Keridwen of Khar Vell

The Jördlands Wing

Imafenduwell Hall

 

At last, the day had come when Imafenduwell Hall was set to receive Lalauri’s grandmother, Miss Ophelia—or “Grannie”, as Lalauri called her. They were to meet her at the gates of another wing of Imafenduwell Hall that connected to a place Lalauri called the Jördlands. As they crossed the seamless threshold between Junction Point and the Jördlands Wing, Keridwen felt an icy chill envelop her. Frost and snow could be seen gathering in the nooks and crannies of the different hallways, as well as on many pieces of furniture. There were many points where Lalauri and the nulliwumps would guide Keridwen down a makeshift path that avoided many of the large, sharp icicles that were threatening to fall down from where they were hanging onto whatever—or whoever—was underneath them.

Keridwen was struggling to feel the excitement that was clearly present in most of the others’ smiles. Keridwen had been counting down the days until she could wear the sparkly cream and gold dress Lalauri had bought her from the shop. And when the day finally came, she thought she would be elated.

However, Keridwen was feeling anything but excited or elated. She had been up for most of the previous night again because of her nightmares, with the images of her parents’ mutated faces even haunting her mind as they walked. That tiredness, mixed with the frigid cold, was doing a number on her body and her mood. She could feel the irateness swelling up inside of her as she fell behind the others.

Then suddenly she let out a small sneeze, and something worrisome happened: one icicle that had been growing off the bottom of a nearby painting frame had been magically transmogrified into a flower hanging upside down. A second sneeze caused one of the light fixtures on the wall to flicker between the colours purple and red for a moment, before settling back into its standard yellow-orange colour. When she sneezed for a final time, her own scarf transformed into an enormous snake, which she quickly and quietly flung off of herself and into a pile of snow in a panic.

While the others ahead of her all said “bless you” with every one of her sneezes, amazingly, none of them had noticed the magical effect of said sneezes. Thinking herself lucky, Keridwen wiped her nose and hurried to catch up with the others, keeping in mind to hold in any other sneezes that might try to rear their ugly heads.

The winter coat that Keridwen wore did little to protect her from the bitter cold that greeted them at the front gates to the Jördlands, leaving her shuddering and teeth chattering.

“You can see why we rarely spend much time in this wing of the hall, eh?” Cecil chuckled, as they followed Lalauri out into the courtyard outside. “Oh, not to worry, Little One. We won’t be here for long. As soon as we usher in Miss Ophelia, we’ll be heading straight back to Aureate!”

“And not a moment too soon.” Muttered Isolde, as she pulled her scarf up to better protect herself against the freezing wind and blowing snow. “Honestly, my body is covered in all of this fur, and what good is it doing me?”

“That’s because we’ve been in the sunny part of the world for too long, my love.” Cecil replied. “Give it time, and our bodies’ natural heating will kick in.”

“I think not! I refuse to stay in this wing any longer than I absolutely have to.”

“Not to worry, Isolde.” Chimed in Lalauri. She was looking through the bars of the iron front gates. “I think I can see her coming up the path now. Cecil, could you come and help me with this gate, please?”

With a pair of metal crowbars, they chipped away at the ice and worked to free the gates, wrenching them open just enough to allow entry. Sure enough, just as they had done so, two dark figures emerged from the snowy winds; They were much more bundled up in winter furs than either Keridwen or any of the others were. So much so that Keridwen couldn’t make out their faces at all.

She watched as Lalauri hugged one of them and shook the hand of the other, saying something that Keridwen couldn’t quite hear over the winds. The person who Lalauri hugged pulled down their coat’s hood and scarf, and Keridwen saw a female elf with a striking resemblance to Lalauri, making her momentarily think she was seeing double. The new elf lady had the same white hair as Lalauri, as well as her eyes, but Keridwen also noticed slight wrinkles about her face that Lalauri didn’t have.

Startled a bit, Keridwen took a step or two back when Lalauri and the newcomers all stopped their conversation to look directly at her. Not really knowing what else to do, Keridwen returned their gazes with a quick, nervous wave before quickly putting her hand back to her side as she mouthed, “Hi.”

The woman—who was no doubt Lalauri’s Grannie—gave Keridwen a warm smile and waved back at her. Grannie and her companion said their goodbyes, and once the gates had closed behind them, Cecil turned Keridwen around as they all headed back inside.

“Oh, finally! A tad bit of warmth!” As soon as they stepped inside the Jördlands Wing and the enormous doors closed behind them, Miss Ophelia started taking off her coat, even though it was still freezing inside the Hall. “Now then, who is this new face?”

It took Keridwen a moment to realize that the elder elf woman was talking to her and not Thumper. “Oh, me? My name is Keridwen. It’s nice to meet you.” And then, as an afterthought, Keridwen figured she would give a quick curtsy. It was awkward—seeing as she had never attempted a proper one before—but it earned her a warm smile from the elf lady.

“Well then, Keridwen,” said the elf. “My name is Ophelia Imafenduwell. And as I’m sure you know by now, I am Lalauri’s grannie. It’s nice to meet you as well. So then…where are your parents, Little Imagebearer?”

“Imagebearer?” Keridwen’s head crooked to the side. She had never been called that before.

“It’s a title meant for humans.” Said Lalauri. “And…as far as who her guardian is…you’re looking at her, Grannie. That would be me. I’m her…mother.”

The look on Miss Ophelia’s face changed from one of pondering to one of absolute shock. “What?” she chuckled nervously.

Before Lalauri had a chance to answer, though, Keridwen sneezed.

It was a loud sneeze that echoed through the foyer and the connecting halls. It was also a violent sneeze that was laced with untamed magic that came from the very depths of of her lungs and made her nose throb with pain. And worst of all, it was a sneeze that forcibly warped the fabric of reality in the room, and transformed the foyer into a miniature swamp; Trees with vines hanging down from them were now lining the walls of the entrance hall. The air had suddenly shifted from freezing cold to incredibly humid, making Keridwen roast in her winter coat, with sweat already flowing off her brow. As she and everyone else struggled to take their winter coats off amid their shock over what had just happened, it dawned on Keridwen that they were all standing in the middle of a large swamp.

The new swamp pond in question was taking up most of the floor. Although it wasn’t very deep, Keridwen’s heart raced as she—along with everyone else—quickly sank down into the mud at the bottom of the pond.

“Keridwen!” Lalauri screeched at her, causing Keridwen to recoil a little. “What are you doing?!”

“I didn’t mean to!” Keridwen replied, pleading with her eyes for Lalauri to believe her this time. “I…I was just so cold and the cold was making me sneeze and I—EEK!”

Something in the water had just brushed up against Keridwen’s leg. Something large.

As Keridwen opened her mouth to tell the others that something was in the water, that something exploded out of the water in front of her, sending a large gulp-full of the murky water into her mouth. Keridwen never got a chance to see what pounced right onto her and plunged her down beneath the murky depths of her swamp.

For what felt like an eternity, Keridwen slapped and kicked at her attacker as the creature in question thrashed her around in the mud. Finally, someone—or something else—dragged her out of the mucky water by the collar of her shirt and Keridwen got her first clear look at what had assailed her; it was a mermaid—although nothing like the mermaids she had imagined. The mermaid’s upper body had a pallid grey complexion, while her lower body was covered in dark green crocodile scales. As Keridwen was dragged out of the water, the mermaid’s razor-sharp teeth and solid red eyes were fixed hungrily on her.

“Back! Back!” came Cecil’s voice from behind her. It was he who had pulled her out of the water. “Get back! Keridwen, can you stand?”

“Yes.” Keridwen said, breathlessly.

“Good. Now go and stand over there by Thumper and the others. I’ll deal with this.”

Keridwen quickly obeyed Cecil’s command and scurried towards the edge of the swamp, which was closest to the hallway leading to Junction Point, where Thumper and the others were waiting to dry off. Once safe again, Keridwen watched as Cecil worked to clean up her mess. The mermaid was being relentlessly pushed back into the swamp by Lalauri and Miss Ophelia, who were both wielding large umbrellas like weapons.

Once the she-beast was fended off to a safe enough distance, the nulliwumps gathered together, and Keridwen watched as they once again removed the effects of her magic on the hall, returning it back into the freezing, treeless foyer that it was minutes ago.

With her hands clasped to her face, Keridwen’s eyes immediately landed on Lalauri to see her reaction. The Elven maiden returned her look with what Keridwen could only assume was a look of absolute disappointment.

“Lalauri, I didn’t…I just…it was the cold…and I…and I…”

Lalauri didn’t even shout at her or get even mad at her this time. Instead, she spoke in a soft, tired voice and didn’t even look her way. “I know, Keridwen.” She simply said. “I know. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault this time, either.” Helping Miss Ophelia to her feet, she then said, “Why don’t your just go to your room and work on some homework or something? I’ll call you when it’s time for dinner…”

The shame that Keridwen felt was unimaginable. Tears welling up in her eyes, she simply turned away from them all, ran down the halls back to the Old Aureate Wing, and locked herself in her room to cry along once again.

As she cried crouched up against her bedroom door, a woman’s voice said, “What’s the matter, Keridwen?”

Keridwen raised her head up so fast and without thinking that she accidentally slammed it hard against her bedroom door as she sat on the floor. “Who…who said that?”

“It’s me, your moose!” Out from under her bed covers crawled out her stuffed purple moose.

“You…you can talk?” And when the stuffed animal nodded its head, she asked, “Why have you never talked to me before? And wait a minute…I don’t remember having you…”

“Well, I’ve never seen you this sad before. And what do you mean you don’t remember me? I’ve been here all along!” The moose laughed.

“But…but then if you were here, you have seen me cry before…or you would have if…”

They both stared at each other silently for a moment.

“Do you wanna know something?” said the moose toy. “I don’t think it’s fair. Why does she keep coming after you for using magic?”

“Wait, you mean Lalauri?”

“Yeah! Everyone does magic. Even she used to use magic when she was your age—and when she grew up too! So why does she get mad at you for using it?”

“Wait…she used to use magic?”

“And y’know what? I think…she still does.”

Another moment of silence passed as Keridwen let the thoughts that this revelation created in her toss, turnover, and eventually settle into her mind. She was angry. After all those lectures, after all of those scoldings, reprimands, and looks of utter disappointment, Lalauri used magic herself.

“That liar!” Keridwen shouted as she stomped to her feet. “Wait a minute…how do you know this?”

The stuffed moose crooked its head and said, “I read her diary.”

That settled it then. Keridwen fumed; pacing back and forth and grumbling under her breath, Keridwen started to think up ways to get back at Lalauri for all the times that the elf had scolded her in front of others and made her to feel like a failure—all for doing something that Lalauri herself was doing.

The moose toy giggled. “I know what you’re thinking!” it said as it started hopping up and down on the bouncy bed. “You want to get back at her, don’t you?”

Keridwen stopped pacing, turned to face the magical toy, and simply nodded in response.

“Well…I might know how to do that. In fact, I know the perfect way to get back at her. The entire time you’ve been here, the elf’s been trying to teach you lessons and stuff. Well, this time, I’ll show you how to teach her a lesson that she’ll never forget.”