Into the Fairy Lands: Chapter 7

Into the Fairy Lands

By J. R. Bennett
<Chapter VI~*~ChapterVIII>

Chapter VII

Little Dill’s Army

~*~

The group returned to Newtown just after midnight.  Ed made sure the house was locked up tightly when they were home.  A news article in the Imperial Star, a Deltic newspaper, outlining an attempted arrest at the Empress Hotel in Bathill the night they had left the city, proved his prediction of possible capture.  That morning, Ed and Travis sat in the living room.  As everyone else was a sleep, the two young men had decided to discuss what they could do next.

            “There isn’t much we can do,” Ed explained.  “Parliament will debate the matter and decide what course will be taken.”

            “I guess we can chill ‘til then.”  concluded Travis.

            “I guess we could.”  Ed looked up at the clock.

            Ed and Travis made their way to the kitchen for breakfast.  As soon as Ed put the kettle on the stove, Ryan came in from work.

            “Morning gents,” he said as he collapsed into one of the chairs in the kitchen.

            “Shh!” snapped Ed.  “Zach and Alice are still sleepin’?”

            Ryan said nothing else but picked up the paper.

            Travis nearly jumped when he spotted Little Dill at the kitchen window.  He almost did not recognize Little Dill this time as he was in an orange coat and a blue collarless shirt.  The toy waved excitingly as Travis opened to window.  Little Dill then proceeded to jump from the counter to the kitchen table and took a seat on top of a saltshaker.

            “Mr. Kina’s beens keeping me busy,” Little Dill explained in his usual way.

            “With what?” asked Travis.

            “I can’t says.  It’s top secrets.” answered Little Dill and then took a surprisingly large bite out of a slice of toast.

            “I can’t imagine what Kina would have you do,” commented Ryan from behind the paper.  “You’re only useful for typing and even then you wear yourself out dancing on the keys.”

            Little Dill’s face grew red at hearing this.  “You takes that backs!” he snapped.

            “Why would I take back is the truth.  I mean, your too small for Kina to have any real use for you, he only has you in the order because you have better grammar and spelling than the other typists.”

            Little Dill began throwing sugar cubes at Ryan with as much force as he could muster.  The small doll was so busy in his fit of furry that he did not notice Ed grab him by the back of his orange coat.

            “Why do you have to provoke him like that?” Ed asked Ryan as he placed Little Dill on the counter.

            “Can’t help it,” said Ryan with a cheeky grin.  “It’s just fun getting him going.”

            The hectic fight between Little Dill and Ryan woke Zach and Alice, who joined the others downstairs.  Over their breakfast, the quartet made plans to travel to the river for some sightseeing.  When they were finished, they made their way down the street to a small dirt road that branched out toward a nearby forest.

The Tashford forest, in all its glory, is located just outside of Newtown near the Tashford River.  Though it was often full of holidaymakers, in the November haze it was quiet and peaceful.  The river still hadn’t frozen over and there were two or three people on the other side of the river fishing, trying to get a few more catches before the ice began to build up.  As the group of five wandered through the area, each keeping to their own vices, they could notice the mud and dead leaves mixing with the light sprinkling of snow that had fallen the night before.

            Ed took a seat on a bench, observed the quiet scenery, and slowly drifted into meditation.  He watched Travis and Zach walking along the bank and throwing stones into the river, while Alice was walking among the trees.  As they enjoyed themselves, some children came running up to Ed.

            “’cuse me mis’er,” said one, “but our ball’s fallen into the water and’s stuck on a branch.  Could you get it for us?”

            Ed called Travis, Zach and Alice to join him.  The ball in question was caught on a tree branch and was bobbing about in the water.  A plan was quickly made.  Travis, while holding on to Zach and Ed, would reach over to the ball and collect it.  It seemed like a simple plan, but if any lesson can be taken from this situation: the simplest things can be the biggest headaches.

            Travis leaned out for the ball, which turned out to be further out than first thought.   Zach and Ed moved forward a bit to help Travis.  The mud beneath their feet began to make them slide and next thing they knew, the three men tumbled into the river.  “I got it!” cried Travis, as the Zach and Ed sat picking dead leaves from their hair.

“I don’t know what you three were thinking,” called George from inside the kitchen.  “Going into the Tashford River at this time of the year… you’re lucky Pumpkin Stone and I was heading down there.”

            They were at the McTrotter home.  As soon as George and Pumpkin Stone arrived, Ed, Alice, Zach and Travis were taken to the McTrotter house to warm up.  George loaned the men some dry clothes while Emma tended to theirs.

            George emerged from the kitchen with a tray of mugs.  He handed Ed, Zach, and Travis mugs containing a greyish fluid, which when they drank from it, they spat it out.

            “What’s in this?” shot Zach in disgust.

            “Just an old family recipe.” replied George.  “My mother use to make it when we had the sniffles.  Tea, honey, mustard, salt, and vinegar.  You never forgot your jacket and boots when you left the house after that.”

            “It’s not too bad if you can move it around your tongue.” muttered Ed to the other two.  “Kind of has a tolerable after taste, if I do say so myself.”

            “Have you seen Little Dill lately?”  George added.  “The wee thing was here not too long ago and when he left, some of our cutlery was gone.  Even the Hudsons from up the street have been robbed.”

            “He did say Kina had put him to work.” piped in Travis.

            “But what job would Kina put Little Dill up to that includes nicking peoples silver ware?” inquired George.

            “If it’s anything, those brownies will be in on it,” added Ed.  “They always like being up to mischief when there’s nothing to do.”

            “If you do find, Little Dill,” said George “Tell him Emma and I just want our silver back.”

That night, the group had returned to Ed’s house.  Alice stood outside looking down the sloped grassy plain of the back yard.  In the far left corner was the tool shed, an old, wooden build that was losing some of its slate panels on the roof.  What attracted Alice’s attention to it were the strange sounds coming from within the shed.

            The noise sounded like someone rummaging through the shed.  Alice slowly made her way to the shed, making sure not to create any noises as she moved.  The closer Alice got to the shed, the clearer the sounds became.  “This won’t do,” called one.  “We could use this shovel,” went another.

            Alice looked in.  She saw two small figures, about the same size as Little Dill, searching through Ed’s tool shed.  They were dressed in cloths made from leaves and bark with pointed hats made also from leaves on the tops of their heads.  The two figures turned and looked at Alice.

            “Run,” called the first and jumped out of a hole conveniently nearby.  The second was not as lucky.  It darted for the window at the back of the room, but only crashed into the glass.  The sprite, in a state of confusion, darted for the door, but was caught by Alice.

            “Curse those coat tails!” it fumed.

            Alice wasted no time bringing the little figure to Ed and the others.

            “I figured it would be a brownie,” said Ed crossly.

            “Master Dill won’t like this,” snapped the sprite, and kicked over a peppershaker.

            “What is it?” asked Zach.

            “A brownie.” explained Ed.  “They’re little sprites, smaller than gnomes in most cases.”

            “I’ve got important business to do,” the brownie cried.

            “I can see that,” shot Ed.  “Breaking into my shed pitching my gardening tools.  I have a good mind to call the police for this.”

            “Please don’t!” cried the brownie again.  “Master Dill would not like that.  We have to prepare for the invasion!”

            “Invasion?”

            “Aye, the invasion.  Mr. Kina has given Master Dill instructions to prepare for the invasion of the Milkadoo.”

            “You mean the Manookoo.”

            “Yeah, that’s it.”

            Ed looked to Alice, Travis and Zach for a brief second and then turned to the brownie.  “What is your name sprite?” he inquired.

            “Hob,” was the brownie’s reply.

            “Well, yon sprite Hob,” said Ed, being cautious not to offend the brownie, “we would be honoured if you would show us to Lit- I mean Master Dill.”

            “I could. But you will have to swear to me that you’ll not tell anyone about this.”

            The way Hob made the quartet swear was queer.  First, Hob made them stand on their left foot with their tongues sticking out to swear to the Imp King; then the quartet had to do the same thing on their right foot and swear to the Goblin King.  Once this was over, Hob led Ed, Zach, Travis and Alice out to the Tashford forest.

It was dark now when they entered the Tashford.  The great, mighty, trees looked like long figures with branches like extended fingers, waiting to reach out and snatch the others without warning.  They were led off the main path into a section of trees.  Here the group began to feel trapped as the trees became less uniform and began to jeer out in all directions.  Alice nearly tripped over a fallen tree as they trekked further in.  In the distance, they could hear the sound of metal being struck and the smell of burning wood.

            The group was greeted with an industrious scene.  Great ovens were being fed with coal, wood and any other flammable fuel available, while brownies took turns jumping on hand-made billows to keep the fires burning.  Some brownies dumped carts loaded with cutlery and garden tools into large caldrons for melting.  The melted metal was then transferred on makeshift cranes to stands where they were molded and forged into swords, shields, arrowheads, and other weaponry.

            Overseeing all of this work was a small figure, standing on a tree branch and dressed in a military uniform.  Hob jumped up to the figure and whispered something to it, and then the brownie leaped back down to join the others.  The figure then grabbed what looked like a vine or rope and swung down to the five nearby.

            “So this is what you’ve been up to,” said Ed, “Little Dill.”

            “Hellos.” the little toy greeted.

            “Looks like you are raising an army,” added Travis, stating the obvious.

            “Yeses I ams,” Little Dill replied.

            “Who put you up to this?” asked Alice.

            “Mr. Kina.  He tolds me to goes and tells anyone who woulds listen.  I wents all over the town withs a sign and no ones listened, except the brownies.”

            “We could tell,” added Ed.  “They’ve been using their ability of entering people’s houses to nick cutlery and other metal objects to forge your weapons.”

            Little Dill looked startled.  “You didn’t tells me this metals was stolen.” the little toy snapped to a brownie pushing a wheelbarrow.

            “You didn’t ask,” was the brownie’s reply and then set off again.

            “I didn’ts mean to steals,” said Little Dill, still shocked over what had just happened.

            “Don’t worry,” assured Ed.  “I’m sure Bug-a-boo will kindly magic new cutlery and such for those robbed.”

After the event in the Tashford Forest, Ed, Travis, Zach, and Alice, made their way back to the house. Little Dill joined them, as he was too disgusted at the actions of the brownies to continue overseeing their work.  Once home, the five sat in the sitting room, sipping some tea while Little Dill told them of his many adventures.  As the night drew on, Ed, Alice, and Travis left for bed, leaving Zach and Little Dill alone.

            “Aren’t you scared of going to war?” asked Zach.

            “Nope,” Little Dill answered confidently.

            Zach was surprised.  “How come?”

            “I’ve seen peoples die alls the time.  I used to be owned by Bennie-man Frankie-lan’s daughter, Sarah.”

            “Sarah?”

            “Yeps.  She was my best-est friend, or she used to.  When she gots too old fors me, I ran away.  I traveled all over the colonies, I even saws the revolution.  Then I wandered some mores and saw the Civil War…”

            At this point, Little Dill’s voice trailed away.  Zach wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn there was a tear coming from the doll’s eye.  “You must have seen a lot of death during that.”

            “Yeah.  I can remember walkin’ into a small town in the south.  There was a little girl theres who found me.  Everydays, she would take me to the garden in the back of her homeses.  Her names was Ellen.  One days, we were playin’, then there cames the sound of gunses.  The little’s girl droppeded me as she ran back to the house.  I watcheded as Sherman’s Union soldiers burned the whole town to the grounds.  Whens I returned to that town later, the girl was gones.  I don’t know what happened to that girl.  I’ve heard that the whole family died in the fire, but I can’t believes it…  Zachy, I can’t stands war.  I don’ts like people fighting and killing each other over dumb stuff.”

            “If you think war is so terrible, why are you raising this army?”

            “Some ones has to.” the little toy replied.  “I would give up my pacifisms for the chance to save those I love.”

            Little Dill then looked to the window and stared at the stars, it was the first time anyone saw Little Dill look sad.  Anyone who knew the toy was a happy soul, with the habit of getting into trouble now and again, but here, this subject of war and the remembrance of the horrors of his past, made Little Dill show his true side.  A side that was masked by a wide grin and flashy coat tails, a side saddened by the mere fact that he was almost immortal. 

            Zach, not knowing what he should do, left the little toy alone.