by Ektaa Bali
Lobey shook her head. “I had a suspicion when we went to find Nani in the greenhouse, but I wasn’t sure. We didn’t spend long in there.”
Meera held up the sodden golden petal. “You guys will have a lot to discuss.”
“Did that come out of Pancake’s tummy?” asked Lobey, recoiling in disgust.
“No,” said Vidya, leaning over the Fae pond to take the petal. “Lobey, this is a petal from the Flower of Awakening.”
Lobey’s mouth hung open.
“All this time,” explained Vidya. “It was being guarded under the sea.”
“It’s true,” said Meera glumly. “I was the one who found it missing. There’s a big old hole in the sand down there.”
“The Bunyip King has it now,” said Vidya. “It changes animals, look—” She held up Pancake.
“Hi Lobey,” he squeaked.
Lobey almost fell over. “Animals take years to learn English from the Fae!”
“Yep,” said Vidya, cuddling a shivering Pancake to her once more. “But holding the petal made Pancake speak straight away. That must be how the Bunyips can think and grew their wings.”
“The Flower of Awakening brought us up from the soil and made us guardians of the Earth. It makes sense that it has incredible powers to change creatures like that,” said Lobey.
Vidya nodded. But what more could it do?
“You’d better get out of here,” said Meera, peering around at the dark clearing. “It’s not wise to be out here at night time.”
“And we’re freezing,” shivered Pancake. Vidya smiled at him despite her own freezing bones. His cute little voice would never get old.
“Thanks, Princess Meera,” said Vidya. “Without you, we might not have been able to figure this out.”
Meera brushed her fingers through her long black hair and smiled. “I’m not sure when I’ll see you again if the Fae ponds are not working,” she gestured at the glassy shards of the Fae pond in front of her. The surface had already begun to reform, staring to close it off once again. “I wish I could’ve helped you more. But it looks like you guys are fighting this war on your own.”
Vidya and Lobey exchanged a worried look.
“We’ll be okay,” said Vidya hopefully. “Especially now we have the Devil’s Fingers on our side.”
* * *
They bade goodbye to Meera, who jumped back into her Fae pond to join Bob, her purple tail rapidly disappearing below the water.
“Jimmy will escort us back to the cliff,” said Lobey, leading them out of the clearing. “He lives deep in the forest here with his family, so he can come back if I call for him.”
But they had only been walking for a minute before an almighty roar made the ground beneath them tremble. Vidya and Lobey’s heads snapped toward one another, mirroring the others’ terrified look. But that roar was joined by another, and another again. The colour drained from Lobey’s face, and Pancake shook violently in Vidya’s arms.
“Run!” hissed Lobey.
“No!” Vidya grabbed the girl’s sleeve. “Fly!”
The girls leapt up into the air, fluttering their wings, but Vidya had forgotten that her magenta wings were still damp from the water. So as Lobey ascended up into the trees, Vidya tumbled back down to the ground. Jimmy scooped her up just as Lobey let out an ear shattering scream.
Two Bunyips crashed through the trees, their dark forms like black menacing demons towering above her. One swiped at Vidya. Jimmy swept her out of harm’s way with one of his powerful branch-arms. But the second Bunyip roared and came at Jimmy with his mouth wide open and with a loud crunch, broke into Jimmy’s trunk.
“Grab Fae!” came a gravelly voice. “Get them!” came the voice of another.
Vidya’s heart pounded in her chest. This was the second time she had heard them speak. Up close, their voices were terrifying, and also intelligent. These were not stupid creatures at all.
Lobey screamed Jimmy’s name from the trees. And a third Bunyip crashed into the scene. But this one leapt up into the air and, with a powerful sweep of his fleshy wings, flew right into the trees.
“Go, Lobey!” cried Vidya, “Fly away!”
The other two Bunyips flapped their wings uselessly. It seemed they hadn’t gotten the hang of flying yet. Jimmy grabbed Vidya around the waist as Pancake screamed from inside her pocket, bolting away from the Bunyips as fast as his roots could carry him. Jimmy was fast, and he seemed to be able to see through the forest in the dark, instinctively knowing which rocks and roots to avoid. The Bunyips crashed through the trees behind them, and Vidya’s mind raced, trying to see a way out of this. Her wings were drying, but they still felt damp. She couldn’t fly her way out of this just yet. The other problem was, she couldn’t tell which way Jimmy was taking her, his rooty-feet were pounding away into the forest, and it felt to Vidya as if he were leading the Bunyips deeper into the forest, not toward the cliff edge by the Palace.
“J-j-jimmy!” she cried, but it was impossible to talk as he jostled her with each stride of his legs, carrying Vidya like a rag doll through the Fae forest. On and on he ran, and quite quickly, the sounds of the running Bunyips behind them got fainter and fainter, but Jimmy did not slow down. He seemed so spooked by the Bunyip that had bitten part of his trunk off that he wasn’t going to stop until he probably felt safe, which was likely when he got back to his home.
Stop, Jimmy Vidya silently urged him Oh Earth, help us! Stop, Jimmy, Stop! Please.
Vidya could feel the forest around her close in the way her father had described the deepest parts of the Fae forest. The trees grew tall and wide and menacing. It was so dark and damp that the very air got heavy and made it difficult to breathe. Vidya couldn’t take it anymore. She was so tired, she just needed him to stop. She beat on the branch arms that held her tight.
“L-let me go, Jimmy!” she cried weakly. She punched at his arms. Pancake, likely inspired by Vidya’s efforts, opened his mouth and bit down hard on Jimmy’s barky arm.
Jimmy, surprised by his second bite of the night and traumatised already by the sensation of teeth on his bark, stumbled upon his own roots. Vidya felt him release his grip around her waist and as he tripped and fell, she flew through the air, her wings flailing uselessly behind her, Pancake cried out as he too soared through the air. The two of them hit an impossibly enormous tree and slumped onto the soft soil. Jimmy, terrified enough for the night, didn’t notice he had lost Vidya and got onto the root-feet once again and continued his run back to his family of trees, deeper into the forest.
But neither Jimmy nor Vidya had been in the right state of mind as they had run through the Fae forest. Unknowingly, Jimmy had run east. Unknowingly, Vidya, the current leader of the Eastern Bushland Kingdom, had called out for help. And unknowingly, they had run straight into the middle of the Old Country.
* * *
When Vidya and Pancake woke up, sunlight streamed through the trees—impossibly huge trees as big and as tall as mountains. She stood, rubbing her eyes, staring up at the impossibly blue sky she could see through the bright evergreen leaves. A sweet wind tickled her cheek, and as she cast her eye around her, her heart skipped a beat in her chest. She knew she was not in the Fae forest anymore.
“Pancake,” she whispered. The little quokka’s mouth was hanging open as he stared at their surroundings. “I think… I think…” but she couldn’t say it out loud, so she scooped him and held him close to her, because she needed to feel like something was real and sure. That this wasn’t all a dream that she didn’t understand. Together, they walked through the Old Country, smelling the sweet air, craning their necks at the tallest trees she had ever seen. It felt like her eyes weren’t big enough to take it all in. She wondered if her father felt the same when he came here himself, only a few days ago. She just walked in the direction that felt right, where it felt good to her, and eventually, the trees stopped, forming a ring around a huge grassy plain. It was a clearing. Just as her father had once described to her.
The clearing. A smooth flat rock sat just in front of her, out past the line of trees. She gazed at it for a moment, wondering what to do next. And then Pancake took out the now dry golden petal and held it up to her. Her mouth made a tiny ‘oh’, and she nodded. Her father had taught her the old ways of things. She took the golden petal with its faded glow and stepped forward to place it gently on the stone.
“A petal,” she whispered. “From the Flower of Awakening. This is my offering.”
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves on the trees behind her, but nothing happened.
“Old ones,” Vidya whispered. “Princess Vidya of the Eastern Bushland Fae requests your help.” She closed her eyes and waited.
It began as a rumble in the distance, and Vidya’s heart almost leapt out of her chest.
Boom, boom, boom, the steady, heavy beat sounded all around her. The ground beneath her vibrated with each thump, and Vidya realised they were the sound of impossibly heavy footsteps.
And then they entered the clearing, and both Vidya and Pancake had to remind themselves to breathe. Vidya remembered them all from Master Sunny’s classes many years ago. The Old Ones were an important part of their history, and everyone knew who they were.
The Great Echidna arrived first, bumbling in on all fours, but unlike tiny Uncle Jula-wil, she was enormous, with spines twice the length of any man’s arm.
The Great Platypus stood next to her, as big as a cow.
The Great Marsupial Lion was three times the size of any lion she had seen in any book and came and sat in the circle, staring at her curiously.
The Great Wombat was as big as an African hippopotamus.
The Great Kangaroo was twice the height of her father and stood intimidating and muscular.
The Great Thunderbird had brilliant orange plumage and was even taller than the kangaroo sitting on his haunches.
And last slithered in the great Python, as thick as a tree trunk and infinitely long, forked tongue tasting the air.
They all stood in the semicircle around Vidya, and she felt their gazes on her like a heavy blanket. And now that they stood here, she didn’t know quite what to do.
“Only the Fae monarch may call upon the Old Ones, Vidya,” came a whisper of a voice coming from the Great Echidna.
Vidya froze in place. That was true, only the King or Queen of the land could call upon the old ones.
“H-how did I get here then?” she asked uncertainly.
“We would also like to know this,” boomed the Great Kangaroo in a voice that made Vidya jump a little. “And I would also like to know where you got this petal from.”
Vidya swallowed and tried to explain it as best she could. “The Fae kingdom is in danger. The adults have fallen into a magical sleep. And I have just learned that it is because the Flower of Awakening has been taken by the Bunyips and drained of its power. They have wings now and want to wage war on us. They want revenge.”
She was met with silence. A wind rustled the feathers of the Great Thunderbird.
The Great Python let out a hiss. “King Fern sought our counsel two hundred years ago,” he hissed. “We knew that solution would not last forever.”
“Summer may follow spring,” boomed the Great Thunderbird. “But winter must follow autumn.”
“There is still the matter of the monarch,” grumbled the Great Lion.
“Let us fix that immediately,” said the Great Platypus lightly.
“We announce,” said the Great Echidna. “Thee Vidya as Fae Queen of the Eastern Bushland Realm, until such time as your father returns to assume his throne.”
Vidya stood there, stunned. Pancake let out a soft ‘wow’.
The Great Thunderbird suddenly turned his head toward the sky and let out an almighty piercing call that made the hairs on Vidya’s arms stand up straight. The earth beneath them began to tremble, and in the middle of the semi-circle, the grass began to fall in upon itself, the very earth collapsing to make a small hole. Inside the newly created dip in the earth, something glinted silver.
The Great Kangaroo bounded powerfully up to the hole and bent low, picking up the shiny object. He turned toward Vidya, who gasped when she saw was it was.
A tiara of stunning filigree silver and pink diamonds sparkled in the sunlight. Without a sound, the Great Kangaroo bounded up to Vidya in a single leap and laid the tiara on her head. Up close, he smelled like flowers and sunlight, his russet fur wasn’t one colour at all but a mixture of colours. The Great Kangaroo turned and assumed his position in the circle, and Vidya saw her own reflection in Pancake’s eyes as he looked up at her.
“Queen of the Fae,” he whispered.
Vidya took a shuddering breath as she tried not to think about it. In her eyes, her father was still the King.
She cleared her throat.
“I need to know what to do,” she said. “How do I fix the Fae magic?”
“You have one goal here as I see it, Queen Vidya,” hissed the Python. “You must re-charge the Flower of Awakening. Give her back the power that has been drained from her.”
“You must recreate the conditions that woke it up thousands of years ago, when she brought the Fae to life,” said the Great Wombat.
“How do I do that? What woke it up the first time? When it woke up the Fae?”
“None are living now who were there to see it,” whispered the Great Echidna.
“There is one.” They all turned toward the Great Lion. “The King of Trees. The Wollemi Pine King. He was there. He will know.”
11
Plans
The Fae King and Queen are the Keeper of Keepers. For a task so grand as this, they are given two gifts. The first is that they are given the obedience of all the plants on the earth. And second, is the creation of a plant of their own choosing.
—The Book of the Fae, Queen Mab the First, 3333 B.C.
* * *
When Vidya woke up, she knew that she was no longer in the Old Country. That feeling of majesty in the air, the sweet, heavy smell of something grand and important was not there anymore.
Pancake grunted beside her. She lifted herself out of the base of the large tree she had been snuggled up in and stretched out her arms, looking around. Something heavy shifted on her head, and she lifted her hand up to touch it. She felt the hard edges of the tiara against her fingers, and the memory of what had happened flooded in her mind. She would have to marvel at it later because she had to get them home to safety first.
“Where are we?” Pancake said in a hushed voice.
Vidya was asking herself the same question. She peered through the trees. The air was bright and light here, nothing like deep in the dark parts of the Fae forest.
She turned around and studied the tree they had been sleeping under. It was a Eucalyptus tree she knew very well.
“Oh, this is the portal tree to the Blue Mountains, Pancake!” she said with a broad smile. “I am so happy we’re here, I honestly thought we’d be deep in the Forbidden Zone where Jimmy threw us.”
“So lucky!” cried Pancake happily before Vidya shushed him with a finger.
“We still have to be careful, Pancake, there is a still a Bunyip army roaming about here, remember?”
“Bunyips with wings,” said Pancake darkly.
Vidya sighed. How could she have forgotten? She really hoped Lobey got away from the one that followed her up into the trees. The Bunyips were fast learners. How long before they got good enough to fly over the bottomless sky? Vidya swallowed the hard lump in her throat. She was thirsty and hungry and incredibly tired. But at least they didn’t have to walk too far.
Pancake climbed back onto her shoulder, and they trudged slowly through the long grass around the portal tree, listening for any signs of Bunyips.
But this time, they reached the edge of the forest without any incidents. The sun was high in the sky, and Vidya squinted across the gap to the palace, trying to see if there were any signs of anything bad happening. She saw two bright specs ro
ving about the front gardens.
“Let’s go home, Pancake,” smiled Vidya, and she fluttered her tired wings and, feeling the cool wind on her face, zoomed straight over the Bottomless Sky toward the palace.
She heard the shout before she saw where it came from.
Two Fae kids armed with bows and quivers of arrows slung over their shoulders were waving at her from the end of the path. One of them lifted what looked like a horn to his lips and blew into it with two blasts, one short and one long. Honk Hooooonk.
As Vidya touched down, her magenta wings drooped and felt numb. Her legs felt like weak twigs, ready to snap at any moment. She urged them to walk forward. The two Fae kids gaped at her as she passed, but she didn’t have the energy to say anything to them.
“Oh my god, Vidya!” Vidya heard Lobey’s voice and lifted her tired eyes up toward the palace. Lobey was running toward her, electric blue hair streaming in a mess behind her. There were tears streaming down her face and dark circles under her eyes. Luna and Willow emerged from the palace doors behind her and pelted down the path. Lobey flew into Vidya, wrapping her arms so tightly around her that the tired girl squealed.
“Too tight, too tight!” squeaked Pancake.
Lobey laughed and let them go, wiping tears from her eyes. “Oh, Mother Earth, I thought you were gone for sure.” And then her eyes went up to Vidya’s head where the silver tiara sat, and her mouth fell open. She pointed a finger at it, eyes wide. “That! That!”
“They made me Queen,” explained Vidya tiredly. “I don’t deserve it, but they said because my father is asleep, I have to—” Vidya only shrugged to finish her sentence. “I just really need some rest, guys, I’ve been through the roughest time.”
They parted in silence to let her through.
“Tell us everything!” said Lobey, her face contorted with concern—a new expression for her. “What happened in there? I’ve set a guard—”
“That’s good, Lobey, that’s great,” said Vidya tiredly. Sleep was the only thing on her mind right now.
