Gus
This is Gus. Though counted among the larger of the hedge-boggles, he is actually
one of the younger members of the hedge-boggles. He was born within the Hedge, one
of two children born to Mika, a Green Maid, and Pog, one of the hedge-boggles responsible
for tending the Firethorn wine vats. Gus is particularly gentle, but does his part in
defense of the Hedge when needed. When invaders appear near Gus’s borough, he and several
Green Maids reveal themselves to the intruders bearing great chalices filled with Firethorn
wine and convince the hapless individuals- by means of the famous ‘faerie glamour’- to
drink. This can sometimes be fatal, according to what creature has partaken of the
draught. To most humans, it tastes spicy and exotic, but can cause anything from eternal
sleep, perpetual hallucinations, death, or extreme inebriation- followed the next day by
a horrible headache and frequent vomiting. For goblins, the flavor is pleasant enough,
but the result is quite unusual, for they are immediately turned to old twisted and bent
trees or shrubs. Trolls refuse to even try it- the smell alone makes their eyes grow
wide with fear- faerie glamour notwithstanding.
Gus also possesses a special ability to cause those around him to grow peaceful and lapse into a trance. Gus can cause the trance to be so deep that the affected creature never wakes again. He once stopped a rampaging troll single-handedly by means of his pacifying abilities. The troll had stumbled blindly into the Hedge during a Beltane festival, one of several times during the year when the veil between the outside world and that of both the Borderlands and Faerie is thinnest. Indeed, the troll still sleeps to this day somewhere within the labyrinthine paths of the Hedge.
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© The World of Kevin Buntin