“Here you are,” she grinned, setting them down. Then, she set down two glasses full of a dark amber liquid that reminded me of heated honey. “Two complimentary glass of nectar on the house.”
“Thank you,” I said in surprise.
“I just really like fairies who are brave enough to get big,” she giggled. “Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with. My name is Sevneken.”
Sevneken was just about to turn away when I realized that there was something she could help us with.
“Wait!” I cried. “I was wondering if you might have seen someone. A woman, uh, elf, actually, with long hair and a bit darker skin and, uh…”
I was completely failing. Normally, I would have just pulled out my cell phone and showed her a picture, but I had a feeling that pulling out a little computerized device would not go over so well in this sort of company.
“Here,” Hunter stepped in, opening up his jacket and pulling out a paper copy of a photo. I hadn’t even realized he’d had a second one, or I wouldn’t have bothered making an accidental complete fool of myself.
“This is a wonderful little painting,” Sevneken said in wonder, running her finger down the photo. “So smooth.”
“The artist is very talented,” I replied. “So have you seen her?”
Sevneken stared at it with wide silver eyes for a long moment, taking in every single detail of Magda’s face, before she finally shook her head.
“Sorry,” she sighed, looking genuinely distraught that she couldn’t help us. “I do not recognize her.”
“That’s okay,” I replied, taking the photo back gently. “Don’t worry about it.”
With a nod, Sevneken trotted off.
“So much for that,” Hunter groaned.
“‘Scuse me,” a gruff, angry voice piped up behind my chair. I was sure it wasn’t talking to me, since I didn’t know a soul in this place, so I didn’t turn around. “‘Scuse ME!”
15
The rough, angry roar was enough to make me turn in shock, and I was faced with a tiny, pouting gnome. His long red beard was braided like a horse’s mane, and his black eyes were hardly more than slits, he was squinting them so hard. He had his lips puckered out like he was sucking on a straw, and the pointed green hat on his head did nothing but make him look all the more ridiculous. Here was this tiny man, not more than three feet tall, glaring at me like I was the devil, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Which, of course, didn’t help my case at all.
“You think I’m funny, huh?” He growled. “Fairies always do. So much for trying to help.”
I ignored the fact that a second fae had now claimed I looked like a fairy- a fact I found both confusing and relieving all at once- and reached out a hand to tap him on the shoulder before he could stomp away.
“I’m so sorry!” I gasped quickly. “I’m afraid I’ve had one too many glasses of the cocktail they’ve been serving.”
“Yeah, you and everyone else,” he sighed, turning around to continue glaring at me. “Listen, you had a painting of someone? I heard you are looking for her, is that correct?”
“Yes.” I nodded my head vigorously, snatching the photo from the table and nearly shoving it into the gnome’s hands. “Do you know her?”
He barely glanced at it before shoving it right back to me and nodding. “Used to. A long time ago. Have not seen her around for ages, though. How come you want to find her?”
“We’re old friends,” Hunter offered quickly. “We just want to know if she’s okay.”
The gnome appraised the two of us, deciding whether or not he wanted to believe what we were saying. Finally, he decided he must, because he shrugged and threw his hands up.
“Alright,” he said. “Well, if you want to find a forest nymph, you need to go where the forest nymphs are. Be warned, though- Magda’s been running from the king for a mighty long time. You would be hard-pressed to actually find her. Pretty sure she disappeared from here around twenty years ago. Don’t let anyone know you heard this from me but, uh, rumor has it she escaped to the human world.”
And in a split second, the little gnome had cleared up every question I’d ever had about Magda. Of course, I didn’t know what she’d done to anger the king and why she was running, but it all made perfect sense now.
She’d come to our world to live a normal life, trying to outrun the evils of the fae king. And when Bruce had told her he was a witch, she’d seen it all blow up in her face. There was no way she would have waited around for the Council, or even the fae, to come and snatch her back to their world.
So she’d run.
Even though Bruce wanted to find his wife more than anything, I suddenly wondered if that was the right decision. Would it put him both in danger?
“Let’s eat so we can get out of here,” Hunter said, digging into his salad. “We’ve got a forest nymph to find.”
We scarfed down the food in a matter of minutes. We were both starving, but since the salad also tasted like someone had scooped dirt onto our plates and served it to us, we were both fairly motivated to finish up quickly. The nectar, though, was tasty. It really did taste like melted honey, but it also tasted as if someone had mixed that with the creamiest milk from the best cow on the dairy form, creating a wondrous concoction that I wanted to drink over and over again, every day, for the rest of my life.
It was only once we’d eaten all of the food that I realized we had no way to pay.
“Don’t worry,” Hunter whispered, reading my mind once again. “I carry a piece of gold in my pocket just in case something like this ever happens to me. We can pay.”
With that, he left the piece of gold on the table, and we left the bubbling excitement of the little cafe, heading back toward the road. Once we got to the edge of the town, I stopped, turning to Hunter.
“Any chance you know where the forest nymphs hang out?”
“I wish,” he sighed. “Maybe we should have gotten a map at the visitor’s center, huh?”
“Smart idea,” I laughed. “Set up a visitor center for the witches, halflings, and ex-hunters that dare to come over here on a mission to find someone’s missing wife.”
“Funnily enough, I don’t think they’d be so open to that.”
“Yeah, me neither,” I grinned at him.
With the sun glinting down over his dark brown beard and growing five o’clock shadow, he was beginning to look a little too human for my taste. Nerves crept back over, and suddenly, I felt as if everyone was looking at us. The little fairy flitting through the air, and the elf walking down the road with his young daughter on his hip. The gnome squatting next to a pot of flowers on the edge of an older elf’s balcony.
They all seemed to be staring at us.
Rationally, I knew that they weren’t. No one had a clue who we were. And even if they did, would they really come and mob us, throwing stones like we were a pair of heathens?
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I realized it was well within the realm of possibility.
“Maybe we should ask for directions?” I said.
“Directions!” A tiny, squeaky voice suddenly screeched about a foot away from my ear. For what seemed like the thousandth time that day, I found myself leaping up and whirling around, ready to punch someone out if the need arose.
Instead, I came face to face with a tiny, pink, glowing fairy. I forced myself not to let my eyes pop open wide at the sight of her.
It was like all of my little kid dreams had just come true.
She was super tiny, not much longer than my index finger, and her light pink skin seemed to literally glow from the inside out. In fact, I was pretty sure that, had I encountered her at night, she would have lit the way like the brightest, most expensive lamps could. The fairy had thinkings that glistened like someone had dumped an entire vial of glitter over them, and the kindest lilac eyes I’d ever seen in my life. She was floating up and down in front of me, waiting expectantly for an answer.
“Yes, directions,” I nodded.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” She asked.
“Not exactly,” I replied with a soft smile.
The fairy flitted closer until she floated just off the tip of my nose, bobbing up and down and staring me right in the eyes. Suddenly, her doe eyes got even larger, something I didn’t even think was possible, and she let out a loud gasp that was somewhere between an inhale and a screech. “Oh my!”
That was the exact moment I knew my cover was blown. Without even thinking, I snatched her out of the air, careful not to crush her tiny body, and spun Hunter around. The two of us dashed across the road to take cover behind a giant tree trunk, out of sight of any nosy onlookers.
“Shannon, what are you doing?” He hissed in my ear.
“She had us made,” I hissed back before I slowly brought the fairy up to my eye level.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t even struggling to get out of my grasp or trying to free herself at all, really. She was just sitting there, arms crossed, and staring at me the way an angry teacher would stare at a rowdy high schooler.
“Are you quite finished?” She demanded.
A blush spread across my cheeks and I found myself nodding, even if I wasn’t totally sure whether or not I was quite finished.
“Thank you,” she sighed. “Now, would you let me free? I do not intend to blow your cover. I was merely flitting over to offer you my help.”
“Let her go, Shannon,” Hunter urged in my ear.
I had to force my fingers to uncurl from around her fragile body, but when they finally did, she let her wings fly and shook them off, regaining a bit of her sparkle as she did so.
“Thank you very much,” she repeated with a nod that gave me the distinct feeling she wasn’t really thanking me at all. “Now, what on earth are two people from your world doing on this side of the portal?”
“How did you know?” I demanded. I wanted my own questions answered first before she got what she was looking for.
The fairy raised a single, pink eyebrow and gave me a once over. “It is quite obvious, my dear. You are a halfling, and he is human. Though, why you would bring a human to such a dangerous place is absolutely beyond me.”
“What’s so dangerous about it?” I demanded. “Is it the king?”
“Yes, of course, it’s the king,” she laughed, but it was a high, cold sound. Clearly, this king was not a friend of hers at all. “He has done terrible things over the last few centuries, instilling his rule with an iron fist, and calling up an army full of dark magic workers to do his bidding. This is no place for a good fae, much less a human with no means to protect himself.”
“Trust me, I can protect myself just fine,” Hunter replied gruffly, crossing his arms like that was supposed to make him appear more macho.
“I am sure you can,” the fairy chuckled, rolling her eyes and giving me a look, as if to say, “men, right?”
“Listen, do you think you could help us?” I asked. “I’m sorry about grabbing you like that. It was just so unexpected, and with you knowing who we are, obviously, I couldn’t let you blow our cover.”
“Of course I can help you,” the fairy bristled slightly. “I would have been gone by now if that was not what I wanted. I do insist on introductions, though. I am Branberry.”
“Shannon,” I replied. “And this is Hunter.”
Branberry raised an eyebrow at his name, apprising him as if she was just seeing him for the first time.
“Ah, so it is true,” she murmured.
“What is?” Hunter demanded, shifting uneasily under her gaze.
“We had heard one of the hunters had broken ranks,” she shrugged. “I was not keen to believe that as anything but more propaganda, however, I see it now. Welcome to life as a human, Hunter.”
“Thanks,” Hunter replied, squinting uncertainly.
“Now,” Branberry said, spinning back around to face me, “where is it that you need to go?”
“Where the forest nymphs hang out,” I replied. “Do you think you can tell us where that is?”
The fairy went quiet for a long moment, making me wonder if she had suddenly reconsidered her offer.
“I have a better idea,” she replied. “How about I show you?”
“Thank you!” I gasped. “That would be perfect.”
Branberry’s small act of grace alone made me realize something. This time around, I might be here for Magda. But this wouldn’t be the last time I came to this land.
“Branberry, I was wondering if you might be able to tell me about the king,” I said as we started along the path. “You’re not the first to say something that made me think he might not be the nicest.”
“Nice is the last word I would use to describe him,” she muttered darkly. It was the first time her tone had been anything other than light and slightly irritated, and the mere inflection took me aback for a moment.
“How would you describe him, then?” Hunter asked, stepping in during my silence. As usual, Hunter was no-nonsense, putting his emotions away in order to deal with the issue at hand.
I couldn’t do that, though. The way Branberry had darkened at the mere mention of the king made me even more nervous, and I found myself looking over my shoulder, again and again, making sure we hadn’t been followed. I had a feeling a king like that would kill Hunter on the spot, and Lord only knew what he’d do to me.
He probably wouldn’t kill me. It had been made more and more apparent that halflings were a special breed with rare magic. But I was sure he’d use me, at the very least. Force me to fight with him like the dark magic users Branberry had mentioned earlier
“Would you like the whole story?” Branberry asked, turning around to fly backward so she could look at Hunter and me.
“Please,” he nodded.
“In human years, this would have happened long ago,” she started. “But for us, the fae, it feels recent, as if it was yesterday. We were vibrant once. A happy people who would cross over to the human world often, interacting with the magical and non-magical folk that inhabited it, making connections, discovering new things. We weren’t filled with so many dark and evil fae. We didn’t want to hurt those in the human world or perform rituals with them. We saw them as our equal, as we should. But that was when King Bransom was in power.”
“Let me guess, he’s since been overthrown?” I asked.
“Correct,” Branberry nodded. “His nephew, Lord Inueya, decided he was no longer happy being third in line to the throne, behind Bransom’s wife and two daughters. So, Inueya collected an army of followers, ones who saw us as more powerful than the witches and the humans, ones who wanted to separate from that world altogether and instead live only on our own. In the middle of the night, his forces invaded the castle, murdering the royal family in their beds, and Inueya took the corn for himself.”
“God,” I breathed.
I’d seen crime scenes like that before. It was strange how murderous family members could get. In fact, the bloodiest crime scenes I’d ever seen were ones where one person killed the rest of their family. It was absolutely terrifying.
And to do it for nothing but power? That alone told me everything I needed to know about this king of theirs.
“And that is how we got here,” Branberry said grimly. “I will not bore you with the details, but do know that many of us do not approve of the relations we have with your world. We are not all evil, vile monsters. Your very existence is proof of that.”
“True,” I nodded.
My grandfather wasn’t evil or vile. Grams never would have fallen in love with someone like that. Which just made me want to find him all the more.
“Come, enough chit chat,” Branberry announced suddenly. “We have much ground to cover before the moons rise up and blanket us in darkness.”
“Moons?” I murmured, looking over at Hunter, who merely shrugged.
“Guess we’d better walk faster, then,” he replied.
It turned out that day time in the world of the fae lasted way longer than day time in my world. I was pretty sure that we’d been walking for at least four hours by the time we got close to where Branberry wanted to stop.
“Okay, I need a break,” I finally said, bending over my knees to try and catch my breath. “I am out of shape. And old.”
“You are not old,” Branberry scoffed. “You are a halfling.”
She said no more as if that was explanation enough. I supposed it would have to be because we’d arrived at our destination.
And it was absolutely beautiful. Branberry had taken us off the road about an hour before, and we had wandered through the forest until we’d come upon a pond in the very center, with a cascading waterfall from a tall cliff face, and lush greenery that grew up through the smooth gray rocks.
“Wow,” I breathed, looking out over it. The water was perfectly blue and so clear I could see all the way down to the rocky bottom, which had to be about a hundred feet below. There were strange, bright colored fish swimming in it, too. They reminded me of tropical fish that someone might find off the coast of Australia.
“Welcome to the home of the forest nymphs,” Branberry announced, motioning proudly as if she had built the place with her bare hands. “I hope you find what you are looking for.”
With that, she started to float off, quicker than a squirrel with a nut.
“Wait a minute!” I called after her. “Aren’t you going to wait to show us where the nymphs are?”
Branberry turned around, casting a wary gaze toward the pond with all of the nymphs, and shook her head.
“I am afraid the nymphs and fairies do not get along very well,” she replied. “In fact, the nymphs do not get along well with many people. Do be careful.”
That was it. Branberry flitted off as if her life depended on it, and within seconds, she was out of sight, gone forever.
I found myself feeling a little sad at her sudden absence. I may have only known her for a few hours, but in that time, she’d started to feel like a close friend. Though, admittedly, that probably had more to do with the fact that she had offered to help us while we were stranded in a strange land than actual friendship.
Paranoia, Pixies and Prophecies Page 11