Chapter 6

"Mariemaia.....!" Cathrine's golden throat was about to calm down. She was now just a few wing flaps away from retrieving her flutterbudget of a charge, safe and un----

"Here I am, Aunt Cathy! Help me gather some of these flowers for the palace. Aren't they pretty? I wonder why they only grow here and not on the other side of the riverbank, too. Don't you?" Mariemaia's delightful little voice chirps as she continues to pluck the bright yellow and pink daffo-mums from their home right at the river's edge.

"I've never wondered it before, but now that you've said it, I wonder why, too. Maybe it's because they're yellow and pink and only lavender and blue flowers grow on the other side." Cathrine flutters over to where Mariemaia was greedily picking whole bunches of the rare flora and bunching them carefully in her hands. She was not REALLY listening to her ditzy aunt's silly explanations and theories. Mariemaia instead found simple pleasures of flowers and dreams going hand in hand--that, and the driving need to take even one more tiny step into the world without.

It wasn't that the well-cared-for and loved fairy child didn't appreciate what she knew here in this land of fairies. She loved them all, especially her Aunt Cathrine. However, there was a world out there--a big world, and she could feel the want, the need, the desire, to explore it--to search for the untouchable, glorious treasures that must lie out there, somewhere. For the adventurous human spirit within her tiny body made her unknowingly reach for the impossible dreams she had of the great out there somewhere.

And that was something else that added to Cathrine's fears. Mariemaia was not very much at all the calm, composed fairy Leia was. She had only in one forbidden moment had compromised her level-headed life of the straight and narrow she had always led. No, Mariemaia was different. Though she had the body, magic and wings of a fairy, she had the heart and soul of an explorer, an adventurer, of a human, inside.

And that was what made her continually reach out into the unknown instead of wanting to stay in the safe-guarded world that all other fairies clung to within.

And so, with all these factors raging within her childlike body and mind, Mariemaia lets her wild heart do the walking. Her adventurous soul directs her tiny feet to just reach up and take one, teeny-weeny step out into the river bank's other side---the off limits side that led to the outside world....

"--or maybe it's because these flowers like to change the colors of their dresses, just like we fairies do...?" Cathrine then ceases her incessant chattering about the flowers. She just notices, in that second, that the little fairy girl beside her---was no longer beside her.

In fact, she was now not only one, but several steps out onto the banks of the foreign forest's green grassline.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What're you doing? Can I play too?" Mariemaia's squeaky little fairy voice takes the tickling pair off guard. Hilde and Duo look at each other, wide-eyed, then to the new intruder.

They answer each other's question with a shrug and elfish smile.

"Sure! Why not? The more the merrier." Duo's happy-go-lucky attitude smiles at his new playmate.

"Yeah! Us two girls against one boy! We'll beat him up good! You'd better run, Duo! This girl's got wings! So there's no use climbing trees! We'll count to ten so you'd better run!!!" Hilde's playful nature grabs hold of Mariemaia's little hand. She nor Duo didn't care what species their new playmate was, just as long as she was fast---and fun.

Duo, the playful elf dashes off when Hilde covers both her own and Mariemaia's eyes.

"Come on!" Hilde's peeking eyes catch glimpse of the elf boy's running flight away. His long, long brown braid trailed behind as he disappears into the green treed forest that Mariemaia had never entered before. But she was enthusiastically curious and wanted to do so her entire life.

What manner of creatures are these two? They have pointy ears! It doesn't matter--I like them!

She thinks as the girl with short hair and pointy ears grabs her hands on the hunt after their target, hiding in the trees.

"It's too quiet here! Duo must've gone this way!!" Hilde's big pointed ears (far too large to be proportionate with her skinny little frame) prick up. The size of those ears was something elves treasured. It gave them a longer range listening capacity for targets even too far for human ears to pick up.

This sensitive hearing ability gave these woodland creatures a defense and prewarning before being attacked by a greedy boar or wandering centaur--or even worse---monsters after their luck magic that each elf was born with.

Besides, having such good ears made playing "Hide, Seek and Tickle" so much fun! Except....

Hilde stops stark still. She thrusts a halting hand over Mariemaia's bobbing orange head. The small child's little wings had been flapping with all their might to keep up on this merry elven chase.

"Listen. I hear him up in this tree." The only unfortunate thing in an elf chasing game, Hilde allows herself one moment of humor to ponder, as she scoops up Mariemaia and holds her up in the air, was that his elfy ears could hear her a mile away too! And neither of them rarely ever caught the other fair and square.

Why play fair anyway? It's dull.

ZIP!

Along with a few disturbed birdies, Duo the elf knew his gig was up and agilely leaps across the treetops he was greenly blending into.

Not to worry, Du-ey! I have a secret weapon today!

"You can't get away from us so easily!" She screams at the top of her lungs. "Okay, fairy, flap your wings as fast as you can and tag that no-good, worthless elf when he least expects an aerial attack---! Whoa--!!"

The second after Hilde releases Mariemaia into the air above with a thrown, launched start up, a wave of nausea hits her like a ton of bricks.

This never-ill elf girl felt so dizzy she could barely stand. Falling to her knees on the leafy ground, Hilde could swear (and does) she could hear in her well-honed ears, the tinkling sound of fairy dust....

Looking up she sees the cause of her unexpected attack and pitiable defeat.

A fairy stood before and if not for this depressing situation, Hilde would have laughed out loud at the thought of being taken down by a bare-footed, orchid mini-dressed fairy. She had brown curlies and long, long legs and the voice---

"Mariemaia! Come back here at once!" Yeah, the voice was a fairy's.

Cathrine the Fairy doesn't bother with the female elf who had already fallen under her magic dust's spell. Her wings fly swiftly up in chase of her wayward ward and whatever danger she could be zipping straight into.

Being older and more experienced (in flying, that is) Cathrine quickly catches up to the child---but it was a second too late...

"Gotcha!! Did'ja think silly fairies could beat me?! Hah!" Danger was spelled with a capital "Duo." This elf boy gambled everything, as he always did, for a game. He didn't seem to care about his own neck as he takes the two fairies by surprise and leaps clear into the empty blue air. Though he had no wings of his own to save even a lucky elf from imminent death of being turned into a splat on the forest ground,, he had theirs---

Or at least he thought he had. Amidst the cacophony of squealing fairies added to by the screams of his own death-defying descent, Hilde's highly tuned ears pick up another sound entering the forest. Another sound so nearby that if not for this out-of-control game of fairies and elves she was certain both she and Duo could sense in a split second of a split second and---

"INTRUDER!!!!!!" Hilde's loudest voice warning screech was just in Duo's sensitive hearing range despite all the screaming in the air around him. He was just about to land smack in between the two fairies and be able to grab hold of them and hitch a free ride. But Hilde's warning came a moment too late.

WHIZZZZZZZZ

The trio of arrows that fly through the air simultaneously with such utter precision and aim could be the handiwork of none other than an expert marksman.

Each finely sharpened arrow hit it's target right on the mark and Duo goes flying backwards against the wind--struck in several places.

The golden tipped arrows had come so swiftly and unforgivingly, they had sent his body flailing hard against the tall, leafy green tree's wide trunk. They deeply embedded into the tree, holding the elf boy's apparently lifeless limp body there with the arrows he was just pummeled with.

"DUO!!!!!!!!!!!!" Hilde had never screamed so loud before in her entire life. (And she's put over quite a few tries before.) Her whole world was crumbling about her. Her ears now drooped in sadness at the sight of losing her best friend--her soul mate.

And she, as all elves in grievance had done before, falls to the ground, pounding at it as she covers her own body in the leaves scattering across the forest floor, with tears falling uncontrollably.

Feeling the pity for these now seemingly harmless elves, Cathrine allows herself and Mariemaia to fly to the boy hung in the tree. She needed to see if she could herself help him. Yet even for her healing powers, it could be too late. However...

"WAHHHHHHH!! Am I dead?! Am I dead?! Hilde! Am I dead?!!!" The mouth is the first to come back to consciousness. Cathrine didn't have to use her powers today for she had forgotten something else about these strange little creatures called elves---

They had incredible luck.

"You're not dead, silly." Mariemaia giggles as she and Cathrine with the help of a little fairy magic, pull out the arrows golden tipped from the tree. Cathrine takes note of how the deadly arrows were, all three placed so strategically that they pinched only the elf boy's excess clothing to hold him up, pinned to the tree.

So skillyfully trained that Cathrine was certain now that the swift arrows were not intended to harm nor kill the boy---but to save his life from the fall...

But who was their saviour? Cathrine's fairy eyes scan the deep green of the forest in search of the heroic owner of the rescuing golden arrows so she could thank him for saving this poor elf boy's life. Cathrine's compassion was the utmost characteristic of her good and pure personality.

The deep green of the forest was dulled by the deep green of his eyes. Cathrine's own violet ones open wide in shock at the gaze landing upon her by the "saviour" of one braided elf-boy. His gaze freezes her in her place, half-way there in her winged tracks.

He had the eyes of a fantasy, the perfect visage, the face of a Prince of Angels. For that was what he was--what he appeared to be--a dashingly handsome prince--whose dream-filled eyes of calm, peaceful depths were beckoning to her as his graceful, agile hands swiftly resheath the bow and arrows into the quiver on his back.

The golden tipped arrows make a chiming metal-to-metal sound as they slide down into his golden quiver. A trusty sword of dipped steel clang with them as they go.

It is that sound of steel and metal, of weapons of war and destruction that brings the dutiful instinctive side of Cathrine's nature out. That along with the frightened skittishness every fairy possessed.

In the flash of a second her wings cease their descent to greet the handsome newcomer.

Quick hands grasp the fairy child beside her, and both take flight, making a beeline for the safety of home, just over the river's edge. They disappear just as quickly as they came--in a flutter of lavender fairy dust.

For a long minute, silence overtakes the darkening forest that, to this human archer, had only moments ago been aglow with a wondrous light and radiance. A shining light that seemed to him to follow that lovely fairy who had just departed.

His eyes watch her go sadly.

"Ummm....Hilde.....ummm, could you and your new friend there get me down from here?" The silent stillness is broken by the plaintive voicebox of elf Duo. He as yet, was left hanging up there on that tree by a trio of golden arrows.

That just happened to be put there by that guy below. Lucky he didn't hit anything vital. But...who holds grudges anyway? Nope! Not me!

Duo's lips pucker at the thought as he looks down at his rescuer in the forest.

"Sure, Duo, I'll be right there. Geez, some fun game this turned out to be!" Grumbling Hilde gets up and starts to brush herself off. The grief of before now turned into frustration at her lucky friend.

At the same time she continues to keep a suspicious eye trained upon the obviously non-elven (no pointy ears) man standing just a few feet from where she was on the ground.

Seeing her still slow movements, the unknown archer takes a step forward. Hilde shrinks back instinctively to which the Archer raises a peaceful, palmed hand.

"Please allow me, Elven Princess." A gracious bow adds to the already respectful lowering of his deep green eyes. Their gorgeous view was mostly masked behind a shock of auburn hair, giving this man a mysterious romantic air that Hilde suddenly finds quite enthralling.

His beautiful eyes were those that a feminine heart found easy to trust---even naturally suspicious one's like Hilde the elf.

The archer shoots a rope arrow mere inches from where the hapless Duo hung on the tree. Duo gulps loudly.

With the agility and balance unbelievable of someone hailing from the race of mere mortals, the archer's graceful limbs climb the rope with amazing speed. He hoists Duo over his broad shoulders after easily extricating the caught elf by removing his planted arrows with strong hands. Then, just as swiftly as he went up, he travels down. Hilde watches the whole rescue process with awe on her cute face until the archer's tall, thin frame alights back onto the ground. He secures a dizzy, spinning elf-boy to his own feet on the forest floor in a whirlwind save.

"Whew! Could you teach me that knack you've got with your bow and arrow thingy? That'll really impress the elf girls back home." Duo whistles. Obviously his bird-brained mind already made friends with this "intruder" of their forest.

Hilde rolls her eyes at Duo's attitude. Big dumb oaf!

"Certainly. That is, if..." The archer's green eyes dance in anticipation. He and Duo had already seemed to have had a conflab somewhere during this rescue.

"Oh, right! No prob!" Duo smacks his hands together, ready for mischief again. His wild eyes flash at the smell of fun.

Quick elven legs take off down the forest trail. He pauses in his race to call back to where he left his best friend standing beside their rescuing archer with a question on her face.

"Come on! She lives on the other side of this river, in the fairy land Eixip! Come on, I'll show you the way!" Duo announces as he runs.

"Guess that answers that..." Hilde murmurs under her breath at the way of all males, any and every species as the Archer's eyes light up and he follows the path of the braid fading from the glen into the trees....