X Marks the Faerie

Something felt off balance as I followed her into the cottage. As we entered I saw her freeze and throw her hand to her eye as if it hurt real bad. I started to worry. "Are you okay?" I asked and she looked at me. "There's nothing wrong with my eye?" She seemed to be trembling. "No... unless having beautiful eyes is wrong." I smiled at her. She was truly beautiful. Never in my life would I ever believe that I would fall in love with a faerie. Heck, a couple days ago, I didn't even think they existed, and now here I am, traveling through a realm with one.

I saw her blush and knew that my words got to her. It made me smile even more. She looked around and her eyes landed on a glass with some kind of red stuff in it. She walked towards it and I got nervous. I had a bad feeling something was going to happen. I watched her push a old rickety chair out of the way and pick up the glass. "You're not going to drink that are you?" I asked her, my voice sounding nervous. "No." She told me, but for some reason I didn't believe her.

She started to put it down and I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding until she picked the glass up and started drinking it. "What are you doing??!?" I cried and took a step forward, but I was thrown from the cottage. I watched it crumble away with Kysha inside. I heard her yell my name, and I pushed forward where the cottage was falling apart. "KYSHA!" I screamed. The cottage vanished but in it's place there was a gaping hole in the ground. I ran to the edge and looked down, but all I could see was darkness.

This wasn't good. I had to get Kysha back, but I had no clue how to get her back. My locket around my neck felt hot and so automatically my hand went up to hold it. I stared at it for a minute and released it. I would try my hardest to get Kysha back. I turned away from the hole and walked to the path and started down it.

If only I had some rope, but of course, that was only a wish, and even though I was in Faerieland, that didn't mean that all my dreams were going to come true. This was starting to seem like a harsh world. I kept walking but stopped when I heard a noise. I looked around and didn't see anything. I started forward again, a bit more cautious than I was before the noise.

I heard the noise again and this time I called out. "Who's there? Show yourself." I tried to sound tough, and hard, but I think I failed at it. I looked up at the trees. It's where the sound originated from and I called to it again. "Show yourself!" This time I think I had the voice down. The trees moved and some leaves rained down at me. A creature came down and landed before me. It startled me because I wasn't sure what the thing was. It looked like an eagle, but it had a large cat body. It stared at me.

I swallowed hard and took a step back. "Um. Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you." It looked at me some more before it actually spoke. "I'm not here to hurt you young man, and you shouldn't be afraid of me." I was stunned that it had spoke and so I shook my head to clear my mind. "Wait. I shouldn't be afraid? You're like 10 times bigger than me. You have a beak and talons, and I'm supposed to say, 'Oh, I'm not afraid?' I just about wet myself when you swooped down out of the trees. " The thing chuckled.

"What are you anyways?" I took another step back. The thing studied me for a minute. "I am a Gryphon. My name is Udekaine. I saw what happened in the cottage. You wanted a rope and now you have me. Climb on and we shall go rescue the princess."

I stood dumbfounded. "You mean you watched the entire thing happen." Udekaine nodded. I looked away and then back at it. "So you just watched? You didn't think that you might need to swoop down and save the day?" I was quite angry with the fact that this mystical creature was there and didn't bother to offer his services until now. Was this realm crazy or just stupid.

The creature looked at me. "We Gryphons are a noble breed and act according to the will of the wind. The wind was not right at that moment, so I laid still." I shook my head, there will be time later to be frustrated at this random creature. Right now, we must save Kysha. "Well then, off to save the princess, shall we?" I put cornily. The Gryphon grabbed me with his talons and tossed me on his back so quick I barely had time to blink an eye. "Woahhh!" I managed to yell out. "Hold on!" Udekaine warned. He then leaped into the air and swooped down into the hole.

The air in the hole was surpisingly pleasant and smelt of something sweet enough to eat. The darkness was a little creepy though but Udekaine seemed to be able to see in the dark. Down, down we went for several minutes before leveling out and flying straight for awhile. Then it seemed as if we were flying right back up and wouldn't you know, we were! For there was light once again. We flew up out of the hole and with the landing I lost grip, falling off the Gryphon and rolling on the soft ground. "Soft ground.." I muttered. I looked at the ground, and it was covered with dandelions seeds. It was beautiful. I stood up and to my shock, I was thoroughly surprised as to who Kysha's captors were.

Hundreds of Faeries surrounded me and they seemed to almost have a look of disgust at the sight of me. "Well now, here is the source of our measly little problem." A voice echoed from behind me. I turned around to see a Faerie not looking much older than me sitting atop a throne made up of glowing red sticks and luminating blue rocks. "Problem? I'm here to help Kysha! Who are you? I figured Kysha's father would be older than her..." I said. "Oh, I'm not Kysha's father." He said with a sad look on his face.

"I'm her brother, Teasel. Our father was killed in the Great Pixie/Faerie War two winters ago. I carry on his will to the best of my ability, and I do know that having Kysha come back here with a human would have greatly upset him. She was sentenced to slumber until she had learned her lesson of not falling in love with lesser things." He spat out with disgust.

"What do you mean fall in love with lesser things? How do you know she hasn't learned her lesson?" I asked fiercly. "Oh, we have a magical item keeping tabs on her, it changes color along with her love. We knew when she awoke, and the stone did change color. We were all ecstatic for her return. But then.....then.....YOU happened. Somehow you pathetic little mortal tricked her into falling for you, and thus the stone changed once more."

"ME?!? She's in love with me?" I said out of surprise and happiness. "Oh don't play dumb with us foolish human." He sneered. All the faeries started murmuring. Teasel laughed. "It's ok, my faerie folk, this will all be resolved soon." He raised his hand and silence overtook the crowd. He then wiggled his fingers, and upon their command, a cage, attached to a rope, lowered from the tree tops.

I looked at what the cage held, and just as I expected, it was Kysha. "Gaylen!! I'm sorry!" She cried out. "Please, just let him go..." She begged to her brother. "Let him go? Sure, only if he leaves here at once. I suppose I'm feeling merciful today." Teasel said. "Oh no, I'm not leaving without you! I love you!" I said so boldly it shocked me. Everyone gasped and the murmuring got louder than before. "SILENCE!!" Teasel screamed. "Do you wish to upset the balance of nature? I should have you killed right now!" He screeched.

"NOOOO!" Kysha screamed out. At that moment, the Gryphon stood upright and beat out his wings, stirring up wind that almost knocked everyone to the ground. "Actually, there is something he can do..." Udekaine spoke. "No, you can't be serious. Well, he'd die trying..." Teasel laughed. "Perhaps. But that is his decision to make. Gaylen....would you like to know?" Udekaine asked me. "Yes, yes. Of course! What is it Udekaine?" I urgently asked. "You have to bring back the head of the goblin king and it's no easy task, it was attempted and failed by Kysha's previous suitor." I looked at Kysha and she looked away, almost as if she looked ashamed. "You can't do that for me, I'm not as great as you think I am." Kysha said softly.

"That's for me to decide. A person doesn't choose who to love, it just happens and if I leave now, I would not only be betraying you, I would be betraying love itself." I said with tears in my eyes. I was afraid but the feelings welling up inside of me seemed to be keeping me strong. "Well, if you're that eager to die, then I bid thee a safe journey to death." Teasel smiled sadistically at me. "Oh I won't be dying anytime soon Faerie King. Don't you watch movies? Love conquers all." I said wiping the tears from my eyes.