Slave Unbound

Chapter 31: Sabrina Undone

The sight of the tiny figure inside the cage, her miniature beauty almost breathtaking, left Leita speechless. She momentarily wondered if she'd actually fallen asleep and was merely dreaming this encounter. While she'd heard plenty of tales as a child of such creatures and even more superstitious yarns about them inhabiting hidden places or moving secretively about homes making mischief, she'd always believed them to be nothing more than just fictions.

And yet, the fairy was there, in front of her, staring back at her from between the bars of the cage. Standing, at most, seven or eight inches tall, clad like a dancer, her long dark hair cascading over her tiny shoulders, she was dazzling to behold. All that was missing was a pair of wings for the image to be complete. Otherwise, she looked similar to a human, though her ears and eyes were in larger proportion to the rest of the features of her face and her skin seemed lustrous in color, almost pearlescent.

Leita noticed that the fairy looked as stunned as Leita felt. The little creature's body language suggested she was tense and worried, as if caught off guard doing something she shouldn't. As far as Leita could tell, however, it didn't appear to have been doing anything before she'd pulled away the cover.

"Are you...real?" It was all Leita could think to say in the moment.

The fairy blinked at her, seeming unsure how to react to the question. After a moment, she began just moving about, almost at random, as it having lost interest in the encounter between them. As the fairy moved around, Leita noticed that she sported a miniature version of her own steel collar, as well as a thin, delicate, chain tethering her in the cage. "You're a slave." She remarked off-handedly.

Just barely within the edge of her hearing, Leita heard the fairy made some kind of sound. At first, Leita thought it nothing more than just some inarticulate verbalization, but as her mind ran back through it, she realized the little creature actually said something, spoken under her breath. "You can talk?"

The statement seemed to catch the fairy by surprised, apparently not realizing that Leita had been able to hear her well enough to recognize the sound as speech. For a moment, it seemed to waver, uncertain what to do. Finally, the fairy turned to more properly face her and nodded. After a moment, she moved to press up against the bars of her cage. "You should not be here." She said in a voice that was as tiny as she was, but also just as beautiful. Leita had to draw closer to the cage just to properly hear the words clearly.

"I was...told to be in here." Leita replied in a soft voice, the words feeling a little lame in her mouth. Feeling a bit awkward, Leita stumbled out something to change the subject. "I didn't think one could just keep a fairy in a cage. Or that they were even real."

The little creature made a tiny giggling sound. "Well, most of the stories and myths about my people have grown far beyond actual reality. I'm actually an atylmy, a denizen of the Fenn Lands and one of its better kept secrets. My name is Felicitous Meadowlily."

Leita couldn't help but chuckle a little herself at the very 'fairy-sounding' name. However, she considered that most Fennfolk had similar kinds of names, so she assumed it still made sense, being from the same region. "So, how much of the stories ARE true?" She asked, curious to learn about this interesting creature.

"Well, our size, obviously, and our kinship with nature." Felicitous said, seeming grateful to be able to talk to someone. "We're no more innately magical than you are though. We can't grant wishes or change fates or any of those things. Nor can we actually fly, but we do have wings, of a sort."

From her back unfolded a pair of delicate, membranous, flaps, billowing open like a pair of sails. "They allow us to glide or catch ourselves from a fall. We make our homes high up, out of reach of most predators."