The Fairy Realm

[sion]

Author Name: Allison
Story Title: The Fairy Realm
Genre: fantasy
Rating: Mostly G. Though it may occiasonally be PG-13
Synopsis:
This is a Story I've been writing for about the last 3 year, I get bursts of inspiration and motivation ever now and then so i keep plodding along at it.
It's about a young lady called Lizze who discovers fairies living in the woods near her town, she becomes a fairy to help them.

[sion]

Chapter 1

Lizze’s Decision

Lizze couldn’t believe the idiocy of some people.

‘Listen, sir, you clearly know nothing about what is going on in this class so why don’t you just keep you mouth shut. You’re only making things worse by acting as though you know what we’re doing. Not to mention the fact that you look like an idiot standing up there and making empty threats.’

For the first time that lesson the class was silent, everyone was staring at Lizze. Not really with surprise seeing as this was hardly an unusual event, but staring at her nonetheless.

‘I beg you pardon? How dare you speak to me like that!’ the relief teacher was indignant, ‘you better be quiet yourself or you will end up at the principles office.’

‘Oh what’s this? Another empty threat? Honestly, you shouldn’t even bother, this will just make life harder for yourself.’ The teacher spluttered in fury, ‘come on, this is ridicules, you have no control over this class, you might as well give up and go home!’

Lizze sighed as she trudged down the corridor to the principles office. She knew she shouldn’t have pushed the teacher – although she didn’t think it was fair that she was the only one who got punished – but she hadn’t been able to help herself. It was sort of a reflex reaction.

She sighed again as she waved grimly at the receptionist who rolled her eyes and paged the principle. After being sent to the principle’s office seven times just in the last month, no one was surprised anymore.

Lizze knew she would be in trouble when her parents found out that she’d been sent to the principal’s office –again. Although they were no longer surprised either she still wasn’t looking forward to the scene that would soon happen.

She could picture it with amazing clarity.

Ms Western would take one look at Lizze and say: ‘Lizabeth Dale what have you done this time?’ she would then lead Lizze into the room and make her sit down and explain what had happened.

She would then pick up the phone to ask her parents to come to the school, she wouldn’t say why but they would know.

When they had arrived Ms Western would carefully explain what had happened, she would explain that this has happened too many times and must not happen again and that they would have to try and find a different and more effective punishment.

All through this her mother would sit in her chair and weep, whispering ‘No, no, I cant believe it, she would never do that. Not my little Lizze. You must have it wrong, oh no.’ Lizze hated it when she did that, she knew that her mother was faking it and wished she would act like normal, although she wasn’t really keen on that either.

Her father would sit in the chair for the first ten minutes, his face getting redder and redder until it looked like a sunburnt radish and then he would jump up out of his chair and start to pace the small office, muttering, ‘Again, again! This can’t go on, I won’t let this go on. She won’t ruin us like this.’

All this time Lizze would be sitting on a little stool in the corner trying to pretend that she wasn’t there or they were all there for a different reason; like she was getting an award and Ms Western was just winding them all up.

Her imagination could picture this perfectly. After all, she had been sent here more times than she could count.

As she sat there waiting for the torture to begin she tried to convince herself that it wasn’t really her fault; that it was all somebody else’s, but she couldn’t. It was an argument she never won.

She knew full well that it was her own fault; she knew that it would happen and yet again and again she couldn’t stop herself.

As she often did when she was sitting waiting for the principle she tried to understand why, why she kept doing it.

‘Maybe I’m just stupid.’ She muttered to herself just as the door beside her opened and Ms Western stuck her head out.

The look on her face made Lizze feel guilty, as it often did. Her face wasn’t angry; it was disappointed and a little upset.

Ms Western never got angry at Lizze, no matter how many times a week she arrived at her door. She knew more about Lizze than anyone else and knew many of the reasons as to why she acted the way she did

She was always trying to help Lizze but there was only so much she could do.

Lizze knew how disappointed Ms Western was when she turned up again and again.

Looking at Ms Western’s sad face made Lizze want to change, however she knew that nothing would change that day.
With that thought she stood up abruptly, startling Ms Western.

‘Lizze, what are you doing, what’s wrong?’ Ms Western’s face was worried as she turned to face her.

‘Ms Western I think we both know what is going to happen in the next hour or so, so I won’t waste any more of your time. You have been a really great principle and a wonderful friend and I’m really sorry I’ve been such a rotten student but don’t worry you don’t have to put up with me any longer ‘cause I’m leaving!’ with that she spun around on her heel and ran down the corridor.

‘Wait, Lizze, please!’ Ms Western’s voice followed her down the corridor and out the front doors.

Once outside the school grounds she paused briefly, slightly out of breath. She looked around for a moment and decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to hang around.

‘Never know, Ms Western might call my parents now, that wouldn’t be good. Alright then, only one place to go!’

She took off again, this time running towards to the woods that boarded the east side of the town. She hoped no one would think to look for her there.

Not that she really believed that anyone would be looking for her anyway.

It didn’t take her long to get to there, her long legs carrying her quickly to the edge of the woods where, only then, did she slow down. She felt calmer once she was in the woods; most people felt uneasy in the woods but she found the silence peaceful and relaxing. She knew most parts of by heart, having explored from a young age, needing a calm place to get away to.

She found the faint, almost invisible path that lead to her little space; a little glade in the middle of the woods. It was small, only three or four meters wide at its widest point, surrounded by tall trees that only allowed glimpses of the sun through, giving a permanent twilight feel.

She didn’t know who, why or how it had been created but she didn’t really care, when she was in there she felt safe and secure, she felt that no one could touch her. In fact she was fairly sure that no one else even knew it existed.

A really odd thing had happened when her science class had an excursion into the woods looking for animal prints. She had become rather bored as she wasn’t really all that interested in science and had no friends to hang out with so she had snuck away into the glade and no one had found her.

She had seen several people come across the trail that led to the glade, but none of them had found the glade. They had followed the trail and when it reached the small gap into the trees that led into the glade all they had said.

‘That’s weird, this trail doesn’t lead anywhere’ Lizze had wondered about this all day until they got back to the classroom. She then heard some of the boys saying they found a really faint trail that lead straight into a bunch of trees with a gap in between them, they said they had gone into the gap and walked straight into another tree.

She had been rather surprised, after all, she had never seen a tree blocking the way. After that she had decided that no one else could enter the glade –though she wasn’t sure why or why only she could– or even find it. While she didn’t understand, she was grateful, it meant she had the perfect place to retreat to when things got really bad.

As Lizze walked she thought; she wasn’t sure exactly she was going to do, whether she would eventually go back to school or home at the end of the day, a thought that filled her with dread.

She considered sneaking into the house and getting clothes and food and just staying in the glade but she wasn’t too sure about that either. After all, she would get incredibly bored.

After a few minutes thought she decided that for now she would simply enjoy the peace and quiet and the safety of the glade, knowing that no one could find her or get into the glade.

She was therefore rather surprised when she slipped between the trees to hear soft, tinkling music coming from the far corner of the glade. She stopped at the entrance and stared around, suddenly afraid of someone else being there. However no one was there and the trees were too close together to hide behind.

She looked around for the source of the music but saw nothing.
Lizze walked towards the sound and saw amongst the grass a small perfect circle of mushrooms. She knew that they hadn’t been there the week before and wondered about them; wondering if someone had managed to get in and was trying to tease her.

She half turned to go back, deciding she would just explore the woods for a while but stopped. Surely it was just a coincident that it appeared to be in a perfect circle, after all on one could get in and she knew that mushrooms could grow really quickly.

Her rational mind battled with her imagination and ended up with a compromise: she would step into the ring. Even as a tiny voice from the back of her mind told her that this was probably the stupidest thing that she could ever do.

For a moment nothing happened and Lizze laughed at her stupidity. She went to take a step out and realised that she couldn’t move at the exact same moment that she music stopped. She was beginning to breathe faster and her heart-rate increased as she tried to convince herself that it was all just a coincidence and it must be someone’s sick idea of a joke.

She didn’t know what was going on but she was starting to get a little scared.

A gentle tugging of her hair made her jump, ‘Oh just stop it-’ she said irritably, and the tugging stopped with a little ‘Oh!’ Lizze did a quick double take but couldn’t see anything.

Curiosity was starting to overtake her fear as she realised that there was no way that this could be a joke, it just couldn’t be. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

When her breathing and heart-rate had slowed she opened her eyes again, and what she saw set her heart pounding again.

For suddenly she could see something! She gasped in amazement for there, hovering just beyond her nose was a tiny…fairy. The fairy had green wings and a green dress. ‘Hmmm?’ it chirped.

Suddenly fairies of all colours filled the air. There were blue ones, yellow ones, pink ones, every colour of the rainbow and then some. All of them seemed making a weird chirping noise which seemed to be their way of communicating. They flew around her head pulling her hair and occasionally landing on her ears or nose.

Lizze just stood there, unable to think or comprehend what was happening. The little fairies seemed so real and yet she knew that there was absolutely no way that they could be…could there?

All of a sudden the fairies stopped flying around her. They retreated back creating an aisle amongst the now silent mass of colour. First up the newly created aisle were four white fairies, they seemed to be pushing the others back, making the aisle wider. When they were satisfied they took up placed close to Lizze’s immobile head, two on each side of her face.

After a moment the most beautiful creature Lizze had ever seen floated down the aisle. The fairy was pink and clearly of some importance as the surrounding fairies bowed low as the pink fairy passed them. Lizze stared in fascination as the beautiful yet tiny creature came closer and closer.

The pink fairy reached Lizze and bowed. Two even smaller fairies, green this time, flew up next to the other fairy. They then raised something and waved it.

All of a sudden Lizze’s vision was filled with a blinding white light and booming voices filled her ears, ‘You went too far you two!’
The blinding light faded and the noise died down to a bearable level.

‘So, can you?’ Lizze blinked in astonishment at the pink fairy who had just finished a seemingly long speech of which Lizze had heard only the last three words. She realised that not only were she and the fairies now the same size meaning she had shrunk, but they were also standing on the ground, which didn’t at all look like she would have imagined it should have. The green fairies had vanished.

One of the white fairies stepped forward and touched the pink one on the arm with the air of gentle reminder.

The pink fairy blinked, looked at the white fairy next to her, looked at Lizze then back to the white fairy. She then slapped her hand against her forehead. The white fairy raised her eyebrows at the pink fairy and bowed as she stepped backwards.

The pink fairy giggled in a self-conscious way then straightened up and bowed to Lizze,

‘My name is Mirrayeander Chachey Alena Beanna Shemaer. I am the Queen of the Wood Fairies who live in these woods.’ She looked expectantly at Lizze who simply stared back at her in complete and utter shock.

One of the white fairies sighed again and the pink fairy: the Queen giggles again, ‘I'm terribly sorry, you must be so confused, please, will you tell us your name?’ for a moment Lizze could do nothing but blink before she managed to gather enough of her wits to be able to answer.

‘Um, my name is Lizabeth Emillare Dale.’ She said awkwardly bowing back.

Not a very interesting name is it?’ the Queen said absently, ‘Not that names are important,’ she added hastily when she realised what she had said causing the white fairy next to her to sigh again. The Queen gently took Lizze by the elbow and led her to a couple of butterflies which were hovering a few feet of the ground several metres away from all the other fairies.

They reached the butterflies and Lizze saw that they had a beautiful carriage hooked up to them. Looking up at the huge butterflies made Lizze realise just how small she and the fairies were. Two green fairies who were sitting on saddles flew down as the two arrived; they bowed to the Queen and took her hands, helping her up to a seat mounted between the two butterflies.

They had settled back into their positions at the reins when the Queen snapped some orders at them. They flew back down and roughly carried Lizze up to the seat at the back of the carriage that was clearly used by servants. The Queen turned her head to look at Lizze and grimaced at the antics of her servants.

The green fairies then took their seats at the front of the carriage and they took off.

[sion]

Chapter 2

The Transformation

They flew for almost an hour, Lizze trying to figure out what was happening the entire time. She couldn’t decided whether she was dreaming or if she had finally cracked, gone nuts and this was all in her mind. Satisfied that it was one of the two she sat back and decided to enjoy the ride.

After a while she got an idea as to where they were heading, a beautiful castle began to appear. As they got closer Lizze began to make out details, it was made completely of stone that seemed to have a bluish hue to it. It had many turrets and seemingly endless rows of windows.

It took them another hour to reach the castle proper. They landed gently next to it and Lizze half fell out the carriage as she stared.

Another carriage arrived at that moment carrying some white fairies. One of them came up to the Queen and bowed, apparently responding to an unspoken request.

‘Can you please tell the Royal dress maker, slipperer, wand maker, tiara fashioner and the hairdresser to come up to room 6L6 in about twenty minutes?’ she asked, the fairy bowed and Lizze realised that while it had quite clearly been a command, the Queen had delivered it like a request.

The Queen allowed Lizze to stare for a moment before leading her up the front steps and into the entry hall. The hall itself was huge and Lizze suspected it could have fitted her house comfortably inside, twice!

The Queen led the bemused girl up several flights of stairs, through a dozen corridors to a room, asked her to wait for a few minutes and left.

Lizze was now completely confused, she had never had a dream like this, no one with so much detail and that had lasted so long. She was also starting to question her theory about going nuts, everything seemed far too real. This left her with only one reasonable option: that this was all somehow real and most definitely magical.

While Lizze waited for something else to happen she looked around the room in wonder and decided that it wasn’t so much a room as a suit.

It was fitted out with the most beautiful furniture she had ever seen. The main room had a small low table with cushions around it in a traditional Japanese style, off to one side through an arch was the bedroom, with a beautiful dressing table, full-length wardrobe and a four-posted bed, and from the bedroom there was a walk-in wardrobe and an ensuite.

A heavy curtain separated the bedroom from the main room. In the ensuite there was a full-size spa and a shower/bath unit, the towels with wide and thick and smelled of roses. It also had a full length mirror and Lizze stopped in front of it, frowning at her reflection.

Although many people had told her that she was beautiful and had a great figure she just couldn’t see it. She was tall and slim, with long legs and pale skin. She had a thin shapely face with black hair that was pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her eyes were a vivid blue colour with long dark eyelashes. She also had a perfect hour-glass figure that unbeknownst to her was coveted by many of the girls at her school. She grimaced at her reflection.

‘It’s not just my name that’s dull and boring,’ she muttered to herself before sticking her tongue out and walked out the room.

Lizze looked around the rooms in wonder, marvelling at the beauty of everything, even the curtains hanging beside the window looked beautiful. Lizze thought the whole room had a very magical feel to it. There were also several objects sitting on the shelves that completely mystified Lizze.

She had just finished fully investigating her suit – with a thorough look around each room - when the door burst open and five fairies flew in.

They flew over to where she stood in the middle of the main room with a word and began to prod, poke, measure and weigh her. They each had a floating roll of parchment that followed them around – Lizze had decided by this time that she shouldn’t be surprised by anything; after all this was clearly a place of magic – each roll of parchment had its own quill which also operated on their own which recorded whatever the fairy they were following said.

It didn’t take them long to find out whatever they wanted to know – although Lizze was at a loss at what that was – as they soon packed up their things flew back out the door, without saying one word to her.

Lizze waited around for another 10 minutes or so, wandering continuously around the rooms until there was a gentle knock on the door. Before Lizze had time to say anything the door open and the Queen walked in. She was now dressed in a simple white dress that just brushed the floor and her hair was down.

She smiled at Lizze’s nervous face, ‘Don’t worry about anything Lizze, is it alright for me to call you that? Good! I'm sure that you’re nervous about looking out of place Lizze,’ her voice was sympathetic and it had lost its regal edge.

‘But I look out of place, and that’s not really the thing I'm most worried about,’ Lizze protested gesturing from her own clothes to the Queen’s dress.

There was another knock at the door and the Queen smiled, ‘I think the first problem is about to be dealt with,’ she said to Lizze before calling out to the door, ‘Come in girls,’

Two young identical fairies in pale green and white came through the door, they were carrying several bundles which they deposited on the bed.

‘I think you’ll be alright now Lizze; the girls here will look after you. Until later then.’ And the Queen walked out leaving Lizze even more stunned.

‘Our names are Lilly and Lila and we will be your personal assistances for a few days.’ One of the girls said as the other unwrapped the bundles on the bed.

‘Until you get to know your way around a bit we’ll look after you. Now first things first, these are your clothes,’ the other one said, carefully unfolding them.

The clothes where beautiful, Lizze found herself staring in wonder at them. There was a deep purple long skirt which sparkled as it moved, a lighter purple top, a silver sash that went round the waist of the dress when it was on, a silver wand, dark purple shoes, – which were more like slippers – a long thin silver sleeve which attached to the sash for her wand and a silver tiara with purple gems.

Lilly and Lila hadn’t left and they soon made it obvious that they were there to help her. They got her into the skirt and top and helped her tie the sash correctly, attached the wand sleeve and slipped the wand into it. They then stepped towards her, drawing their own wands.

‘There’s something else we have to do,’ one started as she raised her wand.

‘Something that is very important, but be prepared, this will feel a little strange.’ The other finished, also raising her wand. They stepped behind her and Lizze felt their wands pressing into her back, between her shoulder blades.

‘Why? What are you going to-’ Lizze broke off as a tingling began to spread out from the point of contact with their wands. A little strange was an understatement Lizze thought as the feeling spread. The feeling seemed to be spreading outwards from her body although she couldn’t understand how this was possible. It was as though a section of her body was extending out, both left and right upwards and slightly downwards. The feeling was somewhat detached from her body but Lizze was suddenly somehow aware of a whole series of new muscles and nerve endings.

The feeling faded away and Lizze found herself panting, ‘What was that?’ she gasped but the twins had moved away from her.
‘We won’t put the tiara on yet, the hairdresser will do that for you,’ one said.

‘He’ll be here soon, once he’s done you’ll be able to see what happened.’

‘Wait, hairdresser? What?’ Lizze stammered, thoroughly confused, at the same time as there was a knock at the door.

The two young fairies grinned at each other and opened the door.

‘She’s your problem now,’ one twin said to the fairy at the door as she and her twin walked.

The fairy that had walked was orange. He was pushing a floating basket in front of him and he smiled kindly at her.

‘Let’s have a look at you then,’ he said walking around her flicking her clothes slightly. He picked up her tiara from the bed and examined it. Once he had finished looking at it he walked back to Lizze and after a moment of looking her over, waved his wand. A chair as well as several other baskets appeared out of thin air.

Lizze sat down and closed her eyes as instructed as he got to work transforming her.

An hour later the hairdresser flicked her hair with his wand one last time and grinned in satisfaction.

‘There, all done!’ he said, ‘Go have a look at yourself.’ He waved his wand causing all the baskets and the chair to disappear before walking out the door.

Lilly and Lila walked back into Lizze's room to find a beautiful fairy staring out the window.

‘You see!’ Lila exclaimed to her twin when she saw Lizze, ‘I told you he would transform her into an amazing beauty!’

Lizze turned around and the twins saw the complete works. The hairdresser had not only done her hair so it was silky smooth and framed her face perfectly but he had done her face as well. Her eyes had subtle silver and purple eye shadow, her lips had a pale pink colour on them and there were sparkles at the corners of her eyes.

‘Yeah well I always knew she would be beautiful!’ Lilly retorted.
Lizze grinned at them and suddenly felt a lot better. She had come to the decision that this was somehow real, and she decided that she would take everything as it came, without worrying!

‘Oh and don’t worry about the makeup, it’s permanent.’

‘We have to go now Lizze we have a lot to do tonight, we just wanted to see how you were,’ Lilly said as she and her sister left the room.

Lizze nodded and went back to staring out of the window.

An hour or so later Lizze came out of her staring trance; she glanced around the room and stretched.

‘I wonder what I’m supposed to do now,’ she said to the walls.

At that moment there was a small rustle as an envelope slid under the door. The envelope floated over to her and she caught it. She opened it and read the note that was written in a graceful regal script.

Dear Lizze,
I hope you like the new you, I spoke to the hairdresser and he was very happy, Lilly and Lila also said you looked beautiful. I’m sure you’re hungry so once you’ve read this follow it out to the dining room and I’ll meet you there.
Her Majesty
Mirrayeander Shemaer

Lizze put the note back in the envelope and followed it to the door. It slipped under the door and she tried to follow only to be stopped by the fact that she couldn’t get the door open.

She thought back and realised that all of the fairies had used their wands to open the door; she didn’t think it was a good idea to get her own wand and start waving it around – she might blow something up – so she went back and sat on here bed, listening for any sounds that would announce the approach of anyone. She reasoned that someone would realise what had happened and come and get her so if she just waited someone would come.

After a while Lizze decided that she had to do what she had been putting off ever since the hairdresser had left her room despite his advice; looking in the full-length mirror she had found in the bedroom. She had been putting it off because she was sure that she would look in the mirror she wouldn’t see the beautiful fairy that everyone kept saying she was, she would simply see her normal plain looking self.

She walked into the bedroom and taking a deep breath, stepped in front of the mirror. What she saw stunned her to the core.

The purple skirt shimmered and shone as it swirled around her ankles, the dark purple highlights glittered, the top glittered and the silver sash seemed to glow. Her hair was pulled back slightly and it too glittered and sparkled, her tiara sat perfectly on her head and her shoes made her feet seem small and delicate, instead of big and clunky like they usually were.

But what shocked her the most was what spread from her back; Wings!

They were light purple with silver highlights. They shimmered and Lizze realised they were what she had been feeling every since the twins had touched her with their wands’. She could actually feel them flapping and when she reached out to touch them, could feel the contact. She didn’t know what to think.

She was amazed that what the others had been saying was true, she truly was beautiful! She stared at herself in the mirror for several minutes before walked back to her bed; she lay down and closed her eyes thinking about what had happened to her in the last few hours.

It was only when she woke up and looked out of the window to a darkened sky did Lizze realise that she had fallen asleep. She also realised that no one had come looking for her. She tried the door again and found it locked. She went to the window and looked out. What she saw was incredible. Below her a massive party was in full swing.

Lizze stared indignantly out at the party; they had forgotten about her for the simple reason that there was a party on!

She huffed back to her bed and sat down again. When she had calmed down slightly she remember that Lilly had said she and Lila would be busy, had she been talking about the party?

As she sat thinking a small rustle came from the main door. She looked up and saw another envelope coming towards her. She opened it up and read what was inside.

Dear Lizze,
I’m so sorry! Tonight is the full moon and every 4th full moon we have a festival. It was the 4th tonight and with all the excitement I completely forgot about you. Please forgive me! I won’t have time to check on you tonight so just try and get some sleep. The wings stay on and there is a nightgown in one of the drawers, I’m sure you can figure it out. Someone will come to escort you to the dining room in the morning and I see what I can do about the door. Once again I am terribly sorry.
With humble apologies
Lila

P.S
The escort will help you get dressed in the morning. Don’t worry it will be a girl.

Lizze frowned at the letter as it folded itself up again and slipped under the door. She then shrugged her shoulders and went in search of the nightgown; she might as well try to get some sleep seeing as no one was coming.

As she lay down he decided that this would be her test, she had never slept in a dream and if she woke up in the morning everything must be real.

As she drifted off she found herself wishing that everything was real, she so desperately wanted this to be real!

[sion]

Chapter 3

3
The New Day

Lizze woke in the morning to tentative knocking on the door. ‘Come i- oh um I mean, who is it?’ Lizze called out as she struggled up in her bed.

‘My name is Tirla, Miss Lizze. I am your escort. May I come in?’

‘Oh um, yes of course.’ Lizze struggled out of bed and looked at herself in the full-length mirror next to her bed. She was relieved to see that her wings weren’t rumpled and that what Lila had said about her makeup being permanent was right.

The door opened and a girl stepped in, waiting in the main room until Lizze gestured she could come into the bedroom. She looked a bit older than Lizze’s own 15 years and she was a bluey green colour – Lizze had found yesterday from watching the festival and overhearing what fairies had been saying that a fairy’s colour had something to do with the ancient fairy families or something like that, she wasn’t really sure –

‘Um, hi, can you help me get dressed please?’ Lizze said grimacing at her reflection in the mirror.

‘Of course that’s one of the reasons I’m here. Now let’s see…’ the girl instantly set to work help Lizze get dressed.

Once Lizze was dressed Tirla led the way to the dining room. They stopped at the door and Tirla gestured for Lizze to go in, ‘I’m not allowed in but Her Majesty should already be in there,’ Lizze wasn’t sure if she found this reassuring but opened the door and walked.

Her first reaction was of surprise, she had expected a grand hall with a long table and fancy tapestries hanging form the wall. What she saw was the complete opposite; the table was small with only room for half a dozen diners and the walls were bare.

Queen Mirrayeander was already seated at the table and there was only one other place set which Lizze sat at. As she sat down Lizze noticed that the fairy Queen was no longer dressed up. She was dressed in a simple white summer dress and her hair was down and flowing.

‘I’m so, so, so, so sorry about last night Lizze, this was a particularly important celebration as we had some of the other fairy leaders here and with all the excitement I totally forgot about you, and Lila and Lilly were running all sorts errands and doing other things. I know that’s no excuse but it’s the only reason I have.’

‘It’s alright your Majesty –’ Lizze started to say as a red fairy came through another door bearing food and drink.

‘Thank you’ Queen Mirrayeander said to the waiter who bowed and left, ‘Lizze you don’t have to call me Your Majesty, you could just call me Mirra.’ Lizze shock her head violently, protesting, ‘hmm well if you insist. Mmmm this looks good,’ Mirra picked up her fork and began eating her meal.

Lizze suddenly realised how hungry she was and dug into her own meal. She was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was and was soon on the second plate that had appeared out of nowhere.

By the end of the meal, Lizze was comfortable enough with the Queen to talk naturally and she was starting to think that her life had taken a definite upturn.

The plates disappeared just as there was a knock on the door. Mirra waved her wand and the door opened to admit Lilly and Lila. The girls apologised profusely for forgetting her and Lizze was soon ready to forgive them.

‘Well now girls it’s time to go,’ Mirra said to the twins, she turned and Lizze and grimaced slightly, ‘I'm sorry Lizze but the girls and I have some things to do today and Tirla has lessons so I’m afraid you’ll be on you own. You can explore the castle a bit if you like.’

‘I know!’ Lila exclaimed, turning to Lizze, ‘Take this so you don’t get lost,’ a map appeared in her hand which she gave to Lizze, ‘It will always show your position and it will map where you go so you will know where you have been, and when you have learnt more magic you will be able to do all sorts of things with it!’

‘Thanks Lila,’ Lizze said smiling at the girl.
The Queen and the twins then left and Lizze started exploring the castle…

The morning passed quickly and Lizze’s stomach soon told her it was lunchtime. Once her stomach had rumbled for about the fifteenth time Lizze decided that it was time to address the issue. So she stopped and looked at her map. Only to discover that the dining room wasn’t on it. ‘Oh boy,’ she muttered as she figured out where she was according to where the dining room should be. ‘Right well I think know what’s happened,’ she stated to the nearest wall, ‘This map can only show so much at one time, so maybe if I just start walking in the general direction of the dining room It'll show it!’ Lizze decided to put her plan into action and started to walk towards where she knew the dining room was.

After walking for a while she consulted the map again and was pleased to see that her theory had been correct; the further she walked the more of her immediate were displayed and the places that were further away slid off the side of the map as the new bits slid on.

It didn’t take her long to reach the dining room and when she arrived and was let in she was delighted to see Lilly and Lila sitting with Mirra, clearly there to share the meal.

‘The girls and myself have to go out again in the morning to visit one of the smaller villages which has been having some problems recently,’ Mirra told Lizze between dishes, ‘We need to prepare tonight so would it be alright with you if you ate your dinner in your room tomorrow?’

‘Its fine Mirra, I don’t mind,’ Lizze said reassuringly, she could see that Mirra was feeling guilty.

‘Oh good,’ replied Mirra, ‘I’ll make sure Tirla is free to escort you in the morning to your first lesson.’

‘L-lesson?’ Lizze choked, having just taken a large gulp of her drink,

‘Sure lessons,’ Lila replied airily, ‘don’t worry, there not hard,’

‘For you maybe,’ Lizze retorted taking another sip to clear her throat, ‘you’re used to all of this, this is your world’ she waved her hand around to indicate the whole fairy world

‘Oh yeah,’ Lilly giggled self-consciously, ‘I keep forgetting that your not a true fairy.’ The seconds the words left her mouth Lilly froze, ‘Oh no, please I didn’t mean that!’ she gasped out aware of what she had just said, ‘I just forgot myself; I didn’t mean that at all.’

‘It’s alright,’ Lizze said, not really understanding, ‘I don’t mind not being called a fairy ‘cos I’m not really am I?’

‘Yes you are!’ insisted Lilly, ‘Of course you are.’

There was an awkward pause before Lizze asked, ‘What did you mean lessons?’

‘Oh yes, of course,’ Lilly said glad to be moving away from the awkward situation, ‘as a young fairy you have to take lessons in various things, like doing magic, flying, you know, that sort of stuff,’ Lizze didn’t really know but she nodded anyway, it had surprised her at first but now that she thought about it, it made sense, why should being a teenager in this place be so different from being a teenager in her old world? – And she was surprised to find that she did think of it as her old world – she suddenly realised Lila was talking and started to listen,

‘Anyway,’ Lila was saying, ‘all your teachers should know about you so they’ll probably go easy on you to start off with,’

‘But don’t worry about being behind,’ Lilly added, ‘with the teachers you’ve got you’ll be as good as any other 15 year old fairy,’ Lizze smiled at the twins, reassured by what they were saying.

‘Well now that is sorted out,’ Mirra said, ‘shall we get on with our meal?’ the three girls nodded and they were soon absorbed with their meals and talking about other things.

[sion]

Chapter 4

4
The Lesson’s

Lizze went to bed that night thinking about her new life. Not long ago she was a normal teenager, a trouble maker with no life and not many friends and now she lived in a place where she was treated well and had more friends than she could count and apparently she was important – though Lizze still hadn’t discovered why though she was sure she would be told when the time was right, and right at that moment she realised that she didn’t really care – she also wondered if anyone was missing her. She didn’t really have many friends but what about her family? Were they worrying about her? Did they care? Had they even noticed that she had gone? She drifted off to sleep contemplating the answers to those questions.

The next morning Lizze once again woke to Tirla knocking on her door, ‘Miss Lizze, it’s me Tirla, may I come in?’ once Tirla had Lizze dressed she had eaten breakfast from the tray that had followed Tirla into the room Lizze looked in the envelope and found the timetable. ‘Right,’ she said looking at it, ‘my first lesson is Wands and Spells with Master Taine,’ a small chuckle surprised her and she looked up at Tirla to see what was so funny, ‘what?’ she asked,

‘Oh sorry,’ Tirla replied trying to stop herself laughing, ‘I just think it’s funny that they assigned you to Taine.’ She smiled, ‘just watch out,’ she said her smile turning into grin, ‘he can be a little um; how I do I say this? Prickly!’

‘Oh,’ this did nothing to help alleviate Lizze’s growing apprehension. She grabbed her map and followed Tirla out the door. After a few minutes Lizze was quite lost and she was very glad that her map mapped wherever she went, or else she knew she would never be able to find her way from one place to the next.

‘Master Taine’s office is just down here,’ Tirla said gesturing to a corridor, ‘don’t worry I’m coming with you,’ she laughed when she saw Lizze’s apprehensive face. They walked down the corridor and soon stopped at a door, Tirla pressed her finger to her lips, signalling for Lizze to stay silent. Lizze looked at Tirla puzzled but didn’t make a sound. Tirla rapped gently on the door and after a moment a loud voice yelled, ‘WHO IS IT? WHATEVER YOU WANT GO AWAY!’ Lizze jumped in shock but Tirla simply smiled.
‘It’s Tirla Master Taine,’ she called through the door. There was a slight pause then the voice replied in a much calmer and slightly embarrassed tone.
‘Oh Tirla, I didn’t realise it was you, come in,’ Tirla giggled and opened the door motioning Lizze to follow her in, Lizze followed cautiously, not really sure what to expect from a man who apparently had mood swings which rivalled her own – and her mood swings had been renowned throughout her school –

‘Who’s this?’ asked a man sitting at the desk in front of Lizze and Tirla. He was a dark red colour, and she noticed that his wings were fanning idly – she decided that it must be a reflex as her own wings did it – He was young with a face that looked mostly friendly except for the scowl that currently marred her features. He had a wiry frame and Lizze could tell that he was extremely fit.

Tirla groaned slightly, ‘If you’d check you’re schedule once in a while you’d know that this is Lizze,’ Tirla waited a beat then added in a loud stage whisper, ‘you know, the human girl!’ there was another pause before comprehension dawned on the man.

‘Ohh…um…well,’ he flustered clearly rather put out, Tirla giggled again.
‘Really Master Taine,’ she laughed shaking her head at him.
Taine laughed as well then gestured to the door, ‘Why don’t you head off Tirla,’ he said, ‘Lizze and I have our lesson together and I’m sure you have your own lesson to go to,’ Tirla hesitated looking back at Lizze, ‘don’t worry I’m not going to eat her,’ he laughed, Tirla laughed as well and with one final wave to Lizze walked out the door, shutting it as she left; the closing of the door seemed like a death sentence to Lizze who still didn’t know what to make of the man sitting in front of her.

The man didn’t say anything and Lizze shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other, unsure of what to do. The man looked up as she shuffled and waved his hand to a chair in front of his desk, ‘Please sit down’ he said, Lizze sat down nervously still waiting for something to happen.

‘So then, what I want to do is tell you a story which is actually very important and would explain a great many things but Her Majesty gave me specific orders not to tell you so I’ll just apologise in advance if I scare you with my mood swings, there is a good reason for them but I can’t tell you at the moment and I have no idea why I bought that up.’

‘Don’t worry about it sir,’ Lizze said with a slightly puzzled shrug, ‘at my old school my mood swings were school-wide legends,’ she paused and stared vacantly at a spot on the wall, ‘I guess that now I think about it that’s the reason why I didn’t have any friends and why my parents were so fed up with me.’ She sighed and stared glumly at the floor, suddenly realising why no one had liked her.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and started, almost leaping out of her chair in shock. She looked up to see Master Taine standing next to her, his hand resting on her shoulder. ‘Even if I teach you nothing else I hope you will remember this: never doubt yourself, everyone has a place, everyone has people who love them, once you’ve found the place where these people are, you’ll have found the place where you belong.’ He smiled – and Lizze realised that he was quite a young man, only maybe twenty or twenty-five – ‘I found that out the hard way.’ He grinned at her and went back to sit behind his desk. ‘Now shall we get started?’ Lizze smiled back,

‘Yep, sure!’

‘First off, can I have a look at your wand?’ Lizze handed over her wand and Taine examined it closely, tapping it with his own wand gently. Finally he place his wand tip-to-tip with Lizze’s and murmured under his breath and a shower of bright purple and silver butterflies erupted from the tip of Lizze’s wand. The butterflies flew around the room before fading away.

Taine watched the butterflies carefully then turning back to Lizze, ‘Right the first thing we’ll do is get you to produce sparks out the end of your wand. It may not seem very useful but you’d be surprised,’ for the next three hours Lizze worked hard, first learning how to send green and red sparks out from her wand, then moving onto different colours, then onto changing the colour of the sparks after she had cast them. As Taine had warned her, he had terrible mood swings, going from cheerful and encouraging one minute to angry and critical the next.

Although she had been warned it still took Lizze a little while to get used to the sudden changes in mood.

During one of his angry moments there was a knock at the door. ‘WHAT?!’ he yelled scaring and slightly deafening Lizze who was standing next to him, she rubbed her ear as the door opened, a scornful voice proceeding the man who walked in.

‘Oh shut up with all the yelling, you’re not impressing anyone so just give it a rest would you, besides did no one ever tell you that people respond better to encouragement than they do to criticism, honestly you can be more immature than some of the ten year olds that I teach!’ Lizze stared open mouthed in shock at the fierce looking man who strode into the room.

The man was tall, maybe an inch or two taller than Taine. He was a very dark blue and he was also bigger than Taine, not fat but solid, with a large build and broad shoulders. Lizze also noticed that he face was darker than Taine’s; he was clearly a man who didn’t smile very often. Lizze’s first thought was that his delicate wings looked out of place. This new man’s angry outburst seemed to calm Taine, who suddenly became happy again. He grinned at the other man and patted Lizze’s head in apology.

Lizze stared at Taine, stunned at the way the man’s emotions swung so violently.

Suddenly the strangest thing happened before her eyes, both men’s faces slackened and Taine sunk into his chair while the other man slide down the wall before coming to rest on chest. Lizze stared nervously at the two men. After a moment their eyes began to flicker, Taine started to frown as the other man began to scowl. Lizze backed away slightly, banging into a pile of books just as the men returned to normal. Lizze tripped over the books and tumbled to the floor just as the men stood up. Taine quickly crossed the room and helped Lizze to stand up, ‘Err sorry about that Lizze that must have seemed kind weird?’

‘O-only kind of?’ Lizze stammered, still shocked by what had happened. He smiled at her and helped her back to her chair while the other man continued to scowl.

‘Lizze what you just saw was magical telepathy, if they know how, any fairy can talk to another telepathically. It can be a bit disconcerting to watch though.’ He grinned slightly self-consciously and the other man snorted disdainfully. Taine turned to the man and wrinkled his nose at him, ‘Oh come on Demers, you complain about me being mean and nasty and all you do is stand there and snort like a pig!’ the other man rolled his eyes and stepped forward holding his hand out.

‘I am Master Demers,’ he introduced himself as Lizze shook his hand, ‘I will also be your teacher. I also teach wand work, but you will learn different things from me than you will learn from Taine here.’ He smiled slightly, ‘On your timetable you will notice that it specifies with of us you will have. I have to go now, I just wanted to come and meet you.’ Lizze smiled at him as he left the room.

‘Right now where were we?’ Taine pondered, tapping his teeth with his finger.

‘I think you were in the middle of yelling at me because I’m not doing the wand work right.’

‘Ahh…oh yes…’ Taine flushed embarrassed, ‘Well what I meant to say was that, you’re doing very well for your first lesson!’

Lizze laughed and raised her wand again, ‘So,’ she giggled, ‘Shall we?’

For another two hours they continued and Lizze’s stomach began to growl. All of a sudden Taine stopped and glanced up at a clock on the wall; Lizze also glanced at it and was immediately confused. It had twelve hands and each hand had a symbol at its tip, the clock face had no numbers, instead it had more symbols and Lizze had no clue how to read it. She glanced down at her watch and was dismayed to see that it had stopped working, she thought that maybe all the magic in the air might had made it stop working.

‘My gosh! How did it get so late?!’ Taine exclaimed staring at the clock in shock, ‘You better run along to dinner.’ As he talked he was packing several books and other items into a bag that had appeared out of nowhere, ‘Take these with you, the books are about all sorts of things, oh and we use a different alphabet than humans do but you don’t have to worry about learning it, there are some glasses in the bag that will allow you to read it, once you’ve worn them for long enough your eyes will adapt and you will be able to read the writing without the glasses. One of the books is full of useful things like how to read the clocks and the numbers and alphabet we use so if you read through that you will pick up a lot of what you need to know.

‘I’ve also included a sheet which highlights which books and chapters I would like you to take a look at sometime soon. There’s also a watch in there for you.’ He paused to take a deep breath and hand the bag to Lizze ‘Hmm is there anything else? Nope I think that’s it, time for you to head off to dinner.’ Taine gave Lizze a gentle push in the direction to the door and she headed off pulling her map out as she went, still a little bemused by her teacher.

When she reached the dining room she saw Tirla waiting at the door.

‘Hey Lizze, did your lesson go well?’ Lizze nodded and gestured for Lizze to follow her, ‘The Queen asked me to take you to the student dining hall,’ Lizze blanched,

‘Err s-student dining hall?’ she asked suddenly uncertain,

‘Oh yes no would have told you about the school would they?’ Lizze shook her head, still with no idea as to what Tirla was talking about, ‘Well about half of the castle is a school; young fairies from all over come to learn magic here. Lots of them are from quite far away so the castle also doubles as a boarding school for them.’ By this time they had reached the student dining room.

Tirla opened the door, and Lizze looked in to see a hall full of yelling and talking kids, most of them were roughly Lizze’s age, although there were some a bit older and some a bit younger. Before Tirla opened the door all the students had been talking and laughing, but they stopped and fell silent when they caught sight of Lizze and Tirla.

‘Alright everyone, didn’t anyone ever tell you it was rude to stare?’ a sharp voice cut through the silence. Lizze looked up to the front of the hall and saw a long table where a dozen or so adults were sitting. She saw Taine and Demers and she presumed that the others were the other Masters. One lady was standing up and frowning around the room, Taine stood up next to her and put a hand on her shoulder before addressing the room, ‘I’m sure you are all wondering who this is-’

‘Tirla and the freak!’ one boy yelled rudely earning him some laughs from his mates.

‘I would not think you really want to be put on rations do you Daniel Torlee?’ Demers threatened severely, frowning down at him, the boy just grinned and turned to his mates, he opened his mouth and was clearly about to make another snide comment when he vanished. His mates yelled in surprise looking from where their friend had sat up to the Master’s table where Taine was putting his wand away.

‘As I was about to say,’ he said ignoring the boy’s friends continued protests, ‘this is Lizabeth Emillare Dale, as I’m sure some of you may have heard or figured out she used to be a human!’ an outbreak of mutterings followed this which Taine silenced which a frown, ‘I hope you all treat her right as she is here as a guest.’

‘I HOPE YOU ARE HEARING THIS DANIEL TORLEE! Demers interrupted with a bellow making everyone except Taine jump. Lizze heard one girl whispering to her friends, ‘Taine must have put Daniel in the detention room; it's right above us so you can hear everything from up there.’

Taine raised his eyes at Demers who just shrugged, Taine then turned and caught Tirla’s eye, nodding her towards a table.

‘Here Lizze you can sit here,’ Tirla said leading her to a table, she sat Lizze down then with a wave, hurried off to her own table where a group of girls who were clearly her friends immediately demanded all the gossip.

[sion]

Chapter 5

5
The Start of a New Life

An hour later Lilly and Lila walked back into Lizze's room to find a beautiful fairy staring out the window.
‘You see!’ Lila exclaimed to her twin when she saw Lizze, ‘I told you he would transform her into an amazing beauty!’
Lizze turned around and the twins saw the complete works. The hairdresser had not only done her hair so it was silky smooth and framed her face perfectly but he had done her face as well. Her eyes had subtle silver and purple eye shadow, her lips had a pale pink colour on them and there were sparkles at the corners of her eyes.
‘Yeah well I always knew she would be beautiful!’ Lilly retorted.
Lizze grinned at them and suddenly felt a lot better.
‘Oh and don’t worry about the makeup, it’s permanent. Now lets just put your wings on and you’ll be completely finished’ Lila said as she cleared up the remaining wrapping with a wave of her wand.
‘We have to go now Lizze we have a lot to do tonight, we just wanted to see how you were,’ Lilly said as she and her sister left the room.
Lizze nodded and went back to staring out of the window.
An hour or so later Lizze came out of her staring trance; she glanced around the room and stretched.
‘I wonder what I’m supposed to do now,’ she said to the walls. At that moment there was a small rustle as an envelope slid under the door. The envelope floated over to her and she caught it. She opened it and read the note that was written in a graceful regal script.
Dear Lizze,
I hope you like the new you, I spoke to the hairdresser and he was very happy, Lilly and Lila also said you looked beautiful. I’m sure you’re hungry so once you’ve read this follow it out to the dining room and I’ll meet you there.
Her Majesty
Mirrayeander Shemaer
Lizze put the note back in the envelope and followed it to the door. It slipped under the door and she tried to follow only to be stopped by the fact that she couldn’t get the door open! She thought back and realised that all of the fairies had used their wands to open the door; she didn’t think it was a good idea to get her own wand and start waving it around – she might blow something up – so she went back and sat on here bed, listening for any sounds that would announce the approach of anyone. She reasoned that someone would realise what had happened and come and get her so if she just waited someone would come. After a while Lizze decided that she had to do what she had been putting off ever since the hairdresser had left her room, looking in the full-length mirror she had found in the bedroom. She had been putting it off because she was sure that she would look in the mirror she wouldn’t see the beautiful fairy that everyone kept saying she was, she would simply see her normal plain looking self.
She walked into the bedroom and taking a deep breath, stepped in front of the mirror. What she saw shocked her to the core. The purple dressed shimmered and shone as she moved, the dark purple highlights glittered, slightly differently and the golden sash seemed to glow. Her hair was pulled back slightly and it too glittered and sparkled, her tiara sat perfectly on her head and her shoes made her feet seem small and delicate, instead of big and clunky like they usually were. Her wings flapped slightly behind her. She was amazed that what the others had been saying was true, she truly was beautiful! She stared at herself in the mirror for several minutes before walked back to her bed, she lay down and closed her eyes thinking about what had happened to her in the last few hours.

[sion]

Chapter 6

6
The New Day

It was only when she woke up and looked out of the window to a darkened sky did Lizze realise that she had fallen asleep. She also realised that no one had come looking for her. She tried the door again and found it locked. She went to the window and looked out. What she saw was incredible. Below her a massive party was in full swing. Lizze stared indignantly out at the party; they had forgotten about her for the simple reason that there was a party on!
She huffed back to her bed and sat down again. When she had calmed down slightly she remember that Lilly had said she and Lila would be busy, had she been talking about the party?
As she sat thinking a small rustle came from the main door. She looked up and saw another envelope coming towards her. She opened it up and read what was inside.
Dear Lizze,
I’m so sorry! Tonight is the full moon and every 4th full moon we have a party. It was the 4th tonight and with all the excitement I completely forgot about you. Please forgive me! I won’t have time to check on you tonight so just try and get some sleep. The wings stay on and there is a nightgown in one of the drawers, I’m sure you can figure it out. Someone will come to escort you to the dining room in the morning and I see what I can do about the door.
With humble apologies
Lila

P.S
The escort will help you get dressed in the morning. Don’t worry it will be a girl.

Lizze frowned at the letter as it folded itself up again and slipped under the door. She then shrugged her shoulders and went in search of the nightgown; she might as well try to get some sleep seeing as no one was coming.

Lizze woke in the morning to tentative knocking on the door. ‘Come i- oh um I mean, who is it?’ Lizze called out as she struggled up in her bed.
‘My name is Tirla, Miss Lizze. I am your escort. May I come in?’
‘Oh um, yes of course.’ Lizze struggled out of bed and looked at herself in the full-length mirror next to her bed. She was relieved to see that her wings weren’t rumpled and that what Lila had said about her makeup being permanent was right.
The door opened and a girl stepped in, waiting in the main room until Lizze gestured she could come into the bedroom. She looked a bit older than Lizze’s own 15 years and she was a bluey green colour – Lizze had found yesterday from watching the festival and overhearing what fairies had been saying that a fairy’s colour had something to do with the ancient fairy families or something like that, she wasn’t really sure –
‘Um, hi, can you help me get dressed please?’ Lizze said grimacing at her reflection in the mirror.
‘Of course that’s one of the reasons I’m here. Now let’s see…’ the girl instantly set to work help Lizze get dressed.
Once Lizze was dressed Tirla led the way to the dining room. They stopped at the door and Tirla gestured for Lizze to go in, ‘I’m not allowed in but Her Majesty should already be in there,’ Lizze wasn’t sure if she found this reassuring but opened the door and walked.
Her first reaction was of surprise, she had expected a grand hall with a long table and fancy tapestries hanging form the wall. What she saw was the complete opposite; the table was small with only room for half a dozen diners and the walls were bare.
Queen Mirrayeander was already seated at the table and there was only one other place set which Lizze sat at. As she sat down Lizze noticed that the fairy Queen was no longer dressed up. She was dressed in a simple white summer dress and her hair was down and flowing.
‘I’m so, so, so, so sorry about last night Lizze, this was a particularly important celebration as we had some of the other fairy leaders here and with all the excitement I totally forgot about you, and Lila and Lilly were running all sorts errands and doing other things. I know that’s no excuse but it’s the only reason I have.’
‘It’s alright your Majesty –’ Lizze started to say as a red fairy came through another door bearing food and drink.
‘Thank you,’ Queen Mirrayeander said to the waiter who bowed and left, ‘Oh and Lizze please drop the formalities, it’s just so bothersome and I’d like to keep things honest and casual between us,’ Lizze stared in amazement at the beautiful fairy in front of her. ‘Oh but I c-couldn’t –’ she stuttered,
‘Are you disobeying an order from your new Queen?’ Mirrayeander said her eyes locking with Lizze’s.
‘Of course not,’ Lizze replied dropping her gaze to the plate in front of her.
‘Good, now please call me Mirra. Mmmm this looks good,’ Mirra picked up her fork and began eating her meal.
Lizze suddenly realised how hungry she was and dug into her own meal. She was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was and was soon on the second plate that had appeared out of nowhere.
By the end of the meal, Lizze was comfortable enough with the Queen to talk naturally and she was starting to think that her life had taken a definite upturn.
The plates disappeared just as there was a knock on the door. Mirra waved her wand and the door opened to admit Lilly and Lila. The girls apologised profusely for forgetting her and Lizze was soon ready to forgive them.
‘Well now girls it’s time to go,’ Mirra said to the twins, she turned and Lizze and grimaced slightly, ‘I'm sorry Lizze but the girls and I have some things to do today and Tirla has lessons so I’m afraid you’ll be on you own. You can explore the castle a bit if you like.’
‘I know!’ Lila exclaimed, turning to Lizze, ‘Take this so you don’t get lost,’ a map appeared in her hand which she gave to Lizze, ‘It will always show your position and it will map where you go so you will know where you have been, and when you have learnt more magic you will be able to do all sorts of things with it!’
‘Thanks Lila,’ Lizze said smiling at the girl.
The Queen and the twins then left and Lizze started exploring the palace…

The morning passed quickly and Lizze’s stomach soon told her it was lunchtime. Once her stomach had rumbled for about the fifteenth time Lizze decided that it was time to address the issue. So she stopped and looked at her map. Only to discover that the dining room wasn’t on it. ‘Oh boy,’ she muttered as she figured out where she was according to where the dining room should be. ‘Right well I think know what’s happened,’ she stated to the nearest wall, ‘This map can only show so much at one time, so maybe if I just start walking in the general direction of the dining room It'll show it!’ Lizze decided to put her plan into action and started to walk towards where she knew the dining room was. After walking for a while she consulted the map again and was pleased to see that her theory had been correct; the further she walked the more of her immediate were displayed and the places that were further away slid off the side of the map as the new bits slid on.
It didn’t take her long to reach the dining room and when she arrived and was let in she was delighted to see Lilly and Lila sitting with Mirra, clearly there to share the meal.
‘The girls and myself have to go out again in the morning to visit one of the smaller villages which has been having some problems recently,’ Mirra told Lizze between dishes, ‘We need to prepare tonight so would it be alright with you if you ate your dinner in your room tomorrow?’
‘Its fine Mirra, I don’t mind,’ Lizze said reassuringly, she could see that Mirra was feeling guilty.
‘Oh good,’ replied Mirra, ‘I’ll make sure Tirla is free to escort you in the morning to your first lesson.’
‘L-lesson?’ Lizze choked, having just taken a large gulp of her drink,
‘Sure lessons,’ Lila replied airily, ‘don’t worry, there not hard,’
‘For you maybe,’ Lizze retorted taking another sip to clear her throat, ‘you’re used to all of this, this is your world’ she waved her hand around to indicate the whole fairy world
‘Oh yeah,’ Lilly giggled self-consciously, ‘I keep forgetting that your not a true fairy.’ The seconds the words left her mouth Lilly froze, ‘Oh no, please I didn’t mean that!’ she gasped out aware of what she had just said, ‘I just forgot myself; I didn’t mean that at all.’
‘It’s alright,’ Lizze said, not really understanding, ‘I don’t mind not being called a fairy ‘cos I’m not really am I?’
‘Yes you are!’ insisted Lilly, ‘Of course you are.’
There was an awkward pause before Lizze asked, ‘What did you mean lessons?’
‘Oh yes, of course,’ Lilly said glad to be moving away from the awkward situation, ‘as a young fairy you have to take lessons in various things, like doing magic, flying, you know, that sort of stuff,’ Lizze didn’t really know but she nodded anyway, it had surprised her at first but now that she thought about it, it made sense, why should being a teenager in this place be so different from being a teenager in her old world? – And she was surprised to find that she did think of it as her old world – she suddenly realised Lila was talking and started to listen,
‘Anyway,’ Lila was saying, ‘all your teachers should know about you so they’ll probably go easy on you to start off with,’
‘But don’t worry about being behind,’ Lilly added, ‘with the teachers you’ve got you’ll be as good as any other 15 year old fairy,’ Lizze smiled at the twins, reassured by what they were saying.
‘Well now that is sorted out,’ Mirra said, ‘shall we get on with our meal?’ the three girls nodded and they were soon absorbed with their meals and talking about other things.

[sion]

Chapter 7

7
The Lesson’s

Lizze went to bed that night thinking about her new life. Not long ago she was a normal teenager, a trouble maker with no life and not many friends and now she lived in a place where she was treated well and had more friends than she could count and apparently she was important – though Lizze still hadn’t discovered why though she was sure she would be told when the time was right, and right at that moment she realised that she didn’t really care – she also wondered if anyone was missing her. She didn’t really have many friends but what about her family? Were they worrying about her? Did they care? Had they even noticed that she had gone? She drifted off to sleep contemplating the answers to those questions.
The next morning Lizze once again woke to Tirla knocking on her door, ‘Miss Lizze, it’s me Tirla, may I come in?’ once Tirla had Lizze dressed she had eaten breakfast from the tray that had followed Tirla into the room Lizze looked in the envelope and found the timetable. ‘Right,’ she said looking at it, ‘my first lesson is Wands and Spells with Master Taine,’ a small chuckle surprised her and she looked up at Tirla to see what was so funny, ‘what?’ she asked,
‘Oh sorry,’ Tirla replied trying to stop herself laughing, ‘I just think it’s funny that they assigned you to Taine.’ She smiled, ‘just watch out,’ she said her smile turning into grin, ‘he can be a little um; how I do I say this? Prickly!’
‘Oh,’ this did nothing to help alleviate Lizze’s growing apprehension. She grabbed her map and followed Tirla out the door. After a few minutes Lizze was quite lost and she was very glad that her map mapped wherever she went, or else she knew she would never be able to find her way from one place to the next.
‘Master Taine’s office is just down here,’ Tirla said gesturing to a corridor, ‘don’t worry I’m coming with you,’ she laughed when she saw Lizze’s apprehensive face. They walked down the corridor and soon stopped at a door, Tirla pressed her finger to her lips, signalling for Lizze to stay silent. Lizze looked at Tirla puzzled but didn’t make a sound. Tirla rapped gently on the door and after a moment a loud voice yelled, ‘WHO IS IT? WHATEVER YOU WANT GO AWAY!’ Lizze jumped in shock but Tirla simply smiled. ‘It’s Tirla Master Taine,’ she called through the door. There was a slight pause then the voice replied in a much calmer and slightly embarrassed tone, ‘Oh Tirla, I didn’t realise it was you, come in,’ Tirla giggled and opened the door motioning Lizze to follow her in, Lizze followed cautiously, not really sure what to expect from a man who apparently had mood swings which rivalled her own – and her mood swings had been renowned throughout her school –
‘Who’s this?’ asked a man sitting at the desk in front of Lizze and Tirla. He was a dark red colour, and she noticed that his wings were fanning idly – she decided that it must be a reflex as her on wings did it - He had a face that looked mostly friendly except for the scowl on his face, he had a wiry frame and Lizze could tell that he was extremely fit. Tirla groaned slightly, ‘If you’d check you’re schedule once in a while you’d know that this is Lizze,’ Tirla waited a beat then added in a stage whisper, ‘you know, the human girl!’ there was another pause before comprehension dawned on the man, ‘Ohh…um…well,’ he flustered clearly rather put out, Tirla giggled again, ‘Really Master Taine,’ she laughed shaking her head at him. Taine laughed as well then gestured to the door, ‘Why don’t you head off Tirla,’ he said, ‘Lizze and I have our lesson together and I’m sure you have your own lesson to go to,’ Tirla hesitated looking back at Lizze, ‘don’t worry I’m not going to eat her,’ he laughed, Tirla laughed as well and with one final wave to Lizze walked out the door, shutting it as she left; the closing of the door seemed like a death sentence to Lizze who still didn’t know what to make of the man sitting in front of her.
The man didn’t say anything and Lizze shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other, unsure of what to do. The man looked up as she shuffled and waved his hand to a chair in front of his desk, ‘Please sit down’ he said, Lizze sat down nervously still waiting for something to happen.
‘So then, what I want to do is tell you a story which is actually very important but Her Majesty gave me specific orders not to tell you so I’ll just apologise in advance if I scare you with my mood swings, there is a good reason for them but I can’t at the moment,’
‘Don’t worry about it sir,’ Lizze said with a shrug, ‘at my old school my mood swings were school-wide legends,’ she paused and stared vacantly at a spot on the wall, ‘I guess that now I think about it that’s the reason why I didn’t have any friends and why my parents were so fed up with me.’ She sighed and stared glumly at the floor, suddenly realising why no one had liked her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and started, almost leaping out of her chair in shock. She looked up to see Master Taine standing next to her, his hand resting on her shoulder. ‘Even if I teach you nothing else I hope you will remember this: never doubt yourself, everyone has a place, everyone has people who love them, once you’ve found the place where these people are, you’ll have found the place where you belong.’ He smiled – and Lizze realised that he was quite a young man, only maybe twenty or twenty-five – ‘I found that out the hard way.’ He grinned at her and went back to sit behind his desk. ‘Now shall we get started?’
Lizze smiled back, ‘Yep sure!’
‘First of can I have a look at your wand?’ Lizze handed over her wand and Taine examined it closely, tapping it with his own wand gently. Finally he place his wand tip-to-tip with Lizze’s and murmured under his breath and a shower of bright purple and silver butterflies erupted from the tip of Lizze’s wand. The butterflies flew around the room before fading away. Taine watched the butterflies carefully then turning back to Lizze, ‘Right the first thing we’ll do is get you to produce sparks out the end of your wand. It may not seem very useful but you’d be surprised,’ for the next three hours Lizze worked hard, first learning how to send green and red sparks out from her wand, then moving onto different colours, then onto changing the colour of the sparks after she had cast them. As Taine had warned her, he had terrible mood swings, going from cheerful and encouraging one minute to angry and critical the next. Although she had been warned it still took Lizze a little while to get used to the sudden changes in mood.
During one of his angry moments there was a knock at the door. ‘WHAT?!’ he yelled scaring and slightly deafening Lizze who was standing next to him, she rubbed her ear as the door opened, a scornful voice proceeded the man who walked in, ‘Oh shut up with all the yelling, you’re not impressing anyone so just give it a rest would you, besides didn’t anyone ever tell you that people respond better to encouragement than they do to criticism, honestly you can be more immature than some of the ten year olds that I teach!’ Lizze stared open mouthed in shock at the fierce looking man who strode into the room. The man was taller, maybe an inch or two taller than Taine. He was a very dark blue and he was also bigger than Taine, not fat but solid, with a large build and broad shoulders. Lizze also noticed that he face was darker than Taine’s; he was clearly a man who didn’t smile very often. Lizze’s first thought was that his delicate wings looked out of place. This new man’s angry outburst seemed to calm Taine, who suddenly became happy again. He grinned at the other man and patted Lizze’s head in apology. Lizze stared at Taine, stunned at the way the man’s emotions swung so violently.
Suddenly the strangest thing happened before her eyes, both men’s faces slackened and Taine sunk into his chair while the other man slide down the wall before coming to rest on chest. Lizze stared nervously at the two men. After a moment their eyes began to flicker, Taine started to frown as the other man began to scowl. Lizze backed away slightly, banging into a pile of books just as the men returned to normal. Lizze tripped over the books and tumbled to the floor just as the men stood up. Taine quickly crossed the room and helped Lizze to stand up, ‘Err sorry about that Lizze that must have seemed kind weird?’
‘O-only kind of?’ Lizze stammered, still shocked by what had happened. He smiled at her and helped her back to her chair while the other man continued to scowl. ‘Lizze what you just saw was magical telepathy, if they know how, any fairy can talk to another telepathically. It can be a bit disconcerting to watch though.’ He grinned slightly self-consciously and the other man snorted disdainfully. Taine turned to the man and wrinkled his nose at him, ‘Oh come on Demers, you complain about me being mean and nasty and all you do is stand there and snort like a pig!’ the other man rolled his eyes and stepped forward holding his hand out, ‘I am Master Demers,’ he introduced himself as Lizze shook his hand, ‘I will also be your teacher. I also teach wand work, but you will learn different things from me than you will learn from Taine here.’ He smiled slightly, ‘On your timetable you will notice that it specifies with of us you will have. I have to go now, I just wanted to come and meet you.’ Lizze smiled at him as he left the room.
‘Right now where were we?’ Taine pondered, tapping his teeth with his finger.
‘I think you were in the middle of yelling at me because I’m not doing the wand work right.’
‘Ahh…oh yes…’ Taine blushed embarrassed, ‘Well what I meant to say was that, you’re doing very well for your first lesson!’ Lizze laughed and raised her wand again, ‘So,’ she giggled, ‘Shall we?’
For another two hours they continued and Lizze’s stomach began to growl. All of a sudden Taine stopped and glanced up at a clock on the wall; Lizze also glanced at it and was immediately confused. It had twelve hands and each hand had a symbol at its tip, the clock face had no numbers, instead it had more symbols and Lizze had no clue how to read it. She glanced down at her watch and was dismayed to see that it had stopped working, she thought that maybe all the magic in the air might had made it stop working.
‘My gosh! How did it get so late?!’ Taine exclaimed staring at the clock in shock, ‘You better run along to dinner.’ As he talked he was packing several books and other items into a bag that had appeared out of nowhere, ‘Take these with you, the books are about all sorts of things, oh and we use a different alphabet than humans do but you don’t have to worry about learning it, there are some glasses in the bag that will allow you to read it, once you’ve worn them for long enough your eyes will adapt and you will be able to read the writing without the glasses. One of the books is full of useful things like how to read the clocks and the numbers and alphabet we use so if you read through that you will pick up a lot of what you need to know.
‘I’ve also included a sheet which highlights which books and chapters I would like you to take a look at sometime soon. There’s also a watch in there for you.’ He paused to take a deep breath and hand the bag to Lizze ‘Hmm is there anything else? Nope I think that’s it, time for you to head off to dinner.’ Taine gave Lizze a gentle push in the direction to the door and she headed off pulling her map out as she went, still a little bemused by her teacher.
When she reached the dining room she saw Tirla waiting at the door.
‘Hey Lizze, did your lesson go well?’ Lizze nodded and gestured for Lizze to follow her, ‘The Queen asked me to take you to the student dining hall,’ Lizze blanched,
‘Err s-student dining hall?’ she asked suddenly uncertain,
‘Oh yes no would have told you about the school would they?’ Lizze shook her head, still with no idea as to what Tirla was talking about, ‘Well about half of the castle is a school; young fairies from all over come to learn magic here. Lots of them are from quite far away so the castle also doubles as a boarding school for them.’ By this time they had reached the student dining room. Tirla opened the door, and Lizze looked in to see a hall full of yelling and talking kids, most of them were roughly Lizze’s age, although there were some a bit older and some a bit younger. Before Tirla opened the door all the students had been talking and laughing, but they stopped and fell silent when they caught sight of Lizze and Tirla.
‘Alright everyone, didn’t anyone ever tell you it was rude to stare?’ a sharp voice cut through the silence. Lizze looked up to the front of the hall and saw a long table where a dozen or so adults were sitting. She saw Taine and Demers and presumed that the others were the other Masters. One lady was standing up and frowning around the room, Taine stood up next to her and put a hand on her shoulder before addressing the room, ‘I’m sure you are all wondering who this is-’
‘Tirla and the freak!’ one boy yelled rudely earning him some laughs from his mates.
‘I don’t suppose you really want to be put on rations do you Daniel Torlee?’ Demers threatened severely, frowning down at him, the boy just grinned and turned to his mates, he opened his mouth and was clearly about to make another snide comment when he vanished. His mates yelled in surprise looking from where their friend had sat up to the Master’s table where Taine was putting his wand away.
‘As I was about to say,’ he said ignoring the boy’s friends continued protests, ‘this is Lizabeth Emillare Chex, as I’m sure some of you may have heard or figured out she used to be a human!’ an outbreak of mutterings followed this which Taine silenced which a frown, ‘I hope you all treat her right as she is here as a guest.’
‘I HOPE YOU’RE HEARING THIS DANIEL TORLEE! Demers interrupted with a bellow making everyone except Taine jump. Lizze heard one girl whispering to her friends, ‘Taine must have put Daniel in the detention room; it's right above us so you can hear everything from up there.’
Taine raised his eyes at Demers who just shrugged, Taine then turned and caught Tirla’s eye, nodding her towards a table.
‘Here Lizze you can sit here,’ Tirla said leading her to a table, she sat Lizze down then, with a wave, hurried off to her own table where a group of girls who were clearly her friends immediately demanded all the gossip.

[sion]

Chapter 8

8
New Friends

‘Look at their faces! Their sooo jealous ‘cos you’re sitting with us and not them!’ the boy opposite Lizze giggled, glancing around the room at the other students, making faces at them, ‘Hey Lizze, it’s ok that I call you that right? Good to meet you, my name’s Bir!’ the boy grinned at her happily and Lizze smiled back, mentally marking him as a mischief-maker. He was a bright red colour and his wings had highlights of yellow through them. At that moment there was a loud ‘GONG!’ and plates of food appeared in front of everyone. Bir immediately began stuffing his face full of anything he could reach, piling his plate high with all sorts of food as he did, he began stuffing food in his mouth as soon as it reached his plate, while still reaching for more food. The girl next to him sniffed disdainfully and said ‘Biron.’
‘Wha-’ Bir said through a mouthful of food, Lizze was amazed that he had been able to make any noise at all around the food in his mouth.
‘Your name is Biron,’ the girl said sharply, Lizze was surprised by the annoyance in the girl’s voice. Bir swallowed his mouthful of food and shrugged slightly, ‘Oh yeah, my real name is Biron, but I think that sounds really stuffy so I prefer Bir!’ the boy grinned again at Lizze, the girl sniffed again and Bir rolled his eyes, ‘this is my little sister; Marla. Don’t mind her,’ he added in an undertone, ‘she’s a bit grumpy, it’s a side affect of her magic surfacing.’ Lizze nodded slowly, thinking it must be like a magical puberty. Suddenly Marla’s filled with tears and jumped out of her chair, ‘I HATE YOU BIRON!’ she screamed and ran towards the door, Lizze jumped in shock although she was one of only a few to do so, most of the people in the room glanced round briefly before returning to their meals and conversations. Bir sighed and ran after Marla, catching up with her before she had got half way to the door. Lizze noted with interest that he flapped his wings as he ran, allowing him to go faster although Marla did not. He grabbed her arm and dragged her back to the table plonking her back down on her chair. When she looked like running off again he grabbed his wand and tapped her on the shoulder with it, clearly performing a spell. Marla struggled in her seat but she couldn’t get up and she soon stopped struggling in favour of sulking.
Bir was ignoring her by introducing Lizze to all the people sitting near them, while Lizze ate everything she could reach – once she started eating she realised just how hungry she was – and tried to ignore Marla’s brooding presence ‘This is China, Denal, Aran, Slivy, Kinda, Tema…’ this list went on and on as Bir introduced people sitting further down the table, then other sitting at other tables. Lizze was soon very confused as she tried to remember who was who. He was still introducing people when one girl – Lizze thought her name was Keera or Zeera – hissed at his to shut up. He paused as all the food disappeared and was replaced by puddings and all sorts of different types of desserts. Lizze gasped in amazement at the amount of food in front of her, she had never eaten so well in her whole life. The talk died for a few minutes as people helped themselves but returned not long after. The talk at Lizze’s table turned to lessons and Lizze listened with interested to what the others thought about their lessons.
‘What I’m most looking forward to is learning to fly!’ one girl said excitedly,
‘Honestly Shia,’ Bir said rolling his eyes, ‘you know that we won’t be even allowed to think about learning to fly until we’ve past our first Examination.’ Lizze chocked on her pudding in shock. Examinations? She had never done well on tests and exams at school and she saw no reason why it would be any different here.
One of the older boys further down the table leaned towards their group, ‘The Examinations are tough but people rarely fail them, the Masters and Mistresses try really hard to make sure everyone passes, they even take some of their own time to give extra lessons to those who are struggling.’ He said with a reassuring grin. Lizze was both surprised and reassured; none of her teachers at her old school had ever tried to help people who were struggling, maybe she might have a chance. She had just opened he mouth to find out more about the Examinations when a loud shrieking noise filled the room. Lizze clapped her hands to her ears and saw that others around the hall were doing the same thing, something that reassured her no end. People were running everywhere and total panic was starting to take hold of the room, Lizze looked up to the Master’s table in time to see several of the adults disappear into thin air!
Lizze looked at Bir and his sister – who had been freed from Bir’s spell – and saw that they too had their hands over their ears, Bir caught her eye and grimaced slightly, he said something to her, well at least Lizze saw his lips move but she couldn’t hear what he was saying over the shrieking noise and people’s yelling.
Suddenly everything stopped, the noise, the yelling, everyone even stopped moving and Lizze realised that she couldn’t move. From where she stood immobile Lizze could see one of the Mistresses standing up at the table with her wand out. ‘Thank you everyone for being quiet,’ she said sarcastically, ‘now please don’t go and cause a riot when I release you all.’ With that she waved her wand and Lizze found herself able to move again, she lurched sideways with a startled yelp into Bir and Marla, Marla glared at her but Bir pulled her away. Looking around the room Lizze saw that her reaction was a common one; many people were staring indignantly up at the Mistress.
‘Now for those of you who don’t know what that was,’ The Mistress’s eyes slide over Lizze and some of the younger students, ‘that was the Human Proximity alarm,’ Lizze’s head snapped up, ‘if a Human comes near our boundaries that alarm will go off, it has been a while since it has sounded so we thought it would be a good idea to remind those who had forgotten.’
‘What you mean that wasn’t even the real thing?’ one older boy yelled indignantly, several other students muttered crossly as they picked themselves up off the ground, where they had fallen after being released from the spell.
‘That is correct, we have grown complacent as there have been no att-‘
‘We just wanted to make sure you all new what it meant and what you were supposed to do is all.’ A new voice cut in, everyone present jumped to their feet in shock as Queen Mirra appeared in the middle of the room, she waved her hand around the room, indicating that they should relax, ‘I can see that we need to remind you all of the proper procedure,’ she glanced reprovingly at the older students who shuffled their feet sheepishly and glanced up at their Queen with embarrassed grins. She smiled back at them then looked around the room once more, ‘it seems that we need to go over that procedure with you all.’ She nodded at one of the Masters who immediately took charge of the situation. Mirra walked over to where Lizze stood with Bir and Marla just as a Tirla ran up to them as well.
‘Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on here,’ she said as she reached them.
‘Just a drill, don’t worry,’ Mirra said reassuringly making Tirla huff in annoyance.
‘Oh yeah sure, ‘cos no one ever thought that I might’ve wanted to know about this.’ She said, rather disgruntled, Mirra just shrugged,
‘Tirla can you take Lizze back to her room, there is actually a bit more going on here than you realise,’ Tirla narrowed her eyes then nodded.
‘Come on Lizze let’s go,’ She said heading off without looking behind, clearly expecting Lizze to follow.
‘Um do you mind if we come too?’ a tentative voice asked. Lizze turned around and saw Marla looking at her. Bir turned to her in shock but nodded vigorously at Lizze.
‘Uh yeah sure,’ she said glancing at Bir quizzically who shrugged.
Lizze lead the way back to her room, proud to show that she didn’t need to look at her map to find her way. – It was one talent that she prided herself on, a good sense of direction – when they go to her room they sat around the table in the main room.
‘Sooo…umm,’ Lizze said when the silence began to stretch out awkwardly,
‘I want to apology to you Lizze,’ Marla said suddenly, making everyone jump, ‘I think Bir did say that I was just coming into my magic, but I know that is no excuse, please forgive me,’ she bowed her head, clearly waiting for a response from Lizze.
Lizze stared in surprise at the girl before responding quickly, ‘Oh please don’t worry about it Marla, I can be just as a bad with being rude to people and I don’t even usually have a reason!’ Marla smiled but didn’t say anything. Lizze glanced at Bir for help but he just shrugged. At that moment a letter slide under the door and floated up to Tirla and rustled at her. She stuck her tongue out at it before opening it, the parchment floated out of the envelope and hovered at eye level, ‘Tirla, can you please come see me? There is something that I need to discuss with you.’ The letter swivelled around to face Lizze, ‘I’m really sorry to steal Tirla away from you Lizze but I need her urgently,’ Tirla glanced apologetically at Lizze who was too busy staring at the talking letter to have paid any real attention to what it had said.
‘Do you mind Lizze,’ Tirla asked,
‘Huh…err…um…no…not really,’ Lizze replied still staring at the letter. Tirla stared at her for a moment before shrugging, standing up and leaving. The letter floated out after her, ready to guide her to the Queen’s location. Lizze’s head followed the letter out the door and snapped back to reality only when the door closed behind it.
‘Um, what was that about?’ she asked staring blankly at the door.
‘A letter just floated in and told Tirla to go meet the Queen.’ Bir said helpfully.
‘Oh right. Was that letter talking?’ Lizze asked still staring at the door. Bir and Marla stared at her,
‘Um of all the things that just happened that’s the only thing that registered? And yes the letter was talking.’ Bir said, slightly dumbfounded by her reaction.
‘Oh,’ was Lizze’s only comment as she continued to stare at the door. Bir and Marla glanced at each other puzzled as the silence stretched out.
‘So um Lizze,’ Marla began tentitaively, ‘did you get any homework from Master Taine?’ Lizze turned her head slowly towards Marla and stared blankly at her for a moment before shaking her head vigorously,
‘I’m sorry what did you say?’ she said smiling sheepishly, the colour rising in her cheeks.
‘Its ok, I just asked whether you had any homework.’
‘Oh yeah, Master Taine gave me a little, mostly just reading through my books.’
‘Would you…um like to do it together…maybe?’ Marla stammered, the colour rising in her cheeks also.
‘Hey good idea ‘La’ Bir pulled out his wand and swung it in a wide ark, almost poking Marla in the eye and causing to Lizze to duck.
‘Why don’t you just go and get out work, instead of showing off Bir,’ Marla said laughing and shaking her head at her brother as he nodded and, also laughing, ran out the room.
‘He’s so silly, and he’s always showing off!’ Marla laughed; she turned to Lizze and saw her face was downcast, a slightly nervous look on her face.
‘What's the matter Lizze?’ she asked, leaning forward, concerned.
‘Not really, its just that, well I was just wondering about you?’ Marla frowned slightly,
‘What do you mean, why are you wondering about me?’
‘I don’t mean to be rude, but, its just you’re attitude towards me has changed so much, you started explaining before…’ Lizze trailed off, realising too late as usual that she was being very rude and unkind.
‘Oh!’ Marla exclaimed, her face clearing, ‘is that all, I’m glad its nothing serious.’ Lizze gave her a strange look and she smiled, ‘I thought something was really wrong. When a fairy starts coming into her full magic, particularly girls, they often get incredibly violent mood swings, as you witnessed, unfortunately you first saw me at a really bad moment, I haven’t had a swing that bad in ages but I think that will be my last, I’ve been coming into my magic for three months now and the mood swings are becoming less and less, which means by body is almost done adjusting, which is a relief.’ She smiled happily and Lizze smiled back, understanding a bit better what had happened.
At that moment the door opened and Bir strolled in, his arms full of parchment and books.
The three worked fairly solidly until dinner at which point they raced each other to the dinning room, giggling and laughing all the way.

[sion]

Sorry about the delay, the next chapter is finally here


Chapter 9

9
New Enemies

Lizze left the dining room, happy and full, for once feeling completely at peace with whom and where she was. She was so happy that she didn’t even notice a brooding presence standing to one side of the hall.
‘Oi! How dare you strut around this palace like you own the place?!’ Lizze spun around to see a boy around her own age striding towards her, following him were three tall and broad boys who had the undeniable air of thugs.
‘Um I don’t know what you’re talking ab-’
‘Oh yeah you do, you know exactly what I’m talking about!’ the boy snarled, ‘It’s all your fault, I’ll never forgive you!’ Lizze stared at the boy confused.
‘Um I really don’t know what you mean but I’m sorry if I’ve done anything to-’ the boy snarled and Lizze stopped, confused.
‘Don’t play dumb with me’ the boy yelled, clearly furious about something, although what that was, Lizze had no idea, ‘you got me sent to the Discipline Room!’ recognition struck Lizze abruptly,
‘You’re Daniel Torlee!’ she exclaimed,
‘I’m really sorry about that I didn’t mean- arhh’ Lizze felt a sharp pain as Daniel’s fist collided with her face. The force of the punch sent her flying backwards onto the floor. She gasped in pain and when she gingerly touched her nose, her finger came away bloodied. Her eyes filled with tears, a combination of shock and pain getting the better of her. Her vision was blurred but she could see Daniel walking towards her. When he was right in front of her he paused then lifted his foot and kicked her flat, his foot then landed on Lizze’s stomach, causing her to gasp.
‘Hah, not so confident now huh?’ Daniel sneered, she saw him rasing his wand and flinched.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Daniel, I believe Master Demers is in the Discipline room today.’ With Daniel’s foot keeping her pinned to the ground Lizze could raise her head to see what was happening but she recognised Taine’s voice. Lizze heard Daniel snarl before she once again saw his foot rise, this time it came crashing down on her face, causing another wave of pain to flow through her face!
‘Stop it Daniel!’ Taine called but he didn’t. He snarled again and abruptly twisted his foot, there was a slight pause then an audible crack was heard, followed by a scream of pain. Daniel had broken Lizze’s nose.
At first Lizze couldn’t feel anything, then a tremendous wave of pain rushed through her nose, she screamed in pain as she realised her nose was broken.
Daniel smirked at Taine, quite clearly taunting him, daring him to so something.
Lizze’s scream had attracted the attention of all those who were still in the dining room. Masters and students filled the hall; the students trying to get a look and the Master’s trying to gain control. Abruptly a furious cut through the noise and filled the hall with silence.
‘HOW DARE YOU?!’ it was Queen Mirra, ‘How dare you do that to Lizze, surely you know why she is here? Does that not matter to you?’ She was striding across the room, drawing her wand menacingly. The noise had also attracted Demers attention from the Discipline Room, he appeared in the middle of hall, his eyes widening as he took in the scene: Lizze on the floor, crying, Daniel standing next to her, his foot still crushing her nose, and Mirra slowly advancing, her intent quite clear: to rain Hell on the boy. He quickly intercepted the Queen, looking at Taine for an explanation.
Lizze felt a way of relief as Daniel was pulled of her by someone and through her blurred vision she could see several people crouching next to her. She vaguely recognised them as healer fairies: fairies that specialised in healing magic. She heard them arguing as to how best fix her nose and she wished they would hurry up and decide. One then overrode the others and waved his wand, causing all the pain to disappear from Lizze’s very broken nose. She then heard a very angry voice – which she realised was Marla – arguing with someone.
‘What do you mean I can’t go see her? She’s my friend and I’ll see her if I want to. I beg your pardon? Well let’s just see about that!’ several unidentifiable thumps and grunts followed before a strangled cry and a triumphant ‘Humph! It serves you right!’
Lizze’s vision was then filled with Marla’s ankles as she shoved her way through the healers.
‘Lizze are you ok?’ Marla asked crouching down.
‘I’m ok,’ Lizze murmured, trying not to move her nose as she talked.
‘You shouldn’t talk until we’ve fixed your nose.’ One of the healers reprimanded her.
‘Then fix it already!’ Marla exclaimed, ‘It’s just a break, what’s taking you so long?’ the healers glanced at each other sheepishly. One of them then took the initiative and pulled out her wand. She waved it three times and muttered a short incantation before very lightly tapping Lizze’s nose. Lizze felt a very strange sensation ripple through her nose and she had the feeling that things were shifting on her face. After a moment the sensation passed and Lizze felt like she was back to normal. Marla nodded at her healer and pulled Lizze to her feet. Standing up Lizze was finally able to get a good view of what was going on. She saw that Demers was still restraining Mirra, begging her to calm down. Taine was arguing fiercely with Daniel who was determined to place all the blame on Lizze. Finally Taine got fed up with arguing.
‘That’s it young man!’ he said pulling out his wand, he waved it sharply at Daniel who was too slow stepping away. There was a loud bang and a puff of smoke filled the air, when it cleared Daniel was gone!
A shrill squeak drew Lizze’s attention to the floor where she saw a small white mouse with a black stripe down its back. The mouse was looking around and squeaking indignantly,
‘Well that was remarkably immature,’ Demers muttered, releasing the Queen. Taine grinned as he slipped his wand back into its sleeve. Mirra walked towards the mouse which squeaked and rushed off, smacking into a light blue fairy’s ankles. The fairy picked the mouse up and held it out at an arms length. The mouse was squeaking and writhing all over the place, scratching the fairy. He ignored the scratches, grimaced at it and Lizze heard him mutter.
‘Brat reminds me of Thella,’ he said as he pulled out his wand and waved it, a small cage appeared at his feet and he shoved the mouse in it, slamming the door, ‘here your Majesty.’ He shoved the cage with his foot, sending it skittering across the hall, stopping at Mirra’s feet. Mirra smirked down at the mouse.
‘Thank you Kreigan. Now what should we do with him I wonder?’ she asked, a wicked gleam in her eyes. Lizze saw Demers and Taine exchange pained looks before Demers stepped forward.
‘Why don’t I take him up to the Discipline Room with me?’ he suggested. Mirra stared at him for a moment before shrugging and turning away and walking up to Lizze.
‘Are you ok Lizze?’ she asked. Lizze nodded and Mirra patted her cheek gently.
‘I'm glad. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.’ Lizze smiled her thanks as Mirra turned to the fairy who had caught Daniel, ‘good work Kreigan, do you mind escorting Lizze back to her room, just to make sure.’ The fairy nodded and smiled at Lizze. Marla was standing protectively by Lizze’s side with Bir – who had arrived shortly after Marla – behind them. The light blue fairy grinned at them.
‘Anyone would think that you think I’m the enemy,’ he chuckled as Marla blushed and Bir looked away, ‘relax, why don’t you too head off to your rooms, its bedtime anyway.’ Bir and Marla glanced at Lizze who nodded. Bir nodded back and Marla gave her a hug.
‘’Night Lizze.’ They said before heading off.
‘My name’s Kreigan Hiaten.’ The fairy said as they headed out of the hall.
‘Oh my names Lizabeth Dale.’ Lizze said.
‘Lizabeth huh? I haven’t heard anyone call you that.’ He grinned at her and she smiled back.
‘Well I prefer being called Lizze.’ She replied.
Well, Lizze it is then!’ Kreigan declared just as they got to her room. ‘Goodnight Lizze,’ he said pushing the door open for her, ‘it was a pleasure to meet you.’ He grinned again as she blushed.
‘It was a pleasure to meet you too,’ she said as she slipped into her room, Kreigan grinned again and waved as he shut the door.
As Lizze got changed and climbed into bed she had only one thing on her mind: the grinning face of Kreigan.

[sion]

Chapter 10

10
Animals

The next morning Lizze woke feeling relaxed and refreshed. She felt strangely at ease about what had happened the previous day. She lay in bed thinking that she had always known deep down that nothing could be so perfect, that at least someone here would dislike her; after all, she was one of the most detested people at her school. She paused and rephrased her thought; had been, she was no longer part of that world and that thought made her smile, maybe she didn’t entirely belong in this world of the fairies but she was certainly sure that she didn’t belong in the other world.
Abruptly she sat up shaking her head vigorously. ‘I’m not going to think like that anymore!’ she said aloud, walking to the bathroom and standing in front of the mirror. As she stared at her reflection Kreigan’s face filled her mind, she blushed, ‘Agh, why does he come to mind?’ she half dived to the bath and immersed herself in the hot water.
She was up and dressed by the time Marla knocked on the door to walk her to breakfast.
‘Marla, people aren’t going to hold what happened yesterday against me will they?’ she asked as they walked, Marla shook her head, ‘Nah, no one really likes Daniel Torlee, so I wouldn’t worry about it,’ Marla grinned maliciously, ‘actually I think most people with thank you! After all you got him restricted to the Discipline Room for a week, meaning he’s not annoying everyone else!’ Lizze smiled, realising that every school, even fairy ones have a bully.
Bir was saving them seats when they arrived at the dining hall. There was a general murmur go through the room as Lizze walked in but it soon died down. Bir as usual had his mouth full of food and couldn’t manage more than a ‘Hiaghmphin’ around his food.
‘Good morning to you too Bir,’ Lizze giggled as she sat down, piling up her plate with food and digging in. After everyone had finished eating one of the Master’s stood up and called everyone to order.
‘We’re about to be assigned our morning duties, every fourth day we have a break from lessons, instead we have duties, which are sort of like chores but their not usually that bad,’ Marla whispered in Lizze’s ear.
‘Alright listen up everyone I’ll now give you your morning duties,’ the master paused and glared around the room, ‘and no complaining today!’ muttering followed this and Lizze knew that no one would pay any attention to it. ‘sections four and five have dining and front hall clean up, one and three are in the library copying scrolls and two and six have lesson prep, check the list to see what Master your assigned to. If your section wasn’t called you have lessons. Off you go!’ the Master rolled his eyes as complaints, cheers and sighs of relief filled the hall. Neither Marla nor Bir were pleased, ‘I hate copying! Its so boring and I end up with cramp and a headache.’ Marla groaned,
‘At least you don’t have clean up!’ Bir retorted. The students were dismissed and Bir and Marla waved to Lizze miserably and shuffled off. Lizze had a lesson and she realised with a shock that she could remember what it was.
‘Are you Lizze?’ a soft voice asked, Lizze jumped and turned around to see a beautiful fairy standing behind her. She was a pale green and her hair was silver though Lizze could see that she was quite young.
‘Yes, I’m Lizze,’ she said, slightly apprehensive. Another fairy stood behind the green one, she was younger and a bright yellow colour, she was bouncing up and down and quite clearly impatient.
‘My name is Mistress Annalla, I will be your History teacher. This is Mistress Benalla.’ Mistress Benalla stepped forward and grinned, ‘Thanks sis.’ Annalla rolled her eyes and Benalla’s grin widened. ‘Lizze if you check your timetable you’ll see that you have me now.’ Lizze blushed as she realised that she had forgotten about her timetable. She nodded and Benalla smiled and headed out the hall with a wave to her sister.
‘So Mistres Benalla –’ Lizze started only to be immediately cut off.
‘Oh please don’t call me Mistress, it makes me feel old! Just call me Benalla’
‘Uh, ok, then Benalla, what will you be teaching me?’ Benalla stopped suddenly and stared at Lizze, ‘Oh my, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you, hehe woops,’ Benalla grinned self-consciously, ‘I have the worst memory in the world, Annalla says I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached!’ she laughed again, ‘she’s probably right!’ Lizze laughed and followed her out of the castle towards what Lizze had learned was the stables.
At first glance they looked like ordinary stables with a few offices attached but as they got closer Lizze could hear noises that didn’t come from any animal she’d ever seen.
Benalla lead her to an office off to one side. ‘Just come in here for a sec’ and we’ll get ready.’ She tried to open the door but failed, she shoved at the door but it wouldn’t open. Finally Benalla snatched out her wand and waved it several times at the door. Eventually the door opened with a groan and a crash, Benalla grimaced, ‘I hope that wasn’t breakable.’ She stuck her head through the small gap and wrinkled her nose at the mess inside. She angled her wand hand through the gap and waved it awkwardly, after a moment a bag floated towards her which she grabbed and carefully eased the door shut. Another, slightly delayed crashed echoed down the hall as Benalla lead Lizze to another room. ‘We’ll use the meeting room, I’d forgotten just how messy my office was, I don’t really use it that often for more than storage.’ She laughed and opened the door and gestured for Lizze to enter. A third huge crash filled the air as they stepped into the room and Benalla winced and stuck her head back out the door. From behind her Lizze could see several startled fairies looking out their own offices. Benalla smiled slightly at them, ‘Sorry, sorry. Don’t worry, nothings wrong, that was just my office!’ several of the fairies rolled their eyes and slammed their doors shut. Benalla turned back to Lizze who was having a hard time keeping from laughing. Benalla laughed as well as she crossed the room and placed the bag on the table.
‘Anyway,’ she said, stifling her giggles, ‘I’ve got a change of clothes in here for you which are a bit more practical and it doesn’t matter if they get dirty. They were made at the same time as your other clothes – which are beautiful by the way – ’ Lizze blushed ‘so they’ll fit you. There’s also some other stuff that you probably wont need today but you will need eventually.’ She gave the bag to Lizze and turned her in the direction of another door, ‘just go through there and get changed. I need to get changed as well and I really should check on my office.’ Lizze laughed again and headed into the other small room.
She opened the bag and started pulling things out. There was a smaller bag filled with her clothes which she pulled out. There were dark purple trousers and a silver top. They were both made of a sort of clingy silk which felt very tough. The trousers clung to her legs down to her knees where they flared out slightly. The top was a v-neck which clung tightly to her body. The sleeves were tight to the elbows where they too flared. At the bottom of the sleeves there were ribbons which Lizze realised she could use to tie the sleeves up, through loops on the shoulders. There was also a pair of boots. The boots were knee high with laces that wrapped the whole way round them to keep them tight; they were a dark purple colour with silver laces. She got changed and put her other clothes into the bag. She then emptied out the first bag onto a little table next to her. There was a small, light purple bag which attached to a loop on her trousers. A slim, sliver sleeve made of the same material as her clothes also attached to her trousers, replacing the flimsy sleeve she usually used to carry her wand. The remaining items went into the little bag, there was; light purple gloves, a slightly bizarre hair clip that she couldn’t figure out, goggles with several lenses that slid over the top of each other, and several tools which she vaguely recognised as similar to a horses grooming kit. When she was done she cracked open the door and peaked out, Benalla was waiting for her and smiled encouragingly. Lizze walked out, carry the big bag in one hand and the smaller bag with her clothes in, in the other.
‘Excellent, see I told you’d they fit.’ Benalla bounced up from where she had been perched on the table in the middle of the room. She was wearing an outfit similar to Lizze’s, only hers was yellow and a lot more worn. ‘You can keep those clothes after today. Whenever we have a lesson you can either get changed in your room at the castle or down here in my office – which I will tidy – it doesn’t really matter. You can also keep all the other stuff with you if you like, but you can leave it in my office as well’ Benalla took a deep breath then reached out and gently took Lizze’s tiara off. ‘They can fall of and get in the way, not to mention getting dirty, so we take them off.’ She took her own off and put them in a glass cabinet which had several other tiaras in it, ‘This is where we keep them, that way we know where they are and they can’t get damaged.’ Lizze nodded and followed Benalla out the door into the stables.
‘So tell me, what do you know about magical creatures?’ Lizze stared blankly at Benalla for a moment, ‘Ah well, the only animal I’ve had contact with since getting here are the butterflies,’
‘Ah fair enough.’ Benalla nodded, ‘The butterflies are our main form of transport if we need to go a long distance but don’t need to get there fast. The butterflies are really good as they have a lot of stamina but their not very fast.’ They reached a set of huge door. From beyond them; Lizze could hear the sound of animals. ‘Through here is the main stables, it’s divided up into several section and animals are placed in different areas depending on their magical status.’ Benalla paused looking at Lizze, ‘you ready?’ Lizze nodded and with a wave of her wand Benalla opened the doors.
As the doors opened the noise got louder and louder and soon it was so loud that Lizze could barely hear herself think.
‘Loud isn’t it?’ Benalla yelled, Lizze nodded, not sure whether she could even make herself heard, ‘the doors are spelled to keep the noise out, good thing too or we’d never get anything done!’ Benalla noticed Lizze grimace, ‘don’t worry, you get used to it,’ Benalla grinned, ‘eventually!’
‘Yo ‘Nalla!’ Lizze and Benalla turned and saw a light blue fairy slip through the closing doors behind them. Lizze felt herself blush slightly: it was Kreigan Hiaten.
‘Hey Kreig’,’ Benalla yelled hugging the fairy. Kriegan noticed Lizze’s slightly puzzled face and leaned over to her, ‘I guess it didn’t come up, but Benalla is my sister,’ Lizze’s eyes widened in surprise, ‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, though doubted anyone heard her. Benalla was looking from her brother to Lizze, ‘I didn’t realise you two knew each other!’ Kriegan grinned and waggled his finger at her. ‘Surely you where there when the Queen turned Daniel Torlee into a mouse?’ Benalla stared at him in shock and Lizze barely heard him sigh, ‘Yesterday sis. Daniel was being an ass to Lizze and the Queen turned him into a mouse. Then she got me to take Lizze back to her room.’ Benalla was starting to snigger and Kreigan rolled his eyes, ‘Geez ‘Nalla, what were you doing that you didn’t hear about it?’ he shook his head, ‘ah scratch that, I don’t want to know.’ Lizze giggled as Benalla punched Kriegan on the arm. An animal roared, drowning out Benalla’s next sentence. Lizze clapped her hands over ears and grimaced. Benalla simply raised her voice further, ‘Anyway Krieg’ we’ve got to go.’ Kreigan nodded and leaned over to Lizze again, gently pulling one hand away from her ear, ‘It was good to see you again,’ He yelled, ginning at her, ‘if ‘Nalla’s your Mistress for this then we’ll see each other a lot!’ Lizze smiled and waved as he wandered off, yelling at a couple of young fairies who were tormenting a large bear like creature. Almost immediately the raring died down and Lizze could hear again. Benalla had been right, she did get used to it.
‘Today Lizze I’ll show you the smaller very magical animals, the ones that are really docile.’ They headed off down the stables and through an archway, as they stepped through the noise became muted and Lizze stared at the archway in surprise. Benalla smiled in relief, ‘That archway is spelled as well, the animals in hear don’t like the noise to much, that’s why I thought we’d start in here.’ Lizze nodded, too bemused to speak. As they walked down the stalls Benalla named each of the animals as they went past.
‘Senta, their very loyal, can be vicious but not very often, Anana, no purpose but their so cute and make great pets, Linnian, just plain gorgeous, Kiklananka, we use them to babysit the young fairies seeing as they negate fairy magic…’the list went on and on and soon Lizze had completely lost track of what was what and what they were used for; and she said so.
‘Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to remember all the animals straight away, I just thought it would be good to show you some of them first. We’ll slowly work through them, studying each in detail; we’ll work through them in the groups that their already in, that will make it easier for you to remember.’ They had reached the end of the stalls and Benalla turned to face her, ‘now are there any of these animals that you just saw that you’d like to learn about today? This is the group we’re starting with. These are the animals that we keep as pets or are used domestically.’
‘Linnian. They were so beautiful, I’ve never seen anything so amazing!’ Lizze’s eyes shone with excitement and Benalla laughed, ‘Yes they are gorgeous aren’t they? Aright then, Linnian it is!’ she grabbed Lizze hand and led her back down to the Linnian.
‘No one really knows where the Linnian originally came from but these days their found all over the fairy realm. About one in every ten households have one as a pet, that’s how popular they are.’ She tapped the clear upper section of the stall door and it disappeared. She reached down and grabbed two of the Linnian, she passed one to Lizze and kept a hold of the other. Lizze looked closely at the animal in her arms. It looked a bit like a cat but much more sleeker and elegant. The one that Lizze was holding was grey and had a slightly purple tinge to it. It had a long tail that split at the tip. Its long legs were carefully folded under its body as it lay in Lizze’s arms. Its face was beautiful! It had a long face with beautiful curved eyes, its eyes were golden and sparkled with intelligence.
‘Her name’s Anatlia.’ Benalla said nodded to the Linnian in Lizze’s arms, ‘this is her sister Liatana.’ Litana’s fur was also grey but had a yellow tinge, ‘the interesting thing is that they often take on the colour of the fairy nearest to them, which you may have noticed! If they spend all their time with one fairy they permanently take on their colour.’ Lizze stroked Anatlia and was delighted when she let out a low purr, Benalla laughed, ‘they love being stroked but they won’t let just anyone pat them, Anatlia must like you.’ Lizze smiled in pleasure and continued to stroke the Linnian as Benalla talked. ‘While they are mostly just pets they can be good as trackers as they remember magic. They are highly intelligent and some fairies travel with them, using their highly refined survival instincts to make travelling easier. Personally I just love them, they’re so beautiful and if you talk to them you really feel that they understand what you’re saying.’ Liatana squirmed slightly and Benalla put her down again. Anatlia purred and rubbed her head against Lizze’s cheek, she then sat up in Lizzes arms and placed her front feet on her chest, her eyes level with Lizze’s. After a moment she licked Lizze’s nose and sat down again, squirming; clearly wanting to be put down. Lizze quickly leaned down and gently placed her back into the stall. After Lizze had stood up again Benalla tapped the empty space with her wand and the clear panel reappeared.
‘Now that is very interesting,’ she said turning to Lizze, ‘up ‘till then Anatlia has only eyed one other fairy.’ Lizze stared in confusion,
‘Uh eyed?’ she asked.
‘Linnian’s will eye one or two fairies in their lifetime. These are the fairies who they trust and will obey, anyone else they will tolerate but nothing more.’ Benalla gave Lizze an odd look, ‘and the people they eye-’ she was cut off by an enormous roar and a cracking noise. ‘Oh dammit not now!’ Benalla yelled, as she ran down the hall towards the archway. Lizze ran after her and stared in shock at the archway; the space in the arch was rippling and there was a huge crack hanging in mid-air. Several fairies were already there with their wands out. Benalla grabbed her wand out just as a fairy ducked under the crack and Kreigan stopped next to them. Benalla glared at him, ‘You IDIOT!’ she yelled as he raised his wand, ‘you know how dangerous doing that is!’ Kreigan grimaced, ‘There aren’t enough fairies over this side with enough strength to get the barrier under control. It would have exploded out this way and you know it!’ Benalla ignored him. Lizze stepped back, not wanting to go too far but not wanting to stay too close.
‘Helia go get the Janan under control, we can’t fix this until it stops!’ Benalla yelled after a few minuted, an orange fairy on the other side nodded and ran off. All the fairies were sweating heavily and Lizze could see that both Benalla and Kreigan were panting heavily. After a moment the roaring died down and Benalla breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Alright everyone, let’s fix it, slow and steady.’ All the fairies concentrated hard and the crack slowly began to shrink. After a moment it disappeared entirely, the rippling also subsiding. The noise was once again muted and the fairies all sighed in relief, several sagging against the wall. Benalla turned to Lizze and smiled slightly, ‘Lizze, I’m going to have to deal with this, the other spells will have been affected and I’m the only one who can fix it,’ she turned to her brother, ‘Kreigan can you look after Lizze for the moment?’ he nodded and Benalla nodded her thanks before hurrying off, but not before shooting another odd look at Lizze. Kreigan sighed and sank to the floor. Lizze hurried over to him, ‘Are you ok?’ she asked peering at him, he grinned at her, ‘Yeah don’t worry about me, it’s just tiring doing that sort of magic. A dark blue fairy walked up to them, several trays of drinks floating in front of him. ‘Here Kreigan,’ he said bending down, ‘you look like you really need one.’ Kreigan didn’t respond, just grabbed a glass off one of the trays and gulped it down, ‘take another and drink it slowly, you’ll be alright.’ The fairy said, clapping Kreigan on the shoulder who nodded and grabbed another drink. The fairy glanced at Lizze curiously.
‘This, Ulen, is Lizze,’ Kreigan said nodded at Lizze. Lizze smiled at the fairy who smiled. ‘Very nice to meet you Lizze, I’m Ulen, the stable’s resident Healer.’ He peered at Lizze’s face, pale from the shock of the previous events, ‘and I think you should have a drink as well.’ Lizze peered curiously at the glasses, ‘They’re drinks that are designed to stabilize nerves and restore balance to the body, whether from a shock or from using a lot of magic.’ He handed her a glass and she took a cautions sip, she was pleasantly surprised by the taste; it was sweet and coated her mouth as she swallowed. ‘Drink it slowly and you’ll feel better in no time.’ Ulen smiled and stood up, ‘Well I better be off and hand the rest of these out, take it easy you two.’ He waved and headed off down the hall.
As fairies slowly returned to their jobs the noise died down and Lizze became aware of a faint mewing noise. Kreigan glanced up startled. ‘That’s coming from one of the Linnian!’ Lizze hopped up and hurried over to the stall peering in. Anatlia had her legs up on the stall wall and was mewing.
‘Anatlia? What’s wrong?’ she leaned over and felt her head sizzle as it touched the invisible barrier. She rubbed her head and stared down at the mewing Linnian. The other Linnian were crouched in one corner hissing slightly.
‘Lizze, what’s wrong with the Linnian?’ Kreigan pushed himself up the wall and made his way over to her.
‘Anatlia seems upset,’ Lizze said turning to him.
‘Anatlia?’ Kreigan pulled out his wand at tapped the barrier, he stuck his head down and reach one hand in to touch the Linnian’s head, ‘what’s up Anatlia,’ Anatlia stopped mewing and stared up a him. Lizze also leaned down and was shocked when Anatlia launched herself up and onto Lizze’s shoulder.
‘Wow!’ Kreigan exclaimed, backing up slightly, he stared at Lizze for a moment, ‘uh Lizze, Anatlia didn’t eye you by any chance did she?’ Lizze nodded, slightly confused, ‘Yeah she did.’ Kreigan’s eyes widened slightly before he shook his head, ‘Oh…well…that is interesting. Anyway I wonder what was wrong with her; she seems to have calmed down now.’ Which was true, Anatlia had stopped mewing and was now calmly perched on Lizze’s shoulder, ‘Don’t ask me, I only met her today. I don’t even know that much about Linnian.’ Kreigan gave her an odd look before shrugging, ‘See if she’ll let you put her down.’ Anatlia answered him by leaping down back into the stall. Kreigan tapped the air with his wand then motioned for Lizze to follow him.
‘Well this has been an interesting day,’ he said as they walked through the archway. Lizze braced herself as the expected explosion of sound hit them. ‘Do you want to get changed here or head back up to your room?’ Kreigan yelled,
‘I’ll grab my clothes and head up; I want to take a shower.’ Kreigan nodded and pulled out his wand as they reached the main door. He tapped it and waved Lizze through. Several fairies came up to Kreigan asking about what had happened but he stared at them until they left. He caught Lizze’s puzzled look and grinned, ‘’Nalla told me to look after you and I take that as getting you back to the castle safely. Where are your clothes?’ Lizze led him to the room and grabbed her clothes and Tiara.
Kreigan walked her up to her room and once again bowed her in. ‘See ya next time Lizze,’ he said as the door shut.
Lizze knew that Animal Care was now her favourite subject!

[sion]

Slightly shorter chapter this time.
Chapter 11

11
Flying

Over the next month Lizze learned more about her new world. The castle was attached to a huge school. Fairies from all over the Realm came to the school. There were many other schools but because this school was in the capital it was the biggest and most renowned. When fairies turned twelve they entered the school closest to them. Different schools focused on different things and if a fairy had already shown an affinity for a certain type of magic they would go to the school that focused on that magic. The school attached to the castle was also a boarding school and many of the students and Masters stayed at the school. Even those from nearby towns and villages preferred to stay at the school. The school itself was at least twice the size of the castle and that didn’t even include the separate classrooms and the giant greens.
There were many Masters and Mistresses at the school. They didn’t always teach different things; some subjects had many Masters, each focusing on a different part. Lizze studied with Taine, Demers and Benalla at first. After a few weeks she began learning Charm magic, magic that was not as powerful as spells. Her Charm teacher was Mistress Mannion; she was a gentle lady who never yelled or scolded but was an incredible teacher. At the same time she started learning Potion brewing. Mistress Siana was as bubbly as her potions and would talk all day if she could, she never seem put out by Lizze’s ability – or lack thereof – at brewing potions. Lastly she started learning about the history of the fairy realm, something she had been looking forward to. Annalla taught it and it was only her skill at teaching that stopped Lizze zoning out during class. After a month or so she started blending into classes with other fairies and in three weeks she had entered all her classes and had private lessons only when she fell drastically behind.
The fairies in her classes weren’t always the same age as her. At the school classes were determined by ability, not age. In every class there was a huge variety of ages, though most people were around Lizze’s age. Class sizes varied as well, with some students not taking permanent classes and others with timetables that changed depending on the week. Every month revised timetables were handed out to at least half the students, Lizze had her timetable changed six times in two weeks but she soon got used to it. Lizze was amazed that the system worked, it was so haphazard that she was sure that fairies could skip lessons and no one would know or be in the wrong class every second week. But it did work, as crazy as it seemed everything worked perfectly. From discussions at meal times Lizze knew she wouldn’t be far away from learning to fly, something she was looking forward to. Classes for flying were determined by a fairy’s skill at general magic and whether they were considered to be responsible enough. Marla and Bir had begun learning not long after she met them, and practised at every opportunity. Her suspicions were confirmed at the start of her third month at breakfast.
‘Come on up and collect your timetables,’ Mistress Halian said waving her wand, a list began writing itself in midair next to her. The list was of those fairies who needed to pick up a new timetable. Lizze hadn’t had a timetable change in a while and was therefore surprised to see her name appear. China and Slivy’s names also appeared surprising them. The three of them grabbed their timetables and huddled together to see what had changed. Students weren’t always told when their timetable was being changed which made life every interesting. The three of them all had the same change: Flying with Mistress Kira, which now they had first thing.
‘YES! Finally!’ China danced around in a circle, waving her timetable around her head. Slivy and Lizze laughed as Bir and Marla ran up them.
‘Flying?’ Bir yelled over the noise of everyone leaving the dining hall. Lizze nodded as she grabbed China, managing to stop her trampling a group of young girls.
‘Excellent, soon we’ll be able to practise together.’ Bir grinned happily then waved, ‘I have to head off, Annalla will have my head if I’m late again.’
‘Good luck you guys.’ Marla said as she followed Bir. They were in the same History class as Marla was really good at it and Bir wasn’t that good. Lizze personally thought he was trying to get himself into the easiest class he could.
‘C’mon China or we’ll leave you behind,’ Slivy told China who immediately stopped dancing around and followed them out the hall and down to the greens.
Mistress Kira and several other students were already there when they arrived. Kira checked them off her role and smiled in greeting, ‘Morning girls we’re just waiting on a couple of the boys and then we’ll start.’ The boys arrived and Kira got them to line up facing her. ‘Flying itself is quite easy,’ she said smiling at the nervous faces, ‘Once you’ve got the hang of the basics the rest will come naturally. Some of you will pick this up immediately; other will take a little longer. If you end up being the latter don’t worry about it, you’ll get it in the end.
‘Most of you have already got the hang of flapping your wings to aid with running, and to keep yourself cool. If you haven’t it doesn’t really matter, it might just take you a tiny bit longer.’ She stared at them for a moment, ‘alright, let’s get started!’ Neither Lizze nor China could flap their wings though they weren’t the only ones. It took them about half an hour to get to the stage where they could flap their wings at will.
‘Right. Now that everyone can flap their wings lets move on to getting up into the air.’ Kira lined everyone up again, ‘There is a certain knack to flying which might take a little while for some of you to get. First of all get your wings flapping,’ there was a slight pause as they all started flapping her wings, ‘now keep flapping, keep flapping, Slivy don’t let your wings slow down. Ok now try and flap them a bit harder,’ this was more difficult. Lizze had found that flapping ones wings was a mental thing; like stretching a muscle, you had to try and mentally isolated them so you could control them. Controlling the speed of flapping was harder still and Lizze felt herself starting to sweat and pant. Next to her, China was breathing heavily and Slivy was shaking with the effort. Once she had sped up her wings she spared a glance ‘round the rest of the class. Many other had also sped up their wings and were looking around. Several of them didn’t even look like they’d broken a sweat, others were gasping for breath. As she watched several others got the hang of it. Soon most of the class had it and Kira decided to move on. ‘Seeing as most of the class have achieved faster flapping we’ll keep moving on. Those who haven’t just keep trying and I’ll get back to you once I’ve got the others going. This next step is the hardest. You now have to speed the flapping up enough to get you off the ground without yourself launching forty feet. There’s a barrier above us at about three metres, that should be enough height for you to get up and get the hang of it. Once you’ve succeeded in doing that you have to slow your wings down enough to be able to land. But I would advise slowing them down, not completely stopping them; that can get ugly. Everyone understand?’ nods and murmurs of assent flittered ‘round the group, ‘excellent, off you go.’
Getting herself up into the air was a lot harder then Lizze had expected. Her wings had slowed to a stop during Kira’s instructions and she had to spend another five minutes starting them and getting them back up to speed. In the time it took her to do that three fairies got themselves up into the air and down again, only one of them managed to land smoothly, the other two crash landed.
‘Ok, speed up enough to get off the ground,’ China was muttering to herself, ‘ok I can do that.’ She frowned in concentration and Lizze and Slivy turned to watch. ‘c’mon, c’mon,’ China muttered before grinning triumphantly as she rose off the ground. Suddenly her controlled ascent turned into a wild rise. She screeched in surprise as she lost control, Kira looked ‘round in amusement, not at all surprised. China’s climb stopped abruptly as she hit the barrier. Her surprise stopped her wings flapping and she fell back to the ground, landing with a loud thump. Lizze and Slivy pulled her to her feet as some of the other students laughed. China laughed as well and brushed herself off, ‘Right then, take two!’
For the next hour chaos reigned. Many students ended up mimicking China, shooting up wildly before falling back down. Several fairies, including Slivy managed to get up and down without to much hassle. It took Lizze six tries to get up without losing control and another four tries to get back down again once she’d got up. After a while Kira called them all back to order. A few of the students had been in the air at the time and were caught by surprise at Kira’s voice, them tumbled out the air to land with a thud.
‘Everyone has managed to get up and down well at least once. Take a five minute breather and we’ll start again. Lizze sighed with relief and flopped to the ground. China and Slivy sat down next to her and China lay back with a groan.
‘Aghh, who knew that flying was so hard! All the fairies who already can fly never seem to get tired.’
‘You develop stamina and get used to the actions China.’ Kira said walking up to them with drinks. Lizze recognised the drinks as the same ones that Ulen had handed out at the stable. She took one and sipped it gratefully, ‘once you’ve got the hang off flying and have done it a few times it becomes an instinct, you don’t even think about it anymore, you just do it. The three of you are doing very well, keep at it!’ Kira walked of to hand out more drinks. At they all sat around Kira stood in front of them, ‘I don’t know if anyone heard me talking to Lizze, Slivy and China but I’ll tell you all what I old them. Flying won’t always be this hard and this tiring. Flying itself is not hard; it’s just learning how to do it that’s hard. Once you’ve got the hang of it and flown around a bit you won’t even think about it anymore. Persist and prevail!’
‘Persist and prevail!’ Lizze muttered to herself as she stood up again, ‘I can do this!’ Kira heard her and smiled.
They continued for another hour before Kira called a halt. ‘All of you have now got the hang of controlling the speed of your wings and your takeoffs and landings. That’s good for the first lesson. There will be as usual some shifting with classes next month after all the new fairies have had their first lesson. You’ll be put in a class with fairies who are not just at the same level as you but who learn in a similar way, that makes it a lot easier to teach you all.’ She smiled around at her sweaty and panting student, ‘now I suggest you all go take a shower and rest a bit before lunch. See you next lesson.’ Lizze, China a Slivy tramped back to the castle, absolutely exhausted.
‘Oh man that was only the first lesson,’ Slivy groaned, ‘we’ve still got the rest of the day to get through!’
‘Uh-huh,’ Lizze nodded, ‘at least we have bit of a break before lunch.’
‘Yeah that’s good. I might have a quick nap!’ Lizze and Slivy laughed as China yawned. They reached the castle and Lizze waved and turned down a corridor to her room. She had an hour and a half before lunch and she decided to take a long bath. She filled the bath with scented water and sank into it with a sigh.

[sion]

Chapter 12
Another shorter chapter.

12
Past Marks

I’m so happy. The thought caught her off guard and she sat up abruptly, sloshing the water over the rim. Suddenly she realised that she was truly happy. She had friends who she got along with, teachers who didn’t yell at her and people around her who were nice. She didn’t have her family but she didn’t really care. Just frankly she was glad. Her father had never really paid much attention to her, and when he had, she’d always hated it. He treated her like his property, she’d always had to obey him without hesitation and if she didn’t he would beat her. Her mother had been oblivious to it all and didn’t really care, when Lizze had tried to complain, her mother had told her not to tell lies. They had acted like caring parents in front of other people but at home it had been a different story. There were still marks on her body from beatings she had received, even after month or two of being in the Fairy Ream. Luckily no one had noticed them as they were on her body, not on her legs or arms. There was one on her right thigh but that too had been covered by her clothes. She gently touched the marks, recalling the moments that caused them. She had wondered a few times whether her family missed her, whether her school had noticed she’d gone, whether anyone really cared. Now she realised that she didn’t care. She didn’t care if no one missed her, her family had never been a happy one and she wasn’t sorry to not have to see them. She’d never had any friends so she didn’t really have anyone to miss, and, now she did have friends!
As she lay in the warm water she thought deeply about something she hadn’t thought about in some time: family.
She had never spoken about her family to anyone; she had always been scared of being judged, of being cast aside – even more than she already had been – and having her family used against her.
She was the only child in her family and so other people thought she was spoiled and loved and given the undivided attention of her parents; that was so far south of the truth it had almost done a complete circle. Her parents had never shown her love, not even when other people were around. They had treated her coldly when they weren’t outright hurting her.
Her father had been very fond of whipping her with his belt, a wide piece of hard leather. One of the marks that was still on her body was from the buckle hitting her with unimaginable force. It had lodged itself into her skin and her father refused to take her to the doctors even though she had been bleeding heavily. They had got it out eventually, after Lizze had passed out several times from the pain. That had actually happened about six months before she came to the Fairy Realm and still the mark hadn’t faded.
She sighed heavily and heaved herself out of the water. She wrapped a towel around her and walked to the bedroom, pulling the curtain closed behind her. She pulled open the door of the wardrobe and groaned. She had slowly been given some more clothing including some shorter dresses. She hadn’t worn them as they would allow the fierce mark from the belt buckle to be seen. She desperately rummaged around in the wardrobe and drawers for something else to wear.
‘Agh oh well I don’t really have much of a choice. Maybe no one will notice.’ She grabbed out one dress that was dark purple with silver sprinkled around the bottom. As will all her dresses it had a sash, in this case the sash was light purple. She got dressed and glanced at her reflection on the mirror inside the wardrobe, ‘oh yeah right ‘cos no one’s gonna notice that!’ the mark stood out clearly against her fair skin. It was just above her knee, about where the dress stopped. She sighed and tied the sash around her waist. She attached the wand sleeve to the sash and slipped on her shoes, tying her hair up as she did.
At that moment there was a knock at the door and she cursed softly, she had been hoping to avoid as many people as possible for the remainder of the day. ‘Coming!’ she called as she pulled the curtain back and hurried to the main door. She opened it to see Bir and Marla.
‘Hey Lizze you ok?’ Bir asked immediately,’
‘huh?’
You weren’t at lunch.’
‘Oh yeah well-’
‘We saw Slivy and China and they only knew you were in you room,’
‘So we got worried about you and came to see yo- Oh My God are you ok? Where did you get that?’ Marla was pointing to Lizze’s leg were the mark was obvious.
‘Oh er…-’
‘Spit it out Lizze, where in the Realm did you get such an awful mark?’
‘Is it recent?’
‘Did someone give it to you?’
‘Who did it? Let me at ‘em!’
‘Oh no-’
‘C’mon Lizze you can tell us, you can trust us. You know that you can so please tell us!’
‘Maybe if you let her speak she would,’ a new voice interrupted the flow of questions, demands and threats. Kreigan walked up to them with a curious look on his face, ‘what has you two so worked up?’
‘Look at Lizze’s leg! Someone’s hurt her!’ Marla cried. Kreigan’s eyes widened and threw a sharp look at Lizze, ‘Is that true?’
‘No! Not really. Well sort of…in a way.’ Kreigan rolled his eyes, ‘oh that told us a lot’ he muttered sarcastically.
‘How can be so calm?’ Marla exclaimed glaring accusingly at Kreigan. Bir put a restraining hand on her shoulder, ‘Ease up Marla, lest just find out what’s happened.’ He turned back to Lizze who was avoiding making eye contact with anyone, ‘what did happen? Please tell us.’
Lizze didn’t say anything as they looked at her. Suddenly the bell rang, breaking through into the moment. Marla jumped as Bir swore, ‘Do you mind if we come back here to your room after tea Lizze?’ Kreigan asked his voice soft. Lizze took at deep breath then nodded.
‘We’ll be here definitely!’ Marla exclaimed as she rummaged in her bag. Like all schools the students had bags to carry their stuff around in. However the fairies didn’t use the schoolbags that Lizze was used too, their wings making wearing them impossible. Instead they carried smaller bags which were enchanted to make the inside bigger than the outside. It still had a limit on how much could be shoved in and they still weighed as much.
‘Hmmm I’ve got Taine next,’ Marla said examining her timetable.
‘I’ve got Demers, lucky me!’ Bir groaned glancing at his. Lizze quickly ducked back into her room to grab her back. She fished around in it for a moment and found her new timetable.
‘History.’ She said with shrug. She headed off to the classroom without looking back at the three concerned faces.
In History they were studying the Death Years, something that was disturbingly similar to the Great Depression. They were mostly focusing on the five main cities, including the capital. Lizze found the topic both incredibly boring and incredibly interesting. It was boring because she had never really found history of any kind enjoyable with its many dates and names. However it was also fascinating as it gave her a chance to learn a bit about the general society of the fairies, and Annalla taught the subject well enough that she didn’t fall asleep.
After History she had Charms which went by uneventfully. Lizze wasn’t the best at Charms but she did ok and Mistress Mannion was pleased with her progress.
She waved goodbye to Aran and Kinda and headed back to her room, nervous about what was about to happen.
They were already there when Lizze turned down the corridor to her room. Marla was frantically writing something that was already at least a foot and a half long, Bir was tapping the floor with his wand counting as he did. Kreigan was leaning casually against the wall calmly ready a book. They all looked up as she arrived and Marla and Kreigan stood up as Lizze opened her door.
They sat round the low table in the main room and an awkward silence fell over them.
‘So Lizze are you going to tell us?’ Kreigan said finally making Lizze start guiltily. She sighed softly, looking up from where she had been examining the table. They were all looking at her, the expressions on their faces ranging from concerned to angry to curious.
‘Please Lizze, I wanna bash up who ever hurt you!’ Bir said angrily. Lizze shook her head slowly, ‘You couldn’t, even if you could get at him.’
‘Hey I’m stronger than I look!’
‘That wouldn’t help you. He’s not from the Fairy Realm.’ Lizze felt her throat close up and her chest tighten.
‘Not from-‘
‘But you’ve been here ages now, I thought that anything you got back there should have disappeared, bruises don’t last that long!’ Marla stared at the mark in amazement.
‘Maybe if you explain how you got it, that might help us understand better,’ Kreigan suggested. Lizze took a deep breath and began the story before she could have second thoughts. None of them interrupted her but she could tell their thoughts by their faces, all except Kreigan. Bir got slowly madder and madder, clearly furious. Marla wavered between worried and angry. Kreigan’s face was carefully blank, revealing nothing, though his eyes flickered.
There was silence when she finished. After a moment Bir stood up and walked over to one side of the room, his back to the others and his hands shoved deeply into his pockets. Marla had angry tears in her eyes and she shifted round the table to hug Lizze. Kreigan also shifted round to put an arm around her shoulders.
‘You’ve certainly had it rough huh?’ he said, his voice ever so slightly breaking.
‘That’s the understatement of the century,’ Bir remarked acidly without turning around.
‘I haven’t really, there were just a few instances that were really bad, other than that it wasn’t that bad.’ Lizze said.
‘You know what the worst thing about the statement was?’ Kreigan said, ‘Was that you actually meant it!’ he looked at Lizze, his gaze kind, ‘Here in the Fairy Realm that type of thing isn’t allowed to happen, anyone who is abused is helped, taken away from where they were, looked after, not abandoned.’ Although his voice was calm, his blue eyes were clouded, the strange red streaks stark against the blue.
‘I can hardly claim to have been abandoned when I never told anyone about what happened.’ She said.
‘You shouldn’t have to tell someone. People should pick up on that sort of thing,’
‘Only if they’re close enough to you. I never had any friends before.’
‘Well now you do!’ Bir said suddenly turning around. ‘You have friends here, you have to remember that Lizze.’
‘Yeah Bir’s right, and not just us, Slivy and China, and Aran and Kinda and all the others. We’re all your friends!’ Lizze felt her eyes well up with tears and Marla leaned for anxiously, ‘Lizze? What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing, nothing, I’m fine, I’m just happy, honest, please don’t worry about me.’ Lizze tried to gulp back her tears.
‘Haven’t you been listening Lizze?’ Kreigan said, squeezing her shoulders, ‘that’s what friends do. They worry and care about each other, and now that you have friends you need to let them worry and care. If you say it’s nothing that will just make us worry more, ‘cos it’s clearly something that you don’t want to talk about, which means it’s hurting you, and the last thing we want is for you to be hurting, in any way!’
Bir and Marla nodded and Lizze smiled at them, ‘O-ok I’ll try to be more open, it’s just not easy for me.’ She said, clearing her throat.
‘You’ll get used to it,’ Kreigan said, he squeezed her shoulder again and leaned back stretching, ‘Well sorry to break the whole “friends stick together” mood thing we’ve got going here but I gotta head off. I’ve got some stuff that I need to do.’ He stood up and grabbed his bag from where it sat next to the door. He swung it over his shoulder and waved as he opened and stepped out the door.
‘This is probably going to sound just a little strange after this discussion but, why is Kreigan Hiaten so interested in you?’ Marla said staring curiously at the closed door.
‘Oh well I’ve met him a few times now, I mostly see him when I have lessons with Benalla, he often joins us and helps me. So we’ve sort of become friends. Why?’
‘Oh no reason, just curious.’
‘You’re so nosy Marla.’ Bir said sticking his tongue out at his younger sister. Lizze laughed as she watched the siblings. Yes she thought, I am happy.

[sion]

Chapter 13

13
The Truth

‘You know Master Taine, I’ve been thinking.’ Lizze said half way through their Wand Working lesson a week later.
‘Always a dangerous thing,’ Taine teased, Lizze stuck her tongue out and laughed. She waved her wand in a wide ark, carefully stating the incantation. The crystal on the stool in front of her began to glow. For several seconds the crystal retained the glow before it faded.
‘Oh bother, I almost had it!’ Lizze exclaimed, slumping down into a chair.
‘Its ok, you’re doing better than me!’ Slivy groaned. The class was learning how to pour light magic into a crystal, to use as a light source. So far, neither Lizze, Slivy nor Denal had managed to get the light to stay for more than a few seconds.
‘Lizze?’ Taine was standing next to their group, observing, ‘was there something you wanted?’
‘Oh right, there was just something I wanted to talk to you about. Do you have some time after the lesson?’ next to her Denal waved his wand and cursed when the crystal glowed for a second before winking out again.
‘Come to my office at lunchtime, I’ve got some spare time then.’ Taine raised his eyebrow as Slivy tried again, instead of glowing, crystal lifted several inches above the stool and then thumped back down.
‘Ohhhh, this isn’t fair!’ She wailed, folding her arms and glaring at the crystal, ‘I think mine’s broken, Master can I get a different one, maybe one that doesn’t hate me so much?’ Taine chuckled and pulled out his wand. He waved it in the ark and the friends heard him mutter the incantation. The crystal lit up with light and continued to glow merrily until Taine tapped it gently with his wand. He smiled down at Slivy who was staring disgustedly at the crystal.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it. It’s just practice.’ Slivy sighed and nodded. Next to their group there was a massive crash as one of the other students managed to destroy their stool. Taine couldn’t repress a grin as her headed over.
‘Lunchtime then Lizze.’ He said over his shoulder, Lizze nodded, once again waving her wand. She cried in triumph as the crystal began to glow then groaned as the light once again flickered out.
After the morning break Lizze had a break from lessons instead she was in the extra duty group that was helping to prepare for the next festival. Lizze was charming small paper butterflies to fly around after one of the older and more experienced students had charmed them to glow, it wasn’t difficult and the time passed quickly.
She grabbed some food from the dining hall at lunch and told Bir and Marla where she would be before rushing off to Taine’ office.
The door was open when she got there and she walked in, stepping over the piles of parchment that littered the floor.
‘Ah Lizze, there you are, don’t mind the mess, I’m just doing a bit of cleaning up, its amazing the junk that accumulates in my draws and cupboards.’ He shifted a pile of books of a chair and waved her to it. She sat down as he cleared room on his desk. He then lent forward, his hands clasped on the desk. ‘Now what was it that you wanted to talk about?’
Lizze shifted in her chair, now that she was here she suddenly felt very nervous about the topic that she wanted to bring up. ‘I wanted to ask you about…about…well,’ she paused and then said in a rush, ‘please tell me why I’m here!’
‘Why you’re here? I presume you mean why you are here in the Fairy Realm?’ Lizze nodded, a blush creeping up her cheeks. Taine sighed softly, ‘I understand that this is something that you would want to know but I’m curious as to what bought it up.
‘Well I was talking yesterday about- just some stuff that had happened in the other world and it started me thinking as to what I’m, doing here.’
‘I do understand that you would want to know this, however I am not sure that I should be the one to tell you.’
‘What? But why?’
‘Well truthfully, Her Majesty wanted to tell you herself. She said she would decide when you should be told. I admit I didn’t agree with her. Maybe I should tell you, it may be along time otherwise, for the right time.’ Taine sighed again and his face was troubled.
‘Um if you’ll get in trouble then don’t worry about it, I don’t want to cause trouble for you.’ Lizze said hurriedly, standing up.
‘No, no it’s alright.’ Taine narrowed his eyes slightly at her, ‘didn’t you take in anything that your friends told you yesterday?’ Lizze sat back down in surprise.
‘H-How do you know about what happened yesterday?’
‘Kreigan Hiaten told me a little of what happened. He was worried about you and felt that I should know. Don’t worry,’ he added as he saw Lizze’s terrified face, ‘he didn’t tell me specific details, just the basics, just enough to give me the heads up.’ He stood up and began to pace around the room, ‘you really do deserve to know, and while Her Majesty does have your best interests at heart I think she has missed several key factors. She’ll yell and rant at me but it wouldn’t be the first time so that doesn’t really worry me, and I’m sure I will be able to convince her that this was the best course of action, once I’ve told her why I’m sure she’ll agree with me so that’s not a problem. Yes I’ve made up my mind!’ he spun around to Lizze who had been trying to follow Taine’s one-sided argument – but had failed.
‘Um, sorry?’ Lizze said, puzzled as to what he had decided to do.
‘I’ve decided to tell you the truth, Her Majesty can rant and rave all she wants, I believe this is the best path to follow.’ He sat down again at his desk, his face was serious but gentle, as though he knew that what he was going to say would hurt the confused girl in front of him. He knew well.
‘Lizze this all begins many years ago, around the time when I was just a young child, at that time we had no idea what was going on, if we had we may have been able to come up with something then to fight it, but we didn’t, so we couldn’t. I can see that this isn’t making much sense so let me start from the beginning.’ He took a deep breath and his eyes unfocused slightly as he threw his memory back to a time when the trouble first began.
‘The Realm never really had any problems before then, sure there were criminals that caused problems but they were fairly easy to deal with, I think this is one of the reasons why no one knew what to do.
The first attack came when I was 12, I was already being taught as testing had shown that I had quite powerful magic. The main Wand Worker at the time; Master Zin was teaching me. We were very close as my parents didn’t care much for me. He was teaching some practical outdoors magic when it happened.’ Taine sighed and his face was sad, ‘he was taken.’
‘Taken? What do you mean sir? Taken by whom?’ Lizze asked, confused
‘No one.’ A voice from the door interrupted before Taine could respond. ‘It’s not something you need to concern yourself with.’ Lizze spun around in her seat to see Queen Mirra standing by the door, a fierce frown on her face. Lizze gasped in shock as she looked at the Queen. The first thing she saw was her face, it was thin and drawn, her hair was knotted and unkempt, her dress was scratched and torn and Lizze could see scratches all over her arms, legs and face.
‘Oh dear,’ Taine sighed, standing and guiding Mirra to his seat. He then went to one of his cupboards and rummaged around in it before coming out with a small wad of fabric which he passed to Mirra. Lizze recognised it as a healing pad. It was fabric that had been soaked in healing lotions and spelled to provide pain relief. Mirra pressed it to her face with a slight sigh of relief.
‘No guessing what you’ve been doing. Where was it this time? And you know she has the right to know.’ Taine was frowning slightly and Mirria wasn’t looking at him.
‘One of the northern towns, I ran into some trouble on the way back. I’m not denying her right to know, I just don’t think its time for her to know.’
‘Dammit, they haven’t been targeted in ages. You can’t protect her forever.’
‘Yeah I know, and it gets worse. I don’t plan on protecting her forever, just for now.’
‘Oh great, of course it does; what is it? Well it sure looks like you plan to.’
‘The route He’s taking is leading Him this way. Don’t be ridicules, I’ll tell her myself when the time is right.’
‘That’s not good, mind you, it’s not really unexpected. I’m not, but when will the right time be in your eyes.’
‘What do you mean it’s not unexpected? The right time will be when I deem her ready to accept the information.’
‘Well it has been almost three years since He was in this area. Yes but when will that be?’
‘Hmmm yes I suppose you have a point there. It will be when she is ready and when the situation demands it.’
‘We’ll need to start the preparations as soon as possible. There is no way for her to be ready if she doesn’t know, and if you ask me, the situation will never demand it more than it does now.’
‘Yes we will. The situation does not demand it yet, there is still plenty of time for her to be more prepared.’
‘No there isn’t Mirra, she has to know now. If He attacked one of the northern towns then it won’t be long until he gets to this area, if we want her to be ready by the time He gets here we have to tell her now not when he arrives, it will too late by then, I don’t really want to tell her either but we don’t have a choice, she must be told and she must be told now!’ Taine stared at the Queen who was glaring back at him. Lizze was getting a crick in her neck from turning from one speaker to the other and felt like she was watching a tennis match, not a serious conversation between fairies. She was also completely befuddled by the apparent two separate topics that were being talks about simultaneously.
Mirra glared at Taine for several moments before turning to look at Lizze, she then stood up and strode to the door. She paused at the door and said curtly without looking back, ‘Fine, tell her.’ and marched out, slamming the door behind her.
‘Um, Master Taine, what’s going on? What happened to her Majesty? And what were you two talking about? Were you talking about me just now?’ Lizze asked, completely confused.
‘I will answer all your questions just give me a moment to continue saying what I was before her Majesty came in.’ He sat back down at his desk and Lizze nodded. ‘As I was saying, Master Zin was taken, he was taken by... a human!’
‘What?’ Lizze was stunned, barely able to take in what she was hearing, but Taine was still talking.
‘The human captures fairies, those He takes are never seen again. We don’t know His name but if you hear people talking about Him, it’s the human.’ He reached across his desk to place a comforting hand of Lizze’s shoulder. ‘The reason why you were bought here is because we can do nothing to stop Him, He has somehow managed to gain magic of his own but it’s very different to ours. His seems, harsher, courser and we can’t counter it. We hope that because you used to be a human that your magic may be able to stop Him. I know this is a lot to take in, but you really did need to know. Her Majesty didn’t want to tell you this yet as she felt that it would be too much for you; but I believe that you will be better off for having found out sooner. Mind you,’ he added softly, almost more to himself, ‘It would seem that there isn’t much time anyway.’ He stood up and walked over to Lizze who was trembling in shock, ‘Lizze, are you alright?’
‘That’s why some of the fairies hate me, isn’t it?’ her voice caught and she felt tears welling up in her eyes, ‘that’s why they stare at me, mock me, taunt me!’
‘Yes unfortunately it is very hard for some fairies to cope with the fact that you may be the one who saves us. Most fairies realise this and don’t have any problems with you but there are-‘
‘How do you know that?’ Lizze cut in, ‘how do you know that some fairies accept me? How do I know that you accept me? How do I know that you’re not hating me behind my back?’ she leapt out of her chair and ran from the room, the door swinging behind her.
‘Shit,’ muttered Taine as he stared after her

[sion]

Chapter 14

14
Comfort

Lizze ran straight to her room, ignoring the throngs of students making their way to their next lesson after lunch. She was supposed to go to History but she couldn’t bear to go, to see the truth behind the stares. She didn’t want to face Marla either, she didn’t want to know the truth about the way she, and Bir, felt about her. But the one she was truly afraid of confronting was Kreigan. His handsome face filled her mind as she ran and she felt the tears start to stream down her face.
When she got to her room she slammed the door behind her and pulled the curtain closed as she ran into the bedroom, she then collapsed onto the bed, crying hysterically. Her whole body shook with her sobs and she lost herself to her misery.
She was still crying hours later when someone knocked softly on her door. She barely heard it over her sobs but she did hear the anxious voice calling to her.
‘Lizze? Are you alright? I can hear you crying, what’s wrong? Can I come it?’ Marla’s voice was muffled by both the door and the curtain but Lizze heard every word. The sound of Marla’s voice caused her tears to flow faster and she began sobbing even harder.
‘Lizze I’m coming in.’ she heard Marla call. She heard door open and Marla talking in a low voice to someone before the door shut again. ‘Lizze is it ok for me to come into the bedroom?’ Lizze didn’t, couldn’t answer around her sobs, ‘I’m coming in anyway,’ Lizze turned her head slightly as the curtain was pulled aside and Marla stepped in. She pulled the curtain shut behind her and crossed quickly to the bed where Lizze was slumped. She crouched next to the bed and tried to put her arm around the sobbing girl and was startled when Lizze pushed her away.
‘S-stay away from me, get away from me,’ Lizze gulped back her sobs and scrambled back away from Marla, ‘why the Hell are you here anyway?’
‘What are talking about Lizze? I’m here ‘cos you didn’t turn up at History and you weren’t at dinner and now I see your crying and acting strange,’ Marla frowned in concern, ‘what happened? Something really bad must have happened for you to be so upset, please tell me what has happened!’ Lizze gulped back more of her sobs and managed to talk, ‘Why on Earth would you want to know, after all I’m just Human, a bug, blundering, killing, horrible Human…just…a human…’ her voice dissolved into more sobs as Marla stared in shock at her, comprehension quickly followed by horror then distress. She once again tried to wrap her arms around her friend and this time Lizze didn’t push her away, instead she collapsed against her and sobbed hysterically.
She cried non-stop for several minutes before sinking into a deep exhausted sleep, slumped against Marla who was almost in tears herself with worry. When she realised that Lizze had fallen asleep she carefully lay her down and moved to sit on the floor beside the bed. She looked in concern at her friend, Lizze’s eyes were red and her face was tear streaked and blotching from such extensive crying, her hair was incredibly tangled and her Tiara had half fallen off. Very carefully Marla took off her Tiara and placed it on the special holder on the bedside table. She then took out her wand and began stroking Lizze’s tangled hair with it. The magic slowly worked the knots out and Marla smiled slightly. She then settled back on the ground and kept a watchful eye on her sleeping friend.
Marla lost track of time but after a while there was a soft tap on the door and Bir’s voice floated into the room, ‘Marla, how’s Lizze? Can I come in?’ Marla scampered to the door and opened it, pressing her finger to her lips. ‘Shhh Lizze’s asleep. She cried so much that she just fell asleep.’
‘Did you find out what was wrong?’
‘Sort of. It has something to do with her use to being a human.’ Marla explained what had happened, her eyes misting over with tears as she remembered the pain in Lizze’s voice.
‘I wonder what could have happened to get her so worked up, clearly something was said to her or she overheard something about Human’s.’ Bir said as he looked at Lizze, the siblings were both sitting on the floor in the bedroom, Marla right next to the bed and Bir leaning against the door,
‘Or maybe about herself specifically.’ Marla added sadly.
Lizze began to stir at the same moment there was a knock at the door. Both jumped up, Marla leaning to Lizze and Bir running to the door, Marla heard him talking softly to someone before the door shut. Lizze was stirring when Bir walked back into the bedroom followed by Kreigan and a tray of food.
‘Taine would like to see the two of you.’ Kreigan said in a low voice, addressing the siblings although his eyes were focused on Lizze.
‘But-’ Marla began half turning to Lizze.
‘I’ll stay and talk with her. I think I know what’s going on here, Taine will probably explain.’ Kreigan sent the tray to land on the bedside table with a casual flick of his wand and then finally took his eyes off Lizze to look at the still hesitating Marla. Marla eventually nodded sharply and followed her brother out of the room, pulling the curtain closed behind her and gently shutting the door.
Kreigan sat down on the edge of the bed just as Lizze woke up properly and sat up, rubbing her eyes. She looked around the rooms, flinching in shock when she saw Kreigan watching her.
‘Kregian?’ her voice was croaky and her throat was closed from crying, ‘w-what are you doing here?’ Kreigan sighed slightly, ‘You always seem surprised that people are worried about you. Anyway I bought you some dinner as I believe you haven’t eaten in a while.’ He gestured to the tray and as though his words were a trigger suddenly Lizze felt ravenous. She ate all the food quickly then slid the tray back onto the bedside table. Kreigan had wandered over to the window as she ate and stood with his hands in his pockets, watching the night-time activities. Lizze was rather surprised when she realised that it must have been at least nine o’clock.
‘Kreigan, do, do you hate me?’ Lizze’s voice was so soft it was almost inaudible. Kreigan turned to face her but Lizze looked away, afraid of seeing a truth that she didn’t want.
‘Taine was right.’ Kreigan muttered to himself as he walked back over to the bed. He crouched in front of Lizze who was sitting on the edge with her legs tucked underneath her. ‘Lizze there is no way in the Realm that I could hate you. Taine told me that he had told you about the reason why you are here. He had a feeling that you had reacted strongly to the possibility that some fairies may hate you.’ He sighed and placed a gentle hand on her knee, ‘I won’t deny that there are some fairies that hate you because you used to be a human and they can’t get over that prejudice. But you have to understand that most fairies don’t hate you for anything, they realise that all humans aren’t the same and besides, you’re a fairy now, not a human!’
‘But how do you know?’ Lizze near wailed, tears once again filling her eyes; she was no longer angry and bitter, now she was just filled with an empty despair. Kreigan stood up again, wandering once again to the window.
‘Did you wonder how we know about the Human, the fact that he is male and stuff like that?’ he asked with his back to her.
‘Um I guess I did a little bit,’ Lizze replied, slightly thrown by the change of subject.
‘Some fairies have followed the Human, tracked him down and tried to stop him and free those captured. So many have gone, more than can be counted and guess how many have come back?’ he didn’t wait for a response, ‘three. Three have returned, out of all the countless fairies that have gone, confident that they would be the one to save the other and defeat Him, or be one the one to bring back that vital piece of information, and yet only three have ever return.’ Kreigan’s voice was tight and full of pain.
‘That’s horrible.’ Lizze gasped.
‘Yeah no kidding and that’s not the worst of it. Those three fairies that have come back, they were injured; one of them so badly that he can never fly ever again!’ Kreigan’s winds twitched and Lizze’s mimicked the reflex reaction.
‘I can’t believe it.’ The information took on a new meaning inside Lizze’s head, ‘no wonder people hate me so much.’
‘NO!’ Kreigan spun around and Lizze jumped, ‘You don’t understand. Everyone has gone through so much pain, almost every fairy has at least one person that they knew taken. But know you’re here, you’re the one that everyone believes will save all those who have been taken, and save those who haven’t yet.’ He crossed back to the bed in three long strides and stood in front of Lizze who had to cane her head up to see his face. ‘those who hate you don’t believe that you can do anything, but everyone else does. You see! That’s how I know that people don’t hate you.’
‘I want to believe you, I really do! But it’s so hard,’ the tears that had been welling up in her eyes spilled over, streaking down her cheeks. Kreigan crouched down in front of her and took both her hands in one of his, reaching up with the other hand to gently wipe away the tears.
‘If you want to believe me that badly, then do. I promise you that I’m not lying.’ His eyes were soft and caring and Lizze found herself getting lost in them, the red streaks almost hypnotising her. She had never really looked so closely at a guy before and couldn’t help but take in every detail, details that she had never really noticed in him. His light brown hair was on the long side and his fringe kept falling in front of his eyes, he had fairly pale skin, not blemished by freckles or marks. She had already thought a lot more about Kreigan than she had about any other guy before and she was slowly realising that she must like him. She found herself drifting off with thoughts of liking and loving someone when Kreigan shook her hand gently; bringing her back to reality, ‘do you believe me?’ Lizze took a deep breath and nodded.
‘Yes, I-I think I do.’ Kreigan smiled, pleased and Lizze felt her heart melting. He squeezed her hands and almost without thinking she returned the pressure. Kreigan’s smile widened and he sat up slightly, gently drawing her close to him with the hand still cupped on her cheek. He let go of her hands and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Lizze froze for a moment before leaning her head down on his shoulder.
‘Never fear Lizze, I’ll be here for you always.’ His voice was rough and it took Lizze a moment to realise what he was saying. Suddenly the hidden meaning became clear to her and she felt a slight blush creeping up her face. Kreigan clearly felt the heat rising in her face because he began to chuckle. ‘Hehe I had a feeling that that was the case.’ His voice lowered and he whispered in her ear, ‘and I like you too.’ Lizze started in surprise and almost jumped out of his embrace, but he held on tight and rocked her gently. ‘It’s late and I bet you’re tired. You should get some sleep.’ Lizze turned her head slightly from where it was resting on his shoulder. ‘B-but what about Marla and Bir? I should go find them and apologise to them, especially to Marla, I was so awful!’ she tried to sit up away from him but he held her tightly, preventing her escape.
‘Easy, easy just wait for a sec’ and listen to me. You go to sleep now and in the morning I’ll come and help you find them. I have a feeling stuff is going to start happening very quickly and all of us are going to get caught up with it.’ Lizze frowned in confusion but Kreigan shook his head, ‘don’t worry about it, you just get some sleep.’ He stood up, half picking her up and gently pushed her backwards until she was lying down with her head on her pillow. ‘I’ll come by in the morning and we’ll have a look for the other two.’ She nodded as he headed out the room, and she heard the door close behind him. With a sigh she sat up, she rummaged around under her pillow and pulled out her nightgown. She got changed and headed into the bathroom. When she walked out she was staggering slightly with exhaustion. She crawled into her bed and was asleep within seconds.
She woke during the night with a gasp, feeling as though a cold hand was pressing around her heart, she couldn’t breathe and her wings felt stiff. She didn’t understand what was going on and she felt like she was suffocating. The feeling passed after a few minutes and Lizze lay gasping for breath, feeling wrung out. She lay for several minute, concentrating on her breathing and trying to get her heart rate back under control. When she was calm again she rolled over, willing herself to return to sleep, but the feeling stayed with her and she found it hard to get back to sleep. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that she finally fell into a deep sleep and when she awoke later in the morning she barely remembered that it had happened.
She was up, showered and dressed by the rime Kreigan knocked on the door. She ran to the door and opened it, smiling happily at Kreigan. He was dressed in his usual light blue tunic and blue and red pants. He was grinning broadly and Lizze once again found her heart melting.
‘I know where Bir and Marla will probably be,’ he said as she shut the door behind her. ‘They should be in Taine’s office but and if they’re not I know where they will be.’ He took Lizze by the hand and pulled her along the hallway. Lizze was taken by surprise by the contact and stumbled slightly, Kriegan’s other hand came out to steady her and she smiled her thanks.
When they reached Taine’s office they found it empty, parchment strewn across the room. Kreigan frowned and picked up one of the pieces on the top of one of the piles on the desk. His frown deepened as he glanced over it. When he got to the end his eyes widened and he dropped it back on the desk, snatching up another and reading it quickly. ‘Oh shit!’ he exclaimed dropping it. He grabbed Lizze’s hand again and pulled her out of the office and down the corridor, he was slowly building up speed and soon they were running fast enough to force Lizze to flap her wings to keep for falling over.
‘What wrong Kreigan? Where are we going? Lizze gasped as they skidded around a corner, almost crashing into a young fairy, who shrieked and dodged to one side.
‘Sorry!’ Kreigan yelled over his shoulder, not slowing down.
‘Kreigan?’ Lizze yelled again.
‘I’ll explain in a minute!’ Kreigan replied, pulling her faster. They continued to run and Lizze was soon gasping for breath. Suddenly Kreigan pulled her onto a balcony and began looking up and down. Lizze bent over, her hands on her knees, gasping for breath. ‘Come on Lizze.’ Kreigan turned back to her and she straightened up with a groan, ‘How good are you at flying? He asked taking her hand again and leading her to the edge of the balcony, Lizze grimaced, ‘I’ve had a week of lessons, so not that great. I can get myself up and down again and I’m up three minutes up in the air.’ Kreigan grinned, the tension briefly falling away from his face. ‘Good enough. I’ll help you.’ He looked at her uneasy face, ‘Ready?’
‘No! Not at all. Where are we going anyway?’ Lizze allowed Kreigan to pull her up onto the railing.
‘You’ll be fine.’ He replied and his disregard of her second question was not lost on Lizze.
Another evil grin was her only warning as Kreigan pulled her into the air; she flapped her wings frantically and managed to get herself level with the still grinning Kreigan. He pulled her gently by the hand and they began to rise slowly. After a couple of minutes Lizze was panting heavily and felt like her wings were going to fall off. ‘H-how much further?’ she gasped to Kreigan who didn’t seem to be having any problems.
‘Don’t worry, we’re almost there.’ He pointed to a open-air tower ahead of them where Lizze could just make out three figures. They landed and Lizze almost fell over with relief. To her disgust Kreigan just laughed and slipped his arm round her waist, supporting her. ‘How come you’re not even out of breath?’ Lizze muttered as they walked over to the other fairies. Seeing who it was almost made Lizze’s heart stop.
‘Well I’ve been flying for a lot longer than you and the more you fly the more stamina you develop.’ Kreigan’s grin slipped slightly as he saw Lizze looking at the fairies in front of them.
‘Ah, there you Kreigan, Lizze. I had a feeling you two would turn up sooner or later.’ Taine was standing with his wand out and looked like he had been in the middle of performing a spell. Bir and Marla were standing next to him and also had their wands out. There was a slight pause then Lizze felt Kreigan sagging against her. She saws his face had gone slightly blank and, when she glanced across at Taine, she saw his face was the same and realised that they were talking telepathically. The three young fairies stood silently, awkwardly not meeting each other’s eyes. The silence stretched out painfully and soon it became unbearable.
‘Marla I’m so sorry! Bir please forgive me!’ Lizze burst out, unable to stand the silence. Marla and Bir jumped at the outburst, ‘Wha-?’ Bir stared in shock at Lizze who had her head bowed.
‘Lizze what are you talking about?’ Marla was more articulate than her brother who was still gaping at Lizze with his mouth open, his sister glanced over at him and rolled her eyes, ‘and close your mouth Biron, you look like a fish.’ Bir’s mouth closed with an audible snap and produced a slight smile from Lizze. ‘Lizze I’m not mad at you about what happened last night. Taine explained and we realised why you were so upset.’ Marla paused and Lizze risked a glance up, ‘remember, we’re your friends.’ She and Bir were both smiling and Lizze could help but smile back. ‘Thank you.’ She whispered and the siblings’ grins widened.
Lizze felt Kreigan move against her and glanced back at him as he straightened up, using Lizze as support. He had a broad grin on his face and his eyes were sparkling with suppressed mirth. Taine’s was the opposite, he was frowning and his face was set in a fierce scowl. Bir’s eyes travelled down to where Kreigan’s arm was wrapped around Lizze’s waist and raised his eyebrows. He looked up at Kreigan and gave him a meaningful look, Kreigan pulled a face at him and Bir stuck his tongue out in response.
‘So, uh, what are you three doing up here?’ Lizze asked after a moment. Taine’s face became grim and BIr and Marla exchanged uneasy glances.
‘We are up here sending and receiving messages to nearby towns; warning them of an upcoming attack.’ Lizze flinched slightly as she realised what he meant, ‘these two are helping me as their magic is well suited for this type of thing.’ Lizze smiled at her friends and they smiled back, Kreigan however has lost his grin and was frowning. ‘Why are you doing it this way, we only do it this way for really close towns?’ Taine didn’t say anything and Kreigan kept talking, answering his own questions, ‘but that must you are sending it to the ones close enough to be affected is one gets attacked, and that must mean that the attack will occur sometime near here,’ Lizze felt a ringing in her ears and Kreigan’s frown deepened, ‘those two messages came from completely different directions, there are only two places that would affect such a wide area.’
‘Yes, we are still unsure as to which He will attack but we are quite sure that it will be one of those two.’ Taine’s face was grim. Bir tapped him on the arm.
‘You still haven’t told us which two places might be attacked.’ He said with an edge to his voice.
‘You will find out soon enough, I do not feel it necessary to tell you, to inform you now will only serve to distress you.’ This caused all three young fairies to frown and Bir muttered.
‘I don’t like the sound of that.’ Under his breath, the other two nodded as Kreigan and Taine continued to talk quietly.
‘Lizze,’ Taine’s voice broke into Lizze’s aimless wonderings, ‘I know that it was only yesterday that you learned the reason for your being here but I fear that you must begin to prepare.’ Lizze stiffened.
‘Prepare? Prepare for what?’ Lizze’s voice was strained and a little nervous.
‘Prepare for tracking down and taking on Him!’ Lizze jerked backwards slightly and only Kreigan’s arm around her waist kept her from tripping over. ‘What?’ her voice caught.
‘You do not need to worry you will not be alone, we will be with you to help and lend support. It may even be some time before you must leave.’ Taine’s voice was matter-of-fact but gentle, he was clearly aware of the inner turmoil of the young lady. He turned back to Bir and Marla who were watching their friend with concern, ‘I need you two to head off and tell the longer distance messengers that they will need to depart soon, there will be no more messages sent or received in this manner now and I would rather send the messengers off early rather than late.’ The two nodded and walked over to Lizze, Marla hugged her tightly and Bir patted her on the back. Lizze returned the hug and grinned at Bir, profoundly grateful that they held no grudge. Then with a final wave – and a knowing smirk from Bir to Kreigan – they headed to the edge of the tower and flew off. Taine and Kreigan had been talking quietly to each other and Kreigan turned back to Lizze, ‘We can head off too, I’ll explain everything to you on the way back to your room.’ Lizze nodded and turned to Taine.
‘I’m sorry for yelling at you and overreacting yesterday.’ she said softly, Taine smiled and gently ruffled her hair, ‘Think nothing of it.’ He said with a smile as she smoothed her hair back down. Kreigan then took her hand and lead her to the edge and gently pulled her into the air. He didn’t let go of her hand through the fight or the walk back to her room as he explained.
‘Mostly all you really need to do is just improve what you already know and start learning specific stuff. I'm guessing Taine will put together a special timetable for you where you will learn magic one-on-one with the teachers.’
‘What magic will I be learning?’
‘Combat, Adventure, Survival.’ Lizze glances at him puzzled.
‘Huh?’
‘Oh right, sorry.’ Kreigan stopped and grinned sheepishly, ‘I forgot that you wouldn’t know. Magic is divided up into several different types. What you have been learning so far has been Daily, Student and a little of Domestic. But there are other types, the main ones are Domestic, Combat, Survival, Adventure, Travel, Student, Daily and Healing. All magic falls into a type and depending on what a fairy does in life will determine what magic they learn. Make sense?’
‘Yeah I think so.’
‘Good, so you will be learning Combat magic, Adventure magic and Survival magic. All that really means is what spells and stuff you will learn. You’ll also need to work on your flying!’ he grinned as Lizze groaned, ‘we can practice that today unless you’ve got other plans?’ she shook her head and he grinned again, pulling her along in the direction of the dining hall, ‘great, but first let’s get some breakfast!’