The Wandering Inn_Volume 1

by Pirateaba

  That was, until one of them spat in Erin’s eye.

  Fairy spit is small, but the creatures were cold as ice. Erin yelped and grabbed at her eye as the fairy started cursing at her. Pisces muttered in a soft voice as he ducked away from the Frost Fairies flying over his head.

  “Told you.”

  The fairy who’d spat on Erin hovered close to the human girl as she rubbed frantically at her stinging eye. She glared at Erin.

  “And what are ye lookin’ at? Another mortal come to gawk? Begone with yeh!”

  She had a faintly Irish accent. Erin wasn’t actually sure if it was Irish or Scottish, which betrayed her ignorance, but if she had been an expert of a native to Ireland, she would have recognized the Frost Fairy’s accent as Irish. Specifically, since Irish accents differed so dramatically geographically, her accent was vaguely reminiscent of the Monaghan county of Ireland.

  But to Erin, it was just an odd way of speaking that seemed to involve saying ‘ya’ or possibly ‘yeh’ with every other word. And what was stranger was that not all the Frost Fairies talked the same. Some had vaguely British accents – West Country, Southern Welsh, North Welsh, Edinburgh – so varied and so thick that Erin could barely make out one word in two when they spoke at once.

  And chattering seemed to be the Frost Fairies’ default setting, as they swooped around Erin’s head, talking loudly.

  “Look, look! Another human?”

  “Can she see us too?”

  “It seems like it!”

  “Hear how she squealed at the cold! Do it again!”

  Despite first contact, Erin was still entranced. She raised her voice.

  “No—I mean, I can see you. Can I talk to you?”

  Pisces stared at Erin as if she’d gone mad.

  “Just who exactly are you talking to?”

  The fairies had heard Erin, though. Her words sent them into wild spirals as they flew around her, chattering excitedly.

  “She can see us! She can!”

  “That makes two! Two humans who can see us!”

  “How odd! How strange!”

  The lead fairy tossed her head and sent her shimmering hair flying.

  “Hah! The bloody twat wants ta talk? Sod off ye wanker!”

  She dove at the girl’s head, forcing her to duck. Erin held up her hands, but the fairy darted around them and struck Erin on her cheek.

  Instantly, the skin around where the fairy had touched Erin went numb, and then came back to life with pins and needles of pain. Erin clapped a hand to the spot and felt the extreme cold.

  “Ow! Stop that!”

  “They’re not going to stop.”

  Pisces said the words urgently as the fairies laughed and the mean one kept trying to tag Erin again with one hand. Erin tried to fend the fairy off—gently, because she didn’t want to hurt the small creature.

  “Why are they trying to hurt me? I just want to talk.”

  The mage laughed nervously as he stared at Erin.

  “Talk? They’re not people, Erin. They’re just…magical phenomena. They turn up every year. No one knows where they come from. They’re pests that destroy everything they find interesting.”

  Something about the way he was talking was really bugging Erin. She glared at him as the fairy stopped attacking her at last.

  “What are you talking about, Pisces? Can’t you see them? They’re totally fairies! They just spoke to us?”

  Pisces was giving Erin a very strange look. He stared in the general direction of the fairy with the Irish accent, and then at Erin.

  “Spoke? To you? I heard nothing.”

  He wasn’t even looking at the fairy directly. Erin pointed.

  “There, can’t you see her?”

  The fairy was laughing, making faces at Erin and rude gestures that would have been obscene if she had human parts at Pisces. The mage squinted, but he was looking a bit down and to the left of the fairy.

  “I see a fuzzy shape. It’s blue and white. I don’t hear anything.”

  That had to be impossible, because Erin could hear all the fairies laughing now. Their laughter sounded like little bells, but Pisces didn’t even react. He was telling the truth.

  “But how?”

  Pisces looked at Erin.

  “Erin. Are you really saying you can see and hear these things? They’re not just…magical particles?”

  “Oh, but she can, fool mage!”

  “She sees what you mortals cannot, and have not for millennia! More fools, you!”

  Erin nodded slowly.

  “But why can I see them when you can’t?”

  Pisces blinked and frowned in thought, but it was the mean fairy who spoke. She flew back towards her friends and pointed back to Erin.

  “’Tis a good question the fool asks. How can she see us, sisters? The glamor cannot be broken so easily by mortal sight. Just look at the fool who revels in death. He cannot see or hear us.”

  “Too true!”

  One of the fairies dropped down and buzzed Pisces’ head. He ducked, and she laughed and flew back towards the others.

  “He does not see! He does not know! But she knows! How?”

  The fairies flew around Erin’s head, inspecting her from all sides as they argued. She kept still, half-entranced, half-wary.

  “Magic? But the magic of magi is too weak. And she has practically none!”

  “If she’s used the ointment of our kind, we should blind her now. Take her eyes, one or both and let’s have done with it!”

  Erin stared in horror at the fairy that had spoken. Suddenly, the Frost Fairies had lost all their wonder. The creature swept down close to Erin’s head and the girl raised her hands protectively. But then another fairy spoke.

  “Nae. It does not work so in this world. Had she ointment, she would only see our shapes but not hear our voices. It is something else, sisters.”

  “But what?”

  “How?”

  “Is she a freak? But even monsters and creatures of horror and blight cannot see us!”

  “A God, maybe?”

  “Don’t be silly! They’re all dead here! All dead and rotting!”

  Pisces glanced at Erin’s face. He sidled rapidly over to her and whispered in her ear.

  “What’s happening?”

  Erin turned a pale face towards him.

  “They’re talking about blinding me.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Ah. That would be inconvenient. Stand aside and I will deal with this.”

  He raised a finger, and Erin moved away. The fairies ignored Pisces, but he frowned at him. He aimed towards the center of their herd and spoke.

  “[Firefly].”

  Fire, flickering bright orange and red flames flew upwards. It twisted into a flitting, swift shape and flew at the fairies. They screamed and scattered.

  “Pisces!”

  “Relax.”

  The mage was smirking. He gestured at the flames as it chased the Frost Fairies.

  “It doesn’t hurt them, and it’s one of the only ways to get these creatures to leave. I thought it best to expedite the process if they are a threat.”

  “Fire, fire!”

  “It will burn our snowflakes! Our snow gifts!”

  “Bah. This mage seeks to play with flame? Let’s show him a true taste of cold, sisters!”

  One of the fairies spoke as the herd of fairies flew in panic. In a moment the mood changed.

  Erin didn’t see what happened, but one instant the flaming bird or insect of fire was chasing a fairy, and then the fairy had stopped and suddenly the [Firefly] spell went out. In a moment. There wasn’t so much as a flicker of smoke. The fire was just gone.

  Pisces frowned upwards as one of the fairies raised a tiny hand. He stroked at his chin.

  “Hm. That’s odd—”

  Crack.

  It was a feeling as much as sound. The air froze. Pisces’s faze turned white and his robes stiffened. His entire body frosted over.
<
br />   Erin saw Pisces’s expression change. His eyes went wide, and then he started screaming as his body began to process pain. He turned, fire flaring at his fingertips, stumbling as his muscles froze over. He fell to the ground, stumbled upright, and fled into the inn as the fairies laughed overhead.

  “Hah! Serves the fool right!”

  “Fire cannot hard us! Ye foolish prat!”

  “Now what to do with the human who told him to attack us, eh?”

  The fairies began to spiral around Erin menacingly. She raised her hands desperately.

  “Wait, wait, stop! Look, I’m sorry about my fr—about Pisces. He’s an idiot. I don’t want to hurt you!”

  One of the fairies laughed again.

  “As if ye could! We are the fae! But we want nothing to do with you! Begone, human!”

  That was a good cue to run, especially after what happened to Pisces. But Erin couldn’t just give up. She reached out imploringly to the fairies.

  “Can’t we talk?”

  “No.”

  “But I’ve heard so many stories about you! And you’re so beautiful!”

  Some of the fairies began to preen, tossing their ethereal hair or swooping towards the sun so it made their crystal bodies sparkle. But the fairy Erin was talking to was not impressed. She flipped Erin off with two fingers in the ‘v’ sigh. Was that an insult?

  “Unless ye’ve brought Calabrum with ye ta this world, we want naught to do with yer stories, human.”

  That sounded like a definite rejection, but again Erin hesitated. There was a word in that sentence she didn’t know, outside of the accent.

  “Um. What’s Calabrum?”

  The fairy looked shocked. She glared at Erin.

  “Do ye not remember the legendary name? No? Surely ye must. Do you know know of Caliburn?”

  Slowly, Erin shook her head. She had no idea what the fairy was talking about. Another fairy looked insulted.

  “Don’t you remember the old tales? How can you not know the name? If not Caliburn, do you know of Kaledvoulc’h? Calesvol?”

  Erin still looked blank. The fairy looked frustrated.

  “Are ye daft? Have your kind forgotten all the old tales, or are ye so daft ye can’t remember? The Sword of the Once and Future King! Escalibor!”

  That name rang a bell in Erin’s head. She stared wide-eyed at the fairy, heart suddenly pounding.

  “You mean Excalibur!? The Sword in the Stone?”

  The fairies looked at each other as if Erin was daft.

  “The Sword in the Stone? Is she a fool?”

  “Hah! The waif thinks Excalibur is the Sword in the Stone? She jests!”

  One of the fairies made a disgusted face as she swooped around Erin’s head.

  “Ach. The stripling is plainly thick in the head.”

  Erin longed to reach out and touch her translucent wings, but restrained herself with effort. She’d probably lose her hand.

  “Wait, so Excalibur isn’t the Sword in the Stone? I always thought—but you mean it’s exists? And what about other worlds?”

  They ignored her. The fairies muttered to each other and glanced at Erin. They seemed to come to a decision and began to fly away without another word.

  She chased after them, clumsily in the snow.

  “Wait, don’t go, please! There’s so many things I want to ask you!”

  “Begone!”

  One of the fairies turned and dove at Erin. Her teeth were bared and this time she began smacking hard into Erin’s face. Parts of her skin went numb and then began to hurt terribly as Erin tried to shield herself.

  “Ow, ow, ow! Stop that! Please! Ow!”

  The fairy kept attacking, and then fell back with a screech. Erin turned around to see her savior. Pisces was holding of all things, a rusted iron horseshoe. Where had he gotten that?

  He waved it up at the fairies, and Erin heard them hiss at him. Pisces shouted at them as he and Erin backed up towards the inn.

  “Begone, Cold Folk! Leave this place! You are not welcome!”

  It was like a spell had been cast. The fairies shrieked and flew upwards. Erin heard them screaming angrily as Pisces pulled her towards the door. His face and skin were now horribly red with frost nip, but he kept a firm hold of the horseshoe.

  “Come on. Inside before they come back.”

  Erin hesitated. She put one foot in the doorway and looked back. They’d been so wonderful. And then—

  Movement caught Erin’s eye in the distance. She stared in horror over Pisces’ shoulder. He looked around and saw what was coming towards them.

  “Oh my—”

  Erin saw the fairies screaming among the raging torrent of ice and snow a second before it hit them. An avalanche of snow blasted through the open door of the inn, sweeping through the tables and chair aside. Erin was tumbled up, down, left, and then stuck at a 45° angle in the snow, her feet kicking wildly as she tried to pull herself out.

  Around the other side of the inn, Toren heard the miniature avalanche crash into the inn and paused in his excavation work to look up. The skeleton had successfully cleared out a huge patch of snow around the inn with his bare hands, forming a small wall of snow. He left it now and wandered back towards the front of the inn.

  The skeleton saw only vague shapes, blue and white patches of light flying upwards. He heard nothing of the Frost Fairy’s laughter or their remarks, but he did see the inn.

  Snow, several metric tons of it had rushed into the inn in one moment. It had packed itself inside, trapping the two poor humans inside. Toren heard Erin screaming and Pisces shouting something. He stared at the packed inn and estimated the density of the snow.

  Toren’s mouth opened and he seemed to sigh. Then he walked into the inn and began to dig as the snow began to fall even harder.

  2.09

  I had at least eight blisters by the time I ran through the gates of Celum, nearly two days later. I blame myself, really. Running in ill-fitting boots is about the stupidest thing you can do to your feet—aside from running barefoot in the snow, that is.

  Yep. That’s me. Ryoka Griffin, not-so-barefoot Runner. You’d think it wouldn’t matter, given the winter, but it does.

  “Hoi, running girl! Too cold for your feet, eh?”

  One of the human guards on the rampart shouts down at me as I run onto the cobblestones and into the city. Briefly, I debate flipping him off or shouting something back. Instead, I run on.

  Bad temper? Who, me? I don’t have a bad temper. It’s not like I’ve just run and slept in the cold for the last few days, all the while being pestered by evil incarnate.

  Speaking of which, I hear the guards at the gates laughing, and then cursing and shouting as my traveling companions arrive.

  “Hark! A human city! Full of nasty iron and wood fires! Let’s freeze the place, sisters!”

  …And there goes the peace. The Frost Faeries I’ve brought with me rush through the air above my head, bringing Winter with them.

  Winter, in a literal sense. Apparently, around here the seasons don’t just change with the weather. In this case, it’s literally a phenomenon that follows these fairies as they fly around. Where they go, the temperature drops, it starts snowing, and the damn things can seemingly conjure avalanches out of the air whenever they please.

  I want nothing to do with them, which is unfortunate seeing as how they keep following me. But now they’re busy tormenting the human guardsmen, freezing metal to skin, pelting them with snow and so on, I’m in the clear for the moment.

  I can even take my boots off and let my feet breathe. It’s cold around here, but the faeries haven’t turned this place icy yet. They don’t move around methodically, so I found entire sections of land that were still green and flourishing on my run back. Too bad the Frost Faeries froze everything they saw.

  To the Runner’s Guild then, almost less pleasant than the place I’m headed to after that. But it’s got to be done.

  I push open the door, wincing
as my blisters hit the wood floorboards. I need to pop them soon, but it’s not going to stop the pain. A healing potion? Would it even be worth the cost?

  “Ryoka!”

  The instant I’m through the doorway, someone shouts my name. Someone male. Fals. I see him striding towards me across the room, followed by none other than Garia.

  Well, well, coincidence is a strange thing. But then, both Runners live and work in this area. I guess I should have expected to see them.

  Fals strides towards me, dirty blonde haired, handsome, athletic. Garia’s type, which is why the shorter and stockier girl is right behind him. He’s smiling at me. I think my lips twitch in reply, but I manage a small smile for Garia.

  But for once, Fals seems genuinely glad to see me, and not about to offer me sage advice. And to my surprise, even some of the other Runners are smiling. That’s…odd.

  Fals and Garia stop in front of me, smiling. Fals has straight teeth, nearly white despite the lack of special toothpastes and dentists in this world.

  “Ryoka, where have you been? We haven’t seen you in nearly a week!”

  His cheerfulness bothers me. So I nod at him.