24. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lucy
Ablinding, radiant light danced and flickered before my tightly shut eyelids. Startled, I blinked repeatedly, my eyes straining to catch a glimpse of the source. It backed away, revealing the blue wisp floating gracefully in the air. It tapped my nose, leaving a faint tickling sensation, before gracefully twirling away as I stirred. Struggling to lift my head, I strained against the tightness enveloping my body.
Simon’s face was buried in my neck, with locks of my hair in his mouth. It appeared he was chewing my hair, but as I pulled it from his lips, he hummed and tiny snores filled the tent. I tried to hold back my smile while I peeled myself from him.
He was out for the count after a hot make-out session—saying it was to help me forget my worries. His cock was sitting outside his pouch, hard and already at attention. I leaned forward to get a better look, but the whisp came over and pulled at my hair.
I waved it away like a fly and snorted. “What do you want, little troublemaker?” If the light had shoulders, I bet it would slump when it dipped lower. Instead, it floated lower and whirled about the room and left the tent.
The last time I saw a whisp, I had naughty dreams of Simon, got scent-marked and chased by an ogre. Did I want to go down that path?
If these whisps were tiny directions to your fate, I should follow, right? I looked down at Simon’s sleeping form. He was curled around the pillow I was using and took a long pull of my scent.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I grabbed the lantern by the opening of the tent. The fire was low but exuded a great amount of light. The one small flame could light up meters in front of me.
The whisp waited outside, and I put one hand on my hip. “Alright now, you are supposed to show me my fate, right?”
The whisp didn’t answer, of course, and instead spun in a big circle and dashed through the clearing where the cabin and our tent stood and waited at the edge of the tree line.
I bit my lip and gazed back at the tent before I made the ultimate decision to follow.
I mean, why the hell not?
For science!
Instead of walking, I eagerly darted after it, my heart pounding with anticipation. The whisp danced through the air, its faint glow illuminating the surrounding darkness. With each leap, it gracefully bounced up and down from tree limb to tree limb, creating a mesmerizing spectacle.
As I followed the whisp, my footsteps were hushed, barely making a sound on the forest floor. I was led down a narrow path, barely visible, but recently walked. The branches had been cleared aside, revealing the way forward, and the soft soil beneath my feet gave way gently with each step.
As I ventured deeper into the enchanted forest, the aroma of damp earth and the sweet scent of blooming flowers filled the air, creating a sensory symphony.
It was so clean, so fresh. A far cry from any place I had been to on Earth.
I trampled on the purple moss, and tiny lights burst into existence, shimmering like stars beneath my feet, and their ethereal glow enchanting the forest further.
I laughed when the light stopped just ahead of me. It wiggled back and forth in front of the thick brush, as if ready for me to catch it. Holding my lantern, I ran forward and as I jumped to grab it, the whisp disappeared. I fell through the bushes, and I was standing in front of a hot spring.
Of course it was hot, but the air was crisp and cool, with a gentle breeze brushing against my skin. I could see the steam gracefully dancing above the water, creating a mystical aura. Carefully placing the lantern on a smooth rock, I ventured closer to the hot spring. The shimmering water glistened under the moon’s soft glow, beckoning me with its alluring charm.
I stepped closer, and the surface of the water rippled as if in response to my presence.
“Magic,” I muttered to myself, “or it could be just a frog that hopped into the spring.” I shook my head and stared at the beautiful bioluminescent plants in the pool. When I lifted my head to get a better sense of my surroundings, a woman was patiently waiting on a rock high above and waved at me.
I gasped and stepped back. Her head was tilted to the side, her elbow resting on her bent knee as she sat. She was donned in leather pants, an arrow braced on her arm, her bow sitting on her back. On top of her head was an organic, decorative headpiece that could be mistaken for tiny horns with vines wrapped around it.
Was she a fairy of some kind? A fae?
The woman smiled. While she looked youthful, her eyes were old and appeared to be full of wisdom. “At least you remain curious, perhaps it won’t be so difficult for you to see.”
I stepped back, ready to run. I wasn’t about to get caught up in a trap. Those whisps were crazy, and I wasn’t about to get hunted down again.
“Easy there,” the woman said and held up her hands. She sat up straight on the rock. “Not going to hurt you. I don’t hunt your kind.”
Hunt my kind?
She slid off the rock, which was sat beside a trickling waterfall. She must have approached when I was gazing into the pond. The splashing of water hid her footsteps. I never noticed her before.
She was the female version of Peter freaking Pan.
“I haven’t been around a human in quite some time, I forget how skittish you all are. With no weapons on you, no claws or speed, I guess it is to be understandable.” She put her hands on her hips, and I saw the definition of her body. She was slim but muscular. She could take me out if she wanted.
I’m gonna die.
“You are always full of questions. Why are you so quiet now?” She tilted her chin up.
“I-I—” I couldn’t form words. I had forgotten how to talk. Now I felt like Simon.
She gracefully jumped from rock to rock. It was slow motion as she did until she got to the rock nearest to me. She sat down with a quiet ‘Hmph’ and crossed her legs. “Now, what is this about not believing in a bond or magic? You’re the first human to question it since coming to a place like this.”
She leaned over the spring and drew her finger into the water. Tiny little fish that shouldn’t be able to survive the heat of the spring nibbled on her flesh.
I bit my bottom lip. She was right. I was being callous about all of it. Physics, chemistry, biology– all from Earth– didn’t make sense here. They had their own sets of rules to go by.
I found it maddening yet exciting all at the same time.
When I first took the job, I was told to record, and put names to, the different species of plants and animals. I could study their behavior, write it all down and eventually have a book just on the Monktona Wood. Along with doing that, I’ve asked, why and how? That wasn’t part of this job, but I wanted to know.
I was having trouble letting go and letting the world around me live. I wasn’t letting myself live.
I bowed my head and looked at my fingers like they were the most interesting things in the world. She was so beautiful it hurt. “I’m a scientist; I’m supposed to ask the tough questions. I’m not from here, none of it makes sense. I didn’t study religion or believe in anything other than science.”
The woman hummed and nodded when I gazed up at her. “You don’t need to believe in anything.”
“Uh, but there is magic, for all the unexplainable things that are happening around me, in this world. The witches, the wisps, the bonds—Simon says it’s magic. ”
“It is magic,” she stated. “No need to believe when it’s actually there. Magic is the tool used to put things in motion by someone who can wield it.” She paused again and opened up her hand. Tiny lights came together, creating a tiny fox in her hand. It moved, rolled and ran, but all stayed in the exact same spot on her palm.
“You don’t have to believe in magic, Lucy. Magic is real; it was real on Earth. It is very much a part of even a human’s everyday life. Magic isn’t science, and science isn’t magic, but one and the same. It is the air we breathe.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she continued. “How does a caterpillar come to be a butterfly?” The fox shifted, and a caterpillar appeared in her hand. “Just because humans have a fascination with categorizing, dissecting, and breaking things apart to see how they work, shouldn’t mean you should forget the magic that made it come to be.” She scoffed.
I watched the caterpillar wrap itself into a cocoon.
“Humans want knowledge because they think it is power, but the power is just how things are and one’s ability to enjoy what is. I have never understood why humans waste so much of their tiny lifespans to categorize and make up rules. When those rules are not met, they all get so grumpy. You, however, are the first I have seen that has not destroyed the nature around you to understand it. For this, I thank you.”
My body relaxed as she continued to explain. I didn’t believe in dissecting things to know about them. I usually watched. My father and I both practiced that.
The cocoon soon broke open, and a butterfly appeared. I went and sat by her on the rock, and the butterfly that sat in her hand took flight and landed on my knee.
“Why does the platypus have the mouth of a duck, the feet of an otter, tail of a beaver and lay eggs for their young?” She raised her hand, and the butterfly came flying back to her. “And one of my favorites, how about the first intake of breath of a child once they are born? Isn’t that magic?”
My eyebrow furrowed, and I lowered my head.
The woman straightened up, and the butterfly landed on one of her horns. “And what about a bumblebee?” she said excitedly. “They are so fat. By the law of human physics they shouldn’t even be able to fly!” She giggled and slapped her leg. “Really, though, they are actually Earth realm pixies in disguise. By magic, of course, because we can’t have humans freaking out about tiny little people. Humans already steal enough honey as it is.”
My mouth gaped open. “They are pixies?”
Dear gods, I hope I didn’t accidentally kill one.
The woman nodded. “You see, the Earth Realm has its own magic and the unexplainable. As a scientist of this realm, you just have to accept it as it is. There isn’t an answer to everything. In any realm, the magic, the norms, and life are different.”
I let out a large gasp. “There are other realms?”
The woman tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “You are getting off track. But yes, there are. The Underworld, the Celestial Kingdom—Poseidon’s Realm doesn’t really count, it floats between Earth and the Celestial. Depends where he wants to go.”
My mouth gaped. “Are there more?”
The woman shook her head, but I guessed there was another by the way her lips tilted at the edge of her mouth.
“What is the other?” My eyes widened.
“Curious you are, and I will tell you for your sake of your curiosity and respect for nature, but you are never to go there. It is wild and untamed; dark magic runs rampant, and if that comes here…” She pressed her lips together in a thin line. “It would destroy all the realms.”
I nodded enthusiastically. I wanted to know all the things.
“When you enter Bergarian, it is instructed you to stay on the path from Earth to Bergarian. You are not to fall off that path, otherwise you would be lost in a sea of darkness. Beyond that darkness is a realm called The Moving Province.”
My eyes widened, and I clutched my skirt. I wished I had my notebook.
The woman hummed and leaned back on a rock. “And that is all I can say about that.”
With that great new information to write later, I let out an enormous sigh. What she said made sense about magic. What made even more sense was the Earth had magic as well. Except I, and so many others, were too blind to see it and take it in for what it was.
“What about the gods?” I added. “What of them?”
The woman smirked and nudged me. “That is a bit strange, isn’t it?” She tapped her finger on her nose. “The same gods that are in the Earth Realm are here, too. Do you think there is a connection?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re mocking me.”
“Am I just?” She fiddled with the guard on her arm. “I just told you there was an Underworld and a Celestial Kingdom, and you believed me so easily, yet you still ask about the gods? You aren’t that dense.”
My shoulders slumped. Did I already believe it?
“And the bond? The Moon Goddess, soulmates, are they real?”
The woman shrugged her shoulders, and the tiny lights that were once a butterfly turned into a crescent moon. “I don’t know, are they?”
Rustling from the bushes gave me pause, and I jerked my head to see Simon breathing heavily. “Lucy, I’ve hunted for you! Why did you not answer my voice?” His body was full of sweat, dirt, and grime. I stood up, away from the woman, and walked toward Simon.
“I’m sorry, I got distracted, but here, let me introduce you to—” I turned, and when I looked back, the woman was no longer there.