Fairy Tale: Winter's Bite

Chapter 4: Flight (Part 2)

When the guards returned Chris to the cell, Morgan and Ryan were missing, just as he had feared they'd be. But his brother was by the bars at the front and he was smiling for some reason.

"The kids! It was—" Joe began as soon as they had a moment of privacy.

"Where are they?"

Joe helped Chris untie his hands. "That I don't know. But it was incredible. The guards and that fairy from hell came to take them away. They were pitching a fit and then, out of nowhere, they shrank, sprouted wings, and flew away!"

"They just flew off?" Chris asked. "Are you sure you didn't get your head thrown into the ground one too many times?"

"Well, I was about to go unconscious a few minutes ago, but. . ."

Chris lifted an eyebrow.

"I didn't imagine it. I swear!" Joe pointed at the ground. "Look, those are their pajamas."

Chris wanted to believe his brother, but then he would have to believe in magic and accept not only the existence of fairies but also that his children were fairies. "Great, except they're four," he said, trying to keep his voice level. "How far away from danger could they possibly get?"

Chris cradled his skinned wrist with the front of his sweatshirt and slid into a sitting position against the cave's rock wall. Then, with his elbows on his knees, he tried to massage away the pain, stress, and misery from his face.

Joe tossed a small rock in the air and caught it. "Why are you sitting? This could be our only chance to make a break for it!"

"What do you have in mind? Busting the lock open with that little pebble you have?"

"There could be another way. Maybe they brought us to fairyland for a reason. Your kids have wings, for God's sake! Maybe it's in our blood. If we could only figure out how to transform and—"

"Hello. Over here!"

They searched for the source of the small voice—the ground, the air above, the nooks, corners, shadows. . .

A tiny hooded creature emerged into a glimmer of torchlight in front of Chris's feet. She waved to get their attention.

Chris lurched to his knees and snatched the fairy from the ground before it had a chance to run or fly away. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't crush you like a bug." He brought the palm-sized creature closer to his face for a better look.

His grip loosened when she swept off the hood of her cloak. Her hair was as dark as her penetrating eyes, and her beauty seemed too pure to be real, her tiny face practically incandescent. But her appearance was not what acquired the bulk of his fascination. Her thoughts seemed beyond her, almost like fragments of images or words, but they were too intricate and numerous for him to interpret.

There was one thought, however, that she was transmitting with angelic clarity. You don't want to kill me.

Chris blinked away from the fairy's spellbinding stare.

With wide eyes and an open jaw, Joe crouched down and reached for her. He nearly touched her with his open hand, but then his fingers curled closed and his arm lowered. "Chris, put her down! Step away from the fairy princess!"

Chris didn't know what else to do. He eased her back on the ground.

"Thank you," the cloaked fairy said, her voice soft but captivatingly clear. "I can give you two reasons to let me live: I can help you escape, and I know where your children are. We don't have a lot of time, so listen carefully. . . ." she put forth, taking three fairy-sized steps closer to them. "You are Modifiers, both of you. You can be one of two forms—small like me or human-sized. Switching from one form to another requires simple imagination or deep concentration, the latter more likely in your case, but find what works for you."