Chapter 8
8
" I 'm glad you remember, Anemone. Do you recall how we met?" Anton looked at her expectantly.
She would have loved to tell him that everything was back, but there was still nothing more in her head than the one image of the two of them by a waterfall. But she clung to those scraps because the rest was stuck in frightening darkness. She shrugged apologetically. "Unfortunately, no. Would you mind telling me?"
A laughing look crept into his eyes and he took a deep breath. "Once upon a time…"
Margerite flapped her wings nervously and the jingling sounded as restless as she must have felt. "The short version, Anton. Otherwise, we'll lose too much time."
The giant looked at her blankly. "Are we in a hurry?"
"Naturally! The fairies are dying out. And if Iris finds out I'm showing Anemone the location of the source since she can't remember, she sure as heck won't let me return to the fairy tree."
Anna felt guilty when she heard the fear in Margerite's voice. Because of her, this fairy ran the risk of not being able to return to her family. Was it wrong to ask her to lead them to the source?
But Anton didn't let her worries bother him. "Well, Anemone, I told you I'm a little…unusual for a giant."
"Yes?" Curious, she looked at him. The smile that played on his lips and the light that crept into his eyes made her forget her worries.
"My kind are more of the simple sort. But from an early age I wanted to learn more and explore the world. Giants are not particularly social creatures, which is why none of my relatives noticed when I wandered off. After walking through the Kingdom of Rocks, I discreetly crossed the border to see the entire magical world."
“Discreetly?" Anna snorted at the idea, and Anton chuckled. Meanwhile, Margerite was still fluttering nervously around the two of them.
"As discreetly as a guy my size can be." He winked and the deep laugh that escaped him was reminiscent of the lightheartedness of a child. Even if they hadn't known each other before, Anna would have wanted to be his friend.
"What did you see?"
"As luck would have it, the first place I came to was the fairy realm."
"Probably because it's the easiest way out of the Kingdom of Rocks," Margerite replied, but the two didn't pay any attention to her.
"I reached a flower meadow and the scent of the flowers filled my nose. It smelled so lovely that I lay down in the meadow and fell asleep. You have to know that there are few flowers in the Kingdom of Rocks and most of them are eaten by the goats before they can properly bloom. Anyway, I fell asleep in the middle of the meadow and after a while, I was awakened by a gentle voice telling me something I had never heard before. A story."
Anna frowned. "Wait, giants don't tell each other stories?"
Anton shook his head sadly. "There is generally little talk. The children are taught the basics so that they can look after themselves as early as possible. Sometimes, I'm surprised mothers even bother to teach us to speak. And before you know it, you're lying in your cave, feeling solitary, and the only thing you hear is the snoring of another giant."
Anna swallowed. "How lonely."
"I thought so too. In any case, while I was half asleep, I heard someone narrating a story about a prince and a princess, a ball with rustling dresses, and a plot to overthrow the king."
A premonition came over Anna and a grin crept onto her face. "Was it me, by chance?"
Anton's eyes seemed to grow even larger, though it hardly seemed possible. "Do you remember?"
Grinning, she shook her head. "I still love stories about royal families the best. What happened next?"
"I listened to you for a while, lying quietly and inconspicuously so that you wouldn't stop and…"
A giant who didn't immediately catch someone's eye? "How is a giant supposed to lie inconspicuously in a meadow?"
"I'll show you." He carefully placed her in the meadow, lay down — the earth only shook slightly — and closed his eyes. Raising an eyebrow, Anna watched the giant while Margerite groaned impatiently.
"If this takes much longer, I'd rather leave, Anemone. I could get into trouble. If you can't appreciate that, you can try to settle your debt without me."
Anna raised her hands placatingly as she looked at the little fairy. "Just a moment. Toni, we really have to…" As she turned, she paused. Where'd he gone to? Wait a second. In front of her was a huge gray rock with thick moss growing on it that hadn't been there before. "Anton?" Curious, she came closer and felt the green-gray mass that looked like an oversized, lifeless stone. But it wasn't stone. It was hard, yet soft and warm. That was exactly how the giant had had felt when she'd almost run into him while fleeing the pirates that night. "Incredible!"
Beaming with happiness, Anton opened his eyes and sat upright. Little by little, the individual parts of the rock became mobile and she recognized the giant's huge limbs.
"Great trick, huh? Now you know how we hide."
"Finish the story!" Margerite demanded.
"I sat up slowly so as not to scare you, Anemone. Normally, you see, everyone runs away screaming when they see me, but even though you were tiny, you remained where you were and looked up at me. Not horrified, but curious. You were smaller than my fingernail, but I knew that your inner size was equal to mine."
Anna smiled at him. As he spoke, images flickered through her mind. Unfortunately, they were only fleeting, so she didn't recognize anything clearly. Was her memory returning because of his story? Then he absolutely needed to keep talking. "And that's how we became friends?"
Anton nodded. "You immediately realized how much I enjoyed your stories and from then on, you told me many, many stories every day. I found them so beautiful I didn't want to do anything else but listen to them. But of course you had to do your work as a flower fairy every now and then and that time dragged on endlessly for me. At some point, you could no longer stand it, so you conjured up a big book of fairy tales for me and taught me to read. And that's why, Anemone, you've been my best friend ever since, no matter what mistakes you've made. You changed my life." He held out his hand and, as if this was what she'd always done, she jumped on it and let him guide her to his cheek, where she nuzzled it.
"I think your story helped me. I don't really remember — it's elusive, like a dream. But there is something." As crazy as that sounded.
"It's coming back?"
"It seems so."
Anton sighed happily while Margerite fluttered around her impatiently. "Enough of story time. Now change, Anemone, so I can take you to the source."
"I'm supposed to transform?"
"Yes, into a fairy. I showed you how."
Anna slowly shook her head. "To be honest, I think it would be a waste of fairy dust if I tried again. Even in my memory, I was a…I was always a human. I don't feel that I was someone else once."
"But if you're unable to change, how are you going to save us?" the fairy groaned. Lines of disappointment showed on her face, making it appear even thinner. Could Anna only do something in the form of a fairy? As a human, she had to be able to make amends for her supposed mistake.
"Give her some time. She must recover first." Anton nodded encouragingly at Anna.
"She's much too slow this way. It'll take us five days to reach the source!"
"Wait a minute, Margerite, I'll carry her."
Anna grinned. There were definitely advantages to having a giant as a friend.
Margerite shook her head vehemently. "No, you are not allowed to know where our source is. Maybe everything will be okay again and the balance will be restored and then it'll bubble over with fairy dust. This means that no one but fairies can know where its location. It's bad enough I am showing Anemone the source despite her transgressions. But if I reveal it to you, I would be betraying my own people."
The corners of Anton's mouth drooped. Anna wanted to reprimand Margerite, but he waved it off. "It's okay, Anemone. I don't belong in this realm, so I'm not allowed to know its secrets. That's fine. I'll wait for you here."
"But if it truly takes five days…"
Margerite rolled her eyes. "I was exaggerating. But since you choose to walk rather than fly, we will need at least a day instead of an hour."
A day? Anna could already feel the blisters on her feet. Her stomach rumbled loudly. Sheepishly, she put her hands on it. "Can we have breakfast first?"
"You can pick some berries along the way."
"A few berries? That's supposed to sate me?" She was thinking more of a pile of pancakes and a warm lemon balm tea.
Anton laughed. "You always liked to eat."
Margerite also smiled. "Once you're back in fairy form, a few berries a day will be enough for you. You'll have to get by somehow until then."
Anna's mouth gaped in disbelief. "Get by somehow?"
Anton laughed and Anna almost fell off his hand, but he immediately held her fast. Gently, he placed her back in the meadow. "Have fun and take good care of her, Margerite."
The fairy and Anna wanted to object — after all, she was an adult and could safely look after herself. However, she recalled the pirates and they exchanged an uncertain look until Anna made a dismissive gesture.
"The pirates have no idea where the source is." She waved confidently at Anton, who only managed a half-hearted smile. His forehead wrinkled with worry. She patted his rock-like feet soothingly. "Nothing will happen to me."
The giant nodded and waved at her. Margerite led her back into the forest, and a little while later, she could no longer see Anton. A feeling of abandonment overwhelmed her and she looked forward to seeing her good friend again soon.