Ride the Wind: A Flipped Fairy Tale (Flipped Fairy Tales Book 3)

by Starla Huchton

  I slid off the bed and started for her, but she stopped me with a hand held out. “What have I done? I thought if I could light the darkness—”

  She choked a little and hurried from the room, returning seconds later with a small wooden box. Her lips trembling, she shoved it at me. “Take this and go. I won’t let him have this as well, even if it means it’s in the hands of a fool.”

  Confused beyond anything I’d ever felt before, my stare shifted between her, the box, and back again. “Go? Go where?”

  Erata snatched my pack from the floor, shoving my boots and some spare clothing inside it. “As far away as you can. He’ll be here any moment. You have to…”

  Her words trailed off and she dropped the pack at my feet, tears glittering in her eyes. She staggered backwards, hands pressed against the circlet. “You have to go… Now! Hurry! I can’t…”

  She dropped to her knees, palms pressed against the floor. I reached for her, but froze as her form shimmered and shifted before my eyes, her dress changing to fur the color of pure white snow, covering every inch of her as she grew in size, stretching until she was not the girl I’d known all those nights, but the animal I’d shared my every day with.

  The elk stood, lifting its head as I sank to my knees, disbelieving my own eyes.

  They were the same being?

  “What…” I struggled to form my thought into words. “What are you?”

  “I am one without hope… Trapped by my own hand…” The air stirred around me. “Go, before it’s too late…”

  The elk— or was it Erata?— turned and retreated back to her room. I stared after her, unable to move for my utter confusion and incredulity. It wasn’t until the color of the room eased from the silvery glow of Heng-e’s light into the familiar illumination of the lamps that I got to my feet, snatching up my pack and stumbling after.

  The ground beneath me rumbled to life as I reached the hallway. The walls shook, the trinkets on the tables falling, a few shattering on the ground. Looking right, the elk stood further down the corridor, staring at the door to the locked room. An eerie blue light seeped from under the frame, growing brighter as the tremors got worse.

  “Run, Lukas…”

  “Erata!” I shouted over the din of the crashing books and falling dishes. “I don’t understand! What have I done?”

  It took several seconds, but her reply came inbetween violent cracks of wood splitting.

  “You broke your promise… Run!”

  I jumped away, back towards the main doors, barely escaping a beam falling from the ceiling. Stumbling and struggling past crumbling debris, I was forced towards the exit. The doors blew open as I whirled back to her. “Erata! I won’t leave without—”

  A gust of wind unlike anything I’d felt before blasted me over the threshold, sending me sprawling on my back onto the cold, rocky ground. I scrambled to my feet once more, dropping what I’d carried away as I lunged for the entrance. The stone doors slammed shut seconds before I reached them, cutting off the brilliant blue light that had filled the space moments before. As I gripped the handle, the blue jeweled eye of the stone dragon glimmered. The carving slid across the rock, slipping around and entwining itself into knots. It wound itself tighter and tighter, obscuring even the handles as I jumped away. Soon, the head disappeared completely, lost in the turgid mass of scales, and soon, even those were gone as well, the knotted lumps turning into nothing but cold rocks indistinguishable from any other part of the mountain.

  “No…”

  I stared at the place the doors had been, rubbing my eyes to rid them of the trick of moonlight.

  The doors did not return.

  “No!” I screamed at the bare stone, beating my fists against it. “Erata! Erata, answer me! Come back! I can’t… I can’t…”

  I slumped to the ground, horrified at what I was facing.

  She was gone.

  Erata was gone.

  And it was all my fault.

  * * * * *

  I stared at the mountain for the longest time. No matter how I begged, how I beat against that spot, nothing changed.

  Eventually the chilly night air got the better of me, and I was forced to put on my boots and the old coat stuffed into my pack. After carefully wrapping the wooden box Erata gave me, I placed it on top of the other few things remaining inside it. With my back against the mountain, I stared up into the night sky. A full moon shone overhead, its brilliance drowning out most of the twinkling stars around it. As I watched, I couldn’t help but compare it to the illumination from the magic candle.

  “Heng-e’s Light…” I murmured as I rolled the remaining nub of tallow between my fingers. “I should have listened to Erata. I broke every promise I ever made her. I’m neither patient nor strong, and she’s paid the price for my mistakes. Second chances are wasted on me. She deserved so much more than I could ever be.”

  The candle tingled where I touched it for a brief moment, and the sensation vanished.

  Even magic had abandoned me.

  Resigned to my fate, I shoved the wax remains in my pocket and shouldered my pack. Perhaps I’d think of what to do next by the time I reached my parents’ home. With one last look at the bare rock, I turned and left. The first step was the hardest to take, the pain of failure sharp enough to steal my breath for a moment. While I still didn’t understand why my actions were wrong, I knew my utter stupidity and faithlessness was at the heart of it. It was impossible to reconcile that the animal and the woman were one and the same. The elk was terse, abrupt, and distant for much of the time I’d known her. Erata, while sometimes as temperamental as the elk, was vulnerable, her need to be cared about by another human being evident in every word and action. The elk was outright hostile in many of my efforts to help her. And yet…

  I paused, barely a hundred yards from the vanished doors. I’d had only the briefest glimpse of her, but my memory of Erata’s face was as clear as if she stood before me. Her eyes, the same icy blue as the elk’s, bore into me with heartbroken accusation. How many times had I looked into those eyes and marveled at the humanity of them? Was she always gazing back at me, hoping beyond reason that I’d see the truth?

  My blind ignorance burned me from the inside. All that time, I was within reach of the only thing I’ve ever really wanted for myself, and my doubting heart stole it from me.

  Somehow, my feet kept moving. The distance between me and the magical place that no longer was steadily grew. But with it, something else took root.

  What, besides my own fear, tied me to the mountain? My family certainly didn’t expect my return, my mother particularly adamant I should be out in the world. Somewhere, Erata still lived. Could I leave her to her fate without at least trying to find her? Would I let my very last promise shatter into meaninglessness like all the rest?

  I looked around. To my left, the two tall pine trees bent, intertwining mid-air despite all impossibility that they should. As the moonlight played in the branches, my decision solidified in my gut.

  No matter the cost, no matter where she was, no matter if fifty dragons stood in my way, I would not fail her again.

  Off in the trees, a single snap of a twig disturbed my thoughts. I’d been so caught up in my own grief, I hadn’t noticed the half dozen yellow eyes following me in the dark. In my forced exit, I’d not taken anything to defend myself with. All that stood between me and a pack of hungry wolves was a few trees and the broken branch laying three steps from me.

  “Erata needs me.” My words were as much a threat to growling beasts as they were a statement to myself. I inched towards the branch, not taking my eyes from the ones that watched me as I bent to retrieve my weapon. “I refuse to die here.”

  In seconds, the low growls turned into howls and snarls as the hungry pack burst from the shadows, barreling towards me. I gripped the branch, preparing to swing it with all my might as the closest one bore down on me with fangs bared. I drew back, ready to fight…

  Wind ble
w past my face as a massive form of fur leapt from behind me with a roar, tackling the lead wolf to the ground. I lost my balance, stunned by the enormous creature as it fought off the animals, its paws larger than my head. When it turned to send another of the pack flying into a tree, I caught sight of its mighty jaw, snapping at the wolves that barely came to its chest. Within moments, the entire group was running back into the woods, their yips and squeaks of retreat following them as they disappeared.

  After all I’d seen and learned over those months spent with Erata, it was amazing that anything could surprise or shock me. And yet, when the impossibly enormous wolf turned to me, I couldn’t have been more stupefied when its brilliantly green, familiarly human eyes met mine.

  My mouth moved, but words wouldn’t come. It approached me slowly, a considerate tilt in its head as it sniffed me out and looked me over. When its cold, wet nose, at least as wide as my neck, bumped against my chest and inhaled deeply, I didn’t dare breathe. Even if I’d had proper weapons, there was no hope of my survival if the beast had a mind to kill me.

  Whatever scent I carried seemed to meet its approval, however. It looked me in the eye and nodded once.

  Eyes. Human eyes. A burst of hope sparked to life within me, giving me the strength to speak.

  “If you know Erata,” I said, hesitant, “please, help me find her. She’s gone because I was an impatient fool who let ignorant words sway me. I’ll give my life to save her if I can.”

  The wolf retreated several steps, searching my face.

  “Please.” I stepped forward, desperation bolstering my courage. “I love her. Whatever I can do for her, I will do it without question.”

  The beast’s ears perked up, the last vestiges of its raised hackles flattening. When it remained unmoving, I began to speak again, hoping one last appeal might sway it, but before a single syllable escaped my lips, it bounded forward. Powerful jaws grabbed me by the collar, and I was lifted into the air, landing on its back as it continued racing down the mountain. Trees blurred together as the animal covered miles in what seemed like minutes. Before long, we were racing towards the town, but it too passed as we skirted homes on the outer edges of civilization. It was all I could do to hang on, clinging to the back of a beast that might be the death of me, yet might also hold my only hope for finding the person I held most dear.

  Chapter 13

  Spring was warmer in the lowlands of Valmyr, much more so than I was accustomed to. Even so, the fire was a necessity, and building it a welcome distraction from my silent self-criticisms. I poked at the remnants of the rabbit that had been breakfast, knowing I should eat more before the wolf awoke and continued our journey.

  The beast’s sudden appearance couldn’t have been a coincidence, but I had yet to learn anything about it or where it was taking me. There was obviously a connection between the wolf and the elk… perhaps it was one of the sisters she’d spoken of once?

  The animal stirred and lifted its head, blinking at me as though trying to remember whether or not I was a threat. Once it decided, it stood and stretched, shaking the debris of forest travel from its coat. I held my breath for a moment as it leaned back on its haunches, and then, it spun.

  What was beast when the turn began, shifted into something I should have expected. Its fur tinged in a shimmering red, flattening as its form shrunk in size. In moments, I was faced not with a dog, but a very human woman, her curly brown hair wild around her, green eyes darting in constant vigilance.

  “There isn’t much time,” she said as she stepped forward, stopping on the other side of the fire. “You are Erata’s, yes?”

  I blinked at her, utterly unable to comprehend anything anymore. Twice over the course of a night I’d witnessed magical transformations, yet my mind still couldn’t believe it. “You know Erata?”

  The woman crouched down, her movements jerky, as though she’d forgotten how her body worked. “She’s my sister. I’m…” She frowned, her attention suddenly pulled off into the trees.

  Something was off with her, but perhaps that was her normal way. “Her sister? Who are you?”

  Her eyes snapped back to me. “Her sister. Yes. I’m… I’m Belinda, I think. Yes. I’m certain that’s correct. My mind is… something. But also Erata’s, yes.”

  I leaned forward, desperate to keep her flighty focus on me. “Do you know where Erata is? Was she taken? Do you know how I can find her?”

  “East of the sun, west of the moon,” she said in a singsong voice, her head bobbing from side to side. “She went there, and he kept her.”

  “East of the…” I stared, maybe more confused than before. “Is that a place? Who kept her?”

  She giggled at me. “All the questions of a monkey. She must find you vexing.”

  “Who?”

  “Erata. You are hers, yes? You smell of her. The wind is in your clothes, your hair…” She inched forward and sniffed the air, then grinned mischievously. “Your mouth as well.”

  Heat rose from my neck to my cheeks, embarrassed she could tell so much. “Yes, well, I suppose you could say I’m hers.”

  Belinda skittered around the fire, coming to rest in a crouch beside me. “Then you must go to her. The dragon intends to keep her, but I think maybe the monkey is more clever.”

  I leaned away from her intense stare. “A dragon keeps her?”

  “Yes. For his son. He wishes the winds for his heirs.”

  Shaking my head to clear it of her strange answers, to make sense of anything, I tried to puzzle it out. “A dragon wants Erata to bear children to his son? I don’t—”

  “Think, monkey.” She poked at me. “Erata speaks with the winds. He wishes that power for his line. She should not have gone there, but she thought she was more clever than he. I was too late to stop her, too late to find her, but I found you, so maybe that is as good. Maybe, if you love her as you say you do.”

  I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, frustrated. “What are you and she? Are you human or animal?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “I…” I paused and looked at her, falling back into memory.

  “That must be a very powerful love, to drive one creature to change its very shape for another. I can’t fathom such a thing.”

  Gazing into the fire, I turned over that conversation in my mind. “Has she always been an elk?”

  “The monkey asks the right question at last.” She twittered a laugh. “No. Cursed for a year, a patient, blind love the only hope for freedom.”

  “For a year…” The words whispered across my lips, disappearing into the crackle of the fire.

  “There was perhaps a month more to endure, monkey. I could not find her before others interfered.”

  I fully understood then why the elk— Erata— had been so upset with me for my callous comment. How many times had she told me I was her only hope? What hope would she have had if I couldn’t see past the animal to the woman who needed me? The day she sent me sprawling backwards, she should have ousted me from the place. Perhaps I loved her, but that love was neither blind nor patient.

  I buried my face in my hands, consumed by grief not only for what I’d lost, but what I’d condemned Erata to. A month more, and she’d have been free. A mere handful of weeks, and that darkness would no longer have trapped us. One moon’s cycle and the elk would’ve been no more, the woman inside freed by the love she desperately needed.

  A sharp smack to the back of my head jarred me out of misery.

  “She has no tolerance for wallowing. Nearly lost a sister for it, at that. Choose to fight, or choose to forget. She would tell you drowning is a useless pastime.”

  My shoulders slumped. “I cannot forget.”

  “Then you must fight.”

  I looked at my strange companion, my hopes dulling. “How can I save her?”

  She stood and flopped her arms under her cloak. “The monkey needs what I don’t have, but I can take you to the one who helped me. The old turtle knows m
uch.” She flinched, as though in pain. “Time runs out. The wolf calls, but will take the monkey to the turtle.”

  As she doubled over, I reached for her, but she held out a hand, stopping me. “Sundown, you’ll be there. We’ll not speak again, but tell her…” A strained grunt interrupted her words. “Tell her she is always loved… by all of us…”

  Belinda cried out and shot to her feet, her body thrown into a spin opposite the way she’d gone before. Her cloak fluttered outwards, expanding, encompassing her form until she was once again the giant wolf. She blew out a snuffling sigh, shook herself, then kicked dirt over top of the fire. Before I could say anything, I was once again thrown on her back, and we were off.

  * * * * *

  The day passed in a blur. In what felt like moments, we were past the lowlands of Valmyr, suddenly halfway up the rise of Mount Stjernestøv, its peak dominating the northern sky. The speed at which Belinda traveled was boggling. Miles flew by in a handful of strides, and no barrier could delay her. We stopped for nothing, not even to eat or rest. She ran as though some ancient evil followed us, threatening to devour us whole. Whether she shared my worry or had other reasons for her haste, I didn’t so much as utter a complaint.

  As we turned up and over to the farthest northern side of the mountain, the sun vanished from view, only the tinted orange sky heralding nightfall. Finally, Belinda slowed. Her paws left deep ruts in the heavy snow lingering in the high elevation. Even though I rode, the air was thin enough to make breathing difficult. When her steps eased to a walk, I saw our destination ahead. What was little more than a rickety shack huddled against the rock, a stream of white smoke trailing up from a small chimney. Outside, a lone figure stood, leaning on a cane as he gazed out across the frozen peaks.

  Belinda stopped fifty feet from the bent man, and I pried myself from my position on her back, sliding to the ground. My legs wobbled from traveling so long, but held steady enough to stretch them before I approached the man. Strangely, he didn’t turn to me, not even to look my way. I walked towards him with caution, taking in the dull brown robes that gave little in the way of protection from the cold wind, and the way his long, white beard brushed the snow, disappearing within the icy powder.