I had landed on a great big fat frog that looked a lot like an old pickle that had been left out on the counter for too long. It let out a giant burp the minute I made impact, and now blinked its eyes occasionally, as if saying “Hmmm? What girl? Oh. You mean this one? Naw. Don’t worry about her. She’s chill.” I was sprawled out on the back of the frog, with my legs wrapped around its sides. From the little peeks I made from the nice face plant I made in the animal’s forehead, I was able to glimpse a bit of light. It wasn’t dark at all like the inside of the tunnel, and it was even lighter than inside the garden, but it was still the kind of darkness that you had to wait occasionally for your eyes to adjust. It was almost like just when the sun is sitting down, and it’s neither super dark nor light, and your eyes keep seeing spooky shadows in corners that make you act like jumping jack flash. My sweatshirt had mostly dried from the fall, and was now tight and crunchy against my skin. The cuts against my shoulder blades felt like someone had attacked me with a cheese grater. I tried to focus on moving slowly to take another peek from my safe spot on the toad, when it dawned on me thatmy back was bare. I had forgotten my backpack. I no longer had the protection of the peppermints. I hissed under my breath. Shit happens, I reminded myself, just focus on getting back home.
By xdenchix
By imyoursunshineluv
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!
THESE BANNERS ARE SO PRETTY! :D
I LOVE THEM!
I FEEL SO SPOILED. <3
A Dummy's Guide to Catching Faeires.
[part six]
"I think I can, I think I can"
Mix together: half a cup of monster drool, a pinch of blood, an imprint of Cassie’s face, and you will bake the perfect landing spot for a young girl lost in a fucked up garden world. Complete with flittering purple faeries that have a terrible sense of direction and a tendency to hiss like the bleep outs for curse words on public TV.
I took a couple deep breaths, feeling the cool skin on my forehead, and wished I was as calm as the frog. When I gathered enough courage, I looked up to find where I fell from. Only, the darkness that was there moments before had disappeared. What replaced the dark hole was millions of teeny tiny stars. I stared at them in awe, afraid to blink in case it helped my eyes adjust and I saw them scientifically as burning gas, instead of something made of magic. There weremore stars from the one’s I looked at from outside my bedroom window. Like someone had just spit glitter into the sky.
All the little lights reminded me of the faerie that had been fluttering around my head as I fell. Why had he stayed with me after he was freed from the cage? Why had he helped me run away from the monster? Why had he saved me from the monster? Or did he just have a grudge against the monster, and had the chance to hurt it while it was distracted by me? Where was he now? If he was helping me before, had he finally given up and left me alone?
But all of the questions were pointless. I had no time to think about that. I had to focus on finding him. If he knew how to get into this world, then he probably would know how to get back out.
I reluctantly tore my awed gaze away from the little balls of light in the sky.
I was surrounded by a lake full of lily pads, each carrying one big light pink that looked like diced onions. The water reflected the little lights of stars and a giant half moon.
But no purple faerie in sight.
“Mr. Frog?”
He blinked.
“Would you happen to know which direction home is? It’s not like I can fly back out of here, even if I knew even where to fly. Do I go this way-” I leaned over and held my pointing thumb in front of the plate sized frog eyes, “or this way?”
The frog moved to place his back legs tightly under his body. Alarmed, I scrambled to squeeze as tightly as I could to the silk body to keep myself from slipping off. With a croak, much improvement from the burp, the frog leapt into the air and landed on another nearby lily pad. I had slipped almost all the way down its back, and had to readjust myself before the frog tucked its legs under and croaked a warning before it jumped again. The next lily pad bobbed dangerously at the weight.
And so we built our own rhythm.
Tuck. Croak. Leap. Scramble. Readjust. Tuck. Croak. Leap. Scramble. Readjust.
My muscles wavered from the cramps that made homes in my limbs. I fell heavily to the ground from the frog’s back when we finally made it to the bank. Thankful for solid ground, I stood up with earth quaking knees.
“Thank you,” I told him, when he looked down at me expectantly. I kissed his slick nose with sore lips, half hoping he’d turn into a prince, but instead he turned around and leaped back to find his original lily pad.
“Goodbye!” I sang. The frog was much more graceful without me clinging to its back. Eventually, it leapt out of sight.
I looked over the water at the reflection of my face. Ripples were scribbled in white highlights from the moon taking notes. My hair was matted to my cheeks, and where I had bitten my bottom lip was swollen like a slug. Blood from the gash my teeth made had dried and was now flaking on my chin.
I washed off my face carefully, and cleaned my hair of monster drool the best I could, brushing the knots with my finger combs. Slowly, painfully and carefully, like the I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can train, I pulled my sweatshirt off and washed it off in the water. I squeezed out most of the moisture, and carried it in my hand to let it dry. I still had a long sleeve shirt on, even though it was thin. But it wasn’t too cold. I could handle being a little bare for a while.
With my free hand, I climbed up the bit of a hill by holding onto large pieces of grass. I swung myself to my feet.
“Where are you?” I whispered as I walked through the forest of grass, feeling like an ant. I wanted to call out louder for the purple faerie, but was afraid of attracting the attention of something unwanted. “Where are you, my nightlight?”
Something shimmered in the corner of my eye.
I hadn’t found him, but I found a part of him.
A purple wing was tangled in a rope of grass. It was crumpled like paper in a waste basket. The light was dim, and the wing looked like a mixture of lavender plastic wrap and tissue paper fused together.
I ran over to it and untangled the wing from its trap. I smoothed it out as gently as I could with cold stiff fingers. The purple wing no longer had the warmth from the faerie. At least it had to be a faerie wing, but I was unsure as I was holding something that was large enough to be a wing big enough for me.
I carried it gently and awkwardly with one hand, likeI was holding a delicate wine glass at a very fancy party I wasn’t invited to. It fluttered slightly from the air moving around me as I walked.
The grass made me zig zag just to get around it. Further and further I walked, until I unmistakably saw a glowing arm peeking from between the grass. I pushed away the curtains of grass to find a pale body on its stomach. The back of the head had familiar whipped cream white hair. Crumbled blades of grass circled the faerie’s body from his crash landing.
The purple faerie was no longer a little tiny thing. He was as big as me. Or I was now as big as him.
I hesitated going closer. It couldn't be the same small faeire that had stabbed the monster's squid eye. I slowed my breathing to rest my fast beating heart, justlike my Gym teacher instructedour sweating class years ago.
The faerie's skin was bleached and smooth, and was glowing milky white. I could see traces of green blood veins through his slightly translucent skin. The purple light flickered like candle light from a wing on his back. Green liquid oozed from where his other wing should be on his shoulder blade.
“Ummm…I found your wing. If you don’t wake up, then it’s finders keepers.” I choked out a laugh nervously and tapped his hand with the toe of my yellow Chucks. The faerie gave no sign that he knew I was there.
I reached out to trace the outside of the wound on his shoulder blade. His skin was still warm, and it was soft to touch. Some of the green blood goo stuck to the tips of my fingers.
As I cricled the wound again, I tried to figure out what kind of medical attention a faerie would need. A really strong feeling of déjà vu gave birth to frantic butterflies in my stomach. Then it felt like a fat man was stepping on my head.
Flashes shot through my head, and when I focused, I saw the face of Eleanor.
I was sitting on the porch steps, munching on a plate of warm cookies in my lap. They tasted strongly of peppermint.
“Cassie, dear,” Eleanor sat behind me, stroking the back of my head with long shaking fingers, “your mother must be worried sick about you. I think it’s about time for you to go home now.”
I wasn’t really listening. I was too busy staring at a little white head peaking at me from behind a flower pot.
“Oh dear. It’s best if you just ignore those nasty little creatures. I’m afraid they only cause trouble.” The old woman shooed away the faerie with her hand.
I looked up at the woman, frowning at the orange fluttering ball of light by her shoulder. “But you don’t ignore Gil.”
Eleanor looked at the faerie with dragonfly wings. “Well….Gil...” she struggled to find a reason a little girlwould understand,”...Gil is different. She’s a special exception.”
I was jerked out of the flashback as a hand squeezed around my wrist. Long fingers were digging bruises through my long sleeves into my skin.
Whatever happened to me, the stuff with the images of Eleanor, made me feel like someone backhanded me across the face. My eyes started to water.
I pulled away from the grasp. The hand seemed eager to let go, it was only meant as a warning.
The body had come to life, and was leaning as far away from me as the wall of grass would allow. His large purple dilated eyes were staring at me without blinking. I starred directly into his face, determined to read human emotions, but saw none.
His face was pale, and at first I thought he had no eyebrows, until I just realized they were white enough to be hidden in his pale face. There were no little wrinkles around his eyes or around his mouth or even over his lips, like he had been air brushed way too many times. No pores. Nothing. His skin looked smooth like a flower petal.
But he wasn’t something beautiful in human terms, because there was something there that made two species understand that there was no attraction between them. I could admire and be fascinated, but never in a compatible kind of way.
My head started to ache from the after effects of the backhand, and the frustration of not being able to figure out the purple thing in front of me.
“What was that? Those images? What did you do to me?” I shot at him, hoping he would flinch. But he only looked at me like a new thousand piece puzzle his parents bought him for Christmas, and his eyes flashed with something only another faerie could completely understand.
“Why did I see Eleanor?” I demanded of him again. The faerie narrowed his eyes, so I could see long white floss eyelashes. He hissed at the use of the old woman’s name.
“Faeries and little girls were never meant to be this close. Your skin was never made to touch faerie skin, so naturally, strange things will happen. I suggest that we refrain from touching, because I’m not sure what the consequences will be. ”
I gaped at him with my mouth going blub, blub, blub. “You… can talk? Well, I mean of course you are. You just did. But I mean, why couldn’t I understand you before?”
The milky body scooted towards the safety of the grass. Away from me.
“You’re like a parasite to this world. I wasn’t supposed to bring you into a world where you don’t belong. Unusual things will happen. You shrunk. You’re speaking faerie. Maybe you’ve caught some sort of disease from this world, and you’ll keel over and die any second.”
I stared at him like I had been knocked in the head a few times and lost a population of brain cells to a natural disaster. I was unnerved at how smooth his voice sounded as he spoke those words. There was no emotion that I could connect to. No emotion that made sense to my human mind. Just like my human voice probably didn’t make any sense to his faerie mind.
We looked at each other. I scanned his thin blank face. He scanned mine. I wondered for a split second what he saw, until I realized we both probably came up with unanswered questions.
-------------------
I hate that thing, where like, you walk by people, and you happen to look at each other at the same time:
>.> < .<
and then you get shocked and embarrassed and look away:
o.o >.>
and then I never know what I should do with ym eyes after that so I look:
up
^.^
down
v.v
side to side
>.> < .<
cross eyed
>.<
tornado
@.@ (don't do this one too fast. it'll make you all dizzy)
and then once you pass the person, you both happen to look back at the same time:
>.> < .<
and then repeat.
