Nodwin and the Pixie’s Curse - 7- Trouble Afoot

Trouble Afoot

The first day passed without event. Nodwin foraged as he walked, saving the preserved food Shimi had packed for him and eating the bounty of the forest. Ciltandoor was in a different wood, and Nodwin thought it wise to save his trail food for times when he might not be able to eat of the land.

 

On the morning of the second day, Nodwin was farther from home than he had ever been, indeed farther than most Pims of his village ever would venture. He found subtle differences in his surroundings that he was not used to. The mix of trees and shrubs was different, the berries somehow wilder, the leaves and branches less welcoming. Even the woodland creatures reacted strangely to his passing through. Near the village, the chipmunks and rabbits and badgers, though preferring to keep their distance from the hustle and bustle of village life, expressed a certain friendly curiosity in any Pim that was found outside the village. The smaller chipmunks (which were of similar size to horses relative to humans) would even approach a Pim in hopes of a shared nut or even a friendly scratch behind the ear. The little wildlife that Nodwin encountered seemed startled by him, and scampered away after a quick puzzled look.

 

The night of the second day was the most miserable, and frightening, night of Nodwin’s life. He cut a broad leaf from a low-growing bush and used a twig to prop it up as a sort of makeshift lean-to. The night was dark and full of sounds that were strange to Nodwin. Bats screeching and flapping in the treetops tormented his efforts to sleep. Finally the bats seemed to quiet down and return to their roosts. Nodwin’s happiness at this discovery only lasted a moment, for he soon discovered that it was a hard rain that had driven the bats to shelter. And speaking of shelter, Nodwin found his extremely wanting. He did not stay dry in the least.

Nodwin woke up grouchy. And only became grouchier for having nobody to be grouchy to. Whatever barest hint of romanticism and hope of high adventure he’d had when he set out had been utterly extinguished by the previous night’s sleeplessness. At least the rain had stopped by morning. That was small comfort to Nodwin as he considered his situation. Cold and lonely and frightened, his father, his greatest source of encouragement and courage was cursed, for all intents and purposes, out of existence, and he was on a journey to a place nobody could find by themselves, chasing a magical being with an obvious intention to harm his kind. He could very well end up dead. The whole arrangement angered him - and Pimsare not particularly given to anger.

Nodwin sat stewing over his miserable situation on a small stone overlooking a rather largish puddle created fresh by the night’s rain. He was so wrapped up in his own miserable thoughts that he completely failed to notice the sound of something very large (relative to aPim) coming through the brush toward him. He was wringing out the last bit of rainwater from his tail-tuft and considering that at least now he was mostly dry when an enormous foot crashed down into the puddle. The resulting spray soaked Nodwin entirely. The offending foot, which was human-like rather than beast-like, as long as Nodwin was tall, and completely bare, trudged onward without taking notice of Nodwin at all.

Enraged, Nodwin shouted unintelligibly and hurled his spear at the departing foot. It struck and held in the soft tissue above the heel and to the side of the tendon. Nodwin’s raging was engulfed and smothered by the roar of the foot’s owner.

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