foxglove jamjar's magical adventure chapter eight
February 27, 2028
dearest reader,
the world is such a scary place, please settle into some whimsical fiction for today. let your brains rest in regards to the heavier things. let fj do the heavy lifting.
to seek. to find.
hues
chapter 8: in which we move to a new setting
foxglove did not speak for a long time as she followed Libations and The Tongue away from the mirror lake. she could feel the water and tattoos from the bending. she regrets following The Reader through the portal, and she regrets leaving her home that was nestled deeply and safely withing the Elvenforest.
Libations and The Tongue chatter amongst themselves, both paying little mind to the child who trudges behind them. The siblings had not been reunited for soemtime, and knew that nothing they could say would help FJ understand what must be done. The chatted about what each of their respoective realms were like and lamented over the foods they had not had in a while.
it was this conversation that brought Foxglove out of their own mind.
“What’s corn pudding?” she asks
“You’ve never eaten corn pudding?” The Tongue judges
“My family ate mostly venison, berries and sweetgrass” Foxglove says.
“elf food,” The Tongue scoffs.
“your ancestors didn’t have access to those types of luxuries,” Libations laments, “I’m so grateful that you have been blessed in such a way. “
“right, but what is it?” Foxglove asks again
“its a sweet custard made from corn and sugar with usually flour as a thickener.” LIbations sighs, “that with some mac and cheese, and collard greens.”
“and Turkey neck” The Tongue laughs, “who knew losing our bodies would mean we’d miss food the most”
“no, no. I mean” fj sighs frustrtaion tightening their chest “i understand what pudding is. but what’s corn?”
the two spirts stopped and turned their wide eyes gazes to the girl.
“she doesn’t know what corn is?” Libations asks
“she doesn’t know what corn is,” The Tongue says.
“well, i’m sorry. I j—”
The tongue hold up a hand to silence Foxglove, and libations waves her hands pulling water up from the ground. she shapes it into a long knobby cylindrical shape, housed in a tuft of leaves.
“you’ve never seen this before?” The Tongue asks.
“oh,” Foxglove says, “i’ve seen that before. maybe once in a common lesson.”
“this is corn,” Libations says.
“i’’ve never heard it called that before..” FJ admits.
“What did they call when they showed it to you?” The Tongue asks.
“Poison”
as they walked Fj explained that the corn—also known as poison—had been outlawed nearly 200 years ago. There was a big company name Monstracito that had genetically created what they called a super food. for years they had bred this superfood with other nonmotified versions of this plant. even sneaking onto the farms of those who had refused to buy their terrible seed, and planting it. then suing those whom they’d sabotaged for stealing their plants. soon, the superfood was the only crop left. but, people started getting sick. it took a long time before anyone realized it was the superfood. So, when Faece came to power they banned it. outlawed it, removed its name from history. called it poison. native populations called it an outrage. the poison had once been a sacred crop to them. stolen by monstracito. but Faece didn’t care. the poison was banished. so the native populations had to find a new sacred crop.
“that’s horrible” Libations cried, “those poor natives”
“that horrible” The Tongue laments, “i’ll never have corn pudding again”
“that’s what you took from my story?” fj said.
“humans are humans,” The tongue answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
the three reached the corner of the realm where a large icewall sat. there Libations felt around on the wall as if looking for something.
“are you going to open up a magical door?” fj said.
“is a door magical just because it cannot be seen?” libations asked as her hand wrapped around what could be assumed to be the invisible know of the invisible door.
fj expected her to open the door, but rather, se ran her other hand up the wall of ice and hooked two fingers on what one could guess was the knocker.
knock. knock. stated the door, as the unseen knocker played upon its face.
click. said the lock on the door as it was turned to allow them to enter.
as libations open the door, it portaled into a realm of absolute darkness.
nothingness, fj thought, that is the nothingness that they write about in the genisis.
“shall we?” asked the tongue waving their cloaked arm into the darkness.
“of course!” cried libations, bowing a little before strepping through the threshold. her silloeute vanishing into the void beond.
“youre turn,” commanded the tongue, but fj was nervous. her hadns trembled, and her stomach flipped. her stomach flopped, but she could feel teh dangerous weight of the tongues gaze upon her so she stepped into the darkness herself.
and once again— Fj was falling.