Moondust: A Dark Faerytale

Chapter 5

Dawn was approaching rapidly, and Lilium had seen no sign of her friend anywhere. What was she going to do, what had happened to her? The sky was changing to light blue, and she could almost see the sun beginning to rise. Still, she kept searching, she wouldn't give up yet. Suddenly, she stopped in the air. A wave of dizziness was washing over her, making her sway. Sunrise was almost upon her, she had but another few minutes before it was completely bright, and she would be paralysed. She had no other choice, she had to return to the Hollow for now, otherwise she would be done for.

Lilium barely made it back to the Hollow, and her whole body was shaking with pain. Breathing rapidly, she took shelter in the tree, as far away from sunlight as she possibly could. What she had just felt was something that she definitely never wanted to have to feel again. Her body  felt as if fire was wrapping itself around her, her wings being crushed under some ominous force. Before, she had only heard about the dangers of sunlight from others, but witnessing it first-hand was not something pleasant. It was called sunlight paralysis, which involved several minutes of agonising pain followed by loss of movement. Strangely, there were no books or records about sunlight paralysis in the Hollow as there was for other ailments, dangers and conditions. The horrible experience had drained Lilium, and so she shakily made her way to her chamber so she could recover a little. She would need to report Hybris' disappearance soon, and also the lack of barrier, but not until all signs of sunlight paralysis had vanished. Taking deep and slow breaths, she lay on her moss bed for a while, letting her body return to normal.

Eventually, she slipped into a not quite asleep, not quite awake state. It was a strange, yet relaxing state of mind, but it also made one feel quite vulnerable in some ways. In this 'place' hallucinations, and strange half-dreams often took place, along with images that floated across the darkness of her vision. After a while, she started to feel uneasy. A sense of foreboding crept through her. Suddenly, there was a loud scream that rattled her ears, whether it was in her mind or in reality she could not tell. It shook her right out of her trance, and she sat up on the bed, looking around frantically. The scream had not been faery, it had been something of a much more primitive variety. It could have been an animal, or even something worse... Still not sure if it had been real or just a dream, Lilium got up and left her chamber. She was going to find out.

After checking the Hollow, and being assured that everybody else was still safely asleep, Lilium told herself that it must have just been in her head. She was ok, and safe, along with everybody else. Now, she would go to the Queen's Chamber, and address the issues that she had been preparing to tell her.

She was shaking as she entered the room, after last time with the Queen she was worried about what might happen this time. After standing in silence for a short while, the Queen spoke her name, "Lilium Nightingale, you are here at a much earlier hour than usual... Why?"
"Great Queen, there are two issues which need to be addressed. Firstly, the shield system is down, and we are open to attack. Secondly, Hybris Foxglove has not returned from her quest, which she left for a few days ago." The chamber stayed silent for an uncomfortable period of time.

"Warrior Nightingale, there are no issues which need to be addressed at this moment of time. The barrier is as strong as it ever was, and on the issue of Warrior Foxglove-."

"But your majesty, there was  breach in the security!" Stated Lilium, cutting the Queen off mid-sentence.

"Nonsense! Don't you think that I of all faeries  would know if anything out of the ordinary was occurring?"

"But Queen, I saw a sunlightfaery sitting inside the entrance to the Hollow!"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous! What would a sunlightfaery want to do with the Hollow, tell me that!" The Queen demanded. For some reason, Lilium felt a tug inside of her, that told her she shouldn't tell the Queen what Leira had said to her.