26.
Through the silence, a deafening screeching of old metal cut through, and a tiny fluffy creature, no taller than two feet, emerged from one of the houses. At first, I clutched my knife tighter and sunk into my stance, believing her to be a threat. But as soon as her bright, clearly human face poked out from within the fluff of her coat, all I wanted was to run to her, scoop her up, and carry her home to the human world, away from all this darkness. Her tiny white shoes lit up as she slowly began to creep towards us, everything below the tip of her nose swallowed by the gigantic jumper.
Slowly, I slid the knife back into the holder on my side and sunk low in my crouch. I let a tiny smile creep onto my lips and extended one hand gently towards the little girl, showing I was neither a threat nor an enemy. Beast tensed and Lucius sucked in a quick breath as her eyes locked onto mine and she began to take quick tiny steps over towards me. Alvar said nothing, like he was only waiting for a horrific event to unfold, but I knew I had nothing to fear from the girl. Something in my stomach knew she was no threat and was perhaps the only creature for miles. I couldn't imagine what it would have felt like to be left completely alone in a house so decayed with no one to share your thoughts with.
She continued to waddle forwards until she stood no less than two feet away from me and then froze, eyes scanning my form wearily. I extended my other arm, now openly inviting a stranger into an embrace, a gesture I'm not sure she understood because she began to growl, a low rumble coming from the depths of her throat. As soon as the sound left her body, Lucius leapt forwards, brandishing his long blade.
The little girl screeched and sprinted back into her house, slamming the door behind her so hard that the wood broke and the door came tumbling down. I swivelled around and shoved Lucius hard, throwing him down onto the ground.
"You idiot." I seethed, "She wasn't going to hurt me."
"She? That thing isn't a little girl, Lyra! She could be dangerous!" He stared me down as he struggled to his feet, wiping the dirt off the back of his trousers.
"If she isn't human, then what do you think she's going to tell any other creature around, huh?" I poked his chest, my finger stern, "and any chance at walking through here without every moving thing thinking we are out to kill just vanished! We are not here to go to war with them!"
"We are at war with them." Lucius yelled, flabbergasted.
"She's just a little girl." I huffed stubbornly and began to stalk towards the house, wanting to regain the little trust the creature could have had for me.
The men said nothing and didn't try to stop me, but the Gryphon shot a warning image through my head; the little girl pouncing on me upon my entrance and gnawing on my ear.
There was no porch or stairs to the remains of the door on the little girls house, so I only had to walk through the overgrown lawn and dodge a few large bricks and fallen panels as I approached. I extended my hand to knock on the doorframe, but my fist faltered as my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the inside. I didn't know why I didn't expect the same devastation in the interior of the house, but the crumbled remains of an old staircase, the broken table, and the scraps of food that lay strewn around the floor pricked tears from my eyes. I drifted inside, my shoes crunching glass shards and bits of porcelain as I walked. The walls were painted with smoke and dark red stains and there were pieces of what looked like kitchen plates stuck into the walls. My foot crunched over something solid, and I leaned down to pluck a wooden picture frame from a pile of glass.
It wasn't a picture of the family, of the little girl, but of the house; what it used to be. Tucked in a small picket fence was a two story white house with big windows and a large backyard. Although they weren't there, I could see the family that would have lived here, perhaps with a dog or two, weeding the garden and plucking flowers from the bushes. When water began to splash on the frame, I realised I was crying. These houses weren't just abandoned, they were war-torn, ripped from the desperate fingers of those who could not fight back or offer anything in return.
Something tugged on my sleeve. I looked to find the same little girl, face half hidden behind the fluffy pink jumper, staring up at me like I was the answer to all her problems. But I couldn't fix this; I couldn't fix the war that had torn through her home like a vicious tornado, swallowing only what it desired and spitting out the rest in chewed ruins.
"Hey there." I spoke softly, crouching to the little girl's height. Up close, she looked even younger than what I assumed, perhaps no older than four. "Will you let me get you out of here?"
I opened my arms and this time she cautiously shuffled into them, wrapping her stubby arms around my neck. I picked her up slowly; afraid I would scare the girl into running again, but she only hugged me tighter, sinking her face into the side of my neck.
"Okay," I whispered into her hair, wiping my face with my free hand to keep the men from seeing and judging me, "I'm going to take you outside now."
I felt her shiver slightly and held in a soft whimper at her response. She only made me think of Virgo and the times I would hold her just the same when she was young, whenever she was scared or too tired to continue walking. I felt the same pain and frustration I had then, wanting to keep the girls from harm, to keep them from fearing life while they were still so young.
"They're not going to hurt you." I promised, my throat catching on the familiar words. Virgo had needed to hear them every morning before pre-school and then the year after that at primary school. If I didn't say it, she would burst into tears and demand to return home, safe inside the walls of our family house. "They're here to protect me, so as long as you don't hurt them, they wont hurt you."
I had begun to walk outside, but continued to talk to the little girl, hoping she would understand and wouldn't be so scared of us.
"That big guy over there," I nodded to Beast who had perked up when I had exited the building and began to trot over to us, "he looks scary but he's really just a big teddy bear. I think he might even let you pet him, if you ask nicely."
Beast grunted but pushed his big head forwards for the girl. She lifted her face from my neck and peered at the Gryphon wearily. Just as I was going to give up, she extended her arm and sunk her fingers into the soft feathers on his neck. She giggled quietly, but still hid her face in the confides of her jumper.
"And you don't need to worry about those men over there." I pointed to where Alvar and Lucius stood; looking both shocked and worried about the new edition of our gang. "They're just a bunch of meanies." I whispered into her ear.
"We can hear you." Lucius said sharply, nudging Alvar's side.
"I know." I retorted with a quick flash of my teeth.
"You're the one who's going to save us." The little girls voice drew my attention back to her.
"Save who, sweetie"
I asked solemnly. I couldn't get her hopes up; whatever she had been told, she had clearly been misinformed. I could barely save myself.
"All of us." She whispered with a smile. "Idris told me."
"Whose Idris?" I was concerned now, and stared into her eyes directly so she couldn't avoid the question.
"My Faerie." She giggled and pointed to the air just above my head.
I craned my neck and gasped. Hovering atop my head was the tiny Periwinkle who had followed us to the kingdom when I was first kidnapped. A smile crept on my lips as the creature hummed and flew into my hair, just as it had done before.
"Were you spying on me?" I accused the little Fae with a smile.
It flew out in front of my face and nodded, before frowning and pointing at the houses behind me.
"You know I can't fix that." I cleared my throat, trying to gargle down the sadness.
But the creature was stubborn and began to fling its tiny arms around and jabbing its fingers into my face. I knew it was only trying to communicate, to tell me something, but Lucius saw differently. Before I could stop it, the Fae stormed to my side and snatched the tiny creature from the air, squeezing it in a tight fist.
"No!" I screamed, but I couldn't let go of the little girl in my arms.
She had another idea. The little girls face finally poked out of the jacket completely and revealed a gigantic set of teeth protruding out of the gaping hole where a mouth should have been. She sprung from my arms and latched onto Lucius arm, shredding the skin and bursting the veils laced into the limb. Lucius screamed and dropped the Periwinkle and began to hit the girl with his free hand. I quickly scooped up the creature as Alvar ran towards us. But the girl sprang back, withdrawing her teeth and scrambling over to me.
Blood ran down her face, collecting in the dimples that formed in her cheeks as she grinned at the men desperately trying to hold Lucius mangled skin together. Only then I realised that she wasn't human at all, and that I didn't seem to care one bit. I actually began to laugh.
The two men turned to me; eyes squinted as they glared at me. The little girl smiled up at me, proud that she had amused me. I crouched down and handed the Periwinkle to her. It was conscious, but it looked like its arms were bruised and its head was rolling around with no support. The little girl frowned and blew onto its face. Amazingly, the Periwinkle twitched, breathed in the air, and then suddenly rose as if completely healed. They must have had a connection like Beast and myself because the creature was flying around my hair like nothing had happened.
I wrapped my arms around the little girl and picked her back up. Using the back of my sleave, I wiped the blood from her lips, as wide as her cheeks, but her teeth tucked away.
"We are not taking that thing with us!" Lucius spat, and surged forwards.
Alvar held him back, and Gryphon watched on with amused eyes.
"Yes she is." I said calmly, "Consider that pay back for scaring her. Besides, you'll heal quickly." I shrugged, knowing he easily had a number of potions and balms on him that could heal a severed limb, let alone a little bite.
"What I would like to know, who did this to your family?" I turned to the girl, tapping her nose. Although a smile remained on my face, my heart sank hearing the words from my own mouth.
"They did." She lifted a tiny finger, trembling, and pointed to Alvar and Lucius.
I frowned and turned to Lucius with an eyebrow raised. He shrugged, looking just as confused. I didn't bother asking Alvar's opinion, and turned back to the previous girl in my arms.
"Do you mean men like them, or those men exactly?" I asked with a sad smile.
"White Faeries," She said quietly, "They did it. The ones from the First Plane."
My brows furrowed further, if that was even possible and this time I reached out to Beast.
"What do you think she means? Is it because her family attacked the First Plane? Or was it something else?"
"I suspect there is something else to it." The Gryphon said solemnly, blinking slowly. "If she lets me, I want to try something. Could you get her to open her mind?"
I nodded and turned back to the girl, her large eyes gazing up into my hair where the periwinkle was still jumping about. I understood what Beast wanted to do as an image flashed into the front of my mind, a projection from our shared conscious.
"Beast wants to try something, okay? If you could trust him, just open your mind a little more. Let him see those memories of yours." I smiled and stroked her hair back.
She trembled and peered over my shoulder to Alvar and Lucius.
"Don't worry, only Beast and I will be able to see them. The White Faeries can't hurt you anymore. You can trust us."
She thought for a moment and poked her big mouth out of her coat, biting her lips.
"Mmk." She said, shrugging, but continued to hold onto me tightly with her little arms.
I looked to Beast, but he had already approached, sitting right in front of us on his hindquarters. It was strange, the way the process unfolded. I could feel my eye twitch, a scratch right at the back of my eye socket, just as Beast had closed his eyes. After a moment, my entire brain was alight, so unbelievably itchy I had to clench the girl's coat to keep myself from try to claw my eyes out. The girl whimpered, Alvar said something under his breath, and then there was nothing. And then there was everything. Her memories flowed to the front of my skull, playing like a motion picture high on ecstasy.
"Lucy! Lucy! Lucy!" I heard the screams before I saw the devastation.
The house was on fire, the flames licking my young chubby cheeks and burning the hairs off my face. My mother, a woman with a large mouth and a frightening amount of long black hair, tumbled down the stairs and snatched my hand. Each tear that fell down my cheek was quickly sucked up by heat.
"Papa?" I asked Mother when we had finally burst through the front door.
"He can't come with us." She answered stiffly, pulling me further from the inferno and into the front yard.
The screaming was louder outside. I watched confused as the families emerged from their burning homes, clutching at each other briefly before they ran into the centre of town, away from the buildings. I plunged my ears with my fingertips and frowned. I wanted to see Papa and for the people to stop yelling. The flames seemed fixable, or at least the homes they consumed.
"Come!" Mother yelled, grabbing my elbow and pulling me up into the street.
"I don't want to go!" I screamed.
"We don't have a choice!" She screamed, just as frustrated.
I let myself be dragged along, blinking rapidly as the smoke burned my eyes. Many more men and women, dragging their children along, flowed onto the streets. Their voices angry, loud, they began yelling amongst one another. Too young to catch their phrases, but old enough to understand that they were passing blame, I pressed into my mother's skirts.
Mother let go of my hand and I retreated. Weaving out of the heated bodies of the crowd, I began to drift back home to see where Papa was hiding. Just as I reached the first house on the street, away from the crowd of people, two men clad in white capes blocked anyone else from exiting the town square. Atop beautiful white horses, I thought for a moment that they had come to save us, to stop the houses from burning. They had not.
"People of Okenstaf," One of the men spoke, his purple eyes flashing as he smiled wickedly at the screaming towns people, "You have been found guilty of treason against his Majesty of the First and are here by sentenced to die."
"But we haven't done anything—"
"You can't do this—"
"Speak to the Queen—"
"What about the children—"
But their screams were lost as the two men began muttering under breath, conjuring another fire spell. A large ball of flame grew above the town's people's heads until it was as wide as the square. The men kept muttering, the people screaming, and stepped back. The whispers stopped and the flames consumed them all.
"Lucy?" I asked the little girl, the vision broken as the memory faded. "Is that your name?"
She nodded and a single fat tear slid down her face. I wiped it from her lip and held her closer. I wasn't sure if she knew the horror of her father's death, burning alive inside their home, or understood why the Fae men killed her mother and neighbours.
I looked back at the Fae, the creatures who had followed me to the end of their own world, and wondered if they would follow me to the end of everything, to the end of life, as they knew it. Because at that moment I realised that I didn't want to save their world from the shadows, to prevent the reckoning from coming. All I wanted was to be the person that little girl saw in my eyes; a saviour of the people, the one who might finally bring peace.
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xx Charli