by Tamryn Tamer
“Now what?” Terra asked while staring at the giant stone. “It’s a nice landmark, we came from the east, so north south or west?”
“Not north,” Jinx answered. Jericho notice Jinx tightly grip her arm trying to calm herself. “Something bad is up there. I think it’s tearing up the spirits. I don’t like it. Halfwit. Simpleton.”
“It sounds like we should definitely be heading north then,” Terra joked. Jericho shook his head signaling her not to joke about it. Jericho didn’t want to make light of Jinx’s fear, especially since she was rarely afraid. Terra gestured north, “The fairies are probably up there.”
“It’s not fairies,” Jinx snapped irritably. “It’s a powerful spirit and it’s hurting other spirits! I don’t want to go anywhere near it! I’m not going north! If you go north, I’m going home! Lunatic. Maniac.”
“Jinx,” Jericho tried to calm her but she had no intention of budging on the subject. He concentrated on stretching his spirit, shifting it to only go in that one direction rather than all around him. He hoped to sense what Jinx sensed, but nothing. “Okay, west is unlikely since Kar Mograth is in that direction. So, south to start. But if we don’t find anything in the south, we’re heading north.”
“You’ll be heading north alone! Prat. Nutter.” Jinx took several steps southward.
“Well let’s hope the fairies are in the south,” Jericho sighed. “Although the more you protest the more curious I am about what’s north of here.”
“Same,” Terra agreed. “Jinx isn’t scared of armies of soldiers but she’s scared of whatever’s up there. I’m almost curious enough to hand you my gear and do a suicide run to find out.”
“I’m kind of hoping we don’t find anything if it means you’ll run naked through the woods,” Jericho joked while turning to the south. “Let’s go.”
The three headed south and began searching for any signs of a village. Jinx was clearly happy to be moving away from whatever was up north but Jericho and Terra found themselves more interested in the mystery. Jericho was relieved to see Jinx getting calmer as they moved further south.
They continued heading south and Jericho saw some glimmers of light out of the corner of his eye. He turned and saw what appeared to be a small clearing and shifted toward it. He let out a quiet chuckle as they reached the clearing. It was the same marble mountain, they’d left behind twenty minutes ago.
“What?” Jinx jumped and looked to the north. “No! No! No! Idiot! Jerk!”
“Don’t worry,” Jericho laughed and tried to calm Jinx down. “This is good!”
“I don’t see what you’re happy!” Jinx fussed. “We’re supposed to be moving south. How did we get back here? Oaf. Bungler.”
“This means we’re going the right direction,” Jericho rubbed Jinx’s head playfully. “And question, are we back where we started?”
Terra smiled at Jericho and began scanning the area for anything out of place.
“Are you blind?” Jinx asked. “Look at the rock! Lummox. Dolt.”
“Yes,” Jericho smiled. He loosened his elemental pathways and looked for an emotion to fill them with. Amusement worked, although it still took a minute to fill his earth path. He lifted an arm and the earth beneath the marble stone shot up, passing through the rock without disturbing it. “Thought so. It’s an illusion.”
“Pretty convincing illusion,” Terra said while continuing to look for anything strange. “How’d you know it wasn’t a magic forest type situation? You know, wrong turn and you’re back where you started?”
“Jinx would have freaked out if we’d started heading north again,” Jericho answered. “The fact she didn’t freak out until she saw the rock meant that we were still heading south. She doesn’t see the big bad monster, she senses it.”
“Makes sense,” Terra said. “So, the rock is an illusion but how much of what’s surrounding us is an illusion? Are you sensing any fairies Jinx?”
“No,” Jinx said scanning the area. She turned to Jericho. “This is why I told you I don’t like fairies, they’re mean tricksters. They’re always hiding and pulling pranks! Fool. Dolt.”
“You can’t sense them, can you?” Jericho smiled knowingly. He’d thought about why Jinx hated fairies so much and while thinking it over another question came up. How does somebody who creates illusions trick somebody who can sense spirits? Surely, Jinx would know it’s an illusion and sense the fairy.
“No!” Jinx snapped. “Are you happy now? Fairies can hide their presence completely and they can make you see and sense things that aren’t there. Brute. Boor.”
“Could they make what you’re sensing north?” Jericho asked.
“That’s real!” Jinx seemed positive of that at least. “A fairy couldn’t make something that big and they need to be nearby. Goon. Dunderhead.”
“Good to know,” Jericho turned to Terra. “You heard her, they need to be nearby.”
The trio took defensive positions as a loud screech sounded overhead. They each narrowly avoided the claws of a black griffin as it came crashing down in the center of the clearing. It let out another loud shriek before launching itself upward. It remained in the sky waiting for one of them to enter the open area of the clearing.
“Is that real?” Terra looked at Jinx, she nodded. Jericho also sensed a spirit but signaled Terra to stop drawing her bow. Terra rolled her eyes, “Seriously?”
“I think it’s a fake,” he said while walking into the clearing. “I can buy a black griffin hanging out around here. And in fairness, I sense a spirit. But I don’t buy it.”
“What?” Jinx snapped. “Quit being stupid and hide! Dimwit! Twit!”
“It missed all of us,” Jericho said as the black griffin readied its descent. “Griffins select one target and descend on that target. I’ve seen enough of them to know their attack pattern. If this were a real griffin it would have targeted the slow mage and picked me off no problem. Instead, it targeted nothing. Because wanted to hit nothing.”
The black griffin let out a screech before descending toward Jericho at breakneck speed. Jericho stood unblinking as the beast advanced, he was confident in his decision but just in case he readied his magic. He released a single stone spike upward. The griffin passed right through it before passing through him.
“See,” Jericho said as the griffin dissipated behind him. Several golems rose from the ground surrounding him. “I imagine there’s a fairy around here somewhere. The range on these spells can’t be that high. Jinx, come here.”
Jinx cautiously entered the clearing while avoiding the golems. Several golems were swinging at Jericho but purposefully missing. Jinx gradually became more comfortable and approached him. He leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“What are you whispering!” Terra asked as Jinx almost immediately pointed toward a large putrefied tree. “What!”
Jinx pointed and everything moved quickly. Jericho summoned walls from the earth to surround the tree and move them inward enclosing it. A greenish glow shot out of the stone prison too fast for Jericho to respond but not too fast for Terra.
Terra pulled out her bow as she’d done a hundred times before and loaded a glass arrow. She let loose at the moving target but the arrow passed through as the fairy dissolved midair.
Jinx wasn’t fooled by any of it. The petrified forest was full of spirit energy. It was everywhere mixing together making the entire place almost unreadable. A fairy capable of hiding their spirit would be even more impossible to find in the tangled mess. That’s why Jericho told her to look for a spot where there was no spirit.
“Launch! Weakling! Slowpoke!” Jinx roared out while rushing toward the stone walls. Jericho punched upward raising a platform of earth which launched Jinx high into the sky. She latched onto some invisible entity.
“Release me you filthy animal!” screamed a high-pitched voice. “We’re both going to fall!”
“Master!” Jinx yelled as she quickly plummeted. “Help! Sloth! Loafer!”
“Ow! Ow! Ow! Stops! Ow! That hurts!” Screamed the high-pitched voice as Jinx’s teeth sunk into her. A small area of blood started to emerge from the invisible woman. “I give! I surrender! Call your beast off!”
“Jinx,” Jericho pulled Jinx off and Terra secured the prisoner. “Off. Let go. Jinx!”
“She hit me in the face!” Jinx continued swinging as Jericho separated her from the fairy. She tried to rush around him but he stopped her. “Don’t protect her! Traitor! Rat!”
“Wow,” Terra laughed as the prisoner’s invisibility faded. Terra tightened the fairy’s arms behind her back and patted her head. “Now be good or we’ll let Jinx have you.”
“I guess this does establish a pretty decent good cop bad cop scenario,” Jericho laughed as he leaned down to get a closer look. The fairy was around the same height as Jinx but skinnier. Also, Jinx was pretty solid in the chest department while the fairy had about half a handful. Not that he was expecting a fairy to be busty. He looked up at Terra’s massive chest and sighed. “Anyway, what’s your name?”
“I won’t tell you,” she managed to say through a trembling voice. She averted her sapphire eyes. “Please release me.”
“If you don’t want to tell us maybe you’ll tell Jinx,” Jericho looked back at Jinx who was more than eager to have another whack at the fairy that elbowed her in the face. He looked back at the fairy. Her entire body was shaking. Jericho frowned, “So what will it be? Me or Jinx.”
“Your filthy beast can do its worst!” the terrified fairy clenched her eyes shut. Jericho was starting to feel guilty. She was a stunning woman and all he was doing was scaring her.
“Filthy beast!” Jinx yelled as Jericho pushed her back. “I’ll show you filthy beast you disgusting bug! Cockroach! Beatle!”
“Keep your animal away from me!” she scooted away. Tears started flowing down her cheeks. “I was only doing what the elders told me to do!”
“Terra,” Jericho sighed, finally feeling too guilty to keep the farce going. “Cut her loose.”
“What?” Terra asked. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” Jericho said. “Honestly, I feel a little awkward about this entire situation. We have her tied up, she’s wearing basically nothing, she’s terrified. This looks really bad.”
“I see your point,” Terra snickered while cutting the bindings. She grabbed the fairy’s arm and helped her to her feet. The fairy flexed her translucent wings several times.
“You’re letting her go!” Jinx growled. “Over my dead body! Vipers! Turncoats!”
“I’m not stupid,” The fairy backed away from them. “You intend to follow me back to my village.”
“Not without an invitation,” Jericho answered. He didn’t like the idea of letting the fairy go but his other option was forcing her to comply. It wasn’t a difficult decision.
“I can’t do that,” the fairy stuttered. For a moment Jericho sensed her fear had nothing to do with him or Jinx. She looked at them apprehensively before flexing her wings. “Thank you for releasing me.”
“No problem,” Jericho sighed.
“Alright everybody,” Terra grinned. “Let’s head back to Dawn. We might not have found the village but this will be a great story to tell everybody! I mean, do think people will believe we found a fairy here?”
“What?” the fairy froze. Jericho immediately realized what Terra had planned and decided to play along.
“Right,” Jericho nodded. “I can’t wait to give detailed explanations of our adventures. I believe it was roughly thirty minutes to White Rock and about twenty minutes due south? And let’s not forget about that griffin!”
“Wait,” the fairy tried to interrupt.
“The illusion you mean,” Terra continued. “I don’t know if they’ll believe it but all the powerful monsters people think live out here are illusions! That’s going to make a lot of explorers interested.”
“Stop!” yelled the jittery fairy. “You absolutely cannot tell anybody about what you’ve found here!”
“Well,” Jericho stroked his chin. “Keeping this secret would be quite a favor. This information has a lot of value.”
“Yeah,” Terra chimed in. “Maybe if we were helping out friends. But…
“We’re not your friends! Gnat! Flea!” snapped Jinx who seemed to think they actually intended to tell everybody.
“Quiet beast,” the fairy said in her most threatening manner, which wasn’t threatening at all due to the tremble in her chime-like voice. “I’m thinking. If we were friends you wouldn’t tell?”
“Of course not,” Jericho said with smile. “I would never reveal my friends’ secrets.”
“Neither would I,” Terra chimed in with an equally exaggerated tone.
“I would,” Jinx grumbled after finally realizing they never intended to tell. “I’ll tell everybody. I’ll have maps printed and hand them out at every corner. Stooges. Chumps.”
“Alright,” the fairy chirped while ignoring Jinx. “And how do we become friends?”
“It starts with introductions,” Jericho said. “I’m Jericho, those two are Terra and Jinx. What’s your name?”
“I am Ariella Pepperspring,” the fairy answered. She shuffled her feet. “But my friends call me Ariel.”
“Nice to meet you Ariel,” Jericho said.
“Nice to meet you,” Terra followed suit.
“Hmph,” Jinx crossed her arms. Jericho figured that was about the best he was going to get out of her.
“Nice to meet you all,” Ariel said cheerfully before shifting her eyes to Jinx, “most of you anyway. Now what?”
“Now, I believe you’d invite us to your home for tea or something,” Terra chimed in. “I’m really looking forward to seeing the fairy village.”
“Out of the question,” Ariel quickly responded. “The elders...”
“I’m sure they’d get over it,” Terra chimed in.
“No, they’d cut off my head. That’s the punishment for engaging with outsiders,” the fairy insisted.
“That seems awfully harsh,” Terra said with a concerned tone. “Jericho, what do you think?”
“You’ve already engaged with us,” Jericho said equally troubled. “Are they going to chop off your head?”
“Oh no,” Ariel sat on the ground and wrapped her arms around her legs. Tears started to well up in her eyes. “I hadn’t thought of that. What am I going to do? If I go back, they’ll kill me just like they did the others.”
“Let me see if I have this right,” Jericho tried to hide his growing irritation. He dusted some frost off his cuffs. “Your village is in these rotting woods, nobody is allowed to visit the village, leave the woods, or so much as talk with outsiders. And the village is run by a small group of elders who make all of the rules and anybody found disobeying them is sentenced to death? Do I have that right?”
“Yes,” Ariel answered. “A beheading is the merciful death. There are worse ones…”
“It’s a cult,” Terra growled.
“It could just be a murderous regime,” Jericho cracked his neck and a junk of ice fell off his coat collar. “Are young fairies forced to sleep the elders?”
“They tell them it’s great honor for a fairy to be chosen by an elder for the evening,” Ariel whimpered. “But those of us old enough to remember the peaceful times know it’s a lie…”
“Yeah,” Jericho confirmed as a thick layers of frost appeared all over him. “It’s a cult.”
“Ooh,” Terra stared at Jericho while fiddling with her knives. “We’re in agreement, right?”
“Agreement about what? Idiot. Dolt.” Jinx asked.
“Yeah,” Jerich
o looked at Ariel sitting on the ground. We walked over and squatted down next to her. “Ariel, the way I see it you have two choices. The first, go back to your village and let the elders chop off your head.”
“I don’t like that option,” Ariel cried. “I don’t want to die.”
“The second option is we all go back to your village,” Jericho sighed. “I’m going to be blunt. Your elders, they’re bad people, so we’re going to kill them.”
“Kill the elders,” Ariel said terrified. “I can’t let you. They’ll kill you!”
“Ariel,” Jericho said trying to calm her. “You’re our friend. We’re not going to let you die.”
“But,” Ariel interrupted.
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” Jericho was adamant. “You’re our friend, they want to kill you, we’re not going to let them. Instead, we’re going to kill them.”
“Yeah,” Terra patted Ariel’s shoulder “We’re going to kill the hell out of them. Are you with us?”
Ariel nodded silently while trying to process her situation. Jericho reached out and helped her to her feet. She was trembling and Jericho figured there was a good chance she’d run away at the first sign of trouble but he didn’t care.
“That a girl,” Terra pulled out a couple elven daggers and handed them to her. “You may need these.”
“Can we go kill some fairies now? Asshole. Bastard.” Jinx asked excitedly. Her foul mood completely vanished.
“I think so,” Jericho smiled and looked at Ariel. “Now let’s go meet these elders.”
Chapter 4
The Hell Mansion Massacre
They followed Ariel as she floated south and eventually arrived at a giant bottomless pit in the middle of a clearing. Giant cracks worked outward from the pit giving the impression that everything would crumble at the slightest touch. Jericho and the others halted a good distance while Ariel floated forward.
“Here?” Jericho asked while looking around at the massive pit.
