Chapter 15 :A Happy Ending
By: Nellie Tobey
--- Rescue ---
When Cass and the three of them had exited the drains, it didn't take long for an adult in police uniform to spot them. Though the adults could see nothing but Cass, Tooty and Steve hurried a still weak Kettle into the brush while Cass explained where their sibling was.
The cop made calls and before long a bunch of humans in suites filled with air arrived and retrieved Madison from the drain system.
Morgan, their dad, stood holding Cass tightly outside the drain entrance waiting. Kettle had regained much of the strength lost as the clear sky allowed Kettle to absorb as much sunshine as the gremlin needed.
Madison came out carried on a stretcher by the puffy suites, moving but breathing heavily.
"Quick, carry me to the little." Kettle held up the two now stronger arms for Tooty and Steve to grab. They all rushed to Madison.
Madison smiled weakly as Kettle transformed into a small cat, and curled up on the child's chest.
As the stretcher was carried away and accompanied by the Father and Cass into the ambulance, only the four that could see Kettle could also hear the melodious purr that was emanating from the cat like body.
None of them left Madison's side. Kettle had remained in the light of the window wherever it shone in on the littles hospital bed, curled up and pouring as much healing as possible into the tiny human. By the time the sun set, Kettle was tired, but the human was healed.
When the littles dad, Morgan, was called out to speak to the doctors, the five of them huddled together around the bed to talk.
"We're in soooo much trouble Madison!" Cass looked worriedly out at their dad.
"Maybe," said Madison, "but now they have to clean up that horrible goo."
Kettle gave up the cat form and transferred into the toad like shape. "You two littles have done more good than you'll ever know for our kind."
Cass nodded, but still looked out worried.
Madison suddenly gasped and started crying.
Tooty and Steve both grabbed the small hand and began comforting the child.
"What's wrong?"
Cass spoke for their sibling. "My dad can't pay the bills my mother had from the hospital, how is he going to keep Grandpa's farm now that Madison had to be here for a day?"
Tooty frowned, then her and Steve remembered the Satyr.
"We can fix this," Steve pulled a long slim parchment from Tooty's vest pocket.
"We'll fix this," Tooty agreed, opening out the parchment and sticking a magical handprint to the bottom.
Madison only sobbed a little now, and whispered, "how?"
Steve nudged Kettle and showed the very large and now bristling raccoon the paper.
Kettle looked up at Cass.
"As soon as they'll let you, do you remember the wishing well thing we were digging at on your Grandpa's farm?"
Cass nodded. "If anyone knows how to get all your Grandpa's coins, it's the things you followed into the woods."
Cass started to smile at Madison.
"We'll bury the coins there, and whatever else we can find, but don't go near the woods, promise?"
Cass smiled. Tooty looked up at the grin on Madison's face. "You have to promise too!"
Madison's grin faded, but then happily smiled. "OK."
The three of them gathered together ready to navigate out of the hospital.
"Wait," Cass knelt down to the three of them. "Will we ever see you again?"
Tooty did a bellied salute, and shook her head sadly. "We can not come back. We are not supposed to talk to humans."
Kettle coughed and jumped up one last time as the small cat into Madison's arms. "But if you look for us, real hard, we aren't so hard to see."
Madison pet Kettle a few times and Kettle reluctantly jumped to the ground to leave with Tooty and Steve.
They left quickly once Morgan opened the door and the three of them watched as he went in to scold the littles.
He didn't however yell, or stand tough with the kids, he gathered them together in his large formidable arms and squeezed.
On the way out, Tooty grabbed onto Steve and held him for a moment. "Did I ever tell you, you're my favorite teacher?"
Steve, unable to contain the violent glow emanating from himself said, "You have, and your my favorite student."
--- Negotiations ---
With the help of a few other of the stronger gremlins and a bit of fancy work with branches, the traps had been removed from the Satyr's land. A new treaty was forged between the Fartmoodles, the Gremlins, and the Satyr's that any time a tribe was in need of help, one would reciprocate to the other.
Though Satyr's hardly needed help with many things, they were quite happy with the prospect of mischief making whenever the Gremlin's might be in need, or just calling in a favor from the Fartmoodles when the mischief got a little carried away.
The Satyrs had dug up and stored the Grandfather's coins the same day the old man had buried them. They had been storing the treasures and waiting for him to go looking, but never got the fun they wanted when the man had never tried to dig them back up.
The Satyrs had been digging up and collecting treasures discarded** by the human's that travelled their paths for a very long time.
**A Satyr considered something discarded from the moment a human left it unattended.
Besides the jars of very old coins the Satyr's had collected from the farm, they had also stumbled across a great many other trinkets and coins. Tooty and Steve with a little more breaking of the rules, brought out from the old barn a small antique travel chest.
With the digging efforts of three oddly small bloodhounds, the chest was laid into the hole next to the well, and covered over for Cass and Madison to find.
-- Healing --
With the barrels no longer leaching into the damned up stream, the strange liquid no longer gathered at the roots of the Great Shepard, and while it wasn't regaining needles quickly, the damage had stopped.
A party was arranged to celebrate. The many adventures of the Fartmoodle's and the HammeredByNight clan would go down in magical history as a time human's were there to help fix a mess instead of make it.
**Madison and Cass would often be visited in the future on the family farm by a stray tiny goat, or a overly friendly raccoon, sometimes a couple owls would be shooed away as they tried to spook the horses.
The celebration brought together the whole forest, and it glowed that night.
Tooty shared her mother's goblet with Steve, and many bets were laid that night amongst the cat like lizards, and the toad like magic people of the wood. There was even a purple raccoon seen kissing a bear, that confused left the celebration quite early.
Steve and Tooty would have to head home soon, but for a little while longer, they stayed so Steve could write a new notebook, and Tooty could show the Owlettes' how to make a horse run from it's own tail.
