Blue Valley Underground - Part 19 - Beginning (End)
And that concludes this sickening little fairy tale.
Reviews are appreciated, even criticism. I'm new to serious writing and I would like to know what I can improve on for next time, whether it be pacing, characterization, grammar, or whatever.
Thank you so much for reading. :)
Blue Valley Underground - Part 19 - Beginning
Summer cooled to autumn and the rain poured relentlessly, flooding the Blue Valley. Autumn chilled to winter and the plains were blanketed in snow, ice nymphs skating over the lakes and leaving them frozen in their wake. Spring broke through the winter's darkness and the meadows bloomed once again. The summer was brutal and unforgiving, fire nymphs cackling as they ignited forests and sapped the life from crops.
The seasons changed again, again, again, and again, until three years passed. Three years since Isaac's mysterious disappearance from Rivermere.
Logan Stillwater hammered another nail in the railing--the one that finally broke after Nolan leaned on it one too many times. The sun was just starting to descend.
"Excuse me?" queried a voice from behind. Logan turned and saw a courier on a mottled horse. The courier took a quick glance at the box in his hand and asked,
"Stillwater residence?"
"Yep." Logan limped over to the man and took the parcel. The courier tipped his hat and rode away.
The box was rather flat and about a foot long. Logan weighed it in his hands as he stepped inside the house and called,
"Maggie! Kids!"
One by one, the other Stillwaters entered the common room. First Maggie, drying her hands on her apron. Then Jacob and Nolan, rushing down the stairs. Eileen was last, trailing her brothers.
"We got a package," said Logan. He sat in his rocking chair and pointed to the return address with a grin,
"It came all the way from Yerim-Mor Capital in Serkel! From someone named Isaac of Rivermere."
Eileen immediately squealed,
"Open it! Hurry up, open it!"
Tearing one end of the box, Logan tipped it sideways and a book slid into his hand.
"The Sunset Guardians", it was titled, "by Clara Clark". It looked freshly printed, the binding still new and unbroken. Tucked between the cover and the front page was a folded letter.
Logan curiously examined the book, then passed it to Maggie.
"Oh, how lovely!" the woman chirped as she flipped through the illustrations. Unfolding the note, Logan cleared his throat and read aloud,
"It says...
'Logan, Maggie, Eileen, Nolan, Jacob, Grizzly, and goblins:
I wish I culd have rittin to you sooner. I didnt forgit you! Life has been interesting to me since we parted. I hope you are all helthy and happy.
Soon after I got home I left the military and startid a new life in Serkel. Last year I met a womin named Lavani, she is a teecher at a scool for girls in Yerim-Mor Capital. I am werking for her curently. I am not a teecher but I take care of the studints and the bilding and the animels. We have a farm to! Lavani says the scool keeps girls out of brothels and gangs. The city is poor, it is falling apart. The kingdom is still recovering from the Capital River War. There is a water shortege and sometimes the animels get stolen. You wuld not recignise me if you saw me, I am very skinny now and I have a beerd. Sometimes I am hungry and tired but I am happy. I love the studints, they are my famly.
The enclosed book was writtin by a frend. Its very good, please read it to the goblin childrin.
Thank you for saving me when I was lost and nakid in the forist. I have grown into a wiser man sinse then. When you see threw the eyes of other people it realy opens your own.
--Isaac of Rivermere
P.S. Eileen:
I still like you! Please rite back!'"
The End