Gerrit let down the ladder into the hole he had dug the day before. He didn't expect anything to come out of it, but apparently the Hollow he shared with the Winter Court had a whole second subterran level.
He had noticed a hollow sound while cleaning and sanding the rough oaken floors and while they were fine with the space they had available, curiosity and the urge to map out any potential breaches in their security had made him bring his tools and get to the bottom of this. The wooden boards had been surprisingly stable and it took him quite some effort to clear enough space for him to properly dig into the ground. Once he had broken through he had been at it for several hours already.
Well, at least I seem to have a valid reason for messing up the place.. He hadn't told Cassandra or John about it yet - this was something he wanted to do on his own. Physical labour always helped him to clear his head.


Now, carefully stepping down the ladder with a flashlight in his hand he strained his ears to listen for anything that could have made this part of the Hedge its home. Nothing.
The 'room' he found himself in mirrored the layout of the Hobbit-den above ground, if not in furnishing. While the walls and floors above seemed decorated and handsomely covered in wood, the walls down here were barren, pressed earth. Looking through the rooms it almost seemed like a negative version of the cottage: same size, same dimensions but empty and dark.
However one room was different: Gerrit already saw a glow through the tunnel, as if sunlight somehow found its way down here. The Stonebones followed the light into the upside-down version of the living room. There he found the strangest thing: halfway buried inside the wall were small rocks, shining warmly like real sunlight and thus dousing the whole room in a bright glow.
And just like that Gerrit had an idea.


***



The following evening he carried some planks of wood into the Hollow. He had a strange feeling, bringing his construction project into the graveyard, but some ideas couldn't be ignored.
What if I tried to cultivate Goblin Fruits in here?
He had space, it was a protected room in their hollow and if the light coming from the crystals was nourishing plants as well as sunlight he could very well create his own little garden down there.


He dug a little deeper to later add fresh soil to the ground then he used the boards to separate a few plots to plant some seeds. Over the next few days he would have to bring some more gardening tools and the soil - that's something he could probably do during daylight hours, since caring for a graveyard plot was not something out of the ordinary. Yes, the would be a lot of work, but bit by bit he would be able to complete his workshop and then he would tell the others about it. For now it was his little project.


***


The Ogre sat on the ground facing the patch of soil with a thoughtful look on his face. Of the eight trials he planted - things he found just outside the Hollow, some mundane seeds, and even one bag of rooibos tea his wife used to drink - only one seemed to take root and actually grow. What made that one different? It was a cherry pit, but why did the cherry pit sprout but the other fruits didn't? Lost in thought he started picking at his hands again when it hit him: while digging the hole for the pit he scratched his hand by mistake, producing several drops of blood that landed on the cherry.
He couldn't help but smile at that thought - his mind went to a movie he once watched because Lisa had thought he needed to broaden his cinematic horizons. In it a guy down on his luck started to grow a miraculous plant by feeding it his blood. Before he knew it, he imagined Cassandra in the tight and tasteless outfit of the blonde heroine of the musical and Gerrit actually laughed out loud at that.
Maybe it was Klischee, but with Fae-related things you never knew. He ripped open another scab to drizzle a few drops of blood onto the little sprout. Maybe they would have a strange and wonderous harvest soon.