The Fairy Tale

by Talia Haze

  “Except for us,” I added, quietly. “What is a Tashin Rider? What sort of trader are you to be named?”

  Father smirked before looking down at his food. “No sort of trader,” he replied. “I’m a treasure hunter…”

  Kyle overheard him and gaffed, pulling his chair closer. “Renard, you’re a thief,” he corrected. Now, it was Angel’s and my turn to be shocked. Sean and Saramine’s conversation with Rebecca stopped and they looked to us.

  My father’s grin just widened. Kyle smirked and continued. “We find treasures across the lands and sell them to the highest bidder. It’s quite a profitable trade. We’re known for our ability to get anything we try…”

  “We are known because we are wanted across several lands,” our father retorted, with a laugh. Angel and I exchanged quick glances, but our father saw. “I had to provide for you,” he added. “The only way I knew how was to find rare treasures for profit. It became far too dangerous to take you with us, so that is why we commissioned Harrison.

  “I cannot believe that man erased your memory of us,” our mother added, ferociously. “You were not so young when we started. We were never away from home longer than a few days.”

  “Sean, you did come with us on many of our quests,” our father added, turning. “You were almost killed during a skirmish. Rebecca and Michael were forced to leave you at home as well.”

  “A choice that still haunts me,” Rebecca said, stroking her son’s hair.

  “I remember shadows of it,” Sean agreed. “I remember flying…which is strange as Uncle Harrison forbid me from turning back.”

  Rebecca’s lips pinched tight and she pushed Sean’s head against her shoulder while staring at our mother with welling eyes. “I am sorry…we never knew. I never knew.”

  “The treasures soon become rarer, more extravagant,” our father continued, rubbing the back of his head. “The time we spent away from home turned to months, months to years.”

  “We made plenty of enemies on our travels,” our mother added.” Some believe that the ancient items we seek belong to the land where we find them. When take them to sell elsewhere, we became outlaws.”

  “That is how I remember you!” Angel exclaimed. “You were at the castle during the spring celebrations, selling the ambassador a gem.” Our mother nodded.

  “A bountiful day, that,” Kyle agreed. “We were the honored guests! We just sat to supper when you decided to have your tribe attack…”

  “It was not my tribe then,” Angel retorted. “I never would have been so foolish as to attack the castle. So, we did fight,” she added, turning to our father. “I tried to kill you. You tried to kill me.”

  Our father just stared. “I didn’t recognize you under all the of paint,” he said softly. “Although I probably wouldn’t have recognized you even without. I had to protect the ambassador from you; he was paying for your well-being.” He angrily looked down at his mug. “So, I thought.”

  Ryan glared at his brother. “How long exactly were you with them, Kyle? How did they find you?”

  “Just that, we found him,” our father said. “We were our way home when we found him in the reeds.”

  “They might have just left me,” Kyle grumbled. Our mother glared at him. “Divah was chasing them and he nearly killed me in the fight…”

  “You were fine!” our father complained. Kyle just grinned. I smiled too, excited to see what their relationship was like. “This was about five years ago…”

  “You came home five years ago?” Angel exclaimed. Connie and Stony turned at Angel’s outburst.

  “As Kyle said, Divah had followed us,” my mother said as she shook her head. “I didn’t want him knowing where you were. It was late when we came home…we kissed you in your beds before continuing on.”

  “That was the last time we visited,” our father muttered. Kyle didn’t hear him and groaned loudly.

  “Yeah, and they promptly traded me to the Lingue-gue tribe. I trained for two years before Zairae declared that I wouldn’t be a hindrance to them…”

  “No, actually the Lingue-gue demanded that we trade back,” our father teased. Kyle just rolled his eyes. “It was there we learned about the Grip of Gold, and that is what we seek now.”

  My heart seemed to skip a beat. “What’s that?” I felt I knew the answer already, but I leaned forward in anticipation.

  “It is the hand of the King Midas,” Stony answered. “There are tales that claim for the djinn to return his touch to normal, he would have to sacrifice something. So, he sacrificed his hand, the hand that caused him so much trouble.”

  I shifted excitedly. Tales, and mysteries and riddles in the fairy route was one thing; it was for purpose and expected. But outside of it? Who was my family? Was treasure hunting all about solving riddles and clues from tales?

  “We have been studying this and searching for years,” Father continued. “Once the treasure is in our possession, we planned to return home and change whatever we want into gold for income.”

  “And that’s what sort of traders we are,” Kyle said with a laugh.

  “It seems Harrison lied to us about everything.” Sean crossed his arms. “He led us to believe for so long that you were all dead and that our income was coming from a merciful partner. So, what of my father? Harrison said that he was slayed because he changed, and that is why I was forbidden to.”

  Rebecca couldn’t answer. Sean remained expressionless as he put one of hands on his mother’s back.

  “Michael wasn’t slayed,” Kyle replied, softly. “He was killed in an accident about two years ago. During a skirmish against Divah in a mountain village.”

  Sean nodded and Saramine gently put her hand into his. “Then I just missed him. I had made my peace as a child when hearing the news, but hearing it again is still very hard.”

  Rebecca nodded gently kissing his hand.

  “Then, what are we to do now?” I asked. I wondered if we would be able to go with them. I felt excited, but nervous. I thought Angel so silly to require any sort of practice and training before setting out to find our parents. Now, after braving the fairy unit, facing a deadly enemy, and hearing Kyle’s own testimony that he was only recently allowed to join them due to his lack of skill, I regretted not heeding my sister’s words. Even Connie with her bow was more lethal than I.

  Our father stared at me intently, trying to read my face. “We have completed our studies. We need one more piece and of course the ring. You did bring it, yes?”

  Connie nodded solemnly. “Certainly, we did not forget it. This ring was the cause of Depash and Nee Gus’ death…”

  “What?” the four chorused. Connie was so startled she nearly fell from her seat. “What has happened to Nee Gus?”

  Angel was the only one strong enough to tell it. Our mother was just as affected, and Kyle and our father shifted angrily. “We did not know what he wanted. Although, I am not sure I would have given it to him if I had.” Angel paused, trying to avoid our mother’s heart-broken eyes. “I did not know the cost.”

  “They must be honored,” Stony said simply.

  “And they shall be,” our father responded. Angel was frustrated.

  “Who even is this villain? Why did he kill them and why does he mean us such harm?

  “The man’s name is Divah,” our father answered, quietly.

  “He’s a fairy too with this thing against Renard. He’s always trying to best us…always has something to prove,” Kyle complained. “The lad is persuasive and has a lot of little buddies that follow him around. That band is known as the Tralin Shea. We would do all the work to find something, but he would just take it because he can overpower us. We can’t keep anything from him. We just lost an entire trove of rare jewelry to him last week. He stole our stash, then set our inn on fire. The fire spread and killed daughter of a duke. We managed to save the rest of his family. That’s how Divah became outlawed here in Hue and how we became so welcome in this kingdom.”

&n
bsp; “Divah may not be brilliant at solving the puzzles of old, but he is an expert at finding means to best people,” Stony confessed.

  “Let him try and best us now, then,” Kyle said, indignantly crossing his arms. “We have the ring and he still has no idea where the map half is.”

  “Thenowe,” Ryan said slowly. “Nee Gus gave us a map, saying you were headed that way. That’s why he refused to speak to Divah.”

  Our father nodded. “I forgot that I told him we were headed to next land…” He could barely finish his sentence as we groaned so loudly.

  “You mean we have to go through another fairy route?” Ryan complained.

  “It’s not so hard when you have the key, lad.” Kyle pulled a golden medallion from his pocket. “Once you have first completed the fairy routes, you are deemed worthy to pass freely and are given the key for an easy return. In first two routes, you don’t need these. It can recognize if you had come through there already or not.”

  “You didn’t make the fairy routes?” I asked, turning to Stony. “Why then were you all over them?”

  “I left my image in preparation of your arrival,” Stony replied.

  “You mean that you only appeared for us?” asked Sean. “What would happen if we were different people?”

  “My image would not appear. I would have told you exactly what you were to do, but I could only do what the route would allow…even that proved to be a trial on my part. If you were someone else, my image would not appear.”

  “He is the villain of many, but in this tale, he follows no girl, but shoat. Choose yours well,” recited Connie. “If we were different, we would not have that clue; we would have had to find BBW and understood what that meant.”

  “Yes, Princess.”

  “You see, Angel?” Ryan dared with a grin. “If you had gone on alone, you wouldn’t have had the book, and it would have been nearly impossible for you to get through.” Angel rolled her eyes. Our father nodded and loudly patted his legs.

  “So! You are more welcome to come with us. It will not be a quick or easy journey, but we will keep you safe. I do not wish to make anyone uncomfortable, so if you prefer to wait in Lavenora, we will of course, escort you back…”

  “I think you should all rest first before a decision is made,” our mother interrupted. “You have had a long day and tomorrow will be no better.”

  “Yes,” agreed our father, also standing. “We must rise early to make it to Thenowe in a day, or to Lavenora, whichever you prefer.”

  The others followed, gathering their bags. It had to be late; I certainly felt exhausted. But I was afraid to sleep. I was afraid that if I woke up, I would find that everything was just a dream.

  I watched our father stop Stony by putting his hand on his shoulder. Though he talked quietly, there was still power in his voice. Who was that man? A greedy man who would take any sacred treasure and sell it for the highest price, but a man who only did it for the love of his children? He wasn’t perfect; even with such reasonable explanation, I still felt abandoned. But I didn’t expect him to be perfect. I wasn’t sure what I expected. I didn’t feel any bitterness towards him, certainly not like I felt when Angel left.

  He could feel me staring and turned with a smile. “What are you thinking, Gab?”

  I shrugged and smiled. I didn’t know. I certainly couldn’t articulate it. I felt frustrated, relieved, angry, curious. So alone. Yet, I still felt loved. Our father was so insistent about our relationship, but Uncle Harrison had robbed us of that, and so much more.

  He sat next to me. “It’s like meeting you for the first time,” he whispered. He handed me a crumpled paper. It was in Aunt Beth’s hand, a letter to my father. I laughed as tears fell down my face. I suppose I should have been flattered. She knew me well enough to nearly perfect my mannerisms. I wondered if Uncle Harrison knew of her treachery. It made sense why we found the papers in a packet so similar to hers in the cellar. She probably hid them away from Harrison. That was why she looked so fearful when she said we were leaving. I wondered what punishment she faced if he found out.

  In the most recent letter, Aunt Beth wrote about my frustration about cleaning for the party, my complaints about Jessica, my joy when Hannah gave me her dress, my excitement when receiving my slippers. How strange it was to read my own tale written by another!

  “It’s all true.” I handed the letter back to him and wiped my eyes. “I thought she never paid me any mind. But this is almost as if I had written it.”

  “But you didn’t,” our father held the letter over the candle, watching it burn. We sat quietly for a few moments. “All these years have been a lie. I’ve been robbed of you…yet I’m to blame.” He looked up at me, those piercing eyes softened with regret. “I know nothing about you.”

  “There’s not much to know,” I replied with a shrug. Nothing that he didn’t already know. Aunt Beth must’ve been equally thorough in each of her letters to him.

  “I’m sure that’s not true,” he replied gently.

  Of course it was. He knew already that I was Moura, and that was really the most interesting thing about me. And what if Aunt Beth embellished everything? She certainly didn’t tell the whole truth. What if he just enjoyed his relationship with Aunt Beth-me? What if he didn’t like me-me?

  Our mother thought Angel was the most interesting person ever, and excitedly asked her many questions, even as they left the room. I had no stories of adventure to tell, no tales of war. I wondered what “I” did tell him. I wished I had the other letters to see.

  He gently nudged my cheek. “Hey. I don’t know what’s going on in there, but stop fretting, and stop comparing yourself to your sister.”

  I blushed.

  “I want to know what I missed. I want to know where I was deceived. I want to know your dreams, I want to know your fears. I want to know your pastimes, your likes, your dislikes. Gab, I want to know everything.”

  He sounded so convincing, but I still felt so unsure. “I like music,” I said at last. He smiled, and I was encouraged. “I play a pipe. I like to imagine that I play the flowers to sleep, or enchant fire-demons…I really like that.”

  “You like to imagine a lot, don’t you?”

  I nodded, once again becoming insecure. He hadn’t asked critically, but I was thrown by the question. “Yes.”

  He leaned forward as if he had a secret to share. “The pipe you play is a river flute. It is fabled to have belonged to a water nymph that enchanted the creatures of the deep. You are not too far off in your fancy.”

  I smiled excitedly, all my feelings of insecurity vanishing. The stories he could tell! “Is it? Then you gave it to me?”

  He nodded. His smile was broad though his eyes looked so sad. “I did. When you were five.”

  “And this?” I dug in my bags for the strange crystal that shed light when you squeezed it and held it up before him.

  He laughed lightly, taking it from my hands. “I cannot believe you still have this.”

  “Yes, I use it to read at night…”

  I trailed off as his smile grew so large that it nearly consumed his face. “Yes. Zairae made it for you. You would call it ‘the story light.’ He looked back at the crystal in his hands and turned it on and off. “You would hold it for Zairae when he read to you two.”

  I couldn’t remember. “Zairae? That’s who we call Stony, yes?”

  “Yes, I suppose he does look like stone. That’s clever…”

  “Who is he?”

  “Simply? Your uncle.”

  “My uncle?” I paused as I thought back those many weeks to finding the packet in the crypt. “But, we looked at the lineage. He would have to be well over two hundred years old…!”

  “Yes, he’s somewhere around there,” my father agreed, rubbing the back of his head. He could sense my confusion. “Fairies live a long time, Gab. Especially masters.”

  I had so many questions. They came out so incoherently and quickly that I couldn’t breathe. I
stopped suddenly. I startled him, and he stopped smiling. “Gab…?”

  “That’s what I like,” I said. He stared, his eyes becoming piercing once more as they tried to read my face. “I like the tales. I love them. I know most of them by heart.”

  His smile returned. “Zairae’s doing.”

  “I love the histories! And these you speak of, I have never heard of any of them! The Grip of Gold, water nymphs, fairies? I thought the tales all ended with ‘happily ever after.’”

  “Oh no, Gab. For us, the best tales begin at the phrase. One just has to study.”

  “And that is so wonderful!” I trailed, imaging what could have happened at the end of all the tales we had faced in the fairy route. Perhaps, the delicate strands of gold spun by the princess were made into garments fit for the princes of giants. Perhaps, the cunning fox returned home to grand parades after eating the evil gingerbread lord. Perhaps, the three Billy goats continued their march to save a stranded king, and perhaps the fox boy sweetly wooed a beautiful maiden. What untold stories could treasure hunting hold?

  “Hey, Gab.”

  I jumped and focused on my father. He wasn’t annoyed, quite the opposite, and smiled broadly. “I am so pleased you are fascinated with the tales…even more so that you have them memorized. That will be very useful later.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “Later?”

  “Sure, Gab. You want to come with us, don’t you?” His face looked sullen for a moment, and he added, “Or would you rather an escort to Lavenora?”

  “I want to go with you!” I declared. Our adventures so far had been strange, overwhelming, wonderful and sometimes terrible. But they were all a part of a tale. Good or bad, each little story was a just a glimpse into a bigger one. There was so much more to them than the here and now.

  I wanted to know what happened before “once upon a time.” I wanted to see what exactly “happily ever after” looked like. And I wouldn’t be able to do that if I went home.

  Home. The word became such a blurred mix of standing in Lavenora and next to my father. The manor in the meadow just seemed so far away. My Arohna was right, change would be what I made it. And I would make it a tale. A single fable within a much grander narrative.