That evening, Zanya returned to the house. Karra had made her stew for the entire village. It was the first very chill night heralding the coming of winter. The village gathered in the yard, blankets, coats, and Yarin and Belafur set up some small heaters. Zanya sat, near Karra, the children sitting close. Even Alyssa. Casela met her gaze and it broke her heart. What price would she pay to give Alyssa the one thing she wanted more than any other thing in her world? The answer: Evertyhing, but it wasn’t enough.

Tonight, Zanya would earn her keep as a traveling entertainer. This story had been written for a purpose. To show the children they were their own guardian angels. They didn’t need to wait for one. And so the story had begun, 12 years ago, in a mine, 2 miles south of the village:

Once upon a time there were several very small children. They found themselves trapped in the prison of an evil prince. The prison was like a labyrinth with twists and turns and dead ends. The only way out was a large doorway but instead of the door there were bars. That’s how they knew they were in a prison. Only prisons had bars on the doors. And through the bars they could smell fresh air and hear the rain when it fell. But inside the prison it was dry, and the dust kicked up by their little feet made them cough and cough until it hurt. The light from the door only reached so far. After that point the children could only move by feel, in the dark, along with the strange sounds that lived in that darkness. At first there were more of them, the littles, they huddled together on the edge of the light where the men at the door couldn’t reach them to hurt them. They were hungry but more they were thirsty. The prison was dusty and dry, but in the quiet at the edge of the light they could hear a dripping from somewhere deeper in the labyrinth.

Follow the light till it’s gone
Touch the wall, hand trailing the stone, cold and harsh
When you hit the wall turn and follow it
Empty space, step sideways away from the abyss
Touch the pipes and move forward.
Dry hard stone turns to wet
Feet hit stone, skirt around, feel air
Hands out, walk forward,
Water, wet, cold, running
Look left and above
Squint and see light far up.

The water wasn’t good, it tasted off but it was water. The light was an air shaft, it was hard to climb, but littles have a way of getting where they shouldn’t go. The older children clamored out. Most got lost, or were too exhausted to continue. Little Girl, blonde hair turned brown in the dirt of the prison, turned back. The babies couldn’t climb out. One by one she followed the trail back, hiding them in the dark, where there was water. Other children cried out from the depths of the labyrinth too lost to find a way out. Down in the depths of the tunnels monsters of the earth made noises and groaned that intrusion of little feet and heartbreaking cries.

Every day the Little Girl walked the path back to the door, calling softly to those that were lost, “Follow me, try, you have to try.” Some of the others managed to make their way through the dark to her voice, others stopped calling. Every day, on the edge of light, she waited, waited to see when another would be cast into the prison. And as each one came, she would lead them through the path, teaching them the words so they could find their way.

The prison shook, the littles cried out as the floor rocked and they could hear the dirt and pebbles falling elsewhere in the dark. She wandered back through the chaos and fear. The door, the bars were gone. And in their place was a crumpled figure, half buried in the rubble. She ran, as fast as little feet could through the darkness and chaos. Together they picked up the babies and holding hands took drinks of the dirty water and wandered carefully back to the prison door.

“Wake up!” a hushed forceful whisper from Little Girl, pushing and poking at crumpled figure. The other littles trying to move the rubble, as best as little bodies can. At least it was small, gravel like and not too big. “Wake up! We got you free. Your turn!” She turned, “Make her take you. Go! You got her free.” Little Girl disappeared back into the darkness. A squashed turned up nose and beady eyes stare up from the dirty thin and tattered blanket the babe was wrapped in, at the crumpled figure in dark grey clothing and pink hair. Pequeno Bella, rosey auburn hair, turned black from the horrors of the prison, stared in glee at the bright pink hair. A PIXIE! They saved a pixie! “Yeah get up! You owe us now! We saved you!” She was too tired and too little to carry the two babies. This big person was going to have to do it.

After much coaxing the crumpled figure of a female pixie roused and looked around. She was muddle headed, and so it didn’t take Pequeno Bella much to get her moving, carrying the babes away from the prison. She tried to follow, she was so tired, so hungry. Where was Little Girl? Suddenly the pixie reappeared picking her up, she was afraid of Pixie, was she taking her back to the prison? Where were the babes?

The doorway disappeared, around a sudden turn, left, and into the trees. Water, real water, could be heard, it was suddenly louder and seemed to roar. It was a strange sound, like a monster roaring at the end of the sound of the running water. But it wasn’t. The pixie called them rapids because the water moved rapidly over the rocks. She set Pequeno Bella down next to the babes. Slowly bringing them each water to drink, washing off the dirt and mud from the dirty water. The sun was going down and it was in front of the childrens’ faces and after several minutes of squinting it was dark underneath the trees. It was cold from the breeze off the water but the weather had been warm. The babes and Pequeno Bella crawled next to the pixie for warmth. The next morning Pixie staggered up and picked up the children following the river opposite of the water flow. They walked almost all day, staying to the stones and gravel on the river bank. At the end of the rapids was a large group of boulders and a road nearby. The girl was excited, she heard people, they would help. But the pixie shushed them and hid behind the boulders with them. Once the people were gone they skipped across the large rocks to the otherside of the now slow moving river. They walked, the sun at their back, and found a beautiful tree, and way way up there was a branch that grew into both trees, connecting them together. The pixie whispered. “Look, it’s the gateway, you’re safe now.” She skipped and danced through the gate way and followed a small path between two baby mountains. The pixie pointed to a woman with funny ears. A gnome! “KAWWA!” Pequeno Bella recognized the small female gnome who took care of her. She ran and ran till she couldn’t anymore. She’d been right to follow the pixie. She led Karra back to the babes, but the pixie was gone.

Little Girl shuffled through the prison calling to those lost to the darkness. “The bars are gone, come, come wif me! We can get out!” Slowly over several days she coaxed even the older children from their fear and the darkness of the labyrinth. The pixie appeared over and over again to guide them. She made the pixie promise, they’d saved her from the rock slide. That was how magical creatures worked, the stories said so. If you saved them, captured them, they owed you a favor until you were repaid. Finally the blonde hair turned dirty brown girl could coax no more children out. She sent the pixie to look, but Little Girl was so tired, she stumbled and fell. Tired, hungry, and so thirsty.

The pixie awoke with her last charge tucked safely in her arms to the face of a small woman with strange ears. A GNOME! The gnome beckoned the pixie to follow, follow the path once more. The road was blocked, they couldn’t follow the other path but skirted the road to the left this time. The pixie wouldn’t give the girl up to the gnome even when she stumbled and almost dropped her. The pixie was bound by her promise. They slipped deeper into the dense woods as the first straight away in the road appeared. They moved south and west, away from the village. The sounds of men moving down the road echoing off the hills as they came. There was an open clearing, filled with small stone markers. The pixie shushed Little Girl and set her down in a large patch of soft moss. Pixie and Gnome kneeled at each marker, crying soft tears for whatever was hidden there. Gnome gave Little Girl and Pixie water and soft bread. Little Girl ate and ate, swallowing it almost whole. Making herself sick. She screamed and yelled and cried, Gnome had hurt her, and Pixie wasn’t helping! She was carried then as she sobbed, her tummy hurting and cramping. Pixie sang to her, soothed her, carrying for her little mistress. They walked with the sun on their left until it was a warm blanket right above them,and they came to a pond.

Little Girl, with the help of her captured Pixie washed the dirt and mud from herself. She was cold, but the only warmth was a small shawl that Gnome gave to her. From the pond they skirted the shore North East coming back to a road, but turned following a hunters trail into a small valley between hills. On the other side were open fields. Little Girl looked struggling to get down. There were people working, farming. She recognized them, she had seen them in her home before the evil prince took her away. She stumbled and tripped looking for any face she might know, but her family was gone. Pixie, having delivered her and keeping her bargain, disappeared, but Gnome was there, and took her to the other babes.

Together Little Girl, Pequeno Bella, and the two babes begged and argued until Gnome agreed to let them live with her, to make a new home, away from the monsters. They made a new life, a happy one. And soon more brave children, just like them, would come to live in the home, and their family would grow and always be strong. The saving of a life is a large debt that creates a bond that is not easily completed or broken. And so Pixie would return now and then to check on those brave children who had saved her life and to fulfill her promise of making sure they were always safe.
Casela/Zanya