You’re like the morning breeze,
I want to hold, but cannot touch
And then, you make my heart squeeze
As all that I can do is watch.
Siya
The sun dipping low through the thick leafy branches declared that I’d been away for longer than I had intended. The forest was still lively, but I knew the chirping birds would soon be replaced by much bigger and deadlier nightly hunters. The deer that cautiously trailed in my footsteps wouldn’t stick around much longer, either. He would scurry off to save his own life, should I become the hunted.
I tried not to think about the predators waking up, quite possibly already lurking around the deep bushes in search of their next prey. I had more pressing matters to attend to, and not a whole lot of time left to do so. Finding the wounded ghlipon shouldn’t have been this difficult.
I felt the forest for broken branches and trampled moss, all the while keeping my eyes open for any threats. Nature fairies could feel anyone coming before they’d be seen, but that was my only advantage. Unlike some of my kin, I wasn’t a fighter. Nor could I outrun anything that decided to come at me. Hiding from predators rarely worked to anyone’s advantage since their sharp senses would root out the one that tried. All of this made my noble quest through the wild Ferranti forest an incredibly stupid one. So horribly stupid! I had come too far to turn back now, however, so I took one careful step at a time, drudging through the underbrush.
I had been following the path the ghlipon took for several hours now, but still wasn’t any closer to finding the animal. Her travelling this far while severely hurt was starting to worry me. At the rate I was going, by the time I would find her, tend to her injuries and trek back home the sun would have long set. Walking through Ferranti during daytime was dangerous, at night it would be outright deadly, but that wasn’t the only reason a churning in my stomach increased the longer I stayed in this part of the forest.
I’d left my eighteen year old daughter alone, promising I’d only be a couple of hours. Isay could stay out of trouble about as easily as a naughty cat. If she wasn’t attracting trouble herself, she was helping others evade conflicts. Animals mostly, since we didn’t get along with a lot of villagers near our home. I knew in all certainty that Isay would come searching for me if I wasn’t back by sundown.
I was way past the safety of Elverstone’s borders. The predators living in these parts of Feranti were no simple wolves and lynxes, but something much darker and way more dangerous. My daughter might’ve had a stronger spirit than I, but she wasn’t a fighter either, and didn’t belong in this part of the forest. I shouldn’t be here either.
Isay knew better than to cross Uri—so did I, not that it made any difference since here I was. Uri was a long stretch of grassland between Elverstone and the rest of the realm separating the secure forest outside our cabin from the more popular hunting grounds. Many animals, ghlipons included, used it to migrate south when the weather cooled. That wasn’t why Uri protected us, however. That invisible line had stood for centuries and rarely did a powerful beast dare cross it. What kept them at bay was mainly the higher altitudes Elverstone rested on–that and our magical wards.
While I’d told Isay countless times the importance of staying on our side of the forest, I didn’t trust her to stay put. It looked like I would not make it home tonight and my stomach constricted with worry that my daughter would find herself in more trouble than she could handle while I was away.
I was so busy thinking about Isay while following the ghlipon that I barely noticed a disturbance to the north of me. Darker patches appeared in the life force of the forest too close for my liking. The pulsing warning that followed was delayed only by a fraction, making my heart beat to the frantic rhythm of it.
I froze in my steps, but I’d come too far to evade the intruders the forest alerted me of. The thought of being seen had me breathing shallow and the pulse thumping in my neck made it difficult to focus on anything other than the impending danger.
Leaves rustled softly, and the ecos in the plantlife fluttered and retracted, searching for an escape from beneath the boots stomping on moss and shrubs alike. Some of it dwindled and lost its bright shine. Some of it pushed through my bare feet, taking refuge within my body and lighting me up like a beacon. I was part of the forest and its force accepted me freely. These other fairies, however, were not appreciated. I counted six of them.
I had been so focused on tracking the ghilpon, I hadn’t realised how far north I had come. Much, much farther than I intended to, which meant I’d be in a whole lot of trouble if the fairies marching onwards noticed me.
I’d been worried about predators, but more of the animal kind. Not once had I thought I would stumble onto death fairies. And while they might have seemed like the lesser evil, I wasn’t convinced my persuasion skills would keep me alive long enough to even get a word out should they notice me. That started to become a high possibility considering the amount of ecos seeping from the forest floor through my feet and filling me with nervous energy and unmistakable power. Power that death fairies were drawn to like flies to stool. I failed to push it away from me and fade into the scenery.
They were out of sight, hidden by thick bushes, but if I could hear them, they could certainly hear me. I stayed as quiet as I could to not alert the group of my presence. Maybe they’d stay preoccupied with whatever brought them out and pass me by despite the gentle vibration humming under my skin.
Vindica, the death fairy court, was not terribly close to Elverstone, but the forest bordered both of the lands. It was a good two day’s hike downhill and I’d been slow in my pursuit of the animal. The six hours I’d been travelling shouldn’t have brought me to their doorstep. This meant they were out of their reservation themselves and farther from their home than I was.
If they stumbled on the ghlipon, she’d be dead before I reached her. If they stumbled on me, I’d be dead, too.
Slowly reversing my steps, I pressed my back against a thick tree trunk. Its ecos thrummed through my back in comforting vibrations, but couldn’t slow my rapid heartbeat. I attempted to unload the excess ecos that strummed through my blood into the tree behind me and it worked to some extent, calming my nerves by a fraction, but not completely relaxing the tension in my shoulders.
Carrying only a bag of herbs and medical supplies, I hadn’t accounted for the possibility of an attack. If only I had caught up to the ghlipon sooner, I wouldn’t be scared out of my mind and worrying of being noticed by the most malicious beings known to live in Belfean realm. Out of all of the dark courts, Vindica was the most dangerous one to face.
“You’re making so much noise, there’s no wonder we haven’t seen any wildlife,” one of the males grumbled. “Can’t really call it a hunting trip if there’s nothing to hunt.”
“Personally, I’m glad we haven’t run into any delthers yet. Must be an off season for those life suckers,” a second fae replied.
“If you two keep talking we’ll never find a fidahl to bring back.” Authoritative and gruff the third voice silenced the other two, and for a while all I heard was the cracking of dried leaves under the Vindicans feet.
The forest’s ecos whispered their positioning; they were coming straight at me. I couldn’t move from my hiding spot without alerting them of my presence, but staying wasn’t any safer. They would see me the moment they got close enough. If not that, they’d smell me, or sense the life force vibrating through my body. The racing of my heart pounding loudly in my ears muffled their approach.
With my back pressed firmly against the oak and my eyes shut just as tight in an attempt to merge with the tree I didn’t see the Vindican warriors take notice of me. But I heard them well enough.
“If that ain’t a prey none of us expected to find,” a fae I hadn’t yet heard speak drooled.
My eyes flew open, and any connection to the tree behind me severed.
Just as expected, there were six of them, each wearing various tones of black. They were all big, muscled and menacing, and leering at me as if they hadn’t fed in months.
I stayed still, staring back with the fury of the whole forest backing me, not that the plant life was capable of fighting my battles. It wasn’t, it really wasn’t. Swinging roots out of the earth and growing vines was not what nature fairies were capable of. That was a fantasy, one from an earthen movie I’d snuck out to see. I’d already known Elverstone only held power in Belfean realm because of our numbers and the fastness of plantlife all across the realm and not because we were powerful as a court.
“So full of life. Your Majesty, I offer you the first taste,” the drooling fairy said with a grin.
With dark hair, dark eyes and their dark clothing they all looked almost the same. Well, except one of them stared at me with eyes so blue I thought I’d gotten a heatstroke and was hallucinating. Their skin a shade darker than an average naturel’s, they almost faded into the surrounding tree trunks. If it wasn’t for their black attire that clearly distinguished them from the landscape.
And then there was the Majesty. There was nothing extraordinary about his features, but yet he held my attention more than the rest. A strong jaw, covered in scruff formed into high cheekbones and a sharp nose. Bushy eyebrows peeked from under thick locks of black hair that covered his forehead and hid his tipped ears from view. His grey eyes held warmth I didn’t find in any of the other’s. Perhaps that was wishful thinking.
While the king was taller than the rest, his shoulders were less broad. I didn’t doubt he could do as much damage with the sword on his hip as his guards, even as he carried himself like the royalty he was. The males flanking him must have trained daily for their biceps were bulging through the hard fabric of their fighting leathers. The king wasn’t as ripped, but that didn’t mean he took less space.
His presence overshadowed the rest. With a quiet confidence, he commanded the space he occupied. He stepped forward, but even before that he was the only one of them I was looking at, even the blue-eyed guard behind him didn’t manage to hold my gaze as long. Now he’d simply given my eyes a reason to stay on his face. And then he smiled, both with his lips and his dark grey eyes.
My breath hitched staring at the king of the death fairies who offered me something I’d never seen one of his court do, a genuine heartwarming smile. Sure, my heart was not warmed, since it still galloped in the rigged speed the ghlipon took off with after she’d unassumingly tripped on one of the bear traps someone had set up just outside of our border.
If I’d had the authority, I’d have taken my worry over the traps up with King Ilario of Elverstone and avoided meeting the death fairies altogether. He would not see me, however, so I’d been dismantling the traps myself, which led me to this exact moment, staring at the king of death. Not my king at all.
“Ferro, step away from the naturel,” King Grath said calmly, still smiling.
That was when I noticed that the king was not standing in front of his warriors, but rather Ferro was the closest to me. He was so close he was almost touching me, even though he’d offered his king the first taste. Had I not been so drawn in by King Garth's smile, I probably would have noticed Ferro sneaking up on me.
His smile did nothing to thaw my heart. I didn’t like men smiling at me, that always seemed to get me in trouble. And here I was thinking Isay was the only one that attracted sticky situations, turned out the trait ran in the family.
“Of course, Your Majesty.” Ferro took a step back, letting his king have a full view of me.
The king would take my life. Death fairies always did.
I refused to cower, but I did lean heavily on the oak behind me to keep me on my feet.
“Why don’t we all step away from her, hmm?” the king said, and his guards threw glances at him to suggest he’d lost his mind.
“But—” Ferro protested.
“But what?” King Grath growled. “Are you questioning my order?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
They wanted to see him take my life. He didn’t seem to mind drawing out my death. Maybe I had a chance at negotiating? Maybe he’d be willing to let me go? It was a far stretch, but I’d sell out the location of a fidahl if they’d leave me be. I had come to save one animal and yet I would so easily sacrifice another to save myself. That made me a bad naturel and a horrible person, but I could hardly think through the heat gathering in my face and nervous twirling in my stomach. All I knew was that my daughter waited for me in our hideous cabin in Elverstone and I would do anything to get back home to her.
“It’s been a long time, Princess Siya,” King Grath said with a bow of his head.
Where I’d seen him before? And when?
Surely, I would’ve remembered that smile if I’d seen it before. But, then I remembered meeting him a long time ago at a council meeting. It was half a century ago and he hadn’t been smiling when the council had voted to restrict Vindican feeding grounds. I’d voted against him that day, too. That had been the day when all interactions with the Vindican court stopped. We hadn’t been on particularly friendly terms with them before either, but getting confirmation of their cruelty was the last straw for Elverstone. No court that sends monsters after another had any right to feed freely, even if the Vindican feeding ground was on Earth, and their overindulgence hardly affected our kingdom’s well-being.
If Vindica had been allowed to keep their strength, all of Belfea would have lived in fear. So, for the last fifty years, death fairies’ food source has been limited. As a result, the warriors in front of me might have not been at their full strength, but they were most definitely hungry.
There was no chance for negotiating, he was just playing with me.
“Nobody has called me a princess in almost two decades, King Grath. I’m surprised you remembered.” My voice was not the even tone I wished it to be. Instead, it quivered slightly, just like my legs.
“Princess, the day my court was derogated will never leave my memory.”
I expected him to sound angrier at the recollection, but he seemed more dejected than mad.
“I no longer carry that title, King Grath. You need not remind me of things lost and I won’t talk about the detriment to your court. It is best if we go our own way anyhow, and we can skip the part where I plead for my life altogether.”
I pushed myself off the tree to make my words carry more weight. I could attempt walking away to see if they’d let me through. His warriors straightened and my eyes fell on the weapons they carried: knives, arrows, swords. My steps faltered, making me freeze and glance between all of them before I stared at their king once more.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone always got what they wanted, Siya without a title,” King Grath said. His smile was back, but it no longer attempted to warm me. “As it is, I am the one getting what I want this time and you’ll be my pawn to obtain it.”
I should have stayed with my back against the tree, because his words nearly made my knees buckle and I barely remained standing.
“What is it that you want, King Grath?” I asked, my voice but a whisper.
“We’re hunting for a fidahl. There were signs of one flying through, but we’ve lost track of it. You’re a naturel, you will find it for us.”
My breath hitched. Even though I’d been willing to barter the bird for my own life, but I objected to having it forced upon me. “I can’t—”
He silenced me with a raised hand and strict eye contact. “You are in no position to bargain.”
“I need to find the ghlipon first,” I whimpered.
If I didn’t find her, she’d be easy pickings for predators such as delthers, or symeri. Although, if she managed to flee across the forest for hours I might’ve been mistaken about her injuries. Or she had a reason to keep going. She must’ve had somewhere she needed to get before she stopped. I’d thought she had hidden her foal nearby, but we had come too far for that to remain a solid possibility. Not being able to explain her behaviour in any other way I still considered that option, though, and I was not going to lead the death fairies to a potential ghlipon’s den. I could find the fidahl for them first, but I had no confirmation they’d let me go afterwards.
“Your needs are none of my concern, Siya. Now start leading us towards our prey and I won’t be making a meal out of you.”
I clamped my mouth shut and nodded. If there ever was warmth in my heart caused by his smile, it had most definitely cooled by now. I no longer worried about getting home late, I worried about not getting home at all.
