Notes On...

 

Words:

         Some of the words in this book are either hard to pronounce or they are unknown to you. Most made up and latin words are defined in the book, usually in the paragraph they first appear in. For the ones that aren't, I have a fey to English dictionary that you can use to look up words used exclusively in this book as well as latin terms.

 

Scale:

         For the sake of visualisation, I use what the measurements would be to us instead of calling it a "fairy inch". To make things a little more clear, an inch is equal to a fairy foot, making 1/12 of an inch their inch, and 5,280 inches their mile. Also, when "domesticated" flowers are referenced, assume that they are to scale with the fairies and not with people unless otherwise specified.

Chapter #1: My Friend Thinks Five In The Morning Is a Good Time For a House Call

Aria Windbourne woke to an annoying rapping sound coming from her window. What the heck is he doing here at this ungodly hour? Aria got up from her bed of flower petals and leaves, and carefully made her way over to the window; stretching her wings as she went. When she reached the window, she shoved aside a porcelain pot with a wilted lily in it and pushed open the shutters, letting in a stream of moonlight in the proces.

“Jacob, what on Earth are you doing here at this godforsaken time of night?”

“Actually,” said the blonde fairy boy sitting on the outer windowsill, “it is two in the morning- not at night,” He gave her his smug know-it-all grin and slipped through the window.

“I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night or the early morning! This is getting rather ridiculous Jacob; what if our parents were to find out?” Aria said, stepping back from the window to allow Jacob in, despite her protests.

“Our parents aren’t going to care Aria. It’s not like we ever do anything, we just talk,” said Jacob, as if sneaking into a girl’s house in the middle of the night was something everyone did and no one cared about.

“Okay, so maybe it doesn't matter if our parents find out; but what about the other fairies Jacob? What would they say if the most popular and promising fairy in the entire Hollow was caught being friends with the ‘cursed one’?” Aria was concerned not only for Jacob’s well being, but also for her own. If anyone found out she had been “tainting” their electus… Her hand instinctively went up to brush her wings.

Aria was… different. In what others considered a very bad way. The most obvious factor was her wings: instead of having butterfly or dragonfly wings,  she had demon wings. Or at least, what all the other fairies called demon wings. She and Jacob were the only one’s who could seem to see what they really were: dragon wings. The top sides of them shimmered with green, blue, copper and gold scales, and their undersides were that of the loveliest shade of mint green. But yet, still they were called something evil, and Aria was named the cursed one.

And on top of the fact that her wings were different, her talents were different too. All the plants she had ever tried to grow had died, while all the animals she had taken care of had flourished. With most fairies, the opposite was true. Her room was filled with failed attempts at gardening, the latest one sat at the window sill.

“If anyone has a problem with me choosing my own friends, then they can go suck a bulb and mind their own business,” Jacob crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look tough, but being the most promising fairy in the Hollow had next to nothing to do with being tough, this was good for Jacob, for while he was handsome, he was definitely not tough. It was mostly based on gardening and healing talent, of which he did have plenty.

Aria laughed, “I don’t think the elders would agree with you,” the elders were the oldest fairies in the Hollow, and they were the fairies that had given her the title- if it could be called a title- “cursed one”, and had forbidden any contact between her and the electus, or “chosen”.

“The elders don’t rule my life Aria.”

“Where have you been for for the past eternity? Of course the elders rule your life! It may not be right but they do. They chose everything for us, our houses, our spouses, how many children we must have. It’s utterly ridiculous, but that doesn't make it not true.”

“Well then…” Jacob paused. He hadn't really considered what the “what” after the “well then” would be. “Well then I’ll leave!” He said, sounding incredibly final.

“What!” exclaimed Aria, “You know as well as anyone that leaving the Hollow is complete madness! What would you do out there? How would you live? There are dangerous animals out there Jacob, and none of them are exactly friendly with fairies.”

“That’s why you should come with me!” he said in his very final, this-is-not-optional-in-anyway voice.

“What!” Aria exclaimed again, though this time it was more because she hadn’t thought of it herself, and less because she thought it was ridiculous.

“Yes!” Said Jacob, starting to get on a roll. It hadn’t started out as anything serious, but a plan was beginning to form in his mind about how it could be made possible. “It makes perfect sense! Aria, have you ever been truly happy here?” Aria reluctantly shook her head “no”, “Exactly! Leaving this place would be perfect for both of us. You wouldn’t be treated so badly, and I wouldn’t be a puppet for the elders to play with! It would work too. I could grow the plants and the food that we would need, as well as take care of any injuries, and you could keep us from being eaten alive by wild animals! This will work Aria!” He was really excited now, and the excitement kept building as he imagined how much better life could be for them if they went out there.

“Okay, okay!” exclaimed Aria, laughing slightly, “Alright. I’ll do it. But we need to have a plan first, and I need to be allowed to leave a note for Calea,” Calea was Aria’s adopted mother, and had always been very kind to her despite her wings. Aria didn’t want to hurt her.

“Deal,” said Jacob, “Starting tomorrow, I’ll start to discreetly gather supplies from around here, and you can go out and collect supplies from the wild and find a place where we can stay.” Jacob had it all laid out in his mind: a perfect life with his best friend.

Aria laughed, “Wasn’t it you who was correcting me earlier about it being morning? I believe that what you meant to say was ‘later today’, not ‘starting tomorrow’. Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll go out on what everyone will think to be a berry hunting expedition, and I will come back saying I couldn’t find anything. Everything I do find will already be at our new home when we get there,” If we get there. Aria was a little worried about what would happen if they were found. Jacob would probably be fine, mostly anyway. But Aria… She didn’t really want to think about what would happen to her.

“It’s settled then,” said Jacob, walking over to the window, “Alright, I guess we need to get some sleep if we’re going to pull this off,” he sat on the windowsill and gave her a devilish smile, “Bye,” he said and pushed himself over backwards, his own pale green dragonfly wings catching his fall in mere seconds. Aria looked out the window at the small figure flying away from her house.

She yawned and stretched more as she walked over to and layed down on her bed, folding her wings neatly behind her. As she drifted back to sleep, she thought: What just happened, exactly?

 

Chapter #2: Mornings. Ug.

 

This time when Aria woke, it was to the sun streaming in through the open window. Dambe, forgot to close it. She tried to roll over on her side and fall asleep again. Of course, that didn’t work.

“Aria! Time to get up!” Calea called up from the level below Aria’s room, the sound carrying easily through the thin floor. Uuuuuuhhhhhhhg. Aria groaned inwardly. She really did not want to get out of bed that day. At all. Partly because she was so tired, but she also had to admit that she wanted to put off setting Jacob’s plan into action. This was serious stuff they were getting into.

After about five minutes Calea called up again, “Aria? Are you okay?” Aria groaned and got up, tripping over a pot holding a dead daisy bush as she stumbled over to the door and opened it.

“I’m okay,” she called out the door before closing it again and going over to her dresser. She riffled through the many drawers before settling on a green, maple leaf tunic and brown, mouse hide pants. Fairies may be vegetarians, but they don’t waist other resources when animals are beyond saving or are already dead.

Aria’s room was fairly big, with a large window on one wall and the door on the one opposite to it. It was littered with pots filled with flowers in various stages of deadness and had a slightly gloomy air to it. The bed was in the corner by the door and was always unmade with the blue flower petal pillows askew and often on the floor. The furniture was all grown into it’s shape, so no carving was required. The fairies would coax the wood into the shape of whatever it was they needed, and they would fit separate pieces together to make things like the drawers in dressers and in cabinets.

She walked over to the window side of the room to look in a mirror that was set into the wall next to it. It was said that long ago some fairies had the incredible ability to manipulate water, and that was what they used as mirrors. Now, they used spells to make water stay inside a frame and reflect a fairies image back at them.

Aria got a tie from where she had them set out on the windowsill and pulled her tangled black hair into a loose foxtail. She then went over to her dresser and searched the top of it for her squirrel bone comb. “Blast it! I know that thing must be around here somewhere…” She pushed aside a wilted violet, “Ha! There you are! Oh, rats.” In her hands she held a broken comb of squirrel bone.

“What happened to you, I wonder?”  The comb was split into two equal parts as if someone had gotten mad at it and broke it in half. It was also missing a majority of its teeth, which, on further examination, Aria found laying around where she had originally found the comb. Aria looked at the comb carefully, as if she was searching for something specific. “Ha!” she declared, “Festus you naughty thing! Where are you hiding?”

Festus was the name of Aria’s overly enthusiastic fey-windle. A fey-windle is a much smaller variation of the windle, which is an incredibly cute furball reminiscent of a long haired pill bug that comes in pale shades of green, blue, and purple.

Of course, Aria knew where Festus was hiding: he was under the pillow next to the one she actually put her head on, like he always was when he got out. “Hmm, I wonder where he could be?” Said Aria, stroking her chin in mock-deep though and turning around the room, letting her eyes settle on Festus’s usual hiding place. Sure enough, poking out from under the corner of the pillow was the unmistakable rear end of a pale blue fey-windle.

Keeping up her ridiculous detective-like look, Aria walked over to the pillow and placed her hand on it. When she did, the fury backside disappeared underneath it. “Aha!” cried Aria in a fake detective voice as she lifted the pillow up dramatically to reveal a cowering fey-windle.

“Naughty, naughty, Festus. You know we don’t chew on things,” she said, scooping up the fey-windle in her hands and showing it the broken comb. Festus cowered further, but Aria continued, “Would you like to tell me how you keep getting out of your pen? If you do, the squirrel and I may forgive you.”

Fairies have the belief that when animals die, they pass on their essence to their bones and that bones are something to be respected. Of course, things could be made from bone if it was done in the right way, or she wouldn’t have a squirrel bone comb in the first place. Aria treated this practice very skeptically, another thing that made her different. While she got that you should respect the remains of a once living being, she didn't think that a phantom squirrel was going to come and punish Festus for chewing on a comb. Of course, Festus didn’t know that.

He uncurled slowly, as if testing for any hostilities before rolling out to his full length. Festus was around 7/12 of an inch long, about the size of Aria’s hand.  He was one of the biggest fey-windles Aria had ever seen, most of them were only 5/12 of an inch. Aria thought that it might be because she had raised him from a pup and her gift of animal caring had helped him along.

He went over to the edge of Aria’s hand, their signal for “Put me down please”. She lowered her hand so that it was parallel to the bed. Festus crawled off of her hand and onto the bed, tickling Aria’s fingers with his long, pale blue fur. He then crawled off the bed using a dead petunia as a ramp and went over the the other side of the room.

Aria walked over to where he was huddled in the corner, curious as to what he was doing. When she got over to the corner, she crouched down beside Festus only to have him vanish. She jerked back, startled at Festus’s sudden disappearance before she shook of her startlement and searched around the corner for where he had gone.

“All right Festus, I give up. Where are you?” Aria finally said. Not too long after that, Festus’s furry little head popped out from what appeared to be solid wall. Again, Aria jerked back a little, startled at Festus’s revelation before she saw what it was. “Hey! That’s not fair! You know I can’t open those without magic, and you also know that I have been forbidden to use my magic because of the effect it would have on the balance of the Hollow - or something like that.”

Aria was very ticked that the elders had forbidden her from using her magic. Something that, when found in normal fairies, is worshiped as the greatest blessing the gods can give. But when they discovered that she had it, things did not go down well. The elders saw it as a cursed being stealing from the wealth of the gods, and when she had pointed out that if the gods didn’t want her to have it then they would have smited her already… Well it didn’t go down well.

Fustus gave what Aria assumed was an apologetic squeak before coming all the way out of his magical tunnel. Aria picked Festus up and held him at eye level, “I still don’t know how you manage to do that,” she said. Aria sighed before setting him down again, Maybe it’s because of me. She shook off this thought, Festus couldn't possibly have learned magic from her; She wasn’t even allowed to use it.

“I better find a way to patch that hole up,” Aria said, standing and looking at where she knew the hole was. Festus went over to the edge of her hand and Aria put him down. He then scurried over to the hole in the wall and waved his eight legs over it in a weird pattern. He then turned to Aria and gave a weird half-bow that consisted of him scrunching up his body and then relaxing it again. Aria took this as “Ta da!”. She looked at Festus curiously, not seeing any change in the wall. Festus gave a squeak of what Aria thought might be exasperation before running headfirst into the wall. Nothing happened. Well, Festus stumbled dizzily away from the wall with a dent in his blue fur, but nothing abnormal happened.

“Thank you Festus,” said Aria, stifling a laugh as her small friend stumbled around like a bird that had eaten some overripe berries. “Oh dear,” she said after Festus had succeeded in knocking over several flower pots and a small, green, decorative vase, “Let me help you,” she picked Festus up and set him down gently on the bed.

“What is taking you so long?” Calea called through the floor. All of a sudden Aria realized that she had been up in her room far too long and still hadn’t combed her hair. To make things worse, she also realized that soon everyone would be out in the forest for the daily berry picking and if she didn’t go out soon she would be put into a group to do it instead of going alone.

“Sorry! I’m coming down in a minute!” she called before running her hand through her hair and gently picking up Festus. Aria then ran downstairs, the now open door flapping about behind her in her hurry.

She blew past Calea, who was standing in the kitchen with Aria’s breakfast; leaving her with a shocked expression and empty hands. “By love you gotta go bye!” Aria said in one quick breath as she flew past Calea, turning around when she reached the door to blow her a kiss before launching off into a mostly steady flight pattern.

“Bye,” said Calea weakly as she watched her adopted daughter fly out the door, I wonder what’s gotten into her? Was the only thought that she thought before going back to preparing her own breakfast.

Aria’s wings glinted in the greenish light that filtered in through the leaves of the Great Willow that protected her Hollow, the blues and greens and coppers and golds all tinted pale green with the early morning light.

There were a few other fairies flitting about doing their morning business, but they all either ignored Aria or made a point to make an exaggeratedly large circle around her in avoidance. She passed by Jacob’s house, which was built into the hollowed out branch of the Great Willow, like most fairy houses where. But his was much larger seeing that his status was higher and his parents mostly piggy-backed off of that; not in a bad way though, they really just took advantage of circumstances. I mean, who wouldn’t?

Jacob was out on the front steps of the house working with some of the more difficult seedlings. Jacob looked up, as if sensing her presence. They started to smile and wave to each other, but then some of the neighbor fairies gave Aria a nasty look and the two of them turned away from each other, both of them turning a certain shade of red commonly associated with embarrassment.

Jacob continued on with the plants and Aria continued on her way to where she needed to sign out to go collect berries early. The place was in the most convenient spot: the complete opposite side of the Hollow from where Aria lived.

After about five additional minutes of flying, Aria landed gracefully at the foot of the steps leading up to the front door of the “Berry Building”. It wasn’t technically named the Berry Building, everyone just called it that. It was really supposed to be called the SISOFEALBPC, or the Sign In Sign Out For Early And Late Berry Picking Center.

Aria walked up the five wooden steps, counting to see which one creaked; she had been meaning to tell them which one so they could fix it. It was the third one from the bottom. Aria made a mental note of this before going inside.

“Hello and welcome to the SISOFEALBPC! What can I help you wi- Oh, it’s you,” the female voice started out cheery and turned sour after it realised whom it was addressing. “What do you want?” It said rather impatiently.

Great, thought Aria, it’s Jamie’s shift. Jamie was probably one of the most liked fairies in the entire Hollow, bested only by Jacob. She was strikingly beautiful with glowing auburn hair and intricately crafted, peacock blue butterfly wings. She was always wearing something that went with them. Today, the matching item was one of those jackets that fey wear with fashion in mind and reason in- well, who knows where reason is when they wear those kinds of jackets.

Jamie disliked Aria. And that was an understatement. Relatively speaking, for the margin to remain consistent between the severity of how much everyone else disliked Aria, and the severity of how much Jamie disliked Aria, if Jamie only disliked Aria, then everyone else would lover her to bits.

“I would like to sign for early berry picking if that would be all right,” said Aria, trying to keep a cool head. Let’s just say that Aria didn’t particularly like Jamie either.

“Of course,” said Jamie, now putting on a false, sickly sweet smile, “just give me moment to get it, would you?” Jamie walked through a door in the back as if the sign in sheet wasn’t just behind the counter where Aria could see it plainly.

After what must have been four minutes, Jamie came back out with a puzzled expression on her face, “Oh dear,” she said, feigning puzzlement, “I seem to have misplaced it…” she looked around the room with a mock thoughtful expression on her face, though she looked straight over the sign in sheet several times.

“Um,” started Aria hesitantly, she didn’t want to set Jamie off, but she was in a real rush, “I think I see it over there,” she pointed to where the sign in sheet was on the other side of the counter.

“Oh! Thank you!” said Jamie, this time letting a little bit of sarcasm seep into her voice.

“You're welcome,” said Aria, this time letting a little sarcasm seep into her voice as well. Jamie handed the sign in sheet over the counter, along with a pen filled with dark green ink made from the ground leaves of a turquoise bush.

A turquoise bush is a relatively small bush that grows to be about two and a half feet tall and bears turquoise colored berries covered in a black web like pattern, causing them to resemble the stone. It’s emerald green leaves can be ground into a fine powder that, when mixed with water, becomes a dark green ink that can be used for many things, from  dyeing clothing to putting in pens. The berries can also be used for dye, but because of it’s consistency it is much less versatile.

Aria signed her name in the first empty slot on the sheet, third from the top. I better watch for those fey while I’m out there. She thought before smiling and handing the pen back to Jamie. She then turned around and was about to walk out the door to continue on with her mission before she remembered something, “Oh, by the way,” she said absentmindedly over her shoulder, “The third step up from the bottom has a slight creak; you might want to get it checked out,” Jamie stared at Aria open mouthed as she walked out the door calmly.

Now, thought Aria, on to business.  

Chapter #3: Now For The Fun Part

After exiting the Berry Building, Aria made her way around to its back where the exit to the Hollow was located and slipped out; she made sure to grab a basket on her way so she wouldn’t look suspicious. Of course, any berries she picked up would most likely be a cover to bring back when she was done gathering materials so that the other fairies wouldn’t become suspicious of her.

At the moment, Aria was surveying the area for a place where she and Jacob could stay after they ran away. She was debating between a rock outcropping in a clearing about 50 yards away from the west side of the Hollow, and a small cave she had found down by the creek behind one of its many waterfalls, it was only 25 yards off the east side of the Hollow.

The rock outcropping was farther away, but other than that it would offer much less cover when the other fairies looked for them. The cave was closer, but it would offer better cover. Aria thought that cover would probably be more important in the long run, and having water right outside could be useful. But, then again, while her dragon wings were fine going in and out of the waterfall, Jacobs dragonfly wings probably wouldn’t do too well. Because of this, she finally settled on the rock outcropping; hoping that the distance would be enough.

She then started to gather materials. The first thing they would need was food, but she new that Jacob could grow some quickly and easily. The second thing they would need was shelter. Aria managed to find some birch bark that they could use along with the outcropping of rock to form a sort of house-like structure. With much effort, she managed to take the bark over to the clearing where she set it down so that it was leaning against the rocks; she and Jacob could deal with that later.

The third thing they needed was a reliable source of water. That was easy, the creek came around to the west side of the Hollow from the east side where the cave was located. Hmm… What else will we need? Aria contemplated what other things they would need. They already had clothing, and she could easily take tools from the Hollow. Looks like the only thing left are luxury supplies. Aria smiled; she thought that this was going to be fun.

With this last thought, Aria began looking for luxury items. For a fairy, luxury items were things like cotton, spider silk, conca leaves, different kinds of exotic seeds for growing new wood, and every part of a turquoise bush. All these things were much sought after in Hollows all throughout the forest.

She decided to begin her search on the northern side of the Hollow because most other fairies avoided it for fear of whatever lurked in the cave about 146.67 yards away. No one really knew why, but fairy children are taught to avoid “north” from a young age. With a look of determination on her face, Aria set off towards the northern end of the Hollow.

***

Half an hour later, Aria was standing proudly before her gathered items; all of them laid out in the dust inside a clearing she had found in the center of the rock outcropping. During her search, Aria had managed to gather a few tufts of cotton from the remnants of a field from when the forest wasn’t quite so vast still grew, conca leaves that could be dried and used as a spice, and even some petals from a shadow lily that she found growing up from between the bones of a dead deer.

She would have gathered some of the bones, but one, her hands were full, and two, she would have needed time to break them up, seeing as she was nowhere near strong enough to pick up full sized deer bones. Aria’s reasoning was that she and Jacob could always come and get the bones later, seeing as no other fairies were going to gather them on an expedition in that particular direction.

Despite all of the wonderful things that lay before her, Aria’s proudest accomplishment from her search was not in the clearing in the rocks with her; at least, not yet. Aria had managed to find a turquoise bush. They are very rare, and most of the bushes in the area had already been found and claimed by the Hollow. Not this one though. Aria was planning on having Jacob help her take a sprig from it and grow another bush closer to the rocks that they would be staying in.

Turquoise bushes were a big deal because every part of them has a use, and every one of those uses is important. The leaves are used to make dark green ink that most kinds of fey use in pens. The wood is one of the sturdiest in the forest, and is used to make lots of furniture and tools. The flowers are edible, though mostly they are used to treat wing rot; a nasty fungus that attacks the wings of a fairy. If left untreated, it can eat away at them until they are completely gone. The roots can be beaten into a pulp and used as a numbing agent; or they can be dried and ground into a fine powder and mixed with water to create rukblin, a drink that is incredibly popular with older men and teeagers. The berries are the most versatile part of the plant; they can be eaten, used to make dye for clothing, juiced to make a sweet and dizzying drink called weirden, and they can be dried and crushed to make the medicine used to put fey to sleep during medical procedures.

Aria had managed to fly the piece of birch wood into the clearing within the rocks, propping it over the luxury items like a tent. As she stood there, breathing heavily, she heard something.

It wasn’t very loud. In fact, it was barely there at all. The only reason Aria recognized it as anything other than a natural forest sound was because she made it. It was the same noise that her wings made when she was flying. Obviously, she wasn’t flying; but then, what was making that sound? Normal fairy wings didn’t make it, and she was the only one with wings like hers- wasn’t she?

Aria cautiously flew up to the rim of the rocks that surrounded the smaller clearing. As she got to the top, Aria could see that it was around noon; normal berry picking time. From this she figured that what she had heard was just a regular fairy flying by, but that sound still threw her off. She was the only fairy that made that sound when she flew, though when she made it it was much quieter. This was the sound she imagined her wings would make if they were injured…

All of a sudden, a thud sounded from below, startling Aria quite badly. She looked around, confused as to what had made it, before she thought to look down. She crawled farther over the edge of the rocks, cursing under her breath when she cut her hand on a sharp protrusion coming off of one.

As she cleared the edge of the rocks to where she could see the ground, she heard a string of curses not too different from list she herself had just given. When she looked over the edge, she muffled a gasp and pulled back. Then, very carefully, she looked back over the edge.

Standing there, brushing off dust and uttering curses that Aria wished she hadn’t heard, was a boy. And he had dragon wings.

 

Chapter #4: Are All Guys This Much of a Pain?

Aria was… even she didn’t know what she was. Maybe I’m hallucinating. She thought to herself, trying to process what she had just seen. It can’t be, it just can’t. I’m the only one.. Aren’t I? She was now sitting where she had been before when she had noted the time of day. Her back against a wall of rock and her arms around her legs, pulling them into the fetal position. She rested her chin on her knees as she thought about what to do.

The boy was still there, and from what Aria heard, he needed a filter. Ever since he had landed- if you could call it a landing- he had been cursing. And it’s all about that “stupid wing”. For her own sake, Aria paraphrased it in her head; he had said it much less nicely.

After she got her breath back, Aria uncurled herself and crawled over to the edge, careful to avoid the sharp stone she had cut her hand on earlier. She peered over the rim of the rocks to see if the boy was more than her brain playing tricks on her.

He was real. Or at least, he was still there. At the moment, he was struggling in a vain attempt to fly. Now that she wasn’t freaking up quite as badly, Aria could get a better look at him. He was about six inches tall, with sandy blonde hair and tan skin. The scales on his wings were fiery with reds and oranges. Flashes of gold showing in the sun, though the thing that drew Aria’s attention most was the black spots that mared the surface of his left wing.

Wing rot! Aria had seen many fairies with it, and the holes it was burning through this boy’s wing were unmistakable. She hadn’t thought that wings like her’s could ever get it, but here was someone with wings just like her’s suffering from wing rot.

The boy attempted once again to fly, resulting in him falling on the ground and staring helplessly at his wing, as if he had just realised that cursing didn’t allow him to fly. A sudden thought struck Aria, He doesn't know what it is! It was strange to her that someone would not know what wing rot was, it was part of everyday life. Maybe not his life… was it possible that this boy came from a Hollow that didn’t suffer from wing rot, and that he had just become exposed to it when he came near her Hollow?

Now Aria had come to a decision. The most obvious choice she had was to hide until he left. Another was to sneak out the other direction so he didn’t see her. And the most ridiculous choice was helping him. Aria knew what he needed was turquoise bush flowers, and for the most part, she knew what needed to be done to treat the rot and to help the wing grow back; though she wasn’t sure if it would work on dragon wings. She chose the most ridiculous choice.

“Um, excuse me?” she called as innocently as possible over the wall of rock, “Do you need help?” The boy froze where he was standing, a panicked expression on his face. He started to beat his wings almost violently in an attempt to get away. Of course, the attempt failed and he fell to the ground in pain. In obvious agony, he pulled himself up and started to stagger away, only to fall to the ground a moment later and start pulling himself along, jostling his wings rather badly.

“Don’t do that!” Aria yelled, afraid that he was going to hurt himself further. Now determined, she actually stood up on the edge of the rocks and jumped. Her wings caught the air and brought her into and easy glide down next to him. “You’ll just make it worse!” she scolded the boy, who was now lying in a heap gasping for breath, unable to continue forward despite his best efforts.

He managed to roll on his side, “You’re- not- afraid- of- me?”

“No. Should I be?”

“It- depends on- your point of view,” his breath seemed to be improving, that was good.

“What do you mean?” Good. This seems to be calming him down, just keep him talking.

“What do you- mean, ‘What do you mean?’? Look at me!” Better! Breath almost back to normal. Aria was encouraged by this.

“I am looking at you.”

“I can see that but… How can you be so calm?”

“That’s one of the many questions I’m asking myself right now. Care to answer it for me?”

“Um, I’m not sure how to respond to that.”

“Easy, you look at me and tell me why I’m so calm. While you’re at it, you can try to guess the other ‘many questions’ going through my head right now.”

The boy struggled into a sitting position. Aria tried to help, but he shrugged her off. He looked at Aria, “How am I supposed to do that?” he asked, visibly confused.

Oh, right. Duh. Aria unfurled her wings from where she had instinctively folded them on her back. His mouth fell open.

“But, I don’t know you! How is it possible? If you’re one of us then I must know you!” He was sounding rather panicked again, though Aria didn’t know why. Was he used to knowing all the fairies that he met that had dragon wings too? That’s when it registered.

“Wait, one of ‘us’?”

“Yes, one of ‘us’.” He had that confused expression again, like “us” was something that was used all the time when referring to fairies with dragon wings.

“Look, you don’t seem to be catching onto this so I’ll just ask my questions. Okay, first off, who the heck are you?” This was really just the first one of the questions that popped into Aria's head, and she really didn't care that it probably sounded rude.

“I could ask the same of you.”

Aria sighed, “Fine, fair enough. My name is Aria Windbourne,” she stuck out her hand.

He shook it  cautiously, “Jack Drakeson.”

“Now that we have that settled, my second question; why do your wings look like mine?”

He looked really confused at this. From his expression alone, you would guess that Aria had either just asked him to do the tango with her while wearing underwear on his head, or had asked him to solve the expression 87/(75x[4,790+2,893]-[42-180])4+4,835,769-421 in his head. “Well, uh… I’m not sure I know how respond to that.”

“It’s easy, you just tell me why my wings look like yours. You really aren't good at answering questions, are you?”

“No, it’s not that. I know why our wings look the same, I don’t know how to respond to you not knowing why.”

“For the love of the Gods, just tell me already!”

“No need to start swearing!”

“You really have no idea how long I was listening to you before I said anything.”

Jack blushed a furious shade of red, “How long?” he asked almost sheepishly.

“Since you landed,” Aria smiled, Jack groaned.

“Never mind that,” He said, trying to shake off his embarrassment, “The reason our wings are the same, I really have no idea how you don’t already know this, is because we are both dragon fey.”

“What?”

Jack sighed impatiently, “We are both dragon fey. How did you not already know that?”

“What do you mean how did I ‘not already know that’?” Aria asked incredulously, “How was I supposed to know that? And what’s a ‘dragon fey’ anyway?”

“Um, I’m not sure I know how to respond to that either,”

“Again I’m going to to tell you, it’s not that hard. Just tell me what the heck a dragon fey is!”

Jack just gave her a blank stare, “It’s what we are. Where have you been you're entire life?”

“I have been in my Hollow my entire life, like a normal person! Where have you been?” Aria was getting seriously ticked at this guy, What kind of a name is “Drakeson” anyway? Most fairies were named after things in nature, Leafling, Earthchild, Riverfair, Windbourne; a name like “Drakeson” didn’t make any sense.

“I’ve been where I belong,” he said it with a somewhat solemn expression, his voice lowered to almost a whispered.

Aria’s voice was quite as well, “And where is that?”

Jack didn’t answer the question instead he whispered, “You’re her, aren’t you?” He stared at her questioningly, and she gave him confused a stare back. Suddenly, Jack bit his lip and hissed in pain, flinching, his body trying to curl into a ball. It was then that Aria remembered her original purpose for talking to him.

“Just stay calm, it’s not that big a deal. I know it hurts but it happens all the time. I know how to fix it, and it just so happens that I recently discovered the location of the necessary plant,” then as afterthought she added, “You seem not to know anything about wing rot, why is that?”

“Because our race has never gotten this ‘wing rot’ before.”

“Look, I don’t know what you're talking about. Fairies get wing rot all the time. Anyway, we need to get you hidden. My Hollow freaks out because one of their own has dragon wings, imagine how they’d react to a stranger with them too. And me with him! I’d be toast.”

“What do you mean? The dragon fey are highly respected everywhere, we sent you to that Hollow because we knew you’d be cared for as royalty! You were to be our link…”  He trailed off.

“Ya, like demons are so highly respected everywhere. They say I’m cursed. I’m forbidden to use any ability they don’t consider ‘normal’. I had to put up quite a fight before I was allowed to use these things to fly,” Aria flexed her wings behind her, “You speak as if these wings are something to be proud of, but they aren’t. In the real world they are the bane of existence, I think it would benefit your health greatly to live in that world.

“Now, you need medical care. Are you going to cooperate and help me get you into those rocks, or should I leave you here until your wings rot away, that is, if the fairies from my Hollow don’t find you first?” Jack nodded his head in compliance, he was going to cooperate.

Aria got into position and helped him wrap his arms around her shoulders. She then began the laborious task of flying with Jack’s arms wrapped around her, him helping her weakly. Suffice to say, both of them felt the awkwardness.

After what felt like hours but was really only ten minutes, Aria gripped the lip of the rocks and pulled herself up with Jack’s help. They both lay there, Aria panting from exhaustion and Jack panting from a combination of that and pain. When they had both gotten their breath back, Aria helped him into position again and they began the much easier task of going down into the smaller clearing.

“Do you live here?” Jack asked with a measurable amount of contempt showing in his voice.

“No, but if everything goes as planned, I will be soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re running away.”

“We?”

“A friend and I.”

“Who?”

“Why do you care?”

“Because.”

“That’s not much of an answer.”

“Only because you aren’t sure of the question.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means, you don’t really care about why I care. You care about why I don’t care.” They stared at each other.

“Don’t care about what?”

“Are you messing with me, or are you really that daft?”

“Neither.”

“You have to be one or the other. Being neither is impossible.”

“Alright then, I’m messing with you.”

“Then what do I not care about?”

“Umm…”

“I thought so,” Jack sighed, “I don’t care that you have dragon wings. From what I gathered earlier, everyone else thinks it’s a pretty big deal.”

“Answering ‘because’ still doesn't make any sense. And I know the answer to that anyway, you have dragon wings too. Now hold still!” Aria was taking some of the puffs of cotton and rubbing the place where Jack’s wing was damaged.

“Ow!”

“Sorry.”

“No you’re not.”

“Ya, you’re right. I’m not,” Aria continued dabbing at the black spots with the cotton, “There. I found a seed stuck to one of these puffs. The oils in it should slow the wing rot down and help with the pain. I’ll be back with the flowers I need,” Aria put the cotton puffs back in her stash and flew up to the top of the rocks.

By now the light was almost gone, and Aria realised with a jolt, Crap! It’s got to be dangerously close to berry-over-picking-time! This meant that if she wasn’t back to the Hollow to either check in for late berry picking or to turn in for the night, she was in serious trouble.

I probably can’t help him anyway. Knowing me I’d probably spread it to the other wing.

“Anything wrong?” Asked Jack when he saw that Aria was still hovering near the opening of the clearing.

“No, everything's fine. I might be back a little later though.”

“Fine! It’s not like anybody cares whether or not I’m sitting here dying.”

“Shut up! You are not dying, quit being such a drama queen!” Before Aria could hear Jack’s comeback she had flown out of earshot, her mind made up. If someone doesn’t remind me why I helped that guy in the first place, I swear I might kill him. Heck, I might kill him anyway! Aris hadn’t known it was possible to be so ticked at someone after knowing them for only a few hours.

With this on her mind, Aria flew off in the direction of the Hollow knowing that the plan that she and Jacob had formulated wouldn’t work right if she got in trouble for being late in without having signed in for late berry picking.

 

Chapter #5: Okay, Now Let's See If This Works

Aria arrived at the Hollow way past over-berry-picking-time, or OBPT. When she came through the door to the Hollow, a small thing that was more of a back door than a grand entrance, she was greeted by the scowls of two of the elders.

“Where have you been?” Asked one of them, a female with monarch butterfly wings, Aria remembered that her name was Mirtia. She was by far Aria’s least favorite of the elders.

“I’ve been gathering berries,” Aria said defensively, holding up a weak excuse for a basket of berries she had managed to find before coming back to the Hollow.

“We might have believed that, if you had returned on time!” That was said by Decion, a male fairy with prepona butterfly wings. He was Aria’s second least favorite elder. At the moment, his wings were doing what Aria considered the most annoying thing a fairy’s wings can do: They were flapping unreasonably fast for no practical reason, the bright blue on one side of them flashing between the light brown of the other.

“I got held up.”

“By what exactly?” Mirtia asked even more hostilely than she had asked her first question.

“I- uh- ran into a twauge,” Aria scrambled for an excuse other than the truth.

Twauges were similar to squirrels. In fact, they were essentially just squirrels with piranha teeth. Squirrels that ate meat. Now, that might not seem very intimidating, but they gang up in groups of around 20 and usually ambuse their prey. To a normal fairy, even one twauge was a nightmare. They were notorious for eating fairies and members of the other smaller fey-races.

Of coarse, to Aria, a twauge wasn’t a big deal. Her talent with animals essentially gave her a ticket to anywhere in the forest; nothing really bothered her at all. But because this was one of the “not normal” talents that Aria possessed, the elders had forbidden her from using this skill. And because the elders didn’t believe it possible that she had disobeyed them, they assumed she had somehow gotten past the imaginary twauge without using her gift; something they believed to be impossible.

“Really, only one twauge?”  This was said by Decion.

“Yes, just one. I think he might be one of the one’s that separate from their quarrel to start one of their own.”

“Do you really expect us to believe that you got away from a twauge without using your curse? You couldn’t have encountered one,” Mirtia. Man, these guys are like a pack of wolves!

“Well, I don’t care what you believe, because I did,” Aria tried to shove her way past them; she failed horribly.

“You dare attempt to touch us with those- those things?!” Exclaimed Decion, gesturing wildly at Aria’s wings.

“Oh please. They weren’t anywhere near you. And you aren't going to die if you call them wings, you know that right?” Aria continued to try and shove past the two.

“I’m writing you up for a public offence!” Declared Mirtia as she scrambled in her pocket; presumably for a pen and pad.

“What should it be for?” Decion asked excitedly.

“How about existing?” Aria said it sarcastically and rolled her eyes, but somehow the old fools couldn’t tell she was insulting them.
“Good idea!” The two of them said in unison. Mirtia began to scribble furiously on her pad, Decoin whispering things in her ear for her to write down on paper.

Aria rolled her eyes again and pushed past them. This time, in their giddy excitement at writing her up, they either didn’t notice what she was doing or didn’t care.

As soon as Aria got out of the sight of the two elders, she quickened her pace as she walked. The last thing she wanted was for Calea to get all worked up over her being out late.

When she got to the ledge that separated the homes from the public buildings, she flared her wings and walked off the edge. When she was about two inches away from the next platform down, she gave her wings a downstroke and shot back up in the direction of her house. This was probably her favorite thing to do when coming home. She loved the rush of the wind as she fell, and the moment of true weightlessness when she pushed back up.

After a minute or two of flying, she landed at her house’s front porch. She pushed open the door  with her shoulder, holding her basket of berries with both hands to make it appear heavier. “I’m home!” she called to the seemingly empty house as she walked into the kitchen and put her basket on the table, acting like she had to heave to get it up.

“Mom?” She called questioningly. Normally if Aria was ever out late, Calea would be waiting at the door for her and would talk Aria’s ear off until she had gotten about half a million apologies for making her worry.

Aria went through almost the whole house before she looked at the door again. On it was a note that said:

Aria,

Sorry I’m not at home yet. I got called into the G.O. to do some extra work and I’ll be out almost all night. There are some dehydrated berries in the cupboard that you can rehydrate and have for dinner.

Sorry,

Calea

Aria wasn’t all that surprised. Calea regularly got called into the Guild Office to do some extra work, and it was often late. Of course, usually Aria was home when she left and Calea never needed to leave a note saying where she was.

Because she had some fresh berries, Aria ate those instead of the ones in the cupboard. In her flight back to the Hollow, she had managed to pick up a couple of black raspberries and was pulling out some of druplets to eat when a knock came at the door.

“Who could that be?” Aria said out loud as she walked to the door. She looked out the peephole but could see no one.

“Psssssssst. Aria, open the door, it’s me!”

“Jacob!” Aria exclaimed as she opened the door, allowing Jacob to slip inside, “What in Sarea are you doing here?”

“Shhhh! Be quiet, someone will hear you.”

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“We need to leave. Now.”

“Why?”

“They’re after me.”

“Who?”

“The elders.”

“You?”

“Yes, me.”

“Why?”

“You sure ask a lot of questions, don’t you?” He was getting impatient.

“All right, okay. You can tell me when we leave. I certainly don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to. But first, I need to write that note to Calea.”

“There isn’t any time! I already have my things, you just get yours and we’ll leave.”

“Jacob, I really need to know what has you all worked up.”

Jacob sighed in submission, “They want me to do it.”

“What?”

“The elders,” his voice dropped low, “want to use me to bring him back.”

“WHAT?!”

“I said-.”

“I know what you said Jacob. Why would they want to bring him back?”

His voice dropped into a different kind of whisper, a scared one,“To get rid of you.”

Aria stumbled back, and ran into the bench that was conveniently placed right behind where she had been standing. “What?” she asked in the same scared whisper.

“See that note?” Jacob nodded to the note on the door, Aria nodded back, to shocked to speak, “Calea didn’t write that note Aria, the elders did. They have Calea. She tried to stop them and, well they made her tell them where you were. They sent people to wait for you to come back, those people failed. Now they are going to come for you directly, they are coming here.”

Despite his kind tone, Aria still burst into tears. Jacob sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, she accepted them gratefully. “Oh, Jacob,” she cried into his arm, the tears running down her cheeks in hot streams.

“I know Aria, I know.”

Aria wiped away her tears and tried to put on a smile, “Well then,” she said, “I guess we do need to leave now. I’ll get my things.”

She got up from where she was sitting and went up the stairs to her room, Jacob stayed by the door to, “Keep watch.”

She pushed open her door half heartedly, her spirit crushed at what the council was willing to go this far, “And just because I’m different,” she said bitterly as she grabbed a bag from the top shelf of her wardrobe and started to pull open the drawers of her dresser to get her cloths.

Aria had just finished putting the last  of them in her bag when she heard a furious banging on the door. She heard the cracking of wood and Jacob’s cries, “Aria! They’re already here! Run!” she heard shouting and the pounding of feet on wood, then a final cry, Jacob’s, followed by a thud and then, silence.

“Jacob!” Aria called, scared for her friend’s safety.

“She’s up here!” More shouts floated up the stairwell and through Aria’s open door. The pounding of feet on wood became louder, they were coming up the stairs.

Aria was terrified. She slammed the door and shoved her dresser in from of it along with a few plants before scrambling to get together the last of her things. It wasn’t very much, just some basic tools including a sewing needle, and a first aid kit with some utensils for mixing your own medicines included.  

Just as the men- Aria assumed they were men- started to pound on the door she managed to shove her last item in her pack: the only gift she had ever received from her biological parents, a clumsily sewn stuffed dragon toy that was found with her as a baby. The odd thing about it was, it had fairy wings.

As Aria pushed open the window, the dresser blocking the door gave, and the men came in. “We’ve got her cornered!” One of the men yelled joyously. This earned a whoop from the rest of the men that were waiting beyond the door. Aria frantically pulled herself up to the window, it had to have been the fastest she had ever gone in her entire life. But it wasn’t good enough to save her.

Just as she was about to push off, she discovered that one of the loops on her bag had gotten stuck. She could drop it, should drop it, but most of the things she would need were in there. All it took was this split second of hesitation for the lead man to fully push aside the things that Aria had used to cover the door, upending a very unfortunate clay pot filled with yellow tulips all over a small ball of pale blue fuzz.

When Aria had finally freed her bag and gotten into lift off position again, the lead man, a fairy with large red dragonfly wings whom Aria had managed to identify as Furmius, had crossed the room and was now an arm's length away from her. Just as she pushed off, he reached out and lunged for her ankle.

He didn’t miss.

“Ahh!” Aria cried out in surprise as her jump stopped short. She beat her wings furiously against Furmius, but he was too strong. Furmius gave a wicked grin and began to pull Aria in, using her leg like a rope. No matter how much she kicked and screamed and flapped her wings against him, he still held fast. At this point, three of the five men that Aria had managed to count had made their way into the room. They were all watching their leader with smug expressions on their faces, sure they had this battle won. At least, they did until the small blue ball of fuzz with a yellow tulip stuck to it’s head started to move.

“What the?” said one of the men when he saw the blue puff start to move swiftly over to where Furmius was standing by the window. It climbed up the leader’s leg and up his back, and from the sounds that were coming out of Furmius, you could tell that it wasn’t very pleasant. This was probably because the blue fuzz ball was biting him.

“What in the name of?!?! What the heck is this thing?” He yelled, trying to swat at the ball with his elbow because his hands were preoccupied with holding a still struggling Aria. His men were so shocked at the moving, hostile, blue piece of lint that they didn’t do anything to help him.

They puff ball continued up Furmius’s arm and onto his hand. The ball of blue fuzz looked up at Aria with it’s big, sad eyes before biting Furmius for the last time, hard on the hand. The force of this bite was so strong that Furmius let go of Aria’s foot, dislodging the blue puff. Aria took this chance to escape, but she didn’t get far before her own wings made her turn and look back with hot tears streaming down her face.

“NO!” Aria cried in anguish, bursting into tears at the sight of her savior falling into the darkness of the forest. There was no way she could catch him now. Her bag over her shoulder and her head in her hands, she flew away from her Hollow.

As she flew, she cried harder than she ever had. She cried for everyone and everything that was now lost to her; The Hollow, her house, Calea, Jacob, and Festus. For of course the heroic little blue ball of brave fuzz had to have been him.

Chapter #6: And Now We're Back To This Guy

“You're back sooner than I thought you would be. I assumed ‘later’ meant tomorrow,” Jack was saying this as Aria landed at the outcropping, “And where’s that friend that you were talking about earlier? Are they joining us later or- Oh,” he must have noticed the tears streaking Aria’s face, “What happened?” He asked in what had to be the most sensitive tone Aria had ever heard him use, and that was including the one he used after Aria told him that she had been behind the rocks after he landed and had heard all his cursing.

“My friend met me at my house,” Aria began quietly, sitting down on a rock with her head between her knees, “He said we needed to leave right away, that some men were coming for him already. I was upstairs when they came. Jacob-” Aria choked back a sob. Jack managed to get up and sit down next to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

“What else happened?” He asked gently, sensing that the whole story had not yet been told.

“They came up to my room, broke down the door. I tried to get away out the window but my bag got stuck,” Aria was wracked by another onslaught of sobs before she could continue, “I got it unstuck, but the leader of the men grabbed me before I could fly all the way away. And Festus-” this time the sobs came so uncontrollably that Aria curled up in a ball. If it hadn’t been for Jack, she would have fallen off the rocks she was sitting on.

“And Festus,” Jack had no idea who Festus was, but he could tell that he was very important to Aria.

Aria took a couple of deep breaths and mostly got control of the tears, “And Festus climbed up and bit his hand. The man let go, and Festus fell. I couldn’t catch him,” the tears kept coming, but they had slowed to a controllable trickle. Now Aria sat in solemn silence, mourning her lost friends.

Jack knew it was probably insensitive, but her still asked, “Who was Festus?”

“He was my pet fey windle. One of the blue one’s,” she sniffed wiped away a few tears and smiled a little at her memories of Festus.

“Wait, you had a fey windle?”

“Ya, why?”

“You couldn’t have had a fey windle, they hate fairies.”

“Not Festus.”

“It isn’t something that changes with the fey windle Aria, all of them hate fairies.”

“Animals like me,” she shrugged.

“What?”

Aria repeated, “Animals like me.”

“You’re a Anim Tameir…” Jack said in a bewildered voice before trailing off.

“A what?”

“A Anim Tameir. A special skill possessed by some dragon fey. They can tame any animal.”

“Okay, so it’s not that big a deal?”

“No, it’s a big deal.”

“Why?”

Jack looked at Aria in a way that made her want to squirm, “There hasn’t been a Anim Tamier in thousands of years.”

Aria stared at him, “Okay, so?”

“Traditionally an Anim Tameir was the leader of a group of dragon fey. When the child of the last known Anim Tameir was found to not possess the ability, leadership was handed off to the Wintirre, or the dragon fey that could control water and ice. There was only ever one Anim Tameir in a Coulve. Well, one fully recognized Anim Tameir anyway. Now that there’s a new Anim Tameir, well, you’ll probably be expected to take up leadership. Of course, it is extremely likely that the current king won’t back down.”

“WHAT?! Sorry, but I am not going to go and rule a Coulve, whatever that is. I need to find Jacob! You have no idea what will happen to the world if I don’t!” Aria was rapidly shaking her head, “Nope, sorry, I am not going to rule the dragon fey. It is out of the question.”

“But Aria, it isn’t really optional.”

“Then don’t tell them I’m Anim Tameir! It isn’t that hard. You just keep your mouth shut!”

“Quiet down! If you really don’t want them to know, it’s a bad idea to shout it out loud in the forest at night- Ah!,” Jack cried out in pain, the cotton oils were starting to wear off. “Do you think you could hurry up with that medicine?” He asked through clenched teeth.

Aria shook her head sadly, “No, I can’t,” she put her head back in her hands, “I can barely do any medical work at all. I’d just make it worse.”

“Then why did you say you could?”

“Because I thought I’d have Jacob.”

“How would having Jacob change that?”

“Jacob was the most talented fairy in the Hollow. He could cure anything with the right ingredients. I know where to find the ingredients, but without Jacob I couldn’t do it with the manual and a trained instructor helping me.”

“You have to try! If you don’t who knows what will happen to my wing?!”

“I do,” Aria said sadly, “If the wing rot isn’t treated, then eventually it will spread to both wings and eat away at them both until all that’s left is a stub. At that point the wings can’t be repaired.”

“Okay then, if you don’t then I will lose my wings. I for one, do not want that to happen.”

“I’ll spread it to both wings!” Cried Aria in despair.

“According to you, it will spread to both wings anyway. Might as well give it a shot.” He gently grabbed Aria’s chin and lifted it so that her emerald green eyes looked into his electric blue ones, “What are the ingredients?”

Aria’s expression hardened with newfound determination, “Wait here,” she stood up and to a walking leap into the air, allowing her wings to unfold, their scales bleached to a white glimmer in the moonlight.

Jack watched her as she flew over the rim of the small clearing and out of sight, “That wasn’t really the answer to my question, but I’ll take it,” he managed to walk over the the bed he had pulled together made of the cotton puffs after Aria had left the first time and laid down on his side. His last thought before drifting off to sleep  was, I hope I made the right decision.

 

Chapter #7: Here, Bite This While I Cause You Incredible Pain

About two hours later, Aria shook Jack awake, “Jack! Jack wake up, I found the flowers.”

“Whaaa?” Jack groaned as he was pulled out of a rather pleasant dream he was having about flying higher than any fairy had ever flown before and going up above the trees, flying through clouds and touching the sun. He seriously doubted that what he was waking up to would be any more pleasant.

“Jack, you need to wake up. I found the turquoise bush again. We’re lucky it still had some flowers on it, it’s almost picking season! Now, I need your help to make this properly, so you need to wake up now!” Aria kicked Jack hard in the shin.

“OW!” He shouted and sat bolt upright. Aria, who was leaning over him, had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by his head.

“Hey I’m standing right here! You almost hit me!”

“Sorry.”
“No you're not,” Aria said, mocking a conversation she remembered having with Jack earlier.

“Ya, you're right,” Jack seemed to be playing along. Of course, he could have meant it.

“Look, you need to keep really still throughout this, and I mean really still. Even when it hurts, got it?” Jack nodded, “Okay then, bite on this,” Aria bent down and tore a strip of mouse hide from the bottom of her left pants leg and handed it to Jack, “it will help you deal with the pain.”

Jack nodded his thanks before putting the mouse hide in his mouth. He gagged and took it out again, “Gods! When was the last time this thing got washed? It tastes terrible!”

“Just bite it!” Aria said stubbornly and practically shoved the leather back in his mouth. Jack glared at her, Aria glared back.

Aria turned him around and half shoved half pulled him into a position that left him practically face down in the dirt. He tried to lift his head up to glare at her, but she pushed it back down, “Still Jack, still,” Jack tried to kick her in the foot, but she dodged it and kicked him in the shin, making him cringe, “STILL!” she yelled at him. This time he accepted defeat and stayed still.

Aria then began the laborious process of creating the medicine. She first got the first aid kit plus medicine making tools out of her bag, closing her eyes as seeing the loop that had been Festus’s ultimate doom brought back bad memories. She laid out what she had in front of her; wood fiber bandages, anti itch cream made from pasted Sarean water flower petals, a cotton seed based numbing agent, a paste used to stop infections made from willow bark, aloe cream for burns, some empty vials for mixing things in, a stirring stick, a platform that can be suspended over a fire, an expandable pot for making larger amounts of medicine, and a couple of small glasses for serving the medicine with.

Aria selected the burner plate, the stirring stick, and the collapsible pot and pulled some puffs of cotton from Jack’s makeshift bed. She then started searching around the clearing for a piece of flint she could use to light it and start a fire to boil the medicine with.

‘“What are you looking for?”

“I said keep still!”

“I am being still. What are you looking for?”

Aria sighed, “Flint.”

“There’s some in the outer clearing I cut my arm on some when I landed.”
Aria nodded gratefully even though she knew that Jack couldn’t see her, “Thanks.”

“Hey, it’s my wings that depend on this working you know!”

“I know!” Aria called as she flew out into the normal clearing that held the rock outcropping. Aria was careful when flying out into the open. She knew that the fairies from her Hollow were looking for her, but she didn’t know exactly how far into the forest their search went. She gingerly touched down around the area where she had first met Jack and began to look for the flint that the cut himself on.

Aria had just located what seemed to be a piece of flint and had begun to stand up before she felt cold metal on her neck, “Do you want to come quietly,or are we going to have a mess on our hands?” Aria gulped and nodded carefully, “Good. Now stand up slowly,” Aria did as she was told, “Now walk,” Aria could feel a hand push her in the back,  directing her forward towards the woods.

Aria would have thought that the fairies from her Hollow had found her, but there seemed to only be one person. One of the key indicators was that there weren’t a bunch of men cheering and boasting and laughing and talking about what they were going to do with her. No, whoever this was, they kept silent as they directed her through the woods.

Aria looked up and prayed to the moon god that no harm would come to her under his rays. The pale light filtered through the canopy of leaves, tinted green in places from where it passed through some. Then with a jolt Aria realised that they were heading north. North?! Why are we going north? There isn’t anything in that direction except- Oh gods no. They were going to the cave.

Aria prayed even harder, Lupine, great god of the moon, please, oh please don’t let me die during the time of your rule! For some reason, while most fairies hailed Orion, god of the sun, Aria had always felt a deeper connection with Lupine, god of the moon. Yet another thing that made me the outcast. she thought bitterly.

Aria captor broke the silence, “This isn’t going to be fast enough. We need to fly,” Aria cried out as she felt something wrap around her waist and cinch tight, “Relax, it’s just a rope. It’ll get rid of any ideas you have about flying away,” Aria’s captor pushed off, almost cutting Aria in half as the rope cinched even tighter and came close to pulling her off the ground. She quickly launched off on her own.

Guided by the fey at the end of the rope, Aria flew through the darkened forest for what must have been hours before landing in the place Aria dreaded most. “We are here,” her captor sounded so relaxed, as if walking into a cave full of darkness and demons was something one did on a regular basis.

Aria couldn't actually see the cave. She more felt a yawning open space before her and felt the cold that the surrounding rocks had always been said to give off, and she could make out the area in the black canvas of the world that was slightly darker than the area around it, the moonlight giving her a little help in making out its shape.

“In!” Aria felt a shove from behind as the fairy pushed her towards the cave, she started to walk in nervously. As she crossed the threshold cool air kissed her cheeks, bringing a shiver and making her stop, “Keep going!” Aria felt another shove from behind.

They walked for about ten minutes before they came to what appeared to be the end of the tunnel, “You might want to close your eyes,” Aria decided to take the fairy’s advice and closed her eyes as tight as they would go. She heard her captor messing around with something made of metal and a sound that was similar to that of a door sliding open. Aria closed her eyes even tighter then she had thought possible as light shone upon her, bringing a slight warmth along with it.

“Come,” Aria’s captor walked through the doorway that Aria sensed had opened up in front of them, dragging Aria along by the rope.

“Where have you taken me?” Aria asked weakly, straining against the rope around her waist.

“I have taken you home,” the fairy said quietly.

“You can’t be from the Hollow. And that is definitely not where we are now.”

“That Hollow is not your true home. This is. Open your eyes.”

Aria opened them as she was told, blinking furiously from the light. When she had gotten basic sight of shapes and motion back, she could see things moving beyond where she was standing. As she got her depth perception back, she could see that she was standing on a sort of ledge or cliff looking down on a seething mass. And when she had gotten her full color vision back, she gasped.

Below the cliff on which she stood, there was a whole Hollow full of fairies. And every single one of those fairies had dragon wings.

 

Chapter #8: What The!?!?!?!?

Aria stumbled back and almost fell off a cliff, “Easy! I can’t bring you to the council if you’re dead,” Now that she was in the light, Aria could see her captor. He was only a little taller than she was, maybe 5 ½ inches. His hair mostly covered by the hood of a black cloak, but Aria could see a few strands of platinum blonde that fell into his face. He wore black clothing, Aria though she recognized the material as shadow lily petals. The three things that held Aria’s attention most, his age, which was not much older than she was, his eyes which we pieces of black onyx, and his wings.

The peculiar thing about his wings was the coloring: blues and purples with flashes of silver. Aria had never seen a boy fairy with purple on his wings, though she did admit that she had only ever met one “dragon fey” boy before.

“Uh, council?”

He sighed, “Yes council.”

Are all dragon fey boys so impatient? “You really think your going to get me to go down there?” Aria pointed to the Hollow on at the base of the cliff.

“Ya.”

“You're in for a disappointment then. I am definitely not going down there.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not dumb enough to not be able to realise that if someone feels they need to kidnap me to get me to go somewhere, that that somewhere is probably not a nice place to go.

“Now, if you would excuse me, I have a friend up there that will lose his wings if I don’t help him,” Aria tried to pry the rope off of her waist. When that didn’t work, she simply walked in the direction of where they had come in an attempt to go back through the door they had come in. There were two problems with this plan. One, she couldn’t have moved her captor with the help of twauge. And two, the doorway was now gone.

“Where the heck did the door go?!”

“Aw, does the wittle girl want to go home?”

Somewhere inside of her a part of Aria screamed, Please let me kill this guy, oh please just let me kill this guy! The more sensible part of her suppressed this urge and instead replaced it with the though, I am definitely not going to live in the world of the dragon fey if all the guys are going to be such pains in my A.

“Look dude, not cool. Back. Off.”

“Oh, we’re getting mad now are we? Well, let’s just see how this plays out,” he gave a wicked grin that made Aria want to hurl and whipped out a knife, startling Aria as he cut the rope that attached her to him. He grinned even wider, “Catch me,” he flew off faster than Aria had thought possible.

“Damn him!” Aria muttered under her breath as she launched off after him, something in her not being able to resist. It was at this time that Aria remembered earlier when she had been wondering how she could loath Jack so much after knowing him only a few hours. Maybe it’s a genetic thing. All dragon fey guys are incredibly easy to get ticked at. She gave a small smirk at this as she sped down and around the cliff face after the nameless dragon fey.

“To slow?” He called back over his shoulder and then laughed, giving Aria enough determination to go faster.

It was then that Aria remembered something Calea had said to her long ago after she had had come home crying because some of the fairies were picking fun at her for not being fast and losing all the races: Child, you may not be as strong or fast as them, but I can guarantee that you are ten times as smart. Use that. For example, what are the rules? Bend them to the breaking point. She had won almost every race  after that. As far as Aria could tell, in this race, there were no rules.

Instead of following him in what seemed to be a spiral around the cliff face that Aria now realised to be a pillar of rock, Aria flew up and over the pillar. When she reached the other side, she waited like a tiger ready to pounce.

When the boy came by on his normal course, still thinking that she was following him, Aria flew straight don the cliff and stopped right in front of him. He was so startled, he stopped and gave Aria time to grin before putting her hand out, grabbing his shoulder, and saying, “Got you.”

The boy swore, bringing a reproachful response from Aria, “I’m not sure I want to belong to the race of dragon fey if all the boys seem to do nothing but curse,” much to her annoyance, it brought a laugh from the boy.

“Ha! Jack was right, you’ll make a great Coulve Mater. My name’s Jynx,” he stuck out his hand for Aria to shake.

“What do you think I am, an idiot? I am not shaking your hand,” that’s when the rest of what Jynx said registered, “Wait, Jack was right? What do you mean? Jack knew about this!? Urrg!” Aira kicked a small shrub that was growing out of the side of a pillar, “I am so going to kill him! I don’t even care if his wings are gone when I get back! Heck, I hope they're gone!”

Aria was fuming. She had trusted Jack, even if it was only a little, and had been willing to help him with the wing rot. The next thing she know’s, she’s finding out that he was involved in getting her kidnapped by a crazy guy without irises.

“Yes, my brother knew about this. In fact he arranged it. He knew you’d never come willingly, so he asked me for a favore. I can’t say I liked doing it, but we do need a new Mater, and you seem perfect. It can only help that you're Anim Tamier.”  

“Ooo, I am so going to- Did you say, ‘brother’?”

“Yes.”

“Jack’s your… brother?”

“Yes.”

“You two look absolutely nothing alike.”
“Why do people always say that?”

“Because it’s true.”

“No it isn’t. We’re twins.”

“Uh, it is most definitely true. If you two are twins, you must be fraternal, and that doesn't mean you look alike.”

“No, we are identical twins, and we do look alike.”

“Why do you keep saying you look alike? Nothing about you is the same! You two can not be identical twins. Identical twins come from one bulb that splits apart, they look identical. You two could never have been the same fey.”

“It doesn't work like that for dragon fey.”

“It works like that for everyone.”

“You’ll see. You’ll have to.”

“No, I won’t see. And no, I don’t  have to. I’m going home,” Aria tried to fly up to the top of the pillar, but Jynx grabbed her foot.

“You can’t go back to that place. They want to kill you. Why would you even want to go back to a place like that?” Jynx sounded both sad and mystified.

Aria’s reply just sounded sad, “Because,” she said.

“Because isn’t much of an answer.”

“Only because you aren’t sure of the question.”

Jynx smiled, “Jack taught you that one, didn’t he?”

“Yep. And even after saying it it doesn’t make much sense.”

“I still can’t let you go,” Jynx’s grip grew tighter around her ankle, “Please, just come and hear us out. Whatever you want to do up there, you will need our help down here.”

Aria considered this, “Fine, deal. But you can’t drag me there. If I’m going to go I might as well be the slightest bit dignified,” Jynx nodded and let Aria’s ankle go and she flew back down so that the two of them were mostly at eye level.

“Good. You are almost a Mater already. The only thing that holds you back now is simple ceremony,” Jynx grinned; he was teasing her.

“Sop it! Just because I’m willing to go the you're Hollow thingy does not mean that I’m going to agree to become it’s Mater, whatever that is.”

“Alright, fair enough. We should get going. We don’t want to keep the high council waiting, do we?”

“High council?”

Jynx laughed and put a guiding arm around Aria’s shoulders, “You’ll see, you’ll see.”

 

Chapter #9: Wait, You're My What Now?

Aria and Jynx flew down into the Hollow, or as Aria was told it was called, a Coulve, “So that’s what Jack was talking about when he said Coulve!”

“He actually mentioned the Coulve to you? Wow, I didn’t realise my brother ever went into any detail about anything at all. That’s why he isn’t a teacher.”

Aria laughed, “I can so see him as the worst teacher in the world.”

“Really? You only met him a few hours ago, and you can already see him as things? He must have made quite an impression.”

“Well duh. He was the first fairy other than myself that I had ever seen with dragon wings. And it’s pretty hard to forget someone who was being that much of a… well, Jack.”

Jynx laughed even harder than Aria had, “Nice how that worked out, isn’t it?”

“Ya.”

There was an awkward silence while Aria tried to figure out what to say next. She finally settled on, “How is it light down here? One, we are in a cave, and two, it’s night right now.”

“The Luminary help heat and light out cavern. You will learn about them and all the other classes when you become Mater.”

“You mean, if I become Mater.”

“Right, if you become Mater.”

When the two of them entered the Coulve, Aria heard lot’s of doors and windows slam. The streets were empty. Occasionally, Aria would look up at some of the windows and see the face of a child that would disappear quickly when it realised it had been spotted, “What is up with everyone? I know it isn’t my wings freaking everyone out, because they all have these wings too.”

“The Coulve doesn't get strangers. Ever. No one outside of the Coulve except for dignitaries from other Coulves ever come here. We are well hidden, it is the key to our survival. They are only nervous around you now, and some of the children are curious,” Jynx looked up at the window of the nearest house and smiled with amusement as something flashed behind the curtains, “Don’t worry, it won’t last long.”

The Coulve itself wasn’t all that different from Aria's old Hollow, just underground. It seemed to be based in a great tree made marvelously of silver, each gleaming branch a perfect imitation of a real one, “How is it possible?” Aria asked in wonder.

“The Matel Werk, the metal workers, created it for the whole Coulve. We used to live in trees as the fairies do, but when our race was forced underground the Matel Werk created these trees for us using whatever metal they could find in the area they were in. We are lucky to have found such a large deposit of pure silver. Lots of Coulves have trees made of many different metals mixed together, nowhere near as pretty. Of course, while silver is pretty, the dragon fey who find iron are the safest.”

“Why?”

“You don’t know?”

“Aume I know nothing about dragon fey. At all.”

“This isn’t a fact about dragon fey.”

“Just tell me!”

“Alright! Alright! Iron burns regular fairies, most kinds of fey actually, but it doesn't effect dragon fey at all. So if a Coulve is made of iron, then regular fairies can’t mess with it without getting hurt.”
“Uh, that was partly about dragon fey.”

“Whatever,” Aria guessed Jynx just didn’t like to be proved wrong.

“Is that why your knife is made of iron?”

“Hu?” Jynx seemed confused, “Ya, but… How could you tell it was made of iron?”

“I don’t know, it just… felt like iron. You did kind of have it pressed against my neck.”

“Ya, sorry about that. But, only Matel Werk can tell apart different kinds of metal by touching them…”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

The Coulve seemed to be set up in a similar fashion too. At the center of the silver tree’s crown lay a large public building that Jynx labeled for Aria as the town hall. It was made of a similar material as the tree, but darker and less shiny. Curious, Aria walked over brushed her hand against it, “Iron!”

“How did you do that?” Aria looked at Jynx, confused,  “Never mind. Yes, it is iron. that’s one of the Coulve standards. Each and every Coulve has a town hall that can fit everyone of it’s inhabitants, and every town hall is made of iron. It’s a security thing. If the Coulve was ever attacked by the fairies, then everyone would hide in the town hall where the regular fairies can’t get inside.”

“You know, a lot of what you're saying is about how the Coulve defends itself from the normal fairies, but Jack seemed so baffled by the idea that I was ever treated as anything less than royalty. Why is it that?”

“I must say, some would consider Jack rather old fashioned. It used to be that way. We were regarded everywhere as saviors to the fey, and were treated with the utmost honor. Dragon fey are actually the elder of the two races you know. We came before the fairies, but they think that we are some weird mutation because we had chosen to remain hidden to them for too long, and they thought themselves the originals.

“For a while we achieved peace, but all it took was for one dragon fey to do something that went against the beliefs of the fairies for it all to go to heck. There was a war. Neither side one, though the fairies and even some of the more prideful dragon fey say that their side won. We decided to retreat and come back at a day and age that was ready to accept the truth. That time is not upon us quite yet.

“ I have no idea why he would think that you would be treated any different than any other dragon fey. I actually have no idea why everyone else thought you'd be treated any differently…” He stopped himself from saying any more.

The town hall acted as a kind of dividing line. On one side, the one that Aria and Jynx were walking into, was made up of other public buildings along with what Jynx told Aria were the houses of public officials. The side that the two were coming from was the portion of the Coulve that acted as the housing district. As they walked farther into the area with all the public buildings Aria became unsettled at the emptiness, “Where is everyone? They can’t just be hiding. All the shops are completely closed, and the windows and things are open. No curtains drawn, like they were closed before I came. Why?”

“It’s a kind of holiday here. Well, a celebration anyway. Almost everyone has the day off.”

“Huh.”

The two walked down three more streets, flying a little to reach a couple of higher platforms before Jynx stopped in front of an immense building at the very edge of the Coulve, “We are here. I must tell you to be very respectful to the people beyond these doors; they may hold your entire future in their hands,” he then walked up a flight of sweeping steps to the large, ornamental, silver doors and pushed them open in one fluid movement. Aria walked up the steps in wonder of the building before her, only half registering what Jynx said. Jynx politely held the doors open for her as she walked through, brushing her hand against the elegant engravings on them.

After she had passed through the doors, Jynx followed behind her and closed them, “Come,” he said and gestured for her to follow him down a long, wide hallway lined with many portraits done in bright colors. Braziers lined the hall at intervals, the flames in them glowing purple and casting a soft glow on the shing walls and floor. Down the center of the hallway ran a long, lilac carpet with a faded pattern of seemingly random symbols etched in plumb.

“You guys really have a thing for purple, don’t you?”

“It is considered a special color, for it was the color of the wings of the very first dragon fey. It is also the rarest color of wing, the rarest color of anything really. The hardest color of light to create, the hardest color of fire to ignite, the hardest color to shift to. Being able to do something in purple is thought to show skill, though somethings are just easier for some fey.”

“Huh. I never would have guessed purple. Why?”

“That is something that the philosophers have been trying to figure out for a millennia. No one knows exactly why the color purple is so hard to create.”

“Your wings have purple on them.”

“Yes, they do. It to a lot of practice to get even this much purple on my wings. Now I like to wear it like that all the time to show status. A lot of Sheftier are like that.”

“Sheftier? What is that?”

“The class of shifters. We can change our appearance. Jack’s one too.”

“Jack is a shifter? So, the guy I was talking to could look absolutely nothing like what he really looks like? Is that what you meant when you said you do look alike? You both look alike when you aren’t shifted, but you do look different when you have shifted?”

“Whoa! Slow down. Yes, my brother is a shifter. Yes, it is likely that he was shifted when you were talking to him. And yes, when we are not shifted we look the same.”

“What does he really look like then?”

“Well he looks like… You know what, I think I’ll just show you. Be warned, I’ve been told that the first time you see this it’s really weird,” Jynx stepped back. Aria got the cue and took one of her own.

Jynx closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As he let that breath out, a ripple passed down his body starting at his head and the tips of his wings. As the ripple passed over him, his appearance began to change. The first thing that became different was his hair. It looked as though it had been dipped in liquid night, jet black flowing down the length of the hair from the roots. The second thing that changed were his wings. The scales became green and blue with streaks of copper, and the undersides became mint green. His skin tone didn’t change much. It just got half a shade darker, and when he opened his eyes again they were emerald green.

“Jack is slightly blockier, but I’m not that good at doing that kind of stuff,” it was really weird for Aria to hear Jynx’s voice coming out of a completely different body.

“So this is what you look like normally?” Jynx nodded. Aria whispered, “You look just like me…” This was very true. Jynx now looked exactly like a male version of Aria. same hair, same eyes. Even the same wings, something Aria had never seen before. Jynx nodded again, “What does that mean?” Aria sounded a little scared.

“It means,” Jynx said in a seemingly emotionless tone, “that we are siblings.”

 

Chapter #10: What Is That Supposed To Mean?

“Wait, you're my what now?”

“I am your brother.”
“How the heck did I not know about this?”

“You never knew your parents. You were abandoned at the Hollow at birth. How could you have known?”

“I never told you that!”

“You told Jack you had been in your Hollow your entire life. I knew that we had had a sister that was sent to the local Hollow as a baby for the sake of a peace treaty. It was a deal, a trade. We were to give them one of our children, they were to give us one of theirs, we achieved peace. Of course, Mother and Father weren’t very happy about having to give up their youngest child.”

“I was part of a peace treaty?!”

Jynx sighed, “Yes. Jack and I actually only found out you existed a year ago, when they thought we could handle knowing we had a little sister. Apparently they told us too soon. We have spent the last year trying to find a way to get you back, and now we have.”

“Who was the normal fairy child?”

Jynx spat in anger, “The Hollow chose you from many, that was how it worked. We came and chose ours, a boy with pale green dragonfly wings. He was very promising. You see, dragon fey are hopeless at growing plants and we wanted to chose a child that could help us with them. Anyway, when the time came to exchange and we handed you over, the handed us an empty bundle and flew off to their Hollow. We had already signed the treaty saying that we couldn’t attack them to get you back, and they had written in disappearing-reappearing ink that they didn’t have to give up a child if they didn’t want to. So-”

“So they never fulfilled their end of the original bargain?” Jynx nodded. The stood in the hall in silence for a moment before Aria said, “Jynx, what was the boy’s name?”

“The boy that we were supposed to receive was named Jacob Leafling.” Aria stumbled backward and almost knocked over one of the braziers, the flame flaring wildly. Jynx caught her and pulled her back, “Whoa! What was that about?”

Aria looked up at him, “Jacob was my best friend. He’s in danger, we’re all in danger, I need to find him!”

“Okay, okay, slow down. Wait what?”

“I feel so terrible! I got all caught up in this place, and I forgot the whole reason I needed to go back! They’re using him Jynx. They’re trying to bring him back! I can’t let that happen to Jacob, I can’t let it happen to the world! If he comes back…” Aria burst out crying and clung to Jynx’s shoulder.

Jynx was a little startled at Aria’s outburst of emotion, “Um, uh...Shhh, shhh. It’s okay. Uh, who is he?”

Aria wiped away her tears and looked up at Jynx questioningly, “You don’t know?” he shook his head, he didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, “He is the demon, the destroyer. He is the one who burned the sky and scorched the earth. He is the one who created the plains of death, the one that wiped out all but one elven city. The one that sent the fairies into hiding. The one that has been wearing away at his cage deep below the surface of the earth for millennia. The one who only needs one pure sacrifice to come back and do it all again. And this time, he will not be stopped.”

The two of them stood in silence for a minute, “Surly a being that powerful has more of a name than, he.”

“His name was lost long ago, in a time where saying his name could summon him. By the time that he was imprisoned and no longer a threat, his name was lost and no one has ever said it since. How did you not know any of this? It is one of the key legends of our culture- oh.” Jynx was giving her a sad look that reminded her that they both grew up with two very different cultures.

“So, why would the fairies want to bring him back?”

Aria’s voice became one similar to that of what a scared rabbits would be if rabbits could talk, “To get rid of me.”

Jynx’s eyes widened, “Come on, we need to get to the council,” he grabbed her hand and started towing her down the hall, leading her down to other passages that branched off the main one, one right, and one left. At the end of that hall there was a door that looked exactly like a smaller version of the doors outside, carvings and all. Jynx turned around and grabbed Aria’s shoulders, bending down because he was taller, “All right. Now, behind these doors sit the council. It has acted as the leaders of this entire Coulve since the last of the Anim Tameir died. You must be very respectful, no matter what they say, or who they are. Do you understand?”

Jynx seemed very serious, so Aria acted the same and merely nodded. As Jynx pushed open the doors Aria felt something in the pit of her stomach. Not now nerves! She screamed inside her head. When the doors were all the way open, Jynx announced her for the council, “Ms. Aria Windbourne of Treefield hollow!” Aria walked through the silver doors with her head held high, she wanted to make a good first impression.

The room was a lot smaller than she had thought it would be. It was circular, and around it sat seven high desks, all facing the center to create a space where someone could stand before them and be in everyone’s view. Each desk was made of a different kind of metal, platinum, gold, silver, electrum, bronze, copper, and iron, and behind all but the iron desk sat a dragon fey. When Aria reached the circular area in the middle of the high desks, she bowed low in an attempt to show the respect that Jynx had spoken of earlier.

“Rise child,” said a kind, old, male voice. Aria did as she was told and returned to her former stance with her head held up, “Aria,” the voice she was hearing was that of a wise looking old dragon fey who sat behind the desk of gold. His wings were mostly  a shimmering orange, but they were streaked with gold in a similar way that her’s were streaked with copper. His hair long hair and beard had turned white, “you are here because we have been told that you are Anim Tamier,” Aria silently cursed Jack for telling them, “Now, if this is true, then you have a responsibility to your race to take up leadership as is tradition, and to save us from the Wintirre. Do you understand?” Aria nodded, “Good. Now, we have a series of traditional tests that were used to determine whether or not you are really Anim Tameir, but they are all very dangerous considering we do not have a fail safe in the form of a recognized Anim Tameir to help. Do you understand the risks, as well as the rewards?” Aria nodded, “Very well then. The tests will begin at noon tomorrow. I suggest you get your sleep tonight.”

Aria nodded and muttered an, “I will.”

Aria bowed again and turned to leave. Before she could though, the old council member spoke again, “Oh, and Aria?”

She turned around and lowered her head in respect again, “Yes?”

“It is so good to have you back child.”

“Thank you sir,” Aria turned back around and started to exit again before another event interrupted her departure. A door in the back of the room that Aria hadn’t noticed before opened with a loud bang as it hit the wall, making the other dragon fey sitting at the desks flinch.

“Sorry councilman Demius, I got held back. This wing is definitely not fit for flying on!” A boy stormed in through the door, his wings an interesting shade in between purple and dark blue and his hair jet black. Despite the obvious differences, Aria could tell by the shape of the giant black splotch on his left wing and his voice that it was Jack. All of the councilmen and woman scowled at Jack as he crossed behind them and took a seat at the iron desk, but the councilman that scowled the hardest was by far the councilman behind the gold desk; Aria assumed that he was councilman Demius.

“Councilman Drakeson, you're a little late. We have already set up a testing time for her, and she has already agreed to it. You should have been here then or not have arrived at all.”

“I already told you, I can’t fly. It’s not my fault that my wing is worthless.”

Aria wanted to scream at the jerk, even if it turned out that he was her brother. She didn’t scream, but she did say, “It wouldn’t be worthless if you hadn’t gotten your twin brother to kidnap me while I was working on fixing it.”

“Psst! Aria! Cut it out!” Jynx was leaning in through the door and making a slitting-of-throat motion with his hand. Aria held up a hand to silence him and continued glaring at Jack. Councilman Demius just looked between the two of them like he was watching a volley match.

Jack just gave a nervous laugh, “Eh-he, ya… Sorry about that. But hey, it all turned out okay!”

“Maybe for everyone but you, me, and your wing.”

“What? Just because I had my brother kidnap you and take you to the secret dragon fey city to have you take your rightful place as the head of the Coulve and save us from the Wintirre, you aren’t going to help fix my wing?”

“Uh, let me think about it for a second-ya no.”

“So you are going to fix my wing?” Aria glared at him with a look that could have melted the whole Coulve if it had wanted to, “I’m gonna guess that’s a no.”

Jynx popped around the corner of the door again and tried to pull Aria out of the room. She brushed him off, but walked out backwards, glaring at Jack the whole way.

When they had gotten to where Jynx was sure no one could see them, he began to tell Aria off, or tried to, “What the heck were you doing insulting a council member?!”

“I wasn’t insulting him, I was just… Questioning his honor?”

“I thought I told you to be respectful to them no matter who they were!”

“You never said anything about Jack being on that council! And again, all I did was ask him if he really thought I was still going to help him with his wing after he got you to kidnap me!”

“Actually that was my idea.”

“WHAT?!”

“Okay, I probably shouldn’t have said that…”
“You think?!”

“My point is,” said Jynx, trying to get back on topic, “that that was not a smart move. It is one thing to call him a Jack in private and not in the council room in front of the other six councilors, but it another to glare at him like you want to kill him while he is on council duty!”
Aria made a fake pouty face, “But I did want to kill him!”

“Why?”

Aria looked at him the way you might look at a cow that walked in front of a speeding car and just stared at it, “You really thought asking that question was a good idea?”

“Right, forget it- Forget I ever said anything!” Jynx was getting exasperated.

“Well, what do I do now? It’s not like I have a place where I can ‘get my sleep tonight’.”

Jynx took her hand, his earlier anger now seemingly forgotten and replaced with the care one would expect from a normal brother on one of his good days, “Here, you can stay at the family house, Mother and Father will be ecstatic to hear of your return.”

 

Chapter #11: I Get To Meet My Family, FINALY

Aria’s family’s house was big. And by big I mean BIG. It took up a whole tree branch. Jynx had to tell Aria that all the knotholes up the branch were windows, and not doors to separate houses.

“Whooooooooa.”

“Ya, our family is uh, well known.”

“What do we do?”

“We run a school.”
“What do they teach?”

“Well, Mother and Father don’t teach, but the school is essentially a training program. We help fey discover their talent, and we help them develop that talent.”

“So, can they help me with my talent?”

“Well, if you turn out not to be Anim Tameir, probably. But if you are, then no. We train by setting you up with teachers that also have your ability and can train you to use it. There are no other Anim Tameir, so I don’t know how much we could help you with it.”

“Oh.”

“But who cares right? Jack told me that you had a pet fey windle! If you are Anim Tameir, which I’am sure you are, you should have no problem mastering your talent without an expert to help you. It’ll just take a little more time and effort, that’s all.”

Jynx comforted her as he pushed open the main door and they walked through. It was a large knothole at the base of the branch with a large wooden door set into it. As Aria walked through her hand brushed against its side and she whispered, “Ironwood.”

“What?” Apparently Jynx had heard her.

“Hu? Oh, nothing,” Aria didn’t really want to through the whole “Only such-and-such dragon fey can do that” talk again, something she was sure would happen if she told him that she had gotten what type of wood the door was from just one touch. She was so caught up in these thoughts that she didn’t notice the inside of the house until she was standing in the middle of the main hallway with Jynx.

“Welcome, Aria Windbourne, to the house of Drakeson!” He gestured around at the hall. The flooring was of a wood the same color and apparent texture as the door, so Aria assumed that it was also ironwood. Down the center of it was a long carpet in of course, dark purple with lavender flowers embroidered on it. Almost everything in the hall was purple, similar to the council building. The difference was, in the house everything had a homey sort of feel, with periodic couches along the hall, along with pictures, mirrors, and tables hosting what Aria assumed to be items representing family memories.

“Whoa.”

“I know, it’s amazing right?” Jynx kind of spun around, taking in the house with an affection that Aria didn’t see from guys too often.

He must have made so many memories here, Aria thought happily to herself before the thought turned sour with anger at the fairies of her old Hollow, memories that I should have had as well. “Come on Jynx, I want to meet my long lost family. The rest of it,” Aria smiled, wiping the thoughts of her old life away. This was her life now, the life she should have had. The life that she was taking back.

Jynx laughed and put his arm around her shoulder, “All right, if you insist.”

He steered her down the main hall and through a smaller side hall, “Man, this place is huge! How do they fit this all in one tree branch?”

“Some of the Matel Werk were also Maginus. They used this ability to create bigger living spaces. I hear that it took their most talented, 5D work is hard.”

“Maginus? What’s that?”

“Magic users. It’s the only talent that comes with another talent. Well, unless your-” He stopped himself, and Aria didn’t bother trying to make him go on. If it was really important, she would find out.

“I think I might be one of those…” Aria drifted off.

“Really? That’s great! It is a rare gift indeed. Actually, it was closely associated with the Anim Tamier. This gives you an even better shot at doing this!”

“Great…” Aria wasn’t very enthusiastic.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Aria shook it off, “Now come on, I want to see my real parents this century please!” She said it jokingly, but she really was anxious to see the rest of her real family.

Eventually they came in front of a large door made of the same ironwood as everything else, “Now,” said Jynx, “Mom and Dad spend most of their time in here nowadays. Be prepared for anything, and I mean anything. Are you ready?” Aria nodded, she couldn’t be more ready. Jynx pushed the door open and whispered to Aria, “Okay, you stay here until I call you,” Jynx walked through the door. He tried to close it all the way, but Aria discreetly put her foot between it and the frame so she could listen through the crack, “Mom, Dad? You in here?”

“Jynx? Is that you?” It was a woman’s voice, Mom… Aria felt her heart rate increase.

“Ya Mom, its me.”

“Oh good! Your father and I are back here! Give us a second,” Aria heard a crashing noise from beyond the door that made her flinch, along with a man’s voice swearing.

“Mom, Dad? Are you okay?”

“Yes dear we’re fine, just knocked over a stack of books! Come on Charles, Jynx wants to talk about something important!”

“All right Aubrey, all right! I’m coming!” This time the voice was male, Dad… Aria’s heart rate increased again. Aria heard what sounded like her mom and dad pulling themselves up, presumably out of the pile of books. Then the her dad’s voice was right on the other side of the door, “Yes son? What did you want to see us about?”

“Well Dad, remember how a year ago you told Jack and I about our sister?”

“Dear, we already told you everything we knew about the peace treaty. There is no way to bypass it and get her back. I’m sorry Jynx but there just isn’t anything more we can do to help you-” Jynx cut his mom off.

“I don’t need any more information about the treaty Mom. I need to tell you something-”

Aria thought she heard her mother start to cry, “Son,” this was their father, “give up already. There is no way to get her back, thinking about it is just painful! I know you and your brother feel like you need to get her back for us, but we need to just learn to accept it, all right?”

“No! You aren’t listening! We don’t need to keep looking! We found her!” Aria felt really bad for Jynx and figured that she should save him.

Aria pushed open the door the rest of the way so that they could see her. Her mom had long black hair and green eyes that were watering slightly. Her wings looked similar to that of Aria’s, but the were green and purple instead of green and blue, and the streaks that ran through them were more gold than copper. Aria’s dad had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. Aria got what Jynx meant when he told her be prepared for anything when she saw her dad’s wings. They looked like the had the same bony structure as dragon wings, and they were covered in scales, but they were shaped and patterned like painted lady butterfly wings.

Aria fumbled over her words, she hadn’t exactly thought the whole thing through before she had pushed open the door, “Uh...Um… Hi?” Everyone was staring at her, her parents in shock, and Jynx in surprise.

Aubrey Drakeson burst into more tears and rushed forward. Aria stood awkwardly as her mother hugged her close and cried into her shoulder, “My baby, my poor baby,” after awhile she seemed to become contented with hugging Aria and rocking back and forth slightly. After getting over the initial moment of not knowing what to do, Aria hugged her mom back fiercely as though she was in a dream that she would wake up from if she ever let go.

Charles Drakeson was just standing there, not seeming to know what was going on as he hadn’t gotten a very credible look at Aria before her mother had engulfed her in a hug, “Umm… Dear?”

Aria managed to pry Aubrey off her a little bit, thinking that she should give her dad a chance to see her better. Aubrey seemed to get the message and pulled away too, still crying. Before Aria could do anything else, she was hugging her dad and crying; he was crying too, “My baby girl,” he just whispered and kissed Aria on the forehead.

Before long, the four of them were all hugging, This is how it should have always been… The thought ran through Aria’s head dreamily as she stood with her family. Her real family.

“Umm…….. Should I come back some other time?” Jack’s voice came from the doorway and broke the silence. They all turned around to see Jack standing in the doorway. He had shifted back to the appearance that Aria had first met him in, and he seemed to be trying to hide the blacks spots in his left with with some kind of red sash. Like that will work for very long. Aria was not in the mood for her older brother.

“Oh, Jack! Did you hear that we got your sister back? Now you two don’t have to keep searching for her! Isn’t it wonderful?” Aubrey was really getting into this and didn’t seem to know of Jack’s involvement in getting Aria “rescued”. This is not going  to go down well. Aria really didn’t want to talk to Jack right now, he would just spoil her good mood.

“Um, yes Mom. I helped Jynx find her, actually.”

“No you didn’t,” Aria didn’t like the way he had put that last part, “I found you. On accident. And then you kind of betrayed my trust. I don’t really want to talk to you right now,” she didn’t figure that sugar coating it, even for the sake of her parents, would do anything other than make the rift between her and Jack wider.

“Jack, what is you sister talking about?” The way Charles said it, Aria could tell that Jack had a reputation for doing stuff that involved breaking the trust of other dragon fey.

“I’m talking about when you get me to help you with your stupid wing and then you get your twin brother to kidnap me.”

“Hey! That was Jynx’s idea, not mine! And it all turned out good, right?” Jack was panicking, grabbing at straws to try to make him look innocent.

“Hey! Blaming it on me? That is not cool dude! You're the one who asked me to come up with an idea to get her here!” Jynx was very indignant.

“You what!? Jack, have we not talked about stuff like this? I thought you promised to be more responsible! Ug…” Aubrey was getting exasperated. So it isn’t just me… Aria thought slightly smugly.

“Umm... Uhh… Can we please just talk about this some other time?!” Jack folded.

“Fine, but you're not getting out of this talk young man!” Go Mom! Aria was really enjoying the whole thing.

“What did your sister say about your wing?” Charles seemed to have gotten something completely different from everyone else out of what Aria had said.

“Oh, uh… Nothing!”

“Jack, answer your father!” Aubrey was way past exasperated now.

“Oh what the heck,” Aria rolled her eyes as she reached over and pulled Jack’s sash of as he futilely tried to stop her. As the red fabric fell away black spots were revealed on jack’s wing, bigger than Aria remembered them.

“Lords! What is that?” Neither Aubrey nor Charles seemed to understand what was on Jack’s wing, though they appeared to be able to tell that it wasn’t good.

“He has wing rot. It’s a parasitic fungus that attaches to the wings of insects and fairies. It starts as simple black dots, but starts to eat away at the wing until it becomes a hole,” Aria gestured to the holes in Jack’s wing, “Eventually it will spread to the other wing and completely destroy both of them both. When it reaches that stage, there isn’t a way to get rid of it or fix the wing.”

“It must be quite rare then if it’s something we haven't seen. Oh dear, I don’t think I know anyone who can treat that!” Aubrey voice was panicked, she seemed to have forgotten that she had been angry with Jack only moments before.

“Relax Aubrey, I’m sure there’s someone, somewhere, who can help him,” Charles futilely tried to calm his wife.

“Oh, there are many someones. The problem is not availability, but willingness,” Aria glared at Jack, “He pretty much ticked off his only chance of ever flying properly again.”

“Huh?” Aubrey and Charles didn’t seem to get it.

Aria sighed, “All the fairies in my Hollow know how to treat wing rot, including me. The fairies from my Hollow hate dragon fey, severely limiting his options to pretty much just me. He seriously ticked me off while I was in the middle of fixing his wing. Now, I am not going to help him; I suggest he either starts working on making friends with some fairies, or starts getting used to the idea that he is never going to fly again,” she glared at Jack.

“Come on! All I did was bring you home!”

“You tricked me!” Aria was outraged that he would try and justify misusing her trust. She had met him, a stranger, in the woods and had offered her help to him only to find out that he had had her kidnapped.

“Stop it you two! Our family has just been reunited, I will not stand to see you two fighting with each other!” Aubrey was getting into what Aria would later find out to be her “moods” while Charles was inching back away from her slightly, “Please dear, fix your brother’s wing. Jack, apologize to your sister!”

Aria and Jack glared at each other. Aria held her glare, but after about a minute Jack got creeped out and backed off, “All right all right! Sorry Aria.”

“Aria?” At first Aubrey didn’t realise that Jack was referring to his sister, “Oh! Yes, Aria,” Aubrey sighed, “What a lovely name. Wish I had thought of it.”

“But… Didn’t you name me?” Aria remembered that Jynx had told her how Jacob had been the fairy that her Hollow that was supposed to be traded for her, and that he had already had a name that Jynx could know and tell her.

“Yes, I did,” Aubrey said wistfully, “But I did not name you Aria. They must have changed that when they took you. Humph. They must have thought it was to dragon fey for someone who was going to be living with them,” she said “them” with a certain amount of contempt.

“So… What was my name?”

“Dracolia,” Aubrey smiled to herself absentmindedly as she said the name that she had given her daughter all those years ago. Charles shouldered her and gave her an “I thought we agreed not to talk about that” look, though Aria couldn’t fathom why, “Oh, right. Sorry,” Aubrey blushed. Again, Aria couldn’t fathom why, “But you know, Aria is a much better name. It wasn’t like you were named Dracolia for very long anyway, it would probably just be confusing for you to switch.”

“Oh, uh, okay.”

“Isn’t there something you want to tell your brother?”

“Oh, right. Fine Jack, I’ll help you with your wing,” Aria rolled her eyes behind her mother’s back. She did not like doing it, and contented herself with a silent promise to do it the old fashioned way that they had taught for a reason that no one ever quite figured out that was known for being quite painful.

Jynx tried desperately to get them on a more pleasant topic. He had seen Aria’s eye roll, along with the smirk that followed, and knew that that couldn’t be good news, “Aria might be Anim Tamier,”the way he said it made him sound almost hopeful, though Aria didn’t have a clue why. Was her being Anim Tamier that big a deal to him?

“Might be Anim Tamier? Jynx, she has to be Anim Tamier. There is no way on Earth for her to have had a pet fey windle if she wasn’t Anim Tamier,” Jack rolled his eye at his brother.

“Oh! That is wonderful! Imagine, my little girl the leader of our Coulve! It would be just the thing to help all of us get back on our feet, wouldn’t it?” Aubrey was even more ecstatic than Jack was when he had first told Aria about being Anim Tamier.

“What do you mean, ‘help all of us get back on our feet’? What happened?” Aria didn’t see why her family would have to get back on their feet, from what Jynx had told her, they ran what seemed to be the only school in the Coulve. Had something gone wrong?

Audrey fell silent, and Charles continued on not saying anything. Finally, Jynx spoke up solemnly, “Remember how I said our family ran a school?” Aria nodded, “Last school year one of the students went missing. No one knows what happened to her, just one day she didn't show up to class and when they sent some other students to check on her she wasn’t in her room. It completely ruined our reputation. We might not be able to get anyone to come this year.”

“When does school start?” Aria wondered if she had enough time to help them fix their damaged reputation.

“It starts in about a week, next Carnsday,” Jynx shook his head sadly, “We’re running out of time to get ready, and we can’t get ready until we know how many students there will be. So far, it looks like zero.”

“Well then… How would me being Anim Tamier help anything?”

“If you were Anim Tamier, you would be the leader of the Coulve,” Jynx tried to explain, “because of the way most of our society works, that would restore our reputation by extension. I personally think that this way of thinking is stupid, but we’ll need to count on it if we want to get back into the Coulve’s good graces.”

“Why would me being the leader of the Coulve get you into their good graces?”

“Beacuse… Well just because. Who can say why things like that effect what fey think of other fey?” Jynx shrugged helplessly.

The five of them stood in silence until Aubrey finally spoke up, “It’s starting to get late, Aria will need her sleep for tomorrow. I’m assuming that’s when the council wants to have her tested?” Both Jynx and Jack nodded, “Thought so. They always plan it for the next day, ha, they don’t give any time to prepare. Well go on you two, show your sister her room. You're father and I still have some work to do, so we’ll be staying down here for a while. Love you,” Aubrey kissed each of them on the forehead, lingering at Aria the longest, “Goodnight my darlings,” she said as a farewell for the night as she pushed the three of them out the door.

“So… What now? Last I checked I didn’t have a room here. Because, you know, I haven't been here in 13 years.”

“14 years,” Jack corrected her.

“What?”

“You are 14 years old.”

“What?!”

“You didn’t know that?”

“No I didn’t know I was 14! How could I have known I was 14?”

“Who told you that you were 13?”

“Calea, my foster mother did!”

“Well that explains it.”

“That explains what?”

“Why you think you're 13 instead of 14.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Hm, I don’t know…”

“Jack!”

“Well all right. Fourteen years ago we gave you to the council. We had a couple of spies for about two years that kept an eye on you, they reported that for a year the head elder did lots of experiments on you to see what our weakness was,” Jack shuddered, “After a year of not finding anything, they decided to give up. You were much too valuable as leverage to just give back, so they introduced you to into their society as a deformed child who was unwanted by her anonymous parents. Your foster mother was told that you were a newborn, for who would hang on to a child like that for a year if they weren’t going to hang on to it always? She counted the years from there, hence, 13.”

“Wow…”

“I also know because I’m 15 and you're  a year younger than me,” he smirked at her.

“Um… Can I say something?” Jynx had just been standing there silently as Aria and Jack talked back and forth to each other.

Both jack and Aria looked away from each other to Jynx simultaneously in a way that really freaked him out and said, also simultaneously, “Um... Ya?”

“Well… I… Uh…”

“Just tell us already Jynx,” Jack was being his usual jerk self.

“Aria can sleep in my room,” he blushed, but as always Aria had no idea why.

“Aww, Jynx,” Jack mocked his twin and winked.

“Thank you Jynx, I’m lucky to have you as a brother. You know, I think when you two split Jack got all the jerk qualities and you got the gentlemanly ones,” she hugged Jynx and stuck her tongue out at Jack.

Jack and Jynx guided Aria through the house and up a couple of sweeping stair cases, “I thought that only one staircase in a house was supposed to be the grand staircase,” Aria said as she reached the top of the third sweeping case of stairs.

“There is only one. These are nothing,” Jack said as he reached the top a little after Aria. At least Jynx and Aria could half fly, Jack had to walk the whole thing. Aria started to feel sorry for him, but when she realised what was going on inside her head she quickly shook it off and set off after Jynx down the next purple hallway.

After three more flights of stair and twelve more hallways, Jynx stopped in front of a door carved with what Aria thought looked a lot like shadow lilies, “Here,” he took a key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock. The locking mechanism clicked quietly as he turn it, and swung the door open to reveal a dark room. Jack stayed outside, but Aria and Jyn walked into the darkened room, Aria closing the door behind her and sticking her tongue out at Jack a final time, “Iluminie,” Jynx whispered quietly as if he didn’t want anyone to hear and the lights came on, blinding Aria in a similar fashion to the lights of the city after she had come out of the dark cave.

She blinked away the spots in her eyes and looked around the room, “Whoa…”

“You like it?”

“Uh, ya.”

“Thanks,” Jynx walked out into the center of his enormous room and looked around it lovingly.

It was large, maybe 50 inches across. And it was circulare, the walls curving in and meeting at the ceiling in a large dome. The walls were painted black, uncharacteristic from the rest of the purple house. Well, the parts of the walls that were visible anyway. Almost the entire thing was lined with 10 inch bookshelves filled with books of all different thicknesses and colors. on the far side of the room, in a break in the book shelves, there was an ebony bed big enough for three people. Tables with piles of books on them were placed sporadically around the room, and a closest was set into the wall not far from the bed.

Jynx walked over to the closest and rummaged around in it, “You can have the bed, I’ll take the floor,” he pulled out a purple bed roll, the only thing besides the books in the whole room that had any color to it.

“No, this is your room Jynx! You take the bed, I can sleep on the floor just fine.”

“No, until you get your own room you are a guest, and guests don’t sleep on the floor,” he insisted as he started to roll out the bed roll in between two tables filled with particularly think looking books with titles that Aria couldn’t quite make out because the were so faded.

Aria looked at how ridiculously big the bed was, “Why don’t we both just sleep in the bed? It isn’t like there isn’t enough room.”

“A boy and a girl in the same bed? That wouldn’t be proper!” He continued to set up the bed roll, pushing aside a couple of books that had fallen on the floor at some earlier point in time.

“Jynx, we are related. You are my brother, and I am your sister. There is nothing improper about sleeping in a bed together. Especially when the bed is so big! Jynx, if I stay on one side, and you stay on the other, we won’t touch each other all night no matter how much we move around,” she was starting to think that maybe Jynx had gotten more of the gentlemanly half than was healthy.

“Well…”

“Jynx! It isn’t that big a deal!”

“No,” he said firmly, “I will take the floor and you will take the bed, and that is final!” he said and stood up so fast that he knocked a stack of about seven books off the table nearest him. They fell to the ground with a rather loud noise that made Aria jump.

“Jynx? Are you okay?”

“Ya, I’m fine. I think one might have landed on my foot though.”

Aria laughed, “Here, let me help you,” she walked over to where Jynx was trying to stack the heavy books back up onto the table.

“No, no. I can do this by myself thank you very much,” he took a book right out of Aria’s hands and set it down on the table with what seemed almost like a panicked force that another stack of eight books that was also on the table fell over onto Jynx’s hand, “Ow!” He pulled his hand out from under the pile of books and shook it back and forth and sucking air in through his teeth. He mumbled a few incomprehensible words and sighed in relief, “Now please, Aria, take the bed and get some sleep. I can handle this, it really isn’t that bad.”

Aria looked at him suspiciously but eventually  gave up and went over to the bed. She gingerly sat down on it as a test and sank down about 1/12  of an inch into the mattress. Wow. How does he sleep on this? Aria took off her boots and carefully laid all the way down. She didn’t have anything to change into so she decided to sleep in her regular clothes. Her other option was a lot more awkward.

She didn’t sleep under the covers, it just didn’t seem right to even though Jynx wasn’t in the bed with her. She layed there staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, Jynx had fallen silent over where he lay on the floor. Aria sighed and closed her eyes, That is what I call a long day…

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 29.12.2015

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