If we had not been so tired, we never would have found it. The daily routine, the mundane, and the monotony had left us feeling grey and dull. We struggled to see the little magics all around us. Then, just as we were ready to give up the search for something more, there it was, Grimalkin's Rest. A tiny haven tucked almost out of sight.

Inside was warm, golden brown, well-polished wood and cosy chairs. A place of welcome and rest. It was like the hug we hadn't known we needed. Here was a place we could call home. A place where we wouldn't lose sight of the magic.

As we explored the many nooks and crannies of Grimalkin's Rest, its other residents began to make themselves known to us. A motley collection of Grimalkins, Goblins, Fae folk, animals, and others we didn't yet have a name for.

We were enchanted. How could we not be? Everything we had been searching for appeared to be right here. Who wouldn't want to stay, warm, safe, and surrounded by the magic of Grimalkin's Rest?

As time passed though, many of the residents became restless. For them, Grimalkin's Rest was not a home but a waystation. They heard our stories about wandering through the mundane world and thought there must be others like us out there. Others who needed just a touch of magic in their lives, and maybe, others who could help our residents fulfil their own dreams.

So here we are, running Grimalkin's Rest, sharing the stories of our enchanting residents, and hoping, that maybe, they will find their way out into the world and to you...

It is not often that one gets to meet a half-forgotten deity but that is what happened to us.

Gajibnub, the Bubbling One, the Great God of Fermentation, Forgotten Knowledge, and Glorious Chaos, oozed into our lives one May afternoon and promptly made himself at home.

He speaks through gurgles.  He teaches through spores.  He loves you like a jar loves a pickle.

Gajibnub, praise the bubble, is a benevolent god.  He teachers the tenets of the vinegar creed and calmly oversees the world around him from his cauldron.

As Gajibnub teaches, you need not drink the vinegar to love the vinegar, but you can always have fun pouring vinegar over bi carb soda.

The first time I came across the Toadstool Tribe whilst exploring, I thought I’d found a fairy ring.  A little circle of mushrooms sitting in the middle of a room.  They were perfectly still and a gentle humming sound emanated from them.  It wasn’t until one of them jumped up to say hello that I realised they were sitting on green carpet rather than moss and that several of them weren’t really Toadstools at all.

The Toadstool Tribe is something of a fixture around Grimalkin’s Rest.  The exact members vary, but there is always a group of Toadstools, Mushies, and Friends running around somewhere.  Usually they are very helpful, but they make their share of mischief too.

Circles are a favourite pastime of the Tribe.  They hold circles for talking, circles for sewing, circles for drumming, and circles for humming.  If they can think of something they can do whilst sitting in a circle, they will do it.  I’ve even found them walking in a circle a time or two, but they get a bit embarrassed to be caught doing that.  (I don’t know why either.)

When not in a circle somewhere, the Toadstool Tribe have a gift for finding and helping the shyer residents of Grimalkin’s Rest.  Some of them are given a mushroom hat and adopted into the Tribe itself, others they help by introducing them to different groups that might suit them better. 

Toadstools and Mushies have a gift for gossip, and they always seem to know who needs help and who could best provide it.   Whilst I have had to step in once or twice when some gossiping did more harm than good, in general the Toadstool Tribe are a good-hearted bunch.  They are always happy to help out or run messages and usually leave a space at least as tidy as they found it.

Cappy the Worrywart Toadstool was worrying again.  He’d worried about why the sky was blue, and what would happen if the clouds fell down.  He’d worried about how sand manages to get everywhere, and what would happen to the beaches if the sand was constantly getting tracked away.  Then he’d worried about what would happen if all the ants in the world started building their ant hills in one location.  Eventually he’d worried so much that he started to worry he’d run out of things to worry about.

Luckily, Marv, Cappy’s best friend, found him just as he was starting to panic.  Marv had been a resident of Grimalkin’s Rest for a long time, and he’d known quite a few Worrywarts.  Experience had taught him that different Worrywarts needed different things when they started to spiral.  In Cappy’s case, Marv knew he just needed a really good distraction.  It was time for some tea.

Taking Cappy by the hand, Marv set out to find their friends and all the things they would need for a picnic.  He knew that by the time they had found everyone and everything, Cappy would be back to his normal Worrywart self.

The first friend they found was Daisy.  She was in the middle of her potted plants, carefully picking leaves and flowers to dry.  At the mention of a picnic, Daisy immediately volunteered to bring the snacks.  Marv was pleased, Daisy had a huge sweet tooth and usually managed to find the best snacks.  He also thought it was better if Daisy didn’t make the tea.  Her fascination with poisonous plants always made Marv a bit nervous.  Especially when she brewed tea.  He was never entirely sure if she knew the difference between her dried plants and the tea leaves.

With Daisy and the snacks sorted, Marv dragged Cappy along to find the tea set and a picnic blanket.  He thought he remembered putting them away in a cupboard, but that didn’t mean they were still there.  Grimalkin’s Rest had a habit of moving things about, especially if it didn’t like where you had put something.

After checking a few cupboards, Cappy spotted the picnic blanket on a shelf just above their heads.  Reaching up, Cappy grabbed the blanket and tugged.  It didn’t budge.  Confused, Marv grabbed onto the blanket as well, and they both pulled hard.  At first nothing happened, then suddenly the blanket shifted, tumbling down on top of them, followed by something much heavier.

There were a few minutes of confused scrambling, as Marv and Cappy untangled themselves from the blanket and each other.  It wasn’t until they were free of the blanket that they realised the heavy thing that had fallen on them was their friend Liza, who must have been napping in the cupboard and was now happily snoozing on the floor beside them. 

Marv just shook his head; he was always impressed by Liza’s ability to nap.  He gently woke them up and suggested they meet them under the bushes for a picnic.  Sleepily, Liza agreed and wandered off to nap under the bushes until the picnic was ready.

Still holding Cappy’s hand, Marv found the tea set and gathered up the remaining supplies for their picnic.  He then helped Cappy brew the tea, something that Cappy was particularly good at.  When the tea was ready the two mushrooms went to meet their friend under the bushes.

After laying out the picnic rug and setting up the tea things, the four friends gathered around to drink tea and nibble on biscuits.  They shared stories and chatted about their day.  Cappy explained his morning worries, then Daisy told everyone about her new flowers.  Liza didn’t say much but was definitely awake this time, and that funny noise was a laugh and absolutely not snoring.

Marv watched them all and smiled.  It felt good to have brought his friends together.  Sometimes the simplest things created the best memories.

Have you ever been told that you are a bit of an odd duck?  That’s what happened to Ganix and he liked it so much he decided to start a chapter of the Odd Duck Society.  An organisation for individuals (and ducks) who are decidedly themselves, regardless of where they are.

Ganix himself, was actually a satyr, not a duck, and the stories of how he came to be called an odd duck have been so wildly exaggerated that it is unlikely anyone will ever uncover the truth of it.  What we do know is that Ganix is a beekeeper and his society has flourished within Grimalkin’s Rest for many years.

The Odd Duck Society (occasionally shortened to ODS for their own amusement) meets regularly for a mixture of official and social events.  Their monthly meetings include Commendations for Odd, encouragement for those who need help to be Odd, and tips for how to bring more Oddness into the world.  Socially, they organise regular Information Evenings where members can share about their topics of interest, as well as a any number of random events depending on the whims of the Odd Ducks who organise these things.

Many of the social events are open to non-members as well and are usually well attended.  As the non-Odd Ducks like to say, they might be a bit strange, but it’s bound to be interesting.

Grimalkins are a type of cat.  They are particularly magical and can take on a few different forms.  Within Scottish folklore they were referred to as a faery cat. 

All Grimalkin’s have at least some magical abilities, although not all choose to use them.  Some Grimalkins prefer to take on a more mundane cat shape and be cosseted by humans.  Others take a more anthropomorphic form in order to adventure more freely.

Both forms are frequently seen around Grimalkin’s Rest.  It’s not quite clear whether the Rest was named because the Grimalkins showed up or if the Grimalkins showed up because of the name.  I have tried asking this question, but being cats the answers given were typically vague and unhelpful.

Hidden somewhere in the grounds of Grimalkin’s Rest is the Grimalkins school.  The exact location is a very well-guarded secret, despite the groups of rambunctious kittens that appear and disappear at random intervals.

The school is responsible for teaching Grimalkin kittens the history and customs of their race.  Secrets that they have never shared with any human, although napping appears to be an important ritual.

Living at Grimalkin’s Rest means getting used to random visitors but there are still some that stand out more than others.  The Grey Coven are definitely one that stood out.  There were five kittens in the litter, all grey, and all at that slightly awkward stage of old enough to be adopted but still very young.

Most of the kittens that come to the Grimalkin’s hidden school are still babies and generally live at home.  Sometimes though older kittens are sent along to find their calling and seek their fortunes.  They often reside at the Rest whilst they attend school, and the five kittens we dubbed the Grey Coven were no exception.

The five Grimalkins in the Grey Coven all had a distinctly magical bent, and whilst they all had different interests, they happily used that magical talent to get up to as much mischief as possible.

One such moment was The Great Pumpkin Heist. 

Rue and several other gardeners around Grimalkin’s Rest had a bumper crop of pumpkins.  They were beautiful to look at, with smooth mottled green skin and bright orange flesh.  They were also very tasty and the cooks at Rest were making a wonderful variety of soups, muffins, and roast vegetables with the bounty.

For reasons only known to the Grey Coven, they took a liking to several of the pumpkins.  They could often be found among them.  Sometimes napping, sometimes playing, and occasionally licking them.  This didn’t bother anyone, until it came time to harvest their favourite pumpkins.

The Grey Coven were busy with lessons when their favourite pumpkins were harvested.  So, you can imagine their displeasure when finally free to play, they headed to their favourite spot and found “their” pumpkins gone.

It did not take long for the five grimalkins to hatch a plan.  The two youngest were sent off to annoy some spell rats and create a diversion, whilst the older three raided the kitchen to find the pumpkins.

Soon a number of shrieking spell rats could be found running through the halls of Grimalkin’s Rest, chased by two rambunctious kittens, intent on catching their prey.  This would have been disturbance enough, but the eldest three kittens soon found more pumpkins than they expected.

Rather than searching out the individual pumpkins the kittens had loved, they decided it would be better to free all the pumpkins.  So, with a mixture of magic and kittenish luck, the three grimalkins set all of the pumpkins rolling out of the kitchen door, through the halls, and into the garden.

The cooks were the first to notice the moving pumpkins and veered off from chasing the kittens chasing rats to chase pumpkins instead.  This caught the attention of the spell rats and the two youngest kittens, causing a temporary truce whilst they chased pumpkins together.

Next to join were the gardeners, rather disturbed by their suddenly moving harvest.  Then a variety of other residents joined in, mostly because they just liked chasing things.  Afterall, if you saw a parade of pumpkins, kittens, creatures, and people running past, wouldn’t you be tempted to join too?

This rather eclectic collection of residents followed the pumpkins round and round the garden for nearly fifteen minutes before the magic and kittenish luck ran out.  Exhausted and somewhat bemused the pumpkin parade ground to a halt.  The pumpkins gently came to a stop, and the cooks and gardeners gathered them up to take back into the kitchen.

The five instigators of this merry chase attempted to protest, but after a day of lessons, an intense planning session, chasing rats, magicking pumpkins, and then chasing said pumpkins, the Grimalkin kittens were nearly asleep on their feet.  Despite their protests, they were scooped up alongside the pumpkins and tucked into a basket where they promptly fell asleep.

Never again were the Grey Coven allowed unsupervised around vegetables, but the gardeners of the Rest did pay a little more attention after that to who was enjoying the gardens and why.