Shadows of Suferal

The walk back to the inn was filled with an awkward silence. Holly opened her mouth, trying to ask him about his sister but she thought better of it and quickly shut her mouth. She began to bite her lip and twist her hair around her finger.

The look on Mischal’s face made her not try to communicate with him, his brisk pace becoming a bit too quick for her. He never looked back and kept marching. He had exchanged some furious words with Will and left him gobsmacked. Even Dash was stunned. ‘For such a kind person, Mischal sure was harsh,’ Holly thought.

Reaching the back lane of the inn, Holly plucked up her courage and drew in a breath.
“Are you going to tell me what that was about?” Holly asked, bracing herself for his reply.
“I’d rather not.”
“Whatever it was must have been pretty important and I can’t just ignore it. Are we just going back o being normal?”
“Yes, it’s water under the bridge.” He mimicked himself form earlier with a harsher tone.
“What?”
“It’s none of your business! So keep your ignorant, I’m so helpless’ self out of my life.”
“I know you must be upset but still, you don’t need to say stuff like that! What you said to Will was really horrible. He was trying to be helpful.”
“I don’t need your opinion, no one else does, and that’s why you were in the forest alone!”

That struck Holly, hard. Tears prickled her eyes but she vowed not to cry in front of him. She couldn’t reply; the wind had been knocked out of her. Mischal watched her, his face still a violent shade of red and his breathing erratic. He waited for her to say something instead she turned on her heels and fled. He watched her leave still furious then marched into the inn and slammed the door.

Holly kept walking through street after street. She wasn’t going to stay with an insensitive idiot like him. She didn’t know where she was going and she didn’t care.

Finally, after hours of walking, she found herself at the market again. She couldn’t bring herself to go home; after all it wasn’t her home anymore. Holly didn’t know where to go. The market vendors were beginning to pack away their merchandise.

Holly moved to the archway and sank down to the floor and blew out a breath. She had managed to alienate herself again. Her limbs ached as she relaxed and shut her eyes trying to clear her mind.

“You shouldn’t be sitting there,” A jolly voice said, echoing in the archway.

Holly opened her eyes quickly and saw Will looking down at her. She smiled politely and began to stand up. A tug at her arm threatened to knock her balance. Straightening herself up, Holly saw Dash hovering near her arm.

“Where’s Mischal?” Dash wondered.
“We had an argument and it’s hard to explain,” She trailed off.
“That Mischal always knows the wrong thing to say.” Will explained.

They stood as if contemplating it. The sound of Dash’s wings filled the silence.

“Well I suppose you could help us for a bit, we could use an extra pair of hands. Come on.” Will offered.

They walked back towards Will’s stall where the other fairies were busy packing up. They saw Holly and flew towards her in a whirlwind of chatter.

“Holly is going to help us now,” Will informed. He grabbed a crate and weighing it in his hands, decided it was light enough and passed it to Holly. “Daisy, Dash take Holly back to the house, the rest of you all of you follow them, I have to take care of something first.”

Dash eager to get home grabbed Holly’s sleeve and began to tug: “This way.”

Holly followed Daisy who outshone the rest of the fairies with her silver glow every moment was so delicate and graceful. She spun and twirled while she led the world. Dash on the other hand, was a bundle of energy, like a firework he shot into the sky and like a bullet came back to the ground. His energy rubbed off on the other fairies and Holly. Soon they were laughing and joking.

They kept walking the row of buildings spreading out until there were only a few, sporadically placed. They walked across grassland to a fence with a locked gate. Dash quickly opened the gate and they found themselves in a paradise. Beautiful gardens, with two cabins were kept away from the world in this fenced oasis.

Once inside the garden Holly put down the crate and stared in awe. It was beautiful. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The fairies followed suit and put down their packages and few around the garden ducking and diving between the flowers. Dash flew back to Holly.

“Come on, we better get in and put the stock away before Will complains, again,”

Holly nodded and followed Dash. He pulled out a key from the flower bed and passed it to Holly.

“Open the door,” He commanded.

Holly followed the orders and opened the large wooden door. A large shape bound out of the darkness of the hut and knocked her on the floor. She screamed with shock and tried to grab her knife.

“Holly, it’s only Castie!” Dash laughed.

Holly looked up and a large brown wolf-like dog stood watching her, panting. Its large brown eyes suggested it wanted to play.

She jumped to her feet and stroked Castie. The rest of the fairies gathered round giggling as they joined in with showering Castie with affection.

Suddenly Castie’s ears pricked up and he stood to his full height and watched the gate. He slowly walked to the gate as the fairies just as confused did the same.

Someone was approaching. Castie ran out the gate as Holly and the fairies followed.

“Castie!”
“Castie-come back!”

Holly stopped dead in her tracks. At the end of the field was Mischal. Castie jumped up on him as Mischal stroked him.

Shock turned to anger and Holly stormed towards him.

“You always did know when I was near,” She heard Mischal telling Castie. He stopped and observes as Holly got closer.

“Why are you here?” She asked furious.
“Will told me where you would be, I came to-”
“Don’t say apologise! I was trying to help and you threw it back in my face!”
“Look, I’m sorry, I can explain, Just give me a chance. Please.”
“Fine one chance, explain away.”
“Not here,” He then turned to Dash, “Go home we’ll be back soon, get Castie back in.”

Dash nodded and the others followed him back to the cabin. Holly and Mischal watched them until they were no longer visible. Holly’s chest rose fast, still full of anger.

“Come on,” He muttered. Holly walked alongside him back into the city, back into the alley ways. They stood into front of a door that led under the street.

“I had a sister once, she was my older sister. A few years ago, she was looking after the inn, while I was with mother at the infirmary since she was sick. I went back to the inn the next day and it was a mess, worst of all, she was gone. I waited and waited and she never came back. Mother was a mess, her daughter had gone, we didn’t know where. We still don’t know where.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry. Is that what Will meant- she was taken by one of those things?”

“You don’t have to apologise, it’s me apologising, remember. We think it could be one of those things but we don’t know. They didn’t demand anything. They just took our money and Grace. I haven’t been able to say her name. I‘ve looked everywhere for her and still do. But there isn’t a trace of her.”

“You will find her one day, I’m sure. I shouldn’t have asked before about it. It must be so hard for you to talk about it.”

“Yeah and it still is. So now you know. Are you going to come back to the inn?”

“I don’t know, do you want me to?”

“Yes, we need you, besides who will make sure I do work?” He chuckled. “But first we need to go back to Will’s he promised to make dinner, since he forced me to meet you.”

Mischal took Holly by the arm and off they went with their conflict behind them.