Fairy Graves

Four

"Will you go with me?" Penelope hoisted a bag filled with provisions over her shoulders, shrugging awkwardly from the weight on her wings. She already knew the answer, before he spoke. But she felt as though if she stalled, if she tried to convince him, her time before she had to leave would stretch.

"I..." Stone glanced about the small room nervously. "I would love to." He pushed the walnut-frame glasses up his nose. "But... I cannot."

"I understand." Penelope muttered with her eyes cast downwards.

"Listen, I want to. Trust me, I do, but the Queen... I must keep her alive while you get the cure. Otherwise it's all for not." He pressed a leather bound book into her hands, whispering the Fairie prayer as parting before he rushed down the halls.

"It's always been just me." Penelope nodded to herself. "Yessir, I don't need anyone else." She looked around her room, the small bed pushed against one wall and a vanity on the other. Her gaze lingered on the scissors, laying innocently against the wood.

Hesitantly she put down her bag and started clipping away her hair, leaving short strands that hung around her ears.

"Pen, Pen is a good name." She decided, grabbing the bag again and rushing through the halls, pushing past Bakers and Royal Gaurds, all who screamed curses at her.

She paused at the edge of Fairie Village, taking a long, lingering glance at the merry houses that had smoke rising from the chimneys, or the shops made from hollowed mushrooms, the signs blowing in the slight wind. She drank in the sight of the Tunnel entrance, the very same Tunnel that led to the halls where most Fairies lived. Moss covered most roofs, some walls made from woven grass. The sound of laughter, of chattering reached her ears as she turned away.

She never had a place with them, but there were others that did. Others who were accepted and loved, who could not afford the Wingless Death to ruin them.

The outside world had been twisted, changed when the Magik burst forth. The Humans had been effected the most. Once with long, lovely limbs to twirl and dance, voices for singing and communication, their lovely limbs twisted into the form of monsters as they lost their souls, their humanity. Some were blessed, gifted to be a Fairie or peaceful spirit. Others were cursed, bound to blood and despair.

Penelope couldn't remember who her Human side was, it had seemed like such a distant thing of the past. An echo across the vast lake, just the dull shout reaching her ears, but the words lost to her.

The creatures of the shadows chattered, vengeful spirits of the dark, plotting, planning.

How could someone so innocent and perfectly small survive in a world set to destroy her? She wished she knew. She clutched tightly to the scissors, having forgotten to put them away.

She supposed having some weapon would be worth it, even if they were only tiny sissors, used for hemming dresses and cutting locks of hair.

The trees towered over her, going farther up than any Fairie could fly. It overwhelmed her at first, the thought that perhaps, if they wished too, they could squish her like a bug. But with the bag between her shoulders, she had no choice but to walk. The trunks stretched high, high, far above her head like giant's, their limbs tangled together in loving embraces.

The sun was barely able to filter through the trees, casting vast shadows across the path she must walk.

"Where am I even supposed to go?" She muttered, kicking a pebble out of her way.

She had the vague feeling something was following her as she glanced nervously about. It was in the stillness of the air, the way the trees seemed to stop swaying and the world was still.

~ AUTHOR IN ~

I sincerely apologize everyone. I published this chapter without realizing before it was ready.
A hundred words later, it is now complete. I'm sorry if there was an inconvenience.

~ AUTHOR OUT ~