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Faeries, Helpful Siblings, and other Mythological Creatures

By Madame vonHedwig on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

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In which the children conspire.

To Madame vonHedwig’s surprise, Adolphus returned to searching the next morning, joined by Mirabelle and Annabelle.

“How very helpful of you to join us,” she said, “when I am sure you have projects of your own requiring your attention.”

“We’d thought we’d give Gerhardt a turn in the lab this morning,” Annabelle said.

“And we have so much to learn about geology!” added Mirabelle.

“How interesting,” Mother said.  “Let’s to it, then.  Would anyone like to review the features for which we search?”

This offer politely declined, Mother, Ulrik, Claire, Adolphus, Annabelle, and Mirabelle each found window space to call his or her own, and the day’s search began in earnest.  If Mother noticed that the youngest searchers kept their eyes down at the rubble-strewn cliff base, rather than the shear face above, she said nothing.

Adolphus noticed though, and cornered the twins at lunch.

“Your not looking for Mother’s beastly rock, are you?”

“No more than you,” said Mirabelle.

“What are you looking for?  Good sledding ground?”

Annabelle rolled her eyes.

“What are you looking for?” Mirabelle countered.

“If I tell you, will you tell me?”

“P’raps.

“Got to be for sure, or I won’t tell!”

The twins conferred in the language they shared, one unknown to any of their shipmates.  It was not, as is sometimes the case with twins, an invented language, but a learned language.  At the age of three, replete with the tales of Madame d’Aulnoy, Andrew Lang,  Asbjørnsen and Moe, Joseph Jacobs, and George MacDonald, the girls had asked to learn the language that faeries spoke.  Their parents responded by bringing a Welsh tutor on board.

“Honor bound?” Annabelle asked.

Adolphus held out his hand, and the girls each one of theirs, one under, and one above.  All three nodded together.  Ritual satisfied, Annabelle spoke first.

“We’re looking for the bear-man.  We saw him yesterday.”

“Or her!” Mirabelle said.

Adolphus leaned towards them and whispered. “Me too.  But it’s not just any bear-man, it’s the Yeti.”

Annabelle looked around the room to make sure they were not overheard.

“What’s a Yeti?”

“It’s a giant, man-eating, ape-bear sort of thing one finds up in these mountains,” Adolphus explained with all the authority of one who had spent nearly an hour in the library. “Major Waddell found tracks in 1889, and in 1832 a couple of them attacked the British representative to Nepal. The natives see them all the time, I expect, but they don’t seem to write any books about it.”

“Well,” said Mirabelle, “well, well.  I think I’d like to meet one of those.”

“Go on!” her brother objected.  “No one meets a Yeti and lives to tell the tale.”

“Oh no?” Annabelle answered.  “Then who tells these tales?”

Adolphus had no answer, but needed none, for luncheon was served and their presence required at the table.

The afternoon passed with discovery by neither those searching for rock strata, nor those searching for Yeti.  After dinner, Adolphus and the twins called a conference, inviting Claire, Gerhardt, and Bettina to hear their evidence.

“Bear-man go boom?” Bettina asked.

“No, love,” Claire said, “the Yeti does not explode, because the Yeti is a myth.  Some people just don’t have the discipline to look at rocks.”

“I say!  At least I found something!” Adolphus glowered at his older sister.

“You imagined something.”

“We saw it too!” the twins chorused.

“I hope you won’t bother Father and Mother with this nonsense,” Claire sniffed.  “Some of us have serious research to think about.” With that, she swept from the children’s lab without a backward glance.

“What’s wrong with her?” Gerhardt asked.

“She’s a pill,” Adolphus said. “She’s always been a pill.”

“No she hasn’t,” Mirabelle said. “It’s mostly since Philomena went to the Academy.”

“That was ages ago!” Adolphus said.  “Her first year’s nearly over.”

“True,” said Annabelle, “but she has been different with Philly gone.  It got better for a bit in the rainforest, but then Philly called her a child in that letter and it got worse again.”

“Girls are ridiculous,” Adolphus exclaimed.

Mirabelle snatched a crossbow from the nearby workbench, and Annabelle plunged her hand into her pinafore, revealing a pocketful of marshmallows.  They chased him all the way to his room. Gerhardt followed slowly, collecting spent ammunition, and only occasionally eating it.

This story began with On Grandmothers. The last episode is The Sorrows of Chef and the next is Meanwhile, Back in the Lab.

Tags: Adolphus, Airship, Annabelle, Bettina, children, Claire, faeries, gas, Gerhardt, Himalayas, lamp, light, Mirabelle, Philomena, steam, steampunk, stories, story, Welsh, ya, Yeti, young adult