~
I jumped at the sound of the front doors being flung open wide and a Grûndén with the biggest grin on his face wearing a wide ankle length apron about his waist came bounding down the stairs, then jumping from a couple of steps up from the end of this flight of steps flung out his arms and caught Serinae about the neck, the force of the collision spun Seri around but she grabbed onto his back and spun about several times with the poor Grûndén’s legs flying out behind him as if she was swinging a great war hammer trying to keep some surrounding enemy at bay. I just stared at this spectacle aghast! To say I was shocked was an understatement. Serinae knelt upon the bottom step after placing the Grûndén’s feet back onto the next step up. She pushed him away from her so that she could get a good view of his face. A broad smile lightened Serinae’s face and I am sure I even saw tears in her eyes. Her smile was reflected in the face of the Grûndén, but no sooner had I seen this, the Grûndén’s features clouded over like an impending storm, he sniffed and wiped his nose on the sleeve of his shirt and putting one clenched fist on his waist, waved the fore finger of his other hand in front of Seri’s face.
“So then ye wicked, wayward lassie, ye have eventually found time t’ come back and see me, d’ ye know how lang it has been Seri? M’ole mind has been afrettin’ an’ awonderin’ fo’ ye t’ return. M’ house has lain empty, as empty as this ol’ heart o’ mine. Countless have been t’ cycles o’ the Brĩschlåûndérgré since ye left me. I thought t’ worse ye wicked lassie, thought ye be dead in t’ wilds someplace. Alyin’ thar, ye’s life’s blood aleakin’ from ye’s veins. Ye ne’re sent me nuttin’. Nere a scrap o’ news from t’ day ye left t’ this.” The Grûndén stamped a foot on the step and reaching into a pocket brought out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes.
I gawked, as did my companions. Apart from Łĩnwéé who stood with his arms crossed and a massive grin on his face.
The Grûndén began to rant and rave again, his words and sentences flowed into one another. He did not stop here but carried on waving his finger at Seri and talking faster and faster, his words flowing so that with the heavy accent I could no longer understand what he was saying, but perhaps he had slipped into his own language. His face was growing redder and redder, I thought that if he did not stop to take a breath soon, he would be the one alyin’ thar, he’s life’s blood aleakin’ from e’s veins. Seri on numerous occasions tried to say something, or put out her hands, but the Grûndén’s torrent of words would not allow her any chance of getting a single word in. Surprisingly she did not lose her temper, if anything she looked a little coy.
Eventually Serinae just began to giggle, then louder and louder she burst into a torrent of laughter, the Grûndén who after a while spluttered, fell silent and began to smile again. He raised his arms in resignation and just said “Gah, how I ‘ave missed that thar laugh Seri, ye wayward hussy, it be good to see yers again, that a’bein fo’ sure.”
After he had become silent Seri said, “oh Dĩmmĩ I did mean to come sooner, really I did. But …. well you know how it is when the demands of the outside world set their mark upon you.”
His face became serious once again. “That’s nay excuse girly,” was the reply. “What demand canny be mo’ demandin’ than the company o’ auld friends.” He placed both hands on his hips and looked around at us gathered about the bottom of the steps to the house. Then he spluttered and waving a hand in our direction said, “Oh for Lord Øédréll’s sake come ye alang in, I cany imagine why ye'd keep y’ur companions awaitin’ outside on m’ front doorstep fo’ so lang! I be a’needin’ t’ finish ye lessons on good manners m’ girl.”
At this I burst into laughter and Serinae looked around at me and winked her eye. The Grûndén turned on his heels and led us all into the building, whistling loudly he summoned several others who rushed into the room from behind a curtain across the entrance hall. They stopped dead in the middle of the hall and spying our company looked a little startled and a bit embarrassed.
“Quick m’ littl’ ones there be ‘onoured guests requir’in thar bags an’ luggage be taken t’ thar rooms. Put ‘em in the best mind, upon the third floor ye hear an’ the Lady Serinae will ‘ave ‘er suite on the top floor o’ course.”
Little ones? Something was dawning on me a nudge was becoming more like a shove in my mind, an incessant itch that would not be scratched. Looking at the Grûndén and realising that for the first time I had seen a Grûndén without a beard or moustache, I realised that actually it was not an apron that ‘he’ wore but a skirt that ‘she’ wore!
“Come, come,” the Grûndén said and beckoning us to a door, led us through into a sumptuous high ceilinged chamber, even Jon and Teouso didn’t have to worry about the ceiling clearing their heads.
I followed in silence not able to take my eyes away from the Grûndén woman for this was the first Grûndén female I had ever seen, in fact I had come to assume that they didn’t exist and Grûndén just popped out of the rocks, not even as babies but as fully grown bearded soldiers in full plate armour and wielding a great double headed war axe. Then I suddenly became aware of someone calling to me,
“m’ lady?”
I realised I had been staring straight at the source of the voice, the Grûndén woman was smiling at me with a somewhat quizzical expression.
“ah, yes, umm ……. Sorry, ummm so, so sorry I was miles away, I errr … must apologise, umm I’ve never seen, um, I mean, no I haven’t seen, urr …..”
Serinae came to my rescue, she introduced the Grûndén woman as Dĩmmĩnĩ Låûkénsåå.
With a smile and a shake of her hand Dĩmmĩnĩ said, “Ach lassie tak no notice o’ ‘er, ye jus’ call me Dĩmmĩ like everyone else,” and then Dĩmmĩ asked if I would like to take tea.
“Eh yes, umm, tea, yes that would be lovely, thank you.”
I had managed to pull myself together and overcome my shock at meeting a female Grûndén.
We were shown into a cosy room and asked to sit. Tea was brought to us carried in by another young Grûndén. It was all I could do to stop staring at the little Grûndén woman. Serinae kept nudging me and making that face that said, stop staring for goodness sakes! It must have been about the twentieth occasion of doing this that Dĩmmĩ finally crossed her arms in front of her then turning towards me said, “alrigh’ I un’erstan’ it may be less than comm’n t’ see a Grûndén female, but as ye can plainly see we do exist ye know. ‘Ow else d’ ye recon’ thar be so many o’ us in the world eh?””
She sat down with us and poured another cup of tea into the empty cups and then helped herself to a cup. Then she said, “It may help ye un’erstan’ if I tell ye a wee story? An old elden tale thar, m’ ol’ mam was attellin’ t’ me when I was a young’n.”
Dĩmmĩ sat more comfortably upon her chair and looked slowly around at the gathered audience, she gave a cough and sipped her tea, then started to relate the story as promised. This is the story as she told it:
“Once long ago the Lord Øédréll was a’sleepin’ on a grassy bank. The spirits in their usual way decided t’ play a wee prank on ‘im, they decided that they should tak’ locks o’ his hair and plastering them with sticky clay from a nearby pool they stuck his long locks to the grass. When the Lord Øédréll awoke he was unable t’ move his head, but was too proud t’ call for aid so he wrenched his head free from where it be stuck to the ground. Thankfully the roots o’ the grass were weaker than the roots o’ his hair, so clods o’ grass and mud came away where it were stuck t’ his long flowing locks. The spirits laughed aloud at the amusin’ sight o’ our Lord wit’ clumps o’ brown and green aswingin’ around his head. But the Lord Øédréll be not too vexed with ‘em fo’ he liked the free and carefree spirits that were anyways his friends. So after playfully achasin’ ‘em away t’ their great delight, he settled back down t’ where he was asittin’ and thought o’ how he could avoid being caught out again.
He took the clods o’ cl
ay an’ mud into which his hair had become stuck, pulled them from his locks an’ moulded them into two little figures, he intended that these should be his sentinels, one fo’ the time o’ brĩschâ that is the sun as ye would know it, and one fo’ the time o’ drøgnø that is the moon. So after craftin’ the figures he breathed life into ‘em. One wer’ larger though, the Lord had used more clay fo’ that’n, an’ ‘e just used what was left for t’ other.
He decided the larger one o’ the two, fo’ brĩschâ, the day time lookout and the slightly smaller one fo’ drøgnø, the night time lookout. So male and female were formed. The figures multiplied and became great in number, so the Lord Øédréll sent many o’ ‘em into the world to make their own way. These o’ course became the race o’ Grûndén upon this world and they remain his people t’ this day.
It be said that we all have an abundance of hair and love delving into the earth because o’ the materials from which we were crafted by the Lord. It be also said that the females o’ the race, because we were set t’ guard the lord in the dark o’ night, that be the reason why none sees us very often.”
She giggled at this and we all suddenly clapped loudly for her telling of the wonderful tale. Serinae stood and scooping Dĩmmĩ up in her arms gave her a great hug.
Then she said, “well Dĩmmĩ the female Grûndén are the best kept secret within the whole world if you ask me.”
At this we all burst into laughter.
We spent a long time with Dĩmmĩ in her parlour room chatting and exchanging stories and drinking tea. I began to feel quite tired and excused myself saying that I wanted to freshen up a little after our journey. Dĩmmĩ stood and said to one of the Grûndén attending to us,
“Jump to it Frédnø, show the Lady Minervar t’ her room if ye will.”
She then turned to me and grasping my hand said, “I be overjoyed t’ meet ye m’lady and I hope that y’ur stay here in Gwéldølĩn be comfortable, if ye need anything, anything at all ye just call fo’ me ye hear?”
I nodded and smiled as I gathered some things together. As I was lead from the room. I turned wanting to see Dĩmmĩ once more, but she was in deep conversation with Serinae, their heads were close together, both looked deadly serious about something. As I went through the doorway, Dĩmmĩ I saw turn, she leant on a sideboard and hung her head in what looked like sadness. I just caught some words, “Nay lassie. E’ canny be ‘ere. I aint seen’im. Nat from that day when ……….”
But then I was out the door and any remaining conversation was lost to me.
Once I had been shown to my room and settled in I relaxed secure in this place. It was good to be safe in a homely house again. My room was sumptuously decorated and the furniture beautifully and ornately carved as well as being functional. The bed was wonderful and I snoozed upon it for I don’t know how long, but when I awoke I looked around the room once more from my sitting position on the edge of the bed. I happened to glance out of the window and noticed that it was still quite light outside even though I was sure that we must have been in Dĩmmĩ’s house for several hours and ordinarily it would have been night time by now. I assumed then that the great light spheres above us indeed shone out all the time and no night was to be experienced in Gwéldølĩn. But as I looked out of the window across the city district in which we were in, the light did seem to be fading; perhaps after all it was getting dusk. This is marvellous I thought, dusk underground, this I had to see. Slowly the night crept in and lights started to come on all over the city, I opened some doors and stepped out onto a balcony, looking down I saw several Grûndén walking along chatting and some humming a tune, tools were slung over their shoulders. Workmen obviously returning home for the night. It was cool and pleasant in the fresh air so I grabbed my cloak and made my way downstairs. I passed a couple of Grûndén who bowed to me and eventually found the entrance hall that we had come through some hours before. So, passing through the front doors I stood and gasped. The great spheres that had shone like the sun were dimming as I looked at them, now shining with a dimmer, bluer light, I gasped thinking how this was achieved for day was turning into night in front of my very eyes.
“Clever eh Min, ye see it nat only be the Pnook that have some quite clever technology.”
I turned at the sound of the voice, Łĩnwéé stood beside me on the steps of Dĩmmĩ’s guest house, he had been smoking his clay pipe whilst sitting on the steps. He too looked up at the now glowing spheres. I hadn’t seen him at first for he sat to one side stripped of his armour and wearing only leggings and a cotton jerkin the top tie of which hung loose leaving the jerkin open at the front.
“Oh Łĩnwéé, I’m sorry I didn’t see you there. It’s beautiful how is it done?”
“The great light spheres, or Brĩschlåûndérgré as we call ‘em, actually be made up o’ hundreds o’ crystals each skilfully faceted in a certain way and suspended in a thin oil called candela. Light from the upper world is channelled down here through many small tunnels cut through the rock. Each tunnel be filled with other crystals that reflect light like a mirror and channel the light down here where it be projected onto the Brĩschlåûndérgré. The light is then amplified and focussed through all o’ the crystals into every direction possible. Not only that, but a second property of the crystals is that they are able t’ store light as energy within the candela, so even if a cloud dims the sun’s rays the crystals will still give off stored light so that we be not affected by clouds o’ coverin’ the sun. Then, o’ course, as the sun or Brĩschâ, is shining on the world above Gwéldølĩn, marches on her journey around t’ other side o’ the world, so the light bein’ shone down here wanes as once the stored energy is used up from the candela crystals an’ they also dim.”
At this he pointed to the dimming globes above with the end of his pipe as if to confirm what he was describing.
“So ye will find that y’ur first day here seems longer because our day light in Gwéldølĩn lasts longer than the actual day on the surface due to the stored light. This doesn’t really matter to us in the city, but it does have an effect if you travel a lot up to the surface. It be possible t’ never see night time if you time your journeys to and from the city right. Then likewise as the moon or drøgnø in my language rises, its light is reflected in the same way and is again stored, amplified and shone across the city in every direction.”
“That’s incredible,” was all I could think to say.
Łĩnwéé drew slowly on his pipe and continuing to look up at the six great Brĩschlåûndérgré just nodded solemnly in reply.
We both gazed in wonder at the spectacle above our heads for a while, when Łĩnwéé told me something strange, he said, “ye know Min we be looking at one o’ the great mysteries o’ the Grûndén realm,” he nodded towards the great globes.
“Oh?”
“Aye, how many Brĩschlåûndérgré d’ ye see?”
I looked up, but I didn’t need to, for I knew there were six great globes, after all you couldn’t help but notice. But I told him six all the same.
He looked at me and said, “aye six. But ye know Min we Grûndén be meticulous keepers o’ records. I know from readin’ some ancient ledgers that me ol’ lore master has in his keepin’ that twelve Brĩschlåûndérgré were in fact made when this cavern that holds Gwéldølĩn was excavated. Twelve Min, so where d’ ye think the other six be eh?”
I thought but I hadn’t a clue, so I just shrugged.
He turned back from looking at me, raised his eyes to the great globes once more and said, “neither do we Min, neither do we.”
At this he sighed, got up and said, “welcome again t’ Gwéldølĩn Min, to all its beauty and mystery.” He then returned back inside Dĩmmĩ’s house and I was left alone to contemplate what he had just told me.
Later that evening Łĩnwéé had invited a few friends over for a meal and to catch up on old times. Most of us just sat and ate a meal before retiring to bed for the night for now it was truly nigh
t in Gwéldølĩn although it was probably morning on the surface of the world by now. As we left it was obvious that Łĩnwéé who was already very drunk as were his guests, was going to remain talking and laughing for as long as he could stand so we bid goodnight and went upstairs to our rooms.