by Maggie Joan
His attention seemed somewhat focused on the far horizon. “You may.”
“Why do you use horses as your main travel when you have wings?”
He took a few seconds to turn his head and make eye contact with me. When he did, a feeling of unease started to unfurl in my stomach. His eyes seemed distant, like he wasn’t really there, it was as if he was looking beyond me rather than at me.
“Calico? Are you ok?”
He put his index finger to his lips in a shush gesture. In that instant, my heart burst with adrenaline. Kaisa snorted and started fidgeting beneath me.
“Anushka,” Calico said. Before I could even form a question in my mind, both horses leapt into the forest in one giant stride. “Get down on her neck,” Calico whispered.
He stood so close to me our legs touched. I watched as he leaned down on Izar’s neck, wrapping his hands around Izar’s neck. In less than a second, Izar’s coat enveloped him in leaves and twigs, covering him to the point of invisibility.
I quickly followed suit, wondering if I would actually be buried inside Kaisa or not. Just like with the twigs that secured me to her back, I felt barely a tickle as she camouflaged me to her. I expected to see nothing but foliage but found I was pleasantly surprised when I still had a clear view of the path and the wheat field in front of me, albeit through gaps in the trees.
We stayed like this for what felt like an age but must have only been a couple of minutes. The horses barely moved, even their breathing seemed slower and steadier. As I began to wonder what on earth was going on, I noticed movement in the wheat field, only slight, but it was there. I watched as a direct line parted the wheat, the ears shaking from side to side. When the line seemed directly aimed at us, I began to panic.
My heart pounded against my ribs and my throat ran dry. The wheat nearest the trail started shaking and I took a tighter hold around Kaisa’s neck. Seconds later, a bizarre looking creature hopped out of the wheat and onto the path.
What I can only describe as a sombrero hat sat upon its head, bright red with white polka dots. Its body was thick, lacking any type of definition, and an off-white colour. Two coal black eyes sat on its face, only distinguished from its body by the slightest of curves about a third of the way down. Two spindly legs and two spindly arms stuck out of its body, making me question how they could be so small and thin in comparison to the rest of it.
“I smell here,” it said, pointing to the trail where Calico and Izar had been only moments ago.
When it opened its mouth to speak, I struggled not to gasp when I saw the razor-sharp teeth protruding from its face, hundreds of them like tiny little needles.
Emerging from the wheat behind it, at least a dozen more, just like it, emerged. Some looked up, some bent down and appeared to sniff the ground, whilst others just stared at the first one, as if waiting for an order.
“Check,” the first one said, pointing further down the trail.
Two of them scurried down the path, sniffing the ground. When they stood up and shook themselves from side to side in a no gesture, the first one let out an animalistic growl that sent a shiver down my spine. It shook its little arms like a child having a tantrum.
“We wait. They can’t,” it said.
With that, they retreated back into the wheat field, but judging from the movement of the wheat ears, they hadn’t gone much more than a metre back into the golden field.
Now what? I thought to myself. We were at a checkmate. They weren’t going to leave and judging from the fact they looked like carnivorous mushrooms, I guessed they could afford to wait a lot longer than we could.
Several tense minutes ticked by. The horses still didn’t move, and I couldn’t do anything but marvel at their perfect discipline. As I debated signalling Calico in some way to ask what was going on, a loud screech, like that of an eagle, thundered through the sky. It actually made my ears hurt.
Through the gap in the trees I’d used as a viewing window, I saw a huge shadow loom over the wheat field. Clearly the silhouette of a monstrous sized bird, I watched in astonishment as a pair of yellow clawed feet, easily the size of the horses, appeared in my line of sight. The trees and the wheat rustled and moved violently from side to side as the draft from the bird’s wings hit them.
The feet sunk into the wheat, allowing me to see the rear white and brown feathers of the bird. Several loud shrieks sounded from the field, along with a couple of lines zipping through the long stems, presumably running from their predator. The bird flapped its wings several times, leaving the force of a hurricane in its wake. In its feet were most of the mushroom creatures who had been waiting for us. With another deafening screech, the bird flew back over the forest, heading back to wherever it had come from.
Ten seconds later, nothing stirred, and there was no clue as to the mushroom massacre that had just taken place in front of us.
After what I’d just witnessed, I began to wonder if I’d overestimated my ability to do this. I felt way out of my depth and beyond anything I’d ever imagined.
Calico rose from Izar’s neck and glanced over at me. “Rule number one of the fairy realm—everything eats everything.”
Great.
Chapter 9
Everything eats everything. Those words whizzed around my mind at a million miles an hour. What had I gotten myself into? Was this a trap? Some kind of revenge for what my gran had unknowingly caused all those years ago?
“Don’t panic,” Calico said. “We survive, for the most part.”
I almost choked. “For the most part?”
“There are unfortunate incidents but no more so than in your world. Like when sharks or bears attack people. That’s all this is.”
I struggled to rationalise it in my mind. “But…but they’re predators, carnivores, and we encroach on their territory…this is…they were…mushrooms!”
Calico tilted his head back and laughed such a deep laugh, it brought a smile to my face. “Yes, they are mushrooms, Mushroom Sprytes to be correct. But just because they are different to what you perceive as dangerous, it does not make them any less dangerous.”
I thought about that for a minute. He had a good point. This wasn’t Earth. This wasn’t my world. My perception of predators and threats didn’t apply here. I was nothing but completely lost and blind in a strange world. That thought alone made my head start spinning.
“Are you ok?” he asked. “You’ve turned an awful colour of white.”
I had been sat upright but now felt I needed the comfort of support from Kaisa’s neck again. I hugged Kaisa again and shut my eyes, wishing so hard I was back home. Why had I gotten so involved and wrapped up in this? I could die here. Was this worth my life?
Kaisa’s steady breathing slowly brought my erratic short breaths back down to a normal rate as I chased various questions and answers in my mind.
“Faye?” Calico said. “Are you ok?”
Feeling weak and drained, I lifted my hand and gave him a thumbs up sign. I just needed a minute to gather my thoughts and get myself together. I sucked in a couple of deep breaths and forced myself to sit back up.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “This is just totally overwhelming. I hadn’t ever considered that things here might want to eat me.”
“If it helps, humans are considered somewhat of a rare delicacy.”
I widened my eyes. My heart skipped a beat. “Wh…what?”
He burst into laughter again. “I really must have fun more often. It’s good for the soul.”
“Are you…are you taking me to your Queens to eat me or something?”
He laughed harder. “No,” he spluttered.
I stared at him with one raised eyebrow and waited for him to finish his extreme enjoyment.
“I do apologise,” he said. “No, fairies do not consume humans. You are quite safe with us.”
I snorted. “I really don’t feel it.”
“You can trust me to keep you safe.”
“Can I though?
”
He glanced out onto the path and looked up into the sky. Pushing Izar forwards, out of the cover of the forest, he turned back to me and said, “You’ll just have to see for yourself, won’t you?”
***
We rode in silence until we reached what I can only describe as a picturesque creek. Pebbles and stones of all different sizes were scattered along the ground between two shallow grassy banks. Clear water flowed along over them, barely covering some of the bigger rocks that were spotted along the shallow bed.
“This marks the territory between Eklaria and Adonara. Adonara is a small town where we will stop for food and water and to give the horses rest.”
“Ok. Any murderous mushrooms going to be hunting us over there?”
“No, you are quite safe from Mushroom Sprytes, they exist only in Eklaria. Adonara however, presents its own hazards.”
“Of course it does,” I replied, rolling my eyes.
“Would you like me to tell you of them?”
“No, thank you. I don’t want to be on edge, looking over my shoulder every two minutes for some weird little creature.”
“Being prewarned means being prepared.”
“How can I possibly prepare for whatever is coming next?”
Calico pursed his lips and then replied, “Good point. Not like you have any weapons. Just don’t pet the dogs.”
With that, he pushed Izar into the creek and rode over the boundary line into Adonara. Not wanting to stay in the land of carnivorous mushrooms any longer than I had to, I quickly followed him.
“How many lands do we have to pass through to get to the Queens Court?” I asked, staring at the wide-open grassy plain stretching out before us.
“After Adonara, we have three more to survive,” he said, a sly smile tweaking at his lips.
“You were joking earlier, weren’t you? When you said fairies don’t have fun.”
He flashed me a grin. “I’ll leave you to wonder the answer to that.” Leaning down Izar’s shoulder, he said, “Bukliamarn.”
At the sound of the strange word, both horses started to shiver slightly. To my utter surprise, their forest coloured coats turned into a brilliant white, although of course there is no such thing as a white horse. However, their colour was so pure, it reminded me of pearls, iridescent, almost as if there were a hundred shades of white to them. The twigs that kept me close to her side vanished, leaving plaits of white hair curled around my legs instead.
I gasped. “Wow. Is this their natural form?”
Calico nodded. “We don’t need to disguise ourselves here.”
Looking up at the bright blue sky, I pointed upwards and said, “Do we need to worry about giant birds picking us off? There’s no shelter here at all.”
“The bird is a Viridian Ibex. It is quite similar to the Golden Eagles from your world but as you saw, it is much larger and will eat anything that moves. With its recent meal of Mushroom Sprytes, it will be sleeping for at least a week.”
“Is there only one?”
He nodded. “It rebirths itself every hundred years, like a phoenix. This cycle it is roughly halfway through so will become slightly larger yet but not much.”
We picked the pace up to a leisurely canter. I couldn’t help the beaming grin that spread across my face. It had been a while since I’d last rode a horse, especially in such freedom. The sheer joy that coursed through my veins made me want to stay here forever, just cantering endlessly, the wind in my hair, warmth on my skin, and no worries whatsoever. Riding with no reins, as the horses were guided by our seat only, was a strange experience but somewhat liberating in itself.
“You ride exceptionally well,” Calico said, startling me from my daydreams.
“Thank you.” I glanced over at him and dared to ask, “Can I ask how old you are?”
“Of course. By our timeline or yours?”
I frowned. “There’s two different timelines?”
“Oh yes,” he said. “Time in our realm moves at a much faster rate than yours. Your day is equivalent to a month here.”
“Wow. That’s crazy, I can’t get my head around that. So how old are you in my timeline?”
“Roughly three thousand years old, that makes me a hundred years old in my time.”
My jaw dropped. No wonder he seemed so knowledgeable about Earth and everything that goes on. “That’s like…you’re older than Jesus!”
He chuckled. “Yes, I am. I’ve seen a lot of changes over the times.”
My mind strayed off into various imaginings of what he must have seen and known over the course of such a period of time. However much I thought about it, I couldn’t quite comprehend it. He must have forgotten more than what I’ll ever know.
I looked ahead and squinted, as irregular shapes appeared on the horizon. “Is that the town?”
He nodded. “It sure is. Don’t forget what I said about the dogs.”
I was curious now about the deal with the dogs. It made me want to touch one just to see what happened. Judging the amount of ground we still had to cover before reaching the town, and bearing in mind it may be an optical illusion, an idea sprung to mind.
“Race you to Adonara?” I said, grinning at him wildly.
He looked back at me, eyes wide, and a cheeky smile spreading on his face. “I think I’m starting to not hate you after all.”
Taking that as a compliment, I leaned forwards, lifting myself from Kaisa’s back. With no reins for my hands, I buried my fingers in her mane and whispered to her, “Fly like the wind.”
She surged forwards with such a burst of speed, I nearly lost my balance. Had it not been for the small plaits bonding me to her body, I would have fallen off for definite. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins, my heart beat almost in time with the gentle thud of her hooves on the grass.
Out of the corner of my left eye, I could see Izar and Calico matching us for speed. Was it even possible for these horses to not be exact? Could one be faster than the other? As I thought that, Kaisa leapt through the air. Her four-beat gallop was no more. In its place was one giant stride, followed by one beat, then another stride, and so on.
Izar and Calico disappeared from my vision and I couldn’t help but grin. “Clever girl,” I whispered to her, scratching her neck as a thank you.
All too soon, the irregular shapes on the horizon became distinguishable buildings and I figured I should slow down and wait for Calico. Charging into unknown territory in a strange world wouldn’t be my cleverest idea, although it would make an entrance.
“Steady, girl,” I said, slowly sitting back up.
Easing back to a steady canter, then dropping to a walk, I looked behind me to see we’d left Izar and Calico like specks on the horizon. I wondered if I should start walking back towards him. I didn’t want to stand Kaisa still after such a run, she needed to bring her heart rate and breathing down slowly. It was then that I noticed her breathing was no different to when we walked or had been stood in the forest. What on earth?
We stood and waited for Calico to reach us. When he finally did, his handsome face creased into a huge grin. “You tapped into her special talent. She must like you.”
I leaned down and hugged her, still grinning stupidly. “That was amazing. What was that?”
“She flies, sort of. She possesses an extra gait if you like where one stride covers metres of ground at a time. All four hooves are off the floor, like the moment of suspension in the gallop, but it is longer.”
“Ah,” I said, imagining what it must look like in my head. “So she sort of bounds from one spot to the next?”
“Kind of, yes.”
“And only she has this talent?”
Calico nodded. “All the royal horses have their own special gift. Hers is speed, Izar here—” he patted his stallion’s neck “—is exceptionally strong. He has the power and strength of a hundred horses.” Izar nodded his head, as if agreeing with his master. “We must press on. Nearly a week has passed already. The Cour
t will be wondering where we are.”
Walking towards the town, I wondered how they determined each day from itself. There was no moon, and no apparent sun that I could see either. How did they live without time? I couldn’t figure it out.
As the town of Adonara loomed upon us, all wonderings of time in the fairy realm quickly disappeared. Crooked wooden and stone buildings faced each other along a wide stretch of well worn-down grass. A few horses stood tied to fence rails, several dogs ran loose amongst the mill of curious looking beings.
Some were fairies, obvious by their wings, others looked human from the back, until they turned around to reveal they were in fact cyclops. Then there were some who looked exactly like humans.
As I turned to Calico, ready to ask the question, he shook his head and said, “Goblins. They look quite like you until they become angry. Then they are something else entirely.”
Right on cue, a stout looking human, dressed in a dirty white shirt and dark green trousers, ran out of a stable, his huge black boots stained with mud. He held a piece of wood over his head and appeared to be chasing a dog.
“Come here you wretched creature!”
The dog, who was lengths in front of him, turned around to reveal a large piece of meat hanging from its mouth. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn it smiled. Wagging its grey tail from side to side, the lithe animal waited for the goblin to get within a few feet of him, then he took off running again.
Absolutely enraged, the goblin shook violently, then with a loud ‘pop’ that echoed through the air, he changed into a lumpy muscled grotesque looking creature. Boils covered his face and he developed a hunchback. He also doubled in size and one glance at him cleared a pathway through the town for him to chase the dog.
“His rage will keep him pursuing that dog for days,” Calico said. “Think of him like a bowling ball, ploughing through everything in order to reach its destination.”
“That sounds…pleasant.”
Now within metres of the town’s edge, curious faces stared up at us, watching our slow procession into their town. I felt like an animal at the zoo with all the strange beings staring at me like I was an alien or something. I guess to be fair, I kind of was.
