by A E M
A couple of hours passed. Trees blurred into more trees. Fields blurred into more fields. Charlotte walked in the forest away from the road, even though only the occasional car passed by. She was hungry and thirsty and tired. She was a mess of dirt and leaves and twigs and sweat. She brushed off what she could as she walked and scowled at herself.
A familiar sound stopped her in her tracks. Beau landed in a field. Charlotte ran to him and collided with his chest. His arms tightened around her and he placed a kiss on top of her head.
“How in the world did you find me?” She sobbed.
He put his hands on her shoulders and stepped her out of his embrace. His eyes were fierce, and his mouth was firm. “Explain yourself.”
Charlotte shrugged his hands off.
Beau raised an eyebrow and took a step back. “Well, then I’ll share first. I woke up after passing out sometime in the middle of fighting those damn Biders and everybody wants me to find you. They say you stood up and walked right out of the barn.”
“How did you find me?” She asked again. “I wasn’t even paying attention to where I was going.”
“I tracked you. You left an obvious trail.” He drummed his fingers against his pants. “Lodestar said something about this being something you needed to do or time alone or something else stupid.” He shook his head at her. “I still think she knows something about you that the rest of us don’t know. Anyway, Faunus offered to get you, I’ll have you know. But I wouldn’t let him. I would be a complete idiot to send somebody else after my girl, even though I was trying to recover.” He paused and shrugged. “So that’s how I’ve spent my morning, exhausted and hurt, flying around looking for you.” Beau took a couple of steps closer. “So what happened? Did you wake up and decide to take a run for fun?” He leaned against a tree. “I am so tired. Mind if I relax here? Tell me, have you thought of me at all this morning? Did you wonder if I had woken yet? If I were still alive?”
Charlotte closed the gap between them. She didn’t stop the flow of tears. “You haven’t asked me if I’m okay. You didn’t give me time to process that I was safe back with you. You didn’t give me time to explain. Oh, no. You wrapped your true feelings up in a wad of unrelenting, careless teasing and shoved them down my throat!” She turned and stomped off.
“You left me when I was down!” He yelled at her.
Charlotte stopped walking. There it was. She frowned. She did feel bad, but he didn’t understand how she had felt at that moment. He didn’t know about the pain she was in, or that the pain started to go away the more she ran. “I’m sorry.” She yelled back at him. “I didn’t have a choice, Beau. I don’t get many choices these days!”
Beau’s wings opened and ruffled. “Tell me what’s going on in your head, Lottie. I’m having a hard time listening in from out here.”
Charlotte turned to him and put her hands on her hips. “I had to do it, Beau. I know you don’t understand, but I had to.”
“Then help me understand.”
Charlotte threw her hands up in the air. “What if I don’t fully understand what happened? What if it were like my body just knew what it needed to do to feel better?”
Beau turned and walked away a few steps. His wings were half opened, and the tips of his bottom feathers dragged through the dirt as he walked. He half turned to her, then shook his head and turned back away.
Charlotte planted her feet in the ground. “Winguard, get over here.” She tried her best to steady the tremors that surged through her legs.
Beau returned. His wings were folded behind him now. He reached for her, but she waved his hand away. If he touched her now, she would lose her courage.
“I was hurting. I woke up in terrible pain. Every inch of me felt like it was on fire. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was or what to do about it.” She coughed down a sob. “Beau, there’s nobody I can go to. Nobody I can ask. I’m not doing this on purpose!”
Beau pulled her to him. “Locklear.”
“Shut up.” She sobbed into his chest. “I was so worried about you. All I could think about was how much I wanted to get back to you and how stupid I was for getting lost and how hopeless my situation was.”
Beau wrapped his wings around her. “Hush now.”
Charlotte nestled her head in his neck. “We should get back.”
“First I’m going to hold you.”
Charlotte listened to the sound of their hearts beating. She turned in Beau’s arms and stroked his feathers. “Do you feel that?”
“Yes, in a way. Different areas of feathers have different levels of sensation.”
“Would you have liked it better if I had grown wings during the transformation?”
“What?” Beau laughed. “No.” He patted her back and tried to straighten his smile out in response to her scolding gaze. “Remember that I did love you before all the changes. Wings and magic didn’t matter to me.”
Charlotte crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I know you did, Beau, but it might have made things easier for us.”
“Hmm.” He kissed her softly. “That’s a matter of opinion, my dear. They are fun, but they also get in the way a lot. Everything you are used to doing would have to change.”
“That’s not so different than what I have to deal with now.”
“You’re right.” He stroked her back. “Would you have wanted them?”
“Maybe I did for a moment.” She dropped her arms and placed them on his hips. “Beau, what’s wrong with me? What if there are too many conflicting traits in me for anything to come out well? Sometimes I don’t understand all of this pain I’ve gone through. Surely it must mean something.” Her voice cracked then. “Surely there is something of worth in me.”
Beau replied with a kiss before words. “There was already something of worth inside you before this transformation. There were many things of worth in you.” He kissed her forehead, her nose, her ears, and her mouth. “Appearances can change throughout life, as well as abilities. What remains is what is in your heart. That’s the most important part of life. That’s the part I love about you the most.”
“I love you, too.”
“I know you do.” He pulled her close and kissed her hard, then pulled away slowly. “Your eyes are a little more golden every day.”
Charlotte looked into his eyes. “Yours are half way there.” She ran her hands through his hair. “Your hair is changing quickly, too.”
“Someday it will be all white.” He tugged one of the groups of strands of her hair that had turned white and picked out a leaf.
“Ugh. I’m filthy and stinky.” Charlotte complained. “Beau, be a good future husband and find me a bath won’t you?”
Beau stepped back and laughed. “Charlotte, be a good future wife and go for a cold swim.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “I’m not the only one who needs a cold swim.”
“Daisy.”
“Reginald.”
19
Fall or Fly
Audrey dropped the tray of paints of brushes.
Charlotte stood in front of her, little arms crossed and small foot tapping.
She was covered in paint, but her face was streaked with tears.
Charlotte turned and Audrey covered her mouth with her hand.
The girl’s back was covered with glue and feathers.
“Mama, Beau says I won’t ever be able to fly. But someday I will.
Someday I will have magic, too. Someday I will show you all.”
Sheets of rain slapped the sides of the barn. The temperature outside was dropping fast. Inside, the barn was filled with the light blue of Lodestar’s protection spell. She and Zorach stood near the front of the barn. They had been speaking in whispers for hours. Evangeline and Charlotte rested while they watched Ebby play on the floor, leaping and jumping and pouncing and prowling and scouting. Faunus had left to scout the woods that morning, and had not returned. Beau stood against one of the back stalls with Alcott.
“They will likely trace us here soon.” Alcott said.
“Hopefully the Maguard will find us first.” Beau sat down on a bale of hay.
“The enemy has been tracking longer.” Alcott said softly. He sat down by Beau. “The Maguard will find us, of that I am sure. But I do not know if it will be in time.”
“It will snow today.” Beau said.
“Perhaps that will buy us some time.” Alcott nodded at Charlotte. “She is too young, undisciplined, and inexperienced to be at war.”
Beau rubbed his hands together. “She is. But Alcott, she is a bird thrown out of her nest. She must fly or fall. I don’t like it any more than you do, but we can’t change her course.” He leaned back against the wall. “You don’t know her like I do. She’s fierce. She will find her wings and fly.”
“I suppose she’s not the first to be thrown into a war unready.”
Beau nodded. “She is mine, you know.”
“I know.” Alcott stood and straightened his jacket. “I will protect her on the ground when you fight in the air.”
“Thank you, friend.”
Lodestar and Zorach opened the barn door, straining against the wind. Faunus and Fauna entered, a Faun on a homemade stretcher of tree branches and bark was between them. They laid it near the fire and fell to their knees.
“He’s dying.” Lodestar said. “Who is he?”
“A traitor.” Faunus looked over at Evangeline. “Could you make a truth serum?”
“I could.” Evangeline said. She knelt down by the Faun and stroked his forehead. “I would prefer to ask him first.”
Faunus narrowed his eyes and shook his head.
“I have been following you all since you left. You were being tracked.” Fauna glared at Evangeline, then at Charlotte. “It wasn’t hard since you were going so slowly and were as loud as sightseeing danes.” She added indignantly.
Alcott tugged at one of the braided sections of his beard and walked to the back of the barn. Beau joined him.
Fauna rolled her eyes and then batted her eyelashes. “Prideful men.” She tapped the gun attached to her boot. “Faunus and I could have made this a faster, more efficient trip, but no, you all insisted on living in the stone ages.”
“There’s nothing wrong with tradition.” Alcott argued. His fingers gripped his mattock.
“There’s nothing wrong with transformation, either.” Faunus spit back. He looked up at Charlotte quickly, but then dropped his eyes back down to the Faun on the stretcher.
“Enough.” Lodestar commanded. “Tradition and transformation are both useful tools, but it does take time and experience to learn when to use which one.”
Fauna stood and swung her long, brown braid to her back. She straightened her ripped blue jean skirt and unzipped her matching jacket a little. “Faunus and I finally met up this morning and I told him what I had seen the last few days. We killed one of them, one of them escaped, and the third we captured.” She crossed her arms and looked down at him. “He will not live much longer, but perhaps he can live long enough to provide us with important information.”
“I don’t know if I have what I need to make it.” Evangeline confessed.
“I have what you need.” Faunus countered.
“I’ve never made it before on my own.”
“Then today will be your first time.”
“You presume too much, Faun.”
“You waste time, elf.”
“That’s enough.” Beau stepped in between them.
“We are going to die, bird!” Faunus stood and shoved Beau back. “Another league of biders is headed this way as we speak!”
“Then we don’t have time to make the serum.” Evangeline said quietly. She stood and hurried over to her pack.
“No.” Faunus said. “We don’t have time to make the serum.” He grabbed a saddle off of the wall and tossed it across the room. “We don’t have time for the dragon to grow up. We don’t have time for the girl to learn her powers.” He kicked a bale of hay. “We don’t have time to wait for the Maguard. We don’t have time!”
“You have time for one thing, Faun.” Zorach said.
“And what it that, centaur?”
“You have time to run.”
Faunus straightened his back. “I don’t run from fights, four hooves.”
“I didn’t tell you to run from the fight, two hooves.” Zorach smiled. “We are near your home territory, are we not? I bet that between you and Fauna, you could round up many of your children and be back here in time to rip apart some biders with us.”
“That would leave you with two less.”
“Only for a short time.” Alcott said. He strode over to Faunus and nodded up to him. “Let’s see if your team of impromptu Fauns can make it here before the Maguard does.”
“You’re on.” Faunus jumped up in the air. “Come, my Fauna. We rally the troops.”
Beau placed his hand on Alcott’s shoulder after the Fauns had left. “You deliberately baited him.”
“Didn’t we all?”
Charlotte tucked her hand in Beau’s hand and leaned against his arm. “What do we do about the Faun they left?”
“We need a healer.” Evangeline looked over at Lodestar.
Lodestar shook her head. “I cannot with that one.”
Alcott kneeled down with Evangeline. “Let’s you and I have a look and see what we can do.” He opened his pack and brought out his first aid kit.
Beau led Charlotte to the back of the barn. Ebby flew in circles above them and jumped between the rafters. Dirt and dust and hay drifted down and settled into their hair. Beau dusted off Charlotte’s shoulders and the top of her head. She smiled at him and returned the favor. Beau watched her care for him as he tried to choose which words to say to her now. Words were important; he knew that much. His father had always had the right words for him at the right times.
“Charlotte.” He stopped her dusting and held her hands. “Remember what Zorach taught you. You must be decisive, strong, and lethal.”
She frowned at him. “Are you patronizing me, Beau? You’ve seen one battle and—”
“One battle is enough, Lottie. Not to mention what you don’t know about me.” He took a step back, but kept a hold of her hands. “I’m not patronizing you. It’s nervous energy, that’s all.”
“Do you think I can handle it?”
“Yes, I do.”
She stepped forward. “I told you what I told you on the beach because I was being honest about my fears, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t face them. I’m going to do this, Beau. I won’t back down.”
“I know.” He shrugged. “Besides, I’m not all that worried about you. Your stench alone will probably drive off half the enemy.”
“Beau.” Charlotte laughed and hugged him. “You always know what I need.”
He wrapped an arm around her and wiped the single tear from his eye. The room was distracted, and Charlotte was facing away from him. Nobody would know. He wrapped his other arm around her and held her tighter. Please let her live. Please let our story continue past this chapter.
The Faun gasped and groaned.
“Beau, help me hold him down.” Alcott waved him over.
“No!” The Faun rolled himself into the fire.
Beau grabbed his legs and rolled him back out of the fire. Alcott covered him with a blanket. The men furiously fought the flames with the blanket. When they were finally out, Alcott laid his hands on the Faun’s chest. “It is over for this one.”
“I will dispose of him.” Zorach said.
“I’ll go with you.” Beau said. He nodded once at the centaur slowly. Zorach knew very well who his family was and what they did for a living. “Maybe we can do a little bit of our own scouting before the snow falls.”
“Be careful.” Charlotte locked eyes with him.
“Be prudent.” Evangeline added.
He nodded. That’s exactly what he was going to be. Zorach grabbed the Faun
by its hooves and they stepped out into the howling wind. Already snowflakes swept past their faces. It was not cold enough to stick. They had just enough time to do what needed to be done.
They found a secluded spot north of the barn in hopes that the enemy would spot the new trace of magic and think they were traveling north. It was a long shot, but perhaps he and Zorach could return in time to move them all to another safe spot. But where would they go? With the storm approaching, it didn’t make sense to leave the barn, and the enemy would at least search the barn. Beau looked up at Zorach’s creased forehead. He and Lodestar had likely already thought through many similar scenarios.
The process of extracting recent memories from the dead Faun was complicated, but Beau could do it in his sleep. It wasn’t completely true that the magical world was soft in the middle. The real truth varied with each species of magani. Charlotte didn’t see it yet. She didn’t see the scars in Zorach’s flank, or the hint of a limp in his hind left leg. She didn’t know the true pride of the dwarves, or secrets the mermaids buried in the sea. No, she didn’t even see the scars of the loved ones who stared back at her day after day. But then, who really did see another’s scars? He couldn’t see hers, but he could feel them. There was a hidden layer of her now. The foundation was dug the last few years. The cement was laid with her transformation.
“Do you have what you need?”
“Yes.” Beau straightened from his crouch. “We don’t want the enemy to know we have information.”
Zorach threw the body up in the air. It landed on the snowy rocks with a series of crunches. “Enough?”
“Trample his head.” Beau said without looking. “And that should do it.”
Blood and snow mixed on the ground. Beau settled the stirrings in his stomach. Would he ever get used to this part? He spread his wings out and shook his feathers. They returned to the barn. The snow fell harder. The wind screamed. They huddled in a circle around the fire, cloaks wrapped around their bodies. Even the protection spell couldn’t keep out all of the cold. Beau looked at Zorach and nodded. Zorach would speak the words that Beau retrieved.
