Luzula and the Biloba Tree (youngsters:fairy tales, 2976 words)
Author: Ian Hobson	Added: Apr 25 2006	Views/Reads: 4436/2877	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
'I like your parasol,' said the sleek black cat, 'it's a lovely shade of green.' Another bedtime story from Astrantia.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

she was gone. 

'You know the old hollow tree at the bottom of my garden?' said Luzula.
'The one I told you about?'  Callistephus nodded.  'Well, I used to 
play inside it when I was smaller, and I can still just squeeze through 
the hole and into the hollow.  But the other day I found a nest inside 
it, just a nest of dead leaves, but inside the nest I found an egg.' 

'A bird's nest?'  Callistephus looked interested, though he didn't think
that finding a bird's nest was at all unusual.  He found them all the 
time; though if there were eggs inside he never touched them because he 
knew how angry the mother birds could get. 

'No, I don't think it's a bird's nest,' replied Luzula, 'because it's
inside the tree and not in the branches.  And that's not all; the egg 
is shaped like this.'  Luzula drew a shape in the air with her finger, 
rather like a heart shape but without a point.  'And it's very big.  
Even bigger than a hen's egg; and I think that soon it's going to 
hatch.' 

Now Callistephus really was interested.  'What kind of tree is it?' he
asked as something in his memory stirred.  'Is it a Biloba tree with 
fan-shaped leaves and seeds as big as plums?' 

'Yes.'  Luzula nodded.  'How did you know?' 

'Because, I think I remember my friend Athyrium telling me a story about
that kind of tree.'  Callistephus tried hard to think what the story 
was but at first he couldn't remember because Athyrium had told him so 
many stories. 

'Athyrium the owl?' asked Luzula.  'The one who lives at the edge of the
woods?' 

'Yes, that's her.  I took you to meet her once.  She tells such good
stories; but what was the one she told me about a Biloba tree?' 
Callistephus began to run his fingers through his mop of blond hair but 
then stopped as he suddenly remembered: the tree in the story was also 
hollow, and every so often something strange would happen; the tree, 
instead of producing seeds would lay a bright yellow egg.  But out of 
the egg would come something quite horrible.  'I think you should 
destroy the egg!' he exclaimed.  'Before it hatches!' 

'Destroy it?'  Now Luzula really did sound angry, and in deed she was. 
She had nurtured the egg for days; keeping it covered with leaves and 
straw and struggling to place a big stone against the hollow so that 
hedgehogs and other animals could not find it.  And here was 
Callistephus telling her to destroy it!  'I thought you were my friend, 
Little Sparrow!' she said, using her pet name for Callistephus but 
making it sound like an insult.  'In future I won't tell you anything!' 
 And with that, she got to her feet and stormed off without even saying 
goodbye. 

As Callistephus watched Luzula hurry away towards the village where she
lived, he was very close to tears.  For Luzula was his best friend and 
he didn't know what he would do if she deserted him.  Then he noticed 
that Luzula had left her parasol behind and he reached for it, meaning 
to run after her.  But to his surprise, as he touched the parasol it 
turned from green to brown and shrunk in size until it was nothing but 
a dead bracken stalk. 

'I knew there was something odd about that parasol,' he said aloud. 'But
now Luzula will never forgive me.'  And, feeling very downhearted, he 
got to his feet and set off along the riverside, back towards the cave 
on the hill where, unhappily, he had to live; for he was never allowed 
near the village because the villagers were afraid that he might turn 
into a wolf and attack them. 

'If only Asperula would undo the spells as she promised,' he said to
himself, 'and then I could be just an ordinary boy again.'  But in his 
heart of hearts he knew the truth: Asperula could not undo the spells 
because she could not remember what spells she had cast. 

Poor Callistephus.  There really was no hope for him, was there? 
Though, he did live in Astrantia, didn't he?  The place where anything 
can happen. 

*** 

Thymus was dreaming. He had been thinking about Luzula for most of the
way home, but as soon as he had returned to his master's house and 
curled up in front of the fireplace, he had fallen fast asleep.  Now, 
as you now, all cats have nine lives, and Thymus was no different.  In 
fact he was already into his seventh life, and so, in the way of all 
sleeping cats, his paws would twitch as he dreamt of his past lives. 

In one such life, Thymus was called Tritoma and he lived in a cottage in
a village with an old man called Ranunculus.  And one day the man came 
hurrying home carrying a basket and placed it at his wife's feet.  
'Look what I've found!' he said.  'The answer to our prayers.'  For the 
man and his wife had never been blessed with children, and inside the 
basket was a tiny baby wrapped in a black shawl. 

'But where has it come from?' the man's wife asked, as she shooed her
inquisitive kitten away from the basket and lifted the baby out.  'Have 
you stolen it?' 

'Of course not!' said the man.  'I went to fetch water and I found the
baby in the basket by the well.'  The baby was a boy and soon began to 
cry and so the woman rocked him gently while the man looked into the 
basket.  'What's this?' he said as he lifted an old book from inside 
and leafed through the pages.  'Does it tell us where the baby came 
from?' 

'Let me see,' said the woman.  She handed the baby to her husband and
she took the book, for she knew that her husband could not read.  But 
to her surprise, she could not read a word of it either. 

And so the mystery remained.  But as no one came to claim the boy they
kept him for their own, and as he grew, Ranunculus, who had been a 
soldier, taught the boy to fight with sword and spear, and his wife, 
who's name was Luzula, taught him to read and write. 

Thymus woke for a while before returning to his dream, and again his
paws twitched as, in the dream, a little raven-haired boy chased him 
around a huge old tree that stood in a field behind the cottage.  
'Surrender!' shouted the boy, waving his wooden sword at his 
four-legged playmate.  'Surrender or forfeit your life!' 

*** 

The villagers smiled and waved at Luzula as she passed through the
village, but she didn't seem to notice them, and some thought this odd 
because normally she was such a friendly little girl.  But Luzula had a 
lot on her mind and was in a hurry to get home. 

She lived with her mother in cottage that was quite old and quite small,
but that was plenty big enough for the two of them.  And the cottage 
had one of the nicest gardens in the village, with flowerbeds and a 
small ornamental pond to the front, and a lovely big vegetable garden 
to the rear.  But near the bottom of the garden stood a Biloba tree; 
almost as ancient as the hills and almost as wide as it was tall, and 
with a trunk so gnarled and knobbly and huge branches that hung so low 
that, when it was bare, it looked like three very old giants standing 
back to back in a circle and reaching down towards the ground with long 
spindly fingers. 

Luzula had always loved the Biloba tree; it was so good for games of
hide-and-seek or for just sitting under in the shade.  And when she was 
younger, she would race around it singing songs her mother had taught 
her, including her favourite one: The Soldier. 

There was a fearsome soldier Who fought in foreign lands His sword was
made of iron, and His spears were tipped with bronze 

He fought for truth and freedom He fought with all his might And his
enemies, they feared him For he slew them left and right 

But the soldier, he was wounded And so, sailed back across the sea He
sailed home to his mother And she sat him on her knee 

For the soldier, he was just a boy And his wound was just a graze But no
tears stained this solder's cheeks For he was very brave 

Luzula hurried down the garden path to the Biloba tree and ducked under
its tangled branches, and she pushed the stone away and looked into the 
hollow.  And there amongst the leaves and straw was the egg, so big and 
so beautiful; and as she reached out to touch it she felt something 
stir inside it. 

'How could I destroy you when you are almost ready to hatch?' she said
to the egg as she caressed it.  'I don't know how Callistephus could 
think of such a thing.  I thought he liked birds and animals or 
whatever it is you are going to be.' 

But the Biloba egg was not the only unusual thing that Luzula had found
that summer, and the other thing, the most precious of all of her 
recent finds, was calling to her, willing her to come and hold it in 
her hand once more. So she covered the egg with straw and rolled the 
stone back into place and then ran back up the garden path and into the 
cottage. 

In the kitchen Luzula's mother was busy baking bread and she didn't
notice Luzula come in because she slipped in quietly without saying a 
word and went straight to her tiny bedroom. 

The room was simply furnished with a bed and a small chest of drawers,
and on the windowsill were Luzula's dolls - though they were looking 
rather neglected – and on a shelf by her bed was a row of storybooks.  
The books had always meant a lot to Luzula as they had belonged to her 
father.  Her mother had told her that he was a soldier and that he had 
been killed in a battle in a far off land, and that that had happened 
soon after Luzula was born which was why she could not remember him. 

But her mother had read the storybooks to her, and as Luzula got older
she was able to read them to herself and almost knew each of them by 
heart.  All except for one book.  A book that even Luzula's mother had 
never been able to read.  It looked very old, and the writing on the 
cover and inside the pages looked very odd indeed, as the words all 
seemed to be upside-down or back to front, and some of them seemed to 
be falling over as though they had each been drinking too much wine. 

At least, that was the way things had been before she found the precious
stone, just lying beside the footpath near the village green.  Most 
little girls would not have given it a second glance and most little 
boys would have only picked it up to see how far they could throw it.  
But when Luzula found the stone she knew at once that it was something 
very special.  At a glance it looked like and ordinary pebble, except 
that it was jet-black in colour and almost perfectly spherical.  Just 
like the one that the witch, Asperula, carried on a pendant around her 
neck, except that this one was almost twice as big. 

Luzula reached under her mattress to where she had hidden the stone, and
then she climbed onto her bed with it, feeling its weight and its 
smoothness.  And its power.  A power that seemed to travel from the 
palm of her hand, and up her arm, and straight to her heart.  For this 
was the heart of a shooting star: this was her talisman.  And with 
trembling fingers and her heart thumping, she took down the previously 
indecipherable book from the shelf and, as the words fell obediently 
into place, again she read the fascinating title; the title that 
spelled out her destiny: 

'The Basics of Witchcraft - by Incarvillea Delavayi'. 

Then Luzula opened the book and turned the pages to chapter three: 

'How To Undo Magic Spells'. 

*** 

Much later, after the sun had set and the sky was filled with stars and
the ancient Biloba tree sat regally basking in the glow of Hesperis, 
Astrantia's pale pink moon; inside the hollow, the Biloba egg began to 
hatch.  Now Biloba eggs are rare indeed and always have a double yoke.  
And as always happens with Biloba eggs, first one tiny creature breaks 
out of the shell and then, after a while, so does the other one. 

But the first Biloba to break out is always the biggest and strongest of
the two, and this one was no different.  It pushed the pieces of shell 
aside and slithered through the dead leaves and straw and opened the 
tiny wings on its back and, twisting its lizard-like body, it licked 
them dry with its long forked tongue.   And then it waited.  It waited 
for its twin to break out of the other half of the shell and then 
pounced, and ate it alive. 

*** 

So Luzula is a witch!  I wonder if she will be able to help
Callistephus.  And what is this tiny Biloba creature?  Perhaps we'll 
find answers to these questions in the next story. 

But one thing's for sure: the next time I come across a hollow tree,
I'll think twice about looking inside it. 


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