Lost Wings

22~ Defenses

Previously on LW:
Because of Aric, soldiers from the Outlands are heading towards the forest to conquer it and capture the princess. Chase has stepped up to organize a defensive and has obtained to get everything the fairies had confiscated back, like their weapons and Autumn's maps.

Chapter 22

    Chase picked up all the maps Aiden had dropped on the grass and stacked them neatly. He held out his free hand to me. I took it, and we walked over to Autumn.

    "Hey." He crouched to her level. She gave us a weak smile. "I understand this is not what you want to be doing right now, but I need your help. A branch of the outland army is coming towards us. I need to know where we are, where we can expect them to come from, and where the outpost is."

    "Of course." She straightened up, and the peryton lifted their heads. "Pass me the big rolled up map, please."

    She laid it out and started organizing smaller maps, which she explained where more detailed, larger scale renderings of places we could see on the bigger map. As she and Chase discussed different elements of the maps, fairies around us struggled to regroup swarms of mischievous children.

    "I think you've got this under control," I told Autumn and Chase. "I'll go see where I can help."

    "Be careful," Chase warned. "Stay inside the village, make sure you're never alone, and that you can always hear me if I call you."

    I raised an eyebrow. Hadn't we been over this already? "I'm not a child, Chase. I can handle it."

    "I know you can, but I'm not sure I could, if anything happened to you." His warm brown eyes met mine. "Please."

    I felt a surge of affection towards him. I wanted to kiss him, but he and Autumn had other things to do.

    "Fine," I said. "But you must promise me not to get in any danger either."

    "Anything you want."

    I smiled at him, then turned around and flew to the nearest group of unruly children, who had managed to escape their parents' watch. Among them, I had recognized Elwys, the young girl who had played with Aiden and Mikoy earlier.

    "Elwys, right?" I asked.

    "Yeees?" She gave me a cheeky grin, as if she expected to be reprimanded for a prank.

    Unfortunately for her and luckily for me, when I had started reading stories to kids every Thursday in the castle library, Autumn had shared with me some of her extensive knowledge of how to deal with children like her - knowledge which she had mainly earned from being around her siblings.

    "How old are you?" I asked.

    "Twenty seasons." She puffed out her chest.

    Despite her small stature, she looked older than five years old -more like eight or nine-, but I had no idea how age worked for fairies. I pretended to be thoughtful.

    "Twenty seasons... Um, I'm not sure that will be enough." I shook my head.

    "For what?" She asked.

    "No never mind. I'll find someone else."

    "For what? For what?" She repeated, grabbing my arm.

    "I was looking for someone to help me lead all the children to the center of the village, but I'm not sure-"

    "I can do it!"