Chapter Three: Human Interrogation Is Soo Boring: Skyler

Ugh... Where am I...?

Skyler? Is that you?

Shiro...?

You got captured! You should've seen Amber, she was so mad -- madder than the North Wind! But don't tell her I said that....

...Huh?

Sky, are you okay? You sound kind of out of it. Did you get knocked out when they took you? I've been trying to Link since I don't know how long. It's almost time for Crystal-hyrie's coronation.

...Dang it.

What?

I need rescuing now? That's worse than stay-at-home-and-wait! On second thought, it might be a little better. More action.

"He looks like he's coming around... We should fetch the King."

"No, you go alone. He's too dangerous to leave alone and conscious. Did you pay attention to the number of guards he injured?"

"Uh, yes sir, but—"

"No buts about it. Go report to the King. I am staying."

"Sir—"

"Go, you idiot."

"Y-yessir!"

Woah. What was that?

My guess is something unpleasant on my end. I'll close the link so you won't get any feed.

But—!

Better if only one of us is out rather than both. We're in the frying pan, but it's still better than the fire.

Sky...

Talk to you after I get out of this mess.

Fine. See you if—no, when you get back.

You, too, Shiro.

(}|{)

"Faerie! Wake up!"

I opened my eyes to stone, squared metal bars, and a human face. It didn't seem human, though: there was a faerie-ish quality around it. My eyes settled on rounded ears.

Nope, not faerie. Very definitely human.

"You awake?"

I kept my silence, glaring at him. I recognized that voice through the mist of a Link. He was the guard who had chosen to stay behind and guard me.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not human—at least, not completely."

"What do you want?" My voice came out cracked and hoarse, barely reaching even my own ears.

"I want Munah to not know that you're a faerie. If he has you as well, there's no telling the devastation he could wreak on the world, let alone all the other people of magic—the elves, the vampires, the dwarfs, the dragons....

"Not that the world would last very long like that. The balance..." He let out a short, quiet, bark-like laugh. "The balance. It's so cliché, but it exists. And Munah, stupid human that he is, will break it."

"Who are you?"

He shrugged. "Ask Amber. She may remember him." A wistful tone touched his voice.

"Amber isn't here right—how do you know about Amber? Munah thinks we're all dead! Who are you?"

"I'm Landon, Princess Hermione's—or rather, High Faerie Crystal's—most valued guard. Landon-Cyeuhe Rune."

(}|{)

I yawned very openly, my head tilted back, gazing at the white marble ceiling of the interrogation room.

Humans had human weaknesses, and mostly physical ones. Faeries, on the other hand, had faerie weaknesses, which were mostly mental. Thus, human methods of interrogation had no major effect on me. A man dressed in white had been snapping my fingers for the past hour, trying to get answers out of me, to no avail.

Yeah, it hurt, but physical things wouldn't make me talk. Faeries healed quickly. My fingers were already on the mend. In fact, the only reason I'd passed out when I got captured was because the soldier'd given me a head wound, or as Amber might've said, a concussion.

Although, really, I was likely to die of boredom if the questioning kept up.

A different set of footsteps clicked into marble room. I glanced down at the new interrogator. He seemed familiar...

"YOU!" I shouted, and launched myself out of the chair.

Then Landon was there, dragging me effortlessly back to the chair.

"LET ME GO! I'LL TAKE REVENGE FOR MY CL—AGHk!" I gagged as the guard stuffed a piece of cloth into my mouth.

"Idiot," Landon hissed, "you can't do anything without your conductor, and even if you had it, he's too strong. If it were that easy, he'd've been dead by my hands a long time ago."

I glared at him, then directed it at the human standing behind him.

Munah. The last time I'd seen him, I was barely six and a half æzha old, yet I'd burned his image into my memory, along with the acrid smell of burnt flesh left from his attack on Amber, back when I still acted with an unhealthy amount of respect toward the Hyrie Family.

So my interrogation continued, with two differences: Munah's enraging presence and Landon's unnerving one.

Hour...

After hour...

After hour....

(}|{)

"Your highness, Lady Hermione's coronation is beginning. You must attend, sir," Landon interrupted quietly. Munah cast a sharp glance at the strange, emotionless guard.

"Very well," he snapped, slamming his fist down on the back of my already twice-broken left hand. I choked back a cry of pain, feeling the bones jerk sharply out of place. "Tell Hermione that I will be there presently."

"Yes, sir." Landon saluted and darted out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Almost immediately there was an enormous BANG from overhead. The door slammed open in a gust of wind. Landon was nowhere in sight.

"What the—?" An apple-sugarcane pie came splattering through the door. I stifled a snicker when it landed on Munah's head, blocking his vision. Amber's accuracy was as frighteningly sharp as usual. Although, I probably wouldn't have minded getting that pie to the face....

Amber herself trotted into the room, dressed in civilian clothes that we had stolen a long time ago to keep from attracting attention when thieving, although wearing the clothes was becoming increasingly irritating to her wings. She shot a glance at me.

"Well done, Skep. You kept him preoccupied."

Skep. The fake name Amber had assigned me when the old plan was still being plotted.

"No problem, Amia. Although it'll take a while before my bones fix themselves...."

Amber looked at me steadily. "And whose fault would that be, I wonder?"

"Hah! So the Chirou's here!"

Another faerie came bouncing in. I blanched.

"Wh-what's Pearl doing here?!" I demanded.

Amber glared at me. "I know you're used to calling her that, but Peri hates it when you call her Pearl, Skep," she snarled. I winced, too late realizing my mistake. "And you too, Peri, you should know better than to call Skep 'Chirou.'" [1]

"F-fine... What about—um—the guard? Was he taken care of?"

Amber pursed her lips. "Yes, but not everything else is. This scum, for example," she snapped, gesturing at Munah.

I blinked curiously. "Um... so why isn't he... y'know... attacking us?"

"Paralysis herb in the pie, credit to myself." Well, so much for wanting that pie. "It was originally intended for Cr—er, the Lady Hermione—well—we need to go. I'll explain once we're safely at the farm—"

"Amia!" Pearl whined. "He's still awake, remember?"

"Right," Amber hissed in a dramatically panicked voice.

I held out my mended right hand. "Amia," I drawled, "I'd like a weapon. Preferably something I could use with a broken hand."

"Later," she muttered, placing my bow in my extended hand: it looked like a thin metal rod, but it was designed so that when I ran my energy through it, it would extend so that the bottom half was ice and the top half was fire. "Come on."

The three of us stepped out of the marble room and came face to face with what could only be described as chaos. Ember was growling and snapping at the nearest pair of human legs. An otter—Pearl's angeli, I guessed—bristled beside her, showing sharp fangs. Crystal was behind them, tied and gagged. I was momentarily indignant, but upon closer inspection, realized, that the gag was woven with sweet sugarcane fibers (Lucky! I thought) and very loosely tied while the ropes gave a mere illusion of proper tying, credit to Pearl's skill with knots. She could make them look tight when they were actually falling off.

Landon was nowhere in sight.

But there was a strange wolfish dog standing in the corner of a bracket for holding torches. Its emerald eyes met mine and gazed at me steadily.

I'd seen those eyes before.

I just couldn't remember where.

Amber's gaze followed mine. She gasped. "Those eyes—La—gahhh!?"

Munah had revived very quickly for a paralyzed human. Somehow, he'd sneaked up behind us and gave Amber a sharp blow to her head with his hand. I heard something crack and caught her before she could fall to the ground. Pearl had disappeared....

"Now, little prisoner, what will you do?"

"Oh, he won't do anything, but I will." Pearl came diving out of nowhere and landed feet first on Munah's face. "No one hurts Amb—mmph!" [2]

I covered her mouth. "Better not let Amia hear you call her that, Peri," I hissed. Munah was semi-conscious on the floor under Pearl's (bare, dirt-covered) feet. Pearl glared at me.

"But he hit Amb—ia!"

She still wasn't used to using Amber's code name. I sighed. At least the "b" sound that time was fairly silent.

Amber groaned in my arms. I made a face. "Peri, we need to go. You know, risk that." Risk warping. Pearl's face paled.

"But I hate that!" she whined.

"Too bad," I muttered, and dragged her to where Crys was waiting.

"Close your eyes, we're going home," I advised the hyrie, squatting down next to her. She tilted her head questioningly. "Oh, you'll see. If you don't close your eyes, I mean." And with that, Pearl latched onto her angeli by its tail, who latched onto Ember, who crouched against Crystal. An unbroken connection.

I closed my eyes and Warped, my thoughts centered on Haven.

Except that when I opened my eyes, we were in the desert. I swayed and sat down. I had bad memories of this desert. This desert was where my sugarcane stalks dried up. Even that cactus over there was the same. Ironic that I'd landed in the same place Amber had.

"Hey, Skyler," Crystal began, "is this place really Haven? Cuz I had a more... eh... mountain-y place in mind."

"No, Crystal," I muttered, "this is the desert."

She frowned. "I thought you said we were going to Haven."

"We were," I admitted, "but Warps are hard to control. Pain in the wings..."

"Idiot," Amber muttered, still in my arms. I looked down at her and almost dropped her in surprise. She winced, rolled off my lap, and got to her feet. "The desert is north of Munahville, so we should be heading southeast from here, since we're in the same place as before. Come on, you lot, we've got some running to do."

"But Amby, everyone else here flies better than they run!" Pearl protested. Amber favored her with a glare. Uh-oh. Evil Eye alert.

"Too bad," Amber snapped. Then she winced again and swayed on her feet.

"It's probably safer if we ran," I put in hurriedly. "Imagine what'd happen if Amber fainted flying! Not a very nice idea... and the bird watchers would have a field day seeing a flock of completely different birds supporting a magpie."

Crystal broke in suddenly. "Faeries can fly?" Then she looked down. "Well, I guess I knew that, since Amber has wings, but they seem too small to let her fly! And besides, she doesn't look a thing like a magpie, does she...?"

We exchanged a glance. "Problem alert," I muttered. "The only thing we can do is Warp, it'll take us forever to teach Crystal how to Chyft, especially in this desert."[3]

"Chyft?" Crystal parroted.

Amber groaned. "I got lucky last time. We could end up back in Castle Munah if I tried now...."

"Not like we've got a choice," Pearl muttered rebelliously. Her angeli was draped across her shoulders, having crawled there sometime during the conversation. It looked very thirsty.

"Fine. Don't blame me if something bad happens," Amber snapped, resigned. Of course. She'd woken up to the desert. No one'd like that.

Ember wrapped herself around Amber's legs. The rest of us held hands in a ring. We all closed our eyes.

The first thing we heard was the sound of Crystal gagging. I opened my eyes to green. After the dry sand of the desert, green was a welcome relief. Except for that blotch of—oh. It seemed that Crystal had gotten curious and left her eyes open when we Warped.

Every faerie tried it once. No one ever tried it again.

I politely looked the other way. That, and the blotch of not-green was making me want to throw up, too.

And when I did, I noticed that, however green the forest around us was, the forest was not the same forest we were used to.

It was a rainforest.

Aww, snap. Stupid ornery Warps... the stolen Warphilia magic seemed very uncooperative today.

"Anyone know which direction Haven's in?" Pearl hissed acidly. Her angeli peered around curiously.

Crystal coughed and wiped her mouth, then wiped her hand on the ground and walked away from the not-green uneasily. "Can we... just... move somewhere? Away? For a little bit? And—oh, where's my mirror?"

"In the castle," Amber sighed. "Somewhere in the castle. It's a shame, really, but I guess we could get Landon to get it to us somehow."

I sighed. "Here, I'll fly up and figure out where we are." Amber nodded her agreement, then winced and put a hand to the back of her head. I closed my eyes and concentrated on what I wanted to be: a Saker falcon, my sky-chyf. The air trembled around me, and when I opened my eyes, it was to an astonished (and giant) Crystal. I laughed at the expression on her face. It was just too funny.

"Mind flying any time soon, Sky?" Amber grinned.

"A'right, a'right, I'm on it," I chirped, and flapped my wings clumsily until I could get enough momentum off the ground. Once in the air, I circled around until I saw Haven and shot down again. Amber tossed my clothes at me.

"Well, you got us in the right direction, but you overshot us," I commented to Amber as I chyft. "A lot. We need to go back northwest. A lot. A very lot."

"Good job, Amber," Pearl muttered under her breath.

"And who's going to Warp us?" Amber asked tiredly. "If I tried again, I'd probably land us in Castle Munah. If Sky tried, he could possibly land us on the streets, with the guards after our skins. I plain don't trust Pearl to do it, she didn't get enough practice or tutoring with using Warps. And Crys... well, she doesn't even know how to use faerie magic, let alone Warphilia magic...."

"Oh, gee, thanks for the ego boost," Crystal grumbled, staring at me like I was going to turn into a bird again any second.

"Sorry, Crys."

Pearl pouted. "Can I try? Please?"

"No, I'll do it," I sighed. "Come on." And we risked Warping again, for what I sincerely hoped would be the last time.

The tingly feeling faded, and I opened my eyes to a different sort of green.

"He landed us right above the land-entrance," Pearl commented, parting the blades of a huge clump of grass to reveal a hole large enough to fit a faerie.

Crystal inspected it from over her sister's shoulder. "That's one big rabbit hole," she muttered in an undertone that would've been unheard had her company been human.

As it was, Amber grinned and corrected, "It's not a rabbit hole. It's our rabbit hole." She demonstrated by Chyfting into her Akita Inu land-form and trotting into the hole after Ember. Then she poked her black dog nose back out and said, "A human could get in this way, but it'd be very uncomfortable for them. However, we as faeries can get by more easily using Chyft. You'll have to come in as a faerie, though," she added, and disappeared down the hole. Pearl quickly followed suit, although she seemed glum about using this entrance, which I fully sympathized with. She shook her sleek otter body like a dog unhappily before she vanished. Her angeli (which I still didn't know the name of) went after her.

I made a face. "I hate using this way, it's too cramped," I muttered, but Chyft and nodded at Crystal. "Here, I'll give you a ride. Come on."

She retreated nervously. "Um, no offense, but you're too intimidating as a tiger... I think I'll just... go in as I am, thanks."

I shrugged my white tiger shoulders and followed Amber and Pearl into the "rabbit hole".

The hole was small and claustrophobic (a word I picked up from Amber--after so many aezha spent tending to her, her vocabulary and speech had rubbed off on me) for a land-form of my size, which was why I'd always hated this entrance. After a couple of minutes of near-suffocation, I made it to the actual entrance of Haven: in front of a pool of water... and a pounding waterfall. Pearl and her angeli were gone, but Amber and Ember still hung around, waiting for Crystal.

She was several minutes in the coming, which was weird, because in the faerie form you only had to fall down the hole, literally, since the sides were so steep. Such a method took about two seconds, but was reasonably very bone-breaking, or slightly more accurately, back-breaking.

And when she came, she was followed by a group of eight humans. She was rather bruised up, but I thought that even without offensive abilities, any faerie could take on just eight humans.

But then a lot more started falling in. Last of all wasn't even a human: it was a wolf, with piercing green-brown eyes. It had gray fur and a red underside. It landed adeptly on his feet, and then sat amongst the stirring humans, ignoring them. His eyes were on Ember, who squirmed nervously and backed away.

Amber shifted uncomfortably, but as the humans shook their heads dazedly, she swallowed her uneasiness and launched herself at the intruders. Crystal backed away from the reviving mob. I followed Amber, sending my energy through the bow. A column of fire curled from the top side of the rod, and a block of ice extended delicately from the bottom. A thin strand of fire connected the two ends.

I flexed my free hand experimentally. It didn't hurt the in the slightest (yay for faerie recovery speed), so I dipped it into the pool of water and made an arrow of ice, notched it to my bow, and took aim.

By that time, Amber had taken out about ten of the still-reviving humans. I joined in to help her with the remaining five dozen.

The wolf just sat there.

Five long minutes later, when we had cleared out the humans, I turned to it. "You... you're not just a wolf, are you? Are you Landon's angeli?"

It shrugged and closed its eyes. "Maybe I was. I don't know what I am now. Before, I knew he was alive, but now I can't feel him at all. Is that possible? I should know if he's alive, right? I should know if he's dead, too. But I can't feel him at all."

That guy... I thought, backing away from the wolf, What is that guy?! He's not human! He's not even a faerie!

Amber glanced at the wolf uneasily, shook her head, and piggybacked a worn-out Crystal into the waterfall. Behind the waterfall was the heart of Haven. I followed her lead, wondering about and nervously watching the wolf, who jumped up onto the land entrance and began climbing out. I couldn't help but think that the wolf was going to bring Haven to ruin all over again.

[1a] Skep—Sky's codename, pronounced skep like in skeptical.
[1b] Amia—Amber's codename, pronounced AU mee uh.
[1c] Peri—Pearl's codename, pronounced PARE eye.

[2] "No one hurts Amb—mmph!"—In case you couldn't tell (and you probably couldn't cuz Sky cuts her off at the "b" and doesn't let her get any farther), she was going to say Amby instead of the more formal Amber. What can I say? She's Pearl.

[3] Chyft - CH EYE FT - change forms. Amber Chift last chapter when she turned into Ember's older sister (referring to her appearance), and then into a Bala shark.

Sera: That took way too long to finish. I need to set up a deadline for finishing chapters...T^T

Skyler: ...why am I talking kind of like Amber?

Amber: you've been living around me for about twenty-five years, Sky. I'm bound to rub off on you somehow.

Skyler: ...O_o"

EDITED 04-19-09, 1:34PM

EDITED AGAIN 04-21-09, 8:19PM