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Macey shook her head, ridding herself of the thoughts that entailed. It was bad enough she had four men, she didn't need more than that. No woman did.
"What does it do?" Macey asked Smal, while fingering the pendant.
"It's for luck," Smal responded. "Not specifically for babies, mind. But it'll do the job just as well as any fertility charm."
Macey hoped not. Though maybe it'd do the opposite just as well too. If she didn't want to get pregnant, then it could stop that. Dragging a baby around while they were on a mission to save the Staran wasn't the best of ideas.
"Thank you," she said earnestly, appreciating the present even if it wasn't quite for the reasons the other woman intended.
"Are you done, dear?" Jerimiah asked, his voice filled with adoration for his wife. If Macey didn't have her men, she might have been jealous of the bond the two of them clearly shared.
"Yes, yes, just making sure we get grandchildren."
Jared choked a little, but managed to cover it up with a fake sneeze.
"We have several hundred years for that, don't go rushing him the moment he meets a pretty woman."
"Hmmm." The kabouter woman crossed her arms, clearly not as sure as her husband was.
"We were talking about the kludde," Jared prompted, hopefully getting the conversation back on track.
"Ah yes, the kludde." Jerimiah grew serious again. "The water kludde are not letting anyone get close to their waters, as if they see everybody as a threat. Usually it's them doing the attacking, so I don't know what they could be afraid of. The earth kludde are similarly upset. They usually come out of their holes at twilight and dawn to do their tricks on travellers, but they've been reclusive for months now. The only ones I've seen are the ones we occasionally trade with, and they've not been forthcoming with information about what's going on."
"Wait, there's water and earth kludde?" Macey asked, confused. How was a horse shifter supposed to live in the ground?
"Of course," Jerimiah answered, "they're not bound to one shape. In the water, they turn into horses, but their cousins in the ground can take other forms. Often, they disguise themselves as trees to waylay travellers and rob them. But I've even heard of air kludde transforming into birds."
Macey was almost relieved to hear that these strange beings weren't like kelpies after all. Maybe they even looked like boring normal horses in the water, without pretty scales and webbed hooves.
The klabouter turned to Jared. "You said you felt a change. Why did you come here? There are places where you can be closer to the earth."
Macey frowned, but didn't comment. How were they supposed to get closer to the earth than being inside a cave underground?
"This is where I learned about my magic," Jared shrugged. "You and your family taught me everything I know. I thought you might be able to help me once again, solving this mystery. " He took a deep breath. "It's not just the earth, Jerimiah. At this very moment, friends of ours are fighting a new evil in the Scottish sea that's taken the form of a giant orca. Not long ago, we defeated a being that had fed on the Staran like a leech. And before that, Macey and a friend of ours were kidnapped by the Mahoun."
Smal gasped. "Isn't that the Celtic version of the devil?"
Jared nodded grimly. "It is. There's a group of beings, evil creatures that we don't have a name for yet, who possess spaces created by our imagination. The devil is the easiest example. So many people believe in him, but if he doesn't actually exist, a space is formed by the collective belief in it. These beings fill those gaps and turn into representations of the spaces."
The two kabouters looked at each other, equally speechless. Macey wasn't quite sure whether they thought it an outlandish theory, or whether they were shocked by how bad the situation was.
Eventually, Smal said slowly, "So if we all suddenly started to believe in the Big Bad Wolf, he would become alive? Possessed by these... these things?"
Macey nodded. "That's how we understand it, yes. We don't know how many people need to believe in something though for it to become a space these creatures can inhabit. The devil, that's a very big one. The one we killed was Self-Doubt, again, a big one. We're not sure which one is harming the earth."
Jerimiah stroked his long beard, his brows furrowed. "For now, all we kabouters feel is a strange new energy in the earth. It's interfering with our magic, but not much, just enough to be noticeable. I think the earth kludde may be more sensitive to the change, or they're more affected. If the water kludde are feeling it, then it must be strong indeed and not just affecting the earth directly."
"But what belief is there that the creature could have used?" his wife asked. "There aren't any earth spirits or gods we believe in, and the humans most certainly don't. How abstract are we thinking?"
"Self-Doubt was feeding on the staran because of the doubts many travellers have," Macey explained. "So maybe it's something people connect to the earth? Some kind of sentiment that a lot of us experience?"
"Love? Admiration? Life?" Jerimiah suggested, but Macey shook her head.
"Claustrophobia."
Jared's eyes brightened. "That could be it! I guess some people could feel that in water as well. But isn't that quite a generic fear, not something we believe in?"
"Well, Self-Doubt wasn't something as specific as the Mahoun or the Orca," Macey countered. "But for now, we don't really need to know what it is; we need to know where it is so we can find and defeat it."
