Crystal Compass Book 1: Part 11: July Camp NaNo 2014

“The King is not seeing anyone.” Clara huffed, sounding exasperated, “Not even the Lords and Ladies who rule over the subcultures of his Kingdom. He has no time, apparently, to deal with ‘such petty concerns,’ despite our best attempts to make him understand the situation.”

“Do you want me to seek the creature out and...”

“No!” Nadia shook her head violently, “Do not, Miss Twilight. This is our affair to deal with and you are mortal, you break far too easily. The Crystal Compass would not be pleased if we let a Havenkeeper get hurt. They like the fae little enough as it is. If you try, I will send even you around in circles!”

Twlight tried not to be insulted, she really did. It was a valid concern. Jack was known for his playful nature, but he was also known as the ‘Harbinger of the Winter Storm’ as he had, on more than one occasion been gifted with the ‘Wrath’ of Winter as he had been the closest Immortal of the Crystal Compass on hand when something non-mortal had been preying on those of mortal persuasion.

However she was honestly getting a little sick and tired of the ‘you’re only mortal’ issue. She fought monsters and magic on a regular basis in order to protect her little Haven. She had been at Jack’s side through several incidents and helped him all the way. She was not as useless as everyone seemed to believe. To hear even Nadia, who had seen and assisted in the take down of some of the recent non-friendly’s come out with it was exasperating.

“Fine.” She shrugged anyway, trying not to show her frustration, “I just came up to ask a favour. People are going to be searching for that missing kid again, can you grant them safe passage through your forest, please?”

“I don’t see why we should.” Clara grumbled, “My home is my home, you would not let people traverse your garden however and whenever they like!”

“I’m a Havenkeeper, remember?” Twilight reminded her with a chuckle. “Non-mortals traverse my lands all the time.”

“You’re a rare, almost extinct breed,” Nadia sighed, “I can tell you now that the child does not take shelter amongst the trees of my forest, Twilight, my people have told me such. At least the ones who can currently reach their trees have. So there is no need for the search to continue within the confines of our lands.”

Twilight grimaced at that. It meant that Mikey had obviously either gone in a completely different direction or was within the dark spot of the forest. However if Nadia kept her word and she would, the librarian knew, there was no way for her to get there to find out.

“I wish I could inform the searchers of that, but they would never believe me.” Twilight tried, “You can keep them away from that dark zone, if you wish, but the sooner they think they’ve traversed the whole area, the sooner they’ll leave you alone.”

“Fine.” Nadia huffed as Clara moved from Twilight’s shoulder to hers, nodding irritably, “But only because you asked and only until they are done with the search. Then the forest will not let them in so easily.”

“Thank you.” The student grinned at the pair of them, “You’re the best.”

“We know.” Twilight could barely hear Clara from just a few feet away, but she caught the tiny fairy Queen’s comment and laughed as she headed back to her bike.

One brief call to Detective Ley later to tell her that the dryads reported that Mikey was not in the forest, she finally got on the road, trying not to feel really weird that she had just reported something a member of the fae had told her to a detective. The trip to Plymouth was relatively quick once she actually left the dirt track. Though it took her an hour to get across to the port city, she welcomed the feel of the wind hitting her and the sounds of the road. The hustle and bustle of the busy university town was a stark and interesting contrast to the quiet and more often than not, peaceful village.

Her friends were waiting for her as she pulled up, demanding answers from her about the missing kid and whether she had seen anything as she tried to chain up her bike and head to the one revision class she had before they were supposed to be settling at the library.

She answered their questions with ease, a bright smile she did not entirely feel on her features as she remembered last night and the fact that right now there would be people combing her home in order to remove the bugs that the police had installed.

Still her friends, who had been the ones to coin the nickname ‘Twilight’ in the first place, were in quite a jovial mood. Once the initial questioning had passed and they had sat through the revision session with the one lecturer Twilight had that was guaranteed to put eighty percent of his students asleep with just a short lecture, they dragged her out to have a little fun. Considering the state of her bank account and the state of the accounts of her friends, who were all shopaholics and had almost completely totalled their student loans for the term, it was almost a relief to get dragged halfway across town for a burger and an hour on the ice skating rink.

Hanging out with her mortal friends was a breath of fresh air. They might have been obsessed with that daft animated pony show that was so popular right now, enough so to have nicknamed her after the book-obsessed librarian pony within it but they were good for her. Though they had no powers and often just humoured her when she said something odd, she did not have to worry about what she said around them or guard her words or actions.

It was okay, they had told her, that she was a little odd and occasionally talked about the fantastical. They had decided years ago that obviously her creative nature took over and ran roughshod over reality. They were used to it and it made life more interesting. She did not have the heart to tell them that it was all real. She was just pleased for their acceptance.