X Marks the Faerie

It was dark now and all the faerie folk were indoors, singing and drinking merrily. I thought back on all the events of earlier in the day. Gaylen had professed his love to me in front of the entire faerie kingdom, took on a perilous quest that might certainly be the end of his mortal life, and I'm trapped in a cage. I don't know whether to cry, laugh or scream. If I could cut myself into pieces just to get through this cage, I would...only I wouldn't be able to save Gaylen if I were dead.

I punched one of the wooden bars. My knuckles started bleeding, which was only an inkling of what might happen to Gaylen. My heart yearned for him so, I just want to be in his arms right now. To tell him how I truly feel and throw away all the pretense I've been giving him. He had already set off on his journey and it might be the last I ever see of him. I started crying. I should have never came back to my world. If only I could go back, I would gladly give up having my faerie wings for a life of mortal love. Too late now, I thought bitterly as I cried more.

"There, there. Surely there's something I can do to take away your tears." A voice spoke out right in front of me.

"Do I know you?" I asked calmly, almost wondering if it were but a dream.

"Oh, you know me, Miss, we've had many a late night walk together. Also, we've almost been captured by Trolls more times than we'd like to admit, if that rings a bell Princess." The voice said.

I tried to place where I had heard the voice and thought of what she just said. "Trolls..." I let it fall from my lips in a whisper when the memory came back. I smiled and a sudden rush of happiness filled my chest. "Saerien!" She chuckled and stepped through the shadows into my line of sight. Her long blond hair fell neatly on her shoulders. There was flowers woven into her hair, and her hazel eyes seemed to be brown in this darkness. "I am glad that you remember. Now to get you out of here and to Gaylen."

I raised a brow. "How do you propose you get me out of here? You're only a wood elf after all." Saerien chuckled again. "I'm a spellweaver now. I've been practicing for quite some time, and I can get you out of here with no problem at all." I smiled and shook my head. "You always surprise me Saerien." I said and stepped up and hugged her. She was much taller than me, but most wood elves were tall. She hugged me back. She stepped away, grasping her hand in mine.

"Hold on and close your eyes." I done as I was told and when I re-opened my eyes, we were free from the cage and on a path in the woods. I was amazed and turned to her. "One day, you're going to tell me how you do that." She smirked. "It's magic. A magician never tells their secrets." I laughed. "You ,my friend, are no magician. You are a friend, and friends tell all." She thought about this and nodded. "Alright, one day I will. But right now, we have to get you to Gaylen. He's headed on this path. He's about ten minutes ahead of us."

I sighed. "I cannot fly, nor will I be able to run. When I was captured, I hurt my leg." I said and showed her the deep gash in my leg that had been taken care of once they had imprisoned me. She nodded.

"That's no problem." She whistled a sharp whistle and two white unicorns trotted towards us. I was in awe. It was hard to come across a unicorn of such beauty here.

"How did you-" She cut me off. "Trained. My clan rescues them and in return they help us." I nodded and she helped me up on one of the unicorns.

"Her name is Cortesia. It means the bold one." I smiled and patted Cortesia's neck. "She's definitely beautiful." I noticed the little detail in her mane. The light grey freckles that peppered her flanks. She was tall too, or maybe I was just short. I laughed to myself and looked over at Saerien.

"What's your unicorn's name?" She smiled. "Boaz." I smiled. "Weird, but unique. What does that mean?" She swung up on Boaz quickly. "Swift and strong. And she's every bit of that." I laughed. "Well, we'll see." She laughed and we both kicked them into a gallop.

We rode along the trail until we came across a small clearing next to the path in the forest. At that moment, the unicorns started whining and sensing their uneasiness and the possibility that they were about to buck, as any fae creature would, we leaped off.

"What's wrong girls?" Saerien asked.

Boaz gave a darting look in the direction to the left of the path, and with that, the unicorns both took off. I looked where Boaz had pointed us and noticed some of Udekaine's feathers on the ground.

"They were here!" I exclaimed. "Shh...and they still might be, I fear something might have happened. There was a reason the unicorns were spooked." Saerien warned.

"What could possibly have happened? Goblins are too far from here and pixies aren't around these parts either." I questioned.

"The forest is quite a different place since you've been gone, dear friend. It's not as pure as it once was." Saerien said.

"I'll kill any creature that lays a hand on Gaylen. Lets follow these feathers shall we." I said firmly.

We started walking in the direction of the feathers, and passed through the trees into the forest and sure enough, a thin but faithful trail of feathers awaited us. It seemed as if there had been a struggle considering all the feathers strewn about. We walked on until we heard a scream of pain.
We quickly ran in the direction of it, and saw a small house with a fire outside of it. Gaylen was tied to a chair beside the fire and the gryphon was in a cage. In front of Gaylen, stood two decrepit old women. One of them held a twisted looking dagger dripping wet from blood most likely and the other old woman was clawing at Gaylen's arms sadistically.

"Ga-" I started to scream, but Saerien put her hand over my mouth. "We need to be extremely careful how we handle this." Saerien told me.

"Why? We can save him now, we have the element of surprise." I said

"Those are no ordinary hags. They are the Crimson Witches." Saerien told me.

"Witches? They exist? I thought my father killed the last of them ages ago." I said shocked.

"We had thought so too, but these two witches have put their mark upon this forest not that long ago, and even the goblins are said to be in fear of them. We've lost many a wood elf to the likes of them." Saerien told me.

Witches were not going to be easy to deal with, especially without my wings. They would cut the heart out of a faerie without so much a blink of an eye and the words of a witch hold a dark heeding power to them. Neither look nor listen to them, my father had always told me. There's only one way we can save Gaylen and Udekaine. There's no guarantees as to it working and I just pray that Gaylen can hold on a little longer while we prepare our rescue.