The Silent Soldiers

by Travis Stinnett

I asked as I inched my way closer to Jack. I tripped over the platform where Jack stood and nearly fell flat on my face before I caught myself.

  “THEY, are faeries,” One of the tiny little creatures said from the top of the desk where they all stood.

  “Are you for real?” I asked giggling, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I watched in shock as one of the little creatures darted off the desk and grabbed the front of my shirt with its tiny little hand and lifted me off the floor.

  “NEVER question our existence,” I recognized as the male voice I heard from the hall.

  “Put him down, Ralah,” said Jack.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you,” I said as I stared at the tiny little man. He slowly lowered me back to the floor and took his place next to the other tiny faeries standing on the desk. They all were about three inches tall with transparent little wings coming out of their backs. They seemed to shimmer much like the dust that littered the desks I saw when I entered the room.

  “This is Luke, Mr. Carrington’s grandson,” said Jack.

  “Hello,” I said shyly.

  “It is definitely an honor to meet you,” said one of the female faeries. I gave her a little nod and a smile as I noticed the faerie Jack called Ralah scowling at her.

  “I am very sorry I interrupted your meeting,” I said.

  “It’s ok, Luke,” said Jack.

  “We will deliver your message to Queen Ezelah, and will return with her answer to your request soon,” said Ralah.

  “Very well,” said Jack, I hope to hear from you soon.” With that the faeries began to pop and disappear as I stared at them in disbelief. As each one vanished I could see the shimmering, glitter like dust float slowly down to the top of the desk. Ralah disappeared lastly and I turned to look at Jack.

  “It’s great to see you again, Luke,” he said adding that faeries were so messy leaving their dust everywhere they went.

  “You too, Jack,” I responded.

  “I guess you are wondering what they were doing here,” said Jack.

  “What?” I asked. My mind was still occupied with the thought of the faeries that were now gone.

  “The faeries,” Jack said, "I was trying to convince them to fight with us against Nhados. Faeries are very reluctant to go into battle, but we can use all the help we can get.”

  “Oh,” I replied.

  “I sent word to the Queen that we would appreciate their help when we face Nhados,” said Jack.

  “We?” I asked, “I thought the Silent Soldiers were going alone.”

  “I will not allow you to go to battle alone!” Jack exclaimed.

  “I see,” I said, but really didn’t know what he meant by it.

  “I must be off. I have much to do before the battle,” said Jack.

  “Wait!” I said but it was too late. Jack had already vanished before I could finish what I was going to say. I left his classroom very confused about what just happened. I didn’t understand what he meant about having a lot to do before battle. I assumed my friends and I were going to get the sword on our own. Grandpa never mentioned anyone going with us. I shook away the thoughts that were running through my head as I headed for the library.

  I pushed open the door to the library and let out a “WOW!” as I entered the magnificent room. The room contained two levels. Along the first level, on all four walls, were shelves full of books. The shelves were so tall that a ladder was attached to rollers running the length of each wall. A set of stairs led up to a walkway that ran along the perimeter of the room on the second level. It mirrored the first level with the shelves full of books and the ladders. In the center of the ceiling hung a magnificent chandelier that shed a dull light around the entire room. The light was not very bright, but it was more than enough light to see the shelves of books. The center of the room was filled with rectangle shaped tables with chairs at each one. Each table contained a lamp that lit them up with brighter light for reading. The tables were arranged in two rows. At the end of the row of tables was a desk with a computer on it.

  I walked over to the computer and moved the mouse and the screen came to life. A screen came on that identified the computer as the card catalog. I had learned how to use the card catalog in school so I decided to get to work. I originally came to the library just to see what type of books were here, but now I had something to research. I typed in Faeries into the box on the screen and clicked the search button. I jotted down the numbers it gave me and began searching the shelves of books.

  I had to go to the second level before I found the section that contained the book I was looking for. I found it pretty easily and pulled it from the shelf to carry back to a table on the first level. I took a second and looked at some of the other titles. There were books on vampires, and werewolves, and all kinds of other creatures I had no idea even existed. I grabbed one titled Demonology. I also pulled another one titled Supernatural Beings Explained. I headed down the stairs to look at what I had found.

  I opened the book about Faeries first and began scanning the pages. I learned that faeries not only had great strength, which I witnessed first hand only a few minutes earlier. They also were beings that could quickly and easily travel between different dimensions. I learned several other interesting facts about faeries as I continued to scan the book. As I closed the book and put it to the side I heard the door open behind me. I turned to see who it was as Ava closed the door and walked toward me.

  “Hi,” I said as she took a seat across the table from me.

  “Hi Luke, what are you reading?” She asked.

  “Well, I was looking through this book about faeries,” I said.

  “Why are you reading about faeries?” She asked giggling.

  “I had a strange encounter with some a few minutes ago. I found Jack talking to several in his classroom on my way here,” I explained, “I just wanted to find out a little more about them.

  “Really?” Ava asked. I told her what all happened on my way to the library as she listened intently.

  “Wow!” she exclaimed, “I thought it would just be us going after the sword.”

  “Yeah me too. Grandpa never said anything to us about having help,” I said.

  “Jack must be organizing help for us on his own,” said Ava,

  “But why would he do that?”

  “I don’t really know, but he made it very clear that he would not allow us to go to battle alone,” I didn’t tell her he said he wouldn’t allow “me” to go alone.

  “Something seems weird about this,” Ava said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “First, Jack shows up at just the right time to protect you from those vampires and Nhados. And second, he seems to be taking it upon himself to organize help for our mission,” she explained, “Does that not seem a little weird to you?”

  “I guess,” I said a little confused about what she was getting at.

  Suddenly there was a pop, and Ralah stood in the middle of the table staring up at me. Ava and I jumped at the noise. We both stared back at him shocked with his sudden appearance.

  “Queen Ezelah requests your presence,” Ralah said with a hint of disgust in his voice. I guessed he still had hard feelings toward me about interrupting them earlier.

  “Who?” Ava asked. Ralah turned his head around sharply to glare at Ava and I saw her move back away from him slightly.

  “Ezelah is the Queen of the faeries,” I explained to Ava.

  “The Queen sent me. She asked that I bring you to our world to speak with her,” said Ralah.

  “I will only go if Ava can come with me,” I told Ralah confidently.

  “Fine, but we must leave this instant. There is not much time if we are to successfully obtain the Koichi sword,” he explained.

  “What?” Ava and I both asked as he threw the familiar shimmering dust toward both of us. The dust flew at our faces at the same time. I heard the pop sound faeries make when
they appear and disappear. I couldn’t see anything. I began to scream as I felt myself falling through the air.

  17

  It seemed like several minutes that I had been falling, but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. I felt myself slow down and suddenly made contact with something solid and realized I was lying on my back. I opened my eyes and was starring up at a beautiful blue sky. I had never seen a sky as blue as the one I was looking at now. I stood up quickly and found Ava. I helped her to her feet and we both turned in circles taking in our surroundings. We were standing in the middle of a forest. There were trees all around us reaching up to the sky. The plants and flowers located around the floor of the forest were unlike any I had ever seen. They were all shapes and sizes from the tiniest little bloom to some that were nearly as big as we were. The colors were so bright they appeared as though someone had painted them. Ava and I were both speechless.

  “Follow me,” I heard Ralah say in the distance. Ava and I both turned toward his voice and stared in amazement. I wasn’t sure if he had grown or if we had shrunk, but he was now the size of a normal human.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “I have brought you to the faerie world to see the Queen. You two look as though you have seen a ghost,” Ralah laughed.

  “You’re so big!” Ava exclaimed.

  “No, I am my normal size. It is you two that are so tiny. The faerie world is quite small, and we can’t have some big giants walking around crushing our world under their huge feet,” Ralah explained. We had been