Pixies vs. Fairies (The Fairy Rose Chronicles #3)

by Kailin Lauren Gow

  I beamed. So Mother and Father were proud of me, too. So proud and confident they were of me, that they trust me to go and fight.

  “Before we go,” Mother said. “I almost forgot this…” she went to the china cabinet, opened a drawer, and inside as a box. She opened it, and pulled out a crystal wand just like mine, except the top was shaped like a phoenix, and hers had amber and red gemstones encrusted throughout. “This is my fairy wand,” Mother said. “It’s been years since I’ve used it, but whenever I did, the results were spectacular.”

  Father patted Mother’s arms and looked at Rodney and I. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 5

  The Pixie Past

  Our family stepped outside into the growing dusk. We looked like a typical fairy family out to join a Summer Harvest festivity…only we were all armed to the hilt, dressed in sword fighting clothes, and had a determined look to our faces.

  “How are we going to find Alistair,” I said, looking out into the darkening sky. Soon it would be too dark to look for him.

  Mother and Father smiled, looked at each other. Mother said, “When we were younger fairies and your father was courting me, alright trying to get me to date him, we would go into the Pixie Lands.”

  “Why, isn’t that dangerous?” I asked.

  “Yes, very dangerous,” Mother said. “But that was just it. In order for any man to be able to date me and eventually become my husband (according to my father), they would have to be able to fight off pixies for me, and be able to swordfight me, too.”

  Rodney and I burst out laughing.

  “So…” Mother said, “I would meet your father in the Pixies Lands and when he showed up, deliberately provoke a pixie or two into a fight.” Mother chuckled while reaching out for Father’s hand. “Every single time, your father kept coming back to the Pixie Lands, as dangerous as it was, and kept fighting off the pixies. After about the tenth time, and he beat me in sword fighting, my father thought your father was brave enough or stupid enough or even mad enough (for love was a human madness) to marry me.”

  “And tis worth it again and again,” Father said smiling, looking adoringly at Mother.

  Mother blushed and then looked up. “So, you see, children, your father and mother know the Pixie Lands very well, and we know how to fight pixies better than any young knight in Feyland.”

  I was very proud of my parents at the moment, but worried. This was when they were younger, before Rodney and I were born. Did they remember how to get to the Pixie Lands, and would they be physically able to fight the pixies?

  “I know what you kids are thinking,” Mother said. “In the heart of diplomacy, and to save Rodney from possible banishment, if this was brought directly to the Summer King and Queen, we are the best allies you can have.”

  “And children,” Father said with a wink, “we’re strong enough to handle you.” With that, he lifted me up so that I was being carried like a child, and unfolded his fairy wings to full length, which almost extended from shoulder to toe. He lifted with me in his arms, and we were on our way, flying through our golden fields, through blue and purple fields of lavender and cornflower, through rolling green hills and silver-leafed trees.

  “Father!” I giggled, looking down. It was an exhilarating feeling to be able to fly through the freshly-fragrant Feyland air – sweet, warm, and freshly cool at the same time. “Why didn’t you fly me like this when I was little?” I asked. “Whee!”

  Father chuckled. “Because in Feyland, fairies are not supposed to show love and affection. Those are the rules. But you know your Mother and I, we do not follow rules very well, especially when it comes to the matter of the heart.” Father paused. “As you will see when you are older and your wings are stronger, it takes great effort to fly and carry someone along, even a child.”

  Father did look a little weary flying with me in his arms. I looked down, now wondering how far the drop was from the sky to the ground. Hopefully Father’s strength would not wane before we even step foot into the Pixie Lands.

  “Hey there!” a familiar voice called out. It was Rodney flying slightly to the right of my mother. They had the grace of flying evenly, while Father looked like he was flying with great effort.

  “Are we almost there yet?” I asked Father.

  “Almost,” he said.

  “What do I need to know about pixies?” I asked. “I know how they look, but do they glamour quite often?”

  “Pixies glamour often, just like fairies, but their glamour magic is strong. The average pixie can glamour longer than fairies, and they can glamour into almost anything. Fairies can glamour into most anything, except pixies. Don’t ask me why, but it may be because of a flaw in fairy glamouring.”

  “Or,” Mother chimed in, “it could be because the laws of our magic opposes pixies so much that even glamouring as a pixie is repulsive.”

  “I take it fairies dislike pixies and pixies dislike fairies, quite a lot,” I said.

  “Enough to have a fought two wars over in Feyland, where the final one was a victory for fairies,” Rodney said.

  I looked over at Rodney, impressed with his Feyland history knowledge.

  “I had to relearn Feyland history during knight training,” Rodney grinned.

  “Good thing you did, son,” Father said. “Then you will know, despite how much we fairies tend to think Feyland is about fairies (it is named for fairies after all), the pixies have been in Feyland with their own civilization, their own society, customs, and traditions for as long or even longer than fairies. They claim to be the original habitants of Feyland.”

  “Which is the source of why fairies and pixies do not get along,” Mother said.

  “When I fight a fairy, what can I expect?” I asked.

  “Expect them to fight like fairies,” Father said. “Except, they do tend to use glamouring often to appear as someone on the other side. Their glamouring magic is so strong, it is near impossible to tell who is the real fairy and who is the real pixie. Remember this rule…”

  “What?” Rodney and I asked.

  “Pixies can glamour into fairies, but fairies cannot glamour into pixies.”

  “What else?” I asked.

  Father adjusted his hold on me first and then continued. “Royal pixies can shoot green flames. Royal fairies can shoot bluish flames if they’re from the Winter Kingdom, while royal fairies from the Summer Kingdom can shoot yellowish-orange balls of fire.”

  “What about Autumn Springs fairies? Do they shoot flames? Alistair told me they tend to craft their magic more than learn to fight with a sword.”

  “Then I would believe they have their own innate powers,” Father said, “that we have yet to see since they are pacifists in this war…up until Rodney’s chance meeting with the Duke.”

  “I just hope Alistair is alright,” I said.

  “Alistair’s is Rose’s new boyfriend,” Rodney said casually.

  My heart jumped at Rodney’s spill. I rolled my eyes at him, but he did not seem to care he just announced my relationship with Alistair to of all people, my parents.

  “Oh, is that true?” Mother said. “He is a fine young man, and he seems polite.”

  “Out of all the fey boys around,” Father began, “Alistair is probably the only one I could approve of. He is well-mannered, bright, and seems to have an eye for great beauty.”

  “Not to mention he is the heir to Autumn Springs, which means Summer will get the alliance we needed from Autumn Springs,” Rodney said.

  I was blushing deep red by now. Apparently from the first mention of Alistair and me together, my family had already imagined us married and on the throne of Autumn Springs.

  “Huh, we just started thinking we are more than friends, that’s all,” I said. “But if you wanted me to be a lot more than a friend to him, then we’d better hurry up and get him out before pixies eat him.”

  “They what?” Father asked.

  “Don’t pixies eat fairies?” I asked, looking at
Rodney suspiciously. He had told me they did.

  “No, no dear,” Mother said, wiping the tears of her laughter off. “Pixies don’t eat fairies. Pixies eat many other fey, but rarely fairies.”

  “Then what do pixies do with fairies?”

  “Pixies would drink the blood of fairies,” Father said. “They are animalistic and cannibalistic that way…almost like vampires even.”

  I shuddered. “Why everything you’ve told me about pixies seem as though they have the winning edge over us, Father.”

  “Not true,” Father said. “Fairies…those who have a little more of something other than fairy; tend to have strong powers, too.”

  “Like Alistair…”

  “Like royal fairies…”

  “Like Rose and Rodney…”

  “Like Mother…” Father said.

  I smiled, feeling the magical fey wand securely lodged into my inner vest pocket. It was gently tingling against me, as though it wanted to tell me something.

  The last time I used it, something powerful happened. Alistair had told me it happened because I have a little bit of Autumn Springs fey blood in me, which helped fuel the wand.

  Father was right. We fairies had an equal advantage to the pixies, and perhaps more.

  Chapter 6

  The Pixie Lands

  Finally after flying for what seemed like hours, I saw below us buildings, homes, and tents that appeared to be in the heart of the kingdom for pixies. In the light it was hard to see anything else other than a community.

  “Welcome to the Pixie Lands,” Father said before landing onto a cobblestone-paved road in one of the villages’ alleyway.

  I looked up, expecting to see a beautiful and elegant village like the ones on the outskirts of the Summer Kingdom. It was decent enough, but it looked like it had seen much better days. Doors needed to be fix while some of the stones in the cobblestone road had come lose. Everywhere I looked, there was some flaws and some cracks in the walls in the buildings. The buildings reminded me of something from the human William Shakespeare’s times when they were made of straw roofs and had a timber and stucco look. Yet, what made these buildings and this village different from human villages were these doors were adorned with horns of minotaurs. Thousands of them, mounted on the doors sharpest part out of the horns first. It was fine enough, however, for Mother, Rodney, Father, and I to go looking for Alistair.

  “Why did we land here?” I whispered to Father.

  “It’s a start,” Father said.

  Mother joined him. “A very good start. My wand is feeling a strange energy as though there was a non-pixie presence nearby.”

  “Could it be us rather than the pixies?” I asked.

  “No,” Mother said. “I deliberately asked my wand to find Alistair, and here we are.”

  Chapter 7

  The Rescue

  My wand began tingling too. “Mother,” I asked “How do you make the wand find Alistair for us?”

  “You have to ask the wand,” Mother said simply.

  “Help us find Alistair,” I asked the wand.

  “Believe it, have faith it will help you find Alistair,” Mother said more firmly this time.

  “Wand, locate the exact location of Alistair the Fairy Lord of Autumn Springs,” I asked. With more conviction. Immediately, I felt the wand tingle more warmly until it beckon that I take it out of my inner vest pocket.

  I held the wand out just as Mother. Then my wand began moving on its own, pointing into a direction down the road and pulling me forward. I staggered forward, unable to resist the strength of the wand, and secretly wishing I had more lessons with Alistair on using the wand. Rodney, Father, and Mother ran after me. Then as though the wand had a sense of urgency, it pulled harder…so much harder that I began flying in the air, lifted by the sheer force of speed. I was flying without using my wings. Flying because of my wand.

  Behind me, my parents and Rodney broke out their wings and began taking flight through the air until we were above the village and headed to a remote castle in the woods close to the village. The castle was white but grungy with dirt, as though it had not been scrubbed down and washed for centuries. It was a castle with turrets and sharp spires that rose in rocky jagged spirals upward into the sky. A dark cloud hovered over the castle with dark streams of rain pelting down upon its ancient walls.

  My wand sped through the sky, through the dark rain clouds, through the harsh raindrops that felt like acid, and through a window in one of the towers. There, the wand slowed down, causing me to stop in midair, and through the pull of gravity, I fell down. Fast. Unto something soft and hard at the same time.

  “Whoa!” a voice said in the dark, “Watch it!”

  I knew that voice anywhere!

  Alistair.

  “Rose?” he asked softly. “Is it you?”

  “Alistair!” I said, throwing my arms around his neck, and pulling him in for a quick kiss. I was truly happy he was alive, and we have found him. “I was so worried.”

  “Rose,” Alistair said, still in the dark. “I missed you. I’m sorry to have made you worried.”

  “We need to get out of here,” I said quickly. “Maybe we can fly out the way we flew in?”

  “Rose, I’m afraid I can’t,” Alistair said.

  “Why?”

  Someone, was it Mother, created a warm glow of light at the moment so we could see around us.

  We were in a plain room with no decorations, furnishings, or windows. We were in something that looked like a dungeon. And what was strange about this dungeon was that there was nothing to hold Alistair in it… no bolted doors or shackles and chains. Just a slab of concrete around his feet. Alistair was stuck tight.

  We all looked at each other. Mother raised her wand and said something as soft as a whisper. “Break the concrete into tiny pieces of crumbled rock around Alistair’s feet, Wand!”

  With a sharp crack in the center of the slab, a seam appeared until the entire slab crumbled into tiny rocks. Alistair moved his boots out from the ruins and shook his legs, putting circulation back into his legs. “Until I get feeling back into my legs, I can’t run. But I can fly.”

  “Flying sounds like a good option,” Rodney said, walking up to Alistair and patting his shoulders. “Good to have you back!”

  “Good to be back, but we have to go…the pixies would find out that I escaped, and I wouldn’t want to get your whole family in trouble. Let’s go!”

  With that, he led us out of the dungeon and into the castles’ hallway. It was the time of night when most pixies were asleep. “Where are we?” I asked.

  “In one of the Pixie King’s castles,” Alistair said. “I don’t believe he’s here at the moment, but his nephew, that pixie who attacked us, lives here. He’s in charge, and I haven’t seen many pixies in the castle itself.”

  “Wonderful,” Father said. “Less pixies to worry about.”

  “Now, are you well enough to fly?” Mother asked Alistair.

  “Yes,” he said, grinning. They didn’t cut off my wings like other fairies before me.”

  “Cut off your wings?” I asked, feeling sick to my stomach.

  “The Pixie King rules harshly, and when he does take hostages of the fey, he likes to humiliate them and cut off their wings,” Alistair said.

  I reached out my hand to his and held it, “I’m glad your wings are still there. Now are you ready to go?”

  He didn’t have to say a word, but unfolded his beautiful blue and gold wings, took me into his arms, and lifted up into the air and flew with me towards one of the windows that was open.

  Mother, Father, and Rodney quickly followed, flying close behind.

  We were about to fly out, when there was a shout. “Stop!” It was a pixie. He had a spear in his hands. “Stop or I’ll throw this!”

  Instead of slowing down or stopping, Alistair flew faster. The pixie threw his spear, and before it could hit Alistair, Rodney took out his sword and struck the spear down.


  Alistair kept flying, and another pixie appeared, carrying a crossbow. The pixie took out an arrow, and shot one arrow straight at Rodney, the last one in our group. Father pushed Rodney out of the path of the arrow and catch the arrow with his own bare hands.

  I was astounded, and so were Alistair and Rodney. But that victory was short-lived. More pixies appeared, and they had fashioned steel balls the size of a marble ball, which they shot with a weapon similar to a slingshot. The steel balls filled the air at top speed, pelting all of us until we fell.