Valyndria is a sylph and actually quite a special one at that, sylphs are the fae of the air, they are beautiful creatures that are born and die on the wind, like all fairies they have a special power and to humans are actually invisible, they are able to live and move in the gentlest of breeze and pass through anything that is airborn. Spotting them is really tricky but if you look in moving air very carefully they sometimes reveal themselves. The best place to spot them is in clouds as they tease us by regularly changing their form in the gently tumbling clouds. Mists and fogs are also favourite place and even steam from cooking can lure them as it condenses on cold objects. They can move incredibly fast being at home with all types of wind, even storms and are naturally very close friends with the sky.
One of the gifts they have is that they are supremely clever, they have a grasp of the supernatural and can even tell the future. they talk in whispers and sometimes we hear their conversations without realising it, listen when the wind blows next time and see if you can make out the odd word or two.
He was on the path trudging back to his green roofed lair having spent the day annoying the lambs in the fields, he liked to tickle their noses with long blades of grass and enjoyed watching them jump up in the air backwards, if you have seen lambs frolicking they are not really playing they are avoiding hobgoblins.
It was late and as the sun set and the air drew colder the warm stream water running over the hot earth started forming a faint mist as the temperature dropped. He knew the path well, it rose steadily making the backs of you legs stiff then once over the brow of the hill then it rapidly fell into Sintro’s vale in a crazily steep path. It was the sort of path that you had to take very fast tiny steps to stop yourself careering out of control into the boggy ground at the foot of the hill. He had lost control once as a young hoblet and was bog struck for 2 hours before Lapidus helped him out with a branch, cost him a coin as well.
Angyss made his decent thoughtfully as all adults should but as he reached the bottom of the vale the mist turned to a brume then full blown fog his mother called a “pea souper”, he slowed to a stop as he realised he couldn’t see his feet then reached out as though sleepwalking with both arms until he stubbed his toe on a large log. He was a bit baffled now, he couldn’t see the path and had the strangest feeling he wasn’t alone!
Songs he thought, songs always help when you’re scared.
He remembered a song called “Ten green bottles”, a simple tune where the bottles counted down to zero. He started singing quietly to himself “ten green bottles hanging on the wall….” It worked, he felt better but when he got to eight green bottles he was alarmed to hear that he wasn’t singing alone. In the background he could hear a soft whispering female voice not a loud voice but definitely there. He called out quietly, “Who is there? I can hear you but I can’t see you”. He repeated the call and thought he felt a breath of wind close to his ear. There it was again, this time he could make out four syllables Va-lin-dri-a, he thought he heard. Angyss was getting slightly nervous, he wasn’t sure but he thought he should defend himself just in case. He put his hand on his sword, it wasn’t much of a sword and he only wore it for show although he had used it on occasions to cut a path through some extremely prickly brambles.
He had a couple of practice swipes with the sword slashing it down and at an angle in front of him, he noticed it left little spiral swirls of fog in it’s wake, he quite liked that effect so he swished again.
However, this time instead of leaving swirls of frog he was sure he could see a face in front of him, he froze in wonder as the beautifully sculpted face of Valyndria appeared in front of him. In Angyss’ world he really saw let alone spoke to attractive females and could feel himself getting flushed around the cheeks. Valyndria spoke to him in a quiet but supremely confident way. “Worry not brave goblin” she said, “I will steer you through my damp air to a clearer route before the dark cycle takes its turn”.
The air around him actually seemed to take a female form and flowed before him leaving a clear a space in its wake. They had started to move away from the log when he heard what she thought was a clattering of sticks on the hard road surface behind him. turning quickly Angyss could just pick out a black six legged creature with two sharp pincers opening and closing like huge hooked scissors, the pincers were attached to an oval head that had six eerily yellow eyes. He suddenly felt very protective of his invisible female guide and lashed out with his sword which he quickly realised was actually pretty inadequate as a weapon! The sword hit something hard and bounced back at him with the sound like a muffled bell. He had struck the hard shiny carapace of a nastie. Angus was startled as he rapidly realised the flat of the sword was going to hit him flat on his nose.
Hobgoblins have very sensitive noses and it is the one spot that can cause them to blackout instantly. Indeed that it is is exactly what happened and anguish slowly crumpled and collapsed in a heap. Fortunately for all concerned the nurstie was equally startled as he hadn’t expected anything to get in the way of his supper. The nurstie scurried away so fast that it’s six legs almost tripped themselves up and the terrifying incident for both was over almost as quickly as it had begun.
Angyss came around to find a drop of his own green blood green on the end of his nose. There was silence all around and he couldn’t see the face of the sylph anywhere, he rose to his feet and picked up his sword. He quickly put it away in case someone realised that he wasn’t really that competent in sword play.
The fog had parted sufficiently to reveal a faint outline of the path ahead and Angyss took bold steps forward to restart his journey home.
He checked to see that it was not being followed but there was no trace of either the sylph or the nurstie. He remembered he was reassured by the tune previously so started humming it quietly to himself but quickly stopped, feeling a little foolish. He brushed some leaves and other vegetation from his waistcoat when he was sure that he could hear a soft voice finishing off the last line of his song.
Valyndia had watched the whole incident unfold between the nurstie and Angyss and was impressed by the brave and courageous stand that the hobgoblin had made to protect her. In her mind she made a promise to herself that despite the fact that the nastie couldn’t harm her in her ethereal form she would repay Angus sometime in the future for his chivalrous defence.
She also knew that as one of the elders attacks from nursties and other creatures of the dark realm would be more frequent with the coming of the fairy trek to the ‘Great Moot’, they always did.