The great land of Akna is under the threat of the Hollowers, the infamous enemy no one seems to know about. As his fairy abilities are growing, so are Ferry's doubts about his purpose in this strange, new world -- is he really the Saviour of Akna or...
They were all sitting in the dark, around the torn blanket. The girls had come too and stared at the colorful patches scattered all over the room.
"Maybe the cats tore it apart," Parsley said softly.
Thyme shook his head. "There are blade cuts. It wasn't the cats. "
"Who could have done that?" Oona asked. "And why?"
"It looks like an act of rage," Thyme said, examining a patch. Then he turned to Sage and Parsley. "Did anyone enter the room? Did you see anything? Did you hear anything? "
"I was sleeping, Thyme ..." Sage replied as Parsley stared at the ground.
"I thought we were supposed to be more careful. To be vigilant. What if Garrett was under the blanket? " Thyme scolded him, trying hard not to raise his voice.
"But he wasn't, was he?" Sage said, looking Thyme in the eye. "And by the way, where were you?Shouldn't you have been here, too? Where was Garrett? What were you both doing outside? And now you're shouting at us for a stupid blanket! "
"That's not the matter, Sage!" Thyme's voice thundered. "Our mission is to always be by his side. And I failed. From the first day. We all failed! " he shouted.
Ferry felt that he could no longer hold the tumult of emotions inside him. "Stop it! All of you!" he said, his jaw clenched. "There is no point in arguing for this. It's just a stupid blanket, anyway," he added, but his voice trembled.
Matilda tried to get closer to him. "Ferry ..."
But he left the room until she reached him.
In the inner backyard, the coolness of the night made him feel a bit better. He took a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears. Maybe it was just a blanket. But not to him. To him, it was part of his home, of someone he loved. A piece of something he cherished to join him in the troubled times that were on the horizon.
Ferry leaned against the wall of the house. The cold brick clung to his back, banishing any shade of tiredness. His temples were pulsing and he pressed them with his fingers, trying to make the ache go away. As he stood there, waiting for it to pass, something moved at the corner of the house. A small, crooked shadow that dissipates quickly, like a lure.
Ferry jumped to his feet and ran to the corner of the house. Nothing. The moon shone bright enough for him to see the entire yard as if in broad daylight. He looked around the rose bushes but saw no one. He then looked at the roof of the house and saw the small figure again, this time, peeping from behind the chimney. Ferry looked around to check if any human was watching, then flew to the roof of the house. He stepped on his toes on the old tiles, which slipped from under his feet. He dashed on the other side of the chimney. Again, no one. Ferry sighed and climbed down the roof. Maybe he had just imagined. It had been a long day, indeed.
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They all decided not to go back to sleep and leave for the neighboring town where the bridge between the worlds was located. Ferry knew from his fairy friends that in the human world there were several portals leading to their world. Thyme even had a map of them, but he once told him that, in fact, there were more doors between the worlds, still undiscovered.
