Chapter 15

    A child with pale blue wings tiptoed towards me, watching me with wide brown eyes, as if afraid I would reject him.     

    I smiled. "Hi there." I knew he couldn't understand, but hoped my voice would be reassuring.

    "Hello." He surprised me by answering.

    How did so many fairies speak English? I could hear them chatter in their light, foreign tongue, and the shaman had not seemed to understand us, yet this child was the third fairy who had at least a rudimentary knowledge of English.

    From behind his back, he revealed one of the red pear-like fruits Aiden had seen earlier and held it out to me. "Present?"

    Hoping it wouldn't turn out bitter like the berries, I smiled and accepted his offering.

    As soon as I had grabbed it, he ran off with a giggle, his dragonfly wings shimmering with the sunlight.

    "Do not eat this!" Aric warned me.

    I looked at the fruit then back up at him.

    "Why not?" Autumn asked.

    "A man at camp, he eated one. He was -" he made a face.

    "Sick?" Autumn suggested.

    "Yes. For three suns." He held up the corresponding number of fingers. "Do not eat it."

    I pushed the fruit away. "Are you sure? Well, maybe they're bad for us, but not for fairies."

    Chase came back, followed by Aiden, who looked just a bit guilty.

    Chase sat down next to me with a sight and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. I kissed his cheek and he managed a tired smile.

    "So how are the fruits?"

    "Good. You should eat, too," I said. Seeing him so worn out made me feel guilty. Aiden was sulking, and Autumn's hair was uncharacteristically messy. I had been selfish to drag them along on this unplanned and potentially dangerous adventure, without a second thought. I wanted this; I was tired of being in doubt about who my mother was and why she had left. However, they had nothing to gain from what had turned out to be a dangerous journey. I resolved to tell them how much I appreciated them as soon as we had some time alone and to make it up to them when we got home.

    The woman with the pixie cut from earlier came back.

    "If you have eaten, we will be on our way."

    "Can we get our stuff back?" I asked.

    "Your belongings will be returned to you, but we will keep your weapons."

    Chase stood up, a half-eaten fruit in his hand. "Fair enough. We're ready to go."

    At a signal from the shaman, the fairies all grouped together on the central platform. There seemed to be a quick headcount, and five fairies, including the man from earlier and our translator moved to surround us. At another signal, fairies took off in small groups, one after the other, and disappeared into the vegetation.

    "Let's go," the woman told us.

    We opened our wings and followed the rest of the tribe, flanked by out five guards who seemed there more for show than actual restraining. Then again, who knew with fairies?

    The fairies were light and fast and managed to go through passages between branches which were too narrow for us. On such occasions, our guards laughed between themselves and found a wider path for us. The gryphon soon gave up, and we occasionally caught glimpses of it flying high above us in the empty sky. Some children fell behind, zipping between branches, spinning, diving, and flying back up to us with gleeful shouts.

    "Are they making fun of us?" I asked Autumn as a girl did a little flip.

    "Probably. Compared to them, we're ostriches trying to follow hummingbirds."

    "Thanks. I feel prettier already."

    She exhaled a half-laugh. "Happy to help."

    One of the more adventurous children, a girl with orange butterfly-wings flitted close enough to Juno to skim her side with the tip of her fingers. When Juno showed no annoyance, she petted her with more vigor. Soon, more kids followed her lead. They soon discovered that Grey did not appreciate kids flying around her head, but that Juno was happy to let one or two sit on her back as she flew. Autumn, of course, watched them attentively.

    A boy with blue hair and white-ish wings slipped by Aiden as he pushed a branch out of his way.

    "Can I -hold on, how do you say that again..." He tilted his head.

    "It's 'braid'!" A child yelled as he sprinted past.

    "Oh, right," the boy said. "Can I braid your hair?"

    "What?" Aiden made a face. "No, it's not even long enough."

    "Want to play the game with the berries again?"

    A girl pulled Aiden's hand. "Ooh, yes, let's play that."

    I exchanged a confused look with Autumn. What had Aiden been up to when we were tied to trees? Besides eating, of course.

    "While flying?" Aiden seemed doubtful.

    "Come on, it is fun!" The boy insisted. "More fun."

    "Mikoy is right. Extra-challengening!" His friend added.

    "Challenging?"

    "That's what I said!"

    "All right," Aiden agreed. "But only with the sweet ones. The ones I like. If you throw me one of the gross ones I won't play anymore."

    "Aw, why?" The boy pouted. "It's more fun with these ones."

    "Promise you won't use them."

    "Okay," Mikoy conceded.

    "We promise." The girl gave an impish smile.

    "Let's play catch the berry in your mouth with Ideen!" Mikoy yelled at the top of his lungs.

    A cluster of children cheered and swarmed towards them.

    "It's Aiden. Ai-den," I heard our friend articulate. "Call me Ideen again and I'll call you 'milk soy.' Do you know what soy milk is, Mikoy? No? Well, it's bad."

    Some fairies were immediately back with some fruits, but one of our guards shooed them away.

    "Go play somewhere else, kids." He smiled. "We'll come play later."

    The children, along with Aiden who naturally assumed 'kids' included him as well, dropped lower to play their game.

    Behind me, Chase sighed loudly.

    "I'm sure he'll be fine," I reassured him.

    "Just covered in berries, but fine." The guard to my right laughed. "Anyway, we'll take a break soon."

    Chase didn't seem convinced.

    "What if he gets lost or smacks into a tree?" he mumbled.

    "He has a hard head," Autumn said. "He'll be fine."

    "It would be not understandable for the fairies to let him lose himself and get away," Aric added.

    "Get lost," Autumn corrected. "Not 'lose himself.' That has a more spiritual meaning."

    "Ah, sorry. Thank you for the correction. 'To let him get lost'?"

    "Yeah." Autumn smiled.

    Next to her, a boy on Juno's back whispered, "So soft..." as he pat Juno's ears in wonder.

    I pinched my lips to keep from smiling. Despite everything, these fairy children were growing on me.

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Hi! Sorry for the lack of updates during the holidays.
I'll now post updates every two weeks, like I used to for SW. (Yeah, it sucks, but I'm afraid it's the most I can manage...)

If you have any questions to ask Hailey, Chase, Autumn, and Aiden, this is the last call! (Thanks to everyone who already commented theirs!)

The cover up top is by @Felicity_Finney !

I hope 2016 is an amazing year for every single one of you,
MLB998

PS: As you can see, I've changed the cover again. I have so many different ones thanks to my lovely artistic readers it seems a shame not to. But please let me know if you have any favorites!