Away with the Fairies

*°•○Part Seven○•°*

The gravel lane looked different in the daylight, they noticed as soon as they dismounted the blackbird, and let him fly back towards the forest alone.

The black, silent, Firefly Guards which Hans and Louise saw the night before were now replaced by two lines of several brown field mice, as big as Orangebeak. Unlike the fireflies, they were neither still, nor exactly silent-- soft squeaks accompanied the constant pitter-patter of their paws as they scurried up and down along the lane ceaselessly.

"Rosalind! Finally, you're back, I need to talk to you!"

Hans, who had just opened his mouth to start asking questions about the Mice Guards, had to close it again because a Rose Fairy they had not met before rushed towards them down the path.

A very... yellow Rose Fairy, Louise noticed. She was dressed head to toe in a long dress composed of many layers of shiny, silky fabric in various shades of honey, amber, and gold, shaped and overlaid like petals of a rose. Her curly hair was as long as Rosalind's, but brown like Hans'. The fairy was very pretty, Louise concluded, taking Hans's hand in hers and giving it a gentle squeeze to make him stop staring at her.

"Rosabea," Rosalind said, embracing the Rose Fairy. "Hans, Louise, Rosabea is my cousin."

The fairy smiled at them. "I've heard all about you two already from Roza and Rolo, of course. But let us hurry now, everything is ready for lunch, and you still need to get changed," she added, lacing her arm through Rosalind's as they started to walk up the lane.

"What did you want to tell me?" Rosalind reminded her cousin who was biting her lip silently, lost in thought, as if she couldn't decide where to begin.

"I don't know if I should tell you really... Knowing you, you'll only catch yourself in some trouble again..."

"Rosabea, tell me now!" Rosalind demanded, frowning at her.

Rosabea sighed heavily. "Fine. Last night, on my way back from the forest, I met two butterflies," she whispered.

"Blue?" Rosalind breathed, her dark eyes sparkling with hope.

"No, not him," Rosabea said gently. "And when I asked about him, they said... They said that he did not return to the group of butterflies following the Monarchs after you two were found and... Blue has been missing for weeks now, Rosalind. His parents and a few friends tracked him all the way to the seashore, but there they lost every trace of him."

"Noo..." Rosalind said, looking so pale that Hans let go of Louise's hand and rushed to the fairy, afraid that she would faint.

The boy wrapped his arm around Rosalind's waist, mindful of her wings. For a while they all walked in silence only interrupted by the whisper of the mice's paws moving swiftly through the long stems of grass growing on the sides of the lane, in the shadows cast by the multitude of rose bushes.

"We will find him, Rosalind," Louise said when they reached the castle.

"Of course we will," Hans added, letting go of the fairy once he was sure that she regained her composure and was steady on her feet.

Rosalind thanked them with a faint smile before they followed Rosabea inside the rose bush.

"Rosland!" Rosabea called suddenly.

The fairy had entered the castle in such a haste, and was still so blinded by the sunshine, that she had bumped into someone as soon as she stepped into the first one of the dim and narrow corridors. "I asked you to stay with our parents in the garden while I looked for Rosalind!"

"Mother noticed that you disappeared and sent me to find you, sister. You must come with me," the young man told Rosabea. "At least she found you," he added, coming closer to Rosalind and embracing her. "And you are not alone."