The Magical Music Box [Short Story]

Two

The two explained everything to me. 

I'm in the world of magic named Sapphira. Sapphira was once peaceful and colorful but when Helga became the queen, everything changed. 

Everyone’s life is in danger and miserable. She put the fairies under her spell so they could do evil deeds for her. She also took the powers of the hunters and after that she killed them, some luckily escaped. Hunters are like fairies but no wings, they also have magical powers.

Nico and Nova are one of the hunters. A month ago, a prophecy came out. It said that a person from another world who'll find the magical music box that will turn into a sapphire necklace will have the power to save the whole kingdom and put an end to Helga's evil deeds. And that person is me. 

I don't really think so.

After a long walk, we stopped next to a forest. The forest was the weirdest forest I've ever seen in my whole entire life. The trees were a little bit taller than us; I think it's as tall as my dad who once was a varsity player in a university when he was in college. The tree trunk was the fattest trunk I've ever seen in my whole life, it has a smooth texture and a color of cyan. The roots were like living snakes, which looked like it's moving and breathing. The color of the roots were also weird enough, it was a stripes of black and white. The leaves were like a bee's hive with a sticky green slime as honey. I stared at each of the trees my sight could reach; it looked like it had a closed mouth and eyes in its trunk.

Nico noticed what had caught my attention.

"I know right, it's the ugliest tree you'll ever see," he said.

"Yeah, how weird, " I responded.

All of a sudden, the two trees in front of me trembled hard and the eyes and mouths opened.

"Who said I'm ugly?" the smaller one asked.

"I'm going to rip your bones into pieces of wood," the other one said.

"They're alive!?" I exclaimed.

"Of course we're alive, " the smaller one replied.

"Oh, hi friends. Hi Nico, hello Nova and hello.......... Who is this?" the other one asked.

"Oh hi, this is Maxine. Maxine this smaller tree is Jico and this taller one is Zas" Nova introduced the trees.

I said hi to the two weird trees and they joyfully welcomed me to Sapphiria.

"Zas, Jico, please show us the door to Daybou," Nico smiled.

"Our pleasure is ours," Jico said happily.

Zas looked at Jico with a frown, "Huh? What did you say? That doesn't sound right?"

"Who wants to be right when I'm on your left?" Jico frowned.

The two stared at each other and they began laughing.

"That was the worst joke I ever heard", Nico whispered.

"I mean the pleasure is ours. Whatever, let's just show them" Jico said, still half-laughing.

"In the count of three, as sweet as we can be, Zas and Jico is the key, revealing the magic door for you and me. One, two, three" the two sang together.

The moment they finished their song, a door magically appeared between them.

"Get in before someone sees us," Zas instructed.

Nova, Nico and I immediately slipped to the door. As soon as we got in, the door slammed shut.

"Those trees were chocolate trees but because of Helga they became the ugliest tree in the world," Nova explained.

"Come on, we need to see Emmanuel," Nico said.

"Who's Emmanuel?" I asked.

"Our chief, he is Helga's brother. He should be the king but Helga wants to be the queen so he gave the opportunity to his younger sister. He never thought that Helga would go bad and be swallowed with greed," Nico explained.

"He's the rightful king. Everyone knows it.He is humble, kind, brave and caring. He is the one who's helping us to hide. And he is ready to sacrifice his life for us," Nova added.

I nodded at the information they've given me. I turned to the surroundings.

"Where are we?" I asked again.

"In Daybou, the village of the power pixies" Nico answered.

"I know it doesn't look like a village of pixies," Nova said with a sad face.

Nova is right, what I'm expecting are flowers, butterflies, grasses, and colorful cabins but the place looks like a desert and the cabins were as gray as the stones.

I look at the elf size fairies who wore faded rainbow colored clothes and dried flower crowns on their heads.

"Are those pixies?" I asked.

"Yes," Nico answered.

"Do they really have wings? In our folklore they haven't" I said.

"Well, they have," Nova said. "The only difference between a fairy and a pixie is that fairies have butterfly-like wings while pixies have dragonfly-like wings", she added.

"Pixies are faster", Nico said proudly.

We get in the two-storey brick house next to the waterless fountain. A man wearing the same clothes as Nico met us at the foot of the stairs.

"What is the news?" the man asked.

"Good news, the best news ever" Nova answered excitedly. 

"Come on, the chief had been waiting, " the man said.

We all climb the stairs. I noticed his eyes were both black.

"Why are your eye colors different from that man?" I whispered to Nova as I went closer to her.

"His magic has been taken. Same color of the eyes means no magic," Nova explained.

We entered the room in the far corner. A man in his late thirties was pacing back and forth, he was also wearing the same clothes as Nico except that he wore a red short cape on his back.