Change of Heart

Chapter 8

The king of Tarion was beyond excited. Today was the day he would march to the forest. With hundreds of men behind him he would destroy the magical forest. Nothing would stand in his way. The men had already been briefed on what they should do. They were going to burn the forest down. If there were any survivors they would be tortured and killed. He would not stop until every creature in that wretched forest was dead.

The sun was rising up in the sky, glinting off the soldiers armour. As they marched away from the marble castle, marching towards the forest. Each man had a torch in his hand, provisions on his back and a weapons strapped to their bodies. The king had told them many tales of the evil that lurked within the trees of the forest. A few hours later the men saw the great forest rising ahead of them. The king, atop a white horse, stopped them 50 meters away from the border.

"Proceed with caution, don't let the appearances of the creatures fool you." Slowly they marched toward the forest, eyes darting around in search for resistance. They were nearly within arms reach of the first tree when a shrill cry pierced the air. Dozens of pixies flew out from the forest straight towards the king's army. A swarm of small, fierce flying creatures. Startled, having never seen a magical creature in their lives the men panicked. Arms flailing they ran. Some braver souls had tried to burn the pixies with their torches but their human movements were too slow to catch a pixie. By the time the pixies had retreated back into the forest, the men were frazzled. They had retreated 10 meters away from the forest.

"Stand your ground!" the king bellowed,

"These insignificant creatures cannot bother us!"

"I am not insignificant!" the king fell silent. Hovering above the humans was Astra. Her face contorted into a mask of indignation. How dare that human come to her forest. How dare he try to hurt her people.

"Leave!" she shouted. The king sneered,

"I do not take orders from you! You take orders from me!" Grabbing his bow he fired at the fairy. She flew out of the way releasing a wave of air towards the king, knocking him off his horse. The soldiers surged forward but the king threw out a hand.

"No, I will kill this menace myself!" Drawing his sword the king approached the fairy. He attacked ferociously, but for all his efforts he only hit air. Astra darted out of the way. Only defending never attacking. The king growled in frustration. This was not supposed to be happening! He was supposed to knock the fairy down with a single blow. But her wings made it impossible. Her wings. The king smiled cruelly, he stopped attacking,

"Little fairy, come down to earth." Astra narrowed her eyes.

"Why should I?"

"After that battle I have come to the conclusion that I cannot beat you. Come down to earth and we can discuss a diplomatic way to solve this problem." Astra didn't trust him. He had come with an army intent on violence, then he just changed his mind? But the soldiers looked just as confused as she felt. This had solely been the king's decision. All Astra wanted was to end this diplomatically, without violence. But this was the king, his word couldn't be trusted. Florian had warned her, that the king could not under any circumstances be trusted.

"No."

"But great fairy, don't you want to end this war? If you just come down from the sky, we could do this without bloodshed." the king's tone was soft, he seemed to turn into a different person.

"You have brought nothing but destruction since you first set foot in the forest. I will not allow you to continue to hurt me or my people. Leave!" The king lowered his head, as if he was truly saddened that he had not been able to talk through this war. He looked resigned as he opened his mouth to give the order of retreat. But instead he shouted,

"Now!" All around Astra soldiers burst out of the bushes, they had been hiding there at the king's order. In there hands they held an iron net, since iron was toxic to fairies. A net big enough to ensnare Astra

She hadn't been prepared for the attack and she was too slow to dodge it. The iron net encaged her. She cried out as the iron touched her skin, burning her, weakening her. She tried to blast fire, water, earth, air but her spells had no effect as the power slowly left her body. The men dragged her down until she lay, helpless on the ground. Angry red burn marks covering her body. The king approached her,

"Stupid fairy, thinking you could beat me. Tsk tsk, what a shame for such a majestic creature. But don't worry, I'll bring you back to my palace where you can be stuffed and hung on my wall." the king gloated, "Go, burn the forest down!" The soldiers surged forward, torches blazing, arms out-stretched.

"Stop!" and the soldiers stopped, because standing in front of them was Prince Florian.

Florian was standing between his father's men and the forest. Arms extended on either side of him, as if he could protect the entire forest. His eyes scanned the scene before him. Until the landed on Astra. Bleeding, and feeble underneath the iron net. Her eyes were closed. He was going to shout her name but then all the soldiers and his father would know it. He couldn't betray her name, her trust to them. The king marched over to him.

"Florian, what are you doing?" he hissed. Chin raised, Florian answered

"I'm protecting the thing I care about father." The king's face morphed into one of malice.

"What you care about? Do you mean the forest? Are you crazy! Do you not remember what I taught you? Emotion is weakness! Have you forgotten?!" The king's face was red with anger but Florian remained calm,

"Father, emotion is not weakness, fighting for what you care about is not weakness. What you're doing, fighting defenceless people is weakness. I will not let you burn this forest."

"Florian! Get out of the way! You are my son and you will show me respect, or stars help me I will beat it out of you!"

"Go ahead father, burn the forest. I will run back in and I will never come out. Go ahead and burn it. And risk losing your only son."