Lessoc Fountain - a fairy-creature tale

Ch. 8 Cold Friend

Cocot stared, amazed. A pile of split logs, high as the eaves, wide as the walls. A winter's worth of fire wood and each log was just the right size for her oven Sarina. A gift worth its weight in gold, come the snows.

Coming to her senses, she spun around for a fairy creature with a red hat, but only found a pile of kindling next to the ax and chopping block.

"You don't have to go," she called. No one was there to hear her. "I could make you some..." What could she make? "Some crêpes with sugar if you like. You don't have to disappear. You don't have to go...." No one was there.

She walked slowly to the door, body and soul sore and aching.

Inside, there would be two eggs left she could use to make crêpes with sugar for herself, if no one else wanted any. She didn't need company. As she fumbled through her pockets searching for the key to the door, something skittered in the leaves behind her.

"Who's there?" she asked, jumping.

A black squirrel stood on its back paws at the base of an oak, twitching his whiskers.

"I'm kind of nervous, aren't I?" Cocot asked the fluffy animal.

It circled its head once, smelling the air and returned to digging through last year's layer of debris.

"Yes, I am," Cocot answered to herself. "I jump at every little noise and then I talk to myself."

Whispering the charm to open the door, she slipped her heavy shoes off to leave them on the threshold.

She stepped in, and froze.

Vines, real vines, were growing out of the wooden chest from painted ones. They spread across the inner door and all the way up to the ceiling, but that wasn't the worst of it. She took a few hesitant steps closer as her eyes adjusted to the low light.

"What are these things?" she asked herself.

There were two clumps of white masses cradled in the tangle of vines. They resembled nothing more than two spider egg cocoons.

Monster-sized spider egg cocoons, bigger than her hands.

Cocot shivered with revulsion and reached for her broom. One false move and spider eggs would be all over the chalet. One vine was creeping very close to her bed and she moved it out of the way as she went by, not wanting to be wrapped up by the vegetation later while she slept. With the end of the handle, she poked one of the white clumps cautiously.

"Those," announced a voice at her shoulder, "are field fairy nests!"

Cocot whirled and nearly swung at Soufflé with the broom. At least she didn't have to talk to herself after jumping at strange noises this time, she thought. She could talk to the fairy.

"I didn't know you were here," she breathed. "What are they?"

"Field fairy nests. You are right to take the broom to them. Once they've started an infestation, they are nigh impossible to get rid of," Soufflé said, flying over to the chest.

"You're sure they aren't any spider eggs," she asked, wanting to be absolutely certain that no giant spiders had been involved in making the objects.

"No, no. This is field fairy construction, no doubt about it. They use spider webs to hold everything together, that's what you see sticking to the wall. But notice here the fan-shaped dandelion fluff. Typical. And vastly inferior to hand fairy construction of tile-shaped layering."

Cocot knelt next to the fairy to see what he was pointing at. Up close, the nests were marvelous in their softness and detail. She wished she had a home soft as a cloud where she could curl up in fluff, too.