A Fairy Tale *currently rewritten*

4. Preparing

This couldn't be real. It just... couldn't! Not Ica, one of the biggest fairy cities of all worlds! She felt unwanted tears burning in the corner of her eyes. Was the royal family save? How many citizens were able to flee? Was it really the same attackers as in Orca? How did they manage to change world so quickly? Questions and more questions were circling in her mind.

It was the warm hand of the strange prince which disturbed them and brought her comfort. "I am sorry." He said. It was the only thing he said, but it went deep into her heart. And from there the tears started rolling down her cheeks. She cried. She never cried normally, it was years ago that she had cried about something. But prince Phy's presence seemed to be an exception. That and the whole situation was one big exception. Mel let the tears go for a moment. She knew she had to do something but first she needed to mourn. It was good not to be alone in this dark hour. Phy has probably suffered as much as she did right now.

After awhile the tears stopped and she stood up and went to the fire. Phy sat down beside her. "What are we going to do?" He asked in a very caring way. Mel was a little bit astonished about his tenderness. She wouldn't have expected him to care about her at all.

"Well..." She said. "They ordered to open the gates. We will wait for a runner, who's going to inform the other kingdoms. It could be that the royal family made it in time and is now coming in our direction."

Phy sighted. "Do you always do what you're told? We have to know what is really happening in Ica!"- "Ica is destroyed!" She snapped furiously. The temperature seemed to sink a few degrees. Cold rage filled her heart now that the sadness was gone. A hunger thundered inside her. She wanted to kill. She wanted to destroy whoever had harmed her friends and all the people she was responsible for.

Her reaction surprised her. This was the first time felt this way. And she wasn't sure her feelings do any good. Phy was surprised as well. He had stumbled a few steps away and watched her cautiously. For a moment she thought he was afraid of her. Shame flooded through her and she looked away. When she straightened, her face was determined. "We are going to prepare the portal!"

It was one of the duties as a guardian to sing the needed spell. Opening a portal was a difficult thing. One had to sing the long and complicated spell, another had to set the direction and the world they wanted to go and the last one had to be a royal family member, because only the blood and the words of the royals would open the gate.

A runner would have than be sent to the place and the direction which were set by one of the openers. Mel stopped on her way outside and looked to Phy. "Why did you come out of the portal anyway? Shouldn't you have been transported directly into the city?"

Phy nodded. "Normally yes. But the time was running and we decided to use a... different spell, so we could send all messengers to all known portals very fast." Mel was surprised. She had never heard anything about this kind of spell. It seemed Orca was somehow higher educated in the use of portals.

For a moment she thought about asking him to teach her this other spell, but then on the other hand she had needed four years to learn the normal spell. She was not sure she would be able to learn a new song so she just went outside. The coldness of the icy wind cut through her furs. She saw dark clouds as she set her eyes to the east. A storm was coming; the worst possible weather to be outside the cave. Mel sighted deeply than climbed back to the top.

Phy followed her. "You know", she said. "You can stay in the cave. Little princes might feel cold in the upcoming wind." Phy didn't reply; he just followed her all the way up to the mountain. Again Mel found her wondering. His actions surprised her more and more.

From the top of the mountain you'd even had a better view on the dark storm front. Hearing the clouds grumble Mel got goose bumps. She didn't have any spell to protect her from the weather. Unsure she sat down in the icy snow. Phy seemed to read her thoughts, because he replied: "Don't worry. I can hold the lightning and the wind away for a bit." He sat down beside her. Mel could see that he was fighting more against the cold than anything else. She sighted and put one layer of her fur around him. He looked at her thankfully. With a last nod she closed her eyes and sank into trance.

The song passed as easy over her lips as she would sing childhood songs. The years of practice had done some good. That was also the reason she could sink deeply into the trance without noticing any changes to her surroundings. She didn't feel the light rain, didn't feel the soft rain. She didn't see the lightning and didn't hear the thunder.

When she was finished with the spell, she started again. The more she sang it the faster would the gate react when the runner and a member of the royal family came. After a while her body started to hurt and she decided to break the trance. Still humming so the spell wouldn't end she opened her eyes.