The Mark of Arella(Book One of the Dragonfly Chronicles)

Chapter Twenty Nine

Lilly woke up terrified, threw off the covers and headed out the shelter to throw up. She leaned over the railing and keep heaving up her stomach. Rhylan came out of the tent and placed his hand on her back. She pushed his hand off her and continued to throw up. Over and over she continued to heave. Finally she knelt down on the planking and tried to take deep breaths. Rhylan sat next to her and rubbed her back while she sobbed. "She's doing terrible things to young faery girls. Did you see my dream?" Rhylan shook his head, "I only felt your fear and horror, I didn't see what you were seeing."   He stroked her hair and said gently, "you have been plagued with these nightmares ever since you learned of this destiny you are supposed to fulfill. Maybe they are just your fears showing up in your subconscious?" Lilly shook her head, she was scared, terrified actually, but these nightmares were so real and she didn't think it was her fear creating them. She knew in her heart the evil Queen was trying to get to her, trying to tell her what would happen if she chose to fight. It made her want to run, far away from this realm and go back to the human world and hide forever. "This isn't something we can run from Lilly, Rhylan said as he heard her thoughts. "You know we have to take a stand against her otherwise both our worlds will end, but maybe we should send you away and fight her without you. You would be safer."

Lilly looked at him and felt resolve. She said, "I have been reading the two books on our breaks and it says we have to do this together, I won't lie and say I don't want to run far from here, but I won't leave all of you to fight alone." She started to walk back towards the shelter and get back into her sleeping mat. Rhylan followed and grabbed her into his arms. "When this is all over, we will build that house with tons of rooms for our families and our kids if you want them that is?" Lilly smiled and kissed him gently. "I do want kids, lots of little bugs running around our house. They would be beautiful with your eyes and my hair." Rhylan smiled at the thought of their children and continued to hold on to her until they both dozed off again.

The next morning was a rush of packing and strategizing. They had about 4-6 more days of travel before they made it to the caves. Drexoste's kin arrived in the night which made their total lion count at 10 and the sprites and pixies agreed to be on lookout for them. They would also continue to build shelters in the trees for added protection. Joella was still concerned about Lilly, her wounds were almost fully healed but she continued to feel sick and at times she couldn't smell food without wanting to throw up. She thought back to how many weeks it had been since their marriage ceremony and wondered. Lilly came up to her and interrupted her thoughts. "Will you be travelling with us in this form or will you go back to your pixie self?" Joella smiled at her and stated she would go back to her pixie self, there was no way she would try and ride on a horse when she could fly just as fast and far all by herself. Lilly laughed and headed down the ladder to the ground. She was the last one to vacate the shelter and the group was ready to go. She looked at Sam and they both grimaced. He said, "My bum was just starting to feel better, we really need to talk to them about building roads." She smiled, "Thanks for being here Sam" and grabbed his hand.

The next several days went by fast, albeit painful for Lilly and Sam but they survived and actually started to get used to the horses, except for the motion sickness. When Lilly asked Sam if he got sick from all the bouncing and rocking he said he didn't. It was getting worse, not better and some days she had to excuse herself in the guise of going to relieve herself when in fact she was throwing up. She was starting to wonder if maybe something she was eating or drinking was affecting her stomach. She tried not to dwell on it and kept it to herself, they had enough to worry about with the threat of attack. The group kept close together and set up camp in the trees each night thanks to the pixies and sprites. Tension was high in the group, it seemed like all the humor had faded and everything was on edge. Lilly hadn't talked to Colvin and he hadn't pushed the issue with getting back Aeron's things but she wondered what was so important in that bag. She decided at the next camp, she would look for herself. She remembered when she briefly looked in the bag it had random artifacts, she saw a dagger, and a bracelet but couldn't remember what else. She was riding next to Sam and Jarron the past few days and she turned to Jarron and said quietly, "Have you thought on the bag that Colvin wants to retrieve? Did he say anything about why it was so important to Aeron?"