Chapter 10

In the centre of the clearing stood a gnarled old hollow tree. Light emanated from it making it look on fire. Tiny balls of light were flying to and from the tree. Next to the tree was a little brook where the little balls of light were sitting. They were everywhere.

Firendar knew what they were. They were faeries. They weren’t the traditional faeries like you get in the tales though. Like humans, they could choose to be good or evil. How you won their favor depended on how they treated you. If you didn’t win their favor…well it didn’t bear thinking about. But if by some miracle you won it, they were extremely loyal and treated you as one of their own.

Firendar gazed on in amazement, unaware of anything else happening around her. All of a sudden, Firendar lost her balance and tumbled into the clearing. Startled faeries scattered in all directions from panic. Small faeries clad in silver armor came rushing towards her. Firendar leapt to her feet and started to scramble through the overgrowth, the faeries following close behind her.

“Oh crap!”

Suddenly flew down, blocking her path, barring her way of escape. She turned to see a whole line of faeries closing in to trap her. She pressed herself against the vines hoping that she would be able to push her way through them. She failed. The faeries formed an arc around her, each pointing their spears at her. One of them raised his spear and flew to her.

“Eck mo kela clee? KRANAR!”

A look of confusion spread across her face. She did NOT speak faerie which at the moment she thought could be fatal. The faerie who had approached her flew off in the direction of the tree. The arc around Firendar suddenly became tighter as they drew closer. They started making signs for Firendar to follow the faerie.

Slowly and cautiously Firendar began to move towards the hollow tree. With every footstep a faerie would prod her in the back with its spear, causing her to jump with pain.

“Will you stop that?!” she yelled.

This just aggravated the faeries more so they started poking her harder.

After a few minutes the company arrived back in the clearing. A horn was blown and the sound echoed all round the small clearing. Slowly a procession emerged from the tree. First the guards, all clad in shining armor. Next came some servants and finally out came the most important person of all. The Queen of Faeries.

She wore a long flowing pale yellow dress. Her hair was a chocolate brown and her eyes were an icy blue. Her skin was like snow. It was so white that it was almost transparent. She was taller than all the other faeries so it made her stand out a mile. She flew with her nose turned upwards and had an expression on her face as if there was a bad smell in the clearing. At first sight Firendar hated her.

The Queen flew over to Firendar and circled her, assessing her. She spoke to the guard in faerie tongue and he bowed as she moved away. The guard flew to Firendar and held out his tiny hand. On his hand was a small ball of something silver. Firendar stared at the guard and then slowly took the silver ball. When she did nothing more, he made gestures for her to eat it. Firendar did not really want to but she didn’t dare risk offending them. She wished to hell and back that they weren’t so temperamental. Firendar swallowed the ball and something felt weird to her. She was beginning to shrink!

“Now I’ll say it again. Who are you?”

Firendar was completely stunned. How was it possible for her to understand faerie tongue and for her to be this small? To her, something didn’t feel right.

“Answer me!”

The faeries rushed forward and started jabbing her with their spears.

“Alright you little buggers! You’d better bloody stop that right now!” Firendar swore.

The faeries stared at her with their mouths dropped in their surprise.

“I am so sick and tired of you little pests poking and prodding me! I thought that faeries were supposed to be in pink tutus granting wishes!” yelled Firendar.

That was the ultimate insult for faeries. They hated being stereotyped that way and thought that humans had way too much time on their hands to be coming up with things like that.

The faeries all went red in the face from pure unrestrained anger. A few of them started getting bigger, their bodies becoming fatter and translucent. When they were completely see through, they looked like glass. They shattered into millions of tiny pieces which were like powder.

“Okay I didn’t know that you could do that,” Firendar mumbled.

If the faeries had been ticked off earlier they were now murderous towards Firendar. One faerie flew into the hollow tree and brought the Queen back out.

“Bring in the murderer! She must face the trials!” bellowed the Queen. “If she is found guilty she will be put to death. If innocent, then she will have our favor and safe passage through the Everglades.”

Firendar’s face was set in stone. There was no way she could afford to lose the trial. Emalia must have been caught or still in the Everglades. If Emalia was caught then she had to get her out of there. The faeries led her shrunken form into the tree. Firendar feared what was going to happen. They led her into the darkness and into the unknown.

A/N: I’d really like to thank Womynrule for reviewing this story. It only seems to be you that is!