The Fae Chronicles: The Hollow Forest

Chapter 10

"Oh. My-"

"God." I finished for Piper as we managed to squeeze ourselves through the tiny door that Snail had crawled through. The tiny door had given way to another room.

The room, however, was not tiny, if you could even call it a room; it was more like a cavern. I'd never been to Madison Square Garden, but I suspected that it was even bigger than that. It was filled with tables, most of them cluttered with tools, oil cans, and blueprints, while some were crowded with bronze and iron strictures; half-made automatons, weapons, and armor.

"And, um, you live alone?" Piper asked Snail warily.

"Well, I used to have a small work force that helped me, but when Hemlock's influence started growing over the land, they had to leave and protect their families. Good men, but they were awful faint-hearts. It's just me and Cynder now." He said. I was surprised at how lonely he sounded, and a slight feeling of guilt began creeping in for leaving him alone all these years.

"Who's-" Piper began, but she was cut off by a deep growl, echoing throughout the cavern, followed by a hot wind that parted my hair.

I felt the color drain from my face. "You never told me you had a-"

"Dragon!" Piper exclaimed, a smile spreading across her face. "I thought it was just fae here!"

"No ma'am!" Snail said. "We have wiccans, griffins, dragons, giants, dwarves, Huldra and even Hephestaeian trolls!"

  "Woah."

  "It's very 'woah!'" Snail cried, his eyes gleaming. "Now that you've been introduced...." he snapped his fingers.

  We stared at him.

He rolled his pale green eyes. "The weapons?"

"Oh!" Piper handed Snail her whips. As soon as they touched his hands, they changed shape to form a huge iron war hammer. Snail furrowed his eyebrows, shook the hammer up and down, and it changed back into two whips in his hand. He gave a satisfied grin and cracked them both, making me jump and Piper stifle a scream.

   "But...where's the lightning? When I use them, there's lightning." She whispered to me.

   "You probably don't want to see Snail's back, but I can assure you that he doesn't have the Protector's Mark, which is the tattoo you have on yours." I replied.

   We hadn't noticed that Snail had gone over to a huge worktable and had picked up an actual hammer, and with one swift movement, he struck the hilt of one of the whips before I had the chance to shout a warning. A small, pale blue explosion went off right in Snail's face. Piper's eyes went bigger than dinner plates. I thought he would turn around, his face horribly misfigured, but instead it was just blackened with soot, which made his teeth kind of hard to see when he grinned doggedly at us. Then, in a voice louder than an angry Infernum, he yelled, "CYNDER!"

    A growl that sounded more like an exasperated groan echoed from the back of the cave.

   "Ferum, Miss Gray; meet Cynder." Snail said proudly, guesturing to the huge beast that lumbered out of the darkness in the back of the cavern. It was huge, probably bigger than three school buses lined up end-to-end, with a rust-colored hide and eyes that smoldered like the sun. It had no wings, which was odd for most species of dragons in the fae realm, but then I noticed long scars on its back. Hunters.

   "When did you get it-" I began, but was interrupted by Cynder letting out a snarl.

   "Her." Snail corrected. "And I found her in the Forest, stuck in a trap."