The Fairies Song

Chapter Three: Hada

We bounced along. Sometimes it was dark, sometimes it was light. They would stuff me into bags and take turns carying me. My jar, the humans called it, grew stuffier with every passing moment. Hunger gnawed at my insides, threatening to tear me apart. They must not know that Fairies must eat too.

Too often they pressed their ugly faces by me. They did the same to the other the Fairies. I could see them, their terrified expressions. We couldn't communicate. Couldn't hold each other. Tell each other it would be okay.

My heart ached for Pasuka. The only thing that kept me sane was the knowledge that he was alright. He didn't have to suffer with me and the other Fairies. I hoped they were okay. I wondered if he blamed himself for my capture. I hope he didn't.

The humans stopped moving and made a camp for the night. I was set on the ground. I took this moment of peace to examine my wings. They were blue and lined with dark grey. They resembled that of a Blue Morpho Butterfly. One had a fold in it from being tossed around. I carefully placed my hands around it. I attempted to straighten it, but winced and pulled my hands back from the pain.

I tried agian, gritting my teeth. I ran my hands along it and straightened it out. I fluttered and lifted off the ground. Success! I fluttered around the jar, but quickly sunk back down when I noticed a human observing me intently.

He scribbled something down continued to stare. I curled up to make myself as small as possible. He gazed at me with fascination. He appeared to be sketching somthing in a journal. Curiosity got the better of me. I lifted my head to get a better look. The human smiled a toothy grin at my interest. He sketched a few more lines before lifting up his journal to show me.

It was a beautifully realistic drawing of me! Curled in a ball, frightened out her wits, but beautiful. I stood up and I pressed my hands on what I now knew was glass. The human, a male, packed his journal away. He reached for my jar. I shrunk back down, but he didn't touch it. Instead he took a small tool and drilled a hole in the top. Shavings fell on bead. I brushed them off.

I flew up to investigate. The air became more crisp and I inhaled a lung full. It was so nice. I reached the top and wondered if I could fit through and escape. The human was walking away. Now was my chance. I pushed my head through, but saw the human coming back. He had a handful of somthing, I couldn't tell exactly what.

He arrived and pushed somthing through the hole. It landed on the jar with a ting! It was a berry! My stomach rumbled as I ran over to it. I picked it up and brought it to my mouth and took a bite. It felt so good in my hollow stomach. The human watched me devour it.

He jotted somthing in his journal and walked away to feed the other Fairies. Part me wanted to believe maybe all humans were kind at heart, but the rational part of me knew this man was the exception, not the rule.

We kept traveling. These humans wanted to leave the forest as soon as possible. The man with the journal kept coming back and giving me items for my prison. Moss and berries. When we moved I wrapped myself in the moss so I wouldn't be bumped around so much.

We fell into a rhythm. Trek, eat, trek, eat, sleep, repeat. This carried on for several days. After this the greenery started getting sparser, canopies thinner, and trees smaller. I listened in on the conversations of the humans and observed them just as much as they observed me.

The man with the journal was called Jered. There were eight humans in total. Four females and four males. They had been hunting the Fairies almost their entire lives. They were the laughing stock of the scientific community. This discovery was to put them on the map. Jered was the leader, and the only one who seemed to think us Fairies were more than just a discovery, but intelligent beings with our own society.

But there were many who didn't want them to succeed. These humans were merely scientists. There were other people who wanted to use the Fairy magic for selfish purposes. This is why the Queen was hidden.

It was a raining night we met some of these people.

I heard footsteps and woke up from my bed of moss. There were more humans creeping around the camp. I didn't know what to do. They started rummaging through bags until Jered sat upright. He spotted the men and yelled, waking up the rest of the camp.

They scrambled to their feet. Several men retreated to back into the forest, but most of them stayed. They started shoving people down and continued to grab bags and dump out the contents on the ground. One of them spotted me and started to advance towards me.

Jered launched himself from the side, tackling the man and pinning him to the ground. The man, who was equal to Jered's height and weight, threw him off. They were engaged in a wrestling match. The man had Jered pinned under him, but he flipped him off with his feet. He smashed into a tree.

He stood up and stumbled back into the woods, the rest of the men followed. We didn't rest agian, but instead kept walking until Dawn and we left the forest. I saw a flat grey expanse before being shoved back into a bag. I heard a strange loud sound followed by a continues hum.

The rocking motion lulled me to sleep.