It was a very hot day in the part of Astrantia where Luzula lived. She was sitting beside the ornamental pond in her mother's garden. It was just a small pond with a single water lily and two goldfish, and sitting around it were three stout little garden gnomes, all dressed in red suits and hats, and shiny black boots, and each with a long white beard. They had been there in the garden since long before Luzula was born, and she was very fond of them and would often sit and talk to them, just as she did to her dolls.

'It's so hot today,' she said, pushing back several long strands of dark hair from her forehead, 'even with my parasol.' Luzula had found a bright green parasol lying across the footpath beside the river. It was rather a large parasol, especially for Luzula as she was only eight years old, but it held back the heat of the sun very well indeed. 'Are you hot, Fisherman?' she asked.

The gnome she called Fisherman sat on the edge of the pond and held a fishing rod. The other two gnomes were amongst the flowers, one carrying a lantern and sitting on a wooden toadstool, and the other, with a pickaxe tucked into his belt, sitting on a rock. Luzula always thought the one with the pickaxe looked a bit grumpy.

Suddenly one of the goldfish leapt out of the water and returned with a splash, and as ripples quickly reached the edge of the pond, Luzula noticed, for the first time, that the water level was very low, and that the water was looking rather murky.

'Hello,' said a very familiar voice. Luzula's mother, Caltha, had just returned home carrying two heavy wooden buckets; both full of water. 'I had to go all the way to the river for these,' she said. She set down the two buckets and rubbed the small of her back. 'All the village wells have run dry. That's never happened before. I don't know what it can mean.'

'Can I put some water in the pond?' Luzula asked, folding her parasol and then trying to lift one of the buckets, but it was too heavy for her.

'Good heavens, no!' replied Caltha. 'Not if I have to go to the river for it. Perhaps the wells will have water again tomorrow; then we can bring some for the pond.' She lifted the two heavy buckets and walked off towards her cottage, soon followed by Luzula.

***

As the sun went down, the day cooled and darkness descended. But soon Hesperis, Astrantia's pale pink moon, rose into the sky, giving enough light for creatures of the night to go about their business. A hedgehog stopped beside the pond and lapped up a little water before moving off in search of slugs and snails to eat, and nearby an owl hooted. And then three other nocturnal inhabitants began to move.

'Could be serious,' said Gromwell, sliding off his toadstool and setting down his lantern. 'If there's not enough water for the pond and it dries up... well... it won't be the same without the pond, will it?'

'Your right there,' replied Willowherb. He adjusted the pickaxe in his belt and then stood up from the rock he'd been sitting on all day and rubbed his bottom. 'By heck, my bum's numb tonight.'

Fisherman, whose real name was Sedum, lay down his rod and got to his feet and walked around the pond towards Gromwell. 'Be worse for the fish though... if there's no water.'

'As if you care!' exclaimed Willowherb, as he joined his two companions. 'You've been trying to catch 'em since they were just tiddlers.'

'I don't mean 'em no harm,' replied Sedum. 'It's not as if I have any bait on my hook.'

'Now don't start that argument again,' said Gromwell with a grimace. 'I've heard it too many times already... Now listen... what's happened to the village wells; that's what I want to know. I hope it's not the prophecy.'

'Prophecy?' replied Willowherb. 'I've heard of no prophesy.'

'You have,' said Gromwell. 'You must have. There's a little rhyme about it. Don't you remember? It goes, err... oh, yes, it goes:

If the wells run dry

The village will die

The houses will crumble

And the children will cry

If the wells run dry

We'll turn to dust

And be blown away

With the wind's first gust

If the well runs dry... oh... I can't remember the rest of it... Something about fire and dragons and such.'

'Sounds like just another old wife's tale, to me,' said Willowherb. 'And there's no such thing as dragons.'

'Maybe not,' said Sedum, lifting his chin and scratching under his beard. 'But I remember hearing that rhyme, and it definitely was a prophesy; though I'm not sure about the dragon bit. I think somebody just added that to frighten the children.'

'So what should we do about it?' said Gromwell.

'What, the dragon?' asked Willowherb, looking puzzled.

'No, not the dragon, the wells!' exclaimed Gromwell. 'We should try and do something about the wells.'

'But what can we do?' replied Willowherb, standing defiantly with his feet apart and his hands on the head of his pickaxe. 'We're just three garden gnomes. If the wells run dry, they run dry. There's nothing we can do about it.'

'We could go take a look,' suggested Sedum. 'As long as were back by morning we'll not be missed.'

'You mean go take a look down one of the wells?' exclaimed Willowherb. 'But wells are very dark, and we might fall in and never be seen again.'

'Oh, don't be such a wimp, Willowherb,' said Gromwell, reaching for his lantern and giving it a shake. 'There's plenty of oil in my lamp to see by. Where's your spirit of adventure?'

***

'It looks an awful long way down,' observed Willowherb. 'And very dark too.' The three gnomes had walked to the nearest well and climbed up onto its circular wall and were looking down into the well-shaft.

'But we're used to the dark, aren't we?' said Sedum. 'And Gromwell's got his lamp. And look; we can go down in this bucket.'

There was a large wooden bucket standing on the wall, and the bucket was attached to a long rope that hung from a beam that was held up high over the well by a wooden framework. The rope was wound around the beam many times and on the end of the beam was a crank-handle for winding the bucket up and down.

'But none of us can reach the handle,' protested Willowherb. 'So who would do the lowering?'

'What if we send the bucket down by itself?' suggested Sedum. 'Then we could climb down the rope.'

'Good idea,' said Gromwell. 'Let's give it a push.' So Gromwell and Sedum leant against the bucket and pushed, but it was too heavy and hardly moved. 'Give us a hand, Willowherb,' said Gromwell. So all three gnomes pushed together, as hard as they could, and this time the bucket went rapidly over the edge. In fact, too rapidly, as both Gromwell and Willowherb lost their balance and fell over the edge of the well.

Fortunately Gromwell fell into the bucket, and Willowherb had time to grab the rope before the bucket swung away from the wall and began to descend. 'Wait for me!' shouted Sedum, as he leaped off the wall and grabbed for the rope as the bucket swung back towards him. And so, with Gromwell in the bottom of the bucket, and Willowherb and Sedum clinging to the rope, and the rope beam and the crank-handle spinning ever faster, they made their decent.

Suddenly the bucket jolted to a stop and then bounced on the end of the rope, as there was no more of it left to unwind, and Willowherb and Sedum lost their grip and fell feet first into the bucket. Willowherb landed on top of Gromwell, and Sedum landed on top Willowherb. But before they had chance to recover, the bucket began to fall again before coming to another abrupt stop as it hit the stony bottom of the well. And it was soon followed by a long length of the rope, which had snapped somewhere above them.

'That was fun,' said Sedum, who was sitting on top of the other two gnomes with his hat down over his eyes. 'You were right about it being dark though, Willowherb.'

'Fun?' exclaimed Willowherb. 'I'll give you fun. How would you like a bash over the head with my axe? You nearly broke my neck.'

'Now stop that,' said a muffled voice from underneath. 'I hope my lamp's not broken. Can you both get off me please?'

'Gladly,' replied Willowherb, as he squeezed out from underneath Sedum and then found himself tangled in the length of rope. 'And then you can have a bash over the head as well. You know what's happened, don't you? The rope's broken; and now we'll never get out of here alive.'

'Oh be quiet,' said Sedum. 'We can always climb up a rope from one of the other wells; they'll all be connected to this one... Oh, look.' Sedum had pushed his hat back out of his eyes and was looking straight up the well shaft. 'I can see the stars and Hesperis.' The pale pink globe of Hesperis was shining straight down the well.

***

'Now I see what the problem is,' said Gromwell, holding up his lamp. The three gnomes had made their way along a long winding tunnel, splashing through a few shallow puddles as they went. Gromwell had lit his lamp so that they could see, but every now and then they passed under another well shaft where the rocky floor of the tunnel was lit by moonlight from above. Sedum had been right about the village wells all being connected. Finally they came to an old disused well that had collapsed and completely blocked the tunnel.

'All we have to do,' continued Gromwell, standing in a tiny stream of water that trickled out from under the blockage, 'is shift this pile of stones so that the water can flow through again.'

'Oh, is that all?' said Willowherb. 'I was worried it might be something needing hard work. But just moving a pile of stones, each of which weigh more than we do; that should be easy shouldn't it? So I think I'll sit over here while you two get on with it.'

'But you're the one with the pickaxe,' observed Sedum.

'Oh, so I am,' said Willowherb, 'I was wondering when that would get a mention. Here.' He pulled the pickaxe from his belt and handed it to Sedum. 'You take it. Be my guest.' And with that he sat down on a stone beside the wall of the tunnel and folded his arms.

'Very well,' said Sedum. 'I know how to use a pick.' He took a step towards the wall of stones that blocked the tunnel and took a swing at one of them. A few sparks flew off but very little else happened. So he tried again and again, and then Gromwell tried, but he too made only the slightest dent in one or two of the stones.

'Oh, give it back to me!' exclaimed Willowherb, as he got to his feet. 'Don't you two know anything? You need to start higher up, not at the bottom. And you need a bit of leverage. Hold your lamp a bit higher, Gromwell.' He stuck the pickaxe into a crack beside a stone that looked as though it might easily fall out by itself, and then, with all his might, he pulled on the handle until the stone came free. 'Now we're getting somewhere,' he said.

He did the same again with another stone and then another, and then he leapt aside as a really big stone fell from above where he had just made a hole. But then things began to happen faster than Willowherb had expected. More stones fell away and jets of water began to spurt through the cracks, and then more stones fell away and more water squirted through.

'Do you think it's time we left?' asked Sedum, as a jet of water almost knocked his hat off.

'I think it is,' replied Willowherb, sticking his pickaxe back into his belt. 'In fact, I think we better run. Would you like me to carry the lamp and go first, Gromwell.'

'No, I can manage,' replied Gromwell as he raced off down the tunnel, closely followed by Willowherb and Sedum. Behind them they could hear more rocks tumbling, and there was now a stream at their feet and it was getting deeper and deeper. Soon they passed under the well shafts that they had passed under before, but there were no ropes to climb up. Then eventually they came to the well shaft that they had descended earlier. The bucket was still there but it was beginning to drift away with the ever rising stream of water.

'Grab the rope!' Gromwell shouted. The rope, still attached to the bucket, was trailing behind it and Sedum waded past Gromwell and grabbed the end of it and pulled the bucket towards him. Gromwell caught up and reached out towards the bucket, managing to hold it still while Sedum and then Willowherb climbed in. But the water was still getting deeper and flowing faster, and Gromwell, hampered by his lantern, was unable to do the same.

'Give me the lantern!' shouted Sedum, snatching it from Gromwell's hand. 'Now get in quick!' Gromwell hauled himself over the side and into the bucket, helped by Willowherb who grabbed Gromwell's beard and pulled. And, in a tangle of arms and legs, the three gnomes in a bucket were carried along as the waters increased in speed and rose almost to the roof of the tunnel.

***

'Where are we?' asked Gromwell, feeling very dizzy. For a very long time the three gnomes had been swept along at great speed, and the bucket had bashed into the side of the tunnel several times. But eventually the tunnel had come to an end and the bucket had floated out into the center of a large underground lake.

'I think I'm going to be sick,' complained Willowherb. 'And my boots are full of water.'

'Keep still,' warned Gromwell. 'It's not just our boots that are full of water. I think this bucket's going to sink.'

'We seem to be in a cave,' said Sedum. 'But look, there's a hole in the roof and I can see the stars and Hesperis again!'

'What's that over there at the far side of the cave?' asked Willowherb. 'It looks like an island.'

'It is,' replied Gromwell. 'I wish we could get to it.'

Suddenly the bucket was no longer in the middle of the lake. It was standing on the island with three very confused gnomes inside it. They climbed out and onto dry land. Gromwell walked to the water's edge and looked into the lake. The water was deep but very clear, and in the moonlight he could see the bottom.

'I don't understand,' he said. 'A moment ago we were in the middle of the lake and now we're here on this island. How could that happen?' Then suddenly something made him step back from the water. A dark shape was swimming towards him.

'Because you wished it,' said the dark shape as it broke the surface and swam towards the water's edge. 'Welcome to the Wishing Cave. All who enter are granted one wish.'

'My goodness!' exclaimed Gromwell. 'You are the biggest fish I have ever seen. A hundred times bigger than the ones in our pond.'

'Ah, but I'm not a fish, I'm a dolphin, and my name is Melissani.' The dolphin swam a little closer and then turned aside, showing off her large dorsal fin. 'I live here in the Wishing Cave; when I'm not out in the ocean.'

'I do beg your pardon,' said Gromwell. 'But I've never seen a dolphin before.'

'But how do you get to the ocean,' asked Willowherb. He and Sedum had come closer and were just as amazed as Gromwell by the site of the huge dolphin.

'There's a channel that's connected to the sea,' replied Melissani. 'The water that flows into the cave has to flow out.'

'I see,' said Gromwell.

'Did you say that all who enter are granted a wish?' Sedum asked.

'Yes,' replied Melissani. 'So wish away. It was nice to meet you. Goodbye.' And then, with a flip of her tail, she was gone. For she knew exactly what they would wish for.

'I wish the water in our pond could always be full to the brim with lovely clean water like the water in this lake,' said Sedum.

'A lot of good that will do us,' said Willowherb.

'Well what would you wish for then?' asked Sedum. 'Be careful. We have only one wish left.'

***

Luzula was always up early in the morning. As she stopped beside the pond in her mother's garden to say good morning to the three gnomes, she thought that somehow they all looked just a little different. The grumpy one with the pickaxe in his belt didn't look quite as grumpy, and the one with the lamp seemed to have a very contented expression, and Fisherman somehow looked very pleased with himself. And that was not all: The two goldfish looked very happy indeed and the pond was full to the brim with crystal clear water. And from that day on, it was always so.

***

So, what would you have wished for? (There's no place like home)

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© 2006 Ian G. Hobson

The Wishing cave is one of fifteen children's stories set in the enchanted land of Astrantia. You can read more here: http://www.greatwriting.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11050&Itemid=77