Enchantyon: Welcome Home
Chapter Six: The New Normal

Lalauri Imafenduwell

The Old Aureate Wing

Imafenduwell Hall

When Lalauri finally awoke the next day, she opened her eyes to replace that she was alone in the bedroom. As the morning light filtered into the room, it highlighted the teacups on the nightstand and also revealed the chaos and damage from the previous night, which would be a less than enjoyable task to clean up. When she sat herself up on the bed, Lalauri noticed that there was a note beside her where Keridwen once was. The handwriting on the note was unmistakably Cecil’s. According to him, Keridwen had already woken up and was feeling hungry. Cecil had taken her to the main kitchen in the Old Aureate Wing along with the other nulliwumps to whip up some breakfast.

As she stretched, yawned, and climbed out of the bed, Lalauri vaguely wondered how long Keridwen had been up for, and how late she herself had slept in for. Upon looking at the clock by Keridwen’s bed, she saw that the afternoon was now well underway. Ideally, Lalauri would be well into whatever afternoon activities she had planned for that day. With this late start, she would have to settle for a late brunch instead of breakfast.

However, this would be a task easier said than done. Lalauri entered the main kitchen of the Old Aureate Wing and was irked with a very unpleasant surprise: empty cupboards where the ingredients for her blueberry pancakes should have been. She also found a heaping pile of messy pots and pans. They were all resting in the kitchen sink, waiting for her. And on the kitchen table, she discovered another note. This new note from Cecil had mentioned how they had already made blueberry pancakes for Keridwen because of how hungry she was and that she already ate them. All of them.

“I must say,” said Cecil in the note. “Miss Keridwen has the most frightening appetite for being such a small human girl.”

Lalauri breathed deeply as she crumpled the note in her right hand.

Stroking her temple, she reminded herself that the girl had had a long night too and she could hardly blame the nulliwumps for making her meal the priority.

…but there were a lot of pancake ingredients before this morning. And for it all to be consumed so quickly?!

Trying her best to ignore her stomach’s complaints, Lalauri yawned moodily and resolved to go sit down at the table to read her Scriptures. If nothing else, she could give thanks to Lorraullion for helping her tend to the child. The passage she turned to was one that she often did when she felt overwhelmed and exhausted. It was in moments like these that Lalauri felt her Lord speak to her in her struggle. Although, today she found it difficult to understand what good these words would do her at the moment.

“For I [fully] satisfy the weary soul, and I replenish every languishing and sorrowful person.” Said the passage.

Lalauri’s stomach growled at her. Its languishing was not being quenched or otherwise fed by this verse, and her weariness was equally unaided.

Then Lalauri tried moving onto another verse.

“Commit your works to the Lord [submit and trust them to Him], and your plans will succeed [if you respond to His will and guidance].”

With another grumble from her stomach, she flipped through the pages to yet another passage. She did so, hoping that she could just replace one that would just spell out for her what her plans for the child should actually be.

“And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; and endurance, proven character (spiritual maturity); and proven character, hope and confident assurance [of salvation]. Such hope [in God’s promises] never disappoint us, because God’s love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

“Oh, enough!” Lalauri blurted out, throwing her hands in the air as she abandoned the book on the kitchen table. “I can’t do this anymore. I need to replace something to eat. I’ve had enough suffering!”

Her temper at an overall boiling point, Lalauri made her way towards where the note had said the nulliwumps would be with her new ward. Although her mind was very much tied up in knots at the moment, deep down, she knew she was probably acting irrationally. It wasn’t the girl’s fault! Said a little voice in her head. She’s suffering and in pain…just like you are.

Then, out of nowhere, what felt like an earthquake shook Imafenduwell Hall. It sent an already unsteady Lalauri tumbling to her knees. The only hint she had as to the source of this earthquake was the voice of Cecil coming from down the hallway, saying, “NO! Don’t do that! How are you even doing this, child?”

Lalauri didn’t even have to travel down the hallway to get an idea of what was happening; three massive tree roots had travelled down the hall toward where she was in the kitchen. The hallway had become a playground for the roots, which had tunnelled into the walls and crept under the furniture. These were no ordinary roots either: there were veins of what Lalauri could only describe as raw magic pulsating through the bark of the roots.

How was she able to do this, though? Lalauri didn’t hesitate to storm down the corridor, following Cecil’s voice to replace out what Keridwen was up to, without giving her the benefit of a doubt.

“I can sympathize with the girl having a difficult adjustment period,” Lalauri muttered to herself, utterly fuming. “And I can sympathize with her only being a child who needs help controlling a power that she is simply too young to understand the full consequences of, but how many times must I tell her before she listens to me?! She cries out in pain half of the time she uses magic, and yet she still doesn’t learn! Keridwen! What are—what is this?”

She had found them all in the same courtyard that Lalauri had left them in the previous day. Only now she could barely enter the open garden space because the roots were so large that Lalauri had to squeeze through them in order to make it through the entrance into the courtyard—an experience that caused her breathing to quicken and shorten because of the small space as she pushed herself through the tight passage, doing her best to ignore the sweat quickly building on herself as she went onward.

Once inside, she found both Keridwen and Thumper laughing and swinging from the branches of a massive tree—the source of the roots. Just like the roots, the tree was pulsating with veins of raw magic. Meanwhile, Cecil and the other nulliwumps were trying to coax the two children down back to the ground with no success.

“Cecil!” said Lalauri, causing the poor old nulliwump to jump and shout.

“Oh! Miss Lalauri, I was just—”

“Why is there a giant tree radiating with magic in the middle of my courtyard?!”

“Lalauri!” Keridwen cried from above her. She was hanging precariously from one of the tree’s branches. “Look at this!”

Lalauri’s stomach plummeted when the girl swung from the branch and laughed as she plummeted through the air with nothing to land on but solid ground. Frantically, Lalauri and the nulliwumps tried to catch the girl, their voices blending into a chaotic chorus as they collided into each other. Lalauri’s eyes widened with fear as she watched the girl falling rapidly.

To Lalauri’s shock—as well as that of the nulliwumps—Keridwen suddenly disappeared into thin air. When she reappeared in a burst of magical light, Keridwen was tumbling safely onto the grass behind Lalauri, laughing as she rolled.

“Keridwen!” Lalauri shouted through gritted teeth. Heat licked her skin by this point, and her ears were burning. If her skin wasn’t black, Lalauri was certain her ears would glow a bright red. “Stop it! That is enough, young lady!”

“But Lalauri, did you see?” Keridwen rose to her feet, her clothes now covered in dirt and grass stains. “I used my magic to create this tree, and I teleported and…and nothing happened…I’m…I’m…getting use to it…”

The girl was obviously trying to say that she was fine, but she was clearly not fine; as quickly as she rose to her feet, Keridwen quickly fell to her knees again, her legs collapsing from underneath her.

Lalauri also dropped to her knees to get a better look at the girl as the nulliwumps also surrounded her. Keridwen’s eyes were red and her eyelids were drooping. With Lalauri drawing closer on the grass, Keridwen collapsed and her head fell onto Lalauri’s lap, her eyes closing almost immediately.

As Keridwen snored soundly, Lalauri looked at the nulliwumps helplessly and sighed, “What am I going to do with her?”

“Um, I’m not entirely sure, Miss.” Said Cecil.

“…How many days has it been since she’s gotten here, Cecil?” Lalauri asked, almost fearing the answer.

“Well…I’m afraid this is only the second day with us, Miss. Actually—technically, it’ll be her first full day, really.”

“…oh my gosh…”

“There’s always boarding school y’know, Miss Lalauri.” Said Isolde. “Might be just what she needs.”

“Ugh…no. I will not do that. I just need someway to make her understand that—”

“ACHOO!” Keridwen’s sudden sneeze caused them all to jump out of their skin a little.

Then Keridwen sneezed again, and then again, and then again. It took a few minutes for Lalauri to make the connection between what was going on around her and the little girl, but when she did, she was at a loss for words; whenever Keridwen sneezed, the courtyard changed dramatically. The first time she sneezed, the giant, magic-emitting tree that she had conjured burst into a roaring inferno. The second time, the tree disappeared completely leaving no trace behind and the entire courtyard was transformed into a miniature desert wasteland complete with dust devils, cactus plants, and tumbleweeds like in the Dunewilds of Octavia. Then she sneezed a third time, and they were all transported onto a cloud that was somehow solid enough for them to rest on, and were floating high above Imafenduwell Hall. Then, for her final sneeze, they were all returned to the courtyard, which was returned to normal—except for Keridwen’s massive magic tree.

With Keridwen’s sneezing fit over, Lalauri simply stared at her—her jaw hanging open—as the little girl stirred back to the waking world. Her eyes were still red. Keridwen looked up groggily at Lalauri for a moment before the clarity returned to her eyes.

“Keridwen,” said Lalauri, being sure to keep her voice calm. “We need to talk. We need to talk. I need you to tell me why you’re still using your magic. It’s clearly taking its toll on you and—”

Startled, Keridwen quickly got up from the ground and backed away from Lalauri and the nulliwumps. She stopped walking when she was just a few feet away from them all—a cross look was set on her face.

“I need to do this, Lalauri. I need…I want to help.”

“Help with what?”

“With protecting! With keeping people safe. Back home, everyone I knew and cared about got hurt because I was too small and weak to help. And last night you even said that there was nothing that I could have done. But I can help with my magic! I just need practice, Lalauri! Look at the tree I made! That’s something, right?”

Lalauri didn’t respond. Her shoulders drooped further and her own eyelids were drooping now.

“I feel weak. I don’t want to be weak! I can help people too! I just need…practice. I promise I can handle it. I just need to practice my magic, and then I’ll be strong enough to help people.”

What felt like a long moment of silence passed between the two. The nulliwumps all wrung their hands as they looked back and forth between the two.

“Keridwen,” Lalauri said finally. “I hear you. I do. However, while you live in my house, you are forbidden from using magic. I understand you want to help, but this is not the—Keri! Where are you going? Keridwen, come back here! Keridwen!”

Keridwen had stomped off out of the courtyard and back into the Hall, with tears in her eyes and streaming down her face. When Lalauri got to her feet to run after her, her path was almost instantly blocked. Lalauri and the nulliwumps were stuck in the courtyard, with the roots having closed tightly after Keridwen’s hasty run.