Strangetown, Here We Come: Chapter Thirty-Five - part three
Warnings: Implied death, both past and future
Chapter Thirty-Five
Part Three
Vidcund couldn't stop gazing out the window as the taxi wove its way across the Veronaville landscape. After spending the vast majority of his life in the desert, it was a feast to the senses. The window was down and the air was full of the scent of rich flora and fauna. It was invigorating.
"It's beautiful here," he said.
"Just wait until you see the house," Bottom said.
And she was right. Vidcund had been admiring the timber frame houses as they'd passed through town, but none of them had been quite as charming as the Summerdream's home, or as covered in ivy. The gardens were already in full bloom, and they were impressive in size. As Bottom took him out back to give him a tour, he actually whistled with awe.
Before long, they were ready for dinner. Vidcund took a seat at the head table, which he took secret delight in, having been exiled to the "children's table" for far, far too long at his own family gatherings. Once seated, he was formally introduced to the entire family, one after the other. He was happy to even see a couple of green faces in the crowd. It made him feel right at home.
"Welcome to our humble abode," Titania said, after they'd all had their turn. "it is a pleasure to have you as a guest at our table."
"The pleasure's mine."
"Before we begin, I'd like to offer a blessing on the meal. Let us thank the Earth for providing for us, and all those who's work has helped to bring this food to our table today. Eat with mindfulness and a grateful heart. Let's also take a moment to remember our fallen friends and neighbours. Our town has suffered a great loss. We carry the memories of those young people with us as we continue to live our lives, and appreciate the pleasures we partake in also for them."
After a brief silence, Titania waved her hand over the table. "Now dig in!"
"Thank you, Titania," Hermia said, "that was lovely."
"They will always be in our hearts, dear."
"And what a feast!" Hermia turned to Oberon. "Is this all your doing?"
"I had some help. The children. And Titania, as well."
"I was barely even a sous chef," said Titania. "Let credit go where credit is due, my sweet." They exchanged a wry smile across the table, its full meaning lost on all but the pair.
Vidcund's eyes scanned the table. He'd never seen so much food in one place before. The varieties of meat were only slightly familiar, so he assumed them to be game. The smell was wonderful.
Soon the room was filled with the sounds of people happily eating and half a dozen different conversations. The children's table was especially noisy. Mab, Doli, and Lorelei were alternating between debating the merits of the different types of food on their plates and asking Nuala and Morgan what seemed like a million questions. The girls took it all in stride.
"When do we get to eat dessert?" Mab asked, turning to Nuala.
"You can't be serious." Morgan said. "You just started eating!"
"You can have some when you clean your plate," said Nuala.
"But I want dessert now," Mab whined.
"You can have a piece of fruit, if you want." Nuala gestured to the bowl at the centre of the table.
"Like dessert fruit?" asked Mab.
"Fruit isn't a dessert," Doli declared, then started snickering. He flicked a pea across the table at her. "Are you dumb, or what?"
"Don't call people dumb, and stop playing with your food," Morgan said, not missing a beat. "And there's nothing wrong with what she said. Fruit is sweet. Dessert is sweet. Fruit can be a dessert."
"Maybe, uh, if you put some some... syrup on the fruit," offered Lorelei, with her slow and careful way of speaking. "Then it could be a dessert."
Morgan nodded enthusiastically, encouraging the quieter child. "Exactly! There's fruit in all sorts of desserts."
"Can I put some syrup on my dinner?" asked Mab, flipping her red braids back and forth, beaming with pride at her cleverness. This elicited a long sigh from both of her older sisters.
Back at the head table, the conversation turned to the nature of Vidcund's visit, and then to Vidcund himself.
"So tell us a little about yourself, Vidcund," Titania began. "Bottom here tells me that you're a scientist and a scholar. And a fellow nature enthusiast! I can see why Bottom invited you out this way. There's no better place to be, if you're interested in studying plantlife."
"That's right," he said. "I'm a botanist. My focus is on african violets."
"Very nice!" she said. "Such lovely creatures! And you've become quite an expert in that field?"
"You could say so," Vidcund nodded. "There's always much more to learn..."
"Has Bottom told you about any of her own botanical achievements?" Titania asked.
Titania!" Bottom protested. "Must you brag?"
Titania smiled the tiniest of smiles, as if she were forcing back laughter. "Why, it wasn't so long ago that you would have been telling anyone who would listen about your projects, my love. Jumping up and down, clamouring for us to look at you!" She turned to Vidcund. "Always did like the attention, that one."
"You're embarrasing me," Bottom said.
"That's what mothers are for, my dear." Her smiled widened.
"Stop torturing the poor girl," Oberon said, through laughter. "She's not a child anymore."
"Yes, I know," she said, smiling. Titania beamed with pride at the intelligent, sophisticated woman that Bottom had become, but she wisely chose not to say so. That would really send her daughter over the edge. But she couldn't help but feel proud. Bottom had grown so much and really come into her own in the last number of years.
"Oh, but I'll always be a child to Titania!" Bottom said, not noticing her mother's wistful gaze.
"This is normal, by the way," Puck said, turning to Vidcund.
"Really, I don't know how they've lived here with all the peace and quiet since Bottom left!" he added.
"Shut up!" Bottom protested.
"See? There you go! You're just as bratty as ever!"
"Now, children!" Titania warned.
After they stopped laughing, Titania returned to her point. "As I said, that's what mothers are for."
"Fathers, too," said Oberon. "And, on that note, can you please help your dear father and pass him the gravy?"
She passed the gravy boat over the table to Oberon, who poured out a heroic serving all over his well-heaped plate. Vidcund watched this excessive display in awe and mild disgust. He'd never really liked gravy.
"And so you want to see our forests?" he asked Vidcund.
Vidcund nodded. "I've heard so much about them."
"There are no other forests quite like the ones in our territories," Oberon said, his pride obvious in every word. "I will lead you in there after we clean up from our meal. You'll need a guide."
"You're sure you're not too busy?" Bottom asked.
"Well, I do need to tend to Cluaracan," he said, gesturing to the high chair in the corner, "but I think he'll enjoy the trip just as much as we will."
"Oh - oh! Can I go too?" asked Mab, from the other table.
Oberon turned to face the child. "...And?"
"And PLEASE?!"
He smiled. "Yes, of course, my dear."
"You'd better hurry up and eat, before he invites half the family along!" Titania said.
The room filled with laughter once more.
Before long, they were on their way.
It was a turning out to be a perfect day for a walk in the woods, with not a cloud in the sky. The sounds and smells were even more delightful, the further they travelled into the forrest, Vidcund noticed.
They spent the whole afternoon there, and most of the evening. Oberon was a knowledgeable and entertaining guide. Vidcund was having the time of his life.
"The sun will soon set," he observed. "I need to go back. Are you sure you want to hang on for a while longer?"
"We'll be fine," Bottom said.
"Yes, of course. I have no worries."
He looked up over the tops of the trees. "But, you know... this is a very special place. You never know what you might find out here."
"That would be the idea. We're hoping to discover some interesting specimens for Vidcund to bring back, and I know some things only come out at night around here."
"Right you are," he said.
Cluaracan was reaching for his braids and chewing on them, so Oberon gently distracted him from it, running his hands through the boy's hair.
"Are you a family man, Vidcund?" he asked, after a pause.
"I guess you could say that," he nodded, considering the potential differences in meaning between Oberon's version of this word and the one favoured by most sims. Oberon seemed more like a happy housewife than the one who brought home the bacon. "I come from a large family, and I have two children of my own. Plus my brother's daughter... we all live together."
Oberon smiled at this. "It takes a village to raise a child. This is very wise."
Vidcund grinned, much wider than usual, Bottom noticed. "Sometimes I wonder if we're raising them as much as they're raising us."
Oberon roared with laughter. There was really something quite lion-like about it. Vidcund was not the first person to mentally compare him to one of the big cats. In fact, those anthropologists that studied faery society often remarked on some similarities between the two, though male lions did less of the pride's childcare.
"A very wise man, then! It takes some people a lifetime to learn that."
"I told you he was clever," Bottom remarked.
"Yes... that you did." It rumbled out of him. Oberon silently approved of his daughter's choice for a mate, though she had not yet presented him as such. Unlike Titania, he wouldn't embarrass her by broaching the subject in front of Vidcund. Though, if he hadn't taken a liking to him, he might have been less tactful.
"And it's not just us," Vidcund added. "My sister and other brother live close by. Jenny has her children, too. When we're all together, it's quite a crowd, though there aren't quite as many children as there are in your family."
"We've been blessed," Oberon said. He paused for a moment, then licked his thumb and fixed a wisp of Clauracan's hair.
The child giggled and cooed, and Oberon proceeded to toss him in the air, then picked up a his next sentence as if no time had passed at all.
"Has Bottom told you about... our predicament?"
"Predicament?"
"As a species, we have trouble breeding."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe our time is nearing its end."
"Don't say that," Bottom said.
"No sense in worrying about it, or fretting," Oberon chided. "We live, we die, either way."
"I guess so..."
"And you never know," he said. "We might get lucky. I've been very lucky. I never expected it to happen, but my seed has taken root a number of times in Titania's womb. First, our daughter, Nuala, and now our little Cluaracan."
He held up the young boy and made some nonsense noises at him, to which he laughed. Vidcund could see the resemblance.
"If we are truly lucky," Oberon continued, "he'll also be able to sow life. Many of our kind can only dream about such good fortune, but maybe the tides will eventually turn. It wasn't always this way."
"Now don't get me wrong," Oberon said, turning to Vidcund. "I don't place precedence on my own flesh and blood. All of our children are precious to us. Each one is different gift, a different challenge."
"Of course," Vidcund said.
They all glanced down at Mab, who was busy blowing bubbles with her wand. She paid no heed to them at all. She was very caught up in her task.
The bubbles drifted with the breeze, up and away into the night sky, now filling with stars.
"Well, I'll let you two go about your business and take my leave now," Oberon said. "I'm sure you'll find all sorts of wonderful things."
His words resonated through the thick night air.
He turned, taking Mab's hand, and walked back the way they'd came. Soon Vidcund and Bottom were alone. They continued to walk along, following Oberon's directions and Bottom's own vague memory of the place they were going.
They moved off the beaten path, into the thicker forest.
"I've been out this way once before, when I was quite a bit younger," Bottom said. "I remember there being a lot of interesting things out here. Plants that only release their perfume at night, or that light up with a sort of phosphorescence, and things like that. Really great stuff."
"How fascinating..."
"I know! I'm so excited!"
"Yeah, me too. But I'll bet there aren't too many people out there who could share this particular thrill!"
"Oh, be good!" She nudged him with her elbow.
They found an opening in the thick underbrush and stepped through it, walking into a clearing.
"You remember... this?"
"Actually... no." Bottom gasped as she looked around. "I don't know... this wasn't where I thought we were going."
"Are we lost?"
"We're okay. Let's take a look..."
They walked through the field, taking note of the many odd features of this place. It seemed as if it had been inhabited, and very recently, but when they called out, nobody responded.
At the centre of the clearing was a hedge maze. It looked well kept. They didn't say anything, but both kept walking towards it.
"Do you think we should go in?" Bottom asked.
Vidcund glanced around.
"I don't know. What do you think?"
Bottom felt a strange feeling pass over her body, like a sort of tingling. She hesitated, then felt a pull to move forward.
"Yes, let's check it out," she said.
They followed the paths of the maze until they found the centre.
Bottom got there first.
She paused. "Are you seeing this?" she asked.
"What is it?" Vidcund asked, over her shoulder.
"I... I don't know."
"Maybe we'd should go," he said. He was suddenly getting a bad feeling about that place.
"No, wait -"
There was something about the object that called to Bottom. She felt the tingling sensation again, growing stronger now.
"It's some type of stone... maybe a precious gem. And look at that symbol..."
"Do you know what it means?"
Bottom thought about it. Did she? It seemed vaguely familiar to her.
Her mind soared, seeking to connect all the loose threads of her memory. She felt as if she were moving, and talking, going a mile a minute, but her feet remained firmly on the ground.
She was, in fact, frozen in place.
"Bottom? Are you okay?"
She didn't move
"Bottom? BOTTOM?!"
He noticed some small flickers of light appearing around her.
She snapped out of it.
"...What? What... is... this?"
More flashes of light appeared, and began to circle around her. They looked like tiny stars.
"This... This is... What IS this?!"
If Bottom didn't know, then Vidcund was surely stumped. "Bottom? What's happening?"
She didn't answer. She was once again still, though racing though her mind.
"Bottom?!"
"BOTTOM!"
A brighter light burst up through the ground, filling the centre of the circle of stars. Bottom's feet left the ground.
Whatever was happening, whatever this was, it was taking her. She was being pulled into it.
Vidcund promptly grabbed Bottom by the shoulder, just as she started to vanish from sight.
"Vidcund?" His touch reached through to her consciousness.
Bottom's voice sounded far away, and all but the faintest shadow of her had disappeared. Vidcund's hand was still on her shoulder.
A rush of warmth went over him, and he felt himself bathed by the light, as it surrounded him too. His hand still held her. He gripped harder. He felt smothered, like his breath was being pulled out of his lungs.
He closed his eyes.
The sensation grew and grew, until he was no longer aware of what was happening.
And then they were gone.
"Mommy?"
"Mommy, I found some!"
"Flowers! I found some! Are these the right ones?"
"Let me see... yes, those are good, sweetie."
"I did it! I found them!"
"Good for you. Let's get to work."
...
"Mommy... Are we finished yet? I'm bored!"
"Just a little longer... we haven't gathered everything we need yet."
"What are we going to make this time?"
"Oh, all sorts of things. You know, there's more power in a single flower petal than most people realize."
"Flowers have... power?"
"Yes, they do. Especially these flowers. Sometimes there's an energy that moves from one thing to another, and it gathers and builds up in one place. These flowers grow here because this is a special place, just like that."
"Wow!"
"So, remember... if you pay attention, you'll recognize these things. See that tree over there?
"That one?"
"Yes. It's a weeping willow. Some say that there are sims who live and grow just the way plants do, and when they die, sometimes they become willow trees. These flowers could have belonged to one of those creatures.
"Do you think so?"
"I think it's very possible."
...
"Are we done yet?"
"Just about. Let's gather something nice for supper tommorrow. These mushrooms look good."
"Those are Daddy's favourite!"
"Yes, they are. I'm glad you remembered."
"What are those tall flowers back there? the ones with the... stuff coming out of them."
"Best not to touch those. Those are The Antirrhinums, who smell our intentions. Some people call them snapdragons, which is also fitting. They do have a bite, if you're not careful. Be nice to them and they'll be nice to you. If not, then you'd better watch out!"
"Why? What do they do?"
"They can do many things, but only when they're well looked after."
"Are these?
"These are wild, so they answer only to their own laws. It would be reckless to meddle in their affairs."
"Can we grow some?"
"If you'd like to, we can gather some seeds, but just the ones that have fallen to the ground. The mature plants release them, if they're ready to share."
"Okay. I'll take a look..."
...
"Bottom, I'm sorry, but you have to go with Titania. She and Oberon will take good care of you."
"But WHY?"
"We have something we need to do, and it's going to be dangerous. You will be safer with them."
"Where are you going, Mommy?"
"It's best if we don't tell you. I hope you'll understand."
"Daddy?"
"Your mother knows best, love. It's safer for you not to know, just in case."
"But you're coming back, right?!"
"We'll try our best."
"You HAVE to come back!"
"Bottom, we have every intention of coming back, if fate will allow us to. If not, then we will have to accept that too. There is something that needs to be done, and we are able to do it. We do this as service to our Queen and our people. It is an honour to be able to do that. We do so willingly and happily."
"..."
"Do you understand?"
"Yes, but... I'm going to miss you."
"We will miss you too, but we will see you again. One day..."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Wait..."
"What's happening?"
"No... please don't go..."
"Bottom? Are you awake? ...Bottom?"
"Mommy... Daddy?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
"No, it's me. Vidcund."
Bottom pushed herself up from the ground beneath her. "What happened?"
"You were dreaming... Well, sounded like it, anyway." Vidcund looked around, scanning the field where they now rested. "After we found that... that thing in the maze, something happened. You lit up. Lifted up, off the ground. So I grabbed hold of your shoulder, and tha'ts the last thing I can remember. Now we're here... wherever this is."
She looked around. Vidcund watched her carefully. Bottom's face remained stoic, though her eyes widened after a moment or two. She nodded, just slightly, and seemingly to herself more than to him.
"This place... I've been here before," she said.
"Oh, good," Vidcund said, with a sigh of relief, suddenly noticing he'd been holding his breath "Then you must know how to get us home?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that..."
Vidcund frowned. "Why not?"
"I believe we're in Faerie."
Most people can't hear death, the sound that indicates exactly when someone has died, and those who can would say that those who can't are very lucky.
Nervous could hear death. If he ever told this to anyone, which was doubtful, because he knew how crazy it sounded, he'd have to describe it as a loud whisper. It was a deafening silence. It hurt his ears.
Every time he heard that sound, it was a little worse than the time before.
He hated it.
Once again, Nervous jumped from his sheets to greet the day, drenched in a cold sweat.
It had been that same dream again. It would happen soon, he knew for sure. He could tell that from the frequency of the dreams. It was always that way.
I should tell them, he thought. I should warn them.
But what good would it do? They'd hate me. They'd all hate me if they knew. They will...
It's going to happen soon. Telling them won't stop that.
But maybe I could. Maybe they would understand.
Pascal...
Pascal would understand...
...right?
Nervous lowered himself back onto his bed, shivering as much from his thoughts as his cold pajamas.
He wasn't sure.
That was the hell of it. He wasn't sure.
There was no choice but to get up and face the day, no matter how much he wanted to curl up beneath the covers and wait it all out, hoping and praying that somehow it wouldn't happen this time.
(Continue to Chapter 35 - part 4)