by B. J. Smash
But when I asked Oona if this were possible, her reply was, “No.”
“Why not?” Lucian and I asked at the same time.
“Horsey have darkness around hoofs. That mean somebody place spell over him. He cannot fly. We cannot make him fly. He has to stay in hole for two day,” Oona said.
“Two day!” Tullia hovered above me unknowingly sprinkling pixie dust in my eyes. She held up two fingers again and wagged her hips. I sat completely still. I thought she was going to fly down and swat me if I moved.
“It was the Fairy Queen. She injected something over his behind.” I thrummed my fingers on Solstice’s side, trying to think of a way to make Tullia back away.
“Fairy Queen place spell on horsey. Shame, shame. She so stoooopid,” Oona said and clucked her tongue.
“You would not say she stupid to queen face,” Tullia said.
Oona’s pale white face now glowed red. “I say to her face! I say to her face over and over. I no scare.” And then in an instant she was next to Tullia. She spanked her on the butt three times.
Tullia folded her arms and said, “Hmmpphhh.”
I sneezed several times as the silver dust covered my face.
“Okay, that’s enough fighting…” Lucian began to say but both pixie’s turned to him with death stares. “Isn’t’ it?” his voice squeaked and he cleared his throat.
I rolled my eyes. Rule number two: never get involved in a pixie spat. They will turn on you and you will rue the day you ever laid eyes on them.
To get their attention off from Lucian, I spoke up. “It’s alright. There is no need to fight. I know what I must do.” I knew that Lucian wasn’t going to like this one bit but I had to convince him it was for the best.
“What?” everyone said at once.
I coughed some dust up from my lungs. “Lucian. You must stay and guard Solstice from the werewolves.” He scowled at me as I finished my sentence. “And I must carry on alone.”
“No!” he said, sounding like my father.
“Yes! It’s the only way. You cannot leave Solstice to fend for himself. After all, Lucian, he guarded you last night when you were…” I didn’t want to finish my sentence as it sounded a bit harsh, but I did it anyway, “convulsing.”
“Oh my,” Oona said innocently.
Tullia sucked in breath. “Why you convulse?”
“I was bitten by a demon dog,” Lucian said through clenched teeth.
“Dang!” Tullia called out in shock.
“Ohhh! That baddd,” Oona said.
I knew he didn’t like to have a weakness. He was fiercely strong, and mentally and physically powerful. However, he needed to realize that Solstice hovered over him and protected him while the werewolves had attacked us. And now, it was his turn to watch over Solstice.
“Why don’t I go instead? I cannot let you go on your own,” he volunteered.
“No. This is my quest. I must see it through,” I said firmly, and then I added. “Please Lucian. Do this for me? If you truly care about me…you will not argue with me.” I couldn’t help but beg him to see this as the only rational solution.
He crossed his arms and swallowed hard. “You’re right. Someone has to stay and guard the horse. What about the pixie’s?” He turned to Oona.
“We will guard elven horse. But we need help. Too many werewolves for pixie to fight. We usually hide in tree at night.”
“I see. Well, I guess that’s it then. You must go alone.” His lip twitched as this made him extremely upset but he sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. I had never seen Lucian show any sad emotion before; he was always the upbeat, cheerful one. But I knew other than his convulsions, his only other weakness was me. And I had just used it against him.
This made me feel selfish and cheap but someone had to stay with Solstice, and it couldn’t be me. Izadora had given me a mission and I would have to be the one to complete it. There was no other option.
And so it was, tomorrow morning I would carry on alone. I couldn’t help but cringe at the wish I had made earlier on this morning. I was a fool to wish that I could continue this journey alone. Well, I had gotten my selfish wish granted.
***
That night we camped in the hole. We propped ourselves up against Solstice’s back and observed the millions of stars, and brilliant orange moon. Lucian smoked part of a magic cigarette and we went unnoticed by the werewolves. Even our scent was covered by this mysterious cigarette.
Lucian put his arm around me and told me a secret. It was a secret told to him by Ian, about my mother.
“You’re mom used to fight with the elven warriors. Did you know that? In fact, she led the army.”
“My mother?” I wondered why no one ever told me this piece of info. Just another thing to add to the mountain of other things that they kept from me.
“Yup. And that is why I know you can do this on your own. Ian says, that Izadora says, that you are very much like your mother. She doesn’t fight with them anymore, because she’s preparing to one day be queen. King Alinir won’t live forever you know.” He gave me a side glance, almost as if he were telling me a secret.
“My mother?” I asked again. “But she is such a sweet and calm lady.” I couldn’t for the life of me picture my very own mother fighting in battles! “She’s too gentle and kind.”
“Yup. She whipped some butt,” Lucian said with a half grin. “I have no doubt you will be the same. But at the same time, I hate to see you go on alone.”
“Me too,” I said. “When I go, you must keep the magic cigarettes.”
He fought me on it, tooth and nail, but after I insisted, and told him that I had the knowledge of other spells to defend myself, he accepted them. I only knew limited magic but I wasn’t about to let him know this.
Soon, my eyes grew heavy and I removed his arm from around my shoulders, and lay my head on Solstice’s neck. The events of the day had exhausted me and sleep came right away.
Chapter Sixteen
Before I set out on my own, Oona had a chat with me. “Why not take road less travel?”
It took me a moment to decipher what Oona was talking about, but I was getting pretty adept at translating pixie talk and meaning. “You mean…there is a shortcut?”
“Confirm. Road less travel is pixie path. Pixie route tough for human but can be done,” Oona said.
“Word from other pixie – you way behind. You last in race. Elven never last! Elven always fast and first,” Tullia stated with a cluck of her tongue.
“Yeah, I know.” This comment made me feel inadequate. I wasn’t the strongest nor the fastest elven, and I oftentimes wondered why Izadora had picked me to be her apprentice. Was it because I was GG Edmund’s great-granddaughter? Was it because I was a Seaforth, and she felt obligated to pick me? Sometimes I had to wonder if she’d be better off with someone else as her apprentice. She obviously liked to withhold necessary information from me. Then again, Izadora once told me I’d be a more powerful wise woman than even her. The thought of that always made me laugh. I couldn’t imagine…not even kind of imagine, being more powerful than her. That was ludicrous. At the time she had mentioned this, she had just eaten a large piece of enchanted cake baked by my Aunt Cora. And she was just about to pass out into a deep sleep. My conclusion was always the same—she wasn’t in her right mind when she said it. I didn’t even like to use magic because I knew how it made my sister act. She was crazy for magic. Her one true love.
“That okay. You catch up no problem. Take pixie path,” Oona demanded. She pointed toward a steep cliffside quite a distance from us and smiled a quirky smile.
“Of course. That should be easy,” I said sarcastically. “Are you going to carry me up that giant monstrosity?”
“No. You must do. But we point you in right way.”
***
True to their word, the pixies brought me to the head of their “path.” It started with two humongous fallen elm trees that lay adjacent to each other and lin
ed the pathway. These giant elms were taller than me, even though they lay on their sides. They were actually nursing logs, which were covered in roots and four other trees expanded up from each of them. Overhead they leaned into a canopy that blocked the sun causing the path to be darkened, but I could see a couple of flying squirrels jumping from tree to tree. I am not sure how the elms had gotten here but it was pixie territory, and they grew many strange things here.
We traveled on a good two hundred feet before we reached the end of the logs and we had to stop. This had to be one of the most amazing scenic landscapes I’d ever seen. Before us lay a cascading river that splashed down into a lake and spilled out the other side into a waterfall. The place looked like something from the heavens and reminded me of a majestic rainforest.
Everything was green. A luscious green landscape dotted with vibrant red, yellow and blue flowers. Thick vines hung down from the trees and I felt like I was in a Tarzan movie. Lime green moss covered every single tree. The rocks that the river flowed over were a shiny metallic silver and the lake was covered in white misty clouds.
“Emerald lake,” Oona said proudly.
Stepping forward, I waved my arms to clear the clouds away from the water. Sure enough, the water glistened a clear green-blue. It was probably more turquoise than emerald but I wasn’t about to argue with the pixies.
“Step back! Away from water. Merman grab Ivy,” Oona said.
“Huh?” I asked, looking at her over my shoulder.
“Merman!” she said.
I turned back to find that the water was already covered back up with the white clouds. I was about to back away when a hand with long white spindly fingers and pointy sharp nails came shooting up through the white clouds, only inches from me.
“Yikes!” I yelped.
Both pixies laughed. I had to wonder if I didn’t have this pixie pock mark on my face, if they’d shove me in. I just thanked my lucky stars that I did have the mark under my right eye. I let out a deep breath of relief and said, “Now what?”
“Now what? You dance across water,” Oona said, crossing her arms and floating two inches from my nose.
“Um…I’m no physicist, but I assume that I can’t walk or dance on water,” I said.
“No silly elf.” Oona swatted my nose. It stung like a pinch. In my opinion she was a bit of a bully and if my dear friend Pladia were here, Oona would be taught some manners. But that was neither here nor there. I crossed my eyes and gazed down at my nose. A red welt had formed on the right side, appearing to look like a zit. Wonderful. I pursed my lips together and didn’t say a word.
“You must dance across o’er pads of lily.” She swooped up scattering sliver dust as she flew over the pond and to the other side, exposing a path of bright pink lily pads. The clouds continued to dissipate revealing not just a narrow pathway, but a broad one. I counted eight lily pads across and a good thirty or so to the rocks.
Seconds after Oona arrived to the other side, a few dozen pixies came out of hiding. Their wings were of every color. Crimson, yellows, pinks, blues, oranges, limes and black. They had all been hiding in the little crevices of the giant rock outcroppings and hiding among the plants that mingled around them. It was a magical moment, a surreal feeling…but also scary as heck. That many strange pixies at once was something to be feared, even if I was branded with a pixie pock mark.
A pixie with tangerine colored wings that were spangled with bright orange dots flew over to me. She wore a dark purple flower as a skirt and two acorns over her breasts. Her eyes were intensely yellow and probably glowed in the dark.
“You follow my lead. You miss step—you fall to doom.” She smiled, posed like a ballet star and then flew above the first group of lily pads.
I was getting ready to ask her about the dance that I would be doing but before I could get the words out, a giant fish flew out of the water. He had to be six feet long and fat like a cow. His scales were silver colored and his big fish lips were gold. He opened his mouth and caught the pixie just before he landed back in the water.
“Holy! Son of a gun!” My heart leapt to my skull and my hands trembled. They wanted me to dance across this water? I backed up and leaned against a giant moss covered tree for support. I could feel the active energy bustling around inside. I stayed there and watched and listened to the pixies conversation. Some were laughing; some were serious.
“Oh she had it coming. She always tease Gilbert.” One male pixie waved a hand signifying his passive attitude. I assumed the fish was named Gilbert.
“She in a better place now,” one joked.
“Ah do not worry. She come out on other side,” another said.
“I told her…do not tease fish. He come for you. Stupid female,” an older male pixie said shaking his head. A wrinkled prune faced pixie—I assumed to be his wife—slapped him upside the head with a tulip.
“Quiet!” Oona yelled. She was so loud they all adhered to her warning. “Ivy must dance. She in hurry.”
Somehow these pixies seemed more primitive…almost like cavemen; but they were cave-pixies. The pixies of my time and generation were more civil. They wore dresses that they hand stitched themselves and these guys seemed to wear whatever natural resources they found for the day. They also seemed a bit more…wild in character. One of them was just eaten by a fish and it didn’t really matter to any of them.
Mumbling, they all agreed with Oona and another pixie dressed in nothing but dandelion puffs flew over to me. Her wings were yellow like buttercups and so was her hair. I continued to lean on the tree, my palms to the bark.
“Come now sweet girl. I show you dance move, you do dance move.” Her voice was so high pitched that I stifled a laugh.
At the moment, I didn’t know if I should turn away and run like heck, or if I should stay and play their dancing game. I certainly had to be in last place. If I wanted to race for the bottle at noon in two days, I had get moving. So, I opted to stay and dance across the lake, over a dangerous merman and a giant fish called Gilbert…on top of the lily pads.
Five pixies lined up in a row. Each one had some sort of trumpet or horn. Another five lined up parallel to them, and each of them had some concoction resembling violins and mini cellos. Next came five drummers and beside them, twenty vocalists, and three flute players.
I had the precognition that they were going to enjoy this to the fullest. As soon as the old man pixie dropped a stick, they began their concert. I would be lying if I said they weren’t talented; in fact they reminded me of the Fae’s breathtaking music. The beat was far more simple but extraordinarily uplifting.
Immediately, I felt like I was in a musical on Broadway or something. The pixie in front of me—the one I was supposed to imitate—was floating three feet in front of me. Her legs were straight and crossed at the ankles. Her arms were folded across in front of her, and her nose raised in the air.
“Copy every move. Or you fall to water to die,” she said as if she couldn’t care either way.
I stiffened my legs, crossed my ankles and stood straight as a rod. I crossed my arms and held them in front of me, and nodded my head to signal that I was ready.
The beat went something like this: Da doot, da doot, da dilly dilly doot. Da doot, da doot. Over and over. The voices hummed along and then the choir began to sing in high voices, almost opera-style. I couldn’t understand but a few words and none of them really made sense...
“You little girl gots a pep in her step. She hold her nose high in the air that we breathe…”
Then the pixie hopped left, left, left and kicked out her right leg. I followed suite, jumping on a different lily pad with each hop. Right, right, right, left, right, and kick! After each kick, I could jump forward to the next set of pads. Left, left, left, left, left, and kick. Then to the right, right, right, left, right, and kick. One time, I ran out of lily pads and so I had to hop on the same one a few times, and then kick and jump ahead.
Half way across I felt as though
this wasn’t going to be hard at all. That was right before she did a flip in the air and then lunged to the right five times. I was lucky to have great balance. Being half elven, it came easy to me. However, this time I flipped and almost lost my balance. As I teetered on the slippery lily pad, I swung my arms to gain balance and then immediately crossed them before me. I didn’t want to take any chances of messing up too bad. I have no doubt they’d make me start from the beginning.
As the dance progressed, the moves became more difficult. When she began to do twists and twirls, I had to concentrate. Near the end my feet seemed to be larger than my landing pads, and the music and the pixie picked up speed.
Left, left, right, left, a side flip, and a back flip, an upper body twist and a kick. Almost there…
The water appeared to be getting darker, which I assumed meant that it was much deeper on this side.
The choir continued to sing incomprehensible words, “Blah blah blah blah…In the darkness she may fall…”
Then the drums: Boom! Boom! Boom! And the violins and horns played faster and faster.
Two more rows to go and she hopped from the far right to the very far left. I focused on my leg muscles and jumped, just barely landing on the small pad. As I teetered on one leg, my eyes focused on the water below me. What I saw caused me to suck in my breath and I almost fell into the deep dark depths. A man’s face peered up at me. His teeth were long and sharp like a vampire. He held his mouth wide open for me to see every tooth, and his beady crimson eyes flashed like two beacons. His skin was pasty white, looking like someone who’d just returned from the morgue and had their face powered. His fish tail was black with a few scattered scales of brilliant green that lit up like jewels. I couldn’t help but notice a large, gaping gash in his upper chest. He’d recently been attacked by something. I don’t know how long I stood there mesmerized, but soon the pixie yanked my hair and drew my attention back to the task at hand.