‘I’m so sorry’ she wept as Rowan landed on the ground beside her. He pulled her up from the ground and wrapped his arms around her.
‘Are you okay?’ he queried, ‘you should have waited for me, it’s not safe for you to go off alone like that’. She nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. He lowered his embrace and she stepped away from him, looking around at the burning village, which only hours before had been such a delightful place, full of happiness and children singing. Instinctively she closed her eyes and outstretched her arms, palms open. Enough, she thought, forcefully closing her hands tightly. When she opened her eyes again, all the fires had died out, not even a wisp of smoke could be seen. She wiped fresh tears from her eyes as she turned towards Oakley’s lifeless body. Stretching her arms out once more, palms facing down, she whispered,
‘May the forest always be your home my friend’. As she lowered her arms slowly, the earth began to rise up around him enveloping his body and pulling him down into the ground, until all that remained was a small mound of earth that immediately began growing an array of beautiful flowers. She turned and slowly began walking through the ruined village, each body she came across, she would bend and whisper to them, then use her powers to bury them. Rowan, followed at a distance, allowing her to complete what she felt she needed to do. When the last body had been buried, Lexi fell to her knees, grief and exhaustion washing over her. Rowan scooped her up in his arms and kissed her forehead,
‘You showed them the dignity and grace they deserved.’ He sighed, ‘We can’t stay here much longer, where do we go?’ Lexi’s eyes widened with panic,
‘Rowan, they’re all heading to join Amber. What if he follows them!’, he nodded in understanding,
‘I’ll get us there’ he whispered, summoning his wings and taking to the skies, cradling an exhausted Lexi to his chest. As he flew as fast as his wings could carry them towards the Gateway, his mind reeled with what Lexi had been able to accomplish. No fairy he knew, had ever been able to master a magic like what Lexi was capable of. It was almost as if she wasn’t using magic as such, but had a direct influence over everything around her. She was already showing a powerful ability to control light, and now fire and earth, with truly little effort. His eyes widened as the realisation sunk in, she’s an Environmental Fairy he thought to himself. They were thought to be extinct, stories told of how they were supposed to be able to manipulate everything natural around them, whereas most fairies were only capable of using their magic to control a narrow spectrum of the environment. Their kind had descended into the Realms of myth. Come to think of it, he had only heard of one Environmental Fairy by name, in the whole history of the Fairy Kingdom. He was the last king to have held the sword that Lexi now wore at her side. So much for myths! He thought. He pulled her in tight, as he pushed himself to fly faster than he’d ever flown. If Lexi truly was an Environmental, even though she hadn’t filled him in on what had happened at the village, he guessed it was Garrick, and he knew exactly why he would be so keen to get a hold of her. There were rumours that Garrick had a way of striping a fairy’s magic and making it his own, strengthening his power with each fairy he tortured and killed. He guessed there must have been a spy in the village when they’d arrived, they had run to Garrick with the news of where they were, but they’d left by the time he arrived. There was no doubt in his mind that Garrick had destroyed the tree dwellers home and slaughtered all those innocent people, with his Father working alongside him no doubt.
Rowan soon began to tire. The speed, combined with the weight of them both, was draining his energy. Far in the distance he could see something in the sky, it was heading straight for them. Rowan began to panic, neither of them were in a fit state for a fight. He dipped down into the trees and perched himself on a thick branch, Lexi still laying weak in his arms. He stared up at the sky through the leaves, anticipating the need to flee. There was a swooshing sound, followed by the sight of a pair of enormous eagle wings passing overhead. Rowan’s heart lifted with joy. He bolted up into the sky, holding onto Lexi, to come face to face with Zina, he’d never felt so relieved. She swooped around and came to a stop mid-air, fanning her wings to hold her position.
‘I am incredibly pleased at the sight of you also Rowan!’ she confessed.
The three arrived at the Gateway with Rowan and Lexi resting upon Zina’s back, Lexi still weak in Rowan’s arms. He lifted her down and carried her across the grass, to the open doors leading to her bedroom, despite his own fatigue. He softly laid her down upon the bed opposite Ambers, pulling the quilt up over her gently. Amber was perched on her own bed, an expression of concern and anguish upon her face.
‘We’d better leave her rest for a while’ he whispered, ‘let’s talk outside’, as he beckoned Amber towards the door. As they stepped out the doors, back into the clearing, Celeste came running from the woods. Word had reached her that they had both been found. She wrapped her arms around Rowan and stroked his black and white hair,
‘I’m so glad you’re safe. I feared the worst when the villagers began arriving’ she sobbed, ‘You hadn’t long left when the raid started. Where’s Lexi?’ she queried, clearly still a little panicked.
‘She’s okay, just very tired’ He assured her, gesturing towards the bedroom. Amber placed her hand on his arm,
‘Have you heard from Oakley?’ she inquired. Rowan bowed his head,
‘I’m so sorry Amber, he didn’t make it’, a slight tremble in his voice, ‘Lexi buried him at the village, so he will always be a part of the forest. Along with burying all the other dead’. Celeste and Amber stared at Rowan, bewildered.
‘How many dead?’ Celeste queried. Rowan shook his head,
‘I lost count at twenty-two, it must have been at least forty’. Celeste took Rowan by the shoulder,
‘Rowan, she couldn’t have possibly buried that many people?’. He looked her in the eyes, feeling a little bewildered himself.
‘I think she’s an Environmental’ he stated, ‘Celeste, I’ve never seen powers like hers. She has a powerful light inside of her, she warded off Zina with it when she attacked me, she then healed my wound with the same light. Somehow, she managed to travel to the Misty Mountains to speak with Titus, without having physically left the place where we slept many miles away. She can fly and flit faster than you can possibly imagine and with a single hand gesture she stopped the burning of the village. When she buried Oakley and the others, she simply held out her arms, palms down. As she lowered her hands, the earth seemed to pull their bodies down into the ground, leaving mounds of earth, covered with flowers.’ Celeste slowly nodded, taking it all in. There was a long silence.
‘Her powers are developing faster than I’d expected’, she stated, ‘Although it is to her advantage that they’ve done so.’ Both Rowan and Amber stared at Celeste in surprise.
‘You knew?’ Amber exclaimed. Celeste held up her hand to protest,
‘We had no solid proof that’s what she was. Bastian and I had suspected since the day she were born that it was a possibility though.’ She sighed, ‘Nobody saved Lexi from Garrick the day she was born. When he tried to kill her, somehow she defended herself, leaving him severely wounded.’ Rowan gasped,
‘You mean that awful scar down his face?’ he gestured sideways from his left eye down to the right of his chin. ‘I always thought he’d got that scar in battle?’ Celeste chuckled dryly,
That’s what he’d like you to believe. Better that, than inflicted by a newborn half-fairy, barely an hour old’.
Awakening
When Lexi woke, she was staring up at a water-stained ceiling. Disorientated, her head pounding, she sat herself up, in a soft, cosy bed. She was back in the bedroom she shared with Amber. Back or never left? she queried with herself. Everything was feeling so surreal, her ears were ringing, and looking around the room, everything seemed to have a halo of colour to it. Maybe I’ve got the flu? She thought as she tried to swing her legs out of bed, but she felt too weak. Slu
mping back down into the bed, she sighed and pulled the quilt up over herself. Memories of recent events began to trickle through the fog in her head.
‘Rowan?’ she whispered, unsure if he were even real, let alone nearby. She felt someone sit themselves down at the foot of her bed. Peering over the top of her quilt nervously, she was relieved to see he was in fact real, and he was there, smiling down at her. She reached out a hand to him and he shuffled up onto the bed beside her, wrapping his arm around her. He gently kissed her cheek and she slipped back into a deep sleep, as he lay alongside her, ensuring she slept safely.
When she woke again, she felt considerably better. There was a deep red glow filling the room, cast by the setting sun. Rowan’s arm still curled around her, comforting and protective. Amber was laid asleep on her bed opposite, curled into her own protective little ball. Lexi gently lifted his arm from around her, ensuring not to wake him, and quietly crept from the bedroom, down the hall and out into the living room. Celeste sat on the tatty aubergine sofa, sipping a steaming mug of coffee. She turned and smiled up at Lexi as she entered the room, patting the seat beside her,
‘I must say, I am relieved to see you awake. I wasn’t sure how much you had over worked yourself’. As Lexi sat herself down on the seat next to her, Celeste placed her hand on Lexi’s knee, ‘How are you feeling?’ she inquired. Lexi, turned her head to the side a little, assessing herself for a moment.
‘I’m okay’ she replied, ‘although quite upset with myself, I wish I could have done more for the tree dwellers. Did the ones who escaped make it to safety?’, as she remembered all too clearly burying those that had given their lives to save the others. Celeste nodded,
‘They are safe for now. They used magic to hide their route, so they can’t be tracked here. We have placed a strong protection spell around an area nearby that they have chosen to make home, temporarily.’ She lifted her hand to Lexi’s cheek, ‘What you have achieved these past few days is beyond any of our expectations. When you spoke with your Fathers’ embers, did he explain to you, how your magic is different to ours?’. Lexi dipped her head, remembering her Dad. She smiled faintly at the fond memory of being able to properly say her goodbyes, but knowing he was always going to be close in some way.
‘He did a little. He said that my power comes from nature, rather than interacting with it. We’re all elementals from what I understood, but I am connected directly to the nature all around me? The way he tried to explain it, was that I’m directly plugged in, rather than communicating over Wi-Fi.’ Celeste laughed a little at his explanation, and nodded in agreement. ‘He also explained what happened with Garrick, the day I was born.’ Lexi continued, ‘I saw the scar when we slipped by him at the Palace. I can’t believe I did that, even if he was trying to kill me. Dad said I acted purely instinctively, I was too young to even understand what was going on. It was more nature's reaction, rather than my own? Do you think that’s why my uncle hates me so much?’, a sombre expression grew on her face.
‘Oh honey, Garrick hates everyone, it is simply in his nature to do so’. She took Lexi’s hand, squeezing it tightly, ‘He’s a bad man Lexi, and to do what needs to be done, you can’t think of him as anything but that. He’s not your uncle anymore. Maybe, once he could have been, but the darkness and hate has consumed him. Truly little of your Father’s brother remains, if anything at all’. Lexi nodded, understanding what Celeste was trying to say.
Rowan suddenly appeared at the door, his whole body visibly relaxing as he set eyes on Lexi. He was swiftly at her side, positioning himself on the arm of the sofa next to her. Celeste smiled at the two of them,
‘I am so proud of you both. What you have done, and have yet to do, is not the easiest for anyone, let alone two who are so young’. She stood and made her way to the door that lead to the back of the house. ‘I am going to go and prepare some food for you both, you must be starving. You can then get some more sleep before tomorrow, we’ve got a battle to prepare for, you’ll need all your energy’. She left the room, pulling the door closed behind her.
Lexi stood from the sofa, took Rowan’s hand, and lead him towards the front door of the house. As she swung the door wide open, the last of the setting sun burst in, illuminating them with a beautiful red and orange glow. Lexi stepped out onto the porch, Rowan pulled back reluctantly.
‘I’ve never been to the outside world before’ he stated apprehensively. She tugged playfully at his hand,
‘Come on, I want you to experience some of my world’ she pleaded, ‘Only for a little while. I’ll look after you’, she winked. He laughed a little, nodded and hesitantly stepped over the threshold into the human world. They walked to the edge of the porch and looked out at the view beyond.
‘I’ll have to take you out there properly one day’ she whispered, as she let go of his hand and stepped down onto the overgrown front lawn. She hadn’t even realised she was barefoot until she felt the cool grass beneath her feet, it felt amazing. She took a few more steps,
‘Um Lexi, I don’t think that’s meant to be possible out here!’ Rowan pointed out, she glanced back at him to see he was gazing down at her feet. Looking down, she could see that each footstep she had made, had produced a beautiful assortment of wildflowers.
‘Maybe we’re too close to the barrier for it to matter?’ she guessed. Rowan shook his head.
‘I’ve tried Lexi, I have no magic here’, he lifted his shoulders, but no wings appeared. She lifted hers, and to her amazement they did appear, shimmering in the fading light. She flicked them back in and took a few more steps out into the grass. She could feel a buzz of energy, stronger than she’d ever felt before now, it was as if the ground were charging her somehow. She smiled up at Rowan, still cautiously stood up on the porch,
‘It’s restoring the power I used up today’ she stated, ‘I think I have a connection in both worlds!’. She laid down on the grass, her arms outstretched. She closed her eyes and could feel the energy coursing through her, it felt as if tendrils were reaching up from the ground and filling her with power. She heard Rowan gasp, opening her eyes she was amazed to see that she was in fact glowing, full on lightbulb effect glowing. He stepped down onto the grass, sitting himself down beside her. She lifted herself up to sit beside him, watching the last slither of sun disappear below the horizon.
‘I’m not sure I can do this Rowan’ she whispered. He leant over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders,
‘You can do anything you put your mind to Lexi, and I know you’ll always do the right thing’. They sat and watched the evening draw into night. The stars began to twinkle as the moon rose, casting its pale white light down on them. Lexi’s own glow faded as her energy levels replenished, unaware new powers were awakening within her.
Training Day
As the evening chill set in, Lexi and Rowan eventually decided it was time to make their way back inside. Stepping back through the front door and into the living room, they found a wonderful spread of food laid out on the dining table, that Celeste had prepared for them a few hours earlier. Fortunately, she had made a splendid selection of sandwiches, crisps, cakes etc, otherwise it would have all gone cold. Despite it being one o’clock in the morning, they got stuck in, Amber joining them as they dined and chatted into the early hours, eventually taking themselves off to bed around five o’clock.
Lexi woke to the sound of people moving around the clearing outside the bedroom doors. She tapped Rowan awake. Amber waking soon after, to the sound of them shuffling around the room, attempting to be quiet rather unsuccessfully. After pottering around for a little while, Lexi reached into one of her drawers at the base of the bed and pulled out a large, fluffy grey towel. Bending over, she kissed Rowan’s cheek, where he sat at the head of her bed chatting with Amber about how Celeste had healed her wing successfully.
‘I’m going to have a shower and freshen up’ she stated, making her way across the hall to the bathroom. Shutting and bolting the door, she reached into
the walk-in shower and turned on the water, giving it chance to warm up while she got undressed. Looking at herself in the mirror, as she had only days before, she felt she looked different, more grown up. She also thought she looked much healthier, her skin was no longer pale, there were no dark circles around her eyes. Despite the circumstances of impending danger, she felt genuinely happy for the first time, feeling she was where she was meant to be.
Stepping into the shower, Lexi let the warm water envelop her. She stood for some time, just letting the water wash over her, feeling her whole body relax. Eventually she cupped her hands, collected some water and splashed it over her face. Cupping them again, she collected more water, this time focusing intently on the liquid collecting in her hands. It soon began to move, swirling up out of her palms to form the shape of a rose. A smile spread across her face. She let the water sculpture collapse and wash away, gathering more in her cupped hands. This time she imagined a small horse, and to her surprise the water sprung to life almost instantly, a small horse formed and began galloping around her. She let the horse canter in circles until it reached the floor, where it dispersed to join the rest of the water. I wonder, she thought to herself, as she focused her attention on the individual falling drops of water all around her. To her amazement all the droplets stopped and hung in mid-air, then began to move backwards, back up into the shower head. There was an unexpected knock at the door, causing her to lose her focus, the water suddenly gushed back down over her, causing her to scream in shock. Rowan burst into the room, believing something was wrong. They both froze for a moment, unsure how to react. Rowan a little too slowly, lowered his gaze,
Ignite: The Awakening Page 9