by Zara Zenia
I was currently waiting for my three fairy friends to return. I was in hopes that they would bring back another message from Jinurak. I lived for the moments when I heard from him. His notes made me feel connected to the outside world and gave me a purpose to keep going against the odds.
Receiving messages from Jinurak were the highlights of my day and whenever a response back was delayed, I found myself spiraling into a crestfallen state of mind. The fairies would do their best to lift my spirits, but I harbored disappointment, nonetheless. I knew it probably wasn’t Jinurak’s fault for the delays. Hopefully he was diligently working out an action plan to find me as quickly as possible.
I dipped my toes into the crisp water. It was icy cold, but I didn’t mind the contrast to the warm sun beating down on my back. I pushed my feet in, submerging them to my ankles and splashed them around a bit. The water was cold but refreshing.
It wasn’t like I had anything else to do to pass my time here. I was too wary to go exploring, venturing out into the woods past the stream. I didn’t know what lurked out there in the shadows and I didn’t really want to find out either.
The fairies had told me to stay on this side of the stream anyway, and I trusted their judgment. They were far more familiar with the grounds of the castle than I was. Hopefully I would obtain freedom before I had a chance to become further accustomed to my bizarre surroundings.
I leaned back against the edge of a tree next to the slippery rock I was sitting on. The bark was scratchy against my skin. I yawned and glanced up at the canopy of vibrantly green leaves shielding me from the sun and forming a canopy of sorts, an umbrella of shade.
“Where the hell am I?” I whispered to the wind.
Of course, I received no answer aside from the gentle breeze of nature fluttering through my hair and tickling my cheeks.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that it wasn’t winter in this location. The fairies never really gave me a solid answer on our whereabouts, but part of me wondered if they didn’t even have that information themselves.
“Well, I have no idea where I am, but hopefully I will soon find out.” I continued to talk to myself because there was no one else around to provide me company.
I pushed the hair off my face and tucked it behind my ear. That’s when I heard the sound of buzzing behind me.
I quickly spun around, expecting to be blindsided by some kind of ambush but much to my relief and surprise, I saw the pink, gold, and blue shimmers of radiant light bobbing along through the air and coursing on a gleeful path in my direction.
I stood up and wiped the moisture from the wet rock off the back of my dress with my hands and started drifting in the direction of the trio of beautiful fairies to meet them in the middle.
They were carrying the EMR with them, barely able to hold the clunky device through the air with their delicate bodies.
“Here,” I said and reached for it as soon as I was close enough. “Let me take that from you.”
My heart began to drum excitedly in my chest. My insides tingled with anticipation.
“Did he write back?” I asked, knowing the answer since they were carrying the device with them to search for me.
“Yes.” Aine gave me a prideful smile.
All three of the fairies were adorable in their diligence and enthusiastic quests to help me stay on the radar in communicating with Jinurak. Whenever they noticed me in a joyful mood, I noticed that their demeanors were radiant too. They fed off my emotions, so I had to be careful not to spoil their bliss.
“Go ahead and turn it on,” Sage chimed with delight.
“Gladly.” My fingers were shaking with excitement as I switched on the screen and it glowed with fantastic illumination.
I saw the message from Jinurak. It was written in that same fanciful text used by the fairies. I was still trying to get used to the script, as lovely as it was.
I could hardly contain my exhilaration as I squinted at the screen and attempted to focus on the scroll. I read the note aloud so the fairies could find vindication for their hard work and effort at getting all these messages back and forth.
Thank you for sending me another note assuring me that you are okay for the moment. I’m so sorry you are in this mess and I promise you that I’m still working diligently to find and rescue you as quickly as possible.
I read the note twice, relishing in the contact even though it wasn’t in person or over the phone. I longed to hear his voice, but I didn’t know if this communicator had that type of function. Either way, I knew it was too risky and I didn’t want to risk putting myself or the fairies in that type of danger.
“You are glowing,” Rose said and gave me a dreamy look.
That’s when I realized my cheeks suddenly hurt from smiling. I was grinning from ear to ear and I hadn’t even talked to Jinurak. All I had were these messages in forms of texts, but that was enough to boost my mood.
That’s when I really began to realize the depth of feelings that I harbored for him. In my heart resided a passionate longing to be with him. Even across whatever dimensions and worlds apart we were, the chemistry was still strong and magnetic.
The flame of attraction and love was still flickering, burning bright. Neither one of us would give up until we were in each other’s arms. I hadn’t yet met him in person, but I already knew to expect sparks to fly and rainbows to appear in the sky.
I knew it was a bit naïve to assume that I would obtain a fairy tale ending, but I had to keep the hope alive or fear would gnaw at my brain and leak into my conscious. I couldn’t be plagued with negativity. Not now, not ever. Nora wasn’t going to win this battle. She would have to take me down first. Giving up was not an option.
I didn’t want to fester the crippling fear of the unknown in my brain. There had to be a feasible solution to getting myself out of this situation.
“Am I really glowing?”
“Yes.” All three fairies nodded in unison as they stared at me with rosy cheeks and smiles of admiration.
My grin was stretched to its capacity now. I touched my hand to my belly and beamed at the three fairies who I was no proud to call my friends, the only friends I had in this cartoony world that I still had trouble putting into any kind of perspective that made sense.
“Jinurak is going to come for me,” I said with optimism ringing in my voice. “He will take me away from this dreadful place once and for all.”
I didn’t mean any offense to them, and they didn’t seem to take any which gave me a sense of relief.
“We think so too,” Aine said. “You are brave with such strength and perseverance like a warrior princess soldier. Just hold on for a little while longer until he finds you.”
“I’m doing my best,” I said with a resigned chuckle. I appreciated Aine’s kind compliments. “As long as I stay away from that pesky fire breathing dragon…”
The fairies exchanged a glance as if the dragon was child’s play in comparison to my problems. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the concept that they were so frightened of the trolls and not the dragon. It didn’t make any sense, but did anything make sense in this world? The answer to that question was not really.
“I better go back to the castle and hide this EMR back under my mattress,” I said to the fairies and held it up.
“Good idea,” Rose said with a responsive nod of approval. “You don’t want the device getting into the wrong hands.”
“Absolutely not.”
We all knew who Rose was referring to when she mentioned the EMR in the wrong hands. I didn’t want to jeopardize Jinurak’s success rate at finding me by doing something foolish. I would do anything not to get caught communicating with the outside world.
As I walked toward the castle with the fairies fluttering around me in tow, I smiled at them. I held out hope that Jinurak was on his way to rescue me, but in the meantime, I had these three beautiful fairies to keep me company and boost my spirits. They were great friends an
d I was growing fond of their companionship.
When we had almost made it to the back doors of the castle, the two trolls jumped from behind a pair of bushes next to the windows.
Aine let out a tiny timid scream and the other two flew higher into the air, visibly trembling with terror.
The trolls were torturous, but in more of a nuisance type of way. They didn’t even look up at the fairies.
I wasn’t necessarily afraid of the stumpy little ill-tempered trolls, but my heart dropped every time the foul-smelling beasts came too close and breeched my personal space.
“We have to leave,” Sage cried regretfully from behind my ear. “If the trolls find us with you—”
I didn’t give her a chance to finish. I waved them away. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I can fend for myself.”
I stood defiantly in front of the trolls as they each shot me hostile scowls through narrowed eyes.
“Leave me alone,” I demanded, standing my ground and planting my feet to the grass. I placed my hands on my hips and returned the trolls snarly glares.
They looked like they had just woken up from a long nap. Their eyes were groggy and glazed over with fatigued sleepiness. I took this advantage and raced into the castle before they ripened into more of an awake state and decided to torment me. I refused to give them a window of opportunity to rattle me any further than they already did on a routine basis.
Then, as soon as I stepped into the castle and locked the door behind me, I heard footsteps coming from the opposite direction. My skin crawled. My heart pounded nervously, and I froze in place. I had managed to get across the lawns without a detrimental encounter with the dragon and only a simplistic crossed path with the trolls, but now I was going to face my kryptonite.
As if things weren’t already stressful enough, the dial instantly went from bad to worse. I heard the aggressive cackle of Nora’s malicious laughter behind me. She was the phoniest person I had ever met in my life, if you could even call her that. She didn’t deserve the title of being a person. She was too cruel.
I tried to cover the EMR with my shirt, but it had unfortunately been too late. Nora saw it. I tried to run down the hallway to the room I had been sleeping in, but she caught up with me and stood in front of the doorway before I had a chance to leap inside and seal her out.
“Not so fast, you little bitch,” she hissed, barring her teeth like an animal as she glared daggers at me.
I swallowed hard and glanced back down the hallway. Should I make a break for it? What if she had a gun or a knife and she tried to kill me if I attempted to flee again?
I didn’t really have anywhere to go. I was more or less…trapped in this unpleasant situation. Nora had shown up at the worst possible time.
Still, I tried to keep the device hidden protectively behind my back. Nora extended her arms, frantically clawing at my arms in order to attempt to snatch the EMR from me.
I struggled against her, swatting her away with one free hand.
“Stop it,” I ordered.
“Give me that thing!” she growled.
“No!” I shouted back.
“I will send my dragon after you,” she threatened.
“Not in the house,” I retorted.
Nora’s eyes flickered with fury. I was going to have to face her wrath no matter what.
“Give me the device at once,” she demanded again.
Her forehead wrinkled in disgust and she jutted out her jaw with hatred, staring at me with steely eyes.
“No.” I shook my head.
I was probably digging myself deeper into a hole of Nora’s animosity. There would be hell to pay against her wrath, but I couldn’t bring myself to hand over the device holding the new message from Jinurak. I hadn’t had a chance to delete it yet.
“Where did you get that?” Her eyes stung my soul with ferocity.
“Nowhere.”
I wasn’t about to give up my three fairy friends.
I would bite my own tongue off before I swirled them even further into my problems. They were innocent. They were merely trying to help me and for their service, I secretly vowed to offer them my protection with a code of silence.
“Don’t lie to me, you little bitch,” Nora spat.
Her cheeks were red, undoubtedly burning with the fire of rage brewing up inside of her. Before long, it would explode. I didn’t want to be anywhere near her when that happened.
“Stop calling me defiling names,” I shouted. I glanced out the window to make sure the fairies were nowhere in sight.
I saw the trolls though, stupidly waddling back and forth between the door and the window as if they expected me to just waltz out and into their trap. I hated to disappoint them, but that was never going to happen.
“I’ll call you whatever I want because I am the queen of this castle and this entire village and you will do what I say!” she roared with anger. Her voice shrilly bellowed down the hallway.
I cringed and took a step backward.
“You think you are so perfect and pretty,” Nora said. “But you are just a foolish, boring girl. Who would want you?” There she went again, slamming my character without batting an eyelid.
“Well I have news for you. He doesn’t want you. He doesn’t care about you. He is just using you to mate with so that he can save his race and bring whatever babies you produce back to his native planet. If you think for one single second that he is going to bring you back with him, then you are even more foolish than you look.”
I tightened my jaw and glared at her. I balled my fists as she continued to snidely stroll toward me. With each step she took, I took one back, but she was closely encircling me and nearly backing me into a corner down at the end of the hallway.
“Lies,” I whispered through clenched teeth. “You are spouting lies about him.”
Nora cackled with a laugh that sent chills up and down my spine. She waved her perfectly manicured fingertips through the air as if dismissing my concept.
“You are a foolish girl. A naïve girl who doesn’t really understand what men are like.”
“Jinurak is not like other men,” I said. “Besides, he’s from Trilyn.”
“You think that is a valid argument?” Nora’s laughter went up a notch until it sounded desperate, high and squeaky.
“Why not?” I pursed my lips. “He’s kind, gentle—”
“You are an idiot!” Nora shouted. “He just wants to rent your uterus so he can have his perfect heirs! He’ll never care about you. He and his brothers just want to procreate to repopulate their home planet.”
“If that was true, then why did he never mention this to me?” I asked. “He never even told me he was a prince in the first place.”
Nora let out a mocking chuckle. “Why would he tell you his plan to trap you? He was just trying to convince you that he was a decent guy but he’s really a snake in the grass.”
“The only snake is you,” I said with a harsh tone.
Nora gave me a wicked smile but there was no kindness reflected in her eyes. She was attempting to brainwash me into believing that Jinurak was a monster, but I refused to take her bait. The only monster was her.
“Jinurak is the one you should be mad at,” Nora bickered. “He is the one who had you sent her for capturing. He is the one who won’t let you leave until he gets what he wants.”
“Then why isn’t he here tormenting me? Why is it you who is doing that deed? Why does the dragon only answer to your direct orders?”
Nora opened her mouth and then clamped it shut again. She stammered. I thought I had her right where I wanted, caught in her own lies for a moment.
I should have known that she was going to be able to recover her stamina quickly. She didn’t stay down for long. I was surprised at how quickly she recovered her poise.
“The dragon is a precious animal and does what it’s told by Jinurak’s orders, not my own.”
“I don’t believe a single thing you say,” I said with a
flash of boldness.
I knew that Nora wanted to intimidate me but as long as I remembered that reuniting with Jinurak was my end goal, I was able to push her ridiculous demands and outlandish character bashing about him to the back of my mind.
“You better start believing,” Nora said. “Because he is going to force you to have his babies. You will give up your entire life to please him and for what?”
My anger was ripening. I took a step toward Nora. I wasn’t afraid of her. I wasn’t going to allow her to back me into a corner anymore.
“I’m not giving anything up because he didn’t force me to get on a plane to go and visit him. I did that on my own free will, but I did not choose to come to whatever the hell this place is!” I shouted.
I felt the veins bulging in my neck and I thrashed my arms through the air, gesturing around to this weird castle in the middle of what looked like a fictional village. I knew that something wasn’t right about this place.
Nora advised me to distrust Jinurak, but she was the real conniving mastermind of whatever plot she was trying to formulate here.
“You aren’t going to pull the wool over my eyes,” I continued. “I know Jinurak is coming to rescue me from this hell.”
“He is the hell.” Nora’s eyes shimmered with hostility. “And soon you will find that out, but it will be too late for you. I feel sorry for you.”
“No,” I argued. “I feel sorry for you.” I pointed a derogatory finger at her. “You breed envy and spite in your heart and that is just sad. You are taking your misery out on someone like me who you don’t even know. I pray that you will one day have an unhardened heart and can be happy for other people’s successes.”
Nora visibly shifted her weight. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face was twisted into a grimace.
“And you are right. Jinurak is coming for me, but not in the perspective way that you are trying to say. The real painted picture will be a much different outcome than what you imagine.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Nora clicked her tongue and scoffed.
