The Forbidden Lands (Wattys 2015 Winner)

Chapter Seventeen-The Faeries

Chapter Seventeen
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When I arrived at the home of the faeries at dawn, I had a crick in my neck from sleeping on the horse. I rubbed the sore spot, and the then looked up.

Up.
Up.
Up.

The faeries were beings of the air, Coten had said. And, sure enough, they lived in the air as well. I could see tiny outlines of houses on the apex of the mountain.

The peak.

The highest point.

Oh why did they have to make everything unnecessarily hard? They could live on the bottom of the mountain, if they wanted. But no, they had to choose the highest possible place that they could. They had to make it extra hard on me.

The trail was not wide enough for me to ride on the horse to the top. Of course it wasn't. It had to be as difficult as possible for me.

I trudged up the mountain slowly. It was a steep and taxing journey. The sun beat down on me, and I felt so sweaty and gross. Once I neared the top, I could see something I was not expecting.

I did not expect a tea party to be at the peak. But neither did I expect a war.

The fairies were taller than the average human. They wore full battle armor over their billowy robes and dresses. They floated a couple feet above the ground. I would have been able to mistake their appearance for a human, if they didn't have a glow. Just like the pixies, the Faeries had different color auras as they battled in the air.

In their full battle armor, swords clashed against shields, and bursts of wind pushed Faeries off the peak. They would recover swiftly, by using their own wind to return to the peak. It was almost impossible for a faery to get hurt. When a possibility arose, the faerycovered himself in a bubble of air. The sword hit it and clashed backwards. Nothing was being achieved.

I snuck around the rock crevice I'd been hiding behind, to a faery dwelling. It was just like a human's cottage, but made from something much harder, so the wind did not carry it away.

Something led me over to a cottage with the blue roof. It looked homey, nestled between flowers and trees. It also did not have the war flag hanging from each house's windows. It looked peaceful. I knocked. A woman's voice answered.

"Who is it? I told you, I don't want any participation in the--" she opened the door and looked at me, "--war."

"Do you mind if I come in?" I asked. "I also wanted to get away from that nasty fighting."

She opened the door wider, without responding, and I walked in the cottage. She shut the door behind me.

Inside, the cottage was much bigger than I had expected from the outside. It had a nice simple feel, with wooden floors and a cream colored rug upon which chairs sat. Murals covered each wall. One was of flowers and plants from a tiny bug's view. Another was of rain, with puddles and gray, with an accented red rose thriving from the moisture. I saw one more of the sea, on a little rocky island with waves crashing up on it.

I brushed the petals of my rose with my fingertips. "Amazing," I said. "Did you make them?"

She nodded. "Who else could've? There's no one here but me."

"So you are a faery?"

"Some of us prefer the term "fae," but yes, I am," she said. "What are you doing so far from the human lands?"

"I've come to help you," I said, turning to face her. "I already have recruited two Enchanters to assist in the breaking of the Enchantment."

"Which two?"