Elizabeth’s eyes gleamed as she caught on. “You’re right! The gnomes are going to need help. They need expert adventurers who know how to present a case to the king and his Royal Guard!”
“Of course they do, Sis. They need the Daughters Daring right away!”
“Now girls,” Annie said, reminding them of her presence, “I hope you're not planning to do something that is better left to the authorities.”
“Well, um, you see,” Emily stammered. Excuses were not her better talent.
“Mrs. Whipperpeel,” Elizabeth chimed in, “you know we would never intentionally get into any trouble. We're just going to look around and see if we can solve this mystery for you. You do want the sweetberries found, don't you?”
“Well,” Annie answered, “of course I do, dearie. You girls go ahead and ask around the market, but please stay out of that Enchanted Forest!”
“Of course, Mrs. Whipperpeel,” Elizabeth answered. “Every child knows the Enchanted Forest is only for the daring or the foolish, and we wouldn't want to be foolish, would we Sis?”
“No, of course not!” Emily answered, catching on to her sister's fun.
“Very well then,” Annie said. “Thank you, girls, for finding out what you can. I'm sure I'll be back in the sweetberries and baking pies soon!”
With that, the girls bid her farewell, all the while trying hard not to giggle.
“Elizabeth that was downright cruel of you!”
“Why Emily,” Elizabeth answered in a mocking tone, “whatever do you mean?”
“You know what I mean!” Emily responded, as they walked toward home. “You told Mrs. Whipperpeel that the Enchanted Forest was only for the daring or the foolish!”
“Yes, so?”
“So? We are the Darings!”
“And that, Sis, is why we are perfectly qualified to venture into the Enchanted Forest.”
“All right, but why?” Emily asked again. “What's in the Enchanted Forest?”
“For starters,” Elizabeth answered, "the Forest Gnomes. If we're going to find them, that is where we'll have to start searching.”
“Well, in that case,” Emily said, picking up her pace, “we're going to need our adventuring gear.”
Highcynder, while grand, wasn’t a very large kingdom, and Emily and Elizabeth had explored nearly every inch of it that wasn’t locked behind closed doors. They knew the wharf and boat docks, had been to the edge of the Putrid Swale (mother caught them with mud on their knickers that day), and had even hiked with their father around the base of the Craggy Mountains. However, the Enchanted Forest was a place they had not yet explored. Many adults feared to go there and, of course, there was the king’s rule that only those on royal business could enter. The daughters decided that their business was certainly of royal importance and therefore the king shouldn’t mind this one little peek. In fact, he would probably be thanking them when this was all over, once they found the lost sweetberries!
They rushed home and changed into their “adventuring clothes.” Their mother would insist they looked like ragamuffins but Emily was glad just to be out of her stuffy dress. Elizabeth looked at her clothing in a more practical way and, while she enjoyed pretty dresses, they weren’t cut out for the adventure at hand.
Not knowing for sure what dangers might be ahead, Emily grabbed her sling-staff as well as a hunting dagger her father had given her. The staff was made of stout oak, with a special cord at the end and a strap of leather attached in the middle. In a pinch, the staff and cord made a strong slingshot that could hurl rocks the size of chicken eggs with ease (It could also hurl actual chicken eggs, which made quite a mess when she tested it, once). The dagger was a work of art with a leather handle and the Daring crest etched on the blade.
Not to be outdone, Elizabeth chose her best bow, along with a quiver of arrows carved just for her smaller size. The bow was of the finest wood and, like Emily’s knife, it bore the Daring crest.
The girls filled their packs with bread and dried meat, water, fire flints, and a journal to document their discoveries. They had "adventured" before, although much closer to home, and had watched their father pack many times. While they lacked his sword and armor, they knew what to bring, and were not without their own weapons and wits.
They were almost to the manor gate when their mother stopped them. She was tending her garden, while Joseph played in the grass nearby. It wasn’t common for nobles to work in the soil, but the duchess was very particular about her garden and insisted on doing it herself, as she had a sharp eye for details.
“Girls,” she queried, “where are you off to dressed like bandits? And where are the pies I sent you for?”
The sisters paused. Emily shrugged her shoulders but Elizabeth quickly answered,
“Duke Archibald's nephews were hoping that Father would come by the royal courtyard and tell another of his adventure stories. We decided that, rather than distract Father from his important duties, we would go and entertain them ourselves with a fabulous make-believe adventure.”
Their mother studied them for a moment, not entirely convinced, but not sure if she should press them on it. She worried, as all mothers do, about her two precious girls. They did not always get along, and it was good to see them playing together. She hoped that, someday, they would grow to see the true value of the other, and each appreciate her sister for her beauty and character.
“And the pies?” the duchess asked.
“They were all out,” Emily answered, “Annie Whipperpeel said there is a shortage of sweetberries!”
“How odd,” the duchess said. “That doesn’t bode well for the festival.
“You two go ahead and play, but I warn you. If you get into trouble, I’ll put you both in the care of a governess and lock you in your room for a week!”
“Thank you, Mother!” The girls responded in unison, running out the gate and down the path to the royal courtyard. The duchess watched them until they rounded a corner and were out of sight.
What neither the duchess, nor the daughters as they sped away, noticed, was the set of small eyes watching them from the shadows of a nearby hedge.
Chapter 3
The path to the Enchanted Forest took the daughters past the royal courtyard and beyond the soldier’s barracks where Elizabeth had only too recently caused quite a ruckus. Further up the path sat a guardhouse next to a large gate where two soldiers stood guard. The gate was fortified with large, wooden doors that could be swung shut and barred with a stout, wooden beam. Suspended above the doors, was a rather rusty-looking portcullis, which was simply an iron gate that could be lowered into place giving reinforcement to the wooden doors. In Emily’s life she had never seen the doors shut or portcullis lowered. She thought the idea of two guards at a gate that almost no one used seemed silly, but her father had reminded her that, even though this was a postern, or secondary gate, it was important to the safety of the city that it be guarded day and night.
These soldiers posed a problem for the girls. They surely would not permit the daughters of Duke Daring to leave The Shining City without an escort.
“We’ll just tell them we are on official business of the king,” Elizabeth said.
“Just like that?” Emily said incredulously. “I don’t think it will work.”
“Trust me.”
As the daughters approached the guards, one of them stepped forward. His buckskin uniform was nicely polished and glistened in the sun. He had a big, thick mustache, much like their father’s, and Emily thought he looked rather handsome.
“Hello there,” he said, “Where might you young ladies be off to today?”
“Hello, good sir,” Elizabeth said cheerily. “We are the Daughters Daring and we are on an important mission to help the king.”
“To help the king you say?” The guard responded with a slight chuckle. “And what kind of mission are you on?”
“Why, an important mission of much secrecy!” Elizabet
h exclaimed.
The guard with the mustache chuckled again, and now his fellow guard was also smiling. The second guard looked younger and had fewer decorations on his tunic, so Emily figured he was probably of lower rank than the mustached man.
“Wait a minute,” the second guard said, eyeing them more closely, “aren’t you the ones who shot that young boy in the backside with an arrow?”
Emily was starting to worry that her sister’s plan wasn’t going to work.
“We are the Daughters Daring,” Elizabeth repeated, trying to maintain an air of confidence. “That was an unfortunate incident, but the boy is fully recovering. Now, we really must be about our mission, if you don’t mind?”
“My dear lady,” the mustached man said, “with all due respect to your family, I must say this does seem a bit, irregular. Perhaps we should wait here while I send my corporal to fetch your father and make sure this mission meets his approval?”
Now Emily was really worried.
“Now look,” Elizabeth started to answer, when a small rock bounced off the second guard’s helmet.
“What the blazes was that?” he exclaimed.
The mustached guard raised his index finger to the daughters and turned his attention to the foliage outside the gate. He stepped forward, looking this way and that, trying to detect their assailant. He ducked as another rock whizzed past him, again hitting the second guard, this time on the bridge of his nose.
“Yeeooowww!!!” he cried out.
“To arms, coward!” The mustached guard yelled, drawing his sword and charging into a nearby thicket. The second guard, now in great pain, had his hands over his face and was stomping his feet. Both guards had forgotten about the daughters.
“Come on, Sis!” Elizabeth whispered.
The daughters sped past the second guard, out the gate, and off in the opposite direction of the mustached guard. Most of the area around them was an open field, but there were a few stands of trees that they could use to stay hidden. After they ran beyond the nearest thicket, no one seemed to be following them, and they slowed down.
“What happened back there?” Emily asked her sister.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said, looking back. “Someone was helping us, not that I needed any help, but who?”
“And why?” Emily said.
The daughters decided it was a mystery best solved later, after they found the missing sweetberries. They rounded another stand of trees and came to an old trail. Although grown over, it was clear from the trampled foliage that it had been used recently, and by numerous sets of feet. They didn’t have to follow the trail very far before they came upon the Enchanted Forest.
“This is it, Liz. Once we go in, there's no turning back.”
“Really, Em, you're soooo dramatic! What's the worst that can happen?”
With characteristic daring, the girls entered the forest. Emily hefted her staff for extra comfort, while Elizabeth gripped the handle of her bow. As they walked, their confidence grew as they beheld the many sights of the beautiful forest. There were majestic trees that seemed to reach up into the heavens, vines and flowers of every sort, colorful butterflies that danced softly in the air. This certainly did not seem like a place of danger.
After a while, Elizabeth spotted a crushed sweetberry on the trail, and Emily found tiny footprints just beyond that. The girls agreed it had to be the footprints of gnomes, and they followed them farther into the forest, until the trail lead them to the entrance of a large, dark cave. The forest was quiet here, and the air coming from the cave was chilly. They tried peering in, but couldn't see very far for the limited light. Emily started gathering small sticks and bundled them together to make a torch.
“Well,” Emily said, “the trail clearly leads here. I guess we should check it out.”
“All right,” said Elizabeth, “but you hold the torch. I need two hands for my bow.”
Emily gave her sister a look. “Fine, just be careful. I would hate to get shot in the backside!”
“Oh please! Do I have to hear about it endlessly? He ran right in front of me, and his chubby backside was impossible to miss!”
Emily shook her head at her sister and started into the cave. Elizabeth followed closely behind, an arrow nocked on her bow.
The cave was damp and not very inviting. The girls agreed this didn’t seem like a pleasant place for gnomes to live. Still, neither of them had ever visited the homes of gnomes before, so they couldn't be sure.
They ventured on for a while and soon Elizabeth lost interest. While Emily was carefully tiptoeing, her sister (having returned the arrow to her quiver) made sport of jumping from rock to rock. This was fun, and she was enjoying herself quite well, until she stepped on a wobbly rock that was covered in moss, and slipped. The rock spun out from under her, dumping her on her own backside with a thud. The rock rolled into the darkness, falling down a crevice and bouncing loudly off several other large rocks in its path.
Something in the distance grumbled.
The girls froze, trembling as they tried to listen into the darkness. Whatever had grumbled sounded big, much bigger than a gnome. After a few moments, Emily sighed, ready to press on.
Then, there was a different noise. This was a lighter sound, like raindrops, or maybe the sound of hundreds of tiny feet. It grew louder.
“Somethings coming!” Emily shouted. “Run!”
The girls raced back out of the cave and into the forest where they could see their surroundings better. Emily dropped the torch and already had a good, round stone loaded up on the end of her staff. Elizabeth aimed her bow into the mouth of the cave, her arrow ready.
“Liz,” said Emily, her voice tight. “We don't want to kill them!”
“I know that,” answered Elizabeth, somewhat breathless. “I'm using the safety arrows Father gave me. Wooden tip, see? It won't harm them, but it will hurt!”
Seconds later, the first of the small creatures emerged from the cave, but instead of gnomes they were goblins! They were small, like gnomes, standing about as tall as Elizabeth. Their skin had a green hue, and their eyes were beady black. Some of them carried crude weapons made of sharp rocks bound to wooden handles. Others carried daggers or sharpened sticks. All of them seemed menacing.
Goblins naturally tried to avoid sunlight, so they wore hooded cloaks to give cover from the sun. The light of the forest disoriented them as they first exited the cave, but one soon spotted the girls and screamed at them.
Whoooosh! Elizabeth's arrow hit the goblin square in the forehead, its blunt tip knocking the creature senseless.
Whack! A rock from Emily's staff sent another goblin to its knees.
The girls continued hurling missiles at the small, green creatures, but now the goblins knew where their enemy was, and moved to surround them. Emily grabbed Elizabeth and was ready to retreat, when the sound of a new commotion arose behind them.
“Gnomes!” Emily shouted as she looked back.
A large group of actual gnomes had arrived and were moving to outflank the goblins. Several gnomes quickly set up a strange contraption while others guarded them. It was a square platform with a seat in the middle, a hand crank attached to gears and pulleys, several poles with what looked like cups on the end, and on the platform, a basket of rocks.
When the contraption was finished, one of the gnomes took his place in the seat and started the hand crank, while others loaded rocks into the pole cups. He yelled, “Firing!” Almost immediately, rocks the size of goose eggs started rapidly hurling at the goblins, smashing into them and knocking them off their feet. Faced with this weapon, the goblins started retreating into the cave.
A group of gnomes, on the other side of the girls, collided with other goblins, pushing them back with small staves and strange, handheld weapons that seemed to shock the creatures with magical energy. Puzzled, and fearful of the strange weaponry, these goblins retreated, as well. With hisses and squeals, they scurried into the depths of the cave.
Once the last of the goblins had disappeared into the cave, the gnomes turned to face the girls. A gnome with frizzled gray hair and a wrinkled face approached the daughters. “Who are you, and what are you doing in our forest?”
Chapter 4
“No, the question is: Who are you?” Emily countered, ready to launch another rock at the army of gnomes surrounding them.
The old gnome grunted and said, “We're the forest gnomes. My name is Randolph, I am the leader of the forest gnomes. Well, we don't actually have titles of authority, but I am the “unofficial” leader as it were. It all started one day when the gnomish high council got together and realized that we had no official leadership. Even the high council was just a gathering of any gnome who chose to show up to meetings, which was usually any gnome who wasn't already engaged elsewhere. Say, those eyes are familiar, by any chance are you related to Duke Daring?”
Elizabeth stepped forward, amazed that the gnome had stopped to take a breath. “Yes, he is our father. We are the Daughters Daring. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Randolph looked surprised and all the gnomes behind him began to whisper quietly to each other. It had been a while since gnomes had actually talked to humans, let alone two who were related to Highcynder’s most famous hero!
“Yes, Daughters Daring,” Randolph answered. “Your suspicions are correct. We have been watching you today.”
“And you helped us at the gate?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes, that was our doing.” Randolph said.
“Why?”
Randolph hesitated a moment and scratched his little white beard. Emily thought he looked quite distinguished for such a peculiar little fellow.
“We need your help, Daughters Daring,” He answered. “We thought at first your people had taken all the sweetberries and left none for ourselves. We see now that we were wrong.”
“When we saw your plight,” Randolph continued, “we realized it was something worse.”
“You mean the goblins?” Emily asked.
“Yes, and no,” he said. “We discovered the goblins took the sweetberries, but they are not acting alone. They have a plan, which they couldn’t have come up with by themselves.”
The Daughters Daring (The Daughters Daring & The Enchanted Forest Book 1) Page 2
