| This is the story of a very unlikely family, and what
happens when best intentions aren't quite enough.
Returning home
one day, a witch finds a boy left in a basket with a note. Though it is
against her nature, she decides to take it home, and once she gets him
there, she decides to keep him, despite the advice from her familiar
Falance not to do so. She calls the bear Ysul to be his nurse, and the
afreet Bagordax to build his nursery and be his teacher. And so Lump grows
up with the ability to speak to animals, with imaginary friends in far off
lands he can see through his windows, and without any real human contact.
When settlements start encroaching into the forest, disaster
strikes.
Lump thinks to make friends with the children he has spied
on his walks. He sneaks off to watch them, and eventually works up the
courage to approach one. Believing himself normal, and these other
children not, he doesn't understand when they scream and run and attack.
When he is caught and chained and put on show, only then does he realize
his understanding of the world is flawed. Rescued by Ysul, he demands
vengeance from his mother, who will not grant it. Instead, he turns to
Bagordax, who convinces Lump to free him, which he does, and then rains
down death and destruction on the family who held lump prisoner. Combined
with the destrcution of a large part of their own house, Lump and the
witch have no choice but to flee.
With some quick magic, Falance is
turned from cat to man, and carriage much like Cinderella's is conjured.
The trio rides hard and non-stop until they reach a clearing. Beyond it
lies the realm of magic. Within, the witch is stripped of her powers, Lump
watches the Faeries dance, and both are forever changed.
Back in
the world of men, the new family takes up the life of Mountebanks, with
Falance and the witch turning tricks. With the assisstance of a retired
artiste, they learn how to make their show prosper, and head for the Cold
Fair in a nearby Kingdom. Things go well for a time. But when the father
of the girl Lump has fallen in love with is stricked down in a fencing
practice, and he runs for his mother to save him, the man's son, who had
plotted his demise, turns Mrs. Forest in for a witch for saving him. She
and Falance must run, and Lump is meant to find them through a message to
be sent through friends. Only the friends also have been captured, by the
time he returns, and he himself must flee as he is recognized as being the
Witch's Boy.
Eventually he makes a life for himself with the help
of an honest jeweler, who pays Lump fairly for all of the "stones" he
found in his underground travles. After a couple of years spent brewing a
story of himself, Lump returns to the Kingdom under the name Lum-po,
claiming to be a Prince of Cathay. He hopes to win the hand of Aude, with
all his riches and jewels. But while she revels in his gifts, she cares
naught for him, and her father plans for her to wed the King, which she
does. Lump then appears to her as himself, coming through the wall upon
spying her crying, and helps her through her predicament in trade for her
first born child. He then spends a year preparing for this child, only to
make a new deal when the year comes, and end up losing the child
instead.
Lost, uncovered, and no longer wealthy, Lump doesn't know
what to do. His magic betrays him, and he spends 10 years buried undear
the earth, neither alive nor dead. Only when he comes to grips with who he
is and what has happened to him, and allows himself to feel, is he set
free.
Unsure where he is, Lump follows the sounds of singing and
finds himself in a garden, admiring a beautiful girl. And here his true
path begins. |
