by Jen Pretty
After he finished, we sat digesting what had happened over the last several weeks. It sounded like my life was pretty shitty for the six months before this Victor guy saved my life in the back alley and he opened my eyes to the wild magical world that changed everything.
Finally, Daisy waddled out and quacked, breaking our silence. He hopped up on the small table and rummaged around in a basket. He pulled out two slices of bread and hopped down. He came over and sat beside me, and I pet his soft feathers.
“I can’t believe I named this poor duck Daisy,” I said.
Armond laughed, “You know, he is also a dragon.”
“WHAT?” I almost dropped my coffee. Daisy quacked loudly in offence, then took his bread and waddled back to the tent.
Armond chuckled. “He helped you save me from the witch.”
I lost all my humour. The witch was a problem.
“So, you find your brain yet?” the man named Puck who I had tripped over when I got up asked as he swung down onto to log beside me. Armond informed me he was also a Unicorn.
“Ass, I haven’t lost my brain, just my memory.” He curled one side of his mouth in a mischievous smile.
“I can help you remember. You are a warrior.” He looked at Armond “Put a knife in her hand and spar with her. Even if her mind forgets, her body wont.”
“How the hell can I hold a knife with this hand?” I held up the crooked hand for him to see.
Puck snickered. “You do just fine. I’ve seen you.”
“It’s not a terrible idea,” Armond agreed. “I taught you; we sparred well together.”
“Alright, as long as you take it easy on me. I don’t remember any fighting.”
“She needs to box.” A voice came from behind me. When I turned around, it was Roman who stood there.
“Well we don’t have a punching bag here,” Armond replied.
“I’ll fight her,” Roman countered, never taking his eyes off me. “She can hit me. It won’t do any damage but tape her knuckles. She’s more likely to remember fighting with her fists. She has been boxing since she was a little girl.”
“You’re probably right. Our Lex is scrappy,” Puck agreed with a crooked smile.
That was how I found myself in a clearing a little farther through the woods. It was where all the hunters gathered to spar and practice and stay in shape for the upcoming battle with the witch. They were waiting for me to be ready before we travelled to save the king’s son, Aldridge, who was still missing.
Roman took his shirt off and smiled when I stared too long.
“I expect a broken nose and don’t want to ruin my shirt.” I think it was a distraction tactic. One of the hunters firmly taped by knuckles and Luke came to watch, his presence calming me, but I still felt jittery and expectant, my blood pumping and hands shaking a bit.
Roman approached me with a cool look in his dull red eyes. “You can’t hurt me, Lex, let go.”
I took an awkward swing at him, and he easily slapped it away.
“Do better.”
My fists came up, and it felt comfortable like that. I relaxed my stance until I could easily bounce on my toes and then let my body take over. I was throwing combinations and a couple of times came close to hitting him. He was way too fast and very good at evading. He never threw a punch, though. I stepped up my tempo and added some kicks that felt natural, dodging in and out, trying to land something. Finally, it was like he slowed down just as my fist was flying towards his jaw and his head flipped backwards.
“Fuck.” I dropped my fists and rushed forward to make sure he was ok, but he was smiling. His sharp teeth had cut his lip and blood was running from his mouth down the front of him, dripping off his chin, onto his chest, as he had predicted.
“There she is,” was all he said before smiling at Armond.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you that hard. It was like you slowed down.”
“It wasn’t his doing, Lex,” Armond said from the sidelines.
I looked back at Roman. He just raised a brow at me. Armond had said I could slow time when he was telling me my whole backstory, but I guess I assumed I would have to relearn how to do that or wait for my memories to come back.
“Now, we spar. You ready?” Roman asked, smiling with blood-stained teeth. He noticed me staring at them and snapped them together twice. Something about that action made me laugh. He froze and bit his lip almost looking like he would cry at my reaction.
“I’m ready,” I said breaking the awkward moment and bringing my fists up into a fighter’s stance.
Roman dove at me but I slowed him down and aimed a fist for his ribs. He sped up again as I hit him, and I dipped out of the way. He swung around to kick me, but I slowed him again and spun out of the way, releasing my magic. I could feel it pull in and out of me like my magic knew what to do even if I didn’t.
We continued around the clearing, dodging and weaving. The feel of using magic seemed natural and easy. I didn’t hit Roman again, well, not hard anyway. When I didn’t dodge fast enough, Roman caught my shoulder with a punch hard enough to spin me around and knock me over. I didn’t get the chance to hit the ground because I was suddenly scooped up and found myself riding on the back of a white horse. I screamed and slammed my magic out. All I managed to do was stop my steed mid-stride, launching me face-first into the dirt. My previously busted lip had a matching scraped forehead. The air was entirely knocked out of me, so I lay on the ground gasping till I caught my breath. Then I laid there and moaned for a while too.
I finally let go of my magic when I saw Roman approaching. He body slammed the white horse that I now saw had a horn in the middle of its forehead. It was Puck. My trusty war unicorn. Armond had told me about him, but not that he would scoop me up and run off with me. I thought he just carried me into war.
Roman and Puck kept fighting in the underbrush until I heard Roman groan and then a slightly bloody-faced Puck came marching out.
“You didn’t kill him, did you?” I asked the freaking unicorn that stood before me. It was one thing to hear you had a battle unicorn. It was another to see it.
The unicorn was suddenly a man. A naked man.
“Oh my God, why are you naked?” I screamed, covering my eyes.
“I didn’t kill the vamp, just taught him a lesson about sparring too hard before you are back to your old self. I’m naked because I was having a nice relaxing bath in the river when that idiot hurt you.” He hadn’t moved away yet, so I kept my eyes covered.
“I’m going back to my bath,” he said when I didn’t reply. I heard him walk off and when I thought he was far enough, I uncovered my eyes and stood up gingerly to check on Roman.
“Are you ok?” I asked as he heaved himself up. He had a lot of bloody spots on his chest.
“I’m fine, Lex,” he muttered while rubbing the blood off his chest with his hand. He mostly just smeared it around, which was disturbing.
“Does he do that often?”
“Stab me with his horn?” he said with a humourless chuckle. “Yeah, I guess he does. More so when you are around, though.”
“Why is that?” I asked, curious about the dynamics I was missing.
“He is yours, and you are his,” he said, as we started back towards camp. “It’s a symbiotic relationship between elves and unicorns.”
I stopped walking. “I’m fae. Armond said I’m fae.”
He spun to face me. “We only just found out. He probably didn’t want to confuse you.”
Well, I was confused now. “So, I’m not fae?”
“You are the fae queen, and you are half-elf.”
That was confusing. How could I be the fae queen if I was half-elf? Whatever. As we turned and started walking again, I took Roman’s hand in mine without thinking, and we both startled. I dropped his hand and looked away. It didn’t feel right to hold the hand of a man I didn’t know, even if my body seemed to remember him.
“Tell me about the last time you saw me, be
fore here, I mean,” I said, trying to break the awkward silence that had fallen between us.
He frowned and looked at the ground. “We returned to find the village burned to ashes and Kingsland was under attack. You killed the trolls, but the king was already dead. We headed for the portal to the witch’s world, but I think you accepted your powers and then almost drowned. Maybe you did drown.”
He paused for a moment and cleared his throat. I could tell it was affecting him, relaying the story. He took a few more deep breaths and continued. “Daisy found you at the bottom of the lake, and I fished you out. Then you ran like hell.”
I let that soak in for a minute. I remembered running like hell. I remembered waking up and being scared. If I tried to remember before that, there was something about a duck bopping my nose. Daisy.
“Why did the trolls burn the village and kill the king?”
“Because the witch wants all the power, and Trolls are assholes who will work for anyone. She is trying to take the magic of this land by destabilizing the whole world. I’m pretty sure if she is successful, she will aim for earth next.”
“We can’t let her do that.”
“Nope,” Roman agreed, kicking some leaves.
We walked along in silence for a moment before clearing the trees and coming back into camp. Daisy waddled over to meet us, and I scooped him up. His soft feathers tickled my nose as I lay my cheek on his back, still thinking over the witch problem. I had some magic, but I still felt utterly cut off from my past, and my magic didn’t feel whole.
Back in camp now, Roman sat down on a log in front of the fire. I sat beside him and kept trying to piece together the missing parts.
“I am missing something, Roman. Something big. Like half of me is still locked away. I feel empty.”
“We were going to wait till you had some memory back, but maybe it will jog your memory if I just tell you.” He turned to face me. “You have magic that you pull from the ground, from all around you. It’s stronger than your own magic and appears it's connected to your elf heritage. You haven’t used it since you came back from the lake.”
“What does that mean? From the ground?” Now that I had felt magic, I knew magic was real. I didn’t doubt he was telling me the truth.
“I have no idea. That’s how you explained it to everyone when you taught the werewolves to use magic. You just had them sit on the grass, and when they felt something, they were to pull on it. You described feeling an earthquake, and then you pulled a rope.” He laughed at my confused expression. “That’s the same expression the king had when you taught him.”
“Alright, well I guess it won’t hurt to try it. I’ll just…go sit in the grass, I guess.”
Roman smiled, and my heart did a flip. Something about him smiling made butterflies flutter in my stomach, but I still wasn’t ready to examine that feeling. So, I pushed it down and found a quiet spot of grass and sat on it.
CHAPTER FOUR
I sat on the grass. It was cool and slightly damp. The ground was kind of lumpy. And uncomfortable. I shifted a bit trying to find a better place to sit. I wondered if I could stop time for myself. Like freeze myself. That would be unpleasant. How would I unstop time if I was stopped? Could I still think about things while time was stopped? Huh. Let’s hope I never find out what would happen if I accidentally stopped myself.
I did need to stop though. I was sure this internal dialogue was going to prevent whatever super magic was trying to come to me, from coming…to me. Whatever.
Daisy waddled over and sat down. He nibbled on some grass, not eating it, just mouthing it really. I smiled down at him. His beak moved so fast sometimes when he ate or drank like it had a little motor in it.
Remembering that Armond said he was also a dragon, I thought about that for a while. If I had ever seen him as a dragon, I couldn’t remember, but he was cute as a duck. I understood why he preferred it. I wouldn’t want to be a giant dragon either.
The day was wasting away with my random thoughts and wonderings. Some of the hunters came and went, some giant wolves showed up to talk to Armond and Roman, and then they went too.
By midafternoon, Luke came over with a plate of food for me and another for himself.
“How’s it going?” he asked, nibbling on his lunch.
“I’m not very good at this,” I replied. “Did you visit me while I was sleeping? Like in my dream?”
“I’m a dream walker. It’s what I do,” he said looking bashfully at the grass he was pulling apart with his long fingers. “I used to take away your nightmares.”
I couldn’t remember that but felt like I could trust Luke. His presence was so solid in my mind. An image of him, in a tree, flittered through my mind. Stuck in a tree.
“You were stuck in a tree?” I asked, not sure that was truth or imagination.
He spat the water he had just sipped back out onto the ground then continued laughing and coughing. “I was trying to help you, Lex. Help you find your magic.”
I laughed too. It was fragmented. But I remember the feeling of peace I felt in that place, with him. Just the two of us running through the forest and being silly.
“We have to go back there, Luke. I remember the trees. I remember you in the tree. We need to go back to that place so that I can remember.” I had a memory, and my excitement was making my heart rate soar and the thought that I had to go back there was so strong I was going to have a panic attack, right there.
“Ok, Lex. I’ll talk to Armond and see how long it would take to get everyone packed up. We should be able to leave in the morning. Just, take some deep breaths. We will go.”
I smiled. “I remember that tree, Luke.” I was nearly bouncing. The more I thought about that tree he had climbed and hadn’t been able to get out of, the clearer the vision was in my mind.
By the time darkness fell, I was no closer to my special fancy magic than I had been when I first sat down. I got up and grabbed some quick dinner and went back to my tent.
Puck was sitting in the grass by my tent, waiting.
“Didn’t find your magic?” he asked, looking honestly interested.
“No, maybe I don’t have it anymore. I remember Luke, though. Well, I remember him in a tree.”
Puck just smiled and said, “That’s something. You'll find your magic, Lex. I feel it.” I watched as he stood and wandered off towards the blazing bonfire. He was odd.
I climbed into my tent and curled up in my sleeping bag. I was just getting comfortable when a soft quack at the door let me know my duck was ready for bed too. I opened the flap and let his royal duckiness in, then settled back down and drifted off to sleep.
The sound of people talking and moving about outside my tent woke me. I rubbed my face into Daisy’s soft back, and he quacked quietly. “Good morning, fierce ducky,” I whispered.
He nibbled on my nose, and I laughed, which alerted my guard unicorn to the fact I was no longer asleep, and that meant he could open my door flap and stick his head in.
“What are you doing?” I shouted, throwing a pillow at him.
He ducked the pillow but didn't leave. “We are packing up to go back to Earth.” His smile said it all, but his weird giddy mood said just a bit more. It seemed the unicorn liked Earth.
Puck ducked back out when I just stared at him, so I got up, got dressed, and stumbled out.
I was surprised to find Roman standing in front of me with a travel mug, some toast and a smile.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Luke says you remembered.”
“Just him stuck in a tree, nothing major.”
“Good enough, let’s go,” he said, handing the travel mug and toast to me.
I started to tell him we had to pack up my stuff first, but I turned and saw that my tent and bag were both packed and ready to go already.
“Hunters have been setting up and taking down the tents a lot in the last four days. Plus, we do have frequent training exercises. They are a good group of guys
.”
I grabbed my backpack with the tent attached and went to swing it on my back, but a hunter stopped me.
“It would be my honour to carry your things for you, Your Highness.”
“My name is Lex,” I said scowling at him. “And I’m quite capable of carrying my own pack.”
I heard Armond laughing. He stood by the last of the dying flames of the bonfire, kicking dirt on the fire, but laughing at the exchange between the hunter and me.
“What’s so funny?” I yelled.
“You have always been a bit sensitive about your name Lex. This queen stuff is only going to get worse as we travel to homeland.”
Ugh. “Great. Thanks for the heads up.”
After a couple of hours of walking through the forest and open fields, we took a break by a creek. The water was cool and clear, but after we all had a little drink, Daisy waddled in and splashed about, stirring up mud from the bottom. He was such a happy duck. I envied his carefree attitude.
Finally, we came to a door. It looked like the door to a house. Except there was no house.
The hunters pushed forward to go through ahead of me, so I let them have at it. Puck and Daisy walked along behind Roman who walked beside me until we got to the door and then he held out his hand and ushered me through. It was a bit strange to walk through a door in a forest and end up on a rocky mountain, but the déjà vu was getting stronger.
We stopped for lunch, but the guys decided we would walk halfway out before camping. The hunters had a bunch of SUVs parked somewhere a day away and that was where we were heading.
Armond filled me in on the details of the long trip to get home before we would cross to homeland. The fae elders wanted to talk before we left Italy.
We walked a long time after that and I was nearly exhausted before we finally stopped for the night. It was getting dark enough that I was tripping on roots and things when Armond called everyone to a stop. He said there was a big descent down a rock wall coming up and he didn’t want us trying to scale it at night. So, we all set up our tents while Armond started a fire and cooked up some food. I was almost too tired to eat, but Roman dragged me out of my tent and over to the fireside. I did manage to eat some of the stew type stuff that Armond had cooked up before crawling back to my bed.
