Faeries of Delusia

Chapter Nine

I came back to reality by being nearly shaken to death by one of the twins.

I breathed in a deep breath of air and sucked in my surroundings. “Where am I?” I pleaded.

“Still in the same tree we captured you in.” one of the twins said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Fumio. The way to tell us apart is that I have blue eyes and Tomo has green eyes.”

How did I not notice that before? “Oh, okay. So-,” I sat up and saw I was still tied up. “Hey, when are you gonna untie me?”

“We are afraid if we untie you, you will run away.” Tomo said.

“I won’t, I promise!” I began crying and buried my face in my hands.

“No, no. There, there.” A felt someone’s hand pat my back. “Don’t cry, we won’t kill you.” he told me in a soothing voice.

“I-just-want-to-go-home!” I blurted out between sobs.

“Well,” I heard reluctance in his voice and I could tell he was using body language to talk to his brother again. “We can help you, right Tomo?” Obviously it was Fumio who was patting my back.

I heard Tomo sigh out and I lightened my sobbing to hear what his response was.

“What is it that you need to get back to your world?” he asked, mentally deciphering if it was physically possibly to help me with my problem.

“All I need it magic so Demitra can fly me out and break through the barrier from this world to mine. I guess that’s what has to happen, no one tells me anything here.” I explained quickly and rationally.

“Magic, eh?” I looked up from my cupped hands to see Tomo scratching his chin with his index finger. “I suppose we can go on a hunt for magic.”

“Whoopee! A treasure hunt!” Fumio bursted.

“No, not treasure, magic.” Tomo corrected.

“I don’t care!” Fumio said in his same happy tone. “Do we have a treasure map?”

“I assume this is going to be harder than it sounds?” I asked Tomo.

“We just gotta find the right place, I guess. I’ve never used magic before.”

Never used magic? But he’s a Shape Shifter living in a magical land.

“Does magic cost money?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound too oblivious.

“Nothing is free.” Tomo said. “But we can steal it. I’m a tiger, remember?” He winked at me.

“Technically we can be anything!” Fumio suddenly shouted from behind me. I forget he was still even there so I was startled for a moment. “It’s pretty sweet.”

“Where should we start looking?” I asked.

Tomo and Fumio became suddenly silent. Neither of them knew, I presumed.

“First, let us untie you.”

Finally.

Tomo and Fumio worked together to undo the tight knots they bided me with.

“Listen, if we see anyone along the way, don’t talk to them. And if you do, don’t tell them who we are. No one can know we left this forest. This is our home, and we are only twelve.”

One question was answered, they were both twelve, and another answered, age was counted here the same as in the human world.

“Well twelve years to you, 144 years to us.” Fumio added in which proved my last theory false.

I raised my eyebrows, impressed. Life never ended here, did it.

“Let’s move it!” Tomo announced and both her and Fumio morphed into birds, then suddenly back to their human shape as I looked at them, trying to have them remember I was not a Shifter.

“Sorry bout that, just a normal reaction.” Fumio apologized and they both sat down to slide out of the tree. “Here, you sit in the middle. Hold our hands tight.” he ordered and I obeyed. Once I grabbed each of their hands we slid out of the tree. As we landed, I fell to the ground in agony, screeching out in pain. I had sprained my ankle.

“Ah!” I cried.

“What? What happened?!” They both blurted out worriedly. “Tell us!”

“My ankle, OW!” I exclaimed.

“I don’t get it!” Fumio shouted in panic, pulling his hair with his hands.

“I sprained my ankle, it hurts.” I explained. I found it odd that neither of them knew what a sprained ankle was, but it wasn’t surprising.

“Well, what should we do?” Tomo asked frantically like this was a life or death situation.

“I don’t know. Just let me sit here for a moment . . .”

Fumio and Tomo paced anxiously in front of me as I sat on the forest floor in pain, hoping it would wear down soon.

“I’ll try to get up now, give me some support.” Both boys got on either side of me and helped me up. “I think I can make it from here as long as we don’t get chased.” I teased, but the boys didn’t treat it as any joke.

“If we get into a sticky situation we can turn into some kind of animal and get you out of there in a flash.” Fumio assured me, which actually caused me to clam my nerves, knowing I had someone to back me up.

As we walked—well, stumbled in my case—through the forest, the boy’s eyes were scanning our surroundings constantly, searching for any danger that may be lurking. I felt protected.

It wasn’t very long when danger began to arrive. The forest seemed like it was alive again, making noises from all over. I felt uncomfortable even before the boys warned me.

“Sh. Stay still.” Tomo ordered, throwing his arm out in front of me as all three of us came to an abrupt halt.

“What is it?” I whispered but he only shushed me once more.

It was a good five minutes before any one of us made a sound. But then it all came so fast it was like I blinked. I saw, or more like heard something coming at us, something big. It was knocking over trees, just like the tree had before I met the twins. Then I was flying in the air. All I could hear was a massive beast down below and the sound of a tiger growling. I figured one of the boys turned into a bird or something that could fly which led to me being in the air since I couldn’t run. Even if I could run at my normal pace I most likely couldn’t outrun whatever was below me.

I didn’t know who was holding me up since both the boys were in animal forms and I couldn’t see their eyes. I looked up but my eyesight was blurred by the gusts of wind rushing at my face. We were pretty high up in the air and I decided to squeeze my eyes shut for fear of heights.

“Tomo is hurt.” the boy—obviously Fumio—above me announced.

“You can see him?” I shouted so he could hear me.

“Yes. Let me get a better look.” As he swooped down a good thirty feet he must have lost his grip on my shoulders because all of the sudden I was pummeling to the ground. Had he done that on purpose?

“Heeeeeeeelp!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, causing my throat to burn, as I tumbled town foot by foot, not knowing what was going to stop my fall and if I was going to live through it.

Something hard jolted me in the side and I heard the breathing of another being holding me up as I continued to fall to my doom. I couldn’t see who or what it was so I closed my eyes once again.

When I opened my eyes I wasn’t falling anymore, but I was on the ground. I was in a tree, but I felt no wounds, and most of all, I was alive. Had I fallen in this tree?

When I opened my eyes and looked around I knew exactly where I was. I surprised myself I even recognized the place. I saw a boy standing above me and I was startled. I knew this boy, but he wasn’t one of the twins.

“Hello? Who are you?” I needed to know his name. Did I know it but forget it?

“Jamie, it’s me.” he said.

“Who?” I wondered aloud. I felt so oblivious. His name was on the tip of my tongue . . . “Jamie, is that my name?” I asked hopefully.

“It’s me, Raiden. And yes that is your name.” He sighed out. “You’re already forgetting.”

The shock of his name filled my head and a weird feeling in my stomach showed up. “Raiden!” I yelled, nearly rejoicing. I went to sit up so I could hug him or something, but that didn’t work as I planned.

“Stay down. You’re hurt.” he demanded, leaning over me now, gently pushing me back down on my back.

“Why are we at your tree?” I asked.

He almost laughed, but instead a smile occurred. “You recognize it?”

I hadn’t remembered his name yet I remembered his home. Unusual . . .

“Of course I do, it’s almost like it sticks out among the other trees. It’s so much bigger . . .And all the trees her are bigger than the ones back in my world to begin with . . .” It was like I was talking merely to myself. Suddenly a question popped into my head. “How did we get here so quickly? I was so far away in that other forest.”

“Exactly. Never go into that forest again.” he snapped at me, quite irritated.

“But, why?”

“Beasts like no other live there. I can’t believe someone left you alone there.”

“I went by myself.” I defended, not sure who I was defending. Maybe Mitsoki? “And you never answered my question. How did we get here so fast?”

“Magic.” he said, not wanting to change the subject. “Never go back there again.”

I sneered. “Magic. Who believes in that.”

Raiden raised an eyebrow.

“Just kidding.” I said defensively. Sheesh, touchy. “I have to go back, though. The twins, they may be hurt. They might be dead.”

“Well then that’s just two less Shape Shifters we have to worry about.” Raiden said calmly.

I couldn’t believe his attitude. “Are you kidding? There is nothing wrong with Shape Shifters.”

“They are sneaky creatures. Always turning into an animal and spying and stealing. It’s ridiculous.”

“Oh yeah, and everything else in this world doesn’t do that?” I asked, defending the twins.

Raiden began to tap his foot impatiently. “They are unimportant.”

“NO they are NOT! Now take me back there now!”

“I’m not liking your attitude about this.”

“Well I surely don’t like yours either!” I shot back. “They helped me, now I have to help them.”

“Don’t feel obliged to help anyone or take help from anyone.”

“Well I don’t need your help, that’s for sure. Now poof me back there or something.”

Raiden leaned back against the tree as I struggled to hold myself sitting up. He folded his arm and got a stubborn expression on his face. He took off his back pack with the arrows in it and rested it next to him on a tree branch.

“We will leave when you can get up.” he stated simply, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get up any time soon.

“Not fair!” I shouted.

“Nothing is ever fair, get over it.”

I almost felt tears squeeze out of my eyes. Why was I crying? Raiden hadn’t been like this before, what was with the sudden mood swings? Was it his time of the month or what?

He finally sighed out and squatted next to me. “Sorry. I’m just really frustrated right now. Prince Feory sent his guards on another hunt for all Solar Faeries attempting to destroy his kingdom.”

“How does that involve you?” I asked curiously.

“I have to protect this forest from being burned to the ground.” he told me.

“Why you?” I asked.

He hesitated with his response. He opened his mouth but no words came out. He swallowed hard and then replied, “I don’t know.”

“I haven’t even seen any Solar Faeries my whole time being here.” I thought aloud. I found that concept strange.

“Most of them are already captured, or hiding.”

Wait, hiding. Trista was a Solar Faerie, wasn’t she? “Do you know Trista?” I asked Raiden suddenly.

He thought for a moment, his mind off track by the sudden change of subject. “Um, yes I think I do. Why?”

“She’s a Solar Faerie?”

“Oh yeah, yeah she is. So?”

“I wonder if she’s okay.” I thought aloud.

Raiden shrugged. “Honestly I have no idea. I wouldn’t doubt it if she was caught. She doesn’t have any wings either.”

I bit my bottom lip. Yet, I was suddenly filled with joy at the thought of remembering Trista’s name, I wasn’t sure how I could because I met her before Raiden and I didn’t remember his name at first. But besides that little fact, I needed to find out where she was and if she was okay.

“Trista was my first friend here.” I told Raiden. “I need to see if she’s alright.”

“Yes but if I recall she was also the one who brought you here.” he pointed out.

I shook my head, thinking over that fact. Trista couldn’t have just picked me out of the blue, right? Everything happens for a reason, that’s what I believe. There are no coincidences.

“Then maybe she brought me here for a reason. I need to talk to her.”

“You need to find magic and get out of here before you lose your memory. If you forget everything you might never be able to return home.”

“That can wait, don’t you get it?” I was suddenly irritated with him. “Maybe Trista knew where I could find the magic this whole time.”

“Why would she send you off on this journey to find this magic then?” Raiden obviously thought I wasn’t making any sense, and I couldn’t make any sense of it myself yet. All I needed to do was talk to Trista one more time and maybe she could explain things to me that she hadn’t had the chance to before.

“Take me to her.”

“I don’t know where she is.”

“She has to be around here somewhere, this is where she was before.” I told him. “So do whatever you did to get me here and bring me to her. Did you fly or something?” Can elves even fly?

Raiden laughed. “Of course not. I jumped.”

“One big jump?” I was astonished.

But he laughed once more. “No, no. Like this.” Suddenly he flew into the air, above the tree we were in. Within a few seconds he was in a tree along ways from me.

“Wow!” I clapped, impressed.

He jumped back to my tree. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?” he asked, concerned, but with a sly smirk appearing.

I looked down below us. The trees here were many feet higher than the ones in the human world. I looked above us. It was so high and so thick I couldn’t see the sky clearly, only the light escaping through the leaves. I looked at Raiden. This elf could jump over these trees and he was going to carry me as he did.

I swallowed hard and took a deep breath.