Faery Island

Wandering Giant

Chapter IX – Wandering Giant

"Why do you only call me when you're high?" by the Arctic Monkeys and "Mountain Sound" by Monsters and Men.

Rick

Anthony and Dian had been gone for about a day. Rick was grateful to have the place to himself for once. He never got time alone unless he was out on a run, that was only because Dian would get tired of him, and that Anthony and her wouldn’t be able to keep up.

But the house was quiet and lonely with him being the only person there, so he stood on the beach watching the waves crash against the shore. He figured they wouldn’t have gone far in to the forest. All this time he stayed away, trying not to bother them but now he was interested to where they were and what they were doing.

So, turning away to the water he traveled inland to the forest.

He ran without getting tired, already a good ways in, he saw no sign of his siblings or their things. He continued forward, wondering if something had happened to them. Something weird did happen at the house; they acted if he didn’t see it. But the black curling fog that had enveloped Dian, he could see the figure inside, a man.

And that stone, the one blood had gotten on. He had seen it before, but where he couldn’t remember it hurt his head to think about it. And it hurt more for him to think about what had cause the blood to seep from his wrist. . .  

He didn’t recognize much of his surroundings now, but he wasn’t looking at the trees and plants, just for his brother and sister. He didn’t even know he passed through an arch and the surroundings changed bit by bit.

He stopped to breath, he didn’t really need  It but they shouldn’t have gone this far out. “Dian? Anthony!” He called, but no one answered.

“This isn’t funny! Come back home, I’m getting bored!”  

“Anthony?” A voice said somewhere in the shadows. Rick shivered; it was a dream that would lead you through the tour of nightmares. “Anthony Fleece?”

“Who are you?” Rick searched the forest for the intruder. “What are you doing here? How do you know my brother’s name?”

“Brother?” The voice questioned. “He doesn’t have a brother, just sisters.”

Rick’s eyes narrowed where the shadows were gathered, they seemed darker. He was ready to punch a hole in whoever’s face it was on their island. After all he was trespassing, and he called Rick a girl.

“Show yourself.”

Coming from the shadows, a man stepped out. He was tall and pale; his nose stretched out from his face like beak, black eyes pierced Rick deeply. “I am Zelroth, and you are changling?”  

Rick shifted his weight and looked around, his head throbbed and his mouth had gone dry. “Rick, and what do you mean by changling? You sound crazy. How the hell did you get here?”

“I was born here, just like you.” Zelroth said and began to creep closer. Around him, things swarmed around, Rick couldn’t make them out.

“I wasn’t born here, we moved here.” Rick narrowed his eyes. “And neither were you, this island hadn’t even been found, no civilization at all.”

Zelroth smiled. “But that’s where you are wrong.” Slowly, the things surrounding him came in to focus, they were little, gray people, with a nose that was as long as their bodies that came down to a sharp point. They wore dead leaves around their bodies and their eyes were red. “You can see me, and for a matter of fact I am currently hiding myself from you. Took a little bit, but even in this short of time you sight is beginning to come back to focus.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about, my eyes are perfectly fine.”

“You are in your peek. What you see,” Zelroth says and gestures to himself and the pesties. “You’re one of us. Why do you think you’re so much bigger, stronger, faster, and greater than your siblings? You’re a changling, Ricalos and you can’t change that.”

Rick’s head felt like it was going to explode. He knew that name, but yet he was sure he hadn’t heard it, but yet he had. From like another life. Rick shook his head, and backed away. This dude was crazy, insane, and mental.

“No, stay away,” Rick said putting distance between him. Zelroth studied him without any kind of emotions, his body stiff and unmoving.

“You’ll see, you’ll come back to me soon.”

Rick had it. From deep down, something he usually ran off anger flared inside him. “Get the Hell of our island!”

Something else, like electricity ran through out him, power. It scared him, and Zelroth only smiled in response. Rick wanted to punch him, no he wanted to do much more than just punch him. . .

He wanted to kill him.

Before he could act on his rash, unknown emotions he turned his back and ran as fast as he could. He didn’t move like a giant deer though the forest instead of just plowing through like he usually would.

He took sharp turns and curves trying to make it impossible for the creep to find him. Soon he came back to the house; alone once again, he slammed the door and took in a heavy breath.

His hands shook, something weird was going on and his brother and sister were nowhere in sight.

Changling. That word rung throughout his mind. His need to talk to someone.

Without exactly knowing what he was doing, he found himself upstairs starring in to Dian’s room. Books, paper and pens of all times were scattered around the room left to right. It looked like someone purposely messed it up, and if hadn’t known better he would have been worried, but Dian was just like that.

Opening the laptop up, he hit the call button to the only contact she had.

“Dian!” Owen’s voice practically squealed, his eyes were sullen and his skin paler than normal. The dork looked ruff and didn’t look any better when his face fell and realized who was sitting in the chair. “Rick? What do you want? What have you done?”

Okay, so Dian’s little friend wasn’t too fond of him. They didn’t get along to well, Owen pretty much hated him but Rick’s feeling weren’t that off either.

“Look, Dian and Anthony their gone.”

“What do you mean? I know Dian was acting weird but-“

“What does changling mean?” Rick found himself asking suddenly.

Owen was taken aback. For a moment he didn’t speak and then he narrowed his eyes. “Why suddenly interested in fairy tales, Rick?”

Rick gritted his teeth, again he wanted to punch something, someone, he wasn’t use to so much anger that was so out of control. “Just tell me.”

“It’s a faery child that replaces a human child. Their some kind of trading fey do. Their child gets raised by human parents, soon coming back to their world or being considered unnormal in human standards, and they get a child slave. Why?”

‘Anthony only had sisters.’

Rick’s mouth felt dry. “Can they be replaced without the parents noticing even if the sex is different than the human?”

Owen’s brows furrowed. “Well yes, fey are magical, I’m pretty sure they could replace memories or even enchant them or something.”

“Thanks dude,” Without saying more Rick hung it up and left her computer.

He cursed outloud. He didn’t believe magic, or fairytales, but what he had seen in their kitchen and in the forest?

He might need to change his look on the world.