The Dark Fairy

Chapter Eight

Carabosse was standing in a very strange place. It was very different to the forest she knew. The ground was covered in stones, arranged in an unnatural, repetitive pattern and cottages made of stone and wood stood in lines either side of her. This place looked so organised, too organised.

"Who lives here, in this strange place?" Carabosse asked Achlys, who she knew would answer her even though she could not see him.

"It's very different to the Enchanted Forest isn't it?" Carabosse heard Achlys' disembodied voice answer. "This is the human village." As soon as those words were uttered many humans began to rush around her in a chaotic crowd. It was so well timed, it was as if Achlys' answer was the cue they were waiting for.

The hustle and bustle caused Carabosse to get flustered, she didn't know where to look and she suppressed the urge to cry out.

"You're alright Carabosse, focus." Achlys' soothing voice managed to pacify her. Once she had calmed down, the streets of the human village did also. Carabosse took in a deep breath. She then saw a young male fairy with shoulder length silver hair, sky blue eyes and large, white feathered wings. He was clothed in a loose white shift and quaint, beige trousers that could only reach his mid-calves. His feet were bare but shone like marble. Carabosse knew immediately who this fairy was.

"That's you!" she said excitedly, not controlling her volume. However, the young male fairy didn't even flinch, because all those living inside the memory were deaf and blind to everything Carabosse said or did.

"Indeed," Achlys confirmed, "That is me when I was your age."

Carabosse blinked and young Achlys was soon approached by a well dressed man. He grabbed him on his dainty shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Whatever the silver-haired fairy heard shocked him, his eyes grew wide and he looked at the man and shook his head.

"What did he say to you?" Carabosse asked.

"He was a very ambitious man, he longed to one day be king and he wanted me to help him." Carabosse drew her eyebrows together in confusion, not satisfied with Achlys' vague answer. She decided not to press him though and turned to where young Achlys and the man were standing, but they were gone.

"What?"

Then the village street changed. Stone walls grew up all around her and a bed stood before her. The sky out of the arched window was pitch black.

A man entered the room with young Achlys in his grasp. It was the well-dressed man from the village street. He had bound Achlys' hands and put his wings in chains.

A horrified gasp left Carabosse as what she was witnessing truly upset her.

"Do it! Curse him now, while his guards are still downstairs!" the man ordered the chained up fairy in a hushed tone. Carabosse was suddenly made aware of the poor oblivious man sleeping upon the expensive bed.

"No, I mustn't, I can't!" cried the young male fairy.

"Do it! Or I and my friends will attack your precious forest! You won't be able to stop us! I can be very persuasive especially amongst my kind!" The man's grin sent shivers down Carabosse's spine.

"Curse him," the man hissed and began to pull on the chain around young Achlys' wings, making him wince in pain.

"Curse him, now!"

Young Achlys began to panic, his breath bursting in and out of his chest in short agonising gasps. He lifted his hand, squeezed his eyes shut and sent out silver glowing magic from his fingertips. As it got closer to the sleeping King it turned darker and darker and absorbed into his bed clothes and his sleeping face.