Change of Heart

Chapter 13

 Astra woke up surrounded by concerned faces. Pixies and trolls and centaurs. The lilac sky indicated that it was the early morning, the sun was just creeping above the horizon. Astra was so tired. Her whole body was sore and she felt as fragile as glass. She tried to talk but no sound came out. Luckily the pixies noticed and answered her silent question.

"You fainted, fairy. Once the humans had gone away the centaurs found you passed out on the grass amid the burning trees. They brought you back to the meadow. The unicorns said you would wake up, but they didn't know when. We were so worried fairy." then the pixie paused and added a question of her own,

"You were all alone at the border, we thought the human was with you but he wasn't. Where's Florian?" Astra closed her eyes. Remembering what had happened. How the humans had destroyed the border of the forest. With Florian's help. Florian betrayed them. Florian betrayed her. Now he was gone. Tears started to form in her eyes and she suddenly wished she was still asleep. Drifting in that peaceful darkness where emotions did not exist. She sighed. A sigh of someone so broken they did not wish to keep living. And to think she had been so happy and carefree only three months ago. How did life change so fast? And why did it have so heartbreaking? She wanted to keep sleeping, keep drifting in the nothingness of sleep. But she couldn't. The threat was still out there. Now stronger than ever because Florian could provide information about the forest. She was so stupid. How could she have trusted a human? She should've known better. The reason why there were no more fairies was because one of them had decided to trust humans to just interact with them. How could she have let her guard down and repeat Azazel's mistake? She risked the lives of every single creature in the forest. And they had trusted her judgement. They had trusted her to protect them. And she had failed. She was a failure. An embarrassment to the legacy of fairy power. A failure.

"Fairy?" the pixie asked, "Where is Florian?" Astra pushed her emotions back, right now they weren't important. She opened her eyes and focused on the pixie who'd spoken,

"Florian betrayed us." Her proclamation was met with the silence of shock. She could see the confusion and disbelief in their eyes, wondering if they'd heard her clearly.

"I know it's hard to believe. I didn't want to believe it myself...but the reason why the human king won that last battle was because Florian told him where our defences were under the flag of truce." The creatures all took the news differently. The trolls were angry. The centaurs were hurt. The pixies were crying. While Astra's face was blank. No emotions showed on her face. But underneath the façade Astra was sobbing. Sobbing her heart out at the pain of being betrayed by someone she cared about. Who she thought cared about her. Betrayal always hurts more when it was done by someone you trust. Better to not trust at all.

"What do we do now fairy?" a pixie whispered. Astra thought about her question. The creatures were either wounded or in shock, she didn't want any of them to have to face a battle so soon. But she knew the humans wouldn't wait that long for them to recover. She had to create a shield of some sort. But how? She had never tried a spell so large, as to protect all of the forest. Fairy magic was supposed to be fuelled with emotion. Good emotion. But right now Astra couldn't summon enough good emotion to fuel a protection spell. Bad emotions would influence her magic, making it harder to control. But she had to try. Astra tried to sit up but she fell back, dizzy. A centaur came forward,

"You need rest fairy. At least for the rest of the day. I know that you want to protect us but we can hold our own for a few hours. You need not worry fairy. This time we will protect you." Astra smiled gratefully. Reassured by the centaur's words she lay back down and fell asleep.

Florian felt like dying. He'd spent two nights in the iron cage and had been given three cups of water and a stale crust of bread. And he'd been lightly tortured by the guard who was watching him. The king had given the sentries permission. So last night Florian had been beaten for the pleasure of the guard. Sadistic bunch. Florian was decorated with bruises varying shades of black and blue. Three on his face 7 on his arms and stars know how many on his legs. He groaned as he tried to sit up. Pain shooting through his body. When was this going to end?