Chapter 39: Chapter Thirty-eight - What's next?

Jade, smiling at some children playing in the streets:

Stories about how the forest became alive with animals again, varied from person to person in this big city. Each new variation sounded crazier as the last, but even the true story was strange to believe so I wasn’t judging anyone that had enough imagination to come up with a new version. In fact, watching the children play with Charlie, which is how I named the Mandibore, while coming up with a story of how he had come back in the forest, was really funny to see.

But while I was watching this serene sight of those children playing, I was overthinking about everything that had happened recently. And while doing that I couldn’t shake the feeling, that was nagging in the back of my mind, about there being something off about this whole thing that we are doing.

Charlie’s tail was being tugged on and I could tell he was done with all the playing for now, so I stood up and picked him up from between the arms of three Fae children.

“Can we please play with him a little bit longer? Please??” One of the little girls asked me. “Yeah, we have only seen him in books, but never for real.” Another chimed in.

“I’m sorry but he is still a young animal and he needs to sleep now. How about tomorrow?” I suggested to them. And even though they pouted and were sad to have to accept us leaving for today, they said their goodbyes to Charlie and I made my way back to our newly rented home.

“Tomorrow, huh?” Kallan asked with a smile on his face as he flew down from the roof he had been on, apparently. “Jade, we have been here for almost two weeks now, don’t you think we should head out and find the next orb of power?” He asked in a very delicate way now, not trying to push me any further than I would like him to.

I had gone back and forth to the forest a couple of times now, to make sure I truly hadn’t forgotten about one single animal that still might have been in the mirror world. Not even those Kimberlings that Kallan told me about, were left behind as every creature has its purpose in life.

But ever since I had done that, I had noticed for this city to have become a flourishing place filled with new shops and markets, where they would trade or sell alive, but also dead animals and their hides, for money and other items. And even though this would be a healthy way of living, as animals have always been a source of food or decoration, I still needed to know if the Fae here wouldn’t become too greedy and once again get rid of all the animals in the forest.

“You know you can’t keep control of every single living Fae, right?” Kallan said while I hadn’t reacted to his first question. We kept walking next to each other, on our way ‘home’ again while I just rolled my eyes at his comments. “We have to start preparing to leave.” Kallan once again tried while he put his arm around my shoulders.

“I know, but what if I change the next city or village with what I do? Or even what I rescue? I know the animal population is still intact and I have seen the Fae here to not be too greedy, but what about other towns and other Fae? Maybe if what I change next, is going to change not for the better, but actually making their situation worse? What then?” I asked him while Charlie curled himself in between my arms, softly falling asleep.

“What is going on with you?” Kallan asked worried but also slight in anger, being fed up with my insecurities about this new development within my character. A thing I had created over the past few days.

I sighed again, hating for him to be right. “I don’t know Kallan, I just have this creepy feeling that what we are doing, our mission to get the orbs and all, somehow won’t work out the way I might believe it to happen. It’s still so strange for me to become Queen after we succeed, if we succeed at all, that I’m still not fully aware of what my destination could be.” I admitted fearing.

“Jade, come on, you are the strongest Fae alive, something of which even the King is afraid and he has the power to take away magic! So, just let that sink in and get back to the fearsome woman I have seen all this time. We are going to get you those orbs, you take down the wall and then you can kill whichever councilman you don’t like, alright?” Kallan said with a slight smile on his face after turning me towards him, stopping our walk and trying to force some of his hope towards me.

I looked into his green eyes, which were begging me to get rid of any negative thoughts I had. And it actually was helping me a lot, as I could drown in those orbs any time of the day. But after I had come back from the Oracle, everything was just messed up and I wasn’t sure something more could ever happen, even though I might want to jump into the rabbit hole and find out what will happen should I decide to tell him my true feelings.

But this was not the right time.

“They would have to build up a completely new council then because I’m going to take them all down.” I said airily and Kallan started to laugh.

“That’s the spirit! Now, let’s inform the others and pack up, alright?” He finally said and I nodded.

Besides, I still wasn’t convinced of my future as a Queen, but that doesn’t matter for now. First things first, and that would mean that I would need two more orbs, the one for healing and the one for adjustment. Whatever the latter would mean.

Echo, still with the Etunadain Oracle:

“Was that so hard to say, son? I am indeed your father, don’t act like I’m the bad guy here.” He said calm and maybe a bit confused.

“Not the bad guy? You left us, you left mom! We had everything, but lost everything as well! You don’t know how life has been for us, for me! So yes, you are the bad guy!” I shouted angrily.

My father didn’t speak for a few moments, not having the courage to comment about what I said. I hope it was finally getting through his thick skull that I never have wanted him to leave, that he could’ve said no when the opportunity arose. To have decided to stay in the council and for us to have a better life than what we had to suffer through now. But it doesn’t matter anymore, it happened and the time has passed.

“Just tell me. Is she the one?” I said while closing my eyes, letting my head drop down in defeat. I had come here for one thing, and I wanted it answered.

“Unfortunately, yes.” He answered sorrowful, not mentioning anything about my feelings.

“Does she know?” I continued.

“I suspect her to feel something off, but no, she doesn’t know about the specific details of her destiny.” He replied.

“Then I need to follow her and protect her. Where is she now?”

“You know I can’t tell you-

“WHERE IS SHE!” I yelled from the top of my lungs, fed up with his all-knowing attitude and acting wise. “I know you know where she is, so just tell me or you will never see me again.”

“She has awoken the Dark forest and is in the big city of Bellak. But you have to be quick because she is about to...” I didn’t care how he was about to finish that sentence, even though I heard him say she was about to leave soon, but I had turned around already, storming my way out of here.

I can’t even begin to think of a way to tell Jade what she is actually destined to become. It will devastate the lives of that of a few faithful and loving people and I think they will try to stop her from doing what she is born to do. I don’t like the outcome of this either, but there is no true reason for me to not let this happen. It is what destiny is, no matter what you do, the end is already written in stone. Besides, she is going to save us all, even though.... never mind, I’m not going to think about this now.

I stepped through the portal again, not bothering myself to say goodbye to the Oracle- “Father!” he shouted behind me and I sighed. For a moment I stopped walking, contemplating to say my goodbyes after all, but this Jade-situation will bring me back soon, so I continued getting out.

Zeph was standing outside, probably having waited all this time.

“How much time has passed?” I asked him while hurrying myself to get things ready for our leave.

“You have been inside already?” He confusedly asked me and I turned myself around.

“Answer me, Zeph!”

“None! I just saw you open the door!” He said, completely baffled, as much as I was too.

I took a look behind me, towards the door of which my father was behind. He has the power to change time, not actually picking a spot in time or going back in time, but in that room, he can slow it down if he wants to. Normally time would go by fast, as magic is taking its payment from somewhere, but he has the power if he wants to, to make it go slow. And in this case, he made it go really slow as no time had passed at all.

So, I’m hoping that he believes there to be a chance, for Jade to change her destiny, after all, otherwise I don’t know why he did this. But for whatever reason he decided to use his energy for, I’m grateful for it.

“What did you find out?” Zeph asked me, knowing that I didn’t have any good news.

But I can’t tell him yet as even though there is a problem, I need to find a solution first.

“Zeph, you go to the city of Bellak and find Jade. Don’t interact with her, just follow her without her knowing, alright? And take a scrying orb with you so we can communicate.” I instructed him.

“What are you going to do then?” He asked unsurely.

“I need to confirm something.”

Kallan, making sure everyone is ready to go:

“No Trixie, you can’t bring her along.” I sighed towards her.

“I know, but she was so beautifully innocent! Well not anymore though… I mean, the way she mewled when I –

“Stop it! I don’t want to hear it!” I interrupted her overly loud comments about how she ventured through some wet folds.

Normally I wouldn’t have cared for her to talk like this, as that would have been normal conservation between the two of us before we met Jade. But Jade is to become the next Queen, of all of Kyalthemar and that is something we shouldn’t take lightly. We should respect the title that she is about to take into and don’t become these frivolous people who believe to be able to say anything we want when she is in the room with us.

She is our Princess, soon to be Queen and we have to protect and advise her when needed. Hence the reason I didn’t like the fact that she had to use her shield when attacked by the willow. She had to protect me there, even though it should have been the other way around!

“Come, let’s pack up everything we need and put it in Poseidon’s saddlebags. We need to get on with our mission.” I commanded and Trixie rolled her eyes but did as told.

Jade and Neil sat up on the Pegasus again and soon we were on our way, leaving the buzzing city of Bellak.

But every few minutes I took a glance up to her face, checking if everything was alright. How she looked, if she was scared or worried, how her hair fell in front of her face each time her body bobbed on the back of that stubborn horse... I liked the way she looked, I like the way she thought, her determination and strenght, simply everything, but I have to be the one to protect her. I have to be the one to have undevided loyalty towards her and not to be biased by any love I might have. How difficult it may be for me to stay at a safe distance, emotionally speaking.

She had taken out her compass again and told us the direction it was guiding us now. By the end of the week, we had travelled quite some distance through other villages and landscapes and finally decided to stop at a small farmer’s village. The village didn’t seem as much, as the old wooden houses were surrounded by fields of edible plants, fences with livestock and the silence that took over after a long day of labour from all the people who live here. Nothing really stood out as there wasn’t much colour as all the houses looked the same and the muddy streets didn’t add to any form of happiness there might have been.

But once we walked past some of these wooden homes, we found out they were filled with Fae, big and small, enjoying a meal with their family and even some pets. And while they wore clothing with the same boring colours as their surroundings, they didn’t show any lack of happiness whatsoever as they were laughing and truly looked happy.

But besides the happiness inside of the buildings, the outside sadness was added by heavy rainfall.

“Really?” Trixie complained as she looked towards the sky where dark clouds appeared above all the crops that were growing.

“Stop nagging, it’s good for the plants.” I cut her off, even though I didn’t like this weather any more than she did.

“This is no normal rain.” Jade suddenly said and even Poseidon was walking cautiously, mentally agreeing with her.

And before I could ask her what she was talking about, she had jumped off Poseidon, took Neil off as well because the horse became suddenly frantic and ran away. Then, she quickly took the blades from her back to energize them with her full power. She wasn’t even downsizing the energy she had, notifying me that there was some true danger, even though I hadn’t seen it yet.

“Jade, what is it?” I whispered as soon as I stood near to her, guarding her sides while standing back to back.

“I don’t know, but it is big.” She said but it didn’t make sense to what she was referring to. “Look to the sky!” She suddenly yelled and we all shot up to see what she had seen.

In the dark shadows of the lurking storm, residing within those thunderous clouds, energy was bursting to find a way out of its damp environment. A creature, larger than the village itself was swirling itself around, only able to be seen when a thunder spark roared downwards, showing just a glint of what the creature might be, yet it was enough information to know what it is upon just seeing these small glints.

“Get inside!” A man suddenly yelled towards us while standing in the doorway of his house, which was on the other side of the muddy square.

“Gerald, close that door! It’s too dangerous!” His wife begged for him to come inside, even though the man was reluctant to let his aid go to waste.

Not a moment too soon, we tried to run for our lives, hurrying over towards the man that called for us while our feet got stuck in the mud every step we took. Neil needed help from any of us, but there simply was no time for us to help him now. He had to run, he had to get to safety on his own, as neither Trixie nor I could fly in this weather, carrying either Neil or Jade, as we would risk the chance of getting hit by lightning that way.

“Come on! Hurry!” Jade yelled towards Neil, trying to get him to walk faster, even though his legs weren’t that young anymore.

I pushed Jade forward, telling her to get herself to safety first. But she was too stubborn to let the old man do this on his own.

A/n: Ooohhh... no...