Twilight
was almost glad to get back to the normality of University the next day.
Detective Ley and her ‘deal’ left a bad taste in her mouth. Getting back to the
most mundane part of her life offered her a chance to get away from the deals
and dangers and just focus on what she wanted for a change.
She
made one detour on the way out to her university. Her bike complained as she
drove it up the old dirt track through the forest, hating every moment of it as
the dirt and leaves and sticks got caught in its wheel guards. Still it made
the journey admirably and she dismounted near the old, abandoned farmhouse. It
had been thoroughly poured over yesterday, but had revealed none of its
secrets.
“Clara!?”
Twilight called as she walked around the building, “Nadia?! I need to talk to
both of you!”
No
one appeared worrying Twilight as she continued her journey, looking for a
certain mound. The farmer who had lived here when her grandmother had been
alive, had known about the fae folk living right on his back yard and amongst
his orchard. He had not been as stupid as his successor, who had been fool
enough to take over an apple orchard, dismiss the predecessor’s warning about
the ‘help’ and rip down the orchard in order to raise animals.
Every
dryad linked to one of those apple trees had died with their tree and
Twilight’s grandmother had seen no reason to step in when the Fae folk had
retaliated for the demise of over a hundred of their people. The librarian was
not sure she could be quite as callus about it, but then she had been six and friends
with Clara and seeing how upset the tiny Queen had been had made her
unsympathetic to the plight of the farmer.
“Clara?
Nadia?” Twilight called as she found it and knocked on the nearest wooden post,
one with had a small celtic knot carved into it. “It’s only me, Twilight. Come
out, please?”
There
was nothing for a few moments longer. Then a bright golden blur flew towards
her, latching onto the young woman’s jacket and refusing to let go, babbling
something at such high speeds that it sounded like a high pitched humming.
“Whoa,
Clara please, I don’t understand when you talk that fast.” Twilight tried to
get her to slow down as a willowy looking humanoid with dark brown, bark like
skin and bushy, foliage like hair, of a colour not unlike the local trees
warily emerged from the tree line and headed in her direction.
The
tiny golden blur backed off and dusted herself off, taking a deep breath. The
aura around her died down as she calmed, revealing a tiny, deeply tanned woman
with golden blonde hair and sharp amber eyes of no more than three inches tall.
She wore a long golden robe and had tiny, dragonfly like wings which shimmered,
leaving a trail of what looked like gold dust as she flapped them at a speed
unseeable to the human eye.
“Sorry.”
She apologised to Twilight as she settled on the librarian’s shoulder, her voice
ringing like a tiny, but almost unheard bell.
“It’s
okay.” Twilight reassured the leader of the only fairies that were accurately
portrayed in modern media. Tinkerbell, with her jealousy and temperamental
nature was a surprisingly close portrayal of Clara’s people. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s
something moving in the woods. Something that shouldn’t be there.” Nadia
informed her, the oldest of the dryads looking pensive. “A huge swath of the
forest has been rendered uninhabitable because of it. A lot of us,” She
indicated herself, “Have been resting within the trees of others for the time
being.”
“It
chased us out of our home.” Clara complained, her tone shrill in her anger,
causing Twilight to wince, “It’s a huge, boney creature, mostly humanoid in
nature with ashy grey, almost dead, but bloodstained skin. It has burning red
eyes, sharp, sharklike teeth and it brings fear and a trail of blood with it
whenever it’s near. My warriors tried to fight it, of course, but it swept them
aside with a sweep of its massive hand.”
Twilight
frowned. There was nothing she knew of by that description that was local to
the forest. In fact she had not read of anything of that kind in general, but
then she was only halfway through her grandmother’s journals. Not to mention her
own collection of books on ghouls and goblins was limited due to the limited
income she made as a part time librarian having to mostly go on bills each
month.
“Can’t
you ask for assistance from the Fae Realms?” Twilight asked them, unable to
help but wonder if it was this new entity that had stolen Mikey away and if the
child was okay.
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