“Vince are you okay?” Pinly asked, laying on the bird's back, the feathers still tightly clutched in his hands. There were streams of blood running down the head. At the sight of it, Pinly felt the sudden urge to throw up. He stood up and ran to the closest bush to vomit. As his guts were emptying, he heard giggles coming from behind. He walked back to where Vince was still seating on top of the bird with a wide grin, covered in blood from head to toe. Pinly felt very uncomfortable at the sight of it and went to throw up some more.
“Vince…” He wiped his mouth again “how does it not disgust you?” Pinly asked,
“What in the?” Pinly heard, before turning around to see Miss Poli standing there, her eyes wide open
“Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served” Vince began giggling again.
“Where did you get that?” Miss Poli looked as if she didn't know where to start looking
“Above the trees” Pinly gestured up
“But why?” she asked, bewildered
“You told us to” Pinly replied “The meatiest animals don't live on the ground... remember?” He gestured up again
“Yes, we solved that riddle” Vince said proudly tapping on the dead bird's head, splattering more blood
“But I meant in the lake. Not on the ground, but in the water, there's plenty of fish in there, big ones!” she held her head in disbelief, looking at the gigantic bird “and you took it down without using magic?”
“Well yes, you told us not to” Pinly replied,
“Unbelievable” she shook her head and walked away.
Chapter 17
Nightmare
and swords
“N o!” Pinly screamed, he charged at the silver soldier, but failed to impact. He went through the soldier like a ghost. Fairies were screaming in terror. He was in the library once again and everything was happening in front of his eyes. Again, he was powerless to do anything. Pinly watched as his parents fought to hold the enemies back. He hopelessly tried to grab his brother, but his hands couldn’t get a hold of anything. Pinly fell to his knees and cried over the scene he was forced to watch. With a brisk jerk forward, Pinly woke up, his face drenched in tears. This was by far the most vivid dream he had ever had and it terrified him. Miss Poli’s lights were shining bright inside her little house so he dried his tears, stood up and walked to the house. The door opened on its own before Pinly had the time to raise his hand and knock. He stepped inside and the door closed behind him. Miss Poli seemed hard at work, she was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by a dozen floating parchments, slowly circling around her. Writing appeared on each of them, it looked like conversations. Miss Poli grabbed one of the parchments and began reading it
“Idiot!” she said quietly before tossing the paper back in the air, she grabbed another one which was empty and began to speak at it. Whatever she said was writing itself onto the parchment
“I can come back later” Pinly stepped back. She gestured for him to take a sit at the small table. Miss Poli continued speaking to her parchments for a while. She didn’t seem happy to read whatever they were telling her, she grunted and sighed at each one of them, sometimes cursing in a foreign tongue before replying. Pinly couldn’t hear what she was saying or read the parchments from where he was.
“For Osana” Miss Poli said and a symbol drew itself on all the parchments at the same time. It looked like a diamond with a snake rolling around it. Finally, the dozen parchments rolled themselves and flew inside a cupboard behind Pinly. He pretended not to have been looking when the witch turned to him. “Nightmare?” She pulled a chair next to him and sat down.
“How do you know?” Pinly asked
“What else could bring you here so early? Besides you've been screaming for help in your sleep for the past week” she replied.
“It’s always the same dream... I’m in the library and I go through it all again… The silver soldier...”
“The silver soldier?” she asked. Pinly realised he had never told her about the leprechaun who led the army of skulls, but what would she say if he told her now? It would probably change everything and she might want to train him longer or worse not ever let him go, to protect him.
“Has no one told you who exactly attacked us?” Pinly asked
“No, after the attack no one was ready to talk straight away and then you decided to leave so I had to bury your parents fast and go after you” She looked at him expectantly
“It was a skeleton in silver armour” He lied “He’s the one who killed my parents” Miss Poli rose to her feet
“I thought…” She stared into space as if she had just realised something “The traces of magic I found in the village looked like leprechauns magic... Are you sure there weren't leprechauns there?” She asked “That is mixed magic…” She said to herself as she sat back down
“Mixed magic?” Pinly asked
“Yes…” She whispered
“What do you mean?”
“There were skulls during the war for the magical countries... I don’t exactly know the process but it takes two magical beings, from different races”
“So you're telling me that if two magical beings somehow mix their magic , that's what would come out?”
“Yes” she nodded absentmindedly, she seemed deep in disturbing thoughts “Magic is not supposed to mix that way, nothing good can come out of it” her eyes suddenly focused on Pinly. She stared very seriously “Pinly, the skills I’m teaching you are not to take revenge, they are to defend yourself or run away… Do you understand?” she asked
“But…”
“Do you understand?” she insisted
“Yes, but what’s going on?”
“I need to accelerate your training” she said, but before he could ask more questions, a gentle hand knocked on the door and it opened to reveal Vince. The boy entered the house yawning and rubbing his eyes.
“It’s time for our run” he said through the yawn
“No running today” Miss Poly stood up, “You will both meditate” she said. The witch walked out the house and the boys followed her. Vince gave Pinly a one arm squeeze. He was probably well aware of Pinly's nightmares too Pinly thought. Miss Poly pointed at the floor where they both sat down and crossed their legs “close your eyes and put one hand on your heart” The boys did as told “listen to the forest as it speaks to you” Pinly never realised how good his hearing was before. As he focused he could hear tiny insects crawling under the ground below, he could hear water sucked by the tree roots and going through the massive trunks. He also heard the beating wings of the giant birds above and the vibrating wings of tiny insects all around them. The forest was well and truly alive. The boys spent two hours smiling to themselves as they listened to forest, until the clashing noise of wood hitting the ground in front of them broke their concentration. When Pinly opened his eyes, Miss Poli stood in front of a pile of long sticks "Pick one you feel most comfortable with, I'll give you half an hour to figure it out. The boys excitedly gathered around the pile of wooden sticks, all shaped in a different way, not sure exactly what to do with them. Pinly picked up a long one and began to swing it around carefully, like a sword. Vince picked up two identical smaller ones and held one in each hand. They played around with them
“En garde” Vince said, his sticks pointed at Pinly
“You'll regret the day you were born” Pinly said as they carefully clashed their make-believe swords together and made the ringing sound of metal the wood couldn't.
“The long sword and the sabres” Miss Poli nodded at their weapons “Pinly come forward…” She beckoned him over “after your adventure of yesterday, it occurred to me that you would benefit from knowing how to use weapons as soon as possible”
“Nice!” Vince whispered from the back
“Attack me” she told Pinly
“Really?” he asked, Vince was jumping up and down behind them, bursting with excitement “Ahhh” Pinly ran towards the witch, his sword raised up h
igh, ready to land a blow. She easily dodged and kicked him away, Pinly went rolling on the floor
“Don't leave yourself open like that” she said as Pinly stood up and dusted himself off "Vince your turn" she didn't have to ask him twice. He was already charging at her. Vince attempted stab her with both sabres, but she dodged and tripped him, Vince fell next to Pinly who suppressed a laugh
“You didn't do any better” Vince said as he stood up
“You were both terrible, no skills whatsoever” Miss Poli said
“Ouch! We're only getting started” Vince said
“First you will learn how to guard yourselves” the boys stood in front of her as she explained. She raised her hand towards the pile of wood and two sticks came out flying gently towards them “You need to be able to guard every part of your body especially the head…” the wooden sticks flew and gently touched their heads and the different parts of their body as she mentioned them “Shoulders, guts and legs. You won't learn anything else until you learn how to guard and block... get in positions” She said and the boys each moved to a different corner, the sticks hovered in front of them. The training went on for an hour. Miss Poli showed them how to hold their weapons properly and they learned how to guard, this was added to their daily training. They would wake up, go for a run, then sword practice and breakfast. After that they would practice fighting, have lunch then they would do strength training. Six months into their training, the boys knew how to fight with and without swords. They practiced every day, fighting against Miss Poli, becoming stronger and stronger. Miss Poli stopped the sword training one day and with a wave of the hand she changed their wooden sticks into real weapons, Pinly had a long sword and Vince two sabres “I think you're ready to use magic now” She said
Chapter 18
The spectres
O ne morning, the boys were getting ready for their run, when Miss Poli came out of her house. Pinly thought it to be weird. She usually never came out until they were back from it.
“You won't be running today,” she beckoned them closer, the boys approached “You should have noticed by now that no one ever comes through this forest” she said, Pinly had never really paid attention to that detail. He was always too busy training to think about anything else, but she was right, no one ever came through these woods. “Like Soubrey— where you are from Pinly, we are deep within Fiby. This used to be home to magical creatures too”
“What happened?” Pinly asked
“Eventually, they all left to live in the magical countries. I used to live here too before Soubrey…”
“Why are you telling us now?” He asked
“Because it's time for the next part of your training, follow me”
Although Pinly thought he had seen all that the forest had to offer, she led them to a side they had never been to. At first Pinly couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary but as they ventured farther away from the camp, a shape began to rise. To Pinly’s astonishment a castle was standing there. Its white stone walls rose to the top of the trees. It was a castle worthy of the greatest kings. Pinly had never seen anything like it, not even in Chavo. The only castles he had seen that could compare were in the books his father made him read, but even those were different. The roofs were shaped like curved slopes and bright orange. Pinly looked at Vince. The boy’s mouth was as wide open as his.
“How did we not see that before?!” Vince looked back at her in awe
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve” she smirked “As I told you before...” she turned to Pinly “I am teaching you all these skills to be able to run away. The only time you should fight is whenever you are trapped” Vince's eyes widened and he gasped in excitement
“Are you going to trap us in the castle?” He asked, Miss Poli grinned
“You're not really…” Pinly said
“Yes I am. If you were ever to come across those who imprisoned Lion, they will probably try to do the same to you, whether it's in a castle just like that one or a forest"
“So what do we have to do?” Pinly asked
“You will need to get to the highest turret” She pointed up at a red turret towering over the other orange ones “There are spectres in the castle, don't let them see you. When you're in the tower, grab the stone I have left on the bed"
“Spectres?” Pinly asked
“They’re sort of like ghosts” she replied
“Can we fight the spectres?” Vince asked
“Are you not worried that there are ghosts in there? You just want to fight them?” Pinly asked. Vince shrugged
“You cannot fight them when they're in their spectre form, you won't be able to touch them, but nor would they you. Your attacks will go straight through them”
“Can we escape them if they see us?” Pinly asked
“You can, but it will be very hard to get the stone after that” the witch replied,
“And how many tries do we get?” Vince asked
“You will try every day until you succeed” Miss Poli replied
“Piece of cake” Vince said. Miss Poli chuckled
“Go on then” she gestured them away, towards the castle. The immense wooden doors creaked open. Pinly craned his neck forward before stepping inside, following Vince who didn't seem worried at all. As the doors closed, Pinly turned around and saw Miss Poli nodding and smiling at him.
It was cold, dark and quiet inside, Pinly could hear and see Vince’s breathing. They moved forward, out of the hall and through the first corridor. Although still dark, the path became clearer when they moved in. Huge windows caught the tiny bit of light that penetrated the forest. Pinly heard footsteps and silently nudged Vince to follow him up. They hid on the ceiling.
"Your wings!" Pinly whispered. Vince's wings emanated their bright golden light. He went to sit on Pinly’s shoulder and the light disappeared. A door at the end of the corridor opened letting in a glowing blue figure. Pinly had to suppress a gasp of horror when he saw the face of the spectre. The blue light faded away and to their astonishment, a leprechaun was standing there. The darkness of the corridor made his green eyes glow and the few rays of sun that penetrated the corridor seem to be drawn to his silver hair. Pinly was instantly reminded of the silver soldier. This leprechaun was clearly a soldier too. He had a uniform on and a sheathed sword attached to his side. Pinly tilted his head has he paid better attention. He was sure he had seen the leprechaun before. Not in his village. Apart from the leprechauns' traits, this one had nothing in common with the silver soldier, there was something else about him. Then he remembered. It was the same leprechaun Miss Poli was crying over in the blue flamed vision she had shown them. What was he doing here? The leprechaun walked as if he suspected something to be happening. He then stopped right under the boys. Although there was still a good distance between them, Pinly began to worry he might find them.
“Squire!” The spectre called out. A bald but younger looking blue spectre came trotting through the corridor, this one was dragging an axe. It made a rattling noise as the huge blade dragged behind him.
“A bloody axe…” Vince whispered
“Yes sire Tempus!” the squire bowed
“Can you smell this?” Tempus asked without looking at his squire. The squire sniffed around
“I'm afraid I cannot really smell anything Sire” the squire replied. Tempus slapped him across the face. Pinly was both shocked and confused. What was this all about? Did these spectres think they were still alive? Or were they?
“Did you open the door again?!” Tempus shouted
“No, I swear Sire, I haven't been out all day” The squire cried out. Tempus then dismissed him with a flick of the hand. The soldier looked around one more time then left the corridor.
“Do you think there's anymore?” Pinly whispered, Vince shrugged his tiny shoulders.
“Let's go after them,” he replied. Pinly flew close to the walls and made sure he stayed within the shelter of the shadows. He had to fly down to open the do
or that led out of the corridor. Pinly's face wrinkled as he tried to minimise the creaking noise from the door. The fairy peeped inside before passing the threshold. They entered a well-lit room. It was all decorated in gold and red. A crystal chandelier, three times Pinly's size, hung from the high ceiling. There were golden flowers carved into the wooden ceiling that descended to the edges of the walls where they met with impressive red and gold curtains. Those were folded just above the immense windows. But most impressive of all was an all gold throne at the back of the room, it was decorated with jewels of every colour and red silk cushions.
“You're too big, hide behind the curtains, I'll go ahead and see what's outside” Vince said. Pinly raised the curtains and covered himself with them. The tiny fairy descended slowly and almost disappeared when he landed on the gold carpet but reappeared when he stepped on one of the red sofas. Vince’s tiny figure darted from side to side until he reached the door. Just as Vince reached it, the door suddenly swung open and slammed against the wall. Pinly panicked and wanted to go check on Vince the second he moved from behind the curtains, he saw Tempus walk through the door. The spectre paused, his arms crossed. He looked around the room then walked out into the corridor where they had first seen him. Vince emerged from behind the door. He seemed fine from where Pinly stood. The humming fairy stared into the other room before disappearing through it. Pinly waited for what seemed an eternity.
“Who are you?” He heard a voice scream from behind the door, then his heart leaped when he heard Vince's voice struggling
Made of Magic and True Grit Page 15
