by C.L. Bevill
Chapter 20
Did I Have a Few Questions?
What question didn’t I ask? The pixies’ expressions weren’t like humans, but I’m certain they got very tired of my endless questioning.
For example: “Why did you save my life?” Answer: “It was meant to be.” Question: “Did you travel up the coast to reach me?” Answer: “Your presence called to us as a fellow sister.” (I think that was a yes.) Question: “Where were you before?” Answer: “Before we were before, as we shall always be.” (Beats me. I don’t think they knew there was a before.) Question: “How long will I be with you walking in dreams?” Answer: “Until the dawn brings forth the swerve of sunshine upon our infinite wells.” (A CIA spy in deep cover didn’t have anything on the girls regarding evasive answers.)
I met a lot of pixies. They had very interesting names. Flies-With-Red-Gold-Pink-Flowers. Dives-Further-Than-All-Others-In-The-Morning-Skies. Wind-Skimmer-Who-Braves-The-Great-Blowing-Sands. Most of the names had to do with flying or variations thereof. However, there was One-Who-Produces-More-Fledglings-Than-All-Else that raised my eyebrows. I gathered she had a lot of children, but I didn’t ask how many.
And it took some effort, but I did discern that it was the males in the water, and the females who flew. Procreation was apparently brief and involved eggs dropped into the waters for the males to fertilize. If I understood what they told me, then the eggs developed in the water, and became either male or female. Females had to reach the surface and fly before they drowned. There weren’t relationships as we knew them.
Spring did ask about how our people made babies, and I’ve never seen so many emotionless faces staring at me blankly. The birds-and-bees discussion didn’t really register with them, but they did like Zach’s emotional attachment to me. Previously, they hadn’t realized he was, in fact, a male.
“Males are bigger?” Spring asked.
“Generally,” I answered carefully. “Hairier, too. You know, Ethan’s the one with the full beard on his face.”
“We don’t like Big-Hairy-Face-With-Grouchy-Look much,” Spring pronounced. “He doesn’t sing.”
“He’s not so bad,” I defended him, wondering why I was doing it. “He just doesn’t believe in the new things as the rest of us do.”
Spring nodded solemnly. She did understand that these were new experiences for us, that our lives had been drastically different. However, the concept of “before” seemed to bother them. There was no “before.” There was only now, what was happening now, and possibly what would happen immediately in the future.
After an extended tour of the area was over, I had met more pixies than I could count. I couldn’t remember most of their names and was glad there wasn’t going to be a test later. Spring flew me back to the meadow, and we both settled to the ground in a movement that seemed as practiced as if I had been flying since I was born.
Then she stared at me with her emotionless features. Her eyes glittered in extraordinary demonstration. It was beginning to occur to me that the color variations in the eyes were an indicator of the emotional levels they were feeling.
“Why me?” I asked.
“Me” was another term that the pixies didn’t feel comfortable with. They seemed to work in concert. They didn’t know exactly how to refer to me. I was Soophee or Stands, etc. or occasionally you. “You” was always said with deferential courtesy and hesitation because it was another word that the pixies weren’t used to employing.
Spring stepped closer and took my shoulders in her hands. Rather, her hands rested easily on my shoulders, allowing the sticky part to face to the side. “You, Soophee, are the one we’ve been waiting for. Soophee is part of the greater magic of this wonderful world. It flows within in you. It shines from your skin and radiates from your eyes. Soophee’s role is so very imperative that we needed to impart this extreme importance to her.”
“That’s why you’ve brought me to your home,” I said.
“Yes,” Spring nodded urgently. It was obvious to me that it was another motion copied from the humans. She was trying to use movements that I would understand. “There is so much more for Soophee to learn, but we are limited. Soophee is our sister in our heart, if not in our skin. Soophee is here to feel as we do, but also to take on her new roles, her new powers.”
“My new roles?” I repeated. “My new powers? Do you mean the ability to tell if something bad is going to happen?”
“Knowing about impending danger is the sisters’ way of protecting ourselves. It is what makes us able to survive, but still there is more for Soophee,” Spring replied earnestly. She removed one arm and waved expressively. “This is our world. This is the sisters’ place in the solar system, and Soophee is also our protection. Soophee must be in order to save us.”
“You believe I’m here to protect you?” I asked slowly. “How can I do that?”
“Soophee must listen to what her inner voices tell her,” Spring informed me. “Believe in those voices. They will guide Soophee.”
I didn’t know what to say, but Spring took that as acquiescence to my new positions.
“Come, Soophee,” she said. “Let’s fly once more. We have more of importance to show Soophee.”
So we flew once again. This time we flew over the forest canopy, a cluster of pixies grouped in close formation. Some of them drafted effortlessly off each other and even I found myself doing it without thinking about it. The strongest flyers went in front, and when they tired, others replaced them so they could draft, as well. After a while we reached the great path through the forest that the Big Mamas had made.
Spring flew near to me and called, “This is the trail of the great sisters of the islands. Sometimes we call them Lumbering-Beasts-That-Eat-Constantly-And-Never-Bother-Anything-Else-Living.”
“The Big Mamas,” I breathed. The pixies’ name for them certainly told their story. The Big Mamas were basically harmless unless one threw oneself under their colossal foot.
“They live out on the islands that we see in the distance,” Spring waved in the general direction of the ocean. “If we fly very high, we can see their home. They come to eat the grasses that they need to survive. As the sun spins away from us, they will conserve their energies more, until the sun comes back to warm our side of the planet.”
“Why are you showing me this?” The intelligence of the pixies warmed me. Clever, articulate in their own language, they were very special, and I knew I could learn from them. I wanted to learn from them. It seemed crucial.
Spring hovered near me so closely that I could feel her breath on my shoulder. “All that is new has familiar connections,” she said. “The great sisters will defend us, as well as you and your human kind.”
I opened my mouth to ask about a million more questions when she motioned me to fly after her.
“We have more places to travel to,” Spring called over her shoulder. “And precious little time.”
We visited the midnight pool once more, and Spring explained about the interior pools. The water percolated in through holes in the lava rock, allowing the eggs to be hatched there. It was the only place that pixies could be created. If it were lost, then all of them would be lost, as well. I had assumed that the eggs were laid in the exterior stream, but the pools inside the cave were what were so significant.
The importance of the site was not lost on me. Although I had lived in a world without firefly pixies, unicorns, Big Mamas, and whatever else we would encounter in the future, I wasn’t certain I wanted to return to the way it had been before.
Although I missed my parents and my close friends, I had been forever tainted by the magic of the changed world. “Tainted” wasn’t the best word to use so I substituted “influenced.” I had been forever influenced by the magic of the changed world.
I wasn’t the same Sophie I had been before. I would never be that Sophie again.
The last stop for the pixies was The Redwoods camp of the humans. With the altered perception of colors, I was unsure o
f the time of day although I assumed it was evening. There was a group around the fire pit, but the fire was burning low. Gideon was talking urgently to the group about an ongoing search.
“It’s not too late. The weather has been mild. The chances of being in the forest and not being impacted by exposure are decent. We can finish the grid searches first thing in the morning,” Gideon said insistently. “If we don’t have any success, then we can make new plans.”
Ethan said, “But it’s been four days, Gideon. We have to take into consideration that she might be dead. Or worse, that she decided to cut her losses.”
Zach set his shoulders and faced Ethan angrily. “She didn’t leave us,” he snarled. “She wouldn’t do that.”
“All right, then,” Ethan snapped back. He looked at Gideon. “What about all your psychic powers then, Gideon? What about that? What is that telling you?”
Elan parted the crowd and came to stand beside Gideon. The smaller boy comfortingly took Gideon’s hand. “She’s alive,” he said loudly, his young voice breaking. “And she’s thinking of us. She’ll come back soon.”
Gideon patted Elan’s thin shoulder. “I don’t know what to tell you, Ethan. We know the abilities that we have don’t always work in the way that we want.”
I hovered next to Spring and took it all in. Was this part of the dream, or was this happening? Zach and Ethan were supposed to go after Max’s and Thad’s bodies. They were supposed to see if they could find the Burned Man. But there they were, still in the camp, looking for someone. Who had been gone for four days? I hadn’t heard anything about anyone being missing. Had the Burned Man come immediately here to initiate more havoc? Who would Zach get so upset over? Kara?
But like me, Kara hadn’t been gone for four days.
Then Kara stepped forward. She had been in the midst of the crowd, and I hadn’t seen her. “I dreamed about her last night,” she said vociferously. “I dreamed that she was dreaming about the pixies. She could see these amazing colors, and they were telling her amazing things. She was flying.” Kara clenched her fists and thudded them helplessly against her thighs. “She wasn’t in pain. She wasn’t so forlorn anymore.”
Zach cleared his throat. “It sounds like the dreams I’ve been having about her.”
Oh, how could I be so dense? They were talking about me? But I hadn’t been gone for four days. Perhaps I had been gone overnight. I wasn’t certain if anyone would have noticed that my bunk had not been slept in. Not four days. Definitely not.
“Four days?” I said to Spring.
“Four days in human terms,” Spring ascertained. “Soon Soophee will awaken from the dreaming place and rejoin her human family. But she will also be Soophee the protector. She will be Standing-On-Two-Legs-Singing-Girl-Who-Guards-Against-The-Evil-Ones.”
“No longer unhappy, huh?” I said wryly.
Spring didn’t get the subtle implication and nodded her head at me. “Not unhappy now. Now Soophee is accepting and not wholly unhappy.”
“I can still go and look for her for another hour,” Zach was protesting the halt in the search. “If someone will come with me. There’s enough light to —”
Gideon placed his hand on Zach’s shoulder comfortingly. “You need rest, Zach, more than any of us. You might have been dreaming about Sophie, but you’ve barely been asleep to do it.”
Zach cursed fluidly and broke away. He stared at the group, searching their eyes in turn for something he couldn’t find. Kara opened her mouth to offer, but I did a nosedive and flew straight at him. I couldn’t stand the thought of his pain. Four days? They hadn’t a clue where I could have gone. I was torn at the guilt that I felt.
Spring buzzed behind me.
Kara said excitedly, “Look! Zach, look, it’s the firefly pixies! They haven’t come since…”
Zach looked around urgently. I flew directly at him and pulled up just short of his face. Spring did a controlled dive behind me. “Stern-Affectionate-Handsome-One-Who-Pines won’t understand our words,” she called from behind me.
“Help me,” he said to me and Spring. His face contorted into an expression of utter hopelessness. “Please, I’m begging you.” His hands reached for me, and although I knew that he couldn’t have known it was me, I landed on his palm, looking up at him with all the intensity I could muster.
Spring hovered beside me. “Stern-Affectionate-Handsome-One-Who-Pines will get his wish soon. Soophee cannot help him now.”
“Take Zach to the place of the pixies,” I said. “Only Zach. Let him see that I’m alive and unharmed. It’s not right to make them worry about me.”
Spring’s body glowed suddenly. She sang out. Her voice carried, a poignant note that made all the humans instantly quiet, and the pixies gathered above us. I touched Zach’s palm with the back of my clubbed hand and rubbed. It didn’t help him much. He didn’t know. Furthermore, I was in the land of dreams.
“Is this real, Spring?” I asked suddenly. “Or is this simply a dream? Am I dreaming about Zach?”
“Dreams are but another segment of reality, Soophee,” Spring said solemnly. She landed beside me and gazed up at Zach with a sincerity I found touching. “Sak has a darkness inside him. Soophee can free this darkness, but it will try her sorely.”
“A darkness,” I repeated. Zach was staring intently at us. His perfect face was no less perfect with the shadows under his eyes and the tension lines bracketing his mouth. “Will he hurt the pixies? Is that what you’re trying to say to me?”
“Sak is not a threat to anyone but himself and perhaps the one you call ‘the Burned Man.’ We won’t talk about him, for talking about evil tempts evil to talk about us.” Spring launched herself into the air. She sang to the other pixies, and they began to form lines to lead Zach with them. When the others tried to follow, a group of pixies prevented them by forming a line across their path.
“Only Zach then,” Gideon called, understanding immediately. “Get him some water. A pack with emergency gear. Get it quickly.”
A man ran for the pack and brought it back within a minute. Zach painstakingly put the pack on while carefully holding me in his hand. I clutched one of his fingers, and he glanced down at me curiously. “You’re taking me to her, to Sophie?” he asked imperatively.
I nodded my head. I wished I could tell him. He seemed so disconsolate.
“Is she all right?” he asked earnestly. A light in his eyes revealed his eagerness.
Slowly, I nodded my head again, but he noticed the hesitation, and his face became grimmer. He didn’t trust me, or perhaps he didn’t trust my hesitation. Since I couldn’t explain to him, I only touched his finger once again and then launched myself into the air.
“Wait,” he said softly. I hovered midair a few feet away. His steps faltered as he watched me. His face twisted again, the perfect visage was tortured. He stared at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. After what seemed like an eternity he said, “Oh, my God. Sophie? Is it…?”
For a moment I stopped flying, and like all flying things that stop flying, I instantly fell. His hand shot out, and he caught me in his palm. Winded, I laid there and panted. I had landed half on my side, and the pain radiated throughout my body. It felt like I had landed on a sheet of iron. Spring appeared straight away, jittering anxiously. “Soophee,” she said with heartfelt urgency. “Is Soophee all right?”
I coughed and then sat up. Everything seemed all right. I remembered the pixie that I had caught once. She hadn’t been very happy either. It might seem inconsequential to the larger intelligence, but it wasn’t to the smaller one. Still, it was better than hitting the ground, and the pain was fading faster than I could have imagined.
“She said ‘Sophie,’” Zach muttered. He stared down at me, still half crouched as he had been when he reached out to save me. Then he called rapidly over his shoulder, “Gideon!”
Gideon appeared over Zach’s shoulder and looked down at me. The pixies looped above in restless circles. His teena
ge face was the epitome of astonishment. He stared, and finally, he said, “It is her. How can this be?”
I stood up shakily and let my wings flutter.
Spring landed beside me and said apologetically, “We forget how new Soophee is to the fine art of flying. She took to it so well we forgot.”
“I’m all right,” I said. “Spring,” I added, “we must go back to the midnight pool. I need to leave the world of dreams now. Can we do that?”
Spring buzzed straight up into the air. “Fly, Soophee. Fly with the sisters once more. We will bring Stern-Affectionate-Handsome-One-Who-Pines along as we return Soophee to where she belongs. Fear not for this one. He will soon receive what he wishes most in this world.”
I only thought about it once as I sprang into the air. Zach’s agonized cry of protest only gave me the slightest pause. I looked back, and his hand was extended toward me in mute appeal. I couldn’t tell him that I was hurrying along so that I could return all the quicker, but I felt it all the same.
