The Secrets of Elderville

Opal looked so happy, sitting in this human’s hand. “Who is Delilah Jones?” Jessa asks. Matteo falls into a chair, letting out a sigh. “She is a human, obviously,” Jessa stares, waiting for a genuine answer. Matteo smiles, “Alright, alright. I’ll tell ya about Delilah, but better sit down. It’s a long story,” Jessa sits in the chair across from him, crossing her legs. Matteo’s eyes did a quick top to bottom scan of her, hoping she didn’t notice. She did.

“The beginning of this story goes way back, to the time Opal escaped her old village. It had been three days since she had left, barely able to stand, let alone fly. What felt like hours of walking not paying attention to where she was going, she tripped over a claw. Coming to her senses, she turned her head to see that the claw was attached to an owl.” Jessa smiled, “Corny!” Matteo laughed, “Oh so you know that part? I’ll skip ahead. After giving Corny his voice, and freeing him from the trap, Opal convinces him to fly her to the nearest town. Corny agreed and off they flew. Flying to the first good looking tree they saw and landed. Opal decided that tree would be their forever home. It didn’t take long for her to notice the humans living in the home that the tree stood in front of. She was fascinated by them, always sneaking into the home to get a closer look. Until one day she was discovered by the little girl who lived there, Delilah.” Jessa leaned forward in her chair, intrigued. Matteo paused and smirked, continuing, “Delilah did not trap Opal or try to swat at her. She only stared at Opal with wonder, for what seemed like hours, she claimed. Finally, Opal spoke to her, and Delilah spoke back. They talked till the sun set and then came back up again. Delilah snuck her food and gave her pencils and little furniture from her doll houses. They became best friends. And still are to this day. That was thirty years ago, and Delilah still resides in the house there, alone.” Matteo points his finger out the window with a perfect view of the house. Jessa stares at the house then at the picture of Opal and Delilah. “She kept it a secret for that long?” Jessa asked. Matteo nodded.

“So, when did you and the other wanderers come into the story?” she asks. Matteo smiles, standing up from his chair, “Opal sent out Corny to search for any lost wanderers. She didn’t know for certain if there were any of us out there, but she hoped and I’m sure glad she did. Otherwise, my father and I would’ve been raccoon food long ago.” Jessa scrunched up her face, about to ask what a raccoon was but Matteo held up his hand. “If you’re going to ask what a raccoon is, let me stop you and just show you rather than tell.” He grabbed her hand gently and pulled her towards a different window and flew out and down the tree. With her new wings, she wasn’t quite sure if she could fly at the speed he was going but to Jessa’s surprise she kept up with him.

They landed at the very last branch and sat down. Jessa watched Matteo, searching the ground then locking his eyes on something. “There! That is a raccoon, and you better stay far away from them otherwise you’re dead.” Jessa followed his finger to two shiny metal things, “Oh wow, yes very frightening, shiny silver death creatures.” Matteo sighed, “No! Not the trash cans! The things below the trash cans!” Then Jessa saw them; big, gray and bushy. “Aw, they’re so cute!” Matteo groaned, “Yeah you think that now but when you’re face to face with one, you’ll change your mind real quick,” Jessa giggled. From below they hear one of the other wanderers call up to them, “Hey you loafers! Dinners ready!” Matteo calls back down, “okay we’re coming!” Grabbing Jessa’s hand again, they fly down to a different hollow in the tree. “This is the gathering hollow where we, well, gather.” As they enter, Jessa hears all the different wanderers, immersed in conversation. Some were old, some were young, either laughing or arguing. Telling stories or just going on about what they did that day. But once Jessa was in the middle of the room, a hush fell over everyone, all turning their heads toward her. In the blink of an eye, Opal was by her side, taking her hand from Matteo’s, which Jessa had just realized she was holding the entire time. “I see you and Matteo have become quite close,” Opal said in a soft tone, smirking a little. Jessa blushed, “What? No, it’s not like that. I just met him, Opal.” Opal nodded her head, still smirking. They walked to a long table that was raised higher than the others, at the very back of the hollow and turned towards all the other wanderers. Opal, in a familiar booming voice, began to introduce Jessa. “Everyone! This is my niece, Princess Jessa. I hope you’ll all be very welcoming to her and help her learn her way around our tree. As you all already know, she is the one who will bring back peace to my old village, Elderville, and destroy the Wasp King. But she will need training and time to defeat him. Who will come forward and help Jessa train?”

The first wanderer to stand was, of course, Matteo. The second was Lily, the third was an older wanderer, her hair a bright yellow, her dress was made from a blue columbine. She smiled; her teeth were covered in strawberry seeds. Jessa smiled back then looked at her aunt. Opal looked around the room and nodded, “Very well, thank you to our three volunteers, Matteo, Lily and Selene. I have no doubts you will train my niece well. Now, please enjoy the rest of your meals!” Opal sat at the large table behind them; Jessa sat next to her. Matteo came forward and sat next to Jessa, accidentally bumping his arm against hers reaching for the pitcher of water. She recoiled, her face turning a shade of tomato red.

Opal glances out of her peripheral, giggling slightly. Jessa nudges her aunt hard in the ribs, and then begins to stuff her face, only realizing now how starving she was. She grabbed the pitcher out of Matteo’s hands and poured a tall glass of water, noticing the tiny chunks of lemon in it. “Lemon? In water?” Jessa scrunches her nose, turning to Opal for answers. Matteo answers instead, “you’re a royal and you’ve never had lemon water?” Jessa shakes her head no. Opal takes the pitcher from Jessa, “a little something I learned from the humans. Try it Jessa, it’s quite good!” Jessa sniffs the water, then takes a tiny sip. Her mouth bursts with the flavor of the citrus, taking a larger drink. “Refreshing! Why has no wanderer thought of this before? It’s genius!” Opal and Matteo laughed nodding their heads in agreement.

As the day turned to night and everyone in the gathering hall turned in to their individual hollows, Opal led Jessa to her very own private hollow, just below her aunt’s. “I’m so happy you’re here, my dear Jessa, and so is everyone else. You’ve given us hope. Hope that we can someday be a part of Elderville, living in peace.” Opal patted Jessa’s hand, then walked towards a little wardrobe, with designs of different flowers on them. She opened the wardrobe revealing beautiful flower dresses. One stuck out to Jessa, a bright yellow dress made from an actual sunflower. Jessa reached out and touched the dress, “How beautiful, may I try it on?” Opal nodded. Jessa went behind the partition and began to change. Just as her dress fell from her body, suddenly Matteo was at her window, with a full view of her, “hey I- OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY!” Jessa screams, covering herself with the flower dress. “Matteo!” Opal screams, “we’ve talked about this, if you need something you need to come in through the side hole, down the hall and to the hollow door! Not the window!” she then helped him down from the window, while he covered his eyes. “I’m so-so sorry Jessa, I swear I didn’t see anything.”

Jessa was silent as she continued to put the sunflower dress on. It was the first time a male wanderer had seen her undressed. And of course, it had to be the one guy I’m attracted to. Jessa blushes but then pauses, wait am I attracted to Matteo or his body? Grandmother used to say that a good heart and personality wins over a perfect body but that a good heart AND a perfect body is always a plus. “You okay back there, Jessa?” Opal’s voice pulling her back from her crowded thoughts, she clears her voice, “yes Opal, I’m good just a little frazzled.” She hears a smack, “ow Opal! I didn’t know! How could I have known she was undressing at the exact moment I come to the window!” Jessa hears another smack. “CUT IT OUT!”

She walks away from the partition to see Matteo rubbing the back of his head and Opal glaring at him, but both freeze when they look at her. “Oh, my goodness! You are darling in that dress my dear!” Opal glides towards her, scooping up her hands and twirling Jessa around in the air. Matteo still stared at her in awe, too stunned to speak. Opal glares at Matteo once more, “well say something! Don’t just stand there like an oaf!” He clears his throat and begins to say, “You look-…”

BOOM!

“HOO! My stars! How wonderful you look Jessa!” Corny’s eye appeared at the window. “My, my we’re just having so many unexpected guests this evening. What’s up Corny?” Opal says walking towards the owl’s eye. “Well, I just wanted to see how things were going, and how our Jessa was adjusting. I can see she’s simply fine and getting along VERY well,” his eye focusing on Matteo who was still staring at Jessa. But quickly zipped his head towards the owl when everyone’s attention turned to him.

Jessa again began to feel her face go red, “Thank you for your concern Corny. You are correct, Jessa is doing well and tomorrow she will do even better. It will be her first day of training with our Matteo here!” Opal whipped around to grin at Jessa with the biggest grin Jessa had ever seen on a wanderer’s face. “Oh goody! I cannot wait to hear how that goes. Good luck Jessa! I am positive you will live up to our expectations and pick up on the moves quickly.” With one more hoot, Corny’s eye vanished, flying away into the night.

“Moves? What did he mean by moves?” Jessa asked Opal. Opal smiles, “Two words, Tai Chi. Matteo will teach you it tomorrow,” Jessa gulped. She had forgotten he was going to be training her too, which means even more alone time with him, which means more of him staring at her like a bozo. Matteo turns to leave the hollow but before he does, he says with his back turned towards her, “See ya in the morning princess!” She rolls her eyes. Opal makes to follow him, but turns around and winks at her, whispering “have pleasant dreams princess,” she then sarcastically bows out of the room, giggling all the way down the hallway, and to the spiral staircase.

Jessa changes out of the sunflower dress and into a red, short, soft, night gown. Nothing like her night gowns back home, that one was much longer and a white crème color. She favored this red night gown more, it felt freer and cooler. It was her style, since she shines in the color red. Rose would always tell her that a rose dress would be perfect for her. Smiling at the thought of her sister, Jessa slides into the bed made from an acorn, under the sheets made from the finest silkworms.

Jessa fell into a deep sleep immediately after closing her eyes, her dreams filled with memories of her home, Rose, and Theo. She could see them laughing and playing tag. Bouncing from one branch to the other, they jumped higher and higher on the elder tree, Jessa strained to keep up with them, looking back at her wings only to be horrified to see her old wings there and not her shiny new ones. She yelled out to Rose and Theo to slow down but her voice was gone, she could not call out to them as they jumped further out of her sight. Suddenly the sky began to darken to a sickening yellow, thunder clouds hanging right over the elder tree, a flash of lightning hitting the top of the tree creating a fire. She flinches and she’s now on the ground staring up at the elder tree, now engulfed in flames, faint screams of her people being burned alive. Looming over the burning elder tree is her mother, Isobel but then her skin is ripped in two, revealing the ugly Wasp King from within.

Jessa wakes with a gasp, her bed soaked with sweat, her eyes slightly stinging. She looks around at the dark room, sighing with relief. Only a nightmare, she thought, Rose and Theo are going to be fine, I’m sure of it. Yet at the pit of her stomach, she felt a tinge of doubt and fear. She throws back the covers and jumps out of bed, walking towards the window. The night sky was different than when she stared at it from home, there were next to no stars. She couldn’t even see the constellations; this feeling made her chest heavy and ever so lonely. The stars were always such a comfort to her in times of great stress. Now all she had to look at were houses and these things called cars and humans who were so noisy in those cars. Honking loudly for no reason, and their music terribly loud. She wondered how they got so many people playing instruments in such a tiny contraption. A question she must ask Matteo tomorrow. She pauses when the thought of Matteo comes to her mind, thinking of how his eyes sparkle like the reflection of the stars in a river. She then started to imagine Matteo’s strong arms wrapping around her waist, hugging her from behind. Thinking of his warm embrace sent a tingle up her wings, shivering slightly. She then waved away this fantasy from her mind and blamed the shiver on the chilly night air. I do not have time for romance, she thought, but what if I never have the chance to have it again? What if I-, she stops. The thought of dying, never experiencing love and never seeing Theo or Rose again, never having their sister to look out for them, it made Jessa start to reconsider it all. The idea of taking Matteo and flying out this window, rescuing Theo and Rose and escaping far into the mountains sounded like a lot better plan.

But then Opal would be disappointed and crushed by this decision, as will every wanderer here. And all the wanderers back home would be turned into wasps and then home would not be home anymore. I can’t let him win; I won’t let him. I must kill him before he kills me and save my mother. Jessa took a deep breath and nodded her head to confirm her choice. As she slides back into her acorn bed, thoughts of Matteo began to float in her mind again, only this time she did not swat them away. She sunk deeper into bed, with a smile on her face, determined to have good dreams.

The next day a faint knocking awoke Jessa, she popped her head out from under her covers to see at the entry way, Lily, nervously staring at her. “Good morning, Jessa,” she said softly. “Oh, hello Lily, good morning. What’s up?” Jessa stretches out her wings and body, slowly stepping out of her bed. As she walks towards the partition to change into her sunflower dress, Lily enters the room. “I’m here to bring you to the gathering hall. We’re having a special breakfast today because of you. To celebrate your being here! Do you like pancakes? Opal makes the best pancakes.” Jessa emerges from the partition with a scrunched-up face, “PAN-cakes? I’ve never heard of them before,” Lily drops her mouth. “Oh, you must have some, they’re delicious! Come on, hurry or we’ll be the last ones in line to get some and Opal makes absolutely the best ones when she first starts making them.”

Lily grabs Jessa by the hand as Jessa is slipping on her tiny shoes. Lily drags Jessa along all the way up the spiral staircase to the gathering hall. The sun shone brightly in through the windows. Something catches Jessa’s eye.

Beautiful, vibrant colors, like a rainbow dancing around on the walls. Searching for the cause of this, she sees a piece of multicolored glass hanging from one of the windows. She approached it, reaching out her hand to touch it. Lily zoomed over to her, “careful! It’s very fragile. Beans here has already broken three of them!” Lily motions to the smaller wanderer who had appeared next to her, making Jessa jump a little. Beans looked like he had not had a bath in quite some time, dirt and twigs littered his entire body. His hair so scruffy and unbrushed, hanging over his face to where his eyes were barely visible. The thing that stood out the most about Beans were his feet, which were completely black from dirt. Lily looked from Beans to Jessa who were just staring at each other, “yeah, he’s a bit dirty. He hates being near water for some reason, and Opal told us to just let him be and eventually he’ll bathe one day. Come on, let’s get in line!” Lily grabs Jessa’s hand again along with Beans’.

As Jessa grabs a chair at the head table, she sees Matteo entering. Sensing her gaze, Matteo locks eyes with her. Jessa darts her eyes down to her plate of pancakes, and rushes to grab a pitcher with orange liquid in it. She smells the pitcher, realizing it smells like oranges. How odd, she thought, never knew oranges could be made into juice. Pouring herself some of the juice, she dares to look up and scan the room for the dark-haired boy. “Hey,” someone whispers into her ear, she jumps spilling the juice everywhere. Matteo starts to laugh uncontrollably, “oops! Did I scare ya?” He reaches to help her dry off her dress, but she pushes back on her chair quickly, bumping into Opal who had a stack of pancakes taller than her on her plate. The pancakes scatter all over the floor, Jessa gasps, crouching down to pick them up. “No, no it’s alright Jessa I’ll get them. It’s my fault I scared you and made you all jumpy,” Matteo leans down to the ground next to her, picking up pancakes. Their hands then reach for the same pancake, touching slightly. They both whip their hands back, their faces a deep red. Opal stares at them, smiling.

“Jeez get a room!” Someone standing behind Opal yells. Jessa leans to her right, to get a good look at the rude wanderer. A pale wanderer, with long magenta hair tied up in a ponytail, and piercing black eyes, with one arm on their hip, staring hard at Jessa. Jessa notices strange markings on their neck, like someone had drawn on them with permanent ink.

Opal whips her head around, “Hawk, be nice. This is my niece, Jessa, which you would’ve known that already if you had been here last night. Where have you been?” Hawk shrugged their shoulders, slumping into their chair and stabbing a pancake with their fork. “I was around, just hanging outside by the tree. I was, uh, doing a perimeter check. Making sure no danger was afoot!” They snickered. Opal huffed, turning away from Hawk, sitting down next to Jessa. “Impossible, now THEY remind me way too much of my younger self. Only I wasn’t as rude as them, they’re on a whole different level of rude. They are the rudiest rude wanderer I’ve ever met, but I had to take them in. They would’ve been dead by now if not for Corny finding them. They were almost killed by a human.” Jessa stopped her fork, “a human tried to kill them? I thought humans were good. They helped Elderville in the wasp wars and you are friends with that human girl next door.”

Opal drank some of her tea, looking down solemnly at her pancakes. “Not all humans are good. There are some so evil, that it brings a tear to your eye and anger to your heart. The kind of human Hawk encountered you must always stay away from. But it can be hard to tell the difference between a good one and a bad one. Humans can be very deceitful at times, gaining your trust, making you think they’re your best friend until one day you’re stabbed in the back.” Opal sighs, “it can be hard to ever trust one again, awfully hard. But Hawk will find a way to trust them again, it just takes the right person to show them.”

After breakfast, Matteo leads Jessa to the big spacious room they had visited yesterday. Jessa stares at the picture of Opal and Delilah again, focusing hard on Delilah. Could Delilah be deceiving Opal all this time? Is Delilah evil? She hoped not. She stared hard into Delilah’s eyes, trying to search for any inkling of evil, but all she could see were flakes of gold in her deep brown eyes. Suddenly she felt Matteo’s hand on her shoulder, “you ready to train?” She whipped around, face to face with him. He was close, too close, she stepped back. “Yes, Opal mentioned Tai Chi? What is that?” Matteo slaps his hands together and rubs them, “you’re about to find out. Come stand in front of me,” he points to the space in front of him. She cautiously approaches him; he grabs her arms and spins her around. Her back facing him now, her heartbeat quickens. He carefully lifts her wrists up, moving them up and down slowly. “Okay we’re gonna start with the basics, I’m going to show you how to defend yourself if someone were to come running at you.” He moves in front of her, and positions his arms in front of him, then glides his hands, moving them in opposite directions. “This move is called grasp the sparrows tail, and that leads into ward off then to roll back,” he moves his right arm up, into an L shape. Rotating his body to the right, and then rotating left. “Then to press,” he moves his left arm, stretching it out as if he were pushing someone away. “Seem easy enough?” Jessa nods her head, but as she moved her arms into the same position, she completely forgot everything he had just done. “Uh how’d it go again?” He smiled, stepping behind her.

Moving her arms with his own, repeating the movements he had done. His warm chest against her back, she could feel sweat begin to form on her forehead and under her armpits. Her stomach full to the brim with butterflies, not paying a lick of attention to how he was moving, only focusing on his hot breath on the back of her neck. Shaking her head, she snaps herself out of her trance and moves away from him. Turning around, she began to move the same as him, “like this? Is this right?” Matteo nodded his head, “you’re perfect.”

After a couple of hours learning Tai Chi, Jessa and Matteo decided to go down for a snack in the kitchens hollow. When they entered, Jessa immediately recognized the cook, head to toe in blue. “Hey Selene!” Matteo greeted her, lifting himself to sit on the wooden counter, “got any of those elderberry pastries? We’re starving!” Selene motioned to the counter where a stack of pastries lay. Jessa’s mouth watered at the smell of them, gravitating towards them slowly. “Oh yeah, Selene is supposed to be training you tomorrow in spell casting. She’s an excellent teacher, you’ll be casting spells in no time with miss Selene here!” Matteo smiles at Selene who is beaming at him while a bowl levitated in the air next to her head, stirring some kind of orange mixture. Jessa pointed to the bowl, “what are you making right now?” Selene motioned to the oranges on the center table. “Ooh! Are you making your orange kiss bars? Oh, Jessa you’re in for a treat at lunch if those are the dessert for today.” Selene nods her head, still beaming at both of them, while rubbing her tummy in a clockwise motion.

Jessa and Matteo head down to Opal’s hollow for lunch, at Opal’s request. Jessa became transfixed by the way Matteo’s backside glistened in the light from the firefly lanterns perched on the walls of the twisting stairwell. But was suddenly interrupted by a wanderer aggressively bumping into her, dashing down the stairwell at top speed. “Hey watch it, Hawk! You could’ve made her trip!” Matteo yells after them, as they continued down without even a glance towards either of them.

“What’s their problem with me? What have I done to them to make them act that way?” Jessa huffs, crossing her arms as they continue to Opal’s hollow, veering off down a separate set of stairs. “They’ve always been that way towards everyone. Rude, loud and obnoxious. I get they’ve had a hard life, but they don’t get to treat everyone like shit. They’ve got to work out their issues, not project them onto everyone around them. They should really talk to Anya.”

Jessa pauses, just before Opal’s door. “Anya? Who is Anya?” Matteo takes her hand, opening the door to Opal’s hollow. “She’s our wanderer who talks with the other wanderers and helps them work out their problems. If you ever needed someone to talk to with an unbiased opinion, you should visit her. Her hollow is above the storage hollow, where Lily works. Lily talks to Anya all the time; they’ve become really close over the years.” Hm, maybe I will talk with Anya. She sounds like a nice wanderer if she helps so many of them.

Opal is sitting at her table next to the window, with two empty chairs next to her. She notices Matteo and Jessa walking towards them as she takes a sip of her tea. “Oh afternoon! Come, come. Sit down, we’ve got veggies and fruit. There’s some gouda cheese, and cheddar cheese. We’ve got crackers and oh!” Opal dashes up and flies towards a box on the far side of the hollow, the size of a chest. When she opens it, a bunch of smoke bellows out. Opal shivers as she reaches her arm down into it. She picks up a brown, cylinder shape, flying back down to their table. Picking up a knife, she begins to cut the thing. “What is that? It smells peppery,” Jessa asks. Opal offers her a plate of the mystery food, cheese, crackers and fruit. “It is a type of meat called salami. The humans eat it as a meal and pair it with these other foods. They call it a char-coochie board, I think.”

End of Chapter Six.