Silver Rose

Fairies

Mara ran up the hill. She learned so many exciting things today, she had to tell her parents. Reaching the house, she burst through the door startling her mother.

"Mara!" Her mother shouted. "How many times have I told you to enter the house quietly?! I was in the middle of a spell and now I'll have start all over again!"

She made her mother mess up again. Mara wanted shrink into the walls and disappear.

"Calm down, Kyrin," her father said, entering the room. "How could she have known you'd be practicing?"

Her mother snorted, "Indeed!"
She watched her mother sit down on her stool. Her face was quiet, but her dark red hair floated around her head and Mara knew she was angry.

"Mara," her father said, taking her hand, "what has excited you so?"

Her mother's brown eyes stared straight at her. She hoped she wasn't putting a spell on her for punishment.

"Mara?" Her father said.

Mara looked up into her father's smiling face. Grinning, everything came back to her and she could hardly keep still.

"Father, today Professor us taught all sorts of things," She began. "Did you know there are other fairies besides us? And both of them live in the human world!"

"Really?!" Her father exclaimed. "Why don't you tell us about them?"

They sat down on the couch. Mara smiled at her mother, but her mother made no attempt to smile back. Turning to her father she continue to tell what she learned.

"One kind of fairy is called a Riea. They're a little bigger than your hand and they have wings! They fly everywhere. And they protect the meadows and swamps and forests from the humans. Professor says lots of times they go where humans live and play tricks on them!"

"They deserve more then some stupid tricks," her mother said.

"Mother, Rieas do all kinds of fun things like lock them in rooms, ruin their crops, get them lost, and sometimes even steal their babies!"

Her mother snorted.

"And Father the other fairies are called Gommoths. Their strange though. They actually like humans! They pledge themselves to a human or their family and will protect them and help them when they need it."

"The fools!" Her mother said.

"Professor said there was this one Gommoth named Enmy who goes around the world taking humans' teeth when they come out. But he said she doesn't do it to help them. He said she does it because she's obsessed with teeth. Father, what does obsessed mean?"

"Why is that professor talking about Gommoths as if they were real fairies?" Her mother asked.

"Why aren't they real, Mother?" Mara asked.

"Because those traitorous Gommoths turned their backs on their own kind," her mother said angrily. "They would rather help those savage animals, than stay with their own kind!"

"But Rieas are with humans, too," Mara pointed out.

"Rieas stayed in the human world to protect the fantastic creatures that are trapped there," her mother said. "You said yourself that they don't like humans. They're just doing their duty."

"That's right, Mara," her father said, "someone has to protect the non-magical creatures and the Rieas have taken it upon themselve to do so. They just have a little fun while they do it."

"Have you ever seen a Riea or a Gommoth, Father?" Mara asked.

"I have the pleasure to know many," her father said.

"Is it true Gommoths have the power to make themselves look different? Instead of always looking the same like we do?"

"Yes, they can," he said.

"Wow! If only I could change!"

"Why would you want the ability to age?" Her mother asked. "That is something the humans and their world has."

"Oh."

"Be glad to be born a Fauye, Mara," her mother said, rising. "That makes you better than anything else in creation."

Her mother went outside, probably to practice her magic in private. Her father also rose.

"Where are you going?" Mara asked.

"To finish packing," he said. "I'm leaving at dawn."

Mara followed him as he left the room.

"But you just got back!" She whined.

"That was a whole ten years ago, Mara."

They climbed the marable staircase to her parent's dressing room.

"But you'll be gone for two whole years!" She moaned as she watched him put a long, shiny object in his traveling bag. "What's this?" She picked it up. "Ow!" She cried dropping it.

"Mara! That's a knife!"

Mara watched blood flow out of her hand. It stung and pulsed and made her cry. Her father placed his hands over hers. A yellow glow rose up around his hands and in a moment the sting was gone. Her father removed his hands and her palm looked like it had before she'd touched the knife.

"Be extremely careful with your hands," he said. "You have healers blood in you. Healing comes out of the hands and if they are damaged, you cannot perform it. Do you understand?"

Mara nodded. Her father smiled. He picked up the knife, cleaned it, and placed it back in the bag. Mara's father was a Scout. Scouts went out into the human world every ten years to find out what was happening in it. Some Scouts went to the charmints (wolf-like creatures who were known to be very wise); and some went to the elves. Mara's father was in the group that went to the human world. The Scouts were the Fauyes only link to the outside realms.

Mara took her finger and traced her father's name on his bag. SARIO MADID.

"Father, how come you don't change the last name on your bag to mother's?" She asked.

"Polante-Gnight is a very powerful name," he said. "I prefer my own when travelling."

Mara shrugged. When two Fauyes married, they usually took the name of the more powerful family. Her mother was a product of two of the most powerful Fauyen families: the Gnights and the Polantes. When her grandfather Cyrus Gnight and her grandmother Isthar Polante married, they couldn't decide whose family was more powerful so they put their names together. Mara's father came from two simple healers. She wasn't sure why he didn't change his name on his bag. But it really didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was going away.

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Sario Madid (Polante-Gnight) went out into a southeast region of the human world with several
other Scouts. As usual they split up to cover more
ground. Sario didn’t mind the human world. Actually, it rather fascinated him. Like any other Fauyen child, he’d grown up hearing how awful and despicable humans were. But when he bought bread from one, or walked along side one on the road, they seemed like creatures that only wanted a better lot in the short time they had to live. When he looked into their eyes he saw that most tried to be honest and do good. These were not the terrible people who lusted only for death and power.

Sario felt safe in this world. If things got precarious he had his magic to protect him. After a year of travel he stopped by a river. Diamonds seemed to float in it as the sun shone down. He let his horse drink and sat down to admire the lush green hills in the distance. It was a beautiful, peaceful place. His mind drifted back to his family. His wife, Kyrin, had been in an uproar before he left. She always hated to see him go, but instead of being sad, she always got angry. He was sure that had something to do with how she was raised. The more powerful Fauyes always seemed to dislike emotions, especially those they thought were weaknesses. Kyrin was usually a pillar of stone. It had taken 20 years for him to get her to love him (or at least admit to it). But even though she struggled to show it, Sario knew Kyrin loved him. A Fauye as powerful as she was, would never marry someone so beneath them if they didn't truely love the person. Besides, the Bond Bracelet he wore on his wrist was proof of her love. When Fauyes married, Bond Bracelets were magically formed. If both persons didn't truely love the other, the bracelets would reject them.

Kyrin always had a temper, but she was very good about only showing it in private. He had worked with her all these years and now she was at least recognizing her feelings even if she didn't always show them. When he left he knew she was worried, but could only express it with anger. Once when he left 80 years ago, she told him she was afraid something would happen to him. His great-great-great grandfather had been a human. That meant he could die a whole lot more easily than a pure fairy could. He knew that one small confession from Kyrin showed that progress had been made. Still, after 200 years of marriage, he had only heard her say "I love you" five times.

He heard a rustle behind him. Thinking it was only an animal, he continued to think about his family. Poor Mara. He had completely forgotten that this year was her 100th birthday. But it had been too late to reschedule for a later Scouting expedition. He had made her a silver necklace with a small, hollow, crystal sphere on it. In it he put a bit of his blood and some of Kyrin's. He even got a friends of his who webt among the charmints and the elves to add their blood to it. It was said that when all three came together: the power of the fairies, the immortality of the elves, and the wisdom of the charmints--and one was in deathly need, you could do something that would be invincable. At least that was the legend. But he thought Mara would enjoy having all three together. She loved studying about different races and this way she'd always have the three most powerful with her.

Kyrin had a fit when she found out what he was really doing with it. She didn't think one should fool around when it came to magic (or things that could be magic). But Sario didn't think this was harmful. After all, it was only a couple drops of blood from each of them in a pendant the size of a marable. He had to compromise with Kyrin and not tell Mara what was actually in it. But it was worth it to see Mara's face. 100 years was a very special birthday that demanded a very special gift.




He stood to get some bread out of the
sack on his horse. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something flash. He turned. Something hard plunged into his chest. Three men stood a few yards away. They started to run toward him. He turned to run away knowing he’d be miles away from them before they got two feet further. But he couldn’t move. Sharp, boiling pain burst from his chest. He looked down. An axe lay buried in his chest. Dark blood soaked his clothes. His fingers
touched his breast. Searing pain ripped through his body.

The men grabbed him. He cried out. They beat him. Then they took his money and his horse. After
they had stolen what they wanted, they sat down to
look everything over. Sario felt his body shutting
down. He lifted his arms.

“Kyrin!” He yelled. “Kyrin! Kyrin, my love. Kyrin!”

He yelled her name over and over. One of the men got up. He took out a hunting knife and plunged it into Sario’s flesh. With a gasp, Sario died. As the man retrieved his knife he saw Sario’s Bond Bracelet. It was a perfect fit around his wrist and the man could not get it off. Taking the axe out of Sario’s chest, he chopped his hand off. The Bracelet was beautiful, unlike anything he had ever seen. Not wantign to share it with the others, he quickly hid the Bracelet in his cloak.

“Come on, Lance,” one of the men shouted.

“One moment,” Lance shouted back.

He gave their victim one last look.

Sario’s body shivered. Lance jumped back, knife in
hand. Then it began to age from a beautiful young man to an ugly shriveled old man. Lance cried out. The others rushed over. Smoke arose from the body. It slowly broke apart. As if burning from the inside, the pieces withered into ashes. Then ashes vanished into nothing. The men stared in amazement.

“This place is cursed!” One man said.

“Let us get away from this evil place!” The other shouted.

They ran off. Lance tried to grab the horse. But with its master now dead, the horse turned and ran back to the realm of the Fauye. Not able to catch it, Lance ran off to join his companions.

Protected by Fauyen magic, the horse made it safely back home in three weeks. By that time everyone knew that Serio had died. The horse only
confirmed it.