The fey had gathered, pulled from their places of power and hiding back into the lands of man to see justice done.
It had been decades since their last need to meet.
The matter then was simple, public relations. An unofficial photo taken by a young girl. The photo had to be changed and altered, corrected at any cost, not because it broke their security or endangered them in anyway, just bad lighting, bad angles and worst of all bad hair day.
The fairy who's photo was taken was still in therapy and had not been seen for many years, to be caught on camera with a perm in springtime with her wing's color and size in questionable states, the very notion was absolutely unthinkable. The photo would tarnish the image that fairies the world over had generated. It also didn't help that at the time a bad allergic reaction had caused her nose to turn red, add to that the oversized house slippers.
All the fairies gathered in the lands of man remembered and while their last meeting was because of a danger to their image. This meeting was because their image had physically changed, no longer less than a foot tall they had all grown in size and in power.
They gathered on a secluded hill in the midlands of the English countryside at the remains of one of their oldest fairy rings to hold court.
A fairy court.
The tooth fairy was not the oldest of them but she was close, while the others were happy to play and watch the world, she toiled long and hard. Becoming more than just a simple fairy.
The tooth fairy had the power of a million bargains that tied her deeper to man and the world than even her kin had realized.
She had given them back their forms, forgotten power and glory but in doing so she had broken the pact.
With the pact broken, so too was the world.
A being who'd been long since chained and locked away from the world was now back, chaos and the being's own nature would alter the very essence of the world.
The fey who now stood on trial was bound with her feet toward the sky and her head touching the soil, ancient rings of light encrusted by magic arced from grand pillars to her arms and legs in an ancient language lost to time.
"My sisters,we have reached an impasse, even now humans vanish from this world, dragged from their homes to other planes of existence without warning. The lock keeper of this world's safe is gone."
"We have to pass judgement on the one who broke our pact and forced us to contain this precancerous mess."
One of the eldest of the fey spoke, so much had changed in such a short period of time.
They were beautiful again, timeless their bodies much like humans except for the marking around their ears as if they had all been disfigured by someone cutting three jagged lines in their earlobes, if their posture was not so perfect and their breathing so still. They would not look out of place at a punk rock concert.
"Banishment was the punishment of old, being separated from kin is one of the worst things for us, even death is preferable but not you. Never you." The elder's hair a mix of blond and red now growing silver in areas fluttered in the wind as she spoke.
The tooth fairy looked at her kin in shock, where was the joy, the merrymaking, the revelry?
She remembered the oldest of days and now they were back to how things were before. When humans hid in caves by firelight all the while fairies danced on the wind and in between the rain.
The realization then hit her. "Humans! You're all acting like humans!!"
After her words were spoken, if I pin dropped everyone would be able to hear it.
A time of pure shock passed before the elder sneered at her derision.
"We were free, untethered, the wind was our doorstep we could go anywhere under any sun, I was young but I remember the freedom."
"Do you also remember the death? Do you think we fear what you have done? We fear what you have unleashed!"
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"The man in the moon is not a true treat, I alone could rend him asunder. " the tooth fairy added with pride.
"You, Miriam. Have power, so much more than I could believe but you have forgotten."
"Forgotten what? It's true I didn't warn you all in time. I should be punished for not alerting you but we are once again free."
"We were always free!"
The elder yelled.
"Do you think that there was no way to bend or break the bond that held? Have you been so focused on your own purpose that you have truly forgotten?"
The tooth fairy looked at the elder's disdained face.
"What?"
"What?"
"WHAT?"
Realisng that something was very wrong with the fairy before them the other elder fey gathered looking at each other then all at once they looked at her.
Then they looked through her.
They found, light and hope.
They found, freedom and joy.
They found, a ring of iron.
Old iron not fashioned by the hand of man.
They found horror.
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Ali found herself on familiar cold ice fields looking up at the stars.
She was cold, bitterly so but she could breathe and felt no pain.
They were moments where she wasn't in the tundra but elsewhere, with far too much sound from both people and things, light shining into her eyes, blinding her, probing her, holding her still when she tried to move but then she was back on the field of icy plains and distant mountains.
Alice didn't need to move but she did, standing up as she was taught by Ila she looked around, the dream place that she stood in had changed not drastically, it was still a frozen tundra with a touch of a primeval trees climbing up to the sky behind the Amarok den.
Ali blinked and the Amarok was next to her still resting but bigger than before, strands of fur seemed more dishevelled than the well-groomed being that she had come to know. The great beast raised an eyelid for only a moment revealing the golden sheen beyond them but quickly returned to her slumber without a word.
Both the sun and the moon shared the sky in this place but the moon was more subdued, it helped that Ila's body now blocked most of it from Ali's view and its pressure and heavy feeling was easier to ignore.
Sitting next to the Amarok, she rested against her as she finally relaxed and slept.
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Will Harper stood outside the empty farm, only police warning tape around the property remained to show what had transpired. Police tape and large puddles of water.
The farm house survived mostly intact but needing repairs, a lot of repairs but the foundation was good surprisingly so, after everything that happened.
The video footage they recovered from the fire showed the arsonist setting the fire but the camera feeds were damaged so no further visual aids to what happened afterwards.
Blood scattered all over the lawn and the surrounding area in a state. It was like a small war was waged, broken trees with torn gashes in the wood and earth surrounding the area where the arsonist had emerged from the trees to start whatever mess had occurred here.
Which led to the house down the way with a dead body of the local rapeseed farmer and his family slaughtered.
Two days had passed but only Bryan the youngest of the three Tipton siblings that worked for Alice was on the way back. His brother and sister should be still in the hospital for a few weeks at least.
When questioned his statement had been erratic at best but it covered most of the facts.
One of the constables under his watch had dated him so his reputation preceded him.
Will didn't have high hopes for the orchards recovery till the rest of the family returned.
Then he spotted the work van of the orchard with Bryan behind the wheel, followed by a large truck from one of the local hardware stores.
It seemed that he underestimated the young man.
Will turned back to look at the house one more time before heading out to meet Bryan, noting that the house for some odd reason looked bigger to him than the last time he was here.
Will Harper took out his note pad and waved to the coming truck, feeling more at ease and rested then he had in weeks, even the twing in his knee had stopped bothering him.
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Bryan was finally preparing to leave left the hospital, he'd gotten some burns and a few scratches here and there but nothing overly serious, Shawn with a cast on his leg and bandages all over was amazingly more on the mend than he expected.
Mary on the other hand had severe injuries with several cracked ribs and a punctured lung, she survived surgery well enough but she would be in the hospital with their boss for some time to come.
None of the siblings saw much of what occurred while they focused on putting out the blaze, then two of them were knocked down till near the end while trying to help Ali but all of them had recovered just enough to see..... magic.
Magic and magical creatures, a house that was on fire and a boss who got injuries from dealing with it all.
Magic was real.
Bryan didn't know what to think so he went to the room his boss was in and stared at her sleeping face after she'd been drifting in and out of a conclusive state, he would have sworn he'd seen her eye color change at least twice before fully falling asleep.
Alice Thornhill was a driven woman without meaning to be, in the span of time they'd known her, a small empire was starting to come together first her own orchard with a brewery, yesterday her neighbor's farm with bed and breakfast and now magic.
The body of that awful arsonist or whatever turned to dust in the wind and it felt to him like the farm house somehow grew.
Even the strangeness of the moon seemed to lessen over the night sky but came back stronger away from the orchard.
Bryan was frightened and was trying to hide it behind his normal nonsense but his trembling hands and sudden looks at shadows and other people spelled out his stress at the situation.
"All right family, I have work to do. " Bryan said as he headed out of the hospital and back to the apple orchard.