Chronicles of Eden - Act VI

by Alexander Gordon

  “And since somebody couldn’t make up his mind over who he loved more,” Triska added with an accusing smile at Daniel. “We all decided that the only answer was for all of us to be his mates together. If he loved us all equally like he said then he had to take care of all of us equally, right, Daniel?”

  “You couldn’t pick one?” Clover dryly asked Daniel. “That’s why you’re having sex with all these girls, because you couldn’t choose just one and they were just fine with that?”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Daniel answered with a shrug.

  “So let me get this straight,” Clover said holding a hand up. “Dan couldn’t choose one girl to be with, and since you all liked each other so much you decided to share him, and that led to you all having sex together?”

  “Well it would be boring to just sit and watch while he’s occupied with one of us,” Specca admitted with a timid smile at Daniel before looking to Squeak then Triska. “And we do feel a connection with each other, so… why not?”

  Squeak nodded and squeaked something before glancing to Specca with an immoral smile then to Daniel with a wink.

  “We love Daniel, more than anything,” Triska clarified. “But we also care for each other too, so what’s the harm in fooling around with one another? We’re all his anyway, so in a way we’re like a family.”

  “A messed up family,” Clover muttered before looking down and eating her meal, with the girls watching her with annoyance as she avoided eye contact with them again.

  Daniel shook his head at the elf before Pip zipped down in front of him onto the table and looked at his breakfast with a curious eye. The fairy leaned side to side on her toes while examining his food then turned to him while holding a finger to her lips.

  “I’m hungry too. Can I eat also?”

  “I think I know what she wants,” Specca mentioned with unease.

  “Not it,” Falla called out shaking her head.

  “I’d rather not do it right now either,” Luna agreed with a worried smile.

  Squeak glanced to Triska then to Specca with concern, both girls returning the same look while Daniel breathed out and eyed the girls with the same thought.

  “So, who wants to… feed her?”

  “Triska?” Specca suggested with a nervous smile.

  “Uh uh,” Triska replied shaking her head.

  “Squeak?” Specca asked looking at the ant girl with pleading eyes.

  Squeak slowly shook her head while seeing Pip looking to each girl with a hungry eye as her tiny stomach growled.

  “Hey, Kroanette,” Specca called back to the centaur. “You want to be nice to Pip and-”

  “I’d really rather not,” Kroanette quickly replied holding a hand out to silence her. “I’m still eating myself, and I really don’t want her… doing that to me right now.”

  “So hungry,” Pip groaned while wavering on her feet. “Need the juices of life. Somebody, save me.”

  Specca looked around at everyone as all eyes turned to her then sighed with defeat as she glanced down to her petal skirt, using one hand to slowly part it away between her legs.

  “Well… if I must…” she sulked with closed eyes.

  “You’re not seriously going to let her eat you out, are you?” Clover dryly asked her. The group looked to the elf as she raised an eyebrow at the nixie. “Or is it you just like girls using their tongues on you?”

  “She needs to in order to live,” Specca snapped at her.

  “No she doesn’t.”

  “Yes, she does. Fairies only consume bodily fluids from-”

  “No, they don’t.” Everyone watched Clover with confusion as she eyed the fairy on the table while taking another bite out of her mutton. “Fairies eat the same things we do. Well, not the same as your two bug eating friends, but the same as normal people do.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Falla demanded with ire. “Are you saying my sister and I aren’t normal?”

  “HERE COMES THE YUMMY BUG!” Luna screamed while eyeing a beetle she was holding with a wide smile and uncontrollable giggling. “GET IN MY BELLY, YOU TASTY LITTLE THING! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

  Clover stared at her with bewilderment as Luna shoved the insect into her mouth and savagely ate it while laughing manically. The others just watched her with blank expressions while Pip slowly took a step back from the crazed butterfly.

  “What the fuck is wrong with her?” Clover asked Daniel while waving to Luna, the butterfly laughing wildly before suddenly returning to her normal quiet self.

  “What do you mean?” Luna asked curiously.

  “Never mind her,” Daniel said shaking his head. “What do you mean fairies eat what we do?”

  Clover watched Luna cautiously for a moment longer then looked at Pip with a small scowl.

  “I mean they eat anything. The one that blew up my grove tried the same act with Zoey, begging to eat her out so she could ‘live’ from her juices. We gave her a simple grape instead and she ate it right up, she ate anything we put in front of her mouth without so much as a complaint.”

  “Wait, what?” Triska demanded as all eyes turned to Pip, the fairy watching Clover curiously with a finger held to her chin.

  “Pip, you said you could only survive by eating us out and drinking our juices,” Specca scolded with her hands set at her hips. “Are we hearing correctly that you can eat regular food and be fine from that?”

  “You mean my sister and I had her eat us out for nothing?” Falla shouted with anger.

  “Hahahaha!” Clover laughed as she pointed to them. “You mean you actually fell for that? That’s hilarious! You let the little thing eat you out? Oh my god, you stupid girls, why would you do that?”

  “She said if we didn’t she would die,” Luna worriedly said while watching Pip with saddened eyes.

  “Pip, did you lie to us?” Daniel asked, with the fairy turning to him with concern. “You said you could only have what they gave you, nothing else. Was that not true?”

  “I told the truth,” Pip implored. “I need the juices of life to live. I get so tired and hungry if I don’t have their delicious nectar.”

  Daniel stared at her with a blank expression for a moment then took a small stick of celery off his plate and held it in front of Pip. The group watched with surprise as the fairy quickly nibbled and munched down the vegetable while watching Daniel the whole time.

  “She just ate it!” Specca cried out pointing to her.

  “No I didn’t,” Pip argued with her while wiping her mouth.

  “We saw you eat it!” Triska shouted at the fairy.

  “So hungry,” Pip whined.

  Squeak showed a dull expression then held out a small piece of her mutton with gravy on it in front of the fairy. Everyone watched with less surprise as the fairy quickly ate the meat while watching Squeak with a worried eye.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Triska growled through bared teeth.

  “She could have had anything to eat this whole time?” Specca demanded with frustration.

  “So she didn’t have to eat us out to live?” Luna worriedly asked.

  “What the hell?” Falla shouted out. “She acted like she was going to die if we didn’t let her do that!”

  “Pip, how could you lie to us like that?” Daniel sternly said, with Pip turning to him with a whimper. “We trusted what you said, even though it sounded so unbelievable we trusted you. They trusted you, they only let you do that to them because they thought it was the only way to let you live. Why would you deceive us like that?”

  “I’m not lying to you,” Pip said looking down with a sniffle. “If I don’t have the juices of life after a while I get really hungry. It’s harder to fly. My magic doesn’t work right. I need their nectar otherwise I can’t live.”

  Specca held out some lettuce towards the fairy with a dull stare, watching as the tiny monster quickly gobbled it up while keeping her eye down towards the table.

  “I’m going to starve if I can’t h
ave those tasty juices,” Pip pouted.

  “Does she even know what starving means?” Falla dryly asked.

  “Pip, you’re eating food right now,” Luna pointed out. “You seem just fine with it.”

  “No I’m not,” Pip said shaking her head at the girl.

  “We just watched you eat meat and vegetables right before our eyes,” Specca scolded her. “Are you really going to try and say you didn’t do that when clearly you did?”

  “But I didn’t,” Pip said with a watery eye. “Why are you saying I did?”

  Triska eyed the fairy carefully then slowly held up a piece of carrot to her.

  “Do you see this?”

  Pip nodded while watching her worriedly. Triska then held the carrot in front of the fairy’s mouth. Everyone watched as Pip sniffed it then quickly ate it up while keeping her eye on Triska.

  “Where did you the carrot go?” Triska asked crossing her arms.

  Pip blinked then looked around confusedly before shrugging at Triska.

  “I don’t know. Where?”

  “You just ate it!” Falla shouted at her.

  “No I didn’t,” Pip whined while backing up from her with a fearful eye. “Why are you mad at me now? I don’t understand what I did wrong.”

  “Pip, don’t you remember me holding the carrot right in front of you?” Triska asked carefully.

  Pip looked down in thought, seeming to strain herself with remembering while the group watched her with curious eyes now. She rubbed her hands against her temples while shutting her eyes tightly as she murmured quietly.

  “I think…” Pip said before looking at her hands then around the table. “But where did it go? It was right here.”

  “Does she really not remember eating it?” Specca wondered.

  “Pip, don’t you remember us holding food out for you?” Daniel asked.

  Pip turned to him with puzzlement then looked down while scratching her head. She blinked then burped with a tiny hop.

  “How come I’m not hungry anymore?” she asked looking down to her belly and patting it. “I was hungry a second ago, but now I’m not.”

  “You just had some of our food,” Triska told her, with the fairy watching her curiously. “You don’t remember eating anything at all just now?”

  Pip merely shook her head at the girl, with the group exchanging confused glances while Clover just watched the fairy with a dull stare as she ate her breakfast.

  “I don’t understand,” Specca commented. “How can she not remember eating anything?”

  “She didn’t even look at the food while she ate it,” Triska mentioned. “She just gobbled it up while staring at us. It was like she didn’t even see she was eating it.”

  Squeak pointed to the fairy then her plate while squeaking something before slowly stopping and looking down with remorse as she remembered she wasn’t being understood by anyone.

  “Was the fairy that came to your grove like that?” Daniel asked Clover, getting only a fleeting glance from the elf as she continued to eat her food. “Did she not realize she was eating anything when she really was?”

  “No, she wasn’t a brain-dead dolt like your fairy is,” Clover dryly replied.

  “Don’t talk about her like that,” Triska snapped at the elf.

  “She doesn’t remember eating something she was just eating,” Clover retorted. “That’s gotta be a new level of stupid right there.”

  “Don’t talk about Pip like that!” Daniel shouted at her. Clover jumped and looked to him with surprise while the other girls watched him with wonder as he was angered by the elf’s words. “I told you before, Clover, don’t speak badly about any of the girls or else you’re not coming along with us.”

  “I’m just saying it like it is,” Clover defended. “You fed her stuff and she doesn’t remember that at all. That’s not normal. Something’s really messed up with her.”

  Pip sniffled then quickly flew over and hugged Daniel’s chest, clinging to his shirt while burying her face in it as the group watched her whimpering with her wings drooping low. Daniel sighed then gently held the fairy in his hands, holding her up to face him while she wiped her eyes and sniffled with a saddened frown.

  “Pip, how come you don’t remember these things?” he asked, with the fairy watching him with a worried eye as he slowly shook his head with concern. “You don’t remember how you fairies breed, you don’t remember what happened to your sisters, you don’t even remember eating something seconds after you do so; I’m really getting worried about you, Pip.”

  “I don’t know,” Pip sadly said. “I don’t remember a lot of things.”

  Triska glanced over to where Alyssa was still asleep then looked at Pip curiously.

  “But you remembered Apoch and Astreal,” she reminded her, with the group turning to her as she eyed the fairy carefully. “You remembered them, you were even afraid of them. You knew them, didn’t you?”

  Pip nodded while rubbing her eye before she looked over towards the sleeping witch.

  “I don’t like them, they scare me. I like Alyssa, she’s nice to me. But they’re not; they’re not nice to me, not at all. They always try to send me away with their magic, they don’t want me here.”

  “Send you away?” Specca worriedly asked. “To where?”

  “I don’t know,” Pip sadly confessed.

  “Is it because you’re a fairy they don’t like you?” Triska wondered.

  “I don’t know.”

  Squeak shook her head and squeaked something with a curious eye at the fairy.

  “…what?”

  Triska watched Pip with concern as she could see the fairy was upset by talking about this subject then felt she needed to address one more mystery regarding it.

  “Pip, you mentioned Apoch and Astreal aren’t like Alyssa. How are they different from her?”

  “If Alyssa dies she’s gone forever, she’s dead and gone,” Pip answered, with the group feeling uneasy about where this was going. The fairy looked to Alyssa as the witch slept quietly on the bed then to Triska with fearful eye.

  “But if they die they just come back, again and again, never staying dead.”

  Chapter 4

  The Darker One’s Downfall

  In the world of Eden there was little that compared to the power of family. Each member would contribute their own strengths, no matter how small or large, for the benefit of the whole when needed. Should they be lost or separated they would band together to find one another. Even those that weren’t as close, the lone wolves, outcasts, or even black sheep of the family, could still come to the aid of their kin all the same and were not to be undervalued. Because whether they were a traditional family or a group of those who loved and cared for each other all the same, this was how it was for them.

  Nobody, not even a Darker One, would come between them.

  *****

  Alyssa slowly opened her eyes with a quiet murmur escaping her lips, the world around her focusing again while her mind seemed numb still. Not being sure if she was dreaming, or if what she had heard earlier was also a dream, she continued to lay there on the bed while questioning if any of this was real, staring up at the ceiling as if in a trance while memories of her daughter started coming back to her again.

  “Ember,” she quietly spoke to herself, only to shut her eyes tightly as the haunting sounds of the landslide that took her daughter away roared loudly in her ears again. She heard Lucky neighing out of fright, rocks crashing into and through her carriage, her baby crying right behind her, and then silence as everything suddenly fell quiet.

  ‘My baby… could you really still be alive?’

  Opening her eyes again she realized where she was in the caravan before she slowly sat up, her body feeling heavier now while her mind was still groggy.

  “Alyssa?” Luna asked next to her. Alyssa looked to her side and saw the butterfly lying back on the bed while watching her with a small smile. “Are you alright now?”

&nb
sp; “You’ve been out for a while,” Falla said beside her, with Alyssa turning to see the other butterfly lying next to her as well. “How are you feeling?”

  Alyssa didn’t reply as her eyes seemed to gaze into space while the two girls watched her worriedly. Slowly the witch looked around the cabin, seeing that they were not alone. Squeak was standing over by her boxes of magical ingredients next to the bed while curiously eyeing them over with her antennae twitching now and again. Over on the couch Clover was lying along it with her feet crossed and hanging over the armrest while she was aiming an arrow up at the ceiling with her bow, firing the bolt straight up and into a rafter where two other of her arrows were set.

  “Dammit, Clover,” Specca snapped while sitting at the table with Daniel and Triska, none of them bothering to give the elf a fleeting glance while the nixie breathed out in discontent from hearing the familiar whack of Clover’s arrow. “How many times must we tell you? No archery in the caravan.”

  Alyssa watched as the three were observing Pip who was standing on the table, the fairy curiously looking at them while Specca was writing down something in Daniel’s monster guidebook.

  “Alright, let’s try this again,” Triska said holding out a grape to the fairy. “Now, Pip, keep your eye on the grape.”

  “Okay,” Pip replied while watching the fruit held out in front of her.

  “Do you see it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you hungry?”

  “A little.”

  “Then eat the grape,” Triska encouraged.

  Pip sniffed the grape a few times then quickly gobbled it up with quickly munching teeth. Daniel and the two girls watched her with wonder as the fairy ate the fruit before turning her eye to Triska with a curious look.

  “Do you remember eating it?” Daniel asked.

  Pip blinked then looked around quickly before back at him with confusion.

  “Eating what?”

  “I don’t understand,” Specca said shaking her head while going over what she had written down in the book. “She’s was perfectly aware there was a grape before her eyes, proceeded to eat it right up, and then has no memory it.”