove. "They took her in when her parents died. She's a peculiar girl."
"Oh, that explains it," he replied and prepared for one more question. "How old is she? I was wondering if she'd be interesting in helping me clear up the thicket by the creek."
"She finished high school this spring. Two or three eggs?"
"Two," he was surprised; he had not thought that she would be that old.
"She's old enough to help, but the girl is peculiar… You should talk to Belinda about it, she'll know better."
"I thought she was at the hospital with Jasper, I've heard it's bad," he steered away from the topic of Dina.
"Poor Belinda," Mrs. Jones sighed. "He won't until winter they say. Cancer. Still, they have time to say goodbye."
Mrs. Jones' eyes filled with tears and Kodi got up to give his mother a hug. His father had died from a stroke the year before. One moment he was there and then the next moment he was gone. His mother had found him out in the garden but he was dead before the ambulance arrived.
"He knew you love him, mom, he knew," he whispered to comfort her.
"I still had things to tell him. A life time together isn't enough," Mrs. Jones wiped her tears and focused on the breakfast again. "Ciar said he might come over tomorrow. There are a couple of things I need from the store… if you have the time to drive into town."
"Of course, just make me a list," he smiled at her but he felt disappointed inside, he had wanted to go out and see if he could find Dina. Even worse, Ciar might be coming to visit tomorrow. His heart sank, Ciar was brother number four and the one that was closest to Kodi in age, he also had the least in common with that brother.
Chapter 11
Everything seemed to move in slow motion for him that day. His mother had taken her time writing the list, he had to wait in line at the grocery store, something that was very uncommon in the little town and then an old friend had stopped him to chat for a while. Just as he thought the feeling of being trapped in a cage would over take him he finally managed to break free and get out of town to drive back home again. The worries had caught up with him again and the dark and miserable thoughts covered the world around him like ashes from a wild fire, heavy and constricting they sucked the colour and life out of everything around him.
Eager to find out more about the dark gloomy haze she talked to the different beings that she met along the road and they all suggested that she would go to talk to the old rowan tree since he was wise and often well informed. A bug landed on her shoulder and kept her company as she tripped along the top of an old dry-stone fence, it had been flying over the fields all morning and it could tell her more about the haze. The haze had been seen to the south in the early morning hours, not far from the hazelnut grove, and then it had faded into thin strings that flowed to the east. Mr. Rowan Tree confirmed what the bug had told her, and then they discussed what it could be and why it had come to their happy and sunny land.
A short twinkle of light made him look at the rowan farther down the road and he smiled as he saw a mass of copper coloured curls sticking out behind one of the thick old trunks. Dina. His heart felt lighter as he stopped the car and got out of it, the washed out colours got their strength and shine back and he could hear the birds singing. She was sitting with her back against the trunk with the sketchbook in her lap and she was deep in thought as she was filling the paper with colourful sketches.
"Hi," he said and sat down next to her.
She smiled at him and nodded, "Hi."
On the paper, the rowan looked like an old man and the dry-stone fence looked like a fortification. In the leaves of the rowan and in the high grass around it there were several small creatures, all things from nature put to life and by the stem of the rowan, he found a butterfly that looked as the one she had drawn last night. She had changed pencil when he started studying the sketch and he turned his attention to what she was currently drawing, a black crow had landed on a branch in the rowan.
"I'm on my way home with some groceries for mom," he said. "Can I give you a ride back?"
The groceries in her backpack had slipped her mind and she was happy that he had reminded her. She put away the sketchbook and the pencils and followed him to the car, it bothered her to leave the rowan before they had finished discussing the haze, but Aunt Belinda would be angry if something happened to the groceries.
Chapter 12
The slender young trees by themselves had not reached the age of maturity, and they had no spirit or awareness but there were many other beings living by their roots and leaves. The fusschummies was most affected by it all and she let a herd of them move in to her shoes so that they could calm down a little, but they still kept on moaning and squeaking as soon as the clearing saw made a louder noise. The commotion was very distracting and she decided to sing to them to distract them from the sounds that the clearing saw made. She started to sing about the wind and the Sylphs rattling the leaves to catch their attention and then she added water and other beings as she travelled through the wood and out into the fields. The fusschummies settled down and curled up close together while humming along to the tune.
"Hi."
Kodi sat down and looked over her shoulder, as expected he found the paper full with interesting things. The crow was breaking slender trees by pushing them to the ground, and he realized for the first time that he was the crow. The butterfly was sitting on a rock and he was surprised that he had not seen that it was copper coloured before. Her shoes on the drawing were filled with small fur balls with big eyes and tiny hands; they looked almost like longhaired mice but with flatter faces.
"What are those?" he asked and pointed.
"Fusschummies," she said as if it was obvious.
"Feel like helping me pull some branches to the side?"
Dina gave him a smile, nodded, put the sketchbook away and jumped down from the rock leaving the shoes for the fusschummies.
Kodi pulled the larger trees, Dina pulled the smaller ones and they piled them up together. It was obvious to her that the pile would make a good playground for the woodland beings once they were done and she tried to build it with their different needs in mind. She used sturdy branches to make ramps where they could climb up and down on, twigs to cover the sides and give shelter from wind, rain, with convenient entrances and exits here and there. Kodi went back to clearing while she picked up the last branches, inspected the area and then she went back to the fusschummies to tell them what was happening and the exiting news about the playground.
The light flowed through the leaves of the trees he had left standing and the water flowed and shimmered in the creek and she started to draw the change that had happened. A dragonfly air pilot zoomed by asking for information about the situation because the smooth chicken guards worried about the safety of the Queen that was to pass by later during the day, and Dina sent calming news back with him. The clearing of the thicket, she told him, would make it easier for the guards to see any potential enemies as they approached and it would be easy to set up guard towers that would allow them to see far up into the wood.
Chapter 13
At noon, they stopped working, sat down in the shade to have lunch and she showed him the sketches she had made while he was working. A dragonfly with old time pilot goggles flew by a strange army of yellow stone soldiers while a female wind spirit flew through the treetops.
"Tell me the story," he said. "I want to know what's happening."
Dina blushed and squirmed a bit.
"It's OK," he put his arm around her. "I really do want to know."
Shyly she started to point to different things on the drawings and explain what was happening while introducing the beings. She told him about how the different beings had reacted to the news of the missing cat and she told him about the dark gloomy haze and how it bothered them all, including herself, it was a mystery that she had to solve and she felt that it was urgent. Mr. Rowan had agreed that something bad was about to happen and he had suggested her to find Vivek the ancient and wise ash tree that was living in the woods. It was protected by magic, and it would be hard to find but he had given her a form of clue to work with.
An ash I know there stands; Vivek is its name, a small tree, showered with shining dust.
From there comes the dews that drop in to the valleys. Vivek stands forever over the well of wisdom. Once the magic is lifted, the seeker will see its iron roots, copper branches and silver leaves.
Drasil was the ancient holy ash that bound all dimensions of the world together she explained. A squirrel, Tusk the Traveller, ran up and down the tree to spread the news from top to root and at the foot of the tree a cold spring bubbled up and the fates dwelled. Dina suspected that Vivek the small ash was connected to the ancient holy tree from the myths and that the dew that drops in to the valley would have to turn into a small brook of some kind. If she could find the brook then she would be able to find her way to the tree too, she thought, but she would need to talk to a few more beings to be able to figure out what the magic that needed to be lifted was.
Kodi had spent much time in the wood when he still lived with his parents and he offered to follow her and show her the brooks that he knew of. He felt happy and a bit silly over the thought of going into the wood to hunt for a magic tree spawned from Dina's imagination, the kind of childish happiness that he had never expected to be able to feel again. They could bring food and make it a picnic they decided and there would be plenty of time for exploration if they left as soon as Dina's Aunt Belinda had left for the day. Then he remembered that his brother might come to visit and the murk of disappointment wrapped itself around him.
Dina insisted that it was a good thing since it would buy her time to do her chores, prepare an easy dinner and talk to a couple of beings about the magic. She would even have time to bake cookies she told him with a smile. The smile shined like a sunrise and the murk that had been surrounding him vaporised and turned into air. It was not as bad as it had seemed at first, and he felt childishly happy again.
Chapter 14
The bridge was old and tried though and he would not wake up no matter how hard she tried. Disappointed she looked around to figure out what to do next and found a toad that was resting on a log not far from her, and she decided to talk to her instead. Their conversation took quite some time and it turned out that the toad was the kind of woman that likes to gossip but rarely provides anything of value. At the end of it all, Dina only got one piece of information that she felt was worth looking into, it seemed that Ewka a busy hedgehog mother had seen a strange darkness whiles being out for a walk with her young.
Finding the hedgehog Ewka turned out to be a hard task, she was not at home and her neighbours did not know where she could be. Another hedgehog that had agreed to look after her children could tell that Ewka had seemed very distraught and that she had been in a hurry but that was all she knew. It had been hours since she left and she should have been back already. Dina found the news worrying and she started walking in circles farther and farther away from the home of the hedgehog family asking all beings that she met if they had seen the hedgehog Ewka. The dark was deepening and she hoped to find someone that knew something before she would have to give up because of the dark.
Just as she thought that she would have to give up she stumbled over root and fell flat on the ground, while laying there she spotted a small herd of fusschummies that was hiding in a hole in the ground. They were terrified at first but calmed down when they recognized her from earlier that day. The bravest of them told her that they had seen a hedgehog pass by earlier and that she had been talking to herself saying, "It's strange so strange." They pointed Dina to the direction that the hedgehog had been heading and she went there. Sela the rock was living in that direction and Dina guessed that the hedgehog had been heading there to see her.
The guess turned out to be correct but the hedgehog was no longer with Sela, she had hurried home to her children again. Dina on the other hand was in no hurry and she stayed for an hour to talk to Sela and share the news about the death of the cat and to tell her what Mr. Rowan had said. Sela told her what Ewka had seen in the dark gloomy haze, a shape of a person, a man, and that she worried that the humans were up to something strange an unnatural again. They all remembered very well how the humans had started fires out in the fields once and how the thick smoke had covered the area. Humans often did strange and dangerous things without considering the safety of the beings in the world.
When Dina asked about the ash Vivek and the magic that surrounded it, Sela hushed her and looked around. Such things were better left to daylight she said and suggested Dina to come back later.
Chapter 15
A bird landed on the lawn and she could not resist the temptation of asking if he had seen the crow that day. He had not, but he had seen the hedgehog Ewka and that she came back home safely. She asked if the haze had been seen that day and he told her that a deer had seen it out on the fields early in the morning and that no one had seen it since. Another strange thing had happened though, he told her, the ground had opened for a short while and a deep ember glow had shined through the gap and then it was all gone. His brother had seen it with his own eyes and his brother was a person that could be trusted so it had to be true. Dina thanked him and then she went back inside to prepare the picnic basket for the next day and to make Aunt Belinda something special for dinner.
While working in the kitchen she allowed herself to miss Kodi for a while, she liked him because he was not like the others and he made her feel safe. She knew that people did not like her because she was different and she did not mind that, but some of them were cruel and that was a problem. Why did some people do such terrible things? The sadness rested heavy on her shoulders and the house felt solemn and cage like. It was too much; she put away the unfinished dinner and ran out of the house, and into the wood breaking free from the emotional shackles that were holding her down.
The air soothed her skin as it flowed over her and the trees and leaves greeted her and made her feel welcome. She ran all the way to the tarn and to one of her favourite fir trees that were standing by it. Hugging its bark covered stem she rested for a while before she climbed up into it. The old fir was a great guard and he had always kept her safe when she was in need of protection. His strong branches did not only hold her but they shielded her too and stopped people from seeing her. She quickly climbed high up to the top to a fork in the stem and sat there for a while; she could see the whole tarn and up onto the mountain beyond it. It was there that the deer had seen the haze that morning.
It was late and she could not stay for as long as she wanted to but her walk back to the house was much slower than her race away from there. She did not stop to talk to the different beings but she did exchange a few words here and there, as she passed by. Aunt Belinda started ringing the bell on the porch and Dina ran the last bit of the way to get home as fast as possible.
Chapter 16
Ciar walked around the garage as if he owned it all and told Kodi about what should be sold, what was useless and how he would have done things if only the older brothers had let him. Most of all his opinion was that they should put "old momma" in a home and sell it all. The money he got from it all would be a good base for a new investment that he was planning to do. Fighting the urge to break Ciar's nose Kodi let him know that the money would then belong to their mother and that Ciar would have to wait for her to die before he could make that investment. Ciar looked surprised and laughed a little in a strange way that made Kodi feel uncomfortable about it all. It felt as if there was something that he needed to figure out before it was too late.
Kodi let Ciar know that he did not want to put their mother in a home and that he was thinking about moving back to help her but Ciar did not want to listen to him. Of course, they had to put "old momma" in a home there were no other options. Ciar knew some people and he had good connections so it would be easy to find a place that would be willing to take her in as soon as possible. A few phone calls and Ciar would have all the arrangements done within a week or two. Kodi tried to protest but Ciar had already started to make plans about how to sell the estate and calculate how much money they would get per brother. The last drop for Kodi was when Ciar started to plan how to get rid of their father's things as if they were old trash. He raised his voice, called Ciar a greedy scumbag, and let him know that nothing would happen before all brothers had met and talked it through.
The other brothers also wanted to put their mother at a home but not out of greed and Kodi hoped that they would take his side once he had explained it all to them. He would start out by spending the rest of his vacation with their mother and then he would go home every weekend until he had found a job closer to home. The idea had been brewing within him for days but listening to Ciar had made him certain that it was what he wanted to do. Ciar sulked for a while but bounced back as soon as the tractor started and he made it clear that his skills had been needed to start the tractor, Kodi was lucky that he had decided to visit that day.
Kodi had had enough and when they had dinner that evening and he simply stopped listening to Ciar and his endless drivel. The food tasted sawdust, it grew in his mouth and every time he tried to swallow, it felt as if he was suffocating. The pain in his chest grew and spread into his guts and head and he felt like throwing up. It was too much, it was all too much, he thought. How would he be able to go against his brothers and how would he be able to take care of their mother when he still was uncertain about if he could take care of himself.
Ciar gave them one last long-winded monologue about his own greatness after the dinner and then he finally left. Mrs. Jones and Kodi sat in silence for a while resting their minds and ears and then Mrs. Jones got up to do the dishes. He knew that he should offer to help her but he felt so unwell that he wanted to be alone and he told her that he would go for a walk and that she did not have to wait up for him.
His feet led him straight to the shed and he found the bag with clothes when he lit the candle. It was painfully disappointing to find that she had been there and that he did not get to talk to her. In the bag, he also found the drawing of the crow and the butterfly that she had made when he gave her the sketchbook and he put it on the wall in the shed since it felt as if it belonged there. It all felt better when he thought about their planned meeting the next day and he wondered what story her drawings would tell.
Chapter 17
His heart started singing when he saw her dance down the path, he could not stop himself from smiling and he had to hug her hard and long when she finally had made her way to him. Her laughter turned into small explosions of joy that captured him and pulled him with them, away from the frustrated sadness and into Dina's wonderful world full with magical beings. The first thing she did was to show him the drawings she had done the day before and tell him about the hedgehog, the deer and the glowing gap in the ground, then she put the sketchbook away and let him lead the way into the wood.
The first thing he wanted to show her was a tree house that he had built when he was a boy. Like his father, he had also needed a place to hide in when his brothers were getting on his nerves. He had very cleverly hid it high up in the canopy in a maple grove and his brothers had never found it. It had taken him months of hard work and sneaking around to finish it and he had been so proud over what he had achieved that he had been bursting to tell it to someone. When he could not hold it any longer, he had told his father and invited him to visit. His father had inspected it from every angle and then he had praised Kodi for a work well done and promised to keep the secret from his brothers. It was a happy place and he was certain that Dina would like it.
Kodi had taken the picnic basket and free from the burden her whole body felt like dancing. She happily stretched out and moved, free from burdens and limitations and on her way on a new adventure. Now and then, she would trip to the side of the path or skip and jump between rocks and roots while looking for beings that might be able to help them with their quest, and Kodi would patiently wait for her. Gnomes were peeking out of their hollows to greet them as they passed by and her friends among the trees would rattle their leaves and whisper in the wind to tell her what they knew about the ash named Vivek.
It was fascinating to see the world through her eyes, he thought, and she noticed things that he just walked past without seeing. She showed him flowers, insects, bird's nests, even lizards and a toad that he had walked past. Then there were the magic beings, trees with life in them spirits in rocks, water and in the wind, all things that he had known as a child but had forgotten as he grew up and started dreaming of a life in the city. He remembered how he had tried to trap fairies once because he wanted to know what they looked like and he wondered what Dina would think if he told her about it.
It was not until he stopped underneath the great maple that she understood where he was taking her and she laughed with joy, he knew about the tree house too. They climbed up to the tree house and she did not say a word about it, it would be obvious soon enough.
"I built this when I was a boy," he told her as he helped her up on the last branch. "I needed a place to get away from my brothers."
She smiled and nodded understandingly.
"I figure you'll like a place like this. Welcome."
He smiled and opened the door and she went in before him. She moved to the side, let him in too, and waited while he looked around, he started laughing and the laugh was so contagious that she had to laugh too.
"I should have known," he huffed between the laugh attacks.
They were sitting on the floor and she hugged him tightly, "I'm happy it's yours."
He held her in his arms as he stopped laughing and looked around the walls of the tree house; she had filled them all with colourful drawings of her magical world. The landscape on each wall matched the landscape outside of it and then she had filled in the beings that could not be seen.
"It's wonderful Dina, simply amazing."
Chapter 18
By noon, they had made their way to the far side of the tarn and they found a nice spot by the foot of an old pine tree where they could eat and rest. Dina brought out the sketchbook and made several quick drawings of what had happened so far and Kodi saw all the things he had missed for the first time. The gnomes looking out of hollows underneath roots, the faces of the trees and rocks and even a herd of fusschummies stampeding away from the crow as it tripped over a loose rock. The crow and the butterfly were there too of course and each time she drew them she added something new, small and simple details that made them look more and more like him and her.
The next brook they explored seemed more promising, they followed the brook up the mountain slope and Dina was so happy that she had to sing. It did look as if they finally had found the right brook. Her childish enthusiasm rubbed off on Kodi and it was not only his heart that felt lighter his feet felt it too as hurried to keep up with Dina. The beauty of the world lifted his spirit and he felt as carefree as he had been as a child. He did not sing and dance as Dina did though being happy was enough for him.
The brook became narrower the higher up the mountain they got and then it disappeared under a rocky section that looked, as a river of rocks flowing down the mountainside, wild and bubbling, and the only things that grew on it was moss. Dina skipped over the rocks and stuck her head down between them now and then to listen for the sound and dripping water. Sometimes she would stop, look confused and turn around to go looking at another side instead. Kodi waited patiently, on the topic of magical things she was the expert and all he could do was to trust that she would find the way.
They climbed farther up the mountain and they both kept an eye on the ground and the rocks on it until Dina suddenly stopped and squeaked with excitement.
"Look!"
Kodi stopped and looked in the direction that she was pointing, to the side of the rock river he saw a small ash tree, standing alone among the rocks. It was a stunning sight, he had never thought that she would find what she was looking for, and to him it had all been a bit of fun and a way to be together with her. The tree looked old even though it was a small tree, the gnarled stem was filled with knurls and knots and the roots could be seen as they tenaciously clasped the rocks determined to hang on and kept he tree standing.
"The cold spring is here," Dina let him know.
He looked down to the rocky ground and saw Dina's copper curls stick up from a gap in the rocks a few meters down from the tree. She was shining with joy as she crawled out and up on a rock beside it.
"We found it."
"You found it," he replied and climbed up to sit next to her. "The view is amazing." He added as he looked down into the valley.
She picked up her sketchbook and pencils and started to draw it all, the warm sun shining on the mountainside and the valley, the trees and the river of rocks, the birds and animals and then the beings. Then she turned and drew the ash tree and the surroundings above it. An ordinary, though gnarly, ash was standing there in the drawing. They had found it but they still did not know the magic that would show its true nature to them.
Chapter 19
They were called the Beag and Mimi was their leader. They had been living by the roots of the ash since the time began Mimi explained and they were the guardians that kept the tree safe from harm. Life out in the barren rock river was hard and they always struggled to grow their food and store it safely. Keeping the food safe was a great problem for them even if they had ermines as guards, there were so many hungry creatures out there and some, such as the rats, were cunning too. Dina gladly shared the leftovers with them while drawing the story that they had to tell, while waiting for a chance to ask about the one thing that was really on her mind, the magic.
It was a beautiful place and Kodi enjoyed the view while he waited for Dina to finish her sketches. He could see the chimney on his mother's house but the Millers house was hidden behind the trees that were surrounding it. To the south of the houses, he could see the fields and the ditches that separated them, in some places, there would be a tree or two and then the fields would keep on going. At the distance, it looked like a big colourful quilt that had been spread over the landscape. The creek had dug its way down into the ground and he could not see the water though he knew where it was flowing.
Down to the west on the mountainside, he could see a buzzard couple circle an old pine tree and down on the tarn there was a duck couple swimming around. Everything was calm and tranquil and his thoughts wandered to his mother. He had not been back to visit her as often as he should have and it had been disheartening to come back and see how things really were. There were so many things that she needed help with even though she still was bright and alert. His sudden decision to move back felt right as he thought it through and it was not as scary as it had seemed the other day. The house and the buildings surrounding it was in need of repairs, the fields had not been tended to for years, it would be hard work to get them back in shape again, and then there was the thicket that had grown like weeds.
Dina looked up at the sky; the sun had moved down to the west, "It's time to go."
Kodi took one last look at her drawings while she packed the basket again. A tiny kind of people had emerged from the rocks and they were different from everything he had seen her draw before.
"Who are they?" he asked while giving back the sketchbook.
Dina told him about the Beag while they climbed down the rock river, they knew of the magic, she let him know, but they did not want to talk about it.
"They said that we'll find it when the time is due," she sighed. "But when will that be? The haze will not wait and I know that it's dangerous."
Kodi tried to find the right thing to say but could not find the words and he decided to change the topic instead.
"It's late. We better hurry so that Belinda doesn't get mad. You'll have time to figure this out later."
The mention of Aunt Belinda snapped her out of her worries and into a new set of problems; Aunt Belinda would be very upset if she did not show up as soon as the bell rang. She stopped talking and walked as fast as she could around the tarn and back to the path that led back home. The beings looked surprised as she rushed past them without greeting them but her worries about Aunt Belinda were too great and she knew that she could always explain her actions to them later.
Kodi noticed the change too but he was not surprised, the thought of Belinda still invoked fear in him, how bad would it not be to live with her then?
The bell rang as they walked through the wood and he told her to run, he would put the basket in the shed so that she could pick it up later.
Chapter 20
Next, he called his second oldest brother, Brew, to tell him the same thing. Brew was enthusiastic relieved about the thought of his little brother looking after their mother, he had felt badly about putting her in a home but saw no other options and they all had lives away from the old town. He exploded into a long rant as soon as Ciar was mentioned and he openly accused him of being a good-for-nothing mooching parasite and an arrogant irritating gnat. Hearing his brother's outburst made Kodi feel better about it all, he was not alone. Brew also suggested that Kodi should try to look into their mother's money to see if Ciar owed her anything.
The last call he made was for his third brother, Tad, and he felt happier and more confident as he got hold of him. Tad let him know that he envied him in a way; he missed the area and wished that he could go back, but life did not let him. He brushed the words about Ciar to the side, it was just who he was, it was nothing to worry about. C'est la vie. Then he went on to asking about what the farm looked like, did the flowers bloom, where there any fruits and berries, how did the fields look and how about the creek? Kodi told him about how he had cleared up the thicket by the creek and that a squirrel couple raising their young in the old tree at the backyard. He felt like telling Tad about Dina but changed his mind, how could he possibly explain that he followed her around in her fantasy world and still sound sane?
Having his older brothers' approval felt well and he looked around with confidence, he could do this, he could really do it. The house, yard and the area around it looked different somehow, not as Dina's drawings though, it looked more real than it had ever looked to him before. He could see the things that needed to be done, not only now but also later on in the future. The bushes were not only bushes anymore, he could see the berries they would carry, how they would need extra support and how they would need pruning. He already knew how to do it since he had helped his parents while he was living at home, the only difference would be that he had to shoulder the responsibility of doing it.
At dinner he talked to his mother about it, not mentioning the thoughts about putting her at a home of course, and asked her what she thought about him moving back home to help her out. She started out by assuring him that she still could make it on her own, she was not as quick at things as before but there was still life in the old lady she insisted. He agreed with her but pointed out that there were things that she needed an extra hand to be done and he could be that extra hand. It was not as if he would move back home the next day, it would take time since he still had his job in the city. His mother became more positive as the thought sank in, it would be nice to have a helping hand and it would not be as if he completely gave up his life to look after the homestead.
He could see her become lighter as if the burden on her shoulders had been lifted and it felt good to know that he was the one lifting it. His vacation would last for another week and then he would drive back for the weekends, it was only a two hour drive and he could leave after work on Friday and drive back in the morning on Monday. There were many things he wanted to do during the two days he could spend there, including seeing Dina, but he did not tell his mother that. The room he was staying in was a small room that he and Ciar had shared and it had never occurred to him that he could use another room, but his mother thought it would be a good idea to move into a larger room if he were to spend so much time there.
After the dinner, they went and looked at the rooms and he decided for the room that had belonged to Tad. Tad was an artist and he was always playing one or another instrument and the brothers had all agreed that it was better if he had a room of his own. The room was on the ground floor and at the outside of the annex his father had built for the laundry room; it was almost as an apartment by itself. The room was full with things that no one used and it could use some wall paint but it would be nice for him to live in. It seemed appropriate, a new room and a new beginning.
Chapter 21
It was late when Dina finally could slip out of the house and she was tired but she needed to get the basket back. "Just the basket," she thought, "and then I'll go back and get some sleep." She ran through the dark wood and over to the shed. There was light coming out through the window and she stopped to make sure that it was Kodi before she went inside. He was sitting by his father's workbench and his hands were busy making something, she looked over his shoulder to see what it was. It was a small piece of wood that he had shaped into a butterfly, the antennae touched together and he was pulling a thin leather strap through the loop they were making.
"I've made it for you," he said and turned to her. "You gave me the drawing and I wanted to give something back."
She lifted her hair up and he tied it around her neck, it was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen.
"Thank you," she smiled and hugged him. "It's beautiful."
He had started a fire in the stove and they sat down on the floor in front of it, him holding her in his arms. She had not brought the sketchbook so she just sat there and relaxed and enjoyed the closeness. He told her about his decision, that he would be spending much more time there in the future and about the room that he would clean out and repaint. His words felt like a dream to her, she liked him and he would come back to stay one day, he would be there to help her figure out what the haze was and he would hold her in his arms and keep her safe.
"You're tired," he once again found himself stating the obvious.
She nodded and took his hand, "Aunt Belinda was extra horrid today."
"She scares me even though I'm grown up now," he let her know and then he told her about the time when she caught him filching in her garden. "I'd rather face a bad tempered dragon than her," he added at the end.
Dina smiled and turned to give him a hug, "She's not that bad. I think she's a really sad person that doesn't know how to cry."
"She still scares me," he let her know.
"How's your mother? Is she still looking for the cat?"
"No. Now she's crying because he's gone. It's horrible and I don't know what to do."
"Hug her, your hugs are safe," she told him. "And give it time."
"I'll try," he whispered into her hair and hugged her tightly.
Her curly hair tickled his face and he was overflowed by emotions, he wanted to keep her close and keep her safe for forever.
She turned and her lips touched his neck as she said, "She's lonely, she needs a friend."
Hot chills flowed through his body and it felt as if he could not breathe.
He mumbled, "OK."
"You are tired too," she turned to hug him. "It's time to go."
He sat there on the floor long after she had left while trying to sort his thoughts and feelings.
Chapter 22
She would be there to share her sketches and talk for a while when he stopped to rest. The haze kept on bothering her and she was somewhat obsessed with the thought of figuring out what the magic was. As the days went by, he could see how she grew more and more scared of the haze and he could not calm her. It had started out as thin darker streaks flowing across her drawings of the fields and then it had become darker and thicker for each day that passed. She had stopped going out into the fields and preferred to stay on the wood, often up in a tree. One day she had insisted on going back to the ash and he had followed her in the hope that it would help her to let the whole thing go, but she did not manage to life the magic and stop the haze so her obsession lived on.
Dina's world was not as happy and carefree as she had created it anymore and it bothered her; she had to solve the problem of the dark gloomy haze so that things could go back to normal again. She spent almost all her time out of the house talking to beings and looking for answers while her heart grew heavier and heavier. During the time she had to stay indoors, she would read books and look for answers there or sum up what she already knew to see if she could figure out how to solve the strange puzzle.
Aunt Belinda was becoming increasingly upset with not only the personnel at the hospital but also people in general and she held long bickering monologues each evening. Nothing that Dina did was good enough even when she did things exactly as Aunt Belinda had told her to do it. It was too much salt in the food or there was too little, the floors Dina had washed in the morning was dirty in the evening even though no one had been in the house to walk on them, the laundry did not smell clean and the flowers on the windowsills were either over or under watered. At times Dina felt like screaming and throwing things around her but she never did, she simply did her best to make Aunt Belinda happy and then she sneaked out into the wood as soon as she had the chance.
In the evenings she would bring cookies or buns that she had baked, he would bring something to drink, and then they would go to either the tree house or the shed to relax and talk. He would hold her in his arms and listen to her ideas about the haze and the magic while wishing that he could shake her back into reality, it was just a fairytale, and all she had to do was to change it. She had said that his hugs were safe and that had touched his core, he had never felt so important or special before and he never showed her the frustration he felt about it all. Perhaps she would calm down if he just hugged her enough many times. He would try to offer suggestions about what she could do though it felt awkward to him, his imagination was not as rich and amazing as her was and usually he simply listened.
The only time she could somewhat relax from the biting worries was late in the evening when he was holding her while patiently listening to her ramblings. He did not help her out much but she would always listen to his suggestions and value them, he had an ability to say the wisest things within a few words. Most important of all was that he made her feel safe even though the haze was worrying her, he was like a living shield of light that kept the dark haze away from her while she tried to figure out how to stop it from entering her world.
Chapter 23
The beings were scared, the fusschummies were trembling in their burrows and the birds were mostly calling out in warning. It was as if the whole world was holding its breath whiles waiting for what was about to happen. The haze was coming closer and it could not be stopped. The trees could not run and they turned inwards to hide from the danger on the outside. Mr. Rowan Tree had not turned inwards though and he was still there so that she could talk to him but it would not last for long, the fall had started and he would have to prepare for the winter hibernation soon.
She was sitting in the tree house during a rainy day when she realized that there was one thing that she had forgotten to look into, the glow in the ground that had been seen by the brother of a bird. It was a strange thing to happen and it could be connected to the rest somehow, why had she not thought of that before? Maybe she had to find the glow to stop the dark haze. She tried to remember what the bird had said about it and what had been going on in the world when it as seen, maybe there was a connection somewhere.
The cold fall rain was pouring down but she still wanted to follow her new lead and she put her raincoat on and started to look for beings to talk to about it. The only sound in the world was the falling rain and when she tried to sing the rain sucked the words up and threw them on the ground where they mixed with the dirt and faded, so she stopped trying to sing. She talked to the trees and they replied reluctantly, they had not seen or heard of any glow coming out of the ground. The gnomes shook their heads and closed their doors when she knocked to ask and the hedgehogs were more interested in knowing if she had brought something that they could eat. An old and slow toad pointed her to the squirrel family by Mrs. Jones house saying that he had once heard them chatter about a glow.
On the way there, she talked to Sela the rock and Sela thought that she should talk to the chicken guard rocks by the creek first; they had news about the haze. The rock guards were busy at work when she got there, the silver road was buzzing with life and movement and they were trying to keep order among the beings that were stampeding to leave the area as fast as they could.
"The haze were seen three klicks south at O 800 this morning," a guard reported to her. "It is dark as night, thick as mud and the reports say that it is controlled by a male human being."
The guard stopped to shout orders to a group of bewildered Undines that were causing commotion at the north-going lane.
"It has since progressed to one klick south and it is still moving," the guard continued. "We are building fortifications by the bridge, and all citizens south of the border have been ordered to evacuate."
Understanding that he was busy, she quickly thanked him for the information and headed on to look for the squirrel family. Dina waited for the squirrel family to come home for hours but they never showed up. "It's the haze," she told herself. "They have put their young to safety." The bell rang as she was on her way back to Aunt Belinda's house and she ran to get back there.
Chapter 24
Dina, as sweet as she was, was just strange. He liked her but she was just pushing things too far, some imagination could be cute, but her imagination went far and beyond and she took it all way to seriously. It was as if she was barely anchored in reality at all, every time he had tried to talk about real life such as where she had lived or where she went to school and such things, she would avoid the topic and start talking about fusschummies and other fantasy being. How could anyone be so out in the blue?
After work, he would go out with his friends to the pub and have a couple of beers and they would talk about all and nothing. He had told them about his thoughts about moving back, all the work that needed to be done on the estate and how his mother mourned the cat, but he did not say a word about Dina. Earlier he had avoided talking about her with his brothers because how he felt about her and now he avoided it again for the same reason though the feeling had changed. He was embarrassed. She was childish and immature and looking at her she could be confused for a child, short as she was, he worried what people would think of him if they found out that he was following a girl around while encouraging her fantasies rather than reality. A child was what she was even though she was old enough. The voice from the grocery store haunted him and the word "retard" made him sick, Dina was not a retard, she was bright enough but she was still more of a child than a young woman and I bothered him. What kind of man did it make him?
The thought of going back to his mother that Friday felt as a burden far heavier than the burden he had carried there the first day of his vacation and as the day went by, he regretted telling his mother about his decision more and more. It had been too hasty, far too hasty and now he had trapped himself with his own words. The pain in his chest painted vivid pictures of a fox biting his leg off to be freed from a trap in his mind and it bothered him to no end. During the nights, he would trash about in the bed, hoping to be able to sleep while fighting an urge to leave the apartment and go for a walk instead.
During the last night in the city, he stopped fighting and went for a walk. Asphalt streets, concrete walls, neon lights and the sounds of a never sleeping city greeted him. The rain had stopped an hour earlier and the air was filled with the scent of wet filth and fumes and the street lights looked as alien beings that had starved to death long ago. The sharp shadows drew uncomfortable lines on even more uncomfortable surfaces and trapped all living things in cages from where they would never be able to break free. Feeling even more depressed he gave up on it all and drew to work early, he might as well see if there was anything, he could do since he was wide-awake.
In the evening, he stalled the unavoidable by working over and then by going to eat at a restaurant before leaving. He knew that his mother would be waiting for him with the dinner ready but justified the delay by telling himself that he had been up since the early morning and that he needed something to eat before the two-hour drive. Then a friend called while he was packing, his car had broken down and he needed a lift, Kodi immediately offered to drive him home. It was in the opposite direction from his home and it would add another hour in the car for him.
Chapter 25
"Run! Run! Run!"
Voices where screaming and roaring and Dina ran as fast as she could to the bridge to see if the fortification was holding. As she came closer, she could see how the defence had fallen and how the dark gloomy haze consumed everything in its path with terrifying fury.
"Run! Run! Run!"
She ran as fast as she could and her lungs hurt so much that she wanted to stop and throw up but the fear made her keep on running.
"Run! Run! Run!"
The world was crying out in terror and in agony and Dina kept on running. She tripped over a root and fell to the ground and the fall broke the wind out of her, she struggled to breathe, struggled to get back up on her feel and keep on moving.
"Run! Run! Run!"
Her chest hurt, her head hurt, her feet hurt but fear was greater than the pain and she managed to force herself to start running again.
"Run! Run! Run!"
The trees where moaning and groaning, the birds were flying high while crying out their warnings, "It is coming! The haze is here!"
The earth itself was crying in pain with a high-pitched shrilling sound and the rocks were ringing their warning bells as loud as they could.
"Run! Run! Run!"
She fell, got up, kept on running, fell, got up and kept on running in what seemed as an endless circle. The pain had faded to a point where she could not feel it anymore and she kept pushing on even stronger than before. She had no plan, no aim; all she knew was that she had to keep on running to get away from the haze, to save herself, to save the world.
"Run! Run! Run!"
The dark was all around her, grasping for her, pulling her hair and clawing her skin and face. She was screaming in fear, crying for help and the dark put its hands over her mouth and silenced her.
Chapter 26
"Belinda's niece has gone missing," she said.
"Huh?"
"That girl, the peculiar one, she's missing," she clarified.
"She probably fine," he said while pouring himself a cup of cocoa.
"I don't think so," his mother said with determination. "The sheriff is putting together a search team, you should join them."
"I don't know," he muttered while trying to sort his tired thoughts.
"You should at least go over to the Millers' and hear what they have to say," her voice made it clear that he had no other option.
He put on a warm jacket and went outside; Belinda had probably figured out that Dina sneaked out of the house at night he thought. It was a cold night and it was likely that Dina was curled up in front of the potbelly stove in the shed happily working on a sketch without knowing anything about the commotion. The shed was empty when he got there but that did not worry him; there were many other places where she could be.
All lights where on in the Millers' home and there were several cars parked outside. People were talking to one another or on cell phones and they made him think of Dina's fusschummies stampeding around. Herman was standing to the side of it all, looking as if he had been snapped from the calm of his home and into a circus, and he was now trying to understand what had happened.
"Hi," Kodi greeted him. "Kodi Jones."
Herman shook his hand whiles studying him, "Have you seen her?"
"I just got back, I don't know what's happening," Kodi let him know.
"It's terrible," Herman's eyes filled with tears and his lips shivered. "Jasper died. I had to leave Belinda at the hospital. It was a chock to her. Even though she knew, it would happen. I was to look after the girl. She's my responsibility. She's a bit dim that one. Needs looking after. I told her what had happened. She ran." He lifted his hand and pointed down the road towards the bridge and the fields. "She's gone. Can't find her."
"She's not dim," Kodi defended Dina, "I've talked to her many times and she's both smart and funny."
Herman wrinkled his face to push his heavy glasses up his nose and studied Kodi as if he was a rare bug, "Can't be Dina you've met. The girl doesn't speak. Not a word."
Kodi was stunned and did not know what to say at first then he managed to squeeze out, "Not a word?"
"Not a word," Herman nodded. "Stopped talking the day her parents died."
It was not that he did not trust Herman but he needed to hear it from someone else and he had spotted Miss Dora inside the house so he went to talk to her. Miss Dora confirmed that Dina was truly missing and had been so for many hours and that Dina had not said a word in over a year, it had been a car crash she explained, Dina had been in the car with her parents but survived. They were searching the fields and the creek to see if they could find her, but the dark was making it hard.
"Poor girl," she said, "she's helpless out there. Lord knows if she even has the sense to try to find her way to a place that's dry and warm."
"Miss Dora," Kodi picked his words, "I've talked to Dina. I mean… I've really had conversations with her."
Miss Dora looked as if she wanted to object but she said nothing.
"She would never go out on the fields, she fears them," he knew he was right but he feared having to explain why. Would anyone understand?
"And why is that?" Miss Dora looked at him sternly.
“She's…” he struggled to figure out how to tell it. “She's afraid of the fields. No, afraid is not the word, she's terrified. She'd never go out on the fields and if she did she would be in a hurry to get out of there.”
"And you are sure of that?" Miss Dora rose and eyebrow.
"Yes," he sighed. "She'd go into the wood and probably climb a tree. She's like that."
Chapter 27
Kodi went back home to get warmer clothes, a flashlight with extra batteries and tell his mother where he was going. She made warm cocoa while he found an old backpack to put dry clothes and a blanket in, if she was cold and wet. The knot in his chest was so tight he could barely breathe, and he struggled to keep his tired mind focus on where he should look for her. The shed one more time, the tree house for sure and the barn too, then he would have to look in all her favourite trees. He smiled to himself; she had even named them.
Mrs. Jones looked tired and he assured her that he knew what he was doing and told her to get some sleep; he would wake her up when he came home so that she would know that he was safe again. She showed him that she had packed sandwiches and buns too, the girl should be hungry if he found her. He thanked her and told her once again to go to get some sleep, even though he knew deep inside that she would sit up and wait for news from him.
He quickly searched through the barn and the shed and then he went straight for the tree house, praying that she would be there, curled up in a blanket and sketching on something. The pain of not finding her there felt as if it could drive him insane and he walked through the wood frantically looking up into threes and calling her name, he had to find her. She had told him that he felt safe to her, and he wanted her to be safe, not out there in the dark scared and alone. Even worse, she might be injured.
It took him hours to make his way through the woods and to the fir trees by the tarn and there he stopped to think it all through again. The air turned his breath to smoke, the temperature had dropped below freezing and he needed to find her as soon as possible. She had not gone to the places she would normally go, but why. Herman had given her the bad news and she started running towards the bridge. There were trees along the road there and by the bridge itself but they had all been checked already and she was not there. She must have kept on running, but not out into the fields because they scared her. He was certain of that. There were trees along the creek and she had created guard beings by it, perhaps she had gone there for protection. He turned and walked back to the creek to follow it and search the trees that surrounded it, the thought that she had slipped and fallen passed through his mind but he pushed it away.
He followed the creek down to the bridge on one side, walked across the bridge to get to the other side and walked back to the tarn on the other. There was not a trace of her there; it was as if she had never been there at all. He sat down underneath one of the fir trees to rest his feet and think it through again. Could she really be out in the fields? His whole body said, "No!"
"I bet you have the answer," he said to the fir tree and patted the stem. "Either you or Mr. Rowan."
For a moment, he hoped that the tree would talk to him as I did to Dina or that a gnome would pop his head out from underneath a root and point the way. It would be nice to see any of her beings, he thought, even a panicky herd of fusschummies and it would have been convenient to be able to ask the trees if she was there rather than having to walk around them while trying to see if she was up there or not. The birds would have been of much help too, they could have flown across the treetops and come back with the results of their search within an hour or less. She would go to a tree if she could, he was certain of it, and then it dawned on him…
Chapter 28
"I failed," she sobbed and cried when she saw him. "I failed."
"It's not your fault," he wrapped the blanket around her and held her tightly. "It's not your fault."
"It is," she wailed. "The haze killed him. I didn't stop it. I failed."
"Jasper?" he asked.
The pain in her cry said it all.
"Dina. It's not your fault," he tried to make eye contact with her. "Dina! He had cancer. It could not be stopped. Not by you. Not by the doctors. Not by anyone."
"It's still moving," she whispered with a shivering voice. "More people will die."
Her pale face turned even paler, she broke free from his arms and started to crawl up the rock river again. He reached out, grabbed her and pulled her back and she cried out in pain as if he had struck her.
"Dina. You're injured. You have to let me help you."
"I have to stop it, I have to."
She did not move or even try to; she just sat there. He wrapped her in the blanket again, rubbed her ice-cold hands and started to try to figure out how badly injured she was.
"Does this hurt?" he asked as he moved her arms and legs. "Dina! Does it hurt?"
She just sat there without moving or responding. Her left ankle was blue and swollen but he could not decide if it was sprained or broken.
"Dina, I've got warm dry clothes and cocoa," he told her. "I'll help you get warm. OK?"
She did not move and he hurried to pull her wet clothes off and put the dry clothes on while rubbing her so that she would be warmed a bit, then he opened his own jacket and put her as close to his own warm body as he could and wrapped the blanket around them. He held the mug with cocoa, and she drank out of it little by little.
"It's OK Dina," he kept telling her. "It's OK."
He looked down the mountainside, it was a long climb to make with Dina as she was, and even farther to go before they would be back at the houses. It would be better and safer to go to the side of the rock river and start a fire there to keep her warm, there was also a possibility that someone would see the smoke and come there to see why the fire was burning. Dina started shivering and he tried to tuck her in as much as possible to keep her warm.
"Dina, you need to help me," he told her. "Are you listening?"
She seemed to nod slightly and her arms seemed to reach for him.
"That's good Dina. I have to make a fire to warm you."
"It's too late," she whispered. "The haze is here." She pointed down to the foot of the mountain.
"It's not the haze. It's mist from the tarn. It's mist Dina."
"I failed. Now we die," she sobbed.
Frustrated he felt like shaking her and yelling that it was about time for her to return to reality. Her fantasy world was just that, a fantasy, but he stopped himself once again, he yelling at her would only make things worse.
"Dina, we're not going to die. You hear me? I won't let it happen," he spoke as softly as he could and kissed her cold face. "I won't let it happen."
She moved and put her hands in his armpits to warm them there, "How will you stop it?"
"With love," he kissed her face again. "And care. And hope."
Maybe it was as simple as that, he thought, love, care and hope were all ingredients in her fantasy world, even though they had faded. He looked around, the mist was still floating at the foot of the mountain but the sun was rising quickly, killing the shadows that surrounded the things in the valley. Her world, he lacked her imagination, what could he ever do to help her mend it. He turned to look up the mountain and his heart skipped a beat, stunned he realized that he would not have to imagine anything.
Chapter 29
She moved, thought about it and replied, "An ash I know there stands; Vivek is its name, a small tree, showered with shining dust. From there comes the dews that drop in to the valleys. Vivek stands forever over the well of wisdom. Once the magic is lifted, the seeker will see its iron roots, copper branches and silver leaves."
"Look at the ash," he told her. "Can you see it?"
She moved so that she could look over his shoulder and up the mountain.
"Iron roots, copper branches and silver leaves," he repeated. "The dews that drip into the valley."
The sunrays had been caressing the higher part of the mountain for a while and the frost-covered mountainside had started to melt here and there. The ash that Dina had found were standing there basking in the sun as tall and proud as an old withered ash possibly could. Its frost-covered roots were still grasping the rocks and in the shade from the rocks, the roots looked as if they were made of iron. The early sun added extra colour to the ash's branches and they shined like copper. The frost on the leaves had started to thaw and drip down to the ground like a soft rain but many leaves were still partly or fully covered with silvery frost that sparkled and shined in the sunlight.
"Can you see it Dina?" he asked. "The dew is dripping down on the cold spring and the water flows down into the valley bringing the magic with it."
As if on cue, the sun had risen high enough for the sunrays to reach them where they were sitting and he knew that it would help him enhance the magic.
"Look around us Dina, see, the magic is forcing the dark haze to back off."
He followed her big astounded eyes as she looked around.
"You did it," she whispered. "You did it."
"No," he hugged her. "You did it. I would never have been here if it wasn't for you. I would never have known. You did it by telling me about it."
"Then we did it," she said soberly. "We."
He rubbed her feet and legs to keep them warm and realized how cold he felt too, he had better start that fire he had been thinking of.
"Wait here, I'll go start a fire," he told her. "Remember to stay warm and move around."
She smiled at him and nodded, "I will."
The dark gloomy haze was retreating slowly but steadily down into the valley and Dina watched with a light heart. The magic worked. She rubbed her hands against her feet but all she could feel was icy coldness.
"My father used to start contests between me and my brothers when we were kid," he told her when he came back to get her. "I always saw it as fun, but I never thought that I'd have any real use for it. One contest was about whom could start a campfire the fastest. Today I'd been a winner."
"Your father was a wise man," she told him as he picked her up and carried her to the fire. "The Beag leader, Mimi, she said 'we' not 'you', remember? She said that 'we' would solve the magic when the time was right."
"I remember," he assured her even though he did not remember the exact wording of that Dina had told him.
The flames were already high and she could feel the warmth from the fire when he put her down on a cushion made of fir twigs. He sat down behind her so that she could rest her back on his chest and poured her a mug with cocoa. Then he opened the box with sandwiches and buns offered them to Dina and had a sandwich himself because he was starving.
"My father was not a wise man," Dina suddenly said. "He and my mother were always fighting or drinking, or both. It was my fault. I was never good enough."
She started to cry, and he hugged her.
"It's not your fault Dina," he comforted her; still surprised that she had told him.
Suddenly she could feel the pain in her body, every scratch, cut and bruise were pounding, aching and burning.
"I'm in pain now," she let him know.
Chapter 30
It was too cold for her to make the sketches while she was outdoors and she memorized everything so that she could put it down on paper later. She stomped her feet to warm them and called for her new friends to hurry up. Ginger and Caramel came running while bouncing with joy, they had found something interesting that they wanted to share with her, and they pulled her with them deeper into the wood. Their enthusiasm made rubbed off on her and she laughed with joy as she skipped through the snow to catch up with them.
Kodi heard her laugh and he put the axe down to see what was so funny. She was dancing through the wood with the golden retriever puppies bouncing around her feet and then she fell to her knees to look underneath a bush. The puppies were eager to have a look to and they were sticking their noses there while huffing and barking. He smiled and shook his head, it was amazing how she could get the puppies involved and he longed for the evening when she would draw her adventures and show him what they had seen.
It was strange how things had worked out, he thought, as if Vivek's magic was real and had filled the valley with an endless string of glittering pearls of goodness. Belinda had moved to an apartment in a nearby town and it made the whole world brighter all by itself. Dina kept telling him how sad Belinda really was but all he could see was her meanness. His mother had bloomed when Dina moved in with them, and she did not seem as old and tired anymore. The plan had been to get one dog that could keep Dina and his mother company whiles he was working but Dina had fallen for two puppies and she had refused to let them go. The puppies had really made a difference in their lives and most of all in Dina's since she had to talk to them to train them and through that, they were training her. It was not that she could not talk she just found it hard to say things because people still scared her and having the puppies to talk to really helped her to open up and dare to speak.
Dina looked up, saw him and moments later she and the puppies were all around him, calling for his attention.
"It's amazing," she said. "They find things I'd miss if it was just me. They found a mummor nest right under that bush over there." She kissed him and then she started walking towards the house, "You're cold! I'll make cocoa!"
On her way to the house she thought about how lucky she was, she knew what people thought about her and that she was quite eccentric compared to the average young woman. Kodi was a brave man for daring to feel love, care and hope for a person as her.
Mrs. Jones jokingly scolded Dina and the puppies for dragging snow into the house, in reality she loved the life and energy that they brought to her home, it had been so quiet and gloomy since the boys moved out. Most of all she felt useful again; she still had a purpose in this life. And the girl… who would have thought that the numb pale shadow that was Belinda's niece was really a lively colourful and creative artist that showed promising talent. Mrs. Jones grandchildren already loved her and her fairytales and they kept begging their parents for permission to come to visit and explore the woods with Dina and their grandmother.
The house smelled like whet dog, hot cocoa and newly baked buns when he walked through the door and he knew that he was right where he belonged. The thought of life in the city felt foreign and unreal and he could not believe that he had actually considered it.
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