by Jacey Ward
“My mother is no longer in our earthly realm.” Zahreena glanced downward. “She passed when I was a young child. My aunt and the woodland elders have cared for me until now.” She saw no harm in telling him that bit of news about her. Maybe it could finally help him see that those living in the Faery Realm suffered heartache and hardship just like the rest of the world did.
“I’m sorry,” Hunter said, after placing his finger beneath her chin and raising her to look at him.
Oh what are you doing? She thought. Please don’t act as though you care, I have to be strong and I know better than to fall for that.
But when Zahreena looked into his amber eyes, all she could see reflecting back at her was compassion. Her aunt’s words from the night before came back at her ‘what you see, is not always real’.
She started to pull away from his intense gaze and turn back to the ruins of the past, when he too lowered his hands from her shoulders.
“We should head back, this has been a shock to you. We can come back to look at things more closely another day. There is some time at our disposal.”
Zahreena nodded, exhausted after an awful night’s sleep and overwhelmed with what she had witnessed here today. She tried not to reveal how surprised she was, when this time he reached out to entwine his arm around hers.
Chapter 11
Back in his residence, Hunter tossed about, finally giving up on sleep.
He kept going over what the day had revealed. He desperately wanted to believe that what they had seen was some elaborate ruse she and her little friends had cooked up for him.
Unfortunately, he could not erase the look of shock on her face when they first arrived at seeing where they had been taken. And he would never forget the look of raw grief and dismay on her face, when she had seen those charred bodies on the ground. The creatures they had seen were more likely than not, members of her ancestral brethren, as she had guessed. She had clearly been dealt a shock when she saw the woman who so closely resembled her mother laying dead in the ruins.
“Just what game are we playing at here, mother?” He spoke aloud. “Why would this project bring us to a crime scene that so closely revolved around Zahreena?”
Of course he didn’t expect any answers. He did plan to discover some answers though. He had to make his way back to that scene, and without Zahreena this time. Something stunk about this, and for once he wasn’t as ready to put it all on the faeries.
Zahreena and he had planned to visit the ruins again in a few days, after she’d had some time to speak with her aunt and the elders about what they’d seen. Hunter; however, was hoping that Kadence or Valluna could help him get back to those coordinates. He needed to look around on his own, to get an idea of what might have happened all those years ago. He also wanted to have a look at the bodies and the surrounding area.
When Hunter finally managed to fall asleep, his green-eyed nightly visitor didn’t morph into the troll. Instead she beseeched him to figure out what had happened. She reached her arms toward him, before falling to the ground and being engulfed in flames.
Once more, Hunter woke with a start, sweat sliding down his forehead at the idea that Zahreena was the body he had seen behind those trees.
“Kamber! Twice in as many weeks, to what do I owe this visit? I assume you’re not expected to meet your mother on a Sunday?” Kadence greeted him in her typical fun-loving manner.
“I need a favour, Kadence. I’m sure you’re well aware of this project that the heads of the academy have me working on.” Hunter began.
“Have all of us working on, I think you mean. I have first-hand knowledge, in fact ...” Kadence sounded about as impressed as he was with this mess. “I’m dealing with the elf named Atlynth. He seems to have quite the wrath for you.”
“Whatever, I’ve got bigger issues than him not liking me.” Hunter commented.
“Trust me, Hunter – so far he’s proven himself to be a little rotter. It’ll take me a while to get through to his good side, if he even has one! But, I forgot, we were talking about your issues.” She sent him a wide grin, before continuing, “my poor Hunter, is Miss Daely proving to be a troublesome handful for you too?” Kadence tsk’d jokingly at him.
“Remind me why we’re friends again, sorceress?” Hunter asked the beauty before him pointedly. Her abnormally pale eyes flashed him a look.
“If we weren’t, who else would you turn to when you wanted to go on a special little day trip?” Kadence asked, not missing a beat.
“Can you teleport me, if I give you coordinates?” Hunter asked of her.
“Of course, I can – I’m not entirely sure how wise it would be for me to do so, however. Why aren’t you asking Zahreena to teleport you again?” Kadence always did come right to the point.
“I want to have a look around, without her being underfoot. Something stinks about this whole scenario they’ve got us caught up in.” He revealed, trusting her to not relate anything he shared with her to his mother.
“I see some progress has been made on your project, already,” she said slyly, elaborating only when he shot her a questioning look. “It would seem you are not so quick to place the stink on your faery, this time.”
“She’s not my faery, but she does seem to be as blindsided as me, by what we’ve discovered so far.” Hunter admitted, albeit somewhat grudgingly.
“I can teleport you, but might I suggest it would be more beneficial for you to use the new machine our science department installed this year.”
“Please tell me you’re joking? They’ve finally got that loopy thing working?” Hunter asked in disbelief.
“I’m not joking at all, dragon! It’s been tested repeatedly and has proven to be very effective, in fact. They affectionately refer to it as ‘the transporter’. They’ve even applied a swooshing sound effect to it, as it breaks your body into teeny, tiny little particles and reassembles you at the coordinates you input.”
“Holy hell!” Hunter exclaimed. “I don’t know whether I’d be better off sticking with you or relying on some science geek’s machine putting me back together in one piece again? How does one get back on their little machine?” He asked.
“Oh I think they’ve got some little remote control thingy, that’s sure to get you back, provided the batteries don’t die on it.” She vaguely explained, a twinkle in her eye.
“Come on, Hunter, of course they’ve made it foolproof! I wouldn’t suggest that you try something that would prove a danger to you. Normally, I would not hesitate to help you, but given the nature of your project I should think you wouldn’t want too many witnesses with you, as you gather your evidence for this particular case.”
As much as he hated to admit it, she was probably right about that. He knew better than to ask her if she knew anything about it. She likely wouldn’t have a comment or if she did, it would be so cryptic, he’d spend another few months trying to decipher that.
You know me so well, dragon! Safe travels – don’t leave her out of this for too long, friend. She needs to know the facts of this case too.
And there it was, the parting shot that always left him looking for her double meaning and the echoing laughter that always seemed to follow it..
Hunter felt like he was literally going to puke, as he materialized on the charred remains of what clearly had once been a thriving forest. It was definitely a smoother ride with Zahreena – he vowed to discover as much as he could on this trip, so he wouldn’t have to use that blasted machine again, ever!
He wanted to scan the ruins from the sky, so once his stomach had settled he mentally prepared himself to begin his transformation to dragon. He knew he had a much better chance of either spotting some anomaly or sniffing something out, in his dragon form.
His skin felt like it was shredding as the protective layers of scales encased him. The only part of him unshielded was his underbelly. Although he had gotten used to this transformation, the worst of his transition had to be his head and face twist
ing and stretching into an elongated shape similar to that of a prehistoric dinosaur, sleeker perhaps, and less reptilian, but fierce when fully shifted, none-the-less.
Hunter was elated when he fully flexed the huge expanse of his wings and took to the skies. This was always one of the most freeing moments in his life, being able to soar through the skies with nothing but space surrounding him.
It wasn’t long, however, before a movement in the fire ravaged land below caught his eye, as it had done before with Zahreena. The scene played out the same way as it had before, with an assortment of winged and earth-bound creatures venturing out from where he imagined they had hidden themselves in protection – but from what?
He lowered his altitude, inhaling deeply through his nostrils. He picked up on an odour in the air, so distinctive and alarmingly familiar to him. The mixture of burning timber and leaves, and unfortunately, yes, even burning flesh were only part of what his sense of smell honed in on. There were merely faint remnants in the air, but enough that his nose caught them.
Several flashes caught his eyes, as he swung his large body around for a third look below.
With each sweep he made, he covered more area, trying to get a better sense of the scale of what had transpired.
He swooped back down to the ground, landing on his hind legs, his tail balancing him as he bent to retrieve the glittering remnants that had drawn his attention from above.
Surprisingly enough, he was actually able to pick the pieces up, but as he lifted them from their original setting, they seemed to transform before his eyes. They aged dramatically as he took them from where they had been partially covered in ash and debris.
What kind of bizarre magic were the leaders of his school playing at?
The pieces he held in his large hands had become nearly fossilized, encased in centuries of grit and rain, erosion and weathering, and yet, when he had seen them from the sky, they looked as bright and shiny as they likely had been the day they’d been shed.
Despite the aged condition of the remnants in his hand, Hunter believed he knew all too well what he was holding and the thought had him shaking his head in disbelief.
He had to get back and get these tested. Before he shifted back to his human form, he took several more sweeps over the area.
He was not really surprised to see numerous patches where the ground was darkened in a broad circle, as though blasts of intense heat had been dropped from above and billowed out as they hit the ground.
Damn! What the hell was he looking at?
As he once again brought his body to the ground, his body had all but shifted back by the time he had landed on his bare feet. He reached for the bag he had brought along, depositing the fossilized remnants he’d collected and reaching for his clothes.
Once he was fully dressed again, he walked over to where the bodies lay, basically frozen in time. Hunter was not expecting to see claw markings on the remaining bark of the trees. Nor was he prepared for what he discovered on one of the bodies partially covered by the fallen tree.
The faery Zahreena had said looked like her mother had jagged tears crossing from the left to right of her torso.
Dammit! A forest fire hadn’t gotten this one! She had nearly been ripped in half.
Sickened by the revelations he had discovered today, he turned away from the body, only to freeze in his tracks as he spotted the littlest girl hanging back from the horror.
She had short red curls on top of her head and pointed almost elfin ears. If he didn’t know any better, Hunter would have sworn, as Zahreena had done yesterday, that he was staring into the brilliant green eyes of a younger version of herself.
For the first time in his life, his heart went out to these ancient creatures. Not only had they been robbed of their home, no doubt once lush and beautiful, they’d also lost several of their own kind to a brutal attack.
Hunter wasn’t entirely sure what he would do with the suspicions that were brewing deep within him. His gut instinct was usually dead on. He could only hope he was wrong this time with the conclusions he was drawing.
He reached for the remote that would transport him back to the academy. He punched in the return coordinates and tried to prepare his body for the bumpy ride ahead when he pushed the engage button.
Chapter 12
Zahreena planned to spend the following long weekend at her home in the forest. She wanted to ask Lilithe some questions about what she knew of their ancient history. She remained very troubled by all she had taken in, when she and Hunter had traveled back to the destruction that was the original home of the Faery Realm – she was certain of that now, after looking over some satellite images of the area. The shape of the clearing and position of bodies of water had not really changed much, from what she could tell.
What on earth had she gotten herself into with this so-called project? And Hunter? Since that day, he’d been almost friendly towards her if they saw each other on campus.
They had met a couple of times to try to figure out if the fire had actually been a crime against the Faery Realm, or if it was more of a natural disaster that had befallen them.
Zahreena honestly hoped it was the latter, she couldn’t fathom anyone hating them so much that they would deliberately burn them alive in their home. The thought of that made her nearly physically ill.
Hunter, while markedly friendlier, had also seemed oddly preoccupied since they had last visited the site. As tempted as she was, Zahreena refused to try to read what might be bothering him. When she had told him she respected others’ privacy, she was telling the truth. At the same time though, Lilithe’s words stayed with her about not always trusting what she thought she was seeing.
She and Hunter were planning to meet when she returned on Monday. Hopefully she would have something of value to share with him, and if something was bothering him, he would let her know what it was.
Zahreena grabbed her bag and dematerialized from her residence, arriving in the blink of an eye at her aunt’s home. She didn’t immediately rematerialize there however, as she wanted to study the pictures she’d told Hunter of at the site. She also wanted to check to see if there were any renditions or drawings of what their homeland looked like hundreds of years ago.
She poured over any pictures she could find, not really seeing anything of importance other than the resemblance they already knew about.
She quickly returned everything back to the way she had found it when she heard voices in the next room. She decided to show herself, before she got caught snooping around like some sort of spy.
Something in the conversation registered with her, and rather than materialize, she edged closer to where the voices were.
“Which dragon do we get blood from now? I’m not going anywhere near them, now that the effects of the ancients’ curse have completely worn off. They’re not incapacitated at all, any longer!”
That was her Aunt Lilithe’s plaintive voice, but what on earth was she talking about?
“Maybe it’s time to get one of the ten in on this. They reside right there, they could come by the blood in the campus clinic. What does it matter now, anyway, Lilithe? They are in. They’ve been in their classes for nearly two full months now.”
Zahreena recognized the gruff voice as one of the elders of the realm.
“But they are far from being accepted, Gillie. They’ve been ostracized, ignored, threatened – we still need that chancellor to ensure they won’t be cast out half-way through the year.
“I will not have my niece or the others kicked out because we failed to follow through on our promise to that one. He’s one of the reasons humans have such a bad reputation – greedy, self-serving. If he kicked them out, well, that would just break my Ree’s heart! And we haven’t found anything out about this project they’ve all been subjected to. None of them have really said much of worth about what it is they’re doing.”
“Maybe no news is good news, Lilithe. They’re clearly not being harmed or threat
ened. They’re in a post-secondary institute, of course they’re going to have to complete projects—”
“But not normally with partners who hate them, and blame them for any little thing that befalls them.”
“I know that, Lilithe. And you know as well as I do, this curse is not a ‘little thing.’ Whoever cast that magic knew well what they were doing ... They may only succumb to it for a short while, but that is enough to teach them about being the weaker species. Don’t worry, Lilithe – we’ll watch over our little ones, we’ll keep the good greedy chancellor in line and all will be well. Zahreena will probably be here any moment so we need to stop this discussion, now!” The elder firmly stated, exiting through the kitchen.
Zahreena had to act fast – nearly knocking down a chair in her haste to rematerialize while she moved back to where she had left her bag. As she felt herself solidify again, she called out to her aunt.
“Hellooo ... I’m home! Aunt Lilithe, are you here?” She questioned, trying to sound normal after what she had just overheard. She’d mull over that conversation later.
“Ree?” Her aunt came through the swinging door from the kitchen. “When did you arrive, my dear?”
“I just popped in a moment ago, Aunty. How are you doing?” she asked, sounding a bit breathy.
“I’m fine, my dear! It’s so good to see you. I miss having you around,” her aunt gushed, rushing up and giving Zahreena a big bear hug. “Have they been treating you any better at that school, yet, Ree? How is that mysterious project going, with that professor’s son?”
Leave it to Lilithe to cut right to the chase.
“Everything is fine, Aunty. I’m quite enjoying my classes and the project is coming along. I’m learning a lot.”
She had no intention of going into detail about what exactly she was learning with this project or her partner, but she needed to set Lilithe’s mind at ease if she hoped to get any answers out of her this weekend. And now, with what she had just overheard, all she had were even more questions.
