The Dark Fairy

Chapter Ten

With a flutter of pure, white feathers, Carabosse landed gracefully in a tree within the centre of the Enchanted Forest. Not at all shy, she made sure to find a good seat to watch her brothers and sisters rush about. They were trying to help Mother rebuild the Great Oak, whilst simultaneously trying to put out the last stubborn green embers.

She wanted to take an even closer look, so that she could hear their whispers and moans as they suffered the hardships brought on by her outburst weeks ago.

"This should be interesting," she communicated to Ibis who was perched beside her on the sturdy branch. He then watched Carabosse's snowy owl exterior melt away and disappear into the tree's shadow. She slithered down the trunk and lay low, so that no one would see her.

"It's out! That's the last one out!" An ochre fairy, who Carabosse remembered to be called Terre, announced with glee. His shining mahogany eyes sparkled and his brown and orange, moth-like wings fluttered behind his back.

"What? Really? What a relief!" cried Margot, the aqua fairy that was working beside him. "We can finally move forward and forget all that Carabosse has done here!"

Carabosse's brow furrowed at hearing her name being used so casually. The fairy that uttered them, she remembered, was one of her tormentors at magic school; this also added a heat to her inner fire. She made emerald green flames light up her right eye and winked it with a smirk on her lips. Three more glowing green embers were then created in the last ember's place.

"What?" Terre muttered through his teeth in frustration.

With an irritated click of her tongue Margot tried to douse the new embers with raining droplets of cool water. Terre also tried to help kill the threatening glow by burying the embers in earth, only to see three more embers appear out of nowhere, then four more, then five. A hushed, cruel laugh left Carabosse's chest as she saw their faces fall.

"But we were done!" Terre cried. He then squeezed his eyes shut in anguish, clearly his next thought was making him stress. "We'll need to call the others back..."

"No!" Margot's tone matched her brother's perfectly. "It's not fair!" she added with a whine.

"I'll go and get them," Terre muttered, disheartened. With his head bowed, he turned to leave.

"No don't!" Margot grabbed his sunken shoulder. "We can do this, Brother!" she added with an enthusiasm that Carabosse did not expect to witness. "This can be our chance to truly impress Mother."

Carabosse sucked in air through her gritted teeth and with a sharp click of her tongue she looked around for another way she can beat down their spirits. A beautiful shining tree caught her eye, a tree that she understood to be brand new. With a wicked grin she lifted her right black-gloved hand and clicked her fingers with a muffled snap. The sound grew and resounded through the air, then a large, unnatural crack appeared within that young plant's trunk and it was torn apart.

Carabosse's much louder laugh was drowned out by the panicking screams of the tree fairies that fluttered around it. Distracted from the embers, Terre and Margot rushed to see what happened. As their backs were turned, Carabosse brought the embers together. The way she moved her hands as she controlled her magic looked like an intricate dance. Green flames began to mirror her movements as the embers grew into a raging emerald and orange fire.

"No!" screeched Margot when she noticed.

"No..." Terre echoed sadly, despair gripped tightly to his throat, only allowing a choked whisper to come out of his mouth. He fell to his knees and pulled at his fluffy, dark brown hair.

"Yes!" Carabosse hissed with dark delight, before returning up the tree to the branch where Ibis was watching the entire show.

"Was that necessary?" Ibis reprimanded her gently with a glint in his wide eyes. Carabosse materialised from the shadows and sat upon the branch in her original form. She delicately crossed her ankles over and reached her hands up to her twisted, amber hair-do.