The Suggestion Box, Vol. 4: A to Z Challenge

Letter B: "Braving The Bear"

*This story is a sequel to "His First Quest" from The Suggestion Box, Vol. 3: One Thousand Words--https://www.wattpad.com/403942439-the-suggestion-box-volume-3-one-thousand-words-his )

The babbling, silver brook wound silently through the old, overgrown forest. All was still and peaceful—up until the moment a young knight crashed through the bracken, gasping and muttering to himself.

"Merciful Lord in Heaven!" he groaned. "There must be a way to save her! I must find a way!" He collapsed to his knees next to the brook, tearing up the sod with his hands and marring the thin, glittering surface with clods of dirt. He cast his arms wide and roared to the heavens, "Why, God? WHY? IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT ME TO BE? A simpleton who betrays the trust of the very first being I encounter? I shouldn't wonder if she had been an angel sent to guide me, and I have delivered her into the claws of a demon!"

His shoulders sagged as he bent over the rippling water. The ancient forest, once so full of promise, now only served as a painful reminder of his failure, and the innocent creature he had lost.

As he tried to regain his composure, a flash of color caught his eye. Sir Martin stilled and held his breath as the largest butterfly he had ever witnessed wafted into view. Its wings bore streaks of every color imaginable, in no particular pattern that he recognized, but it struck him as beautiful, nonetheless.

The butterfly wafted closer, coming to settle on Sir Martin's pauldron. A tiny face not unlike Bronwen's grinned up at him. Her dark hair, rather than tumbling around her shoulders like the young sparrow-fairy's, stood up from her head in a sleek, curling point.

Sir Martin flinched and drew back, leaving the butterfly to flap faintly in midair before winding soft curlicues over the surface of the river. The tiny face gave him a tender frown of deep concern before she turned away and began fluttering down the course of the brook.

"I'm sorry!" Sir Martin blurted, reaching toward her. "I was just startled! I didn't mean to frighten you. Please come back!"

The butterfly-winged fairy circled back around in wide, gentle loops. She settled on Sir Martin's outstretched hand, and regarded him solemnly.

"Sir Knight," she said in the same gentle tone Bronwen had used, "why are you so sad?"

Sir Martin fought to speak as the guilt formed a stone in his throat. "I... I have betrayed a fairy of this forest, and I have failed in my first quest." He hung his head. "I am not worthy of the knight's noble reputation, being nothing but a coward."

The fairy tucked her wings up and settled onto his fingers as a seat. "How have you betrayed us? It could be that there is some way to redeem this circumstance."

Sir Martin shook his head. "No, there is no redemption for me! It was the Beast of the Forest, which she described to me, who fooled me by changing his guise, and though she warned me plenty of times, I did not heed—and now he has her!"

The Butterfly crossed her tiny arms, resting her hands upon her pale shoulders. "That is no great trespass, nor are you particularly weak, Sir Knight. The Beast delights in making fools of the strongest men, tricking them into underestimating him. It will be more difficult than you can face to rescue this fairy, if that is what you desire to do, because once the Beast has one of us in his clutches, he can make it very difficult to let any of us back out again."

Sir Martin felt the wild surge within himself as the stone left his throat, and he inhaled deeply. "Whatever price, whatever task is required of me, I will do it!" he promised. "Even up to yielding my own life, to make up for the damage I have caused!"