13:7
“Why is there a beanstalk in my paddock?”
Regan, who’d followed the group after they’d raced past him on the way to the stable leaned back, way back, to stare up the length of beanstalk going from grass to clouds.
“A giant beanstalk,” he amended.
Since they hadn’t slowed in their rush for the barn when Regan joined the chase, he was two steps behind them. Not figuratively. Though he was. Two steps or so behind them. But he was also metaphorically two steps behind them.
“Dempsey is missing,” Ben answered Regan’s question.
“Good answer.” Regan pursed his lips then shook his head rather violently in the negative. “Horrible answer. Beanstalk?”
Kim turned her gaze from the beanstalk and looked at Regan. Then turned her attention to Siobhan. “Jack?”
Siobhan gave the beanstalk a long look. “Maybe. Probably. But we’ve already done Jack and the Beanstalk with Mal.” She looked to Dan. “Can a story repeat?”
“Unknown.”
Rather than heave a sigh which Kim for sure would have done at that reply or make a sarcastic comment which was really more likely, Siobhan just turned back to the beanstalk. She gave it a long look then turned back to Dan. “Are there any other fairy tales with beanstalks?”
“No.”
“Regular stories?”
“Nothing popular.”
“So, we have to assume this is Jack and the Beanstalk.” Siobhan pressed her palms to her lower back then took a slow circuit around the beanstalk. “Why the beanstalk? Why Jack?”
“Al inferred that the people taken and the stories they were shoved into, except for you and Kim, had a personal connection to them,” Prairie offered.
“So, assume Dempsey and Jack have something in common?”
“Is it relevant?” Ivan asked.
“Maybe not? I don’t know. I just don’t want to dismiss anything because it doesn’t immediately comply with what we know.”
“Everything is data,” Dan said.
“I guess.” Siobhan stopped her circuit and looked at the group. “Speculating isn’t getting us anywhere. I say we shelve the questions for now and go after Dempsey.”
“What if,” Kim ventured as the thought occurred. “What if they didn’t take Dempsey up the beanstalk? What if this is just a red herring and while we chase it, they get away somewhere else?”
“Oh.” Siobhan rubbed the back of her neck. “I didn’t think of that.”
“What are the chances?” Ivan shifted, first looking up the beanstalk and then around the paddock. When the others focused on him, he added, “What are the chances two people could carry off Dempsey?”
“With that pen?” Ben said. “Pretty good. All they’d have to do is open a hole or rip or whatever that pen does and roll Dempsey through. If he isn’t walking.” When Siobhan, Ivan, and Gwen shot him quizzical looks he added, “We don’t have any information on how they take their victims.” He looked at Siobhan, “You don’t remember, do you?”
Siobhan shook her head. “No.”
He shifted his gaze to Kim. “You?”
“No.”
“Then it’s possible they have a way to coerce people into going with them.”
“Not without Al.” Everyone turned to look at Patti who answered their unvoiced questions, “Al has compulsion abilities, right? So, it’s possible he compelled the others to go with the bad guys but they don’t have Al now.”
“How can we be sure?” Ben pressed.
“We can’t be completely sure, but we know when we left Stripped he looked out-of-it. It hasn’t been that long that he could have recovered. Probably. Plus, a mouse brought the note about Dempsey. And the mice are Al’s. At least outside of ARFA. So, seems likely Al isn’t with the other two.”
“So,” Ivan drawled, looking up the length of the beanstalk again. “We have to decide if the beanstalk is how they took Dempsey or if they opened a rift.” He turned his attention to Dan. “Dan? Can you read the space and see if there’s evidence of a rift?”
Dan nodded. “Yes.”
Abe bounced on their toes and then raised their hand. “I can help!”
Ink spooled from the raised hand, dancing on the air. Dan walked over to stand next to Abe and peered hard at the air the ink traced. Almost a mero passed as they slowly pivoted, doing a full three-sixty turn before stopping and shaking their heads at the group.
“No rift,” Dan said.
“If there had been one,” Abe added, “we’d see it. Very little time passed and it takes time for the world to repair whatever damage the pen does to it. We aren’t seeing any damage at all.”
“Okay.” Ivan nodded and focused on the beanstalk again. “So, logic says they went up the beanstalk.”
“Time for climbing.” Ben sauntered over to the beanstalk, squeezing his fingers and bending them slightly back to limber them.
“Climb–” Patti drew out the word. “The beanstalk.”
“Yes,” Ivan agreed.
“The giant beanstalk that seems to hit the clouds. Which are not even slightly close to the earth,” Patti expanded.
“Yes.”
“I mean–” Patti waved her hands down her length then made a dramatic gesture to encompass the beanstalk. “I’m a good climber but I don’t think I can climb that.”
“We did before,” Gwen said.
“I think it was shorter then?” When Gwen turned to Kim she added, “Like the clouds were lower?”
“How do clouds get lower?” Gwen shot back.
“ARFA!” Abe and Ben said almost in unison.
When the group turned to look at them Abe shrugged and Ben grinned.
Ben’s grinned widened. “What? It’s always because ARFA.”
“Back to the point?” Patti drew everyone’s attention with her question. “I don’t know how some of you without climbing experience climbed the other beanstalk but I don’t think it’s possible to climb this one. Isn’t there some kind of Magick someone can do?” She gave Siobhan a pointed look which Siobhan returned with a confused one. “No?” At this Patti turned to Kim and gave her a similar look full of implication.
It was Kim’s turn to look at Siobhan in question. Then she looked back at Patti.
“I’m sorry. Not getting the point.”
“Magick.” Patti flared her fingers dramatically. Sass stuck their head out of their house, peeped, and gave mouse-y jazz hands.
“Magick–” Kim drew out the word while turning to look at Siobhan.
Siobhan gave her a speculative look then turned back to the beanstalk, giving it a similar amount of attention “It is a plant.”
“It is.”
“And it grows from the earth.”
“It do–” Dawning hit Kim in that moment. She nodded all slow and wise then wiggled her hands at Siobhan, copying Patti and Sass. “With our powers combined?”
Why did that sound familiar? Eh, didn’t matter. Moving on.
Siobhan made a show of studying her wiggling fingers then met her eyes. “We can only try.”
“We can succeed.”
“Yes.” Siobhan nodded. “I meant that.”
“Mhm. I absolutely believe that.”
Rather than respond, Siobhan rolled her eyes then walked over to the beanstalk and laid a hand on it. Her features transformed into a look of concentration. A single pea shoot shot out of the main stalk and wrapped around her wrist. A moment later the beanstalk gave a visible shake then swayed slightly toward Siobhan.
She turned and looked at the group. “This will work. But,” she focused on Kim, “We’ll need Earth to feed the roots. Water too.”
Kim looked down at the ground then sent a tentative, Hello out on her Magick.
The scintillating gem she’d come to associate with Earth’s manifestation sprang to life before her, floating in the air at about hip height. She raised a hand to shelter her smarting eyes.
The roots
The light pulsed and then an image of roots formed in her mind.
Yes
The roots in the image lit with a subtle green flare.
I will ask Water for help strengthening them
The gem’s pulsed turned sluggish. Mulish. Kim got the distinct sense that Earth was less than enthused.
Water feeds Earth, she argued silently.
The pulse froze momentarily then went back to the original strobe effect. Guess it liked that suggestion.
She redirected her Magick, imagining it pulling apart like cheesecloth. She asked Water to enter the gaps in the ‘cloth’. It took a moment but then she felt her Magick grow heavier as Water flowed into it.
Please help Earth strengthen the roots of this plant
Water’s energy stilled, settling heavy in the net of her Magick.
Hmm, perhaps that was too concrete. She formed an image of the glowing roots, then added water flowing around them, shifting the green glow to more of a turquoise tone as Water and Earth energies mingled.
The Water energy swelled and an image of a flowing creek suffused her Magick.
She’d take that as a ‘yes’.
Looking to Siobhan, she gave a short nod. “Water and Earth will help.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“Wait!” Patti held up a hand. “For those of us who weren’t here last time, how about a short recap?”
“We don’t really have time,” Kim said.
“Make it.”
“Fine.” Kim sighed. “What do you want to know?”
“What happened when you were climbing the beanstalk the last time?”
“We climbed.”
“Guessed that.”
“Flying creatures that were sort of bat, dinosaur, and bird hybrids attacked us.”
“Ooh, something to look forward to!” Patti’s tone was dry. Her expression said the rest about how enthusiastic she was. “Anything else?”
“No.”
“The clouds seemed to have a hallucinogenic effect,” Prairie offered.
Patti turned to look at Prairie. “Like Shrooms?”
Prairie nodded. “Like mushrooms.”
“Well, now that is an added benefit.”
Prairie dimpled. “If you say so.”
“I do.” Patti turned her attention back to the beanstalk, looking up its length. “So, climbing which Kim and Siobhan can eliminate, tripping which I guess is good or bad depending on your outlook, and big, creepy bird things attacking us. Anything else?”
This time Dan responded. “Not on the climb.”
“If that’s settled?” Patti turned at Siobhan’s question.
“I guess?”
“Good.” Siobhan adopted her teacher voice. The one that brooked no interruptions. “Two people stand next to the beanstalk, either side. Grab onto one of the branches. When it grows plant your feet on the leaves that come out. The plant will help you keep connected to it.”
Patti eyed the beanstalk. The very smooth beanstalk. If you looked far enough up you could definitely see there was branches and leaves but where they stood it was just a very long stretch of stalk. “What branches?”
“Oh. Yes. Hold, please.”
Siobhan pressed her palm against the stem and a tendril poked from the side. From one blink to the other it lengthened and thickened, forming a branch with a leaf at the end. Another mikro and a second tendril did the same on the opposite side of the beanstalk.
Once they were both the thickness of Kim’s wrist, Siobhan turned her attention to Patti. “Those branches.”
Kim sidled over and stopped next to Siobhan. Then she shot out of the side of her mouth, low enough so it only carried to Siobhan, “Have you always been able to do that?”
Siobhan gave a barely perceptible shake of her head. “I’m getting stronger.”
“I think we all are.”
Before they could say anything else Ben walked to the beanstalk with a swagger and laid his hand on one of the branches. Turning he ran his gaze over the group. “Who’s with me?”
“I am!” Abe raised a hand and waved it with enough vigor it drew the attention of an Air Lady, who coalesced and played her hand around and around Abe’s, causing a small breeze to whip their cassock sleeve back before it flowed up to play with Abe’s curls. Abe laughed and traced his fingers through the breeze. The Air Lady’s features transformed into an expression of pure joy and she leaned forward to give the tip of Abe’s nose a kiss. They wrinkled their nose and giggled.
The infectious sound was snatched up by the Air Lady. She wound it around Abe, amplifying it, as Abe walked over behind the beanstalk and grabbed hold of both of the branches, shifting the hand on the branch Ben held so their grasp was just below his.
Ben placed his hand in a similar manner on the second branch then looked back over his shoulder to nod to Siobhan. “Ready.”
She shook out her hands, then held them out, palms facing towards each other and fingers reaching. “Hold on. I’m not sure how fast this will be.”
Pretty fast. Pretty darned fast was the answer. Kim felt Water surge in the earth, felt Earth lend its strength to the roots of the beanstalk, and watched with a sense of wonder as the beanstalk shot upwards with enough speed Abe’s curls formed a whirlwind around their head and Ben shouted out “Woo hoo!” as they soared up high enough their feet swung on empty air.
Tendrils pushed from the beanstalk and in rapid order broad leaves formed close to the stalk, creating ledges for Abe & Ben’s feet.
Abe’s “Whee!” came down on the wind. They looked down the stalk at Siobhan and smiled wide. She returned the smile, satisfaction in her Magick practically radiating off her, and then murmured to the plant, “Thank you.”
The leaves at the end of the branches Abe and Ben held onto shook as if in reply. Shook in reply. There was no doubt in Kim’s mind the plant was responding to Siobhan’s praise.
The beanstalk’s growth slowed as more branches grew out of it at ground level. When they rose to the point where they’d be easy to grasp the growth slowed even more.
Dan stepped around the beanstalk and grabbed ahold of the branches from the rear and then Gwen ran over and set herself opposite him. Once they were both firmly holding the branches the beanstalk grew more, rising high enough they dangled off the branches before leaves formed beneath their feet, adjusting for the differences in their heights.
“Us next.”
Ivan walked over, pulling Prairie gently along at his side. She gave him a quick look but didn’t resist as he approached the beanstalk and took up a spot on the far side of it. Prairie stood facing the beanstalk which grew a short bit more, enough that there would be no chance of Ivan being kicked in the head if Dan’s feet came off the leaf beneath them, and then branches grew out of its side.
Ivan jumped quickly when one threatened to take his feet out from under him, then grabbed hold with both hand. Prairie followed suit and the stalk grew until it was high enough to form leaves for the two to stand on.
Once they were high enough they wouldn’t be a hazard, Patti walked over to the beanstalk. She halted in front of it then cast a look back at Kim and Siobhan. “No one to be my buddy!”
Sass gave a peep which had Patti looking down at the house on her belt.
“Yes, you are my buddy. But you can’t grab the beanstalk.”
Sass gave an infinitely sassy humph.
Patti’s response was to declare, “Love ya!” to which Sass peeped and waved a paw out the window of the house.
That settled Patti looked back at Kim and Siobhan. “I’m very lonely. So lonely.”
Sass peeped again and Patti amended, “We are so lonely.”
Siobhan lips twitched. She shot Kim a look to which Kim responded with an expressive shrug and then waved her hand at the beanstalk. “Go. I should be last to assure my connection with Earth.”
As Siobhan walked over and grabbed on to the branches that protruded from the stalk, Kim focused on Earth.
Earth?
The gem made itself apparent again, floating in front of her throat this time. It pulsed its awareness both with a flare of light and a swell of Magick she felt from her feet to her knees. In her mind an image formed of loose earth around glowing roots. A slight probe with her Magick left her ‘feeling’ the void. Water flowed into the gaps, further widening them.
Not good.
Earth?
The gem pulsed.
Loose?
A slower pulse then an image formed in her mind that looked like static but was clearly formed of particles of earth. They filtered through a flow of water, forming silt. Definitely loose. Definitely, potentially, probably not cohesive enough to hold the roots that held the heavy beanstalk.
Crap.
Earth?
Again the image of drifting particles. Kim shifted her Magick around the roots, willing energy into the earth, willing cohesion. For a mikro it responded but then drifted again. Something was threatening the integrity of the earth around the roots. Kim didn’t think it was the flow of water. It felt more like—All she could circle back to was a lack of cohesion. Like something other than Earth energy was weaving through the earth.
Or not weaving? Unweaving? The image of a tapestry filled her mind, tickling at her memory.
Tapestry. Tapestry. Tapestry?
“Patti?” She hollered up the beanstalk.
“Yes?” Siobhan and Patti hadn’t risen far so it was easy to hear her and for her to hear Kim.
“Uh.”
Kim asked herself why she’d called out to Patti instead of Siobhan. Something niggled at the back of her brain and then the Earth gem pulsed again. Her mind synched with the pulsations and something jolted loose in her brain. A somewhat distant memory swam up out of her subconscious, going from something gossamer thin to solid and defined.
An image of their first climb up the beanstalk and Dan saying something about how their singing together made ‘the weave’ as he called it stronger played through her mind.
Okay, yeah, thanks, Brain. Got it. I think.
Just to be safe, she pitched her voice to carry up the beanstalk. “Dan?”
“Yes?” Drifted down, a bit muffled by the distance separating them.
The beanstalk’s growth stalled as Siobhan must have read something in Kim’s tone. Or possibly she felt the struggling roots with her Magick.
Whatever the reason, the beanstalk halted with Patti and Siobhan only a short distance from the ground, keeping the distance between Kim and the others, including Dan, short enough she didn’t have to truly holler to be heard. Or call on Air to carry her voice. Considering she was connected to Earth and Water right now she wasn’t sure how much she could fracture her Magick to call on a third element. Better to just use the lungs the good Lord gave her.
“Us singing helped the last time we climbed this thing?”
There was a short pause and then Dan’s answer filtered down. “Yes. It strengthened our connection to ARFA. Pulled the weave of the tapestry tighter.”
“Yes. That was what I was looking for.” Kim looked up into Patti’s face. “You got a song that we can sing together? A work song, maybe?”
“Do I?” Patti followed with a more contemplative, “Do I?” before tentatively saying, “Maybe?”
“What’s wrong?” Ivan called down.
“Hopefully nothing!” Kim yelled back up.
“I’m not full of certainty!”
“Me neither,” Kim muttered, then lifted her voice to holler back, “I am totally full of certainty!”
“You sure?”
“Yes?” Rather than allow any doubt to play in her mind, Kim turned her attention back to Patti. “Patti? Anything?”
“Working on it.” A long pause and then Patti started singing, “Red light, yellow–”
Before Patti could sing the rest of the line, Gwen blurted out from above her, “Not that!” When Patti turned her face up to peer around the leaf Gwen stood on with a glower, Gwen added, “We aren’t working a pole!”
“It’s the first song that came to me! Plus,” she jerked her head to indicate the giant beanstalk, “We kinda are? A big ass pole?”
“Did someone say big ass pole?” Ben hollered down from above.
Siobhan shook her head slowly, sadly, then said in her stern teacher’s voice, “No dick jokes. Ben? Stop thrusting!”
“My hips do what they want!”
Siobhan’s long-suffering sigh drifted down to Kim and she bit her lip not to laugh. It felt wrong to do so considering Dempsey’s kidnapping. Levity definitely bound their group together but, yeah—It just felt wrong. Kim would like to think they weren’t yucking it up when she was abducted. Least she could do was offer Dempsey the same respect of not being a laugh and a riot as she’d want herself.
“Ben!” This time it was Prairie that snapped the response. Coming from the usually soft-spoken, mild-mannered, fairly reserved woman it hit hard.
Ben’s “spoilsport,” lacked punch.
Prairie quickly followed with, “It feels wrong to joke. Dempsey is who knows where having who knows what done to him.”
“Yeah,” Now chagrin was clear in Ben’s tone. “I get it. Less thrusting.”
“Zero thrusting,” Ivan muttered, the sound carrying down the beanstalk.
Kim firmed her jaw. “We’re getting him back.”
She felt compelled to say it. She let none of the doubt she was feeling leak into her voice.
Ben leaned out, his arm hooked around the beanstalk, and looked down at Kim. All levity was gone from his voice, replaced with implacable determination. “We are. Now get this toot toot moving!”
He directed this at Siobhan. Siobhan in turn looked to Kim. “What’s wrong with the beanstalk.”
“Roots.”
“And we fix it by singing?”
“Maybe?” Kim lifted a shoulder. “Can it hurt?”
“No.” Siobhan peered around the beanstalk at Patti. “Got anything?”
Looking directly into Kim’s eyes she sang, “Red Light–” She cut off immediately and gave a sheepish look. “Sorry. Sometimes songs get stuck. Hold on.” There was a long pause and then she sang, “Fee, fi, fo, fum!”
From above Ivan, Ben, Abe, and Dan’s voice repeated the line in a callback fashion.
The combined voices flowed over Kim then through her. She felt it go from collarbone to ribs to knees and then flow out her feet and into the earth, using her as a conduit. Where the music went Magick followed. Kim felt it flowing around earth, around water, drawing it together. Cohesion. What had been missing. Earth closed around the roots of the beanstalk, firm, unyielding. It poured energy through the roots and up into the beanstalk. Water flowed through the earth, feeding the roots and Kim felt them burrow deeper into the earth, anchoring the stalk.
Patti sang something about ruling the seas. Ivan, Ben, Abe, and Dan sang back “Fee, Fi, Fo Fum!”. Then Prairie’s light tones joined there’s as they repeated the phrase. Siobhan looked down at Kim, a subtle glow to her features. Kim lifted her chin and then stepped up to the beanstalk. Once she was close it began to grow again.
Branches sprouted from the stem. When they grew up to Kim’s shoulder height, she grabbed ahold of them. Leaves sprouted from the stalk near the ground, giving her a place to plant her feet. Once she was situated with her hands around the branches, her feet planted on leaves, and her chest pressed against the stalk she called up, “I’m on.”
She had to raise her voice slightly to be heard over the enthusiastic Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum-ing. Siobhan shot her a look over her shoulder. “I’m going to ask the beanstalk to grow faster. Will Earth be able to support the roots?”
Kim focused her Magick, asking it to spread through the earth. Then she sent a probe out, Earth?
A mikro’s delay and then the Earth gem formed, in her mind this time. It pulsed lightly, like it understood the constraints of her brain pan.
Do you need more?
The pulsing slowed then picked up again. An image formed of golden energy weaving through the earth and forming a web around the growing roots. The web pulsed slightly in time with the music coming from the group.
“Far as I can tell, yes?”
“Let me know if that changes.”
“Will do.”
With no more warning the beanstalk shot up fast enough Kim’s hands involuntarily closed hard on the branches. Air shot past her, ruffling the leaves at the end of the branches she held as well as her hair. An Air Lady formed beside her flowing up the beanstalk in a spiral then back down, pulling at her hair and clothes as it passed. Its giggle followed behind, making a smaller channel of breeze.
It’s joy was contagious and Kim found her lips curving on a smile before she firmed her jaw and willed herself to neutrality. Like Prairie said, it just felt wrong to smile or laugh while Dempsey was missing. She, along with Siobhan, understood the most what he was likely going through. The loss of autonomy. The fear. The confusion.
The rage. The incandescent rage.
The Earth gem formed in her mind again. It pulsed, reminiscent of a heart. Kim closed her eyes, took a long breath through her nose, and willed herself to remain calm. Earth was not Fire. It did not gain energy from her anger. She had to remain calm. Steady. Strong. She pulled those feelings around her and sent them cascading through her Magick and into the earth. The gem faded in her mind, drawing back into the dark reminiscent of rich earth.
Enter The Woods 