Chapter 9, Onward to the King of Fairies/All There Is Is Darkness

Chapter 10:
Onward to the King of Fairies ~

            When I wake, my wings are inhibited by the sliding movement of a rough wrenching across the grass as I try to stretch them after my luxurious nap. As I slowly crane my neck upward, my eyes seek towards my right side, falling thereafter on Seri. She is in a curled-up, sleeping bundle on that wing. For a minute, I stare at the strange scene. Her eyes closed, unmoving small arms hugging her body tightly beneath that angelic halo of brown decorative topping, she has the appearance of a cherub. I move carefully into a sitting position, revolving to encircle my left wing around the two of us so that I face Seraphina. A bit hesitant, I place my left hand on her shoulder to shake her.

            "Seri."

            "Hmm."

            "Seri." I roll her body faintly, watching her as she reacts with a clutching reflex of her hands. As she raises them in a front of her face, however, the reflex admits to me a defensive state rather than moving into alertness.

            "Ma- maaaan." Her face scrunches up like a little ball. I put both of my hands on her, giving her a rough shake.

            "Seri," I say sharply. "Wake up, Seri. "

            "Wha- what- whaaat?" Slowly  rising to a sitting position, Seri comes to me out from the daze she's been in, her large eyes snapping open- then I receive a shock- her eyes are green.

            "Seri," I gasp.

            "Poi- Poiseda." After a moment, all the remnants of her sleep vanish, the lines clearing away as her tension leaves her- "I had a bad dream," she tells me. "It was awful. The people in the cave were there, I know because they gave me the cup with the stuff I had to drink. They gave it to me."

            "They gave you what? Nevermind. It's alright, you don't need to talk about it now." Her face falls into relaxation once again, give me cause to wonder about the meeting she'd had with those under the Lord Serpent's dictation. In spite of the ideas I already held based upon my own personal experiences, I was certain that more had occurred to Seraphina, than what I had the background knowledge to put into estimation.

            At the moment the little elfin rolls off the place on my leathery wing she'd pinned the rest of me down by sitting on, I unfold my long body, give Seraphina one of my thin hands to grab, and attempt to provide my muscles some relief by straightening to my full height. Some may imagine me to be rather taller than the average Geisha Bat. Such perspectives are not worth observing, though, after the curse of the Lord Serpent.

            While I peer around, catching for a moment mountains which rest stoically on the eastern slab of lands that have for centuries belonged to the fairies, which contain too many points to ever be able to count, their bluish tops pointing into the sky like the crowns of many kings.  I grasp the hand of the child, tugging her forward.

            "Come on." I scold her for not waking me. "Why didn't you wake me directly when it happened? You know that I can't keep you," I reiterated, stressing my words, "You should be placed under the Fairy King's protection as quickly as possible, Seri, especially if you are cursed. He may be able to purify your system of poison, since your curse might be one attentive to fairy magic. We need to find out." I look at her. Again, though, I receive a jolt, understanding that the change in her eye color merely coordinates to an evil spell cast upon the girl elf, and that frightening her would be moot. "Seri, did you know that your eye color changed during your sleep?"I trod carefully, serene in voicing it.

            "No," she says, only showing genuine surprise. "What color are they?"

            "Green." I watch her expression. She touches her eyelids softly, her mouth forcing into a muted, 'oh' of surprise.'

            "It does not matter, Seri, for you are a very beautiful elf. The pigment in your eyes would compliment you no matter what they were." Again, her mouth opens, but now she's giving me a sparkling smile. For a moment, the sun passes over us, so I am forced to throw up a hand in an attempt to block out its harmful rays from my vulnerable form. Falling asleep . . .

            "Poiseda, is the sun hurting you?"I force myself to breathe deep for a minute, shading my head from it by using my wide wings as a partial umbrella, not answering. After it disappears into some rolling green clouds, I reassure her.

            "I'm fine. Occasionally I am merely sensitive to its rays." I swallow. A soft white hand slips into my own.

            "Come on, Poiseda. We have wasted enough time. Let us go see the King."

            I chuckle.

           

            Green, white, pale-blue, a conglomeration of different pinks, hues of maroon, gray sheen, and even black speeds beneath us as we walk forth fairly deliberately in spite of the stipulation of unknowing. I have not visited before these lands, but without question the King will be in the middle, vortex so to speak. Magical lands of the various entities of special beings are set up circularly, so that the esteemed borders of each species are given the most profound designated dwellings- they are easy to find, and in an esteemed position in location rite alone, therefore in a better way in all our minds, to render sound judgment, to make good decisions, and to use their roles.

            Following my instincts by heeding this knowledge concerning the King's location, I therefore move in a straight line forward, not having changed my direction since coming through the enchanted water. We move relatively smooth for a cursed Geisha Bat and a tiny elfin like Seraphina. A faint smile graces me ironically as I watch Seri move. She glides as effortlessly as a bird flying, with such poise, and ease that I may even be a bit of a sloth I daresay, beside her. The admirable dignity of the synchrony of her efforts of her body mirror the efforts of a woman twenty, perhaps thirty years I might hazard to guess her senior, who has developed in affluent circles her whole life. The beauty of elfin magic surely could never be described.

            Winds spiral in swift twists, knitting together where the force causes their color to appear. Swimming about us in a melee of tropical, banana nut, Mediterranean, desert- sundry, in all shades- rather than staying with those which are part of their group, I must shield my eyes once again as bright yellow meets up with dark, oceanic green, grass, sassafras, reds- my head starts to spin. The fairies with their odd imagination undoubtedly let their creativity loose in a profound ecstasy, that in its brilliance also looks a bit like child's splashing of a frenzied paintbrush. How many times could you dip a brush in so many different colors? The winds come together, but are also blending like mixed paints, as though the strands cannot help the destruction of their potential spectrum by making muddled splashes. This slaphappy display of the fairies costs me already. Everything is brighter in the lands than those that would normally accost me, doubling my sensitivity.

            When we open up into the area of winding arches, where the colorful grassy patches forms several rings masking a great hidden passageway that I cannot see very well, made out of grass- that means we are near, the passageways to the kingdom draw nigh to us. I pull Seri by my side by drawing her tightly next to me. She's busy exclaiming with joyful, fresh, childish purity over the arches. Everything here has the unmistaken architectural power that the hand of fairies only could enact with their strange predilection for color. This talent they own up to, while increasing in passion and their fervor, also increases my blindness.     
             "Hush, Seri." Glancing at me, Seri's brow furrows, forming a face with lines that while soft, add maturity to her, the green eyes masking my lingering strands of the baby whom I found two days ago. Something crosses her startling green eyes that I cannot place. She subdues her exuberance for the bright colors immediately upon my prompt. But we are both stopped short. For, the moment that we each place our first foot in the lead into the kingdom underneath the initial hand-made archway, the first fairy that we have seen since we've been in the fairy lands swoops down and falls directly before us. She brushes herself off, huffing for a minute before straightening up. When she proudly rises from the ground to a flutter, she pins us with a piercing gaze of the most brilliant shade of jade that I have ever seen.