Tea With Tomila

We never should have allowed him into our town after his Witch of a mother and cursed father nearly destroyed it! 

Did anyone else see him eyeing Berta and I’s cranberries?! He distracted the Prince, WITH MAGIC, while he shoveled his bag full of our delicious cranberries!!

This year’s harvest is the best yet! Word has it that the King himself will be joining us in celebration. Prince Varis is rumored to already be out and about perusing the market, he’s grown into quite the strapping young man! He’s already caught the eye of several ladies in the town.

The Mills sisters have been complaining about a rash beneath their skirts so if you see the Prince, warn him to stay away from those girls! For his own safety of course.

In other news:

Payne farms is clearly on the decline, I almost feel bad for the lonely old farmer. I hear that the close proximity of his farm to the woods led to his crops being corrupted and cursed. 

After the scandal over a decade ago, Orvyn Payne is in pain once again. Following the anniversary of his wife’s disappearance (to Fletch Farms, that is) Payne’s last cow stopped producing milk and has died.

Many, myself included, can’t help but wonder if the outdated tradition of leaving offerings to the “Fair Folk” (which Payne claims to have done since before his farm was standing) is the reason for his farm’s demise. 

Could this be the last year that we overrate his pumpkins as “the sweetest”?

Be sure to stop by my new cart at this year’s harvest market, our cranberries are the softest cranberries in town. This makes their preservation much easier than those tough berries you might find elsewhere!

I am forming a brigade of townsfolk, of farmers, mothers, fathers, the real people of Kald to stand guard at the bridge to the woods.

We will not allow the Witch into our town! If you care about your family, if you care about this town; then stand with us!

We’ve already had reports of 3 townsfolk practicing magic in OUR TOWN, the King has ensured that they have been dealt with.

After 6 years of bad harvests, the Witch’s plan is near fruition! She targets us all with her charms.

Look up and see that the moon has been wrapped in her blood-red hair, surely a sign of her grip on our town! She is trying to ruin us!

Lock your doors, don’t trust your neighbors, anyone could be working against us. Even the birds have gone silent and the town mutts are nowhere to be seen. 

I for one will stay vigilant and aware until the light of the sun beats back her terrible curse.

A year ago the King asked us to leave out our food for the “Fair Folk” or to surrender our homes to them! Well these “Fair Folk” don’t seem very fair to me! 

I, and many like me, have refused to give up our hard earned food to these pixies who never worked hard a day in their lives. This is our town, our food, why should we have to give it up to anyone else?

I implore you to join us in preserving as much food as we can as our harvests are getting worse every year. 

The Witch ABANDONED her “child” leaving him to torment the other children while she STORMED the King’s castle! While the boy taunted another blindfolded child, you could hear the screams of the King and his son! Surely the whole town heard it!

Moments later she walked out of the castle with eyes as black as night, the King followed after her but she must have had him under her charm as he hugged her with a desperate, crazed look in his eyes. 

The Witch cackled and mocked him, even going so far as to conjure tears in her eyes! She is truly wicked and heartless.

I say we exile them in totality, the woods are not far enough away for us to feel safe. 

Witnesses claim to have seen a boy come from the woods with the Witch. They say they came to “peruse the market” and “to share their harvest” with Kald. No doubt this is some sort of witchcraft.

I took one cranberry and immediately broke out in hives! No doubt the Witche’s intended purpose. I am fortunate to live close to the river so I could wash away the curse before I encountered anyone.

I think that child is a changeling, without a doubt. Keyen dissapeared 12 years ago, that boy is nearly as tall as I, it doesn’t add up.

I’ve been invited to dine with the king! This is such an honor and a privilege, I knew that he would see my skills and appreciate them! It’s been 10 years since the dissapearance of our Queen, at the hands of Keyen and the Witch (I assume). 

While many of the town believe that they will also get to dine with the King, I have it on good authority that he will select a chosen few (namely me) to dine with him.

I witnessed an arguement between Orvyn Payne and Theo Fletch, Fletch claims that Payne’s wife milked one of his cows. By the King’s decree, milking a neighbors cow is illegal. 

Sources say they saw lady Payne leaving Fletch’s farm at dawn! Perhaps a torrid affair in which lady Payne rejected Fletch! Fletch would’ve been so angry and afraid that she would accuse him in court that he decided to accuse her first!

STARTLING NEWS.  After receiving a threat via fortune reading from Keyen, husband to the Witch of the Wood, Queen Anna has fled Kald in the middle of the night!

I have created a painting of the Queen to assist guards in their search for her, I painted it in haste so it’s not my best work but the King thinks it’s her spitting image. 

What does this mean for the future of Kald? I believe I overheard the King’s advisors saying he would be looking for a new bride should our Queen tragically not return.

Perhaps a dark-haired bride will serve him better? One who has her ear to the ground in Kald.

Not me! That would be much too kind of our King, all I have to offer are my artistry, I’ve been the town’s nanny for many years and am skilled at washing garments. Perhaps the King is looking for someone with skills of being white as snow. Cheeks deprived of color. 

Anyways, be on the look out for the Queen! Share this painting with your neighbors, post it all over the town to ensure that even the gods themselves see it.

My sources say that the Witch gave hops to our Queen Anna for sleepless nights. The Queen’s naiivete led to her accepting this medicine, thankfully our great King Stephen took the hops away from her and fed it to one of the mutts in the town to prove that the Witch attempted to poison her!

It begs the question; why treat her sleeplessness when her skin never darkens despite the sun shining on her? Why her skin is almost blue in hue...