Sarah set up her small tent, while chatting with John and Lucy. Thaddeus’s caravan had finally stopped for the day. The pixies’ language skills had improved immensely over the weeks, although they enjoyed teaching Sarah their musical Pixish more than learning Sarah’s “human talk.” Sarah understood quite a bit, which surprised the pixies. The smallest changes in intonation or gesture greatly changed the meaning. The pixies quickly realized that, in “human talk,” hand gestures meant nothing. On the other hand, Pixish involved the entire body, including their wings. Sarah tried her best, but speaking it required her to occasionally jump in the air flapping her arms, which meant she only practiced in the company of her small friends. Also she had become quite careful only to have conversations far from where people might overhear.
John spun in the air in front of her, laughing. Lucy was giggling too. Sarah waited to find out what she had accidentally said. She had supposedly asked if they would like her to get them some food. However, in Pixish, “food” was always “foodstuffs,” for some reason. The pixies’ musical laughter slowly faded.
“Oh, I readily accept your offer, Sarah. Though I do think that your lifetime aspirations should be elevated,” John said. Lucy just laughed more in response.
“Okay, what did I say this time?” Sarah asked.
“I assume you were proposing to John that you would obtain delicious foodstuffs for him?” asked Lucy.
“See! Lucy understood what I said,” Sarah said.
“Yes, yes, indeed,” John said, while laughing. “However, you paused at the wrong time, and you spun to the left, not to the right.”
“Ha, ha, very funny, John. Now what did I say?”
John smiled at Lucy. “You just proposed that I can eat on you, and you would be my food-stool,” he said.
“Hilarious,” she said sarcastically. “Are you two hungry?” The pixies nodded, and Sarah left her tent to get some provisions. The journey home had taken longer than Sarah had expected, though, as always with Thaddeus, the food remained plentiful.
She set up a few tiny plates and bowls for the small creatures, and dished out helpings she had pilfered from Thaddeus’s table. John flew over and sat on the edge of her bowl while they ate.
“Hey, Sarah, what’s it like being a human? You guys are always inventing devices and changing your environments. And what’s it like to be so big all the time?” John said, hovering in front of her face.
Sarah laughed, the pixies’ odd questions had become a natural part of their interactions.
“Well, John, I’m not sure how to answer that. Humans like to create. I suppose some more than others. We also learn from our predecessors, so that each time we make something, it is hopefully better than before. But humans are driven by more than objects. Emotion plays huge roles in what drives us. Emotions and experiences shape us. Two humans can experience the same tragedy, yet react completely differently,” Sarah said.
Sarah thought back to a few years earlier. At first anger had fueled her. She had thought becoming the servant of a refugee from Zantia would have helped in her goal toward revenge. She had come to dislike Thaddeus but so did nearly every other individual who came in contact with the man. He was not forthcoming with any information about Zantia. She had tried, but he never gave her any indication that he knew anything about the war or how she could fight against whatever evil had taken her family from her. She had no clue why her house had been targeted or how to find more information. Her desire for vengeance faded with time. However, she continued to feel a pull toward something unknown. She could always sense a longing within her that was difficult to describe.
Sarah felt a twinge of sadness, thinking about her parents and the house fire. She loved her new pixie friends, but emotional complexities seem foreign to them. Pixies trusted everyone implicitly. If some creature came to a troop of pixies and devoured half, Sarah figured the surviving half would move on, never looking back.
At first Sarah wanted to find out who had destroyed her family and to make them pay. How do you explain the desire for revenge to creatures who barely understand the concepts of danger and deceit? Her family, her safety, and what remained of her innocence had been ripped and burned from her that night.
Sarah no longer desired revenge. But she could not deny the tugging sensation she felt. Sometimes she thought it was loneliness, sometimes homesickness, but other times she could feel a specific direction she should go. She had felt this especially strongly in Haynis. Maybe it was just wanderlust. She had lived most of her life in a small cabin near the woods. Now she could finally go out and explore the world. Sarah realized how deeply she missed her family and smiled to herself, seeing her two pixie friends were still staring at her.
Sarah swallowed, realizing she had zoned out. She glanced back at the two pixies. “What’s it like being pixies, always zipping around all over the place? Don’t you guys ever get tired?”
“Well, the more we fly, the more ambient energy we absorb,” John said, as if this explained everything.
Sarah looked blankly at him.
John continued. “Pixies have to fly. It circulates our magic, but we really cannot use our magic till we are maxed out. Also, after we use it, we are utterly exhausted. We are as helpless as—how do you put it?—as helpless as infant canines. You know, most people do not even know that we can …” John paused.
“Wait, you can do magic?” Sarah asked. “What can you do?”
John looked at her. Maybe he had revealed too much, but then he decided to continue.
“We can give whatever Talents we have to another creature, though not permanently. Much like humans, pixies have greatly varying abilities which, through magic, we can imbue temporarily. Pixie magic only lasts a short time, maybe an hour or so. Also there is not a pixie I know who can really control it,” John said, hovering. “Pixie magic rarely happens as planned.”
“What do you mean?” asked Sarah.
John paused, drinking deeply from his thimble of punch.
“You know, to humans, pixies seem to have acquired a unique reputation. Humans see pixies as curious, mischievous, unpredictable, and at times ridiculous,” John said.
“Wheeeeeeee!” cried Lucy, flying around Sarah’s head. She flew in a few tight circles, then accidentally caught a leg in Sarah’s hair, losing control and colliding with the side of the tent.
“I don’t know where pixies could have gotten such an unfair reputation,” Sarah said ironically.
“Exactly!” agreed John, not catching Sarah’s sarcasm. “Yet I must admit that, in regard to our magic, this reputation is quite correct. Our magic is always unpredictable. The intention is not always the result. Feelings that we might not admit even to ourselves become revealed in our magic. Pixies cannot hide their true emotions when using magic.”
“So if you cast the same spell for someone you liked and for someone you hated, you might get different results?” Sarah asked.
“Exactly, but pixies do not have ‘spells’ like human wizards practicing magic. We concentrate on desires and release the accumulated energy, and then something happens. The result is rarely the anticipated expectation, but customarily the general intention is usually fulfilled,” he said.
Sarah laughed. “The ‘general intention’ usually happens? You make it sound like you never know what will happen when you use your magic.”
John smiled. “What would be the fun in knowing all the consequences in our engagements?”
“Wheeeeeeeee!” Lucy repeated. She then flew down and landed on Sarah’s bent knee. She extended her arms to her side and fell back, landing on the blanket with a laugh.
“I know. I’ll use my magic to convey precisely to you what it is like being a pixie!” said Lucy, who was still on her back on the blanket, staring straight up at the top of the tent.
John suddenly became much more serious and flew over to Lucy and spoke quickly in Pixish. Sarah had a difficult time understanding it when they spoke so fast, but she caught that John thought it might not be a good idea. Lucy ignored him.
Lucy flew up to Sarah and hovered, holding her hand out, palm up. Sarah held out her palm, and Lucy landed on it. Lucy then held both arms straight. At first, nothing happened. Then a small pinprick of pink light appeared between Lucy’s hands. The pinprick slowly grew into an intensely bright glowing orb. It continued to expand until it surrounded Lucy. It kept growing, and the light overlapped Sarah’s hands.
Sarah could feel the warmth flow through her. The sensation grew to incorporate all her senses. She could smell the freshness of a forest after the rain; she could feel the love of a friend, and she could see thousands of pixies on the edges of her vision smiling at her. The glowing pink orb continued to grow until it enveloped Sarah completely. Warmth flowed through her whole body. She felt light as air and happy.
Suddenly the light exploded into her, and she felt as if she had taken a large gasp of freezing air. Sarah opened her eyes in surprise. The tent looked exactly the same, yet in sharper contrast. Colors jumped out at her, and she could see auras around most of the objects in the room. She could taste the air and clearly hear the sounds of the conversations of the other servants in the distance outside. The sensation of happiness still bubbled through her. Sarah felt fantastic. She felt more alive and vibrant than ever before. Suddenly she began noticing a cramping discomfort in her back, which progressed quickly into pain.
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Sarah tore off her shirt and felt her back growing outward.
She had wings!
They took up the entire tent. Four clear gossamer wings spread from the center of Sarah’s back. Sarah looked down at her tiny friends.
Lucy was lying on her back looking up, exhausted. She noticed Sarah looking down at her and gave her a quick thumbs-up before her arm flopped back to the ground. John just stared at Sarah.
John looked down at Lucy and quickly rattled in Pixish, “What were you thinking? You made her into a giant pixie? You could have altered her spirit! You could have caused her to shrink to our size!”
“She’s fine,” Lucy said from the ground. “I like her too much to endanger her, and how else will she ever really know what it’s like?”
Sarah, on the other hand, had run out of the tent and stretched her wings. She buzzed them tentatively and found herself floating upward. The shock of being off the ground startled her so that she stopped and quickly fell. She suddenly realized, if she were seen outside her tent with giant wings, Gumble would fire her on the spot. Sarah figured she must have also inherited the pixie tendency to act first and think second. She looked around with a bemused grin on her face and ran back into the tent.
Sarah looked down at them. “This is amazing! I finally get it!” Sarah said in rapid Pixish, her gossamer wings fluttering appropriately for the first time.
John gaped at Sarah. “That was perfect Pixish,” he said quietly.
“I know! I can finally understand the intricacies and inflections!” Sarah said. “Whoa, did I just say that in Pixish?”
“Well, when one’s entire body is involved in communication, efficiency naturally follows,” Lucy said, still on the ground. She had not moved from the spot on the floor where she had fallen. Sarah reached down to her small friend.
“You look terrible,” Sarah said, gently lifting the tiny pixie.
“Using magic exhausts us entirely. I just need to rest.”
Sarah set Lucy down on a bed of linens. John buzzed over, floating near Lucy.
“All right, it’s official. Lucy is insane. But, to your benefit, it seems her magic has provided you a unique opportunity. Shall we go?” asked John.
Sarah smiled. “Absolutely.”
John led her away from the encampment to a small field they had passed earlier. The lush grass felt wonderful under Sarah’s bare feet. The smells seemed to be alive.
“I have never actually taught anyone how to do this. Pixies fly without trying, and you are not really a pixie, but you have similar attributes. Just remember to trust your wings. Try to stay low. Normally pixies can crash pretty hard without any damage, because we are so light. You on the other hand have significantly more weight—”
“Hey now!” said Sarah laughing.
“—and if you crash, you could cause significantly more damage as a result,” he finished.
“I cannot believe I am receiving words of caution from a pixie. You two are about the most reckless pair I have ever encountered. I can’t count the times I thought one of you two nearly came to your untimely end, the way you fly and crash and zoom so erratically,” she said.
“I know it might appear that way, but our reflexes are more honed than you realize. For example …” He grabbed a handful of rocks and rapidly threw them at Sarah. The speed at which he sent the projectiles made his arm appear as a blur, and the pebbles flew straight at her.
With little effort she caught every single pebble with her open hand.
“Whoa! How did you do that? On second thought, how did I do that?” she asked. She looked down at her hand and counted them. Thirty-three pebbles in about three seconds.
“Well, it seems you also gained increased reflexes as well. Let us see how well you fly, shall we?”
Sarah’s face beamed. She concentrated on her new appendages on her back and willed them to move. They lamely bent forward and back slowly, responding to her thoughts. Okay, she thought, I can do this. She then tried to flap her wings, as she had earlier outside the tent. The four wings responded by flapping up and down, but Sarah remained on the ground. She attempted again while John watched.
“What am I doing wrong?” she asked.
“You are not a bird. You need to buzz, not flap. Let your wings work independently of your thought. Relax and let them pull you up on their own accord. Manually forcing independent motion is an exercise in impossibility,” John said. He quickly flew over to her and held out his hand. Sarah held out hers, and he landed in her palm.
“Watch closely,” he said.
Sarah brought the small creature close to her face. John slowed his wings. She could see his face relax and watched the wings go from a slow flutter to a fast blur, as he rose a few inches off her hand. He repeated this twice and then hovered in front of her, smiling.
“Think of a dragonfly. Try not to overly involve your consciousness. Let your instincts override your actions,” John said.
She relaxed her body. In doing so, the feeling of happiness again bubbled through her. She took a deep breath and let it out, smiling to herself. The warm feeling rushed through her again. She thought of her two friends and of any number of their various antics. She thought about Lucy flying for the sheer joy of it.
John flew in front of her face. “Maintain that emerging state of mind, Sarah. Now open your eyes.”
Sarah opened her eyes. She was hovering ten feet off the ground. She looked at John with a grin, and he grinned back. John flew backward. He then picked up speed, and Sarah followed, laughing.
They continued to work on turning and hovering in midair. She began to understand how her emotions altered her control, and she started relaxing and trusting her wings.
They worked on flight for twenty minutes, when suddenly a scream pierced the silence of the night. A shriek of absolute pain and despair shocked Sarah. She plummeted to the ground. More screams followed. Sarah looked around in confusion. She had inadvertently flown two thousand paces from the camp.
John flew down to her. “Sarah, those are wivari! Get into a tree now. I have to retrieve Lucy! Go now!” he said, and she saw the blur of him flying toward the camp.
Sarah followed her friend’s advice and quickly ran to a large tree. She tried to relax and fly up to the first branch, but her wings would not listen to her. She looked around and saw that the next closest tree was about one hundred paces away. She again attempted to relax and let her wings lift her to the lowest branch.
Screams continued to escalate from the direction of the camp. The horrible howls echoed in the trees. Sarah jumped up to the lowest branch, but she could not even touch it with her fingertips. Over and over she tried, but the bough remained out of her reach. Screams of agony and terror continued from the camp. Along with the howls, Sarah now heard a sickening laughter, repetitive and barklike, filling her with fear.
Sarah ran at the trunk and pushed off for extra height. Her dew-coated bare feet made for a slippery purchase. Her palm touched the lowest branch before slipping off. Sarah fell to the ground and landed on her back, knocking the wind out of her. She leaned over, catching her breath. The howls sounded much closer than before. She looked toward the campsite and saw a blur of movement, and then quickly realized it was John. He flew in bursts. He would ascend in the air, then drift downward, only to repeat the burst of flight again. He arrived shortly, holding Lucy in his arms. She appeared to be asleep or unconscious.
“Get into the tree now!” he yelled to her in rapid Pixish. “The wivari are coming!”
“I’m trying! I can’t fly!” she responded.
Sarah looked at the edge of the woods and saw it. The body looked like a giant wolf, but that was where the similarities ended. Two large yellow eyes protruded on each side with a mouth that opened vertically instead of horizontally. Even at this distance Sarah could see the glowing eyes. The pupils of its eyes made a sinister X instead of a circle. Four rows of teeth layered the bizarre vertical mouth that split the beast’s face. The mouth gaped widely, and the horrible laughing howl struck Sarah like a blow. It then tilted its head to the side, appearing to see her for the first time. The large eyes focused on Sarah, and she could actually feel its gaze. Sarah felt short of breath, as the beast stared at her from across the field.
The wivari, at first, appeared to be covered in black ink. Sarah realized that the creature was drenched in blood. The laughter echoed again from its mouth. It turned its head sideways, and the mouth that bisected its face now appeared in a horrible grin. Sarah saw movement on the edge of the forest as other creatures slowly walked toward her, yet she could not move. The strange creature just stared at her, and Sarah stared back. Somewhere in the distance she thought she could hear John pleading with her, begging her to get into the tree, but her thoughts were jumbled.
Sarah could see the specks of other wivari galloping toward her, but they were impossibly far away, just dots in the distance. Only the one in front of her was close. She continued to stare at the creature. Intelligent eyes stared through Sarah. The chattering laughter continued to bounce all around her, and she let out a barking laugh of her own.
A small flying creature suddenly appeared directly in front of her face. Sarah looked at the thing in front of her, blocking her vision. The tiny creature was trying to communicate with her. She leaned to the side to see the interesting wivari, but the flying creature continued to block her line of sight.
Go away, she thought.
The harder she tried to look around it, the more the annoying creature would fly right in front of her face. Sarah shooed it away, but it would not leave her alone. Finally she lost her patience and soundly swatted the pest. She looked back to the howling creature coated in blood. It nodded its approval and laughed again. She looked to her side and saw the other wivari were much closer than before. They had been on the edge of the horizon just seconds earlier. How had they come so far so fast? She looked down at the little flying pest she had swatted to the ground. The annoying creature appeared dazed, as it shook its head and looked up at her in confusion.
A thought entered her mind. For a split second she felt filthy, as if she had been horribly violated. She looked down at the dazed creature trying to communicate with her. Sarah felt nauseous and weak. She pushed against the feeling, but it returned. She tried to remember something but could not. Again a thought flowed into her mind. Sarah flinched again in response, as the thoughts pushed into her consciousness. Just take one step. That flying pest will recover soon and begin annoying you once again. Just be rid of that little mosquito once and for all. It is just a bug. You know what to do with pesky tiny bugs, don’t you? Of course you do. You step on little bugs and end their interference.
Sarah lifted her foot and then put it back down on the ground right next to the pixie. Something felt wrong. Then she felt the push in her mind again. Just step on that bug. Don’t let a puny insect tell you what to do! Sarah lifted her foot and placed it over the small form on the ground, pinning it to the ground. Something in her desperately urged her to stop. Another mental push came, stronger this time. Sarah could feel the little worthless pest struggling. She could feel the tiny hands pushing in vain against the bottom of her foot. It wriggled, trying to get away, but Sarah held her foot firmly, enjoying the struggle. Do it! the thought commanded. Something deep in Sarah’s mind screamed at her to stop, but, for some reason, squashing the struggling little bug under her foot seemed like the right thing to do. All she had to do was step forward and crush the life out of that annoying little flying thing.
“Sarah, no!” Lucy cried from above.
Lucy’s voice shattered Sarah’s trance. Sarah snapped back to reality and looked around. She was nearly surrounded by wivari. She quickly lifted her foot, and John flew up to her. Wivari were bounding toward her from all sides, too fast for her to escape. They were only a dozen paces away. Their vertical mouths gaped with row upon row of bloody teeth ready to embrace her. John hovered in front of her with both of his hands extended. A brilliant flash of light surrounded both Sarah and John. She felt herself exploding upward, as the wivari rushed in, snapping a hand’s length from where she had just been. She landed hard onto the upper branches of the tree, twigs and leaves flying everywhere. She looked up and saw John spinning out of control rapidly toward the ground. She quickly leaned over the branches and snatched him from the air. An open-mouthed wivari had been sitting twenty feet below, waiting to catch him from his fall.
“Nice catch,” John said and then collapsed.
The wivari howled at the base of the tree. They paced back and forth, angry to be denied their carnage.
Sarah glanced at the one at the edge of the woods. The creature appeared to be in pain, but it loped to the base of the tree to join the others. Four hounds circled below, but Sarah saw no way for them to reach her.
“What do we do now?” Sarah asked.
The two pixies looked exhausted. John was unconscious in Sarah’s hand. Lucy looked over at her. “We stay up here, until they leave,” she said.
“What if they don’t leave?” Sarah asked.
But the pixies had both passed out. The creatures below laughed and laughed.