by Joel Stewart
The elderly woman came out to see what all the commotion was and ended up inviting them in for a drink and some homemade food. After they left, they found out from others that she was one of the biggest mysteries in all of Dengrin. She even had several urban legends based on her! Somehow her property covered an entire hill—one of the famous five that surrounded the mountain in the center. She had a small driveway that allowed people to visit the historic watch tower without gaining access to the rest of her property, which had a decent-sized wall around it.
The real estate value of an entire hill in Dengrin was borderline priceless, but she never sold any part of it or even talked to anyone about it. For all the wealth she must have, the only building on the entire hill was a small house that was barely more than a shack. The rooms inside were hardly large enough to host four people without at least one of them sitting on another’s lap. So the questions going around town, as Alex and Cliff later found out, were:
1) How could one family own an entire hill for so long without selling any of it to aggressive investors? Everyone has money trouble at some point, especially when looking at a several-hundred year or more timeline.
2) If she was so independently wealthy, why was her personal house such a run-down little cabin, and why did none of the other residents build more houses over the years?
3) Why are there no public records of other owners?
4) Why did she refuse to allow botanists on the property to study them?
Needless to say, with questions as deep as these, rumors were springing up all over the city. Some thought she was a direct descendant of a king Denoria must have had before recorded history, others thought she was an evil witch that was keeping the Governing Circle cowering in fear of her sorcery. How else would she still be the sole owner of what was arguably the most valuable real estate in the capital city?
For some, the lack of public records of the previous owners left them thinking the house was haunted and the woman seen around the property was really a ghost; others thought there must be a secret military base under the hill and that the government kept it clear for security reasons. Alex and Cliff did not really know what to think, but after making periodic visits over the last few years they were convinced that Grandma Lena was just a really nice elderly woman who was independently wealthy and valued privacy. She was also an amazing cook!
Alex pulled up outside the glorified shack at the top of the hill and hopped out of her car. She was determined to keep her mind off of the heavy stuff and just enjoy the day. The air up here smelled so clear and the flowers that surrounded the house were so beautiful and fragrant! The door to the small house was open and the two of them walked right in and sat down on the small couch-like chairs that were in the living room. While it was technically a living room, the coffee table in the center of the circle of chairs doubled as the dining room table.
There were strange decorations all over the walls—the kinds of things you would expect to find in an old rich person’s house. There was a claw from a Mantigore that was over 2 feet long, a strange painting of what seemed to be a dragon watching over Castle Dengrin with its wings unfurled around it—as if it was protecting the city—and an exquisitely polished sword that seemed to be hundreds of years old. Mantigores, large cat-like creatures that could grow to be the size of a truck, were thought to be extinct. This made the claw on the wall worth a small fortune in itself. The curtains in the two windows were made from Ice Spider Silk, one of the rarest materials on the planet since the Ice Nomads stopped trading it over a hundred years ago. This amount of silk could be sold for enough money to buy an entire city block.
The living room took up the majority of the home’s interior and it included the seating area and a small kitchen integrated into it that lined the back wall of the house. Besides this living room/kitchen area there was a small bathroom and another room that Alex assumed was Lena’s bedroom since she had never seen inside. If it was possible, the house seemed even smaller on the inside than the outside.
“Grandma Lena! Cliff and I have stopped by for a visit!” Alex yelled from her seat while admiring the dragon painting. Below the picture frame was the title: Ivinor the Protector.
After a moment Lena came out of her bedroom to greet them. She was an energetic old woman with an over-the-top personality. She was wearing a sleeveless blouse today that matched her silver hair. She had shorts on underneath her blouse and had simple flip flops on her feet. “How are my favorite kids today?!” She exclaimed excitedly. She tried to run to them, but she had a natural hunch to her back from spending so much time tending her garden and it just looked funny to see her try. Alex gave her a big hug that straightened her back right out. “You always brighten up my day!”
“Did we surprise you? I walked right in since the gate opened for us at the bottom of the hill. I assumed you hit a button up here or something.” Cliff said sheepishly, it really seemed like they had caught her off guard.
“Oh that,” Lena said with a confused look. “Ah yes, I took the liberty of installing electronic identification on your vehicles last time you came to visit, it lets my gate open for you automatically!”
“Oh,” Alex said with a perplexed look on her face. She was not sure if she should be upset with Lena for doing this without consulting her or not.
“It is just a small magnetic box that tells my gate you are here, I did not think much of it!” Lena looked between the two of them and realized they were deciding whether to be upset with her or not. “Oh, now don’t look so upset, I really did not think you would mind! It is hard for an old woman to walk down to that blasted gate to open it every time. I bet some homemade fudge will lighten up your moods!” Lena clapped excitedly and ran over to her small kitchen area. She pulled out some fudge and began to cut out small squares.
“Chocolate does cover over a multitude of sins.” Cliff said jokingly. He walked over to admire the delicious treats. “I am going to have to go to the gym an extra day this week with Davis.”
“You don’t need a gym!” Lena exclaimed. “Look at these babies!” She flexed her arms to reveal surprising muscle definition for her age. “And all I do is gardening! You should just go frame a house or something if you want to exercise.”
Cliff could not tell if she was joking or if she was having a senior moment and forgot that his part time job that was getting him through school was in construction. “Um . . . I did frame a house . . . yesterday.” He said hesitantly.
“Of course you did!” Lena responded almost condescendingly without missing a step. She slapped him on the back and handed him a plate of chocolates. “Did you know that General Ariel in the third millennia of the Great War had a weakness for chocolates? It is said that liberated lands would give him gifts of chocolate as a way of saying thank you.”
Cliff rubbed his back with the hand not holding the sinful decadence. That slap had hurt! Lena was always telling stories of this Great War but very little documentation of such a war existed. She would swear that it lasted over 5,000 years but Cliff had always found that hard to swallow, especially with the lack of documentary proof. “Well General Ariel and I must have something in common!” He said with his mouth half full, “Mind if Alex and I take a stroll through the garden? It is such a nice day it would be a shame to spend it inside.” OK, let’s try this again. He thought. If I can’t make a romantic moment surrounded by these flowers there is something seriously wrong with me.
“You kids go ahead!” Lena said with more excitement than the question deserved. “I need to finish cleaning up my room anyway. Let the cleaning start to go and before you know it you will be living with pigs! Don’t doubt me!”
“We never doubt you Lena!” Alex piped in. “Be back in a few!”
Alex bounded out the door so fast it left Cliff confused for a moment. He had never told her he wanted to go out the flower garden before this and now she was acting like it was always part of the plan! “This is Delicious Lena, thanks!” Cliff yelle
d over his shoulder with his mouth partly full. He looked across the hill and saw Alex studying a patch of flowers like there was a deep mystery to uncover. “What is going on?” Cliff asked thoroughly puzzled.
“Last time we visited I saw some flowers I wanted for my room, but when I tried to look them up at home I couldn’t find reference to them anywhere! Then I found an info-page dedicated to a conspiracy theory about Lena based on her flowers that had a picture of the exact one I was looking for.” Alex responded.
“What did they have to say about it?” Cliff said raising his eyebrows slightly.
“They think that the flower only grows in Chengar and that she is a spy for their government.”
“Hmmm . . . Would be a good spot to keep an eye on the city, but if you were not trying to draw attention to yourself I don’t think this would be the way to go.” Cliff laughed at the idea. The thought of Lena being a spy from Chengar seemed hilarious to him. He looked down at Alex thoughtfully—this was as good a time as any. He could feel his stomach turn sick again, but he did his best to repress it. “So—”
Before he could get a second word in, a big truck came flying up the hill and almost crashed into Alex’s car. Alex looked up alarmed as a short redhead hopped out of the driver’s seat and looked at the pink compact curiously. She wore a blue dress with a pair of redundant leggings that were not really needed, given the weather. Her red shoes had yellow flowers on them and there was another flower tucked behind her ear, which Alex noticed was one of the flowers she had been trying to track down! Alex also took note of her gigantic truck, it could have fit Alex’s car in the truck bed and drove off if someone had the mind to put it there. She approached the girl slowly with Cliff right beside her. She could swear she knew her from somewhere. “Hey, I didn’t know Lena had any other visitors! My name is Alex, this is Cliff, what is your name?”
“Oh . . .” the woman looked confused for a brief moment and then put on a big smile. “I am Arelia, Arelia Kes. I did not realize you were visiting either or I would not have gone up the driveway so fast!”
“Arelia? I like that name! No harm done with the truck, you came close to pretending my car was part of a monster truck derby, but you didn’t quite flatten her, so it is all good!” Alex said through a big smile. She did not know why, but she really liked this girl. “How do you know Lena? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Arelia’s face did not hide much. She looked concerned for half a second, then thoughtful for another. Her eyes squinted as she weighed possible responses, then she put on another bright smile that lit up her whole face. “I had to ask Lena a question, she is on the advisory board for the Sanctum, and since she refuses to run a phone line up here I have to bring all correspondence to her directly. My brother Luke let me borrow his truck today, I don’t normally drive this beast!” Arelia was starting to get a little giddy. “Do you know, I actually have a car just like yours!?”
“No way!” Alex said surprised.
“It’s true! Mine is the same shade pink and everything, only difference is that I had big sunflowers painted on mine!” Arelia blurted out. She seemed to be close to the same age as Alex, but she was so easily excited she seemed much younger.
“You seem to really like flowers!” Alex said baiting her. “Where did you get that one in your hair?”
“From my house.” Arelia responded matter-of-factly. “Lena gave me a few in a pot on my last birthday. They grow fast but the blooms are really short lived, so when one blooms I pick it on the third day and wear it in my hair! It doesn’t harm the plant as another grows in its place after a week or so.” She was excited to have someone to talk to about flowers. “Oh! But I have to deliver my message to Lena!” Arelia’s eyes widened as if she had forgotten to turn off the stove before leaving the house.
“I thought you had to ask her a question?” Cliff said, speaking up for the first time.
“Oh, I uh . . .” Arelia’s face was once again going through the gambit of showing expressive emotions and contemplative thinking. “Questions can be messages . . . I gotta go!”
Cliff watched her run in the house. “She is a strange one,” he muttered.
Alex looked up at him with a disapproving look. “I like her a lot, she’s fun!” They both looked at the house thoughtfully for a moment. “I know that I’ve seen her before.”
“I didn’t know Lena was involved with the Sanctum.” Cliff said ignoring Alex momentarily. “I have an atheist friend at work that thinks the Sanctum is a Chengarian plot to gain information from the general public.”
“Like the Sanctum could have anything to do with Chengar!” Alex said defensively. She attended services at the Castle Dengrin Sanctum regularly and the religious practices of the order had been a big part of her childhood. Her mother raised her believing that the faith taught by the Sanctum gave life meaning, and this gave her comfort when her father was gone with the military to one crisis or another. “Seems to me there is always a crackpot somewhere that will say anything points to Chengar, whether it is a religion founded in Denoria or a flower growing in some nice lady’s yard. I remember where I’ve seen her now. On Sundays, I go to the Sanctum in Dengrin Castle and I’m positive I have seen her doing some things behind the scenes there. She is definitely involved with running the Sanctum in Dengrin Castle, and possibly the others scattered across Dengrin City.”
“Yeah,” Cliff said hoping to smooth over the subject he did not realize was so touchy. Guess I missed the moment again, he thought with a frown. “It did seem like she was trying to hide something though.” Cliff looked up at the house suspiciously. “If Lena is involved with the Sanctum then this land could belong to their religious order. Hard to think that though, if they sold this land they could make every homeless person in the entire capital rich.” Alex didn’t respond right away, and his mind kept churning out ideas. Unless she is the head of the order and is manipulating the people to live lavishly on this land . . . although that would not explain the humble home.
“Enough of this.” Alex snapped. Without explaining what this was, she began to slowly sneak up on the house.
“What are you doing?” Cliff whispered.
“The windows are open, and I want to hear the message. Once you realize how innocent it is, I’m sure you will stop talking about the Sanctum like that!” Alex whispered back. She popped her head up outside the front window but could not see anyone. She heard some muffled voices but could not make out what they were saying. She continued around to the side window in the living room hoping for a different vantage point, as Cliff stayed close behind her. When she popped her head up slightly in this window she saw Arelia standing outside Lena’s room.
“You’re sure about this?” Lena’s voice was hard and clear, even though it was coming from inside the bedroom, not at all the somewhat raspy and endearing voice Cliff and Alex were used to hearing.
“I’m sure.” Arelia responded emphatically. The giddy little girl from outside was gone—this one was all business. Lena said something else, but her voice was muffled for some reason and the duo outside could not make it out. Arelia’s face became dark. “We definitely need to awaken them . . . you don’t think we should use the caves?” Again, Lena’s response was too muffled to make out. “Do you think Denoria will actually fall this time?”
Not being able to understand Lena was really starting to frustrate Cliff and Alex now. What did she mean by ‘Denoria will fall this time?’
“Understood, commander.” Arelia said after what seemed like an eternity. She gave a salute into the doorway and turned in the direction of the living room.
“Get down!” Cliff shouted in a whisper. When Alex did not respond right away he grabbed her and pulled her away from the house. Alex lost her balance and stepped on Cliff’s foot, making him loose his balance too. Behind the unbalanced pair was a steep drop-off that rolled into a storm water ditch that ran around the side of the house. Alex and Cliff fell together and rolled to the bottom with Alex
ending up sprawled out on top of Cliff, who slowly opened his eyes to see Alex on top of him, staring at him. “Is this a dream?” he said slowly with what he hoped was a charming smirk.
“No,” Alex said with a light punch to his ribs. “That’s for grabbing me and tossing me in a ditch!” She added infuriated.
Cliff heard the front door of Lena’s house close and he pulled Alex back down on top of him. Arelia looked around for them and quickly spotted them in the ditch. The all-business Arelia was apparently left back in the house. “Oh, I didn’t realize you two were seeing each other. So that’s how it is, you love birds. You come up here to ‘visit’ with Lena, but now I know the real reason. Making out in the flower gardens! Don’t worry, I won’t judge you—it’s not like I haven’t thought about it . . . I just need the right guy is all.”
Alex pushed herself back off of Cliff and gave him another, harder, jab in the ribs. “You can’t just do that to a girl!” She whispered half playful and half wrathful. She put a big smile back on her face and stood up. “Oh sorry, figured you would be a bit longer in there.” She bent over and pulled Cliff to his feet. “This lug is just so impulsive!” She had a big smile on her face, but when she said the word lug she gave him a third punch, this time to his arm.
“It’s true . . .” Cliff stammered. He was still tingling all over from having Alex so close to him. Her smell was intoxifying that even her vengeful punches seemed romantically playful. “The right guy will come along eventually.” Cliff put his arm around Alex’s shoulder. “I mean look at us, I was right in front of her for most of her life and she just recently realized how amazing I am.” Cliff put on a false bravado so Alex would think it was obviously supposed to be fake.
“Yeah.” Alex added in hesitantly. “So never give up hope! If someone could fall for this guy . . .” Cliff was expecting the fourth punch, this time back to his ribs. “Then there is someone out there for just about anyone. I expect to find you making out up here some day when we come to visit.”
