breeches, holes, or any other entry that would allow something to enter the perimeter, but there wasn’t a break in the fencing. Not even a tiny one. Everything looked sturdy and well-mended.
As we started to enter the coop proper, the chickens began to clamor and run around our feet. They didn’t seem to have any particular place they were going, but then one of them—a big, fat, white hen—came waddling up to me and promptly perched on my feet.
I stared down at her, and she looked up at me, and oddly enough, at that moment, a crow came swooping down out of the trees and landed on the edge of the henhouse, cawing at me. I stared at it for a moment, then slowly reached down to pick up the hen, not quite sure if I was holding her right. But she didn’t struggle as I nestled her in the crook of my arm.
“So, what’s wrong, chickie?” Slowly sitting down, I stared down at the beady little eyes that looked up at me. She looked almost as though she trusted me.
Yutani snorted. “Made a new friend?”
“She’s trying to tell me something. I know it, but I don’t speak…chicken.” I looked up at the crow, who was still perched on the eaves of the coop. “Hey, do you know anything about this?”
The crow let out an echoing call, and then—before I could set the chicken down—I found myself standing in the yard of the chicken coop at night…
…The chickens were restless, unsettled on their nests. I could see them from where I was standing, through the mesh door that was open to let the cool night breeze sweep through. The entire area around the coop felt unsettled, and I could sense something creeping around the edges. It was dark and squat, and angry. Oh, so angry. Whatever it was, it couldn’t overwhelm me like many of the creatures I had encountered.
I stared at the water trough where the chickens drank and suddenly it clicked. There was a tiny water spirit in there—one of the Water Fae, and she was sitting on the edge of the trough, sparkling blue in the dark of the night.
Kneeling beside her, I smiled. “Hello, my Water Sister.”
Startled, she looked up at me. “Oh! One of the Leannan Sidhe.” Her voice was melodic, faint like a tinkle on the wind.
“Well, yes. I am part Leannan Sidhe. And you are—a naiad?”
She shook her head. “I’m a Nixie.”
I froze. Nixienacks were nasty creatures, but then I realized she had said “Nixie” and that was something entirely different. Nixies were water creatures, as opposed to carnivorous little sub-Fae.
“You live in the chickens’ water trough?” That seemed like a pretty poor excuse for a home.
“I watch over them. I like them.”
“Then can you tell me what’s bothering them? I sense something out here that’s very angry. I’d like to chase it away, if I can figure out what it is.”
The Nixie clapped her hands and laughed. “There is something here, and if you could dispatch it, my feathered friends and I would be most obliged. It doesn’t bother me, because it can’t, but it’s upsetting the chickens and the bees. It’s a Gilding and it lives behind the coop in the thicket of ferns.” She flew into the air and buzzed around my head, landing on my shoulder. “Thank you, in advance.”
And before I could answer, I opened my eyes and was back in the yard, staring at the water trough, and it was midday.
“What’s a Gilding?” I asked Yutani.
He frowned, watching the crow as it rose from my shoulder and flew away. “A Gilding? Is that what you think is bothering the chickens and bees?”
I nodded. “Yeah, the Nixie told me.” I relayed everything that had happened, and he sat down on the log beside me.
“Okay, Gildings are creatures that cross from one dimension to another. They’re physical when they come into our realm. They’re…harbingers of bad luck and they curse any place that has too much good energy to it. They’re the grinches of the astral world, so to speak. Their presence can cause crops to fail, milk to sour, and all sorts of nasty things. Often, when homesteaders have one bad season after another, it’s because they were inflicted with a Gilding’s curse. The only way to lift the hex is to banish the Gilding and protect against it coming back.”
I frowned. “Banish it, huh? I take it we can’t just kill it?”