Close Encounters of the Magical Kind

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  Cute and impressive. However, we’re trying to drive that ship away, not clean up their shore, remember?

  The blast of air took off, heading straight towards the large ship. She smiled as she watched the ship’s sails catch the wind and bring the ship to a sudden stop. Tackle, fishing gear, crates, and personnel alike all slammed forward. Muted curses were bandied about.

  I really should have turned it around first, Sarah scolded herself as she watched the ship get hammered by the wind. If that boat capsizes then people could get hurt and I don’t want that. At all.

  An errant gust rammed the bow of the ship from the port side. The huge galleon shifted. The bow began to slowly turn around.

  That’s it, Sarah instructed, concentrating on the ship. A little more. Once it’s pointed east then let them have it.

  A minute later the ship, having been hammered mercilessly by the winds until the bow was facing east, began to move as the sails filled. Two minutes later the ship was already halfway across the channel on a direct intercept to Lentari’s western shore. Sarah smiled as she heard the dismayed shouts of the sailors trying valiantly to turn the ship back around, but to no avail.

  “That’ll hold them,” Sarah announced as she emerged from the forest and approached the water’s edge. “The problem is, I don’t know how long that will hold them. If they turn right around and head back this way once the wind lets go then we’re sunk. Best case scenario is that they try again in a few days.”

  Steve beamed a smile at her, “Nicely done, babe. They probably don’t know what hit ‘em.”

  Ria pulled Sarah into a hug, “You have given us some time. You have my eternal thanks.”

  “It doesn’t solve your immediate problem, though,” Sarah pointed out, once Ria had released her. “They will come back.”

  Ria hooked her arm through her own and turned her around until she was facing away from the water.

  “Let us return to Dynwe. I have yet to tell you what we require of you.”

  “Require?” Steve repeated, frowning.

  “You must forgive my wife,” Tivan murmured as he increased his pace until he was walking side-by-side with Steve. “It is rare for the Fae to ask outsiders for help, and even more so for those outsiders to be human. She’s exhausted. She means no ill will towards you humans.”

  “Are humans that bad?” Steve asked, curious. “What exactly happened between the Fae and the humans to cause you guys to go your separate ways?”

  Tivan deliberately slowed in order to increase the gap between the men and the women. Steve slowed his own pace to match the Fae king.

  “While the specifics are still unclear to me,” the Fae king quietly whispered to Steve, “as these events are before my time, what I can tell you is the humans abused our trust.”

  “How?” Steve asked, insanely curious.

  “Lentari wasn’t always the peaceful kingdom it is today,” Tivan explained. “Dwarves warred with the dragons, the humans warred with the griffins, and essentially any other species you could think of warred with the other.”

  “Unpleasant times,” Steve commented, with a grunt. “Got it.”

  “We, namely our ancestors, determined that our Fae princess was threatened by one of our own, no less. Back then we even fought amongst ourselves, but that is a different story. We beseeched our human allies for help in protecting our princess.”

  “And they refused?” Steve exclaimed, annoyed. “What jerks.”

  Tivan smiled, “As a matter of fact, the human king agreed to help.”

  “Oh. So what happened? They didn’t do a good job and the princess ended up kidnapped, or hurt? Tell me she wasn’t killed.”

  “Worse. The king married the princess to his only son.”

  “Oh, snap. I’ll bet that didn’t go over well.”

  “It didn’t,” Tivan agreed. “Both the princess and the human prince swore it was true love but the Fae king of the time, my ancestor, disagreed. Thankfully neither side declared war but sadly the alliance was broken that day.”

  “What happened to the princess?”

  “What?”

  “What happened to the princess?” Steve repeated, curious. “Did she stay with her human husband? Did he decide to live with the Fae? If you tell me that the parents made them split up then I’m gonna be pissed. I hate lousy endings.”

  Taken aback, Tivan chuckled. “Honestly, I have no idea. I don’t believe anyone has ever thought to ask before.”

  Once they were all seated at the round granite table once more, Ria cleared her throat and began again.

  “Now that we are all here, let me continue my narrative. I believe I was just about to reveal what it would take to restore our Tree to full health.”

  “That’s right,” Sarah agreed. “Please continue.”

  “We need pollen.”

  “Pollen?” Sarah repeated, frowning. “Any pollen or does it have to be a special kind?”

  “Do you really think it would be something easy?” Steve chided. “If it were then they could have gotten it themselves.”

  Sarah, holding one of Steve’s hands in her lap, dug her nails in as she clenched her hand. Steve whimpered but dared not say anything.

  “Only the pollen processed from a recently harvested orbsceia flower will resuscitate our Tree.”

  “A what flower?” Sarah asked, frowning. That was one she hadn’t heard of before. Then again, she was on Lentari and not her own world. It wasn’t that surprising.

  “An orbsceia flower,” Ria slowly repeated.

  “Where can we find one?” Sarah immediately asked.

  “What’s it look like?” Steve asked at the same time.

  Ria smiled fleetingly, “Lady Sarah, your answer is ‘unknown’, I’m afraid. The answer to your wonderful husband’s question is a golden multi-petal flower of such beauty that anyone who gazes upon it will find themselves reduced to tears.”

  Steve snorted, “No offense, ma’am, but when I do see this thing I can guarantee you that I won’t be collapsing into tears anytime soon.”

  Ria gave him a dazzling smile.

  “Only time will tell, good sir.”

  Sarah raised a hand, “Umm, excuse me? Did you say you didn’t know where this flower can be found?”

  Ria sighed heavily. Her eyes filled with tears, prompting Sarah to immediately reciprocate. The Fae queen dabbed at her eyes with a delicate square of lacey fabric.

  “I wish I could say otherwise but I cannot. I’m sorry, Lady Sarah. You heard me correctly. We do not know where the flower is. We have been searching for it for months now. In fact, we began searching for it before we even realized the scope of danger our Tree was facing.”

  Steve groaned, “So you’re telling me this flower is rare.”

  Ria sighed, “Aye.”

  “And it’s clearly hard to find?”

  Tivan nodded, “Extremely. Now, if you will excuse me, I must be off. I have not completed my search of the city.”

  Ria bowed, “Of course, my love.”

  Once the king had departed the conversation resumed. Steve held up a hand and waited until he had the queen’s attention. Sarah could only smile as she watched her husband patiently wait for the queen to look his way.

  “So allow me to venture a guess,” Steve began again. “There’s only one of these super rare flowers left?”

  Surprisingly, Ria shook her head.

  “As a matter of fact, no.”

  Husband and wife shared another look with each other. Steve smiled and nodded.

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “The last time they were located, it was said there were three plants left which were bearing flowers.”

  Steve’s smile faded, “Three? That’s it? Well, I guess it’s certainly better than ‘one’, only not by much. Wait. If you don’t know where to find these things then how do you know there are only three left?”

  “You’re right,” Ria conceded. “I should clarify. The last time the pol
len of an orbsceia flower was needed, and a flower was harvested, the Fae who located the flower reported seeing two others, both bordering pools.”

  “And how long ago was that?” Steve asked, exasperated.

  “A long time,” Ria admitted. “Over fifteen hundred years ago.”

  “How do you know someone hasn’t found these other flowers by now?” Sarah asked as she felt her concern growing. It sounded as though the Fae wanted to send her and her husband on a wild goose chase. “How do you know they haven’t all been picked? How do you know these plants are even alive? We’re talking about an incredibly long time.”

  “Because of where they were found, Lady Sarah.”

  “Didn’t you just say you didn’t know where they could be found?” Steve protested, growing more and more frustrated with each passing second.

  “Again, you are correct,” Ria patiently told him. She placed a hand over his on the table.

  “What are you not telling us?” Sarah pointedly asked. “What is it you’re afraid of saying?”

  Ria placed her other hand over Sarah’s.

  “Allow me to finish and you’ll see our dilemma. Now, where was I?”

  “You were telling us what would save your Tree,” Sarah reminded her.

  “Of course. We need the processed pollen from an orbsceia flower. Difficulty in finding the flower notwithstanding, once the flower has been harvested then it must be properly processed within one hour.”

  Steve whistled.

  “Talk about your major time crunch. I wouldn’t worry about that, though. Thanks to Sarah here we can be pretty much anywhere and be able to get back here lickity-split.”

  “That is the primary reason we approached Lady Sarah in the first place,” Ria agreed. “Her remarkable jhorun will allow her to return here in only a matter of a few moments. That will allow us the maximum amount of time to prepare the pollen. Frankly, we are going to need it. I personally have never done anything like this before.”

  “Then how do you know what you need to do?” Sarah asked, confused.

  “Because my grandmother did. She told me stories about what she tried to do to save her Tree many years ago.”

  “The exact same thing happened to your grandmother’s tree, too? Do you know what happened to it? I mean, what’s the point of going through all of this when there’s a chance it could happen again?”

  “Because the creature that attacked our Tree was destroyed.”

  Curiosity piqued, Steve leaned forward.

  “Creature? What creature?”

  “To the Fae, it is the ‘Mist’,” Ria explained, frowning as she recalled what she knew of her Tree’s attacker. “It was an ancient being that had been imprisoned deep beneath the sea for over two thousand years.”

  “Mist?” Steve scoffed. “You guys were attacked by a mist? How bad could that be?”

  “It has other names. I believe the wyverians called it ‘thriper’. I know the humans had their own name for it but what that was escapes me at the moment.”

  “Why did the dragons called it a thriper?” Steve repeated, puzzled. He looked over at Sarah for confirmation. “Wait a minute. Isn’t that the name of the thing that Mikal said he and Lissa helped destroy?”

  Sarah nodded, “That’s right, only he said something about it had to be changed into something else in order for it to be killed. I think he said… wait. Wait a moment. Ria, didn’t you say the Mist thing had been imprisoned for thousands of years?”

  “Aye. What of it?”

  “Could it have been responsible for attacking your grandmother’s tree?”

  “The creature fed on jhorun,” Ria answered. “While theoretically possible we would be unable to validate such a claim.”

  Sarah suddenly shook her head, “That can’t be right.”

  “What isn’t right?” Steve asked.

  “We’re suggesting that the same creature that attacked their tree this time is the same one from Ria’s grandmother’s time.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So if that were true then that’d mean Dynwe, this city, has been here for thousands of years.”

  Ria’s lips curved upwards in the beginnings of a smile.

  “Do you remember what the king said in the Antechamber?” Sarah continued. “He said the other city, Vineelm, was in the northwest part of the kingdom.”

  “That’s right,” Steve recalled. “There was that special illustrated tree symbol on the map.”

  “Based on that I’d say Vineelm is older than Dynwe,” Sarah finished. “If the mist monster is the same one that attacked both trees, and killed the first one, then Vineelm must be considerably older than Dynwe.”

  Ria clapped her hands delightedly.

  “Very well done, Lady Sarah. You are correct. Vineelm was the home of our ancestors. It was abandoned after Vineelm’s Tree perished. Thank the Maker they were fortunate enough to have collected a seed from Vineelm’s Tree before the catastrophe fell. We planted the seed here and this Tree is the result. Dynwe was born.”

  “Why do you say you were fortunate to have collected a seed?” Sarah wanted to know. “You make it sound like the tree only produces one seed.”

  “Because it does, Lady Sarah. Only one seed every millennia, and only then will it be produced under special circumstances. The seed is so unremarkable in appearance that it was almost overlooked. Fortunately my grandmother recognized the seed for what it was.”

  “How long ago was that?” Steve wanted to know.

  “Over two thousand years,” Ria answered.

  “So, if my math is correct,” Steve said, “then there should have been two seed pods, correct?”

  “Didn’t you hear her?” Sarah asked, annoyed. “She said the right circumstances have to exist before the tree will produce a seed. How it does it, I don’t know.”

  “Nor do I,” Ria admitted. “I’ve never seen a seed before. The last was before my time.”

  “Does everything that lives in Lentari live longer than humans?” Steve asked, annoyed. “We know that wyverians can live at least a thousand years. Same for the dwarves. Humans? Hell, I’ll be lucky if I make it to 100.”

  “You are but a young babe in the eyes of a Fae,” Ria agreed.

  Sarah groaned. She knew instantly, and immediately, how her husband would respond to that. She looked at Steve and saw that he was grinning.

  “Did you hear that? Did you? She called me a ‘babe’. She’s not wrong, you know.”

  “Is that why you’re blushing?”

  “Am not.”

  “Your face is as red as a Coke can.”

  Steve held the back of his hand to his forehead. He shrugged.

  “It doesn’t feel any different to me. Speaking of the king,” Steve said, raising a hand, trying to change the subject, “are we allowed to get the human king involved?”

  Ria shook her head, “Tivan and I are aware you have already discussed our plight with the human king.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” Steve asked, amazed.

  “Our jhorun is almost exhausted, aye,” Ria admitted, “but it isn’t exhausted yet. We have our ways.”

  “Can we tell Kri’Entu what’s been going on here?” Sarah timidly asked. “I know he can keep a secret and he desperately wants to help.”

  “Humans and Fae are not allies,” Ria quietly informed them. “I know not what distrust exists between our two species only that it does. Ownership of the fault matters not.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Sarah muttered to herself.

  “What does matter is that human and Fae parted ways. You would like to see the ancient alliance restored? So would I, Lady Sarah. I… hmm?”

  “I didn’t say anything,” Sarah answered automatically.

  “I’m sorry, I’m talking with Tivan. He has been monitoring our conversation and he… Tivan, slow down. I cannot carry on two conversations at the same time. Lady Sarah, a moment, if you please.”

  Sarah took her husband�
�s hand and waited, companionably, for Ria to resume their conversation. After a few minutes of listening to the Fae queen give monosyllabic answers, Sarah watched the faraway look disappear from Ria’s eyes. The queen shifted her attention back to her.

  “My apologies. It would seem Lord Tivan is also interested in renewing the ancient alliance.”

  Sarah’s face lit up with a smile, “Really? That’d be wonderful, Ria!”

  “There are provisions, I’m afraid.”

  “Of course there are,” Steve glumly added.

  “What are they?” Sarah asked. “Does it have to do with your present predicament being solved?”

  Ria nodded, “Aye. That’s it in its entirety. You must prove to us humans are to be trusted again. Only then will we consider the notion of reforming the alliance.”

  “By solving this dilemma?” Sarah stammered. “That’s a bit one-sided, don’t you think?”

  “I’m not sure I follow, Lady Sarah.”

  “You said it yourself. You, the Fae, are dying because your tree is also dying.”

  “That is correct.”

  “If we’re able to solve this for you and find that orbsceia flower then that would mean you, namely the Fae, would be in our debt. That is to say, the Fae would then be indebted to the humans, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Ria regarded her for a few moments. She tapped a delicate finger on her lips as she considered. The queen briefly closed her eyes, no doubt relaying what she had said to her husband the king. After a few moments the queen opened her eyes and smiled at her.

  “What do you have in mind, Lady Sarah?” Ria finally asked.

  “While I’m not certain what transpired between the humans and the Fae to get them to lose trust in each other, I think this quest should go in our favor. If we are able to solve your dilemma then I’d like you to do everything in your power to rekindle the alliance between our two species.”