Dru
Dru was in ENgland, visiting the streets she once called home. She had decided to take a trip to the countryside for a ittle while, and went to the convent in Glastonbury, where she had been the day Angelus had turned her. There was a ring of mushrooms sparkling with early morning dew, and she couldn't resist. She knew it was dangerous, but she had to step inside. She held out her arms and circled around, laughing, and grinning when suddenly she disapeared. She was in Avalon, surrounded by faeries, who took her to see their Mab.
"We have the seeress, Milady, what shall we do with her?"
"Drusilla, you are kept here, for some time, bny a web of faery magic. We need your visions, so don't try and leave, we will make you comfortable."
"I can't see the stars!" Dru wailed. "I need my babies!"
Sabre
Sabre sat up with a start.
Something had happened.
He just wasn't sure yet what.
He looked at his sleeping children and smiled slightly.
Cassie
Cassie screamed as she woke up. "MUMMY! Papa! SOmething happened to Mummy, they took her!" She jumped into Sabre's arms.
Sabre
"Who took her?" Sabre asked, holding her tightly.
"What happened?"
Even if he wasn't feeling particularily charitable towards Dru at the moment, she had given him these four. If she was in trouble...he'd have to help her.
Dru and Sabre's children
"The Dark, the Fair, and the Russet. They took her away, and are peeping in her head. I want Mummy!"
MUMMY! the three boys cried out at once, all cuddling against their Papa.
The Mab! The Mab! Orion cried, sniffling as a kitty.
Sabre
Well, damn.
Sabre sighed and cuddled them to him as he lay back in the big bed they were sharing.
"Let me think a bit."
Percy
Percy nuzzled Sabre's face. Story?
Sabre
"Rightio then..."
Sabre bit his lip, and tried to think of a story while also worrying about how exactly he was going to get Dru out.
"Once upon a time, there was a man named Jack. Now, Jack, he was a good sort and he worked real hard all his life, but he never managed to get anywhere."
He shifted slightly so he was lying comfortably.
"He didn't even have his own farm, he worked for other people. So, one day he was working for one of the farmers in the district, when he hears this singing coming from under a rock.
"Yallery Tom,
Yallery Tom
Here I be,
Beneath the stone,
Heavy it presses on my head
Oh woe for me, poor Yallery Tom!"
Cassie and Draco
"Was the rock singing?" Draco asked sleepily as her turned human.
"No, stupid," Cassie said. "It was somebody UNDER the rock, duh!"
Sabre
"Yes, it was, and don't call him stupid," Sabre said.
"So here's Jack, and he goes up to the rock, all a-feared and a- tremble. And Jack say, 'Who's there?' Which was pretty silly of him, since the wight under the rock had been saying its name in its song.
"There was a silence for a bit, and the wispy voice said 'It's me, poor Yallery Tom. And I'm trapped beneath this stone. If you let me out, it'll be good for you.'
"Now, Jack, he wasn't a stupid man. So he goes 'Who put you under the rock?' Because if it's someone important, he's gonna go and pretend he never heard the song coming from under the rock.
"'No one you need to be a-feared of. Let me out, and I'll work for you. But mind! Never thank me!'
"And Jack sits back for a bit, thinking on what the wight has said. Having someone to do his chores for him, would be a good thing. He might be able to save up enough money to buy his own farm and go see about the courting of a lass he had his eye on, and he knew she had her eye on him. He can't see the bad side of it, so he lifts the rock to let Yallery Tom out.
"And out comes Yallery Tom from under the rock in a whirr and flurry of yellow rags, his hair standing out like a dandelion when its gone to see. And the wight laughs and laughs, his twisted old man's face all curled up in a grin. He disappears.
"'Be seeing you, Jack!' Tom says, and Jack starts to wonder if he's made a mistake in letting Yallery Tom out from under his stone."
Percy
All four gasped, enthralled by their Papa's story-telling as always.
"Were there mice?" Percy asked, half-asleep.
Sabre
"No..." Sabre chuckled.
"No mice. But Yallery Tom was not a very nice type of person. So Jack goes off to finish the plowing he was meant to be doing, and it's done. So he scratches his head, looks around to see if mebbe the person who's done it is still around.
"He hears a cackle from the hedgerow and whips around.
"'Yallery Tom always keeps his promises! Just remember, don't thank me!'
"Now, Jack is pretty spooked. But having someone to do his work is a good thing, right? So he keeps telling himself. Soon, Yallery Tom is doing everything for him before he can do it. And all the men in the district are eyeing him and whispering. Not natural, that Jack should be finished all his work before they've even begun. They don't like it, and it's fair to say that Jack doesn't like it much either. Soon, he's not getting hired cos the farmers can't hire any hands to work with him. He even tries to do other people's work for them, but that old Yallery Tom rips the broom from his hands, the plough reins from his fingers and then snap! The work's done. Sure, he has the money to buy the farm but the girl's not so friendly now, and all his friends are scared of him.
"So one day, Jack goes to the field where he found Yallery Tom under his stone."
Orion
"This story seems scawwie," Orion said, coughing. "Is it gonna be vewwy scawie?"
Sabre
"Maybe, just a bit," Sabre said.
"Anyway, here's Jack and he's determined to have it out with Tom. So he calls the unseelie wight to him.
"'Tom! Yallery Tom! I want to speak with you!'
"And up pops Yallery Tom, looking just as disagreeable and yallery as ever.
"'Did ye now?' asks Yallery Tom, wild hair this sort of tallow yellow colour and his yallery rags flapping in the breeze. 'And for what did ye want to speak with me, Jack? Haven't I be doing a good job?'
"'Aye! Too good a job!' says Jack, angrily.
"Tom's eyes squinch up all nasty like, and the wight sits there like a toad.
"Jack keeps going. 'And I'll thank ye to have no more hand in my business!'
"'I told ye not to thank me!' cackles Tom. 'I told ye!'
"And a crack of thunder, Jack covers his eyes and when he looks up again, Yallery Tom is gone. And so is all the things he managed to gain with Yallery Tom's help. But he judges that he was lucky to get off that lightly with an imp like Tom, and he goes home to see if mebbe he can get a new job, without the wight a-plaguing him. There's a moral to this story. Dinna trust a wight! And don't go a- looking under stones."
Cassie
The kittens were confused. "Can we go to Avalon?" Cassie asked, sleepily. "I wanna find Mummy."
Sabre
"Soon, soon," Sabre soothed.
"As long as she doesn't eat anything...we have a chance. But if she transgresses the rules... The Fey have their own rules and code of conduct as puzzling as it is to outsiders."
Cassie
"Something's going to happen," Cassie said. "Something bad, I know," And she joined her brothers in sleep.