Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Miles
Both Aeson and Chaos still looked way, way skinnier than I liked. It wasn’t that they were just thin kids. It was that they actually looked unhealthy if you paid attention. They both tried to hide it with their baggy clothes, but there was no hiding the sunken eyes and pale complexion.
They needed to be fed. Healthy meals, and a lot of them.
But more than that, Winter and I needed to find out what was going on with them.
It was clear they didn’t have parents helping take care of them. Or at least, whoever their guardians were didn’t have the money to feed their family properly.
I shouldn’t judge because I had no idea what their situation was. They could be trying their best. But whatever was going on, they clearly needed help.
We needed to find out more about their situation so we knew how best to help them. If their family was eligible, I knew a bunch of programs that could help put more food on their table.
But again, I couldn’t do that without knowing more about their situation or without speaking to their guardians.
Too bad the teens were pros at avoiding direct questions. Sigh.
Sola rubbed her cheek against mine in comfort, and I knew she was feeling my emotions. My sweet girl.
Winter and I followed Aeson up to the fourth floor, and even though I tried not to show it, I was a little out of breath. Which was ridiculous considering I’d been walking with Win and Goliath all the time, and it wasn’t like I sat on my ass all day. I was active and did steps all the time.
Just not this many steps in a row, I guessed.
As I sucked in a few deep breaths, I took in my surroundings, absently petting Sola while I pressed my shoulder to Win’s. There were a lot of people in this building and out in the gardens, so the background noise was intense. Getting a small break from that while I took everything in was a relief.
We were in the dragon history section, and it took my breath away.
There was a mural along the circular wall of big, giant, beautiful dragons flying over a forest and a village, of two dragons twisted together, looking like they were in love, of a dragon sitting on a nest full of eggs, and a dragon setting a large tree on fire.
It was mesmerizing.
Most dragons were super small these days, but in the wild parts of the world, they were still bigger than houses.
Archaeologists had discovered many, many dragon skeletons and had come to the conclusion that they used to be very common long ago.
Over the years, like many other faerie and animal species, their numbers had diminished, which was the sad state of so many.
And dragons in particular had become smaller and smaller in order to stay out of harm’s way and find enough food.
Or at least, that was the assumption of why dragons were so much smaller today than they’d been in ancient times.
As humans grew in population, other species suffered.
It made me sad to think about.
Luckily, there were a lot of like-minded people who helped preserve the natural world as best we could. Hopefully, we wouldn’t let any of the magical creatures or other animals go extinct.
That probably wasn’t realistic, but it was something I truly wished for.
In the center of the room was a huge dragon skeleton, standing up with its wings spread.
It was absolutely humongous and took up almost the entire room.
In order to walk around and see the smaller parts of the exhibit, museum goers had to walk under the wings.
Seeing it made me both happy and sad. Happy to know such majestic beasts really existed, and sad to know this beautiful creature had died long ago.
How amazing would it be to see a dragon that big flying through the sky or landing in front of you?
Sometimes I wished I could travel the world to see all the amazing beings that lived among us.
Each section had a different part of dragon history, from them ruling the world to humans training them and riding them to historical wars where dragons fought and died alongside humans.
There was a section on a dragon’s lifecycle.
An area that went over all the different types of dragons.
A dragon fossil section with teeth, claws, and eggs that people could actually touch and examine themselves.
And a spot with a television that connected directly to the dragon channel—a channel where anyone could watch the biggest faerie zoo’s dragon habitat live.
I’d admit that I’d watched that channel quite a few times because even seeing small dragons was amazing and beautiful.
But this exhibit was so much more than I remembered it being. Honestly, it had been years since I’d been here, and I had to say I was impressed with everything they had.
“Wow, I haven’t been here since we were kids,” Winter said, stepping up beside me and staring at the huge skeleton. “It’s just as enormous as I remember.”
“Yeah, same.”
“Oh my god, right? Most places seem smaller, like going into the elementary school or whatever, but this place is actually pretty awesome and definitely huge.” Lyric said, now clinging to Win’s arm.
I felt bad that they were in a place that was so overwhelming to their senses.
Maybe we shouldn’t have asked them to come here.
I loved seeing them, and I knew they and Win missed each other lately, but I didn’t want them in pain.
Aeson grinned at us. “I can give you the tour if you want?”
I glanced over at the museum worker who was overlooking the fossil area with a frown, and Winter must’ve been of the same mind because he said, “We don’t want you getting into trouble because of us.”
The teen glanced at his co-worker as well with a sigh. “Yeah, okay. Let me show you where the pixies have built their nest. It’s over in the lifecycle section.”
“Are there a lot of plants over there?” Lyric asked.
“Yeah, a few.”
“Hm.” Lyric shot Aeson a wink. “Lead the way, sweetie.”
That made Aeson grin, his cheeks pinkening a little.
Winter, Lyric, and I all exchanged glances, then followed him over.
Luckily, this area was on the opposite side of the skeleton from the other worker, so we didn’t have to worry about being overheard, as long as we were quiet.
It was honestly ridiculous that we had to sneak around like this, but I couldn’t blame Aeson after meeting his boss.
Ace stopped a good twenty feet away from the lifecycle section and pointed at it.
“Sooooo… they’re over there. I don’t want to get any closer because they tend to start throwing their dust all over the place.
I mean, I know if you’re only exposed to a little, you’ll just get itchy and stuff.
” Pixie dust caused allergy-like symptoms in small doses in humans, but the more exposure, the worse it got.
“But I don’t really want to walk around for the rest of my shift with a runny nose and leaky and itchy eyes. ”
Winter clapped him on the back. “No worries, Ace. We can take it from here.” He gave the teen’s shoulder a squeeze before releasing him. “We’re meeting you guys at seven for dinner. We’re gonna order something. Chaos said you should pick.”
Aeson’s cheeks suddenly flushed as he took us both in. “You guys don’t have to do that.”
Before Winter could, I waved the kid off. “We want to. We haven’t seen you since the gnome house, so we thought it’d be nice to catch up.”
He eyed both of us for a few seconds before giving a nod and a small smile. “Okay. I’ll see you soon, then. Text me if you need me to come back up here.”
Winter gave him a salute, making Aeson chuckle, and I smiled at him, saying, “See you soon, Ace.”
Aeson waved and walked back toward the stairs.
I sighed as I stared at the area Aeson had pointed out.
From here, I could see little beings darting around in the air. They looked like tiny bugs from here, but since they all had trails of dust following them wherever they flew, I knew what I’d see close up.
Pixies were the smallest faeries in the world with adults only reaching a quarter inch to some bigger—and much rarer—reaching up to an inch.
Most were closer to the quarter-inch size, and their babies were super, duper tiny.
They were built like humans with a torso, legs, arms, neck, and head, with the addition of sparkly wings.
Even though they were so small, they still packed a punch when it came to their poisonous dust. Flowers and plant life loved their dust—it helped them grow big and lush—but humans were allergic to it.
In small doses, it made people itchy, have a runny nose and eyes, a scratchy throat, and sometimes hives.
But in large doses, it’d been known to kill humans.
That was probably why it was in such high demand on the black market. People used it to hurt others. Although most cases were minor, it had definitely been used as a weapon many times before.
Yet another thing humans took from faeries for their own gain—like firebird feathers for luck.
It was disgusting.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think to bring some masks up with us,” I muttered, unsure of how to get any closer to the pixie nest without the required protective gear.
“Here.” Winter reached into his back pocket and pulled out a handful of cloth masks. They weren’t the best at dealing with pixie dust since it wouldn’t cover our eyes and upper facial skin, but it was a lot better than nothing.
“Ugh. This doesn’t match my outfit at all,” Lyric said, though they were obviously joking.
Win rolled his eyes. “Deal with it.”
Lyric stuck their tongue out at them, then sent me a little wink that made me grin.
“Thank you.” I put my mask on as Win and Lyric did the same. “You still have to be careful since your eyes are exposed.”
Win’s mouth was covered, but I could tell from the way his eyes crinkled at the corners that he was smiling. “I know, lovey. We’ll be okay for a quick look at the problem.” He’d been using that endearment a lot lately, and I… didn’t hate it.
“Good. Let’s go.”