Fae ran down the hill from the lodging, jumping and gliding over obstacles as she headed through the village. There were few ponies on the streets except for a couple of old mares that were chatting by the post office. She dodged round a dustbin and headed for the quayside. There were a couple of kelperponies unloading kelp, but she paid them no heed. Instead, she was interested in what was beyond the quay: the shingle shoreline that stretched along the cove to nearly beneath the lilac rocks of the headland.
She launched herself from the end of the quayside and flapped her wings to land neatly on the pebbles. Turning to face the sea, Fae stared as the water lapped against the beach.
Fae stood there, motionless, for five minutes, just watching at the water coming in and out. She buzzed her emerald wings for a brief period as she looked across the cove before looking back at the waves.
Tentatively, Fae dipped a green hoof into the water. A grin crept across her face as she wiggled her fetlock around.
“What’ya doin’?”
Fae dove forward over the water, wings flapping furiously as she tried to keep herself above the surface. She spun round to return to shore, but her wing clipped the sea and she tumbled into the water with a splash. Coughing and spluttering, she dragged herself onto the beach to find herself muzzle to muzzle with a tiny orange colt.
The colt tilted his head and looked at her. Her wings were soaked through, and her mane and tail were now plastered against her damp fur. What fascinated him, however, were her lizardine eyes. Ignoring the shocked and embarrassed expressions crossing Fae’s face, he neglected to make a follow-up comment and instead squinted one eye and made a very odd face.
Confronted by the colt, Fae paused. Her eyes narrowed and she looked at his short red mane and tail, before shaking herself dry all over his fur. He laughed as he covered his eyes with his forelimbs.
“Surrender! I surrender!”
Fae grinned and pulled herself up tall.
“I, Fae, ranger of the deep blue sea, have once again triumphed over mortal adver… advers… enemy. Tell me your name, you sorcerous rogue.”
“I’m Tide. Nice to meet you Fae.”
“Hi Tide. Ahem… Tremble before me, Rogue Tide, for I have captured you, a native in this land.”
“Um… Oh!” Tide’s eyes expanded as he looked at Fae, before he bowed his front legs, “Spare me, Ranger Fae, and I will show you the village.”
“Sounds cool. Tide, lead the way!”
Mud sat with Eloni and Sundried in the village hall. He looked up from the photographs he held in his hooves, first at Sundried, then at Eloni, who had copies laid out on the desk.
“So why did you decide to fetch us anyway? Last time I was here was ten years ago, and the giant crab I’d heard of turned out to be a very clumsy fake. I don’t remember making that much of an impression: why not call in an academic or someone more famous?”
“The council decided that we were better off getting someone who had hoofs-on experience and a large itinerary.”
Mud groaned as a thought struck him.
“It was my flat rate.”
“…the amount of cash we had available was an issue, yes…”
Mud sighed. Eloni stroked his hind leg with one of hers out of sight of Sundried, before giving him a knowing look. He sighed.
“Right, so you’ve been losing crops to an unknown nocturnal entity. These pictures might be proof enough that something’s going on, but I can’t give you more until you next have an incident. Eloni and I will stick around until the next event goes on. We weren’t headed anywhere else anyway.”
Sundried nodded. “It hits the fields once or twice a week, and there was a filly who said she’d spotted something about as big as a coracle pass by the village. We don’t have much to go on, but we want to tell the village something’s being done, especially with the Summer Sun Celebration next week.”
Mud got up, tidying his pictures up into a single pile before shaking Sundried’s proffered hoof.
“We’re staying at Salt Breeze’s place, so give us a call if you need us.”
He picked the pictures from the desk gingerly and left towards the door, followed closely by Eloni.
They arrived back at Salt’s cottage to find that a note had been left round the cockatrice statue’s neck. Eloni looked at it and looked back to Mud, who had taken the pictures from his mouth and still looked as though he’d discovered wasps embedded in newly bought honey.
“Come on Mud. You know that our travelling habits make us less than an ideal choice for most people.”
Mud looked down the hill to see the clock tower on the village hall poking above the roofs. He kicked a stone with his forehoof before turning back to Eloni.
“I know…” he muttered, before catching sight of the note.
“Gone out, lodging is far right as you enter, bathroom just before, key under your daughter’s fascination. What?”
“She means the cockatrice statue, Mud.”
“Huh? Oh, right. I wasn’t thinking.”
Inside, Mud tucked his pictures inside the pocket of his travelling pack. He dragged it and Fae’s packs into the room the three of them would be sharing. It was the same deep blue as the rest of the house, three sheeted beds with plain white duvets resting parallel along the far wall of the room while a chest of drawers sat opposite the middle bed. A couple of pictures of the sea adorned the walls.
He dumped Fae’s pack by the bed nearest the door, and dropped his own on the bed furthest away. Eloni entered the room carrying her own pack, and laid it neatly by the foot of her bed.
Mud began rifling through the outer pockets while Eloni began unpacking. He took out a bunch of small tools, before taking a couple of metal rods from inside his pack. A sheet of instructions laid on the floor, he began piecing together a small table, tightening bolts and fitting a small neatly folded top around it. Satisfied, he began to unpack in earnest.
Behind him, Eloni had finished unpacking a few clothes and had put them away in the chest of drawers. She took out her small saddlebags and put them on, before lifting some papers from within and tucking them away. Adding a small purse, she turned to Mud as he began fixing some tracking gear.
“Mud, we need to register Fae with the local school. Your equipment can wait.”
Mud sighed and put down the ball of string he had been untangling.
“You’re right. Where is Fae?”
At the top of the village, Tide was showing Fae the fields.
“Finally, the wheat fields. You see the tree there? Trowl, Anchovy and I have a den beneath it.”
“So that’s where we can meet your friends?”
“No, they’re all in school right now, and… um… whoops?”
Tide chuckled nervously as Fae looked at him in a sort of shock.
“Okay, I guess I might have skipped school today, but it’s not that big a deal, right?”
He bit his lip as Fae kept staring at thin air, frozen still. As suddenly as she had stopped, she began to flail about, darting backwards and forwards.
“Sour Lemons! Mum and Dad are going to kill me!”
Fae sped off back down through the village, Tide running after her as he called for her to slow down.
Eloni and Mud were leaning against the wall, watching the clock tower as they waited. Eloni was running through a couple of zebra rhymes she had copied from the previous town’s library while Mud pawed at the dirt impatiently.
“Mum, Dad, sorry I’m la-aah!”
A blur of green and blue attempted to stop as it went past, instead tripping and rolling head over heels into a bush.
“Yeah, ouch, sorry I’m late.”
Eloni and Mud blinked at each other before snickering and heaving Fae out of the bush. Her feathers were still slightly wet from the freshwater Tide had rinsed her down with by the farm to remove the salt, and now she was covered in twigs and leaves again. As she stretched herself out she looked up at Mud and Eloni, biting her lip.
“Hey Fae, wait! Oh! Um…”
Eloni and Mud turned to find Tide wide-eyed. He backed away quickly.
“Yeah, um, see-you-later-Fae-bye!”
He galloped away back up the hill, leaving a pair of confused adults and a filly who didn’t know quite what to say.
After a short, stern lecture about keeping time, the three headed off down the hill. They passed the village hall and headed over a bridge towards a large conglomeration of low-lying buildings along the right hand side of the bay.
They arrived at the school just as the doors were opened and a whole bunch of children stampeded back towards the village. Fae stared mournfully after them as Eloni ushered her inside.
As they entered they could hear a deep baritone talking quietly. They turned a corner to discover a grey earth stallion and a red unicorn mare conversing, the stallion expositing while the mare nodded politely every so often. Mud gave a polite cough.
“Huh? Oh hello! I’m Star and this is Mr Ringer and we’re teachers here at Lilac School, but you must have worked that out by now. You must be new to the village. I do hope you’ve enjoyed your stay so far. Are you moving in or just-“
“Miss Star!” Mr Ringer interrupted. “Business first.”
“Oh, right. So, what can we do for you three?”
“We’re looking for temporary schooling for Fae here,” Eloni said.
“Well hello Fae! Nice to meet you. If I can just have a look at her papers… thank you! Now we can go and talk about Lilac Cove while Mr Ringer and your parents talk.”
Fae tried unsuccessfully to hide from Miss Star only to be pushed gently but firmly into another room. Mr Ringer turned to Eloni and Mud.
“Now while your daughter’s occupied, might I ask for your names, occupations and place of residence, Fae’s records and medical troubles and any other relevant issues,” he said.
Eloni pulled out the papers she had tucked away earlier and handed them over.
“I’m Eloni Pear and this is Muddy Bottom,” she said. “I’m a story-teller, he’s a tracker. We’re staying at Salt Breeze’s.”
“Fae’s a little nervous around new people,” Mud added, “She puts on an act and sticks to it until she feels she’s safe.”
“An actor?” Mr Ringer said. “Interesting. Might I ask about her… distinctive eyes?”
“That’s not a medical issue,” said Mud. “That’s for her tell you about in her own time.”
Mr Ringer raised an eyebrow at Mud before looking back at the papers.
“Well, everything seems to be in order. Mrs Pear-“
“Miss,” interjected Eloni.
“… Miss Pear, might I ask if you have any activities to do here during your stay? We’re short of an assistant, and since we teach the children from St Albatross and Bitsmouth we could do with help.”
Eloni glanced at Mud.
“I’m not stopping you," he said. "As long as you remain as knowledgeable as always, I can lay my findings out every evening for us to discuss.”
Eloni smiled and turned back to Mr Ringer.
“I’d love to provide some temporary help. Will it cover Fae’s fee?”
Mr Ringer nodded and shook Eloni’s forehoof.
“Come in tomorrow at seven and I’ll tell you the schedule. We should go and save your daughter from Miss Star.”
“-and I’m certain you’ll get along with Tide. I wonder why he didn’t come in today? Biscuit?”
“You’ll never get any information from me, foul villain.”
Mud facehooved as he heard the exchange. Swinging open the door he found Fae sitting rigidly on one of the chairs whilst Miss Star trotted obliviously around her, chattering away. Fae spun around as her parents entered.
“Rescued by the Royal Guard! Hurrah!”
A glance at the expressions worn by Mud and Eloni and her face fell slightly.
“Uh… I mean, I’m not hungry thank you?”