The Wishing Cave (youngsters:fairy tales, 2988 words)
Author: Ian Hobson	Added: Jan 29 2006	Views/Reads: 5104/2685	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
'But wells are very dark, and we might fall in and never be seen again.' Anther bedtime story from the fabled land of Astrantia.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

'I've heard it too many times already... Now listen... what's happened 
to the village wells; that's what I want to know.  I hope it's not the 
prophecy.' 

'Prophecy?' replied Willowherb.  'I've heard of no prophesy.' 

'You have,' said Gromwell.  'You must have.  There's a little rhyme
about it.  Don't you remember?  It goes, err...  oh, yes, it goes: 

'If the wells run dry The village will die The houses will crumble And
the children will cry 

'If the wells run dry We'll turn to dust And be blown away With the
wind's first gust 

'If the well runs dry... oh... I can't remember the rest of it... 
Something about fire and dragons and such.' 

'Sounds like just another old wife's tale, to me,' said Willowherb. 
'And there's no such thing as dragons.' 

'Maybe not,' said Sedum, lifting his chin and scratching under his
beard.  'But I remember hearing that rhyme, and it definitely was a 
prophesy; though I'm not sure about the dragon bit.  I think somebody 
just added that to frighten the children.' 

'So what should we do about it?' said Gromwell. 

'What, the dragon?' asked Willowherb, looking puzzled. 

'No, not the dragon, the wells!' exclaimed Gromwell.  'We should try and
do something about the wells.' 

'But what can we do?' replied Willowherb, standing defiantly with his
feet apart and his hands on the head of his pickaxe.  'We're just three 
garden gnomes.  If the wells run dry, they run dry.  There's nothing we 
can do about it.' 

'We could go take a look,' suggested Sedum.  'As long as were back by
morning we'll not be missed.' 

'You mean go take a look down one of the wells?' exclaimed Willowherb. 
'But wells are very dark, and we might fall in and never be seen 
again.' 

'Oh, don't be such a wimp, Willowherb,' said Gromwell, reaching for his
lantern and giving it a shake.  'There's plenty of oil in my lamp to 
see by.  Where's your spirit of adventure?' 

*** 

'It looks an awful long way down,' observed Willowherb. 'And very dark
too.'  The three gnomes had walked to the nearest well and climbed up 
onto its circular wall and were looking down into the well-shaft. 

'But we're used to the dark, aren't we?' said Sedum.  'And Gromwell's
got his lamp.  And look; we can go down in this bucket.' 

There was a large wooden bucket standing on the wall, and the bucket was
attached to a long rope that hung from a beam that was held up high 
over the well by a wooden framework.  The rope was wound around the 
beam many times and on the end of the beam was a crank-handle for 
winding the bucket up and down. 

'But none of us can reach the handle,' protested Willowherb.  'So who
would do the lowering?' 

'What if we send the bucket down by itself?' suggested Sedum.  'Then we
could climb down the rope.' 

'Good idea,' said Gromwell.  'Let's give it a push.'  So Gromwell and
Sedum leant against the bucket and pushed, but it was too heavy and 
hardly moved.  'Give us a hand, Willowherb,' said Gromwell.  So all 
three gnomes pushed together, as hard as they could, and this time the 
bucket went rapidly over the edge.  In fact, too rapidly, as both 
Gromwell and Willowherb lost their balance and fell over the edge of 
the well. 

Fortunately Gromwell fell into the bucket, and Willowherb had time to
grab the rope before the bucket swung away from the wall and began to 
descend.  'Wait for me!' shouted Sedum, as he leaped off the wall and 
grabbed for the rope as the bucket swung back towards him.  And so, 
with Gromwell in the bottom of the bucket, and Willowherb and Sedum 
clinging to the rope, and the rope beam and the crank-handle spinning 
ever faster, they made their decent. 

Suddenly the bucket jolted to a stop and then bounced on the end of the
rope, as there was no more of it left to unwind, and Willowherb and 
Sedum lost their grip and fell feet first into the bucket.  Willowherb 
landed on top of Gromwell, and Sedum landed on top Willowherb.  But 
before they had chance to recover, the bucket began to fall again 
before coming to another abrupt stop as it hit the stony bottom of the 
well.  And it was soon followed by a long length of the rope, which had 
snapped somewhere above them. 

'That was fun,' said Sedum, who was sitting on top of the other two
gnomes with his hat down over his eyes.  'You were right about it being 
dark though, Willowherb.' 

'Fun?' exclaimed Willowherb.  'I'll give you fun.  How would you like a
bash over the head with my axe?  You nearly broke my neck.' 

'Now stop that,' said a muffled voice from underneath.  'I hope my
lamp's not broken.  Can you both get off me please?' 

'Gladly,' replied Willowherb, as he squeezed out from underneath Sedum
and then found himself tangled in the length of rope.  'And then you 
can have a bash over the head as well.  You know what's happened, don't 
you?  The rope's broken; and now we'll never get out of here alive.' 

'Oh be quiet,' said Sedum.  'We can always climb up a rope from one of
the other wells; they'll all be connected to this one...  Oh, look.'  
Sedum had pushed his hat back out of his eyes and was looking straight 
up the well shaft.  'I can see the stars and Hesperis.'  The pale pink 
globe of Hesperis was shining straight down the well. 

*** 

'Now I see what the problem is,' said Gromwell, holding up his lamp. 
The three gnomes had made their way along a long winding tunnel, 
splashing through a few shallow puddles as they went.  Gromwell had lit 
his lamp so that they could see, but every now and then they passed 
under another well shaft where the rocky floor of the tunnel was lit by 
moonlight from above.  Sedum had been right about the village wells all 
being connected.  Finally they came to an old disused well that had 
collapsed and completely blocked the tunnel. 

'All we have to do,' continued Gromwell, standing in a tiny stream of
water that trickled out from under the blockage, 'is shift this pile of 
stones so that the water can flow through again.' 

'Oh, is that all?' said Willowherb.  'I was worried it might be
something needing hard work.  But just moving a pile of stones, each of 
which weigh more than we do; that should be easy shouldn't it?  So I 
think I'll sit over here while you two get on with it.' 

'But you're the one with the pickaxe,' observed Sedum. 

'Oh, so I am,' said Willowherb, 'I was wondering when that would get a
mention.  Here.' He pulled the pickaxe from his belt and handed it to 
Sedum.  'You take it.  Be my guest.'  And with that he sat down on a 
stone beside the wall of the tunnel and folded his arms. 

'Very well,' said Sedum.  'I know how to use a pick.'  He took a step
towards the wall of stones that blocked the tunnel and took a swing at 
one of them.  A few sparks flew off but very little else happened.  So 
he tried again and again, and then Gromwell tried, but he too made only 
the slightest dent in one or two of the stones. 

'Oh, give it back to me!' exclaimed Willowherb, as he got to his feet. 
'Don't you two know anything!  You need to start higher up, not at the 
bottom.  And you need a bit of leverage.  Hold your lamp a bit higher, 
Gromwell.'  He stuck the pickaxe into a crack beside a stone that 
looked as though it might easily fall out by itself, and then, with all 
his might, he pulled on the handle until the stone came free.  'Now 
we're getting somewhere,' he said. 

He did the same again with another stone and then another, and then he
leapt aside as a really big stone fell from above where he had just 
made a hole.  But then things began to happen faster than Willowherb 
had expected.  More stones fell away and jets of water began to spurt 
through the cracks, and then more stones fell away and more water 
squirted through. 

'Do you think it's time we left?' asked Sedum, as a jet of water almost
knocked his hat off. 

'I think it is,' replied Willowherb, sticking his pickaxe back into his
belt.  'In fact, I think we better run.  Would you like me to carry the 
lamp and go first, Gromwell.' 

'No, I can manage,' replied Gromwell as he raced off down the tunnel,
closely followed by Willowherb and Sedum.  Behind them they could hear 
more rocks tumbling, and there was now a stream at their feet and it 
was getting deeper and deeper.  Soon they passed under the well shafts 
that they had passed under before, but there were no ropes to climb up. 
 Then eventually they came to the well shaft that they had descended 
earlier.  The bucket was still there but it was beginning to drift away 
with the ever rising stream of water. 

'Grab the rope!' Gromwell shouted.  The rope, still attached to the
bucket, was trailing behind it and Sedum waded past Gromwell and 
grabbed the end of it and pulled the bucket towards him.  Gromwell 
caught up and reached out towards the bucket, managing to hold it still 
while Sedum and then Willowherb climbed in.  But the water was still 
getting deeper and flowing faster, and Gromwell, hampered by his 
lantern, was unable to do the same. 

'Give me the lantern!' shouted Sedum, snatching it from Gromwell's hand.
 'Now get in quick!'  Gromwell hauled himself over the side and into 
the bucket, helped by Willowherb who grabbed Gromwell's beard and 
pulled.  And, in a tangle of arms and legs, the three gnomes in a 
bucket were carried along as the waters increased in speed and rose 
almost to the roof of the tunnel. 

*** 

'Where are we?' asked Gromwell, feeling very dizzy.  For a very long
time the three gnomes had been swept along at great speed, and the 
bucket had bashed into the side of the tunnel several times.  But 
eventually the tunnel had come to an end and the bucket had floated out 
into the center of a large underground lake. 

'I think I'm going to be sick,' complained Willowherb.  'And my boots
are full of water.' 

'Keep still,' warned Gromwell.  'It's not just our boots that are full
of water.  I think this bucket's going to sink.' 

'We seem to be in a cave,' said Sedum.  'But look, there's a hole in the
roof and I can see the stars and Hesperis again!' 

'What's that over there at the far side of the cave?' asked Willowherb. 
'It looks like an island.' 

'It is,' replied Gromwell.  'I wish we could get to it.' 

Suddenly the bucket was no longer in the middle of the lake.  It was
standing on the island with three very confused gnomes inside it.  They 
climbed out and onto dry land.  Gromwell walked to the water's edge and 
looked into the lake.  The water was deep but very clear, and in the 
moonlight he could see the bottom. 

'I don't understand,' he said.  'A moment ago we were in the middle of
the lake and now we're here on this island.  How could that happen?'  
Then suddenly something made him step back from the water.  A dark 
shape was swimming towards him. 

'Because you wished it,' said the dark shape as it broke the surface and
swam towards the water's edge.  'Welcome to the Wishing Cave.  All who 
enter are granted one wish.' 

'My goodness!' exclaimed Gromwell.  'You are the biggest fish I have
ever seen.  A hundred times bigger than the ones in our pond.' 

'Ah, but I'm not a fish, I'm a dolphin, and my name is Melissani.'  The
dolphin swam a little closer and then turned aside, showing off her 
large dorsal fin.  'I live here in the Wishing Cave; when I'm not out 
in the ocean.' 

'I do beg your pardon,' said Gromwell.  'But I've never seen a dolphin
before.' 

'But how do you get to the ocean,' asked Willowherb.  He and Sedum had
come closer and were just as amazed as Gromwell by the site of the huge 
dolphin. 

'There's a channel that's connected to the sea,' replied Melissani. 
'The water that flows into the cave has to flow out.' 

'I see,' said Gromwell. 

'Did you say that all who enter are granted a wish?' Sedum asked. 

'Yes,' replied Melissani.  'So wish away.  It was nice to meet you. 
Goodbye.'  And then, with a flip of her tail, she was gone.  For she 
knew exactly what they would wish for. 

'I wish the water in our pond could always be full to the brim with
lovely clean water like the water in this lake,' said Sedum. 

'A lot of good that will do us,' said Willowherb. 

'Well what would you wish for then?' asked Sedum.  'Be careful.  We have
only one wish left.' 

*** 

Luzula was always up early in the morning.  As she stopped beside the
pond in her mother's garden to say good morning to the three gnomes, 
she thought that somehow they all looked just a little different.  The 
grumpy one with the pickaxe in his belt didn't look quite as grumpy, 
and the one with the lamp seemed to have a very contented expression, 
and Fisherman somehow looked very pleased with himself.  And that was 
not all: The two goldfish looked very happy indeed and the pond was 
full to the brim with crystal clear water.  And from that day on, it 
was always so. 

*** 

So, what would you have wished for? (There's no place like home) 


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