Chapter 39 - Wings & Tails

The wind filtered through the saplings around the trail and the smell of wild mint filled the air. Tilting his head back as he gulped greedily from his waterskin, Cadryn could make out three tiny stars between the leaves above, they winked, mockingly. He felt the sweat down his back cooling with the breeze and shook out his shoulders. After a minute of peace, Cadryn remember he had not replied to Felina’s taunt.

“I doubt I’d have any luck,” he said, stooping to pick up the lantern. Felina did not reply and seeking with the beam of light, she was nowhere to be found. “Great, she wants to play hide and seek I guess.”

Trudging onward down the trail as it worked along the backside of the cliff ridge between two rises of pines, Cadryn found a stream and in it; a boot print. Following it toward the cliff edge, he was finally free of the shading canopy and oppressive closeness of the undergrowth. A new sound dominated the air in the form of the low shush shushing of the Hoarfrost Sea where it chewed at the base of the cliff far below.

Ahead, a scree of moss covered rocks flanked a soft decline to where the stream had cut down into the cliff side. The northern side of the stream rose sharply into an overhang which cast a deeper shadow on the ground below, the void could contain anything or nothing. Above, the sky was clear save a few puffy silvered clouds moving along with the strong wind over the distant waves of the sea.

“Pretty, ain’t it?” Felina said from directly behind Cadryn as her thumb dug into his kidney. “Gotcha!”

Cadryn’s back spasmed and he nearly tripped on the slick ground. She was too sneaky by far. In the wild careening of the lantern’s beam, something caught the light from beneath the overhang: eyes.

“You saw it,” he said, righting himself.

“Yeah, let’s check it,” Felina replied, suddenly serious.

As if in reply to their statement, the rattling of gravel bouncing down slope met their approach to the overhang. Cadryn left the lantern behind, the moon enough to see by here, and followed a step behind Felina as she slinked closer. Peering over the edge, she smacked a hand down on the stone.

“It’s just you little shits,” she said, disgusted. “False alarm, Cadryn.”

“Cadryn!?” piped up a sharp, tiny, voice from beyond the line of rocks. A minuscule humanoid appeared, barely taller than Cadryn’s boot. It was draped in the furs of a small animal, maybe a squirrel, and a bone-tipped spear hung in a lazy grip from one of its little hands. The eyes were two tiny obsidian flecks, sparkling in the moonlight above a doll’s face. It out a bare chest and pointed at him. “Is you Cadryn?”

“I am,” Cadryn replied.

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The little man turned back and yelled into the depression behind him, “It’s him! Get up here and he can settle this for us!”

Felina moved off the side and settled down on a boulder, a satisfied look spreading from her lips all the way up to the eyes.

“You knew they were up here,” Cadryn muttered, “What is this?”

“A court!” shrieked up a new comer, this one was slightly taller, with a crown craved from an acorn. “Nine has told us of you, Cadryn Bence, so you are known to us.”

“He is known,” repeated several other small voices as a total of eleven of the tiny fae emerged from the overhang. They all bore similar clothing, but one thing seemed to distinguish them: half had small, dragonfly like wings, the others, bushy tails. They arranged themselves as two opposing gangs might, and sat down on appropriately sized rocks. They stared in silent animosity for a short while, then the crowned elder turned to Cadryn and spoke once more.

“We have a matter of grave severity that needs addressing. Nine told us of you; said ‘He is good at listening.’ and so we count it as a blessing of our Lord Nine that you have come tonight to hear our case.”

Felina chewed on a nail to keep from laughing or smiling too much.

“I will do my best,” Cadryn said, and seeing their expectant look, crouched down to sit awkwardly on a rock to one side of the assembled court. The Elder seemed pleased, and turned to the tailed-fae. A female among them wearing a rabbit skull for a helmet and round with child, stood up from her rock. Rising to her fullest height, she pointed at the other side with a sharply nailed finger.

“These maggot brained ghouls believe they have the sole right to use the stream at dusk, when the stones are oh so warm and the waters cool. All because they must catch the disgusting insects they love to eat.”

A chittering droning answered from the winged-fae and several leaned forward, but the elder held up his crown for peace, waving it like a flag. He gestured that the bushy one sit, and bade the other side’s representative speak. The largest, with an iridescent pair of wings the size of a man’s hands, rose slowly. His chest covered was in layers of beetle shells that gave off a soft clicking with the movement as they slid into a new positions.

“And these flea-ridden vermin spend all day splashing about the stream, running off our game. It’s only when they’ve worn themselves ragged with trivial idiocy that we can run them off to get the day’s hunting done.”

Sharp chirping calls came from the tailed-fae at this and both sides whispered angry words amongst themselves. All the while they made every rude gesture, and some Cadryn did not know, at one their foes.

“You see,” the Elder said, looking up sadly at Cadryn, “they’re at an impasse and I fear blood will be spilled soon if an accord is not reached.”

Cadryn took a deep breath, pinched the bridge of his nose with thumb and fore-finger. Years of political and tactical training at the Academy, and here he was, arbitrating stream rights for little fae. Opening his eyes, he found them all staring at him now, eager for a judgement.

“Just swap times,” he said plainly. “The Wings can have it in the daylight, when the bugs are active. The Tails can lounge at dusk.”

They stared at him.

The Elder twisted his crown with nervous hands, then shrugged.

“The Bence, has spoken,” he shouted, putting his crown back on.

“The Bence has spoken,” the others repeated, with a mixture of resignation and relief. The fae then began to filter away, the tailed back into the rocky overhang, the winged ones taking flight to buzz off into the undergrowth. When they were gone, Felina clapped her hands together slowly.

“The, fuck, was that?” Cadryn said, still sitting on his rock.

“Fae shit, don’t try to understand it, I don’t,” she answered before patting him on the shoulder. “Come on now, we got another five leagues of deep dark woods to clear.”

Rising to follow her, Cadryn found the looming pines a little less scary than before.