#and before you ask no Toufi adn Winks are not dating

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Stanford McGucket Chapter 4: Visitors From the Woods - Part 1, Upside Down

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

Stanford messed up his brother’s chances of getting a scholarship and is now living out of the local library. Surviving with little to no plan Until a kind Southern couple offer him a chance to start over.

(an au of @thelastspeecher‘s Stanely McGucket au)

Also on ao3!

The leaves rustled in the breeze as sunlight shone through the gaps between them, creating a shifting shadow on the ground. To Stanford it looked as though some sort creature towering over him shifting about trying to find the perfect opportunity to strike.

‘If it were thin enough to have light seep through it in small spots then it’s either severely injured or paper thin. In the first case it’d probably favour distancing itself from any potential danger or try to devour me for last minute sustenance but that’s highly doubtful. The latter case wou-’

“Ow,” Stanford tripped forward. The ladder he had been carrying clattering to the ground.

“Ah. Sorry there Stanford, forgot to tell you that we were stopping here,” Lute said. He offered an apologetic smile. He lowered the wheelbarrow and walked over to Stanford. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Stanford assured. He rubbed his thigh through his overalls. “Just a small bump, nothing to worry about.”

“Well that’s good to hear,” Lute grinned. He picked up his lopping shears from inside the wheelbarrow, and rested them on his shoulder. “We’ve got a lotta work to get done and not having you get injured in the first five minutes would really help.”

“I’d assume so,” Stanford said as he picked up the ladder. “So what are we doing here?”

“You’re setting the ladder up under those darker branches over there-” Lute said pointing up to some dark branches that stuck out from the apple tree above them. “-and them I’m going to use these here Loppers to trim them off.”

“So we’re trimming the trees down?” Stanford asked, standing the step-ladder between two sturdy branches.

“In a nutshell yes,” Lute said. He walked over to the step-ladder. He gave it a shake of appraisal before nodding to himself. Carefully he handed Stanford the lopping shears before stepping onto the ladder. “Can’t climb up with my hands full,” he explained.

“Yes that makes sense,” Stanford nodded. He handed back the surprisingly heavy tool back once the other boy had reached the top of the ladder. “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but why are you cutting down those branches?”

“Simple really, they’re dead,” Lute said. He snapped the shears shut on a branch, making it fall on the ground next to Stanford. “See how it doesn’t got any leaves?” Lute asked, ignoring Stanford’s annoyed ‘watch it’.

“Yes. I see,” Stanford said. He noted the thinness and dryness of the branches. Lute quickly snipped several more branches before nodding to himself. “That should be good,” he muttered. He handed Stanford the loppers and made his way down.

“Alright, now we just put these in the wheelbarrow and then move onto the next one.” he chuckled at the way Stanford’s jaw fell slack at the sight of all the trees in the orchard. “You thought we got off easy didn’t you?” Lute teased, stepping on the nearest branch.

“Can you fault me?” Stanford pouted. “The title of ‘tree trimming’ doesn’t hint at too much.” He bent over and picked up the two nearest branches, one in each hand, and placed them in the wheelbarrow.

“It’s easier if you break ‘em down first,” Lute said. He stepped onto more branches, filling the air with snaps and crackles. “It makes them take up less space.”

“So that we can fit more inside?” Stanford asked, following Lute’s direction.

“You catch on fast,” Lute grinned. “The more in the barrow the less often we have to go back and empty it out.”

“Yeah, that’s — that’s a pretty good way to minimize how much work we have to do,” Stanford nodded. He watched as Lute picked up a particularly long branch with both his hands before snapping it over his knee. Stanford tried to copy the motion, only for him to cry out in pain and drop the intact branch.

“You alright?” Lute asked. He placed a hand on Ford’s shoulder and helped the other boy steady himself.

“Ignoring the pain in my leg I’m fine.” Stanford smirked. He shook his leg before standing up properly. “Why didn’t that work? I copied you exactly,” he said. He glared at the offending branch on the ground. He could hear it laughing at him mockingly from its place on the ground.

“Might have to do with you picking out a rather thick one,” Lute said. He picked up the stick. “Yeah this is one of the ones we’d normally leave for the axe,” He nodded before placing it in the wheelbarrow. “Well that’s all of them, let’s put these away and get a move on,” Lute said.

Stanford nodded and bent over once again, picking up a branch in each hand to put in the wheelbarrow. He noticed Lute squatting down and piling the broken branches into his other arm. Stanford mirrored the boy’s actions and the pair found themselves with a mostly cleared up grass floor in under a minute. “Sharp work there, Stanford,” Lute said. He placed the lopping shears into the barrow. “Keep this up and we should be done before lunch!”

“You think so?” Stanford asked optimistically. He took the ladder down placed it under his arm as he followed Lute’s wheelbarrow.

“Not in the slightest!” Lute smirked as he lowered his wheelbarrow. “This is one of the longer chores we have. Hope you’re ready for the long haul.”

“That was cruel,” Stanford pouted.

The pair spent an hour in the orchard before their wheelbarrow was full. Lute led the way back to a small wood heap next to the barn where he dumped the wood.

“It’s helpful to stock up for winter,” he said on their walked back.

“I have an idea,” Stanford said as he steadied the ladder for Lute.

“I’m all ears,” Lute said, snipping at the dead branches of a pear tree.

“What if you trimmed smaller parts of the branches to begin with, that way we could just put the wheelbarrow beneath you.” Stanford said, grinning to himself, feeling as though he was a genius that had just reinvented the wheel.

“Hate to burst your bubble there Stanford, but there’s a flaw in that there plan of yours,” Lute grunted. He worked the clipper on a particularly thick branch.

“Oh?”

“These clippers weigh a tonne, wavin’ them around in that plan of yours would tire me out in no time. Plus you’d have to move the barrow around to catch the falling branches as well. You'd end up with more branches falling on your head than in the barrow,” Lute said. He lowered the clippers to Stanford. “Hold these for me.”

“Yeah-um. Well I’m—I’m probably going to need to rework that plan. But it has potential,” Stanford said. He placed the clipper on the ground before holding ladder in place as Lute descended.

“Maybe,” Lute shrugged. He jumped from the last rung of the ladder onto a nearby branch.

“Perhaps if I had some sort of machine that cut through branches. One that wouldn't need human interaction,” Stanford mused. He stopped on a couple of branches while cupping his chin in his hand.

“Oh Lord you’re starting to sound like Fidds,” Lute chuckled.

“Is that bad?” Stanford asked. He watched Lute as he stomped on some more branches.

“Not necessarily. He’s pretty good with machines,” Lute said. He picked up the twigs he broke. “But his biggest problem was that he’d get lost in his own thoughts when making schemes and plans. Which can be great for when he wants to stay in the flow of his work, but not so great when he doesn’t think of the bigger picture.”

“How badly are we talking?” Stanford snapped a branch over his knee, only needing two attempts.

“I was complain’ about how my alarm was too quiet. Ma and Pa were gettin’ on my case about not getting up on time you see. So out of the goodness of his heart, Fidds offered to fix up my alarm to make it louder for me,” Lute said. He loaded the last of the branches into the wheelbarrow.

“That sounds kind,” Stanford placed the clippers on-top of the branches in the wheelbarrow.

“In theory yes. In practice he made my alarm loud enough that is shattered me and Angie’s bedroom windows,” Lute said with a fond smirk. “Hoo boy let me tell you that was a morning alright.”

“I see what you mean.” Stanford shuddered.

He and Lute had gotten ready to move to the next tree, when the clippers began to float upwards with a sparkling trail.

“That’s not normal right?” Stanford asked.

“Do your tools float on their own?” Lute’s voice was shaky as he stepped back.

“Not unless my brother was doing his invisible string trick.”

“Sorry to interrupt you,” A soft voice came from above them. The pair looked up with mixed expressions of confusion and cautious excitement. “I overheard you talking about getting your chores done faster, and I think I might be able to help you.”

The voice belonged to a short girl in a puffy yellow dress that reached passed her knees. She had brown skin and a cheeky grin that spread across her freckled face. Her black hair was skillfully tied to look like a pair of bows on top of her head. She had a pair of see-through yellow butterfly-shaped wings coming out of her back as well as a small wand in her hand.

“Who’re you?” Lute asked.

“Why, I’m Applina! The Magical Fairy of the apple tree,” She said. Her voice was chipper and sweet. She jumped off her perch on the tree and drew a circle or sparkles around herself with her wand as she descended to the ground.

“But that’s pear tree,” Stanford pointed out.

“Sh-I mean-I’m the fairy of all the trees. I just confused this tree for one of the apple ones,” Appleina said.

“Right,” Lute wasn’t convinced.

“Listen, you’re going to be spending the rest of the day cutting the branches, and I can trim down how long you’ll spend doing that,” she said. Applina crossed her arms. “My friend and I are looking for his students. Help us find them and I’ll help you trim the rest of the orchard.”

“How can you help us with that?” Lute asked.

“Seriously?” Applina pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the floating tools.

“Oh right.”

“So have we got a deal?” she asked impatiently.

“Can we have a moment? This is kind of a lot to take in,” Lute said.

“Yeah sure,” Applina waved her wand and the tools crashed back on top of one another. “But be quick about it. I need to make sure those rascals don’t hurt themselves you know?”

Lute nodded and pulled Ford aside. “Please pinch me,” he whispered. Ford obliged. “Ouch!”

“So you’re not dreaming.” Stanford beamed.

“Why are you so happy about this?” Lute’s face contorted with confusion.

“My-I mean-I found the Jersey Devil when I were younger. Spooks, magic monsters they’re all real!” Stanford said, “How can you not be excited about this?”

“Magi? -fairies? I thought those were nothing but stories my Grandpappy told me,” Lute said, dragging his hand over his face.

“Well maybe he knew more than he let on?” Stanford suggested.

“Maybe?” Lute’s face was contorted with confusion. “We’ll leave that for later. Right now we need to figure out this situation.” He motioned to Applina.

“I can still hear you, you know,” she said.

“We’ll be with you in a minute,” Lute said over his shoulder.

“I think we should hear her out,” Stanford said. “If we don’t like her offer we can say no if we’re not feeling easy about it.” He put his arm around Lute’s shoulder.

“She’s gonna have an uphill job with that one,” Lute pouted.

The pair walked over to the fairy, who had taken a seat on a tree root. During their discussion Applina had set herself up a cup of tea. Floating next to her on a table made of sparkles stood around teapot and three tea cups that looked like fine china. A fourth cup was in her hand, the tea within was a dull pink and released a soft coloured steam.

“Are you two ready to talk about my offer?” She asked. Her pinky finger pointed out as she held her tea cup.

“I-um, yes? How long did it take you to prepare that?” Lute asked.

“This?” Applina pointed to her tea set. “No time at all, I have magic after all.”

“Right.” Lute said.

He and Ford walked over to Applina, easily towering over her while she nonchalantly sipped her tea.

“I’m hoping you two have come to a decision,” Applina put down her tea cup. “I certainly do not have all day.”

“We want to hear more about your deal.” Is what Ford wanted to say, if it were not for the fact he was now face-down in the dirt.

“Toufi are you alright?” a distressed voice asked. Stanford heard the patter of feet stop not too far from him.

“Winks what have you done?” Applina asked. Her cheerful demeanor from before melted like a lump of sugar in warm tea.

“They were going to attack you!” Winks said. Ford looked up and saw a man no taller than Applina. He wore grey shoes and brown tights. Under his tan green vest was a dark green tunic. On his head was a brown pointed hat.

“They were going to help us you lost lamb.” Applina said. She waved her arms as she spoke.

“And how are you so sure?” Winks crossed his arms, his hat pointed skywards. “You don’t know what they’re thinking.” “I’m pretty sure they were thinking. ‘Oh thank goodness this nice fairy was going to help us with our chores.’” Applina stomped her foot.

“Ugh my head.” Lute rubbed his forehead.

“Quick we need to get out of here.” Winks grabbed Applina’s wrist, his hat deflating ever so slightly.

Lute tried to pick himself up. However, when he tried to push himself up on to his feet. He found himself swinging them up over his head. Standing firmly on his hands as though he were a circus performer.

“Why are the trees so tall? Applina did you do this?” Lute asked. He reached to dust the dirt from his hair before almost falling over. “Why am I upside down?”

“Toufi come on.” Winks urged.

“Toufi? I thought your name was Applina.” Ford said.

“We need to get out of here.” Winks tugged at Applina’s arm.

“Okay I’ve had enough.” Applina, or Toufi, pulled her wrist out of Wink’s grip. She flapped her butterfly-like wings and flew above the trio. With a wave of her wand Winks floated in the air next to her with the same spell she had used to make Lute and Ford’s tools float earlier.

“Mr. Farm boys, I haven’t been perfectly honest with you.” Applina said.

“We gathered,” Lute said curtly.

“Allow me to explain myself.” She floated down so that she was standing between Ford and Lute. “My name is really Toufi, and I’m just a regular fairy, not a fairy of Apple trees.”

“Right.”

“But I wasn't completely dishonest.” Toufi said. “We truly do need your help. Winks you see, he lost his students. We searched all over the woods and we couldn’t find nary a hair of them anywhere. We came to your farm to look for them, and we still have no clue of where they could be. So please, kind sirs, would you help us? We’d be more than willing to help you with your chore in exchange.” “Now hold on there.” Lute raised his hand, but lowered it again to stop himself from losing balance. “You lied to us about your name, but didn’t lie about what you needed? Why? And why am I stuck like this?”

“I think I’m upside down too.” Ford said. He tried pushing himself up, to similar results as Lute.

“Well that’s just dandy.” Lute spat.

“Now, now don’t worry Sir, the spell Winks placed upon you can be easily undone.” Toufi said. She waved her wand. A ball of sparkles shot from the star at the end of her wand, and splattered against Lute and Ford.

“You should be fine now.” She smiled.

“Yeah...totally.” Winks tugged at the collar of his shirt.

Ford and Lute swung their legs around, trying to stand upright. And while the image itself would have made Toufi roll with laughter. At this very moment she was far from entertained. The same could not be said for Winks, who laughed freely.

“This isn’t funny Winks.” Toufi stomped her foot.

“Oh come now Toufi, it’s hilarious. They look like little beetles trying to right themselves.” Winks wiped away a tear.

“You want to say that down here Mr. Smart mouth?” Lute asked. He’d have shook his fist had it not risked him falling onto his face.

“That’s not in my power.” Winks said smugly, before falling face first into the dirt.

“Stop wasting time and undo the spell.” Toufi hid her grin behind her hand.

“Why? So that they can attack us?” Winks picked himself up.

“Not to play devil’s advocate here,” Stanford spoke up. “But you’re not really giving us a fair chance here.”

“And what do you mean by that?” Winks squinted.

“When Toufi said that she wanted to make an offer, Lute and I walked over with the intent of learning more.” Stanford said. “But you couldn't have known that from wherever you were. In fact, if I were to guess, the reason your students are missing it’s because you’re so set in your views on people that you refuse to listen to them when they talk to you.”

Wink’s jaw was slack. Toufi fell onto the grass with laughter. Winks opened his mouth only to close it again, outrage coloured his face as he struggled to put his feelings into words. Lute chuckled with Toufi while Ford wore a small satisfied smile as they watched Winks  pace to and fro. Stopping on occasion to open his mouth, only to stop himself and go back to pacing.

“My goodness!” Toufi said clutching her sides. “That was marvelous.”

“Stanford how did you figure all that?” Lute asked.

“Let’s say that Winks reminded me of someone.” Stanford grinned sheepishly.

“Well in any case you hit that nail on the head.” Toufi grinned. “Now if only someone would learn his lesson.” Toufi added unsubtly.

“Why are you siding with them?” Winks cried. He threw his arms over his head.

“Because if you listened to Mr. Sahir we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.” Toufi said. “I could be at home working on fixing my good dress, but no, someone decided that he didn’t want to listen to whatever his students had to say.”

“It’s not my- fine you’re right.” Winks slumped forward with a heavy sigh.

“Wait what’s going on?” Lute asked.

“Well you see, er Lute? Was that right?” Lute nodded, “You see Lute, we’ve been searching for a few days now and I don’t want to waste any more time arguing.”

“And you don’t want your mentor Mr. Sahir coming back to finding you not having learnt your lesson.” Toufi said under her breath.

“Would you like to pour some lemon juice into my wound while you’re adding that salt?” Winks asked.

“No thanks, I’ll save the lemon juice for when you really deserve it.” Toufi smiled.

“Well thank you.” Winks rolled his eyes.

“And given your track record that should be within the next five minutes.” She added slyly. Stanford and Lute failed at hiding their chuckles.

“Do you want me to undo the spell or not?” Winks asked. He waved his arms wildly.

“Well if you want us to consider helping you I’d highly recommend it.” Lute said. “Unless you want me to go hunting for you when this spell wears off.”

“Hey now, let’s not get too hasty,” Winks said. “I was just joking with Toufi, I’ll undo the spell right now.”

Winks muttered under his breath before giving his wand a small flourish. An orb of light launched out of its tip and landed on Lute’s nose. It then flew up to his boots and then back down to his hands. Finally it went through Lute’s back before disappearing in a puff of sparkles.

“You should be good now.” Winks said nervously.

Lute gave a small “oof” as he fell back onto the ground. He carefully stood up, grinning as he found purchase on his feet and not his hands.

“Hoo wee! I’ve never been happier to be able to walk on my own two feet.” Lute said merrily.

“So no hunting for me later?” Winks asked tentatively.

“I think you’re forgetting about someone.” Stanford piped up.

“Fix up my good friend Stanford over here and I won’t add your wand to our firewood stack.” Lute said.

“Sure thing.” Winks said nervously.

He repeated the flourish and muttering he had done before. However there was no orb of light. Giving his wand a small smack, the way one would give to a malfunctioning electronic device, Winks tried again. A small stream of sparkles poured out of his wand tip before it fizzled to a stop.

“Oh no.” Wink said.

“Oh no?” Stanford and Lute repeated.

“I told you to make sure it was full before we left.” Toufi said, placing her face in her hands.

“You might have to wait a bit before I can help you Stanford.” Winks said sheepishly.

“What do you mean. ‘A little bit?’” Lute asked.

“My wand’s run out of magic.” Winks said. “I could have sworn it was full of magic when we left the woods.”

“So what now?” Lute asked. “We can’t leave Stanford stuck upside down.”

“I told you not to worry, at most he’d be stuck like this until tomorrow morning.” Winks said.

“I wouldn't mind staying upside down,” Stanford said. Not that anyone noticed.

“That’s not any better” Lute said. “How is he supposed to eat?”

“As it turns out, you’re able swallow while upside down, your esophagus pushes your food down, or in my case up, towards your stomach.” Stanford said, his words still not noticed by no one.

“We could give him a small enhancement using Toufi’s wand.” Winks said. “Right Toufi?”

“Why can’t you just go back to your forest and refill your wand with magic?” Lute asked.

“We-” Winks caught sight of Toufi and corrected himself. “I can’t go back without my students. I’d be in a world of trouble.”

“Well that’s just your own fault isn’t it?” Lute glared.

“Please, I’m sorry, things have been piling up for me and I haven’t been able to do anything right for days now.” Winks stammered. “That’s no excuse.” Lute stamped his foot. “Because of you, me and Stanford could have lost out on an entire day of chores. How am I supposed to explain to my Ma and Pa that some pixie showed up while we were working in the orchard and flipped Stanford over? Either you find a way to fix this up or you’re gonna be finding yourself with a whole new world of trouble.” “I-er.” Winks cowered away from Lute who was now towering over him. His fist dangerously close to the pixie’s face.

“There is another way to solve this you know,” Toufi said. Her comment was more to Winks than to Lute.

“What do you-no. Please don’t say it.” Winks begged. His hat deflated completely.

“You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place Winks. So you’re either going to swallow your pride and talk to Eirafa or face whatever Lute has in store.” Toufi put her hands on her hips.

“What are you talking about?” Lute snapped.

“While Winks over here won’t be able to help Stanford, we do know someone who would be able to. And she would be able to solve our missing student problem.” Toufi said.

“So why didn’t you go to her first?” Lute asked.

“You think I didn’t suggest that?” Toufi said. “But Mr. ‘I’d rather die before letting go of a grudge’ doesn’t want to even consider the option.”

“Could we have a bit of context?” Stanford asked.

“I’ll give you the cliff notes.” Toufi pinched the bridge of her nose. “There’s a witch that lives about 8 miles west of here. Her name is Eirafa and she should have a spell that would help us find our students in 20 minutes. But she stiffed Winks on a payment when he worked for her one time and has been holding a grudge ever since.” “I worked a week for her and she only paid me the work of a single day!” Winks cried. He stomped his foot angrily.

“And would she be able to fix Stanford up?” Lute asked.

“Most likely.” Toufi said.

“That’s not very convincing.” Lute muttered.

“She has a spell for almost any situation.” Toufi said. “And unless you want Stanford to wait until tomorrow she’s your best option too.” “Oh, I wonder if the spell replaced my arm strength with my legs strength” Stanford muttered. “That would make travelling easier.” “I guess we have no choice.” Lute sighed. “We’ll go see your Witch.” “Wait I didn’t agree to this.” Winks said. “You don’t get to agree to this.” Lute said pointedly. “It’s called responsibility.”

“I can fix this.” Winks said. Stubbornly. “I just need time.”

“By the sounds of things, time is the last thing you have.” Lute shot back.

“Why don’t we put it to a vote?” Stanford said. “All in favor of taking part in a magical journey to the witch's hut-”

“Actually she lives in a cottage” Toufi corrected.

“-Witches cottage say ‘Aye’” Stanford said.

“Aye,” Lute, Toufi and Stanford said in unison.

“All opposed?”

“I really don’t have a choice in this do I?” Winks sulked.

“Off to the witch we go!” Stanford cheered. He kicked his legs enthusiastically, almost clocking Lute in the face. “Whoops, sorry.”

--

A/N: i’d like to thank the amazing @artylovr for their amazing work on the drawings featured in this chapter.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Toufi and Winks are characters I based off of Enid Blyton’s work with her frequent use of Fairy folk. I have plans for these two to make multiple appearance in the future. 

what did you like the most? What did you like the least? tell me all about it below! see you guys next chapter!