found..

   Kael had wandered around the exterior of the house for a week, trying to find a way inside.  He felt exposed and vulnerable outside of the house and frequently had night terrors of gnolls.  While he wasn't sure what he would find inside the house, he felt as though he would be safer within the walls of the enormous building.

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  Finally, the owner of the house returned followed by boxes and boxes carried off trucks by large unfriendly looking men.  Kael managed to slip in the open door while the men were getting more boxes and made his way to the second floor.  He could hear the owner directing the men to take the books into the library, and to be very careful with them.  He'd spent the past year traveling the world to various antique booksellers looking for rare first editions to add to his collection.

  Kael found a room at the far end of the hall that appeared to not have been lived in for quite a while.  A thick layer of dust was on everything, and he felt it would be safe for him to make himself comfortable under the bed to get some rest while the men downstairs discussed books.  The mystery of where he was would have to be solved in the morning because right now the softness of the rug and the muffled sounds of talking were lulling his mind and body to sleep.

📔📖📕📔📖📕

  It was afternoon when Kael finally awoke.  The rest had done him wonders and he felt less afraid than he'd been in several weeks.  Climbing up to a windowsill in the room, he was astonished to see a beach shore in the distance, with a large red and white lighthouse.  He really had traveled to the end of the world in his panicked run from the gnolls!

  So mesmerized by the sight of the waves crashing upon the shore, he hadn't heard the sound of the door opening behind him until the man spoke.  With nowhere to run to, Kael pulled an edge of the curtain in front of him.

  "Hello there little man.  I wondered whose footprints had been left in the dust on the rug, and now I see.  My name is Alexander, and you needn't be afraid of me."

  "Oh, but you should fear me," lied Kael, knowing that his small size posed little threat to the man.

  Laughing, the man backed out of the room, "Well, when you feel you can trust me, why don't you come downstairs and allow me to buy you a meal and perhaps a draft of ale."

  It didn't take Kael long to decide.  He was hungry.  Very hungry, and the idea of a good meal with some ale was more than he could ignore.  He made his way down the hall, and found the kitchen where Alexander was preparing sandwiches.  A chair and a stool had been pulled up to the table, and a small shot glass of ale was sitting by the stool.

  "Make yourself comfortable, little friend, and tell me how you wound up in this grand old folly of mine.  I love stories and tales if you hadn't guessed by the number of books in my home.  But I'm also curious to meet new friends.  It's not a practical way to spend one's life, traveling the world, but it suits me quite nicely.  Why don't you start off with your name and tell me where you're from?"

It's a new month of Words for Wednesday!

sunday ...

The weather Saturday was a humid 80°F.  I had four bags of mulch to finish putting out, plus ten live, bareroot shrubs to get in the ground in the back yard.  Forsythia, Viburnum, and Brightberry.  Since rain was in the forecast for today and early in the week, I decided to put off as much of the indoor chores as I could until the mulching and planting was done.  

But ... that didn't happen.  I needed to get cat food, and find a suitable garden cart, pick up a prescription I almost forgot about and ... maybe I'll get that stuff done today between raindrops.

Next project before refinishing the damaged veneer dresser (below) will be sanding, painting, and papering the drawer fronts of the old dresser I had, before putting it in the bathroom for additional storage.

I'm doing an upcoming art class in April to make a pet portrait.  I chose to do the girls because Charlie is usually so much more photogenic (see Lucy below) and therefore in most of my phone photos, and some of the wall pictures.  This is the photo I'm going to use for the portrait: 

Taken in 2017.

Gracie on Friday.
Why do cats always want to sleep on the bed when you are trying to change the bedding?

Lucy, also on Friday.

His Highness surveying his kingdom.

Snagged these two vintage pieces at a thrift store.
Unfortunately, the veneer is damaged on this one and will all have to be removed.
But I think I can replicate the pretty details with some washi tape decoupage and creative acrylic painting techniques.
Maybe.

This piece requires no repairs.
But I did have to order more wallpaper.

The Quince shrub is just gorgeous!

Charlie on his Neighborhood Watch duty.
He is really grateful for the sunshine.

Ever the rebellious one, I ordered two of these.
One for me, and one for a bestie who still works for the Forest Service in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
She loved it when it showed up in her mailbox this past week.

Here's to empowered women who resist the patriarchy.  Stay strong.  Hugs ... Ci💚

did you ever wonder ....

   It had been a week since Thal had returned, and the excitement and shock in the community had died down.  Oddly enough, no one had mentioned Kael or wondered where he was. 

   Eldrin quietly looked over Lyri's shoulder at what she was reading, and whispered thickly in her ear, "T'was a hot midsummer's eve and a storm was brewing on the horizon."

   Lyri let out a scream and spun quickly in her chair to punch El in the face.  Stunned, El fell backward, holding his eye where her surprisingly hard punch had landed.

  "Why on earth would you do that, El?!?!  You scared me to death!"

  "Well, if I'd known you were going to punch me in the eye I wouldn't have.  I was just wanting to see what you were reading.  Didn't you hear me calling you?"

   Embarrassed now, Lyri blushed a red that would put a tomato to shame.  "No.  I didn't.  I was just reading this piece of paper that I found washed up on the creek edge.  It looks like a page from a book, and I wish I had the book now because I'm intrigued.  And I'm sorry, Eldrin.  I didn't mean to hit you.  I'm just a little on edge with what Thal told us about the gnolls, and you almost sounded like Kael when you whispered like that."

   "Wow, you sure know how to hit a guy when he's down.  I sounded like Kael.  What a horrible thing to say to me!"

   "I didn't mean... I meant... It's just that..." Lyri stopped when she realized that El was just teasing her.  "Well, I hope you have a black eye!  It would serve you right, scaring me like that."

   El laughed at how red she continued to blush.  "Aww, I'm just kidding, Lyri.  Look, if you want me to go look for more pages from that book, I can do that for you.  I think I still have some that I found a few months ago that had pictures of an island."

Newry Island borrowed from Lee

  "An island?"

  "Yeah, sandy beach, water, weird looking trees.  Flat boats."

  "Flat boats?"

  "Yeah, sort of like a wide canoe."

   Lyri looked thoughtful for a moment.  "El?  Have you ever wondered what it would be to live somewhere else?"

  "You mean in another forest?"

  "No, not really.  I mean, I've heard there are places that don't look anything like our woods.  Places that are so hot and dry that there are scarcely any trees.  Places like your island, that are green all year, and some places that have mountains so high the snow never melts.  Do you think that there are elves in those kinds of places?  Maybe island elves?  Or snow elves?"

  "I didn't know you were the adventurous type, Lyri."

  "I'm not.  Really.  I've just been wondering what we would do if the gnolls found our woods."

Oh, but to live on a tropical island ... with Words for Wednesday

unanswered questions ...

   What Thal had not seen before he lost consciousness, and what Kael had not been aware of before his panicked dash into the forest, was just how many gnolls had been waiting in the woods.  They had been packed, shoulder to shoulder, like herrings in a can, behind trees, bushes, and rocks.  The fact that Thal had not been trampled to death in the melee of the battle was nothing short of a miracle.

  Lyri had listened intently as he told her what he could remember of the attack and his long journey home.  At times, his voice would become nothing more than a whisper as he tried to make sense of that day.  She would ask gentle questions every so often, feeling like a detective trying to piece together the puzzle of his missing memories, not wanting to see the occasional pain in his eyes as he tried to answer her.

  When he had finally fallen asleep, she had slipped out of the house to find Eldrin and let him know that Thal had returned.  He had felt responsible for Thal's disappearance, knowing that if he hadn't told him about Kael meeting with the gnolls, Thal wouldn't have gone after Kael to find out what he was up to.

  Lyri found him at one of the small taverns at the edge of their community, trying to drown his remorse in a flask of beer.  Not wanting her parents to find out she'd been in the tavern; she managed to persuade another elf going in to give a message to El that she needed to speak to him immediately.

  El stumbled out of the door a few moments later, and Lyri almost instantly regretted asking him to come out to talk to her.

  "Lyri!  My besh friend's girl!  I'm so shorry for telling Shal about the ..."  Lyri quickly put her hand over his mouth before he could say another word.

  "Hush!  Oh, why did you have to get drunk tonight, El?  Please don't say another word.  Just come with me."  Dragging him by the arm, she took him the back way to her parents' house, hoping that the muffled sobs he was making wouldn't draw any undue attention to the two of them.

  She stopped just short of the house, realizing that her parents were at home, and she had no way to sneak El in without them seeing.  It would be hard enough to explain Thal being asleep in her room if they hadn't already discovered him, but to sneak a clearly inebriated Eldrin in right under their noses would be asking the gods for more than just the miracle they'd already done in keeping Thal alive.

  Thinking quickly, Lyri saw a basket of overripe peaches that her mother had put outside and shoved El's face into it.  When she finally let him up for air, the mask of gooey peach not only hid his identity but also covered up the smell of beer.  She pulled on of her mother's shawls off the line and threw it around his head and shoulders.  Now El's loud sobbing completed the disguise.

  "Shhh, shhhh, there, there now.  It will be alright."  Ushering El past her astonished parents, Lyri whispered to her mother as she passed, "You remember Mallys, don't you, Mama?  Her boyfriend just broke up with her, and she is heartbroken.  I'm going to take her to my room and see if I can comfort her."

  Without giving her mother time to answer, she shoved El into her room and quickly closed the bedroom door.

Hellooooooooooo!  It's Words for Wednesday again!