"Once Upon a Wing"

Chapter 23

"Shouldn't we be, like, doing something?" One anxious little soul wonders aloud. She didn't like the state of affairs one bit. After all, was there no place of sanctuary and safety anymore? If this shining kingdom, filled with human soldiers and knights, couldn't protect their own precious treasures, then what safety was there for her--a simple woodland elf girl, hmm?

"I mean, something other than cowering and hiding in fear while some ugly old sorcerer throws spit darts at us?!" Hilde stands up defiantly from the crouching position she and the rest of the people gathered were, well yes, cowering in fear from Duke Dermail's attacks on the forcefield barrier that kept her, Mistress Sallie, Cathrine and Mariemaia---and, oh yes, HER, the Princess Dorothy, protected inside with the pegasus that the shield guarded, safe and secure.

---To a point.

"Can't you do something, Mistress Sallie?" Hilde turns to the one amongst them who held any power at all. Well, Cathrine the fairy could heal people and such, but what good was that kind of magic to shoot back at that nasty old guy?

"Yes, please say you can! I'm scared of him, too." Mariemaia pipes up from behind them. "And so are my new friends." The orange haired fairy child hugs the equally frightened head of a wee foal pegasus to hers. The usually skittish winged horses found solace and comfort in Mariemaia's gentle touch, feeling somehow....connected---bonded---to the little fairy waif as many of them crowd around her.

"I wish I could, little ones. I wish I could." Sallie's voice was full of self-recrimination at not being able to protect her precious fairies well enough in the end. She felt so weak and helpless up here, high in the clouds, so far away from her waters below.

But one scan of the frightened faces surrounding her gave her the courage to go on----

That and a tempestuous man's voice inside her head calling her a 'weakling.' That was something Sallie would never capitulate to.

"All right. Here's the plan. Listen carefully, everyone. It's up to us." Sallie's low toned voice takes charge of her senses and the situation both. The four girlish beings gather around her and listen with rapt attention. They each knew that what she said was their last hope between escape and infinite doom.

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"One more blast of evil energy ought to do it. This shelter's shield will surely fall. Sorceress Anne, you may have the pleasure." Dermail says.

He found his own pleasure in reinforcing his apprentice's lust for evil. His soul purpose in life it seemed was to cause the spread of endless evil darkness with his soulless soul.

"Yes, sir." Sorceress Anne nods, as she stiffens and pushes the mystic glasses further up the bridge of her nose as if she were relying on them for strength of purpose alone.

---Or was it her own symbol of vengeance against the Sovereign of this castle's treasures about to go down at her hand?

Without a word more, her long red-nailed fingers send a torrential blast of dark energy directly towards the translucent forcefield. Her spectacles gleam as the shield fizzles, falters and finally, falls. It dissipates into their evil victory and she and Dermail set foot inside the much protected realm of the Pegasi...

"Come out, come out wherever you are, little fairies...."

No need to play games with Uncle Dermail...

The bearded magician strokes his whiskers almost amused that these silly children would attempt to play 'hide and go seek' from his masterful self.

Ahh, they'll be found soon enough... Heh heh

He shakes his head with a chuckle, turning to the pair behind him.

"Bring the Princess Relena here, Fire Nymph. We will require her powers of peaceful persuasion here on the Pegasus. Her kind are fabled to have a calming presence over creatures and animals such as these winged beasts." Dermail orders, leaning a frightening face in Relena's direction as he leads the group towards the stable that the foolish fairies and prancing Pegasi were no doubt taking refuge in against the inevitable.

"My....kind?" Relena whispers. Her brother, Milliardo, had kept from her any otherworldly power either of them possessed. Relena had been too young a child when their parents, the king and queen of Sanc, died in a terrible seastorm accident many years ago.

"The legendary Tsificaps of peace from ancient days? The fabled fairytale creators of this mystical and magic world? Surely your elder brother has not kept you entirely in the dark of this family secret?" Dermail giggles, enjoying the shock and disbelief on Relena's once serene face.

"Ahh, not to worry your pretty little head, princess. You need not be aware of it. But, your unparalleled purity will certainly be enough for your powers to shine through----that is, when I direct them to, of course." Dermail pats Relena's cheek, knowing that with her legendary powers to control the animals, the sought after Pegasi would kneel at his dark robes in submission.

Or so he believed would happen, and it would, that is, if he could catch them.

A dizzying flutter of pounding hooves and flapping white wings suddenly break through, filling the air high atop the castle on cue just as the evil Sorcerers were close enough to unseal the stable doors.

But Mistress Sallie had other plans.

Fly, children! Fly to safety! You must find Mythica---our last vestige of hope and refuge. Fly swiftly!

From her mind, Sallie projects the watery waves of thought to the escaping girls on winged horseback. The Pegasus flew as never before, sprinkled with a little fairy dust, to flap untiring wings until safety was reached. Sallie had found no other solution to this situation than to let her precious ones fly away from her. The prayer for their safety by others' hands was on her unmoving lips.

For Sallie, in this moment, must conjure up all of her powers to make a mystical miracle reality.

"Waters of the clouds, hear your Mistress beckon! Torrential rain, hear my plea!" Sallie's deep voice bellows as her hands reach up. She became translucent again as the blue light seen in her see-through eyes was a defiant sight before the evil sorcerers right in front of her.

The skies obey her desperate command and open up with a loud crackle of thunder, blowing thrashing winds, tearing at the castle's turrets and everything present upon the cascading wall of harsh, pelting rain. It denied Dermail the opportunity to send even a single blast through the watery "shield" at the Pegasus and their riders, allowing them to escape his evil ambitions to freedom in skies far away....

For the time being anyway as wings flapping on fairy dust and pure hearts take off, away in the deep skies.

"Enough of this nonsense!" Lord Dermail's wicked voice rises above the cacophony of winds and rains pounding at the castle's eaves, at the Mistress of the Element's command.

The sorcerer levitates towards Sallie's tempestuous storm, so encapsulated was she in wave after wave of blasting water. His own force inhibitor was set on full strength and Dermail continues to hover, however slowly, forward, despite Sallie's attempts to keep him back.

"Stay....away...." Sallie fiercely warns, throwing everything she had in her at this evil man. She knew full well that when she fell---and it WAS when---Dermail would immediately give chase to capture the escaped Pegasi and her fairies if they didn't reach safety sometime soon.

But how long was it until 'sometime' came? Sallie hoped it was extremely soon. Her powers were faltering despite her best efforts. The dark magician was too powerful for even her. The waters were growing fainter and thinner with every energy sapping step Dermail was taking towards her.

"With the mystical energies I've been gathering, added to my own vast powers, I must applaud you for how long you've stood against me, O Water Nymph. But, enough is enough, don't you agree? Fall graciously, if you must, but please, do fall."

Lord Dermail sends one final blast of raw, evil energy at Sallie and the mistress of waters does fall and fall hard. The storm dissipates quickly as does her energy. She sinks to the ground on her knees before the victorious Sorcerer's smile.

"Thank you." Dermail smirks snidely. "Sorceress Anne, go after those fleeing pegasi! They can't have gotten far. Keep track of the fairies as well. We may need that extra live dust to use on our guest, especially that pure fairy woman. The fools are playing right into our hands. Don't lose track of them, but remember, keep out of sight." He says with a gloat, staring at Sallie purposefully as he speaks of her fears so smugly.

"And the others who escaped with them?" Sorceress Anne queries as she levitates upwards towards the dark, cloudy skies.

"They are expendable----at your own discretion, my dear." Dermail cackles, knowing that Anne's 'discretion' meant certain destruction for the elf and human females, as her dark crimson robes fly quickly after the escapees, out for blood today, it seemed.

"Fire Nymph!!" Dermail bellows to his minion, who, heretofore, had gone unspoken and unnoticed. Her fiery hands were still tightly clenched on her captive Princess Relena's shaking shoulders.

"Lord Dermail." Lucrezia answers humbly enough.

"I, too, will be taking the fair Princess Relena now with me to follow the Pegasi to Mythica, so I will be leaving this little matter of the Water Nymph's disposal to you. Deal with it properly and catch up with us later. Those are my orders, do you understand?" Dermail grasps Relena's arm with his palm, feeling the very embers of her peaceful Tsificap bloodline pulsating from her. The power unrealized here on the Pegasus would still indeed be called upon for the Unicorns of legend. His main goal was to command and lay siege of those creatures infinite vast powers most of all.

"Understood." Lucrezia nods as the Sorcerer disappears with Relena. So many thoughts were burning in her heart as she takes a step before her sister Nymph---the sparring partner she had long ago been forged to battle with in the continual struggle of nature's fiercest elements.

Fire and Water's endless battle.

Until it would all end, here and now.....