Chapter 5

The teacher was tired, it had been a good morning at the Farming Museum, her group of twelve in the minibus had actually enjoyed it; even Charley, the joker in the pack, the one who would amount to nothing or would be the drug lord of the town in adulthood. One or the other, it was hard to tell. But it had been an early start, she had missed her breakfast, the café in the museum apologised that the coffee machine had broken, she was losing concentration, and the argument last night hadn’t helped. Chris was a dick, how could he ring up at 2 am having forgotten the time difference, and then started a row and finally announced that he was staying in the States. That was when she heard the slimey (no, unfair, whiney was better) voice saying “Chris, come back to bed.” She’d already known they were finished when he’d gone, and she’d suspected he was getting some over there because he wasn’t the kind to miss sex for more than a couple of days. She had enjoyed the sabbatical from him actually, so the call and the break up was a relief really, but it was the cheap way he did it that annoyed her. She was “OOOOUHHHGGG!”

She had fallen asleep, just for a second, well, maybe a few seconds, her eyes had closed. She had opened her eyes, and swerved left. It was the wrong decision. It could almost have been the road; but if she had been awake she would have stuck to the tarmac, not the black tarmac, grass and gravel track that she was driving on at fifty miles an hour. The children behind her started to wake up as they bounced off seats. “Misss!!!” was the chorus. But Miss was concentrating now, slowing carefully, sticking to the track. She would have stopped, but there was nowhere to turn, so she carried on slowly down the track. It followed a side valley down, slowly dropping as the floor of the valley rose to meet them. It passed through trees; now they were invisible from above. Round a gentle bend and then the track flattened out.

The track stopped at a stone wall with grass opening out to the left and a small stream beyond, across the stream three streamlets gurgled under trees into the wider shallow part, sand banks and gravel banks made it ideal for paddling. The boys needed a wee, the girls too (though two had wet themselves near the top of the track), Kathryn had come close herself. A tall man came out of the house that lay beyond the wall.

Before the humans, this had been a slumbering magical place, fairies had lived here, but they were long gone. The house had been a mill until the great drought of 1670 to 1673. The great drought in these parts that is. Few people noticed outside the valleys; but the stream dried, the mill pond became smaller and smaller and then stopped being a pond. No water meant no mill, no mill meant no livelihood, no livelihood meant the miller and his family had joined the walking poor looking for work where they could find it. And the mill slumbered in its hidden valley. The roof timbers dried and crumbled and finally the roofing slabs collapsed in and the ruin opened to the skies. Until Krill found it. It was the closest to his home, he felt. Until he could find a way back, he would stay here. He rebuild the house, repaired the roof. The nominal owner of the land walked passed once, and simply wished him a good day. Something about Krill said ‘possession’. The owner simply accepted it. Krill had re-awakened some of the magic.

The land around grew well. Sheep came and sheltered in the winter and birthed in the spring and ate the lush grass all year; and somehow knew not to sully the grass with droppings. The highland cows sniffed the air fully five miles away and made their way to the glen where the grass tasted greener. The farmer was not so happy at having to look harder for his cattle, but they soon gained a reputation for their taste and he put up with it. Birds nested, rabbits came (careful not to burrow into the lawns, they made their homes in the tumbled walls beyond. Even foxes and badgers and stoats and weasels found themselves drawn to the glen but would leave to hunt. This might seem odd since Krill was happiest in the hunt; but the magic in the air, in the soil, had a different effect on the wildlife here. Even Krill hunted beyond the glen for food. A white deer passed through once, but it sensed the elfen presence and left again to more human pastures.

“Hi, sorry, I missed the road, can I turn round? “ tried Kathryn

“Miss, I really need a wee!”

“Let your family explore for a while, why not?”

“My? Oh, no, no, I’m a teacher. This is some of my class” Would Mrs Tench and Jackie wonder where they were if they arrived at the boathouse? Perhaps she should ring? Hmm, no signal. The magic was coming, she shrugged and decided this was as good a place to eat their lunch as the boathouse was.

“I see, well. Let them learn about nature for while”

“Girls that way, boys that way.” She said, but she ignored the two who had wet knickers. The two of them went off together, took charge of themselves and washed and hung up their pants. Then, unselfconsciously, they joined the others at the small streams and all got together to dam them. The magic was getting into their souls; they were learning to be themelves rather than looking to be told what to do.

Kathryn had taken out her packed lunch and sat on the step of the van, she hadn’t turned it round. She still didn’t know if she should drive onto the lovely grass sward with its meadow flowers and butterflies and “That’s a snake, I –”

“It will not harm the children. It is going out to look for food for its mate”

“Oh? Do they do that?”

“These two do. They arrived soon after me and have been here ever since. He is ten, probably the oldest adder in England.”

In the woods, Charley and Andrea were watching each other pee, both agreed that boys had it better for ease of use, but girls were ... neater. Andrea offered Charley one of her prawn and beetroot sandwiches, and Charley returned the compliment with a peanut butter and crisp roll “I made it myself. It crunches when you bite” Charley made a lot of his own meals. Andrea wasn’t meant to use sharp knives in her house, the nanny did things like that.

“Come” said Krill “Let me show you the house” She felt relaxed, the children were fine. In fact they were more than fine.

Her twelve charges had paired up and were eating lunch in couples. Not the normal boy-boy, girl-girl. Except for Ray and Stephen; and Emily and Kylie. They weren’t necessarily sure of their preferences, not at that age; but they were not sure the other way either. This just seemed right at the moment.

The others were quietly finding little grassy dells in the trees to eat their lunch alone with one other. Jennifer, a girl who prided herself on loving animals, was shocked when a rabbit hopped out of a bush, looked at her and hopped on. It was unafraid and free. Her rabbits were in hutches and never let out. When she got home she would make her parents’ lives a misery until they dug chicken wire under the fence all round the garden so ‘Sniffy’ and ‘Bungle’ could hop around free and eat all her mother’s prized flowers. Her companion wasn’t looking at the rabbit, he was looking at her.