Once Upon a Faerie Tale

Chapter Eleven

Eleven:

One year later…

“Grandma!” Darby called as she stepped into the house. She pulled her blonde hair into a braid as she walked. “Grandma! Are you here?” She called again. 

“In the kitchen!” Verona, who though she was over seventy, did not sound frail at all.

When her granddaughter entered the kitchen, Verona was amazed, as she always was, of how much Darby looked like her when she was a young girl. Though she had some of her mother’s qualities, there was a definite resemblance. “I thought you were leaving on your trip.” Verona said as she set the crock pot for six hours, already feeling her mouth water at the thought of the pot roast. 

“I’m leaving pretty soon, I just wanted to say good-bye before I left. And I had a question I wanted to ask.” She said sheepishly. 

Verona’s eyebrows raised, “Oh?” She asked. “What question?”

Her eyes dropping to the floor before darting back up to meet her grandmother’s eyes, Darby quietly asked, “What is the name of the land in the stories you always tell me?” 

A smile spread across the older woman’s face. “It does not have a name.” 

“What?” Darby cried. “Why didn’t you make up a name?” She asked, incredulous.

“I didn’t make up the stories, and I couldn’t make up the name of the world they took place. The world has a name, but it’s been lost for thousands of years. Only the most ancient of witches knew the name.”

“Like Renalie, you said she was an ancient witch.”

“She’s the oldest of witches known to be alive, but that does not make her the oldest. The only witch old enough who has never been found dead is Hekate, one of the creators of witchcraft. But she disappeared long ago.”

“Then why didn’t she pass the name of the land on?” Darby frowned. 

“The name is said to be one of the most powerful forces in that world. Whoever knows the name of the world, has the power to rule it. There is an imbalance of power in that world, too many versatile characters that would lead to the destruction of itself. It will take a long time before the name will ever be able to come back, and the kingdoms united.” Verona started cleaning the counter and putting various ingredients back in their respective places.

“So…” Darby paused, “the kingdom’s will be united and the world will get it’s name back? That sounds like a silly thing to fight over.”

“The fight has yet to begin for the name, but when it does, it will be a fight to remember.”

***

Darby sang in the car on the way to Tallahassee where she and two others would be cave diving for a week. They had not seen each other for several months and it was going to be an eventful reunion. Michelle and Nick had been two of her best friends in college and now that she’d graduated their paths had not crossed. But this week was to change that. And hopefully for poor Michelle she would finally pluck up the courage to tell Nick she liked him. The internal battle had been waging for several years now, and the girl had yet to do anything about the guy that held her heart. 

They were exploring one of the lesser known caves that they had yet to explore. It was a little further north than many of the other caves and the group had only heard of a few people traversing it. Darby was excited, simply for the challenge it presented. It had been exciting just to pack all of her equipment. The dry suit was as embarrassingly tight as it had been in college, but she was fine with that. She mentally went through the list of things she needed to pack, making sure she had everything. I’ve got my masks, fins, gauge, timer, tanks, wing, harness, lights, knife, reel, wet notes, and markers. I’ve got everything…hopefully.