The Faerie Slayer

Chapter 35

Kades Pov

The sun had gone down, I'd rested for a bit, and then the sun had returned. I suspected if I was going mad, or if it could be true that the sun in the land of the folk seemed to rise much quicker then back home. The sound of Elie's wings hadn't faded into the background noise of the silent forest. They buzzed like bees and I constantly fought the urge to swat her away. I knew I had to keep her on my side, and I had to trust that if Aubrette held faith in her, then I would have to learn to work with that. Elie would be a crucial part to my plan. If everything went the way it was supposed to, id get back to the castle in five days time for the crowning. Elie would spike the drinks with dapperling mushrooms and whilst the guards are distracted, I would rescue Aubrette and my mothers killer from the prison cells. The nearest body of water was just a mile from the castle. I'd have Elie summon a portal to deliver us back to earth and after that, I would just have to figure it out. One thing for sure was that I was useless here, I could not even shift. Sugar and salt were illegal here, trafficked underground by faerie poison dealers. It was impossible to equip myself with anything.
We strode through the thick winding trees and stumbled across Rootmen who lazily scattered themselves from one side to the other. When my stomach began to grumble is when I realized that I had not given much thought to what I would eat. Elie peeked at me.

"Hungry?"

I reached for what resembled a strawberry loosely hanging out of one of the branches. It had white skin and pricked the skin on my index so deeply that I began to bleed.

"Don't eat that!" Elie shouted.

I dropped the fruit and wiped the blood on my suit," why?"

"It's Satan Spawn. It will knock you out for days."

She whacked it out of the way and glared at the tree that homed the strange fruit," they think it's funny to dangle it in your face. Even the trees here are evil."

"I need to eat something, soon."

"Eat this," she grabbed a handful of purple berries from a nearby bush," you might feel a little...weird for a little while, but it's the only fruit here that will not cause you harm."

I took the berries from her tiny hands and debated how much I trusted her. I figured that if the little pixie wanted to harm me, she would have done it a while back.
She reached for a small orange bird that landed on her forearm and stared into its eyes.

"I'm going to summon this bird to send a message to Aubrette," she grabbed a leaf and began to write something using a branch and the dark liquid from the berries as ink," then I'll have him return and we can grill him for dinner."

I watched as the tiny bird disappeared into the sky with the leaf tightly clung to its beak and wondered if it had understood its fate.
I felt the rocks under my feet begin to fall into the abyss and clung onto the nearby branch to keep myself from falling.
The branch yanked itself out of my grip and I stumbled forward onto what seemed to be a wooden causeway. Elie floated above the bridge and peeked underneath.

"That's the beginning of Kelpie River," she said, her voice muffled by the sound of crushing tides," it goes way down. Don't look, you might vomit."

I could not help it. I glanced out from above the cliff and underneath where the rocks that lined the side of the forest went down for almost half a mile before ending with the dark violent river.

"Why is the water red?"

Elie shrugged," I don't know. Could be all the dapperling mushrooms deposits."

"If we're at the river already, can't we get the mushrooms here?"

"The gnomes dump the fresh batch at the end of the river, over there, they're still fresh mushrooms. What's left here is just the deposits, it won't get you very far with poison."