Faerie Folly and Wizard Wands

Chapter Five

As Sabine sat in a half-deserted car, she watched the landscape speed by in a gray and green blur. Somehow the sun had left, and the sky hung colorless and pale. Her head rehearsed the dream, and her newfound knowledge of the present society. Her mind wondered often why and how the Fates had arranged for her to be passed from woman to woman.

Yet the goodly Fates also had granted her with the ability to be alarmingly flexible. She still wondered if she ever would belong to a world, as she was never in a world of sorts for long. How funny that she did not make a fuss with leaving a place...or perhaps that was just because she was not rooted anywhere in particular.

She had no idea where she was going, but she had no desire to find out. She wondered exactly why she could learn things so quickly, and how she had known so much of the forest even before she came to Granna. She wondered vaguely if there was some sort of unnatural magic in her blood, and then realized that she would need lodgings-she would need a place to stay. Her head swirled with realizations that followed...it was amazing how the fast-paced world demanded so many legal documents. Tildie had explained most of the papers one day in the sun as they traveled over the blue waters, but Sabine now suddenly knew that mere papers would only go so far.

On intuition, Sabine opened the packet Tildie had given her, and found, among invaluable papers concerning her legal identity, a large sum of English pounds. She frowned, wondering where Tildie had come across such money, and why she had given it to her, a young woman hardly a close friend. And then she saw her ID-somehow, Tildie had gotten Sabine's picture on the small plastic card. Her brain refused to dwell on this long, and stuffing the manilla envelope, she turned back to the misting land out the window.

Little had she noticed how the entire car had emptied at each stop. There had been a young couple with two lively children, but they had gotten off almost immediately. Once an old gentleman with bright eyes had come and stared at her unceasingly until he had also exited at a nondescript stop. The most annoying was a large gentleman with loud mannerisms and a booming voice who came and tried to engage her in conversation from across the car.

But now the entire car was deserted, and the conductor approached Sabine and spoke in the quiet afternoon.

"Ma'am? Excuse me?"

She jumped at the abrupt noise and unfamiliar accent, then looked up into the round and rosy face of a large and kindly Englishman.

"Oh-yes?" She put her face away from his-his breath smelled of onions and fish with a tang of vinegar.

"I believe we're at your stop, miss."

Sabine glanced out the window again, and realized that the train was at the platform turnaround.

"Oh-dear-are we?" She looked at him. "Where are we, then?"

He smiled, friendly and open. "Mead, madam."

He put his hand to take her trunk for her, and she stood unevenly to follow him out. It had been a long day of travel, and it was not finished yet.

"Funny-how no one else is on anymore," Sabine mused half-aloud.

The conductor shot a look over his shoulder as he maneuvered about the isles of each car. "'Course not, ma'am. It's Mead-train turns around. There's hardly nothing but wilds out here."

"O-of course!" she put hastily. Had Tildie meant for Sabine to return to the English wilds, like the miry woods that haunted the night dreams?

He set her trunk on the abandoned platform, tipped the edge of his cap, and boarded the train. She blessed him for not being nosy. It was probably highly unusual for a young woman alone to get off in a deserted land.

She watched as the long boxcars followed the engine around the turnabout, and slowly chug away, gaining speed quickly and noisily.

And Sabine was left alone, in the miry wilderness.

She longed to be with Granna or even Tildie-to be with something she knew, instead of once again embarking into a realm that held no permanence for her.

There was a road that began from the simple platform, and she sighed, picked up her folder and her trunk, and walked along.

As she meandered down the dirt-beaten, mud-encrusted, ill-used road, the tiny inkling of a voice tried to remind her that - "...oh!...but you have something to do back home!..." Silly, she told herself. She had no home. The little voice persisted, though never seemed to gain any lasting impression, and slowly gave up on her mind.

As afternoon turned to the mellow age of day, when the sun began to grow old and warm and began to call upon the dusky corners of evening, she came across a large, rickety white house.

A sign out front, painted in peeling black on whitewashed wood stated, "Rent a house."

It was a boon she had not expected, and wondered again if Fate had had a hand.

She walked up the flagstone and knocked firmly on the door.

A good minute passed before the door opened, its hinges complaining, and one suspicious eye stared out at her.

"Eh. Whaddyawan?"

She smiled carefully, then said; "I've come to rent the house."

The door opened a bit wider to reveal a plump face and two close-set beady eyes stuck above a tomato nose and rosebud mouth. The woman, large and jowly, looked Sabine over.

"Yaain't aseenit." She spoke ridiculously fast, and Sabine frowned after she understood her words.

"But isn't this the house for rent?"

The woman opened the door wider yet, as she smelled business, but did not invite the young woman in. "Naw. Houseforrent upin hills."

Sabine shrugged. "Is it decent?" At this point, she was not going to be particular. She needed shelter, and who knew how long she'd stay anyway?

"Suresure. Not aleakguarantee." She peered out at Sabine. "You'renot usualtypeIget."

"Sorry. How much?" Sabine took out the manilla envelope. What was the difference if she wasn't the "usual type" that normally rented? It was quite likely the people who rented out in these wilds were vagrants and outcasts. A stab reminded her that she was much like an outcast as well.

"Hmmm..." The woman named a relatively low price, then took a quick glance inside the folder. She snorted as she saw how much money Sabine had.

"For quarter amountmoreI seeltoyou, eh? Deal?"

Sabine frowned again, but this seemed reasonable. Somehow, she sensed this woman was not trying to "sham" Sabine over, and by letting her senses go a bit awry, Sabine could feel that the house she would buy was not a wreck, just by the mere fact that the woman had no guilt about the sale.

"Why would you want to sell?" The question was valid, and just in case.

The woman shrugged, and leaned heavily on the door jam.

"Funnypeople whodressodd rentame. Wall, alldoneandtold, Isickofrenting. Younicegirl, Iselltoyoulow. Washmyhands, yes?"

Sabine looked up the road, where large hills, almost mountains, grew up into the horizon.

"Very fine, then, it's a deal."

Sabine handed her the pound notes, and after receiving simple, easy directions, she walked onward, passing nothing but pure English countryside.