Lost and Found: A Tale of the Tylwyth Teg

Chapter 14 - All in A Day's Slaughter

I'm a safe, careful driver. I've never had an accident in my entire life. But right then, I drove like a bat out of hell, running the two stoplights on Main Street, leaving behind stunned and angry locals. All I could hear was Annie's screams. I could hear shouting, but no sound from Annie.

She's all right, I said to myself while turning onto our street. She must have dropped the phone. I ignored the absence of my neighbors, who by rights should've been lining the streets. There were several groups of Tylwyth Teg of various kinds looking up towards my home. In the sky, I saw a murder of crows attacking something that appeared to be half-bird and half woman.

"This is a siege?" I thought. As soon as I made my way to the door, Eddie flew from the porch and landed on my shoulder, cawing right in my ear. My ankle encountered resistance and I fell to the ground. Suddenly I was being stuck by two-inch long blades and four-inch-long spears. My Eldritch Eyesight kicked in, and I saw hundreds of fairy warriors, winged and on foot, attacking me. I will never think of that scene from Gulliver's Travels in the same way again.

They swarmed me like ants. My arms and legs were becoming slick with blood. It was then that I heard a scream that spoke of blood and death – what now, I thought – a banshee? But it was then, as I stood up cursing a blue streak, flinging the cute little bloodthirsty bastards away with murderous intent, that I heard the lawnmower. It wasn't a banshee. It was Annie!

I watched her mow through the pint-sized foot soldiers, being soaked with blood as some of them lost lives and others lost limbs. As soon as they fell, all trace of them vanished. She carved a path to me and reached out her hand to help me up. Her face was hard-set and grim, but she managed to smile, and told me to follow her to the back, where the worst fighting was.

This was a side of her I'd never seen before. She was in control, but only just. I knew that if I showed the slightest sign of weakness, she'd crumble. When we reached the backyard, I saw a large group of...things, creatures that had one of everything: one arm, one finger, one eye, one nostril, one leg...ambling aimlessly back and forth. Alwyn in full bearcat form was herding them away. Other creatures resembling zombies were also present, as were seven snarling white dogs with red-tipped ears – but they too seemed confused.

The crows lost the bird-woman, who began to sing. I got lost in her song and watched spellbound as she clawed at the head of someone standing on Magritte's Terrace. A tall beautiful young man with silver hair was trying to shoot the creature with a longbow and arrow. He kept trying to repel her far enough to get a shot.

I didn't know why he was trying to hurt the thing, but if he wanted to, he was handling the bow all wrong. I'd taken archery in college and placed first in regional finals. And it was that – my all-consuming pride – that broke her song's spell.

He lost his grip and the bow and arrow fell, but I caught them just in time. The creature gripped the young man's shoulders and lifted him partway in the air when I let loose an arrow that struck her right pinion. Both of them fell. Alwyn cushioned the man's fall, and I caught the bird-woman, careful not to harm the wing. (Why? Better to make a friend of an enemy than an enemy of a potential friend.)

Alwyn was busy mewing at the young man, who nodded his head and approached us. As he stood, he brushed his hair out of his face, tucking it behind his very elegant, slender and pointed ears. There were, I noticed, old puncture scars on his neck.

"I'm sorry you've involved yourselves in this. I must know, though, if you extend the protection of these grounds and this house to me. If you do, you proclaim yourselves my allies and my sister's enemies. You will fight, and possibly die or worse. But I would welcome your assistance. Alwyn speaks very highly of you."

It hit me then. "You're Gwyn?"

"High Prince Gwyn, rightful co-ruler of Faery, son of King Auberon and the human Bertha, twin brother of Gwyneth the Usurper." Alwyn growled. "What? I'm sorry, I must go." And he simply vanished. Alwyn followed suit.

"Lils? We're c-c-covered in blood." Annie's voice was weak. Whatever warrior woman persona she'd assumed as a coping mechanism had worn off, and back was my sweet-natured writer of children's books. Two minutes later, after the towel I'd been washing her arm with had turned the water in the sink a dark maroon, she fainted.

I gently caught her, and carried her into the drawing room, where an odd little creature was stoking the fire in the fireplace. He was about two feet tall, dressed in threadbare but clean clothes, and had placed a silver tripod twice his size over the logs. An ancient ceramic pot was suspended from it. I placed Annie on the couch and covered her with a throw blanket. I had an idea who the little man was.

"You must be Abe Grumple, our burr...bwa?" I essayed.

"Bwbach, Miss Lillian. You may have heard that we bwbachs are a grungy lot, and while some are, I'm tenth generation Colony and a bit more modern than most. I'm fixing Miss Anne some Forest Stew. 'Tis an old recipe for soothing post-battle shivers."

"Abe, would you watch over Anne for a while? I have a prisoner who needs to see a veterinarian." I also wanted the bird-woman tended to and out of our house. But I was hesitant to leave Annie alone.

"There's a troop of Domoviyr that have adopted this house. Elven fighters, Miss. The Stray Sods have scattered around your lawns, and they'll stop anything foul from coming near. She'll be safe while you're gone," said Abe, in the most reassuring and fatherly voice you could imagine coming from a wizened two-foot tall Tylwyth Teg.

I just hoped that all the Vet saw was a very, very large bird. A California condor, perhaps?