George followed Vesper’s instructions and flew up above the trees to search for Froke. He found her instructions confusing, but he realized she was in no mood for questions. He wished he had powerful magic. Maybe then he wouldn’t have to work so hard flapping his wings.
“You need to fly above the trees and look for a moving hill,” she instructed. “Froke is a hill giant made of moss, rocks, and grass, and if he doesn’t want to be seen, he probably won’t move and will be invisible. Now go! Find the hill giant.”
“Hill giant? Otis talked a lot about hill giants. He said they’re worse than kobalins.”
“Not this one. He's a friend. Now go!”
The short Noominian day was ending and the sunset and twilight sky gave George the advantage of his noc vision. The trees above, and the rocks, streams, and grasses below, came into crisp focus. Any hint of heat or movement he detected easily in the dim light. The glow of fairies playing in the woods became obvious from a great distance away, even when the evening chill brought a light mist to the forest. It was not long before George saw a small fire burning in an opening a short distance away from them.
“I see something!” he called down. “Follow me!”
Vesper tried to follow George, but in the dim light, it was nearly impossible to see him. He zigzagged above, not yet having fully learned to fly. Before long, Vesper began calling out Froke’s name as she came upon the fire, it looked as though no one was there. George remained a safe distance away on the lowest limb of a nearby tree.
“Froke, are you here?”
The forest answered with the quiet chirping of insects and the sound of a gentle breeze.
“Froke, I know you’re here, just come out.”
“Maybe whoever was here left already,” said George.
Vesper started kicking at the mound of dirt next to the fire. “Come out! Wake up! Don’t be so lazy and get up!”
“I’m right here,” Froke said gruffly. He appeared just behind George as though he had always been there, and stood even taller than George’s chosen branch. When Froke spoke, his earthy breath blew across the back of George’s neck.
“Ahh!” George was startled and fell out of the tree. He hit the ground ungracefully, but did not injure himself.
“Who’s the noc?” Froke asked Vesper.
“Froke, I’m so glad we found you!” Vesper ran to him and hugged his arm.
“Froke was left alone,” Froke said, “wondering where my evening star had gone. Froke thought you left us, and left for home.” He was amusing himself by watching George slowly rise back up out of a heap of feathers. “You have a noc friend?”
“This is George. He is from my world, and no, he is not really a noc owl.”
“George looks like a noc,” Froke countered.
“Yeah, Vesper, George looks like a noc,” George said defensively to Vesper. “Pleased to meet you, Froke,” he said nervously. “Vesper was right, you really do look like a mossy hill! Not quite what Otis and the rest of the nocs described, that’s for sure. They said you have many rows of sharp teeth, long claws dripping with blood. . .”
“Froke is just a hill giant,” Froke said, “or a giant hill, say what you will, sworn to protect the evening star. Froke is so happy you have returned, Evening Star. Did you go far?”
“The night I left, I woke up knee-deep in a bog after sleepwalking away from the camp,” said Vesper.
“Bad bog,” said Froke, shaking his head. “That’s why Froke lost you in the fog.”
“I was almost swallowed up by the muddy, disgusting, cold ground, but then the noc owls arrived, and Ruby helped me.”
“Froke likes noc owls,” said Froke.
“Yeah, but they don’t seem to like you much,” George heard himself saying.
Vesper cast him a sideways glance. George shrugged in nervous embarrassment.
“My friend George here was with the nocs, learning how to fly and whatever else they do. Then the nocs left, and George and I ran into some kobalins.”
“Froke doesn’t like kobalins.”
“No, me neither,” said George.
“Hey, where is Eon and Finn?” Vesper asked Froke. Then she turned to George. “You have to see Finn. He’s so cute. I think you’ll like him.”
“Who’s Finn?” said George. “Sounds like a dumb name. Sounds like he’s really short, a halfling, or a dwarf or something.”
Vesper laughed.
“If anything, Finn is not small. And he’s very handsome. And helpful. And so brave. He carried me on his back for miles.”
“So he’s strong, too. Yeah, I get it,” said George. George couldn’t stop the pained look that tightened his face, so he looked off into the forest.
Vesper laughed again.
“I’m messing with you, George. Finn is a fox.”
“Yeah, I get it already. Finn’s great. . .”
“No, I mean an actual fox, except he’s giant, bigger than a horse! Eon rides Finn into battle and stuff,” said Vesper.
“Oh, right, I knew that,” said George defensively.
“Are there illumees at the forever tree?” Vesper asked Froke. “Like a lot of them? Listen to this; we saw a kobalin eat an illumee and it transformed into—like a human or something. Have you ever seen that?”
Froke shook his head.
“Then the illumee began to wear off and it changed back into a kobalin. It looked like my friend, Sadie, George’s sister. But even if it’s not Sadie, and it’s someone else, we have to help her.”
“The forever tree has the most illumees. That is where the fairies are born,” said Froke.
“Then I think we should go to the forever tree, find my mom, and gather illumees for the kobalins, for Sadie. If there’s even a chance my mom is here and alive, I’ll do anything to find her.”
“The forever tree is in a secret place, far from here, but if we race, through the Keep all places are near. There is a portal, deep inside, and from there we can quickly make the ride,” Froke explained.
“Will they just let us go?” George wondered.
“Oh, yes, I do believe you have permission, as long as Froke is on his mission,” Froke said proudly.
“Eon wasn’t so sure,” Vesper said.
Froke wasn’t having it, and he was so excited to be back with Vesper, he became much more talkative than usual. Vesper, George, and Froke talked for hours by the fire, telling stories, sharing their thoughts about things that frightened them, like shadow dragons and kobalins. Like sinking into a bog. Like never returning home.
At one point in the night, the temperature dropped and a light procession of snowflakes fell from the night sky.
“Snow!” Vesper said and she stuck out her tongue to catch one. George joined her in her attempt to eat the falling frozen flakes.
“I see why you built the fire,” said George. “It got cold fast!”
“Froke doesn’t need a fire to stay warm, the cold does Froke no harm. In fact, it was a signal you could find more easily, or you might never find the Froke for the trees,” Froke said.
One of the snowflakes landed on Froke’s nose, then he joined the other two, trying to catch one on his tongue.
“Froke likes flothers,” said Froke.
“What are flothers?” asked Vesper.
“Snowflakes,” he replied. “They remind of a poem Froke wrote, when Froke was sailing in a boat.”
“You wrote a poem?” said Vesper.
“You were in a boat, and it didn’t sink?” said George.
Froke cleared his throat and pulled out a small scroll from his cloak shell, and recited:
Falling flothers floated like
frozen fairy feathers,
droll and dreamy dozing-do,
dared in dreary weather.
“That reminds Froke,” he continued sleepily, “time for a nap. No more sleepwalks, or falling into traps.”
Vesper and George looked at each other with wide-eyes and smiles on their faces.
For a moment, the three friends were able to forget about the dark forces that stirred in the forest around them, and they fell asleep.
The next morning, they ate the last two illumees Froke had saved.
“Take this small sack to gather food. Pick the berries that are red or blue,” Froke said as he handed Vesper a small pouch. The pouch was packed with a variety of berries and closed with a drawstring. Vesper received it with a smile and placed it in a secret pocket inside her cloak.
They studied a map Froke had pulled out from one of the many secret places deep in his cloak shell, and he showed them where they would find the dwarf city of Nnoom, the city where the celebration of the Unicorn Festival was being prepared.
“We have to go here first,” Vesper said. “It’s in the right direction, isn’t it?” The promise of the Unicorn Festival was too much for Vesper to pass up.
“Yes, there we can stay—it is on the way. This tower, just past Nnoom, is the keeper’s keep. It’s a bit of a secret so make sure you keep it,” Froke said as he pointed to where the tower was marked.
