Away with the Fairies

*°•○Part Fourteen○•°*

Hans rushed to Louise as soon as he and Rosalind walked through the layer of Roslav's magic. He pulled her close and kissed her on top of her head, surprising her.

"What's wrong?" the girl asked when he did not say anything as she searched his green eyes, which tried to avoid hers, for answers to his unexpected behaviour.

Louise looked across the small crowd gathered outside the tents towards Rosalind then, but found her deep in conversation with Roslav. The fairy did not look her way even though Louise was sure that she must have heard her confused thoughts and unspoken questions.

So he knows, Louise concluded, and finally noticed Rosalind nodding her head slightly, in response either to her thoughts or to whatever Roslav was saying to her at the moment.

"Hans..." the girl whispered, looking back at her friend.

"Look," he said, not feeling ready to hear what she was about to tell him.

Taking her hand in his, Hans pulled her against the stream of butterflies and moths escorting their patients back inside the tent. They stopped by the shimmering veil of softly buzzing light protecting their camp from the coldness and wind reigning outside, and Hans pointed towards the far horizon.

The Wild Swans just appeared above the sea that rolled and stretched noiselessly in front of them-- their curtain of magic seemed to have smothered all its sounds like a huge, thick, but transparent blanket. The approaching birds looked like eleven tiny black dots against the backdrop of the restless, pinkish-grey clouds.

"It will take them a good while yet, but they are coming," Roslav spoke from behind them, making them turn around.

"Do you think you have enough room, Celeste?" Rosalind asked the Butterfly Fairy, standing next to Roslav.

"We do. Would you two mind giving me a hand to make a few more beds and a place to rest for the swans?" Celeste asked, looking between Louise and Hans, sensing their unusual seriousness.

"We will all help you," Rosalind said before either of the two could reply, trying to keep her own anxious thoughts at bay in order to distract and cheer up her friends.

It was getting dark and starting to snow, the snowflakes melting a long while before they could touch the protective layer of spells, when the Wild Swans finally landed on the beach.

Hans was among the first creatures who walked outside to help the swans and their passengers enter their warm and safe camp.

Blue was not among the ailing creatures whom the white birds carried on their wide backs, Rosalind, who ran out of the tent the moment she heard their unusual, smooth, and velvety voices, noticed. She stopped in her tracks and looked to the tips of her shoes as she took a few deep, calming breaths before she spoke to the swans. The Rose Fairy Princess welcomed them heartily and thanked them for their help, hiding her feelings bravely.

What Rosalind was feeling Hans could only guess. He was sure that she wouldn't want her Blue to be brought back here by the Wild Swans, starved and injured like all those poor creatures... But if he had been, then at least they would be together now, and she would know for sure what had happened to him...

"Hans, I beg you, stop. That's not helpful." Rosalind sighed in response to his thoughts. "Go inside, please, and tell Louise to prepare the bed next to her dragonfly. Here's another one, we can put them close to each other..." she trailed off, pointing at a large, unconscious dragonfly which one of the swans layed on the sandy beach.

Hans looked at the fairy apologetically before he ran inside the tent to deliver her message to Louise.

Once all the new patients were cared for in the main tent and the swans, too big to fit inside, settled contentedly around it, the fairies and Rose Elves conjured up their dinner.