Nightshade Forest

by Nikki Mitchell

  Nightshade Forest

  Book one in Eleanor Mason’s Literary Adventures

  Nikki Mitchell

  Nightshade Forest

  © 2020 by Nikki Mitchell

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, and places are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or people is entirely coincidental.

  First edition: June 2020

  Cover art: Matthew Mitchell

  Cover design: Hina Barbar

  Illustrations: William Marcell

  Editor: Jennifer Navarre

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Nightshade Forest (Eleanor Mason's Literary Adventures, #1)

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  To Evelyn and Everett, may you always find grand adventure in every book you open.

  To my husband, thank you for your encouragement and support. I would never have seen these words in print if it wasn’t for you.

  Nightshade Forest

  Prologue

  Eleanor stood in a pitch-black forest, looking around at trees taller than anything she had ever seen in her life. Not only were they huge, they were blue and purple and seemed to be...glowing. She touched a tree and felt the coolness of it. She looked to the sky and saw a blank canvas. The sky was the same color as her potbelly woodstove back home. She spun in a circle, looking for something to tell her where she was, but there was nothing.

  But it seems as though we have gotten a little ahead of ourselves. Let’s take a step back to the night before Eleanor discovered the Nightshade Forest.

  IT’S 1945 AND ELEANOR Mason is your average eleven-year-old girl who lives in a small village in northern Michigan. Her family is extremely poor, but even in her small one-bedroom cottage, Eleanor has the perfect bedroom. Well, it’s more of a nook than a bedroom, as it once was the pantry. The walls hold all of her favorite things: newspaper and magazine clippings, and book pages from materials her father saved from the destroy pile at the local printing company he works at. Any printed material with mistakes must be put in the incinerator, and every now and then, he saves a few from the fire and brings them to Eleanor. Sometimes he even brings books, which are Eleanor’s favorite because she often pretends she’s the main character in the stories. She’s been on many make-believe adventures this way.

  One Christmas, however, she went on her biggest literary adventure ever, and this time, it wasn’t make-believe.

  1

  It was Christmas Eve and Eleanor’s father was working late at the printing company. Eleanor and her mother spent the evening preparing dinner, and then she began to set the table.

  While many of the houses were filled with Christmas decorations, Eleanor’s wasn’t. Her dad had brought home a tree, well more of a shrub, and they had made a paper garland with newspaper. Although it was small, Eleanor loved it. She loved her cozy little home but often dreamed of fairytales and happily ever afters. She was finishing placing the silverware when her father walked in.

  “Eleanor dear, could you please take the pie and set it outside to cool?” Eleanor’s mother asked after getting a wink from her husband.

  Eleanor grabbed the pudding pie and brought it outside. While she was away, her father slipped a square gift delicately wrapped in newspaper under the Christmas tree. He set it toward the back so she wouldn’t notice until the next morning. The last few Christmases had been tough, and they hadn’t had enough money for any real gifts. This year, she would receive the best gift ever. Eleanor came back in, and they sat down for dinner.

  “How was work today, Dad?” Eleanor asked. She pushed the broccoli around on her plate. She hated broccoli, and they had been eating it almost every night lately.

  “Oh, it was fine. I snagged a copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now we can read it instead of going by my memory,” he said, smiling.

  “Oh yes! That’s my favorite.”

  Eleanor’s mom smiled and began to clear the table. “Well, then we should head to the sofa. The dishes can wait. Eleanor, please at least eat a little more of your dinner.”

  Eleanor shoved a few mouthfuls of broccoli into her mouth, scraped the few pieces that remained into the garbage, and set her plate near the sink. She ran into her room, changed into her nightshirt, grabbed a pillow and blanket, and headed to the sofa. Her dad put a few of the bigger logs from a pile into the woodstove and joined his daughter. Finally, her mother sat next to her, and her dad pulled out a tattered copy of Eleanor’s favorite.

  “Chapter one: down the rabbit hole...” her dad read aloud.

  Eleanor had memorized this story, but this new way excited her. She curled up next to her father and started to pretend that she was Alice, searching for the mysterious white rabbit.

  Eleanor’s eyes grew heavy, and she dozed off next to her parents. Her father closed the book, covered her with a blanket, and stoked the fire one last time.

  2

  After a night filled with talking animals and magic potions, Eleanor woke up and looked around. She hadn’t fallen asleep on the sofa in ages, and she loved waking next to the woodstove. Usually, it was very chilly in the room she slept in because the fire died down during the night. This morning, however, her father must have been up early and built a new fire in it with the coals from the night before. It was burning hot and she felt so happy. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around the room. Her parents were in the small kitchen, steeping coffee.

  They saw that she was awake, and her father tilted his head toward the tree. Confused, Eleanor looked but didn’t see anything.

  “Go take a closer look under it,” her father said, coming into the living room.

  Eleanor wrapped herself in the blanket and walked over to the Christmas tree. At first, she didn’t see it, but then the headline on the newspaper it was wrapped in caught her eye. She bent down and picked up a small package. She went back to the sofa, where her parents were now sitting sipping their hot coffee.

  “Is this for me?” Eleanor asked.

  “Of course. Your father snuck it in last night.” Her mother grinned.

  Eleanor carefully opened the paper. Normally, kids would rip the paper to get to the gift, but this one had a happy headline and Eleanor wanted to add it to the collection on her wall.

  Inside the paper, Eleanor found a tattered book with a charred cover. The front cover was adorned with a shiny gold f, but everything else was hard to make out. Her dad must have pulled it from the incinerator before coming home the night before. She opened the book and read the first line aloud.

  “Fairytales: Nightshade Forest and Other Tales.”

  Her eyes grew as she turned to the next page.

  “Once upon a time...” she read.

  Then suddenly, something happened, and it wasn’t her imagination that time.

  3

  Eleanor’s stomach jolted as the room started to spin. Everything started moving really fast and swirling around. She was getting dizzy, so she closed her eyes until the spinning stopped. She looked around and saw that she wasn’t in her living room anymore. She was surrounded by blue trees at least twenty feet tall. The trees had purple leaves that spar
kled, and the sky was pitch-black. No star was to be seen. The trees let out a glow that illuminated the area she was in.

  “Whoa. Where am I?” she said, catching her breath.

  After looking around, Eleanor was pretty sure she was in her new book. Still trying to fight the dizziness from the abrupt landing, Eleanor looked for a place to sit down. She didn’t want to get too far away from this place because if she got lost, she’d be in major trouble.

  After regaining her balance, she found a blue stump with purple rings and sat down. The stump was cool and smooth.

  For a second, she could hear her own voice start to narrate. It was true, she was smack-dab in her new book. She needed someone to help her because she had never experienced something like this before. She wasn’t even sure if she was supposed to be there.

  Eleanor turned and looked for the best path and started down it. She was in awe at how beautiful such a dark place could be. She heard a bubbling stream and wondered if she was going in a direction where someone could help her. She hoped her first run-in wouldn’t be with an evil red queen.

  As she turned the corner, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She rubbed her eyes and opened them again.

  A small girl with long silver hair, pointy ears, and a sparkling aura about her was busy working on something by the water. She even had wings.

  Eleanor listened hard for more narration to tell her what to do next, but the voice was gone. She was alone in a story she had never read before. At least in her favorites, she knew what was going to happen next. Eleanor was on her own.

  The fairy girl didn’t notice her at first, and Eleanor began to wonder if she was invisible to the fairy. Eleanor watched as she grabbed rocks and placed them into the stream. She was clearly frustrated.

  Eleanor walked up to her cautiously. She was about to say hello when the fairy turned, and a look of relief came across her face.

  “Oh, thank goodness! I have been looking for you everywhere,” the fairy said. Her voice was soft, but high-pitched. “Where have you been? You were supposed to meet me here hours ago.”

  Eleanor scrambled. If the fairy had been waiting for her, she was obviously there to help, but she didn’t even know the fairy’s name.

  “Oh, yes, sorry. How can I help you, uh—?” Eleanor asked.

  “Elfie. Gosh, why are you so goofy today, Pix?”

  Eleanor turned around, expecting another fairy to be standing behind her.

  “Pix, are you okay?” Elfie asked, clearly talking to Eleanor.

  It was in that moment Eleanor realized she must have replaced a character in the story. But, she wondered, if she was here, where had the real Pix gone? She imagined a very confused girl standing in her small cottage back home. Eleanor hoped she would at least save some Christmas pudding for her to enjoy when she figured out how to get back.

  She looked down at her clothes for the first time since landing in the forest. Instead of wearing her pink nightshirt, she was in a dress woven together with fibers from the trees. It was a gorgeous shade of sapphire blue with hints of purple sparkling through. Over her dress, she wore a lightweight hooded cape. She had never had clothes that fancy before. Then she felt something flutter behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see white wings. She had wings too! She fluttered them a little and spun in circles trying to watch them.

  “Hello, are you in there?” Elfie said, interrupting Eleanor’s fun.

  “Oh yes, sorry. Pix here at your service.” Eleanor gave a little curtsy and then felt really dumb after.

  “You’re so weird today,” Elfie said, rolling her eyes. She went back to work and noticed that Eleanor was still standing there staring at her. “Well, are you going to give me a hand? With the beavers still on strike, we need to dam this stream, or the whole village will flood.”

  “Oh yes, of course,” Eleanor said, bending down to grab the smallest rock she could find. She wasn’t very strong in real life, and she was doubting her strength here too.

  Eleanor and Elfie continued to dam the stream with rocks. The beavers hadn’t cut any trees, so rocks were the only way to go. As they were working, a school of lime green fish started swimming toward them. Eleanor gasped. She had never seen fish that color before.

  “What are those?” she asked.

  “All of the salmon in the kingdom have turned this color,” Elfie explained. “You know, because of the crystal.”

  Eleanor didn’t know anything about the crystal Elfie was talking about, but she couldn’t just come out and ask. Elfie was already suspicious. She had to be careful of which questions she asked, but she also needed information as to what the story was about.

  “So why are the beavers on strike again, Elfie?”

  Elfie stopped and put her hands on her hips, breathing heavily. “Because ever since the crystal disappeared, the green salmon have taken over the streams and the beavers won’t work with them. I swear, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you weren’t actually Pix. I mean, you’ve been trying to get the beavers to come around all month. Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

  “Oh yes, of course. I just feel a little tired today. Well, it looks like we are done here. What’s next?” Eleanor was embarrassed, but she had to know. Apparently, her character oversaw beavers.

  “Mm-hmm, I don’t buy that. You need to tell me what’s going on right now. I’m your best friend. You’re definitely not just tired.” Elfie crossed her arms and leaned against a tree.

  In that moment, Eleanor knew she had to come clean. She wasn’t sure what would happen when she revealed who she was, but she couldn’t keep pretending to be someone she didn’t know.

  “Well, my name is actually Eleanor. I’m from America,” she said, guessing that this kingdom wasn’t anywhere near the United States.

  Elfie doubled over laughing. When she finally caught her breath, she looked at Eleanor. “Eleanor? From America. Oh, you’re funny. Seriously, Pix. What’s going on?”

  “No, really. I’m not sure who this Pix is, but my father gave me a magical storybook for Christmas and when I started reading it, I ended up here,” Eleanor said, looking to the ground. Her face shone red in embarrassment.

  Elfie studied her friend closely and shrugged her shoulders. “It must be because of the crystal, but if you’re not Pix, where’s my real best friend?”

  “I don’t know, but if you help me get out of this book, I’m sure she’ll reappear. I’ve never done this before, so I don’t know how it works. I’m guessing I have to get through the last chapter,” Eleanor said.

  Suddenly, a loud Rooar filled the air.

  4

  Eleanor jumped and Elfie grabbed her satchel. They ran back to the village, which happened to be the most extraordinary place ever, in Eleanor’s opinion.

  The trees stopped right before the village gate, which had wrought iron swirls filled with jewels. The houses in the town were all built as A-frames and covered in snow. Eleanor hadn’t noticed any snow in the forest, but Elfie had explained on the way that snow didn’t fall in the forest because it was enchanted. The sky was enchanted too, which was why it was always dark. The rest of the kingdom, including the main village, was also enchanted to always be daylight. But since the crystal was missing, the magic was all out of order, and the forest would probably start filling with snow too.

  Wreaths hung on the doors of every home. Although the snow was only supposed to stay on the rooftops and yards (and never on the cobblestone streets or walkways), the disorder had caused the snow to fill the streets too. Shop owners were out with large brooms trying to clear paths.

  “How did they get the snow to only fall in certain areas before?” Eleanor asked.

  “It had been enchanted that way ever since a dwarf slipped and fell one winter,” Elfie explained. “So the queen had put a special spell on the snow, and it obeyed. It’s been like this for a long time.”

  Dwarves, fairies, and goblins walked the streets, heading in and out of shops. Eleanor
looked around in awe. This place was amazing. Her admiration of the whole village quickly ended when the roar rang through the air again. Eleanor jumped; the sound was much closer.

  Rooooooar.

  She covered her ears and hid behind a large lamppost. Elfie rushed up behind her.

  “Look, I know you’re not really Pix, but you’ve got magic, and you’re the only one that can light the torch that will scare the giants away. You’re the only one that can get on top of that library. You need to go now, or they will crush everything!”

  Eleanor started running, but she was very confused. She looked around for the library. She was trembling. The roaring continued to get closer, and she clapped her hands back over her ears. Pix had an interesting job in this place, first beavers and now giants.

  She continued to run down the streets until she found a huge brick building with an elegant sign that said Library. Uncovering her ears, she pulled the door open. Her jaw dropped when she saw what was inside. There were books on shelves that went from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Eleanor couldn’t even see walls, just books everywhere. The shelves were gold, and the matching ladders adorned with jewels were floating around, waiting to be needed. She heard the books calling her and started toward the closest shelf when she heard a cough behind her.

  She turned around to see where the cough came from. A large creature covered in hair with soft, pointed ears sat behind a large mahogany desk.

  “Well, it’s about time, Pix! These giants are giving me a migraine,” he said.

  Eleanor smiled shyly and remembered why she was there in the first place. Elfie had told her she needed to get to the clock tower on the roof and light some torch, and then the giants would stop trying to squash the village. She needed to figure out how she was going to get up to the roof. She was supposed to know this, so she couldn’t just come out and ask the furry guy behind the desk. He looked up from the books he was stamping and shook his head.