There isn't much to be done in this situation, is there? Here she was, having to put the school kelpie situation on backburner because she was in no way missing a chance to find her long lost father, following a gnome through a magical waterfall that was going to shrink her to access a mythical land filled with things that were most likely going to try and eat her.
Just another day, right?
Abigail held her nose and followed Kompis through the waterfall. It's an odd feeling to, from your point of view, have a waterfall grow in size as you pass through. The dizzying vertigo that she felt slowed to a stop as she fully passed through the waterfall. As promised, the magic of the waterfall only seemed to have affected Abigail. Kompis now towered over her. He didn't say how small she would end up being. It was hard to judge, as Kompis wasn't a big fellow himself, but Abigail guessed that she was now the size of about a mouse.
She looked at the great space that opened up before her. She had truly passed into a different realm. There was no longer a a cavern ceiling. Instead she stood between two long stone walls under a strange purple sky. The sun hung low in the sky, with a strange pink light. Tufts of blue grass dotted the path before her. The walls would have been about waist high, were she her normal size. In her current situation, though, there was no way she could see above them.
"Kompis!" She yelled up to the towering gnome. "How far away is it to get to where my dad is?"
Kompis stroked his beard. "Well, if I carry you, we can get there pretty quick. I didn't realize how... small you'd get. You're the second mortal I've lead through Alice Falls."
"The second?"
Kompis reached down and gently lifted Abigail up so she could see the world beyond the stone wall.
What she saw was simply... alien. The colors of everything was bright, vibrant, and wrong. It was beautiful and utterly strange. Off in the distance, she saw a giant amongst the trees. His tattered clothes looked like they were something taken out of the late 60s. He reached down, grabbed a log, and began to move it to his mouth.
"Is that giant... licking that log?"
Kompis nodded solemnly. "He does that often. He's not a giant, though. That's the first mortal I ever led through Alice Falls. If he was a sensible person before, he's not anymore. Probably a good thing that you chose to go small and not lose your memory."
Abigail shuddered at the thought of ending up like the poor giant hippy that was drooling on trees.
Kompis began moving down the path. Abigail had to close her eyes. Every time that he moved, it was if everything shifted. One second, they were in a forest. Next second, they were in a den of goblins. The next step, they were by a blood red ocean.
"Why does everything keep changing?"
Kompis stopped and looked at her, confused. "What, you don't landphase when you walk? It's way quicker to get where you're going. And, with you in hand, I'm going way quicker. You're like a link to your dad. It's incredibly helpful."
Everything kept shifting and changing, and all Abigail could do was lay back, close her eyes, and wait for this nightmarish trip to be over. Eventually, she felt him slow down. She opened her eyes to take in the now steady scenery.
They stood by a lake that seemed to stretch out forever into the faery twilight. The water was dark and still, like a black mirror. Turning away from the water, to her right, there was a forest, dark and twisted. Before the forest was a great throne made of twisting roots rising from the ground. Before the throne was a stone well.
Something about this seemed familiar, like it was jogging her memory about something that she couldn't quite grasp.
"They will be here soon."
Abigail blinked as Kompis set her down on the sandy shore. "Who's they?"
"Why, the royal retinue, of course." He swept his pointy hat off his head, twirled, and bowed towards the water.
Before she could ask anything else, she spotted some movement off in the horizon. She squinted. It was hard to make out what she was seeing at first, but as they got closer, it became apparent.
Above the water strode a herd of black and white horses. Their manes moved strangely in the dying light as they tossed their heads, a strange fluid motion as if they were under water.
"You'll want to give them a little room." Kompis picked Abigail up as he started to back away.
The horses hit the beach, sand flying. They began circling the well, wildly. All except one. He stood still before the throne. He called out in a very inhuman, yet certainly not equestrian voice as he reared onto his hind legs.
And, quite suddenly, they were no longer the hind legs of a horse, but the legs of a man.
Abigail covered her mouth in shock.
There stood Charles Malcolm Herant. He was more gaunt then she remembered him, but he hadn't aged a year. Upon his head was a crown of twisted wood.
"No way..."
Forms of different shapes and sizes began to come out of the shadows, bearing plates of food and drinks. The other horses began to take a more human shape as they gathered around Charles. She spied Gwen, the kelpie from the school, taking a seat on the ground next to the throne.
"Is... is my dad the Kelpie King?"
Kompis looked at her, confused. "What? How did you not know your father is the Kelpie King?"
Before Abigail could say anything else, a trumpet sounded. Her father stood up and addressed the crowd.
"Friends and followers, thank you for the feast which you have prepared. It smells lovely. It smells..." He frowned as he took in a deep breath. "It smells like mortal. There is a mortal here!!"
Kompis smiled. "Ah, that's our cue!"
"No, not like this..." Abigail looked around wildly. This was going to be how she first saw her dad after all these years? Mouse sized in the hand of a gnome?
Kompis ignored her. "My Lord, I present to you a person of interest. One rather diminutive Abigail Herant."
Charles' face went blank. "Abbie.... Is that you?"
Abigail exhaled, emotion welling up in her tiny body. This was not the reunion that she had planned. "Um... yeah! Is that you wearing a Kelpie Crown?"
"You shouldn't be here, Abbie. This isn't safe..."
"You're seriously going to try to parent me after disappearing for years? Really?" Now, she was angry. Here was the man she had idolized as a kid, who she had thought had died decades ago, now very much alive without much of an explanation as to why she hadn't heard from him. She was confused, she was elated, and she was pissed. And she was most comfortable with being pissed.
"I think you owe me some answers!"
Two rather beefy kelpies moved in between her and the king. "You demand an audience with the Kelpie King? You need gifts to bring!"
Abigail blinked. "What? He's my dad!"
"I'm sorry, Abbie. Faery law is faery law. You need to present three gifts before demanding audience with the Kelpie King. Or, you can, of course, offer your services in a quest. Which will it be?"
👍 LIKE THIS POST to have Abigail dig into her bag to see what she can find that would make a proper gift to the Kelpie King
❤️LOVE THIS POST to have Abigail offer her services in a quest
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