Jeweled Berry Dreams

Dawn was walking through the tall grass from the little folks‘ dormitories to the dining area. She was chatting with one of her roommates. They were two-and-a-half months into a six-month magical study retreat given by Jack Moonheart, a powerful wizard. Dawn was a hazel-eyed fairy lady with curly, red hair, freckles and monarch butterfly wings. Her companion was a head taller. She was a fairy as well. She had long, light blonde hair, green eyes, and blue and purple wings. She was very skinny with overlapping front teeth, and a big pointy nose. Her name was Peggy.

They saw a close friend of Peggy’s by the name of Sylvia. They sat down at the table by her. Over dinner, the young fairy ladies got lost in conversation with an old elf who went on and on and on about his life’s adventures. When it was time for dessert, they were given bowls filled with cubes that resembled soft sugar-cookies in texture and taste. There was a delicious, white chocolate sauce over it.

Before everyone began to eat, Jack Moonheart asked, “How many of you know what kind of dessert this is?” 

A few people raised their hands. They seemed a little unsure. He called on a female centaur in the back. “Fern, what is your answer?”

“It looks like a jeweled berry cookie cup …without the berries.” She replied.

“That’s right.” replied Jack. ,”We don’t have any jeweled berries. They are difficult to obtain. That’s why your next assignment is to have some brought to us. They can only be found by sapphire starlings. These birds will do this in exchange for red vine apples.  But, vine apples are hard to find. Their vines grow in dark, hidden places, like up trees or in caves. Once fruit have been picked off of them, the vines disappear and reappear somewhere else.  

Over the next two weeks, I want you to work in groups of three. And, go searching the nearby woods and hills for the apples. If we get enough apples to attract a lot of starlings, then we will serve you the same dessert with the berries on top. 

 It will be worthwhile to make sure there are plenty of apples. Jeweled berries have a lovely magical effect when eaten. They cause you to have very enjoyable dreams. I’ll let you guys finish your dessert, and you can all go back to your dormitories.”

Dawn walked back with Peggy, and Sylvia. Sylvia was a long time friend of Peggy’s. She had talked Peggy into coming to this retreat with her. The three agreed to form a group together. 

The next morning, the three fairy ladies got ready to go exploring for the vine apples. Sylvia had her knapsack all packed up. It was sitting on the floor by the dresser. She was standing at the mirror, combing her long, white-blonde hair. Sylvia was secretly admiring herself, although she would never admit it. She believed herself to be very pretty. And, it was true. She had dark blue eyes, a pretty rounded face, dimples, and veined, iridescent wings. Peggy walked in, ready to go with her knapsack already on her back.  

 “Are you guys ready yet?”, she asked.

“Almost.”, replied Sylvia as she began evening up her part.

“It might be a little bit,” answered Dawn. She was running around getting a few last-minute things together. It was her job to carry the food and water. And, she wanted to make sure everyone had enough while they were out. She had also decided to grab a few extra items that she was pretty sure the other ladies would not have thought of. 

When Sylvia was done combing, she sat down on her bed with her pack beside her. Peggy stood with her arms folded across her chest. She watched Dawn with a very impatient look on her face.

“I’m almost done.”, Dawn responded to Peggy’s expression. , “I just have to grab a couple more things. Besides, it’s 9 o’clock. Breakfast isn’t until 9:30.”

When Dawn was finally tucking the last items into her pack, she saw Peggy coming toward her, and Peggy didn’t look happy. Dawn had a distinct gut feeling that Peggy was about to grab her, and shove her out the door. Dawn jumped out the way quickly and started fastening her knapsack as she headed toward the door.

The ladies arrived at the breakfast table at 9:25, and had to sit toward the back of the little folks' eating area to find a spot together. Peggy looked smug as if she wanted to say ‘I told you so’. Sylvia was mildly irritated about sitting so far back since it was close to the centaurs. She thought they smelled funny. Dawn didn’t care in the least about the seating arrangement.

After breakfast, Jack gathered everyone together, gave them a few last pointers, and sent them on their way. The girls started to head out on their search.

“Where should we look first?”, asked Sylvia.

Before Dawn could respond, Peggy pointed, and rushed in with, “The hillside over there.” The hillside in question was covered in dry grass. It had a few trees and rocks scattered here and there. 

“I was thinking maybe we could go to one of the forested hillsides.”, said Dawn in what she hoped was a diplomatic tone. “Vine apples love trees since they can hide way up in the top, and it would be a lot cooler in the afternoon when the sun gets hot.”

“It’s easier to get lost in the woods, “ replied Peggy, “Besides, an ancient group of wizards and sorceresses built a lot of grottoes on that hillside that they used for storage and performing spellwork. There should be some dark, damp nooks and crannies where we could find some vines.”

Dawn knew the forests around here had a lot of paths on them, the wizard had said so. She didn’t think they would likely get lost. She didn’t say anything more, though. It didn’t matter much which place they started looking. They could try the forest tomorrow. And, the grottoes might be interesting.

The young ladies had been looking for a while when they found a grotto with a secret room. It was hidden by a small, waterfall that had been created with magic. They used their own magic to pass through the water without getting wet. Inside the room were shelves of ancient potion bottles, and boxes here and there with unknown contents. Dawn flew up to the top of an old granite table. She conjured a lighted candle so they could see better.

“Look there!”, said Sylvia.  

Under one of the shelves, was a long vine full of apples. Before anyone could stop her, Peggy flew right under, and picked one. The vine vanished instantly.

“Oh, that darn thing!”, she exclaimed. “Why does it have to be like that? And, it had a lot of pretty, red apples on it too.”

“That’s its defenses. “, said Dawn. She had flown down from the table by this time, and had come over.

“How are we EVER going to pick enough for the birds?!”, exclaimed Peggy in frustration. 

“Maybe we could all grab an apple in each hand, and pick on the count of three.”, suggested Dawn.

“There may be more than six apples on a vine.”, said Peggy, “We should use a spell.”

“A good picking spell would probably work.”, said Dawn.

“I don’t know a picking spell.”, Sylvia pointed out.

“I’ll show you.”, Said Dawn.

Dawn flew outside, and found a few small plants with lots of leaves. She was describing her favorite picking spell to Sylvia when Peggy interrupted with, “I’ve never heard of that spell.”, in a suspicious tone.

“It will work.”, countered Dawn, trying not to sound too irritated.

After Sylvia got the hang of it, the three of them found three more apple vines, and were able to remove most of the apples from them. They were packing the apples away into their knapsacks (mostly Sylvia and Peggy’s because Dawn’s was pretty full), when someone flew in through the waterfall door.  

It was a fairy. When he came into the candle light, the ladies recognized him. It was Gary. He had been hanging around Sylvia a lot because he thought she was pretty. But, Sylvia wasn’t in to him. They talked a lot, though. Dawn sometimes talked to him too. Dawn didn’t have a crush on him or anything. But, she thought he was kinda cute. He had light brown hair, grey eyes and a full mouth with a down –pointed upper lip.  He had brown and cream-colored butterfly wings. The pattern on them was very pretty. At least, Dawn thought so anyway.

“Did you guys find any apples in here?”, He asked.

“Yes, we found three vines.” , replied Dawn.

“I’ll go get Spruce and Morel. They can move the bottles aside. There may be more vines behind them.” , The other Fairies understood that he was referring to two centaurs he had partnered up with., “ Have you guys been having trouble picking the apples off the vines?”, He asked.

“We did at first, but then Dawn showed me how to use a picking spell, and that made it much easier.” , Sylvia answered.

“I’ve never been good at picking spells.”, said Gary . 

“This one is really easy.” Sylvia exclaimed enthusiastically, and showed him. He got the hang of it after a bit.

“Why couldn’t the centaurs just pull a bunch of apples off all at once with their hands?” , asked Dawn. ,“Vine apples are so small, it would be like grabbing a hand full of berries to them.”

“We’ve only seen two vines so far. And, they were so close to the ground, that it would be very difficult for them to bend over to grab them. I’d better go get the guys now.”, He said.

“Let’s go,” said Dawn to the two ladies, ”It’s going to be crowded with the centaurs in here, and Sylvia thinks they stink.” This resulted in Sylvia having an annoyed look on her face, and Gary getting the giggles.

The ladies left to find other places to search for apples. They managed to find two more good places before they had to leave to go to a lecture scheduled for the afternoon. While they were harvesting apples, Peggy started complaining that she didn’t think the spell Dawn taught Sylvia was efficient enough because Sylvia wasn’t picking off as many apples as she would have liked. Dawn put her foot down, and pointed out that 1.) It was the same spell Dawn was using, 2.)Sylvia was new at this spell and 3.) Peggy needed to lay off. They returned around 2:30 with their knapsacks full of apples. At 3:00, everyone met in an open field to listen to Jack lecture about finding vine apples and the various magical properties of sapphire starlings and jeweled berries.

Each day that week followed a similar pattern. Friday eventually rolled around. Sylvia and Dawn were up in a treetop looking for apple vines. Peggy was on the ground searching the underbrush. On Tuesday, after Dawn insisted they go into the forest, she found out the real reason Peggy insisted on searching the grottoes. Peggy didn’t want to go up into the treetops because she was afraid of birds. Even though Peggy knew more than enough magic to protect herself from them, she was still afraid of their sharp beaks and claws. 

As Sylvia and Dawn were looking for vines, they were unexpectedly joined by Gary. He expressed that he was fed up with the centaurs. He said he had just left them after arguing with them over whether or not yellow vine apples would be just as acceptable as red. 

“Jack said red, so we need to collect red ones. The centaurs told me I ‘didn’t know nothin’ about it’, and were very rude to me. So I left.”, said Gary.

“Those Centaurs are Jerks!”, exclaimed Dawn, “You are exactly right. Yellow vine apples are very poisonous, if one of the birds gets a hold of one and eats it, it will die. Luckily, Jack inspects the apples carefully and puts them away in the storage barrels himself, in case someone makes a mistake. You can work with us, Gary.”

“What if Peggy doesn’t like it?”, asked Sylvia.

“PEGGY doesn’t like a lot of things.”, said Dawn.” That doesn’t mean she’s going to get her way. “, Feeling that she had had her limit with certain things, Dawn blurted out, “Has she always been bossy and full of herself, or is this just how she’s been lately?”Both Gary and Sylvia laughed.

“She’s always been a little controlling and full of herself”, said Sylvia. “But, she’s been a little more that way lately. She’s kind of down . Her husband’s a powerful wizard. He left and went to another country for several months to do some research with some other wizards on the magical properties of starlight. I signed up for this retreat and convinced her to come along, because I thought it might help for her to be around other people while he is gone.” 

“Odd couple.”, remarked Gary

Sylvia continued, “They met when Jeremy, that’s her husband’s name, was staying in her home village to study fairy magic. He knows spells that enable him to shrink himself down to fairy size at will .They have a large dollhouse that they keep on a table in the living room. Peggy stays there a lot of the time. Jeremy stays in there with her when he isn’t working. Normally, Jeremy takes Peggy with him when he goes on trips like this. But, she couldn’t come along this time. Peggy’s mother had been ill for several weeks, and Peggy stayed behind to care for her.”

The four of them, eventually headed back to the meeting area. Peggy must have been in a reasonable mood because she didn’t complain about Gary joining them. As they were heading over to present their apples for inspection, they noticed a commotion. Jack was in a terrible fury, and he was yelling at Spruce and Morel, the centaurs Gary had been partnered with. Catkin, a little dryad with dark curls, flew over to the four fairies. She looked a little shaken.

“Oooooooh, Jack is not happy. “ ,she lowered her voice, “He caught those two centaurs over there trying to sneak poisonous apples into the barrels of apples for the birds.”

“Why would they want to poison the birds?”, Dawn asked.

“Money”, said Peggy with anger in her eyes, “ sapphire starling meat has powerful magical properties, and fetches a high price on the black market. It’s illegal to kill them. We need their trust because jeweled berries are used in some important medicinal potions.”

“I guess they thought that if they made some of the birds fall, they could get to them before anyone else did. Ick!”, Dawn shuddered.

The fairies placed their apples on a nearby wooden table so that Jack could inspect them. Then, the group of 5 walked back to the little folk’s dormitories while talking about the situation with the centaurs.

Over the next several days, Gary seemed to single Dawn out for conversation more and more. This did not escape her notice. She started to kind of like him. On Wednesday, he picked a tiny wildflower blossom, and tickled her arm with it. When she looked over, he smiled and presented it to her. She took it, and smiled back. They held hands for the rest of the day.

Friday finally came. Everyone was gathered in an empty field. Well, almost everyone. Peggy had asked to be excused. She claimed she didn’t feel well. There were multiple tables pushed together. They had trays and trays of red vine apples on them. Jack performed a spell that would let any sapphire starlings in the area know that they had apples for them. It wasn’t long before multiple flocks showed up.  The birds were brilliant blue with silver spots. And, their singing was like nothing most of them had ever heard. The birds came down and ate the trays clean of apples, then flew off.  

Jack began to lecture, but stopped about 45 minutes in. He told everyone to look around. The birds were coming back. When they reached the trays where the apples had been, they dropped pieces of thin vine with beautiful berries on them. They carried the vines in by the beakfull. The berries were about the size of a blueberry, only they were oval in shape instead of round. They were a bright magenta. They were shiny, and somewhat translucent. If you looked close, you could faintly see a cluster of whitish seeds along the center. When the birds left, Jack congratulated everyone on bringing in so many apples. He said that they would only need a small amount of berries to make their treat tonight, and the rest would go toward their payment for the retreat. 

That evening, during dessert, most of them remarked on how lovely the berries tasted. Peggy didn’t, though. She said they tasted gross and scraped the berry pieces off of her dessert. Dawn and Gary laughed at her. They were holding hands under the table. They looked at each other, then smooched. Sylvia looked uncomfortable, Catkin grinned, and Peggy chuckled under her breath.

Dawn was thinking pleasantly about the nice dreams she would have that night, when Jack announced their next assignment. There was a marshland on the other side of one of the hills. It was inhabited by enchanted frogs. The frogs would go to the bottom of the lake and bring back a magical stone to anyone who brought them food , and answered their riddles . Dawn put her head down and groaned, she hated frogs.