The Stray

Meri Tales

The little dragoness picked at her food for a moment before starting. "Well, there's legends about this forest. They say that this darkness ain't natural, and that once it was just a normal forest fulla normal monsters. But then the fairies came, and their Queen, the Lady of Night, did somethin' to it."

Timothy thought that over. The Deepshadow fairies were divided into 3 tribes— the Nyxtal, the Vynhan, and the Mientofani. They did have queens, but there was no one queen of the fairies; just 3 powerful fairies who were constantly messing with one another. Which is lucky for the rest of us, cuz it keeps them too busy to cause too much trouble. "Go on...?"

"Well, they said that the fairy queen took her sword, the Edge of Night, and cut out part of the night sky, and covered the forest in it. That shroud made the forest the Deepshadow."

As far as Timothy knew, that was wrong. The shroud of the Deepshadow was projected by the Shatham trees, as part of a nature magic process. Timothy bit his tongue hard. It wasn't that fairies doing weird stuff was too much for him to believe, but this sounded like a bedtime story. "I-I see... And you came looking for the Queen?"

Meri nodded. "Yeah. They say that she's still here, waiting in the heart of the forest for someone to be brave enough to seek her out. She'll give them one final test, and if you succeed, she'll give you her own sword as a mark of bravery; the Edge of Night."

...And the fair folk would never give a gift away for free. Not without enough strings attached to tie down a True Dragon. Oh, Meri... "That sounds awful dangerous." He said neutrally. How the heck am I gonna get you out of here? "Um... and your parents were okay with this?"

"Aw, they don't even know I'm here." Meri perked up, as Timothy stifled a groan. "I mean, I figured I'd just fly my broom to the center of the forest, and then fly out. Easy!"

The wolf pointed his spoon at her."Until you got attacked."

Meri winced. "W-well, yeah. But I'm tough enough!" The dragoness set her jaw. "I gotta be!"

"Why do you want this sword so badly? No offense, Meri, but you don't look big enough to even swing one, yet."

"The Edge of Night can cut the darkness outta people's hearts, like it did from the sky! Or that's what the stories say."

Timothy just stared and tried to find a polite way to say but that's dumb. "Meri, that's fairy tale stuff."

"Nuh-uh! Psyche magic exists, right?" She said stubbornly. "It isn't any weirder than that!"

Ugh, she... actually kind of had a point there. Not that he believed for a second that a fairy had 'cut down the night,' but a sword that can cut apart the heart— emotions, mind? Both?— of a person was exactly the kind of crap a fairy would make. Oh man, I hope my gut is right and this is all make-believe. "Let's... table that for now. That still doesn't answer my question, though. What do you want to do with that thing?"

And that's when she sprang to her feet, fist held high, and declared, "I'm gonna turn Mayor Locke good!" Timothy must have looked unimpressed, because after a moment she huffed, thrust her fist up again, and shouted "And the Vol, too!"

The wolf froze. His heart just plain stopped for a moment, and he felt his blood run cold. If he still had a tail, it woulda shot right between his legs. "What!?"

———

He couldn't move. The ropes that bound him to the altar were too tight. The night air was freezing. But all around him were torches, held by people who were supposed to be his friends. The drums pounded a frantic beat. Their voices rose and fell in a chant that filled his heart with dread.