by Natalie Erin
“Of course not. I wasn’t even really mad in the first place.” He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. Ionan’s mouth dropped open as he stared at his Accompany in outrage.
“Th-thank you” she sniffed. “You know, you’ve been really nice to me all this time, and all I’ve been is rude. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said.
“No, it’s not. I think you deserve this.” Kia smiled up at him and she placed a small, light kiss on his lips.
CHAPTER FIVE
LOTTIE’S NIGHTMARES
L ottie snuggled up to her mother’s white body in the early fall month, trying to sleep like her brother next to her. The leaves were in the middle of turning and it was starting to become chilly, turning into something the twin’s mother had called “winter.” Lottie and Lilja did not know what winter was, but their mother did. She told them it was the wolves favorite time of year, where frozen rain she called snow created a powdery playground for all the wolves to play and hunt in. Their mother eagerly awaited the day she would wake up one morning and have the joy of escorting her only litter to their very first snowfall. Lottie and Lilja were the only two pups she would ever have, their mother said, that she would never mate with another wolf after their father died from the bear attack.
It was the middle of the night and Lottie could see the sky outside the den. On a full moon like tonight, the wolves were usually awake and playing, perhaps skipping the usual meal in wait for the rush and excitement of a midnight hunt. Lottie loved those days. She and Lilja weren’t allowed to go with the adults, but they always brought back more food than she could eat and their mother said it wouldn’t be long before she could start to take them hunting. Their training had already begun, and the two waited anxiously for their very first hunt. On full moon hunts, the wolves ate so much their bellies would hurt and the games would not cease until far into dawn. Lottie felt so proud when her mother came home from a hunt, her white muzzle dripping with blood and snarling as she guarded the prey she had taken down.
But there would be no full moon hunt tonight. Their fairy Rota had become very sick very quickly in the first weeks of Fall. She had left with another group of fairies to a city far away in hope of treatment, and had instructed the mountains and the surrounding forest to take extra precaution. She had been gone for fourteen sunrises, with no sign of return. Lottie could see that the pack was worried. Rota guarded a massive space of land. Everyone was on edge with the thought of what could happen.
That night she felt someone shaking her awake. She wearily stumbled up to her feet and gazed sleepily around.
Lilja was trembling, and her mother had fear in her eyes. Lottie smelled something she did not recognize, and heard a crackling sound that was unfamiliar.
“Mama,” she asked, sniffing again, “What’s that smell?”
“It’s smoke, my fierce one,” she whispered calmly. “Come quickly. We have to move.”
“But why Mama?” asked Lottie. “Where’s the rest of the pack? Where did they all go?”
“I do not know, my strong pup,” said their mother, looking uncertain. She turned and said, “I want both of you to run. Run as fast as you can. I'll be right behind you. Run!” She nipped at her pup’s heels and the three wolves began running, to where Lottie did not know.
Lottie could hear her mother's voice in the distance call, “Run! Run faster! Don't look! Just run!”
Lottie awoke shivering against Lilja on the ground. She looked upon the ground where her legs had been resting. The dirt had been swept up back and forth with her legs, as if they had been running.
KIATANA YAWNED and rolled up her sleeping pelt. She packed her other supplies away, thinking about last night. I can’t believe I kissed him, she thought, looking over at Keota, who was resting against Ionan’s side. Do I have feelings for him?
The sun was high in the sky. She had slept long before she meant. Looking down at the ground, she saw a rock, picked it up and threw it at Keota.
“Hey!” he said, surprised as the rock hit him. “What was that for?”
“For not waking me up when you were supposed to,” she said.
He grimaced. “Even I was tired yesterday, and you were dead on your feet. You needed to rest.”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Lives are at stake here. The whole forest is in shambles. We don’t have time to be lazing around.” She turned her back on him and went over to the wolf pups. “Hey, get up,” she said, shaking Lilja with her foot. He yawned and looked disdainfully at her before getting up, stumbling over to the bag on Snow Drop, and jumping in. “Happy?” he asked grumpily. Kia heard nothing in the bag and knew Lilja had gone back to sleep. She began to wake up Lottie but she saw that the pup was already up, her head on her paws, her eyes bloodshot and blank.
“Um, Lottie, time to go,” she said impatiently. Lottie looked at her. Then, as if it took a great deal of effort, she rose upon her paws and padded slowly over to her bag. She jumped inside but Kia knew that, unlike her brother, she was anything but asleep.
“I sense a great disturbance in her,” rumbled Ionan. “She is consumed by it. Something is devastating her, and it rolls off her form in great, guilty waves.”
“Do you think there’s something they're not telling us?” Keota asked.
Ionan shook his head. “I know not, but whatever it is, something’s wrong.”
“Do you think we should ask them?” questioned Keota. Ionan shook his head again. “No. It is better if they want to tell us. I have a feeling that the truth will come out in due time, and my instincts are usually right. You should know that, Keota.”
An embarrassing silence came over the three as Ionan glared at his Accompany. Sensing the tension, Kiatana changed the subject. “How did you and Ionan fall from the sky? Couldn’t you have made a funnel pop out of nowhere and suck you back up to whatever weird place you come from? Smoky over here seems to be able to do it all.” She glared at Ionan, who was blatantly ignoring her once more.
Keota sighed and said, “You must not know anything about Accompanies and Changers.”
“No. What the heck are you, really?” she asked.
“There’s an old story that says the first of my race and the first of Ionan’s were actually a fairy and a phoenix, best friends changed by a light spirit. You know what those are, right?”
“I’ve heard of them, but I didn’t believe spirits actually existed,” Kia said.
“Well, the legend says that the light being made it so that my ancestor, Philialoha, was very tall and very strong, and her children continued this trait. The magic that the light spirit gave us made us stronger and stronger, until soon we were the most powerful creatures alive. Nothing can rival our strength.”
“And him?” Kia pointed at Ionan. The Changer blew a puff of smoke her way and she coughed as she inhaled, while Ionan chuckled quietly.
“Ionan,” Keota said, being careful to use his name, “Is a Changer, and Changers are a bigger mystery than Accompanies are. The light spirit gave her gift of change to them so that the phoenix and his descendants could morph into any animal at will. Changers are animals, but that’s about all we know. Or we think.”
Kia stared at the pair, struggling to comprehend all this new information. “What about how you fell from the sky? You two fly so well together, it doesn’t seem like you’d crash easily,” she said.
Keota went to answer but Ionan held his tail over his mouth to stop him. “Keota, no. It’s a secret.”
“Why? Because I can’t be trusted?” Kia’s eyes flared.
“No,” he said softly, but Kia saw that his gaze was guarded.
“Can’t she at least know what we were doing?” pleaded Keota. “She doesn’t have to know why!”
Ionan hesitated. Keota turned to Kia and quickly said, “We were arguing.”
“Arguing?” she asked. “About what?”
“That’s…” he started, “The part I can’t tell you.” He swung up onto Ionan�
�s back. “Now, how far are we from where the last known unicorn was sighted?”
CASIFF SLUNK AMONG THE BUSHES. His beloved female wolf was beside him, his army of predators behind him. It had only taken two days to get to Kia’s forest. Casiff had finally gotten the opportunity he had desired for years. He had wanted to take over Kia’s small forest since he was a young child. Soon he would be able to take more land from other fairies, with the help of Kia’s abundant resources. Her forest was lush and healthy from all the care she put into it, and her animals were happy and fat.
Too happy and fat. Casiff could never get his land to respond back to him the way hers did. Everything withered and died under his care. The animals were skinny and tough there, hardened from years of suffering. But Casiff did not care. What did it matter if every last animal died, as long as his land grew and his darling she-wolf was by his side? He smiled menacingly, climbing up on a ledge and looking down on the plains to see a few hundred scraggly and half-starving animals gazing up at him with hungry eyes. He commanded his army, “Move forward quickly. Cut down anyone who resists. Let the ones who obey the overrule live. Make it fast. I want Kia’s forest to be mine by tonight.”
LOTTIE DODGED ALL the animals running the opposite way as she tried to reach her brother and mother. Things much bigger and scarier stepped on her and pushed her around, and snakes slithering along the ground threatened to bite. But Lottie paid them no attention. Nothing was more important than getting back to her family. She jumped out of a snarling raccoon’s way and leaped over a fallen, flaming log. It was getting harder and harder to make it to them with each step. She needed to reach them, before they all became smoke and flames.
She was so close! One step, another, but before she knew it a bear cub came out of nowhere and barreled over her. She was dazed, but she still could see the terrifying shape of a larger bear as it moaned in fear and batted her through the air, tumbling around and around down the hill. Her small body was spiked by rocks and hard gravel as she bounced down the side. She thought of the rapid currents raging beneath, and of all the times she had heard of small young creatures perishing in the deathly waters. I’m dead, she thought. I’m going to die. Oh, please, I don’t want to die! Her head screamed this over and over, and she saw Lilja, then her mother, flash before her eyes in a silent goodbye as she rolled over the edge.
Lottie once again awoke, shaking worse than ever. The stars glistened as she got up from the grass and passed the fairy, Accompany and dragon resting by a few stray boulders. She looked over at where Lilja was sleeping, and panic rose inside her as she saw that his spot was empty. “Lilja? Lilja!”
She was about to take off looking for him until a voice behind her said, “Don’t be scared. I’m right here.”
She wheeled around with a growl only to meet her brother. She saw him looking into her panicked eyes. Embarrassed, she turned away.
“Lottie,” he said with a soft voice, “It’s okay.”
Lottie watched as he strode over to the dirt and collapsed, drifting off to sleep once more. The silver pup herself knew she wouldn’t be able to rest, so she simply lied down and began counting the stars.
KIA AWOKE JUST AFTER SUNRISE. The earth was bathed in newborn sunlight as she looked up at Keota to see the light swarming around him like a halo. “Good morning.” he whispered. “Good night’s sleep?”
She grunted. Mornings were not her favorite. But she smiled and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. He smiled broadly, and she laughed. Keota acts like he’s never had a girlfriend before, she thought.
Was she his girlfriend? She didn’t know. Right now, she counted it as messing around. Messing around with a stupid boy who didn’t know any better. She started to laugh.
“Why are you laughing?” he asked.
She giggled and said, “Nothing.” She pulled away from him, still smiling, and turned to Ionan. “Hey,” she yelled, “It’s time to go!” She then rose up and went to wake the pups. She was surprised to find that Lilja was still sleeping, though Lottie was nowhere to be found. She looked around and saw she was watching the sun come up on top of a hill. It took her a while to realize that she had never seen Lilja and Lottie that far apart before. Oh well. Maybe they’re growing up. She walked over and went to saddle up Snow Drop.
Without warning pain wracked through her body like never before. She screamed as she felt a thousand stinging knives run through her. But the worst of all was a sharp, slick pain inside, as if a fiery arrow had pierced her heart. Ionan felt her pain and turned his head. He growled with anger and started looking for an immediate cause or enemy. Keota ran to her side and caught her before she fell, saying words that were garbled to her ears. Lilja awoke and barked to his sister, who came running down the hill. Then everyone was gathered around her, and they were all growling and talking at at once. But as soon as the pain came, it was gone. She knelt on her knees, gasping for air while Keota held her.
“She’s alive!” the pups began screaming. Keota wouldn’t stop asking, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Give her some space Keota,” rumbled Ionan. “Can’t you see she needs air?”
She gasped for breath, stuttering, “Something’s wrong with the forest.”
“What?” Keota asked.
“The forest!” she yelled. “The rumors are true. When a fairy’s land is in trouble they feel excruciating pain. I thought that it was only a story my father told me to keep me in the Verinian, but now I know he wasn’t lying. I have to go back.” She got to her feet and hurried over to Snow Drop. Without pausing to put on the saddle bags, she threw one leg over her pegasus and prepared to journey home.
“Kia!” Keota yelled. “You can’t leave! Not now! We’re close to finding the unicorns and the cure! I know it!”
“Okay, first of all, we don’t even know where we’re going,” she said. “The unicorns could be days, even weeks away. Second of all, if the pain is this bad, obviously something terrible has happened, maybe even worse than the plague. I have no choice but to go back home.” She went to take off but before she could Keota grabbed her arm. “Kiatana!”
“What!” she snarled nastily.
“What good will it do you if you go back?” he asked. “You haven’t found a cure. Most likely it’s just the sickness and…”
“It’s getting worse.” she finished off his sentence. “I have to be there.”
“How will everybody react when you return home? What are you going to say to them when you come back empty handed?”
Kia winced and tried a different approach. “If someone has attacked my home...”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re a very strong fairy, but you can’t hold an entire army back. And with the sickness spreading there will nobody left to fight. You have no option, Kia.”
Kia glared at Keota, then said in a strained voice, “Alright. But the faster we travel, the better. We can reach the Blue Sky Peaks by noon, where the last known unicorn was slain. If we get there tonight it may give us a clue on where to go next.” Kia called to the two wolf pups. They jumped into her pack and she took off into the sky, with Keota and Ionan following close behind.
WHILE THEY FLEW Kia raised her head off Snow Drop’s mane and asked, “Tell me more about your life, back in Nesting’s Haven. It may take my mind off the pain.”
“There’s not much to tell,” Keota said, avoiding her eyes.
“Then tell me about your dreams then,” Kia asked. “Both of you,” she said to Ionan as well.
Ionan answered first. “I had wished to become a professor at Dinkleberry University. I had received an offer, but we entered the army instead. Keota never was a scholar and I only wanted to make him happy. That is the duty of a Changer.”
“I only entered the army to make money,” Keota said to Kia quickly. “What I really wanted was to be an architect, but my parents didn’t think it was a good idea because they only take the best in Nesting’s Haven. During the summer, when we weren’t at my home or in the s
chool dorms we went to Ionia’s Palace, that’s where Ionan’s parents dwell, and lived there. It’s miles wide. The whole first floor could fit your entire forest. It’s so large that Ionan can walk through the halls in his main form.”
“You’re lying,” Kia said, laughing.
Keota shook his head. “No I’m not. I had wanted to build something even bigger than that one day, something even more beautiful, but everyone thought I was stupid to try. Besides, I can’t build it if I’m broke.”
“I always was a gardener. Taking care of the forest is my thing,” Kia yawned.
“I thought you hated it there,” Ionan asked.
“I only hate the place because of my dad. If he wasn’t forcing me to stay and telling me how to do things all the time, it might actually be a little fun. Besides, I’m good at it. Might as well keep doing something you have a talent for,” Kia shrugged.
“We’re hunters,” Lottie said, and both the pups poked their heads out of the pack. “Though I wouldn’t mind being a healer for my pack.”
“I would be leader,” Lilja put in. “That’s what my father was before he got killed. I would want to be the alpha and make sure that everyone was safe and well fed.”
“Kia, I’m taking us down,” Snow Drop neighed, and the pegasus descended to a craggy mountain slope. It had taken until sundown to reach their new destination, and now they were running behind. Ionan’s large bulk couldn’t land on the mountain as a dragon, so he simply dropped Keota off with his talons onto the rocks, and then changed into a hawk in midair to land on a boulder carefully. Lottie and Lilja stayed in their packs, as one false misstep would send them spiraling to the bottom and they preferred not to take chances.
“It’s twilight, Kia, we might as well make camp.” Keota suggested.
Kia shot him a dirty look. “Obviously something’s missing in your brain. We could roll right off the edge here if we lay down.”
“But you’re exhausted, and so is everybody else! We don’t even know where to go next!” Keota snapped in protest. She went to throw back a reply but at that moment a wooden arrow whipped by her green hair and embedded itself in the rock, inches from her head. She took one look at the arrow and snapped, “Elves.”