BURGEON: 'Avery, the fox and the Burgeon'

Not far from here, there was once a great kingdom, ruled over by a
bitter King who lived in a vast grey castle. Outside the castle wall
there was a thick forest, and in the middle of the forest was a hut,
where there lived a beautiful young girl and her old mother. They were
poor, and the girl had to work very hard every day to forage for the
morsels they lived on. Despite this, she was a happy child, and she had
hair the colour of the flaming sun, and blossoms in her cheeks, and
eyes like silverfish dancing on water.

One day, the mother said to her only child:

"Daughter! We have neither food nor livelihood. I am blind, and cannot
work. I must send you to seek the King's pardon, and beseech him to
help us. He is wise: he will not let his subjects die. I will go out
for the day, and sit on the Molar Rock by the river, and when I return
home, our fortunes will have changed."

And so the girl, whose name was Avery, wrapped up the last of their
bread and cheese into two small parcels, one for her mother and one for
herself, that she might eat and rest a little on her journey to the
castle. And she kissed her mother on the cheek, and bid her goodbye,
and began walking through the forest towards the castle.

She had not gone far before she decided to stop on a fallen tree and
rest, because the path was winding, and blocked with brambles that
scratched her arms and pretty face. With low spirits she sat down to
wipe her eyes on her skirt, and nibble on a crust of bread. Presently
she heard a noise, and was startled, and then a fox sprang up on the
tree beside her.

"But you are hurt, Avery!" he said. "Pray, let me lick your face and
arms until you are better."

And the fox licked at Avery's face and arms, until all her pain was
gone, and the scratches were healed: and she thanked him for
this.

"Now tell me Avery, why are you crying?"
Avery told the fox about her blind mother and her journey to see the
King, and how she was scared of going out to work, having lived
peacefully in the woods so long. The fox chuckled when he heard
this.

"Why Avery, you mustn't cry when you are sitting on a pile of
gold!"

And she jumped to her feet and found, in the hollow of the fallen
tree, a pile of gold and jewels, the likes of which she had never seen
before. The fox bid her wrap them in her handkerchief, and carry them
quickly home to the hut, where she should make jewellery from them to
sell, for, the fox said, "A beauty such as you cannot but have visions
of beauty in her heart: the jewellery that you make will be truly
beautiful."

So Avery thanked the fox once more and hurried home, and when her
mother entered from the Molar Rock, sad at having to send her only
daughter away, there she found Avery moulding her gold in the heat of
the fire and making jewellery! And when Avery told her what had
happened, she was overjoyed, and praised the fox wherever he might be,
and threw kisses into the air for him.

Avery continued making her jewellery, and it was indeed of beautiful
and wondrous design, as the fox had predicted. She went into the city
once a month to sell it, and bring home food for herself and her
mother. The pair lived like this for several years, until one day, a
messenger from the king came to see Avery.

"The King has been buying your jewellery, Avery: he comes in disguise
to the market place to buy from you himself. He entreats you to make a
special brooch for him, to mark the Queen's anniversary."

Avery was filled with joyful awe, for this was a great honour indeed,
and she set to work right away on the King's special brooch. She worked
for seven days and nights. Her only interruption happened when a
squirrel suddenly leapt in through the open window and, as she jumped
in fright, she twisted a small piece of metal out of shape. But she
told herself the king wouldn't notice, as the brooch was otherwise
perfect, and took the brooch to the castle. The King was not happy with
her work, and cried:

"What is this that you hand to me? I asked you to make a special
brooch for my Queen, and here you give me this lump of twisted metal?
See - it is all wrong! Fetch me another jeweller!"

Avery was bitterly disappointed, and ran all the way to the Molar Rock,
where she sat weeping with her head in her hands.

"How could I make such a mistake?" she cried. "Now the King is unhappy
with me, and he won't buy any more of my jewellery, and mother and I
will starve! Oh! How unhappy I am. I will never make a piece of
jewellery again!"

And with this she wept twice as hard, and as she was weeping, her faith
in herself grew less and less, and her doubt grew more and more, until
with every breath she could feel it like an icicle wiggling in and out
of her heart.

She had been crying for a very long time, and her tears were just
beginning to flow less freely, when she heard a rustling noise, and the
fox shot out of the bushes to land at her side on the Molar Rock.

"Why, Avery, what is the matter? Why are you crying?"

Avery recognised the fox straight away, and this only made her cry
harder: for he reminded her of everything that had happened since she
had first met him.

"Fox, the King asked me to make a special brooch for his Queen, but I
made a mistake, and he did not like the brooch, and now I think that I
shall never make jewellery again! I am worried that my mother and I
will starve."

"Avery, do you still have gold and jewels left to make jewellery
with?"

Avery looked up at the fox with her red and tearstained face.

"Yes, fox, but I tell you, I shall never make jewellery again! I
ruined the brooch - I cannot do it anymore!"

The fox nuzzled Avery's arm gently.

"Avery, I have helped you once before, and I shall help you once more.
I will give you a Burgeon. Do you know what that is?"

Avery was greatly puzzled, for she had never heard of a Burgeon, and
she wondered what on earth it might be. She asked this of the
fox.

"Well Avery, a Burgeon is a very special, and rare thing. It is a
magic fish, and the most base use of it helps people to grow. If,
however, it is used by someone with good in their mind and beauty in
their heart, it can be used for almost any means. It will help you make
your jewellery - it will help you make the best jewellery in the
kingdom!"

And with this, the fox produced the Burgeon. It was a funny looking
thing, big and purple, with spikes around its body, but Avery thought
that none of that mattered at all when it had such an amiable smile!
She thanked the fox gratefully, but she did have a question for
him.

"What will I tell people when they see me with it? You said it was
very rare - what if somebody were to steal it?"

The magic fish smiled away as Avery voiced her concerns. The fox
chuckled, and bade her not to worry; but that he would bind the Burgeon
to her so no one could see it or take it away, for as he said, it would
be such a shame for it to leave her!

"Here is how it works," said he. "When you have an idea, the Burgeon
will carry it around for you on one of his spikes while it develops.
Because he is magic, your ideas will develop magically, and so they
will be wonderful! There is one more thing though, Avery. I give you
this leather pouch, and bid you not to look inside, for inside there is
something, and nothing, and it may well be that you will never need to
know. If the time is right, and only then, may you use its
contents."

And the fox stretched up onto his hind legs, and kissed Avery on the
cheek, and was off through the trees.

So Avery took the Burgeon home, and perched it on top of a dresser, so
her mother shouldn't bump into it and wonder what it was, and it sat
there merrily, smiling away at Avery, and occasionally humming a little
to itself. Avery started work straight away, having had an idea for a
leaf design ring on her very way home! She worked all through the
night, so caught up in her task was she, and when she finished as the
sun was rising, she remarked to herself:

"Why, how beautiful this ring is! I think I have never made anything
like it before, so intricate. How lucky I am to have met the fox!" And
singing to herself, she went to bed to get some rest, and the Burgeon
grinned away to itself up on the dresser, while its magic worked
on.

Later that morning, Avery was awakened by the crash and tinkle of
breaking glass. She leapt out of bed and hastily ran to the kitchen,
where she saw a man all decked in bright colours had got through the
window, and was looking all about the kitchen. He seemed to grow taller
when he saw her.

"Avery, I am Threadneedle, the Enchanter. Where is the Burgeon? It
belongs to me! That cunning fox stole it from me, and half my gold. I
know you have them!"

"Stole? The fox? Surely not. Why would he do a thing like that?" Avery
asked. The Enchanter laughed at her.

"Because, dear child, I turned him into a fox! He is not really a fox
at all, he is a Prince!"

Avery was very shocked at this, and blushed when she thought of how he
had licked her face and arms, and kissed her cheek. But she reminded
herself that, whether he was once a Prince or not, he was a fox now,
and had done much to help her.

"I'm not surprised then, that he stole from you!" she shouted. "If you
turned me into a fox, I'd do the same!"

As she shouted, she reached towards the table for the pouch that the
fox had given her, reasoning that facing an Enchanter would mean the
time was right. She opened the bag, and as he realised what she was
doing, and shouted "Hey!" Avery threw the contents of the bag at him.
What she threw were silver twigs: and as they hit Threadneedle, he
started to shrink, until he had turned into an old grey cat with fiery
eyes that glared at Avery. She grabbed the broom and shooed him out of
the house, and Threadneedle the cat slunk away, never to be seen
again.

As for Avery, she rescued the Burgeon from the top of the dresser,
where it had shrunk shivering into a corner. As she stepped down, a
knock came at the door, and who was it but the Prince, no longer a fox
now the enchanters spell was broken!

Avery and the Prince were married by the Molar Rock; and the bitter
King was so glad to see his son safe home after so many years that he
became a happy King again; and so Avery, the fox-Prince and the Burgeon
lived happily, making beautiful jewellery together for many, many
years.