Iron & Wine

Chapter Sixteen - Revelations

Chapter Sixteen-Revelations

I awoke the next morning feeling like death warmed over, literally. I'd practically died last night at the hands of a kelpie. I rolled over and realized how much pain I was really in. My whole body ached, my throat felt as if I had been eating fire and my skin still felt cold and damp. Even my bones felt cold. My eyelashes were stuck together with dried mud, but I managed a glance toward my window and noticed that it was either really early in the morning or nearly night time. I heard something move beside my head. It was Lattie. She was all curled up in my hair, which also had dried mud and leaves in it from the pond.

"Hi Avery," she yawned. "How are you feeling?"

"Alive, I guess, other than that I feel like crap." I managed to sit up with great difficulty. "How did you get me home?" I asked, realizing that most of last night was a blur after I had been dragged from the lake.

"Oliver helped me, I couldn't carry you. He brought you all the way here for me," she replied.

"Oliver?" I asked. My memory was so weak from the night before, the name sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. "You mean the troll?" For someone so grumpy he sure was helpful.

"Yes, the troll," Lattie replied quickly and almost impatiently. "I'm so very grateful for Oliver, he pulled you out of the water and saved you..." she trailed off sadly.

"Hey, sweetie, what's wrong?" I choked out of my sandy throat.

"Well, if it wasn't for him, you would have surely died." Hearing the reality of it made my heart race. "I am too small to have ever done anything, and it makes me feel useless." She looked at me now with frustrated eyes. "Avery, you are my very best friend, I cannot lose you." She climbed up onto my chest and hugged my face.

"Oh, Lattie, don't be upset, I'm not going anywhere," I assured her. "But I don't think that I'll be attending any more of your friends' parties. I've had my share of fairies for one lifetime. You're all I need. You want some breakfast?" I asked her, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sure, can we have pancakes?" She looked at me with a hopeful and childlike face now. I laughed and patted her head.

"Sure sweetie, be right back." I forced myself out of my bed. My limbs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each, and limped over to the mirror to assess the damage of last night's events. I rubbed the dirt from my face and pulled my matted hair back into a pony tail. It was the most I could with the energy I had.

It took a while to get started, but moving around helped me stretch out most of the aches. I'd just flipped over the last pancake when I heard Julie's bedroom door open.

"Hey Jules, want some pancakes? I made plenty." I turned to face her with the frying pan in my hand, but it wasn't Julie looking back at me. There was a fairy standing in my living room, staring at me much the same way I was staring at it. I thought it might have been a pixie, I wasn't sure. It had platinum hair that cascaded down to her waist, extremely pale white skin and large white wings that matched her ethereal complexion.