Beyond the Roselands

Chapter 25

   The next morning, I woke up and groaned. My head was splitting and whatever light source that was coming towards me was way too bright. I cracked my eyelids open and looked around. I was in the back bedroom of mom and dads house. I sat up and cupped my head and looked around. Sprite was no where to be found.

   I moaned and shifted to the side of the bed, throwing the blankets off of me. That's when I looked down and realized I had no pants on. I heard someone coming to the door and I covered my legs back up. Dad came in and shook his head, looking at me. We both asked two different questions simultaneously.

   "What happened last night?"

   "What happened to my pants?"

   Mother suddenly pushed in past dad and brought me a tray of pancakes and a cup of coffee. "Well both of you came stumblng into the house drunk as skunks and me and Sprite practically had to lock you two in different rooms to keep you from killing each other. Once we joined you in the rooms, well…nature took its course."

   I cocked my head  at her and she eyed dad. "You two were horny as frogs in spring. Let's just say I hope I don't get pregnant once again."

   Dad blushed crimson and retreated from my room in a shameful slump. Sprite came out of the bathroom right then and giggled at me. I scratched my head, but took a bite of my breakfast. Once I'd finished, Sprite tossed me a pair of pants and I put them on quickly. "Do you know what happened to my other pair?"

   This question seemed to send Sprite into a hysterical giggle fit and I barely held myself back from laughing as well. "What?"

   She laughed once more and then managed to get a break. "When I came into the room you started dancing and you seductively took them off before flinging them in the fireplace."

   I felt my face flushed red and I looked over at the burnt out fireplace where a piece of ruined leather was sticking out, charred black. "Well damn. I hope it as a sexy dance I did."

   She fell into another giggle fit before I grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her to me, kissing her lips hard. She moaned and laughed, wrapping her arms around my head. Suddenly, we both heard a thump come from the other room. I shushed her and we eased our ears to the wall. On the other side, we could hear mom moaning and dad giggling. I started laughing and Sprite joined me and soon we were rolling on the floor as we laughed so hard we cried.

   I stopped moving and glanced at her as she came to a stop as well. I smiled fondly at her and took her hand. It was nice that we could have a moment of laughter and play together in the midst of all the panic and fear. Suddenly I gasped. "Wait! Your mother was Faylinn. Your father was Avery. That means your full bloodied Faery aren't you."

   Sprite paused and then sighed, getting up and going to the mirror on the wall. She quietly began to brush her hair like she did when she was upset. "Dad always told me that I wasn't supposed to be born from a human womb. While he was watching over me in the Faery realm, he kept talking to me about the revolution about to start and the fact that the altered Faery inside me would be key to unlocking the portal. He never explained why, but he always told me that as soon as it was born and once he had used it, it wouldn't be able to live any longer. He said he would kill it."

   I took her hand and kissed her cheek, pressing close to her in an effort to calm her nerves. "It's okay. I'll protect you. It's obvious that that rose can kill Faerys, but if Avery continues to kill off his brother's it won't be that hard. Don't worry. I'll keep you safe and I won't let him hurt our baby."

   She smiled and nodded, hugging herself close. After a while, I advised Emera to stay with Sprite and keep the rose as close as possible to her. Once they had relaxed and gone on, I flew up into the sky and headed towards the center of the Roselands. The trees stretching up high had grown to mighty height and girth.

   As I flew up by them, they were probably about fifty feet thick and most likely almost a mile high. As I climbed altitude and approached its leaves, I heard desperate cries and terrified screams. I glanced up and saw a couple of Ghaghts stuck in the huge branches, obviously swept up by their sudden growth.

   I landed in the branches and they all rushed towards me, chattering and sobbing in terror as tears rushed down their faces. I held up my hands and shushed them, but suddenly they all began to scream and they rushed to the farthest branches from where I was. I was confused, but as I turned to ask them if they needed my help, a rush of black magic hit me hard. I fell forward onto my face and then rolled over to see what had happened.

   Above me stood one of the remaining five Faery brothers. It looked like the one named Gordon. I held my hands above my face as he raised his knife, but he stopped. He sighed and sat down in front of me. "Zytrey, you have to help us."

   From behind another branch stepped another much taller and skinnier one. Gordon sighed and gestured the other closer. "I'm Gordon if you hadn't heard that yesterday and this is Spencer. You were the Zytrey that conceived with Avery's daughter? Right?"

   I nodded and Spencer took over. "We received the body of Damond a while ago. Damond was my son. He died in order for you to survive."

   I froze and then gulped. "I'm sorry. I didn't know he had to kill himself to do it."

   Spencer shook his head and knelt down. "No. It's fine. It wasn't your fault. It's Avery. He's the one leading everything. I know what Damond would've told you. He told you about the Nasty Three and the Hopeless Four of the Universal Seven. We're the remaining two of the Hopeless Four. We're the only two who are willing to preserve your reality world. We just need your help."

   "Well what can I do? I'm just a Zytrey. And a hybrid Zytrey at that."

   Gordon spoke up. "We know that, but you possess something that can help us."

   "The black rose?"

   "Yes. That. And one other thing you never knew would help anything."

   "What?"

   Gordon and Spencer smiled at each other and looked back at me, saying in unison. "A Picklet."