Alcingeria

Chapter Sixteen: A New Day

Chapter Sixteen A New Day:

Thursday June 24th 1690

I could feel warm, golden sunlight on my face that streamed in through the window next to me. I opened my eyes and rubbed them, yawning. The sun was well into the sky, and I saw it was almost noon. This time, I was sure I wasn't wrong. I got out of bed and walked over to the door, making my way downstairs to the lobby and found Robert and Macalister sitting at a table in the far corner of the room. They were all talking. As I got closer, I could hear what they were saying.

"That sack in the woods, and those men..." Robert was saying. "It all has me so puzzled. Of all things, I couldn't stop thinking about it last night."

I heard a door open upstairs and a timid looking girl pattered down the stairs, looking over her shoulder. Don came down a few seconds behind her, he gave her a smile and a wave. She looked at all of us, blushed, then left.

"How in the hell did you find time to get a girl last night?" I demanded, flabbergasted.

"What? It didn't take me very long. Are you surprised? You know, I can teach you how to do that."

"No, I'm fine. Thanks."

"Seriously, we almost die and you're already back at it the same day. Don't you need sleep?" Robert asked.

"We've almost died a lot of times, so I don't see your point. Actually, that's a reason in itself to, er, celebrate with someone. Anyhow, good morning sunshines! Ugly as ever, I see."

This earned a chuckle from the others.

"I can see the term 'beauty sleep' doesn't apply to you either," I scoffed.

"It does when I bedded a beauty," he winked.

"Enough of that you two," Robert sighed. "We were just talking about those men, and that bag."

"As intriguing as it is, all we have is useless speculation. Unless you've got some kind of theory?"

"Well, we know that vampires are real," he hushed his voice, "so what's to say that other fictional creatures don't exist either?"

"True," I nodded.

"I had a theory last night, but don't laugh."

"I don't laugh very much." Macalister grumbled.

"I think that those two men had a fairy."

That caught me off guard. Definitely not what I was expecting.

"A fairy?" I asked quietly. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. As insane and fictitious as it sounds, it's the only other theory that makes sense. We've thought of some non-supernatural theories and we came up empty." He said defensively. "But, if we look at the supernatural side of things, it doesn't seem so unrealistic."

My face assumed a confused look.

"Think about it," he persisted. "Queen Yuka ordered two men to go out and catch something for her in the wilderness. She threatened to have those two men's heads if they didn't bring it to her by nightfall. We reasoned that it likely wasn't an animal. If it was a fairy, it would make a whole lot more sense."

It took me a minute to process that. It did make sense, oddly enough. But what would Queen Yuka want with a fairy?

"I admit. The theory sounds crazy," he went on, "but if Queen Yuka is willing to make deals with blood sucking monsters, who knows what she'll do with a fairy?"

I thought about this for a minute. He presented a strong enough argument, and really seemed to believe it. If I knew anything about Robert, it was that he was a realist.

"Plus, where did we find it?" He pressed, "in the woods, where fairies are supposed to live."

With that final point, I decided to believe him. After all, if he was wrong, no harm done. We'd either come up with something different, or just leave the matter alone. It wasn't like we had much else occupying our time.

"Okay Robert, I think you're right." I told him. "What do we do with this?"

"Well, it could solve our money problem," came his response. "I'm sure we could find some way to turn a profit. We have to be quiet about it though. If the Queen even suspects her secret is out, it'll have catastrophic repercussions."

"We should put the fairy matter up for now, get a bit of cash to live off of before we go into the woods with nets and jars," I laughed.

"Where I came from, someone started a riot against the Queen." Macalister piped up. "After the guards came, he was taken away and cut in half in the town square."

I shivered. I had heard stories about the tyrant Queen, but had never experienced it firsthand. I didn't want to either.

"I'm hungry. Can we afford breakfast?" Don asked.

"You could afford a woman last night. Did you spend all our money?"

"I don't pay for women," he scoffed, holding the small bag by the strings. "Well, not all the time."

"Only when you aren't good enough," Macalister laughed bluntly, looking to Robert. "Sometimes I do laugh."

"Either way, four dollars won't last us long. We'll need to get some more."

"Five," Macalister announced proudly, showing off his singular coin.

"Right, five. Sorry," he rolled his eyes. "We should get going. We'll get more money tonight, for now let's scope some places out, see if we can't do a little planning."

"You and your plans," I scoffed. "Last night wasn't planned very well."

"Time also wasn't on our side. We were careful though, so up yours."

I punched him in the shoulder and we returned our keys. As soon as we opened the door, the sound of rushing water and the chatter of the ever-present crowd of people rushed to greet us.

We found a road we hadn't been down yet and took it. I looked left and right and saw that there were no shops lining the streets, just houses. The crowd wasn't dense back there and the farther we walked, the smaller the crowd became. Although activity was centered around the town square, there were still a number of people around us. I heard Don shuffle his feet nervously.

"Robert," he said, stopping in his tracks.

"What, your crotch itching or something?"

Don pointed to two men ahead of us. They looked oddly familiar. I squinted, trying to make them out. The longer I stared, the clearer it became. We knew these men. They had their backs to us, but it was unmistakable. They wore the same clothes as they had yesterday.

"Don, do you know those men?" Robert asked.

This was unreal. What were the chances we run across them again?

"Oh, I know them alright."

"Care to enlighten us?"

"They're the men who threatened to shoot us if we followed them here."

"The men with the fairy?" Macalister asked.

I nodded gravely.