I covered my mouth and stared at the tiny, winged girl. Her skin shimmered and antennae crowned her head of untamed, dark curls.
"What sort of creature are you?" I knelt beside the cage to get a better look at her. The angelic being put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Cassi be pixie, of course! Do not you know pixie when you see one?"
"No, I'm sorry. I've never seen a pixie before."
Cassi danced lithely toward me and grinned. "I Cassi, and you?"
"Auriella," I whispered. "I'm going to get you out of here."
Cassi nodded. "Auriella save Cassi from mean old witch?"
I blinked twice. It felt good to hear my name after being called "girl" for almost an entire year.
Though the pixie smiled, her face looked tired, and her wings drooped behind her back. If I had wings, I would have flown away from this place a long time ago.
"How did Hazella capture you?"
Cassi took a deep breath, and I could tell it was going to be a long story. "Cassi swimming with fish friends. Fish friends to Cassi. It's fairy treaty with water world. And Cassi splashing, and Cassi has no magic when wet and ..."
"Hazella trapped you," I said, cutting Cassi's story short. I longed for the conversation, but there wasn't much time to escape.
"Yes." Cassi looked amazed that I knew how the story ended.
I leaned over the cage. "No door?"
Cassi shrugged her shoulders. Her wings glistened in the dim light from the fire, now burned to glowing coals. "If Cassi touch cage, spiders come."
I sighed. "Just because the cage is made of spiders' webbing doesn't mean spiders will come."
Cassi didn't look convinced.
"I wonder if there's a hidden door." I picked up the cage. Paralyzing images of hungry Shadow Wolves invaded my mind. They brushed against me and snarled. The alpha wolf stood in the corner of the room and eyed me with inhuman hunger. I lunged back and dropped the cage on the table. The mirage faded as soon as my fingers broke contact with the web and fur mesh surrounding the pixie prison. I scrambled to my feet, frantically searching the room for the Shadow Wolf. "Did you see that?" my voice quivered.
Cassi looked around the room and raised one eyebrow. "See what?"
I stared at the web and fur. "It's a magic cage," I realized out loud.
Cassi bowed her head. "Mean old witch trap Cassi in scary cage."
I knelt and rested my chin on the tabletop. "Don't worry, Cassi. We'll find a way to get you out."
"Let's go now!" Cassi shook the stick frame and rattled the cage.
"Hazella is crazy, but not an idiot. Something awful might happen if we try to leave the cottage with you still inside the enchanted cage. We've got to find a way to open it or break the spell." I pressed on the edges of the stick frame, careful to avoid the web and fur mesh. "I wonder if it's some sort of puzzle."
The hours passed as I picked and prodded at the enchanted cage.
A tuneless song buzzed through the woods. I raced to the dusty window and peered outside. Hazella meandered along the path and stopped on occasion to add a plant or mushroom to her bag.
"She's coming," I whispered.
Cassi cowered in the corner of the unopened cage.
"When she leaves again, we will get you out," I promised and tossed the rag over the cage. I shoved the bread back into the cupboard, tucked the bedroll behind the firewood, and dashed to the door.
I fled outside to the small garden and picked at some weeds. What if Hazella hid a key somewhere? Or maybe I needed to recite a riddle to get the cage to open? Hazella loved riddles. Everything she said and did was a riddle to me.
Hazella stood over me.
I burst out, in the best whining voice I could muster, "I'm so hungry. You didn't leave me any food, and I couldn't go into the cottage. Can I please eat something now?"
Hazella eyed me. My grip tightened on the weeds. I was sure Hazella knew I had been inside.
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The Watchers Book 1: Knight of Light
Teen Fiction"The Watchers" are supernatural beings in human form, charged with protecting mankind from the armies of darkness. Unfortunately, some of these Watchers go bad. Deirdra Eden's The Watcher's Series is written in a traditional fairytale style with a...
