Hello, Everyone!
So nice to be able to continue Mary’s story!
Last time we saw her and her friends, they had just been named ‘Heroes of Belfast’ and given great honours and resources. They spent some time in peace, recuperating from the intensity of their underground adventures, but soon, they’ll have to decide what they’re going to do, now that Belfast is safe.
In the days following their return to Belfast and all the exciting things happening around that, Mary had made a decision but she didn’t know how to tell the others. She would allude to something and then change the subject, or open her mouth to start talking but never made a sound.
Then, there was the evening when all the party was gathered in Paulina’s room, lying on every pillow they could find and recollecting the more interesting parts of their adventures so far. Someone said something about future plans and Mary just blurted it out.
“I’m thinking of going home.”
Her friends looked at her with expectation. Nobody said anything about “why would you leave us” or “look at the baby going home to mommy” or “good riddance, we didn’t need you anyway”. Bruno, Aurum and Paulina were just calmly waiting for her to continue.
“I mean,” she said, “I’ve missed my family for a while and, um, also, Frinkeltong has this huge library with all sorts of books I could read to find out about, um, all the things we need to know more about. For our, um,... next adventures?”
Her voice trailed off because she suddenly wasn’t so sure her friends would even want to keep adventuring with her.
“It’ll be interesting to visit Frinkeltong,” Bruno said.
Mary’s eyes widened. She didn’t expect anyone to want to come with her and she swayed between feeling happy and suddenly very worried that her friends would meet her family and immediately realize her secret.
“I… um, you…” she stuttered.
“I don’t think that’s what Mary was trying to say,” Aurum said carefully. He was staring at her as if trying to read her thoughts. “Maybe she doesn’t want us to come with her.”
“No, no, I want that!” Mary said quickly. “I just… I think I have to tell you something before we go.”
She took a deep breath.
“You know I’m a human, right?” it was a dumb way to start but she hadn’t had this… conversation before.
“Um, yeah, obviously,” Paulina smirked.
“Well, um,” she said while staring at the floor. “It might surprise you that my, um… the people at home, are not. Human, I mean. They’re gnomes." She paused. “I was a found child.”
She wasn’t… ashamed of not being Lilly and Bramble’s birth daughter. It wasn’t that. It was just… her whole life with the gnomes she’d been ‘the other’ and it had become a source of… fear. Would everyone else judge her the same way as the other kids had? Call her names, say she wasn’t really Lilly and Bramble’s child…
And, yes, she loved Lilly and Bramble, and, yes, after Gillean’s story she knew that her birth father hadn’t actually abandoned her in a random basket during a carnival… but it still hurt a little.
She raised her eyes and worriedly looked for her friends’ reaction.
“Oh,” Bruno said.
“Is it… weird?” Mary said, her heart in her throat.
“No, it’s ok,” he shrugged.
“Yeah, was that it?” Paulina sighed. “I thought you’d killed someone!”
“It’s not weird?” she repeated.
“It’s not.” Aurum assured her.
And that was it. They were going to Frinkeltong.
Poor Mary, she’s so insecure!
When I made her as a character, I thought it would be interesting to make her a ‘found child’ because that would have given our DM a lot of freedom to do whatever he wanted with the backstory of her birth parents. However, I insisted that her adoptive parents were gnomes. Partially, that was inspired by Gorgug from Fantasy High, but as a whole I find the idea of two small creatures trying to navigate life with a child that’s bigger than them really charming!
Anyway. See you next time, when we get some more preparations and finally go on the road.
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)