Silver Rose

The Dream

Kyrin relaxed as the cold air hit her body. She closed her eyes and dozed off. In the darkness of her mind, she saw the creatures hanging on her every word. Believing her when she promised that together, they would avenge themselves. She saw the disappointment and betrayal in their eyes as they learned that she had left. She looked down at them; they looked up at her. One creature lifted its blond head. His face was Serio’s. Her dear husband whose murder had set her on this path looked up at her from amongst the creatures. His green eyes were cold with hurt from her betrayal.

“You cannot break your promise to me,” he said.
“You cannot break your promise to the Landons.”

“But I must!” She protested.

“This is the road you must walk, Kyrin,” Serio said.

“There is a wall blocking that road. I cannot go any further.”

“Then you must find another way.”

“There is no other way!” She yelled.

Serio turned his head away.

“I’m sorry.” Kyrin said. “I’m so sorry, Serio.”

He turned back as a tear slid down his face.

“The wall was not made to protect the humans,” he said.

Suddenly he began to melt away. Everything seemed to melt away.

“Serio! Don’t leave me! Serio!” Kyrin screamed.

The blurry Serio held out his arms. Kyrin ran into them. His embrace was as strong and comforting as she remembered it. She laid her head against his chest. Tears flowed out of her eyes and she couldn’t stop them.
“Serio. Serio,” she cried tightening her arms around him.

Suddenly his body toppled forward. His weight knocked her to the ground.
“Serio?”

Kyrin lifted his head. His glazed eyes stared back at her.
“Serio?!”

Someone pulled him off her. She watched as three men threw him on the ground. They had knives in their hands stained with his blood.

“No!” Kyrin screamed. “No! Serio! You savages!”

Kyrin jumped up. She threw out a terrible spell that would rip them to shreds. But they still stood there. Now they laughed at her. She tried again.

“Your magic doesn’t work here!” Someone said behind her.

She saw that she was surrounded by thousands of humans. They all held bloody knives.

“You cannot defeat us!” They shouted.

“Yes I can!” Kyrin shouted back.

“What about the wall? We will hide behind the wall. Then we will kill you!”

The humans jumped on the creatures and stabbed each of them to death. Kyrin tried spell after spell but nothing worked. When all the creatures were dead, they turned to her.

“Go ahead! Do it!” She shouted.

“Not yet,” one said. “Her first.”
They brought out a little screaming girl.

“Mara?” Kyrin whispered.

“Mother! Help me! Help me, Mother!” Mara screamed.

“I can’t,” Kyrin cried sinking to her knees. “I can’t.

A man grabbed Mara’s hair and slit her throat. Sobbing, Kyrin crawled over to her dead daughter’s body.

“Will you take everything from me?” she sobbed.

“We already have,” the man said.

Kyrin felt the cold blade plunge into her breast. Their faces spun as they all stabbed her. The world turned over. She felt as if she were falling. She fell into a pitch black space. She saw the wall shining in magical glory. She was headed straight for it. Looking over its side, she saw the people within it. They happily milled about oblivious to the rest of the world. Anger surged through her body. She read in their faces that they did not think her arm could reach that far. Her ancestors built this wall to protect themselves from the humans. Now the humans were reaping the benefits from a spell created to help the victims of that atrocity.

“This wall was not built to protect you!” She shouted, repeating the words of her husband.

Then she felt herself lift up. She flew over the wall to the side she could not get to. Below her were all the people of those lands. All the people who thought she could never reach them. Now they looked up. The laughter in their eyes was replaced with fear as her shadow descended upon them. They wanted to run, but they had nowhere to go.

Suddenly, she began to fall with great speed. She laughed as their terrified faces drew closer and closer. Husbands tried to shield their wives, and parents tried to cover their children. Men shakily drew their swords. A few witches and Gommoths pretended to able to take her down, but they knew they could do nothing against her. No one had been expecting her.

The humans’ faces blurred together as she crashed into them. She took a breath and her lungs filled with water. Thrashing about, she tried to find a way out. Her eyes opened, but everything was dark. She swallowed another mouthful of water. Her legs began kicking and she forced herself to go up. Breaking the surface of the water, she inhaled the biggest gulp of air her body could hold. Then she went under the water again. The hollow sound of water rushed around her ears. Her arms flailed about. Her body pushed out of the water.

She screamed.

The water began to pull her body under again. Terrified, another scream burst out of her throat before a rush of water went down it. Her limbs helplessly thrashed about. She came back up. Her body was snatched out of the water in mid-scream.

Flike flew over the lake and gently placed on dry ground. She started coughing making her lungs hurt, but she couldn’t stop. Tears streamed down her face as she labored to catch her breath.
After a lot of coughing and a little vomiting, she was finally able to breath. It seemed to take forever to get her body to stop trembling and her breathing back to normal. She lay on her back and looked up at the night sky. Taking deep breaths, she tried to force her body to get rid of the fear in her heart.

“Kyrin? Are you alright?” Flike asked.

Kyrin sat up.
“What happened?!” She shouted.

“You fell asleep and slipped off my back.” He said.
“I was able to grab you but you were still asleep. You kept groaning and waving your arms like it was a nightmare. So when I saw the lake, I decided I must wake you up.”

“By trying to drown me?!”

“Pardon me, I though you could swim.”

“Fauyes drink water! WE don’t swim in it!”

“I’ve seen some Fauyes who do.”

“Who cares?! I’m not some Fauyes. I am Kyrin of the Polante-Gnight! Powerful fairy! Bringer of destruction to all mankind! Queen of the Kandors! I don’t need to know how to swim!”

“I’m sorry… I did not know.”

“Know this! I hate lakes and pools and rivers! I hate water! I hate drowning!”

Kyrin walked further away from the lake.

“In my defense,” Flike said, “you were in it only for a few seconds.”

“Well, it felt like eternity!” Kyrin shouted.

“Even if it were for eternity, you wouldn’t have actually died.”

“Oh, that’s comforting Flike. I wouldn’t have died. Instead I would have been in hell, with the sensation of drowning without the relief of death, for hundreds of years!”

“Kyrin—“

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore!”

Flike sighed. He walked over to the lake and took a long drink. Kyrin crossed her arms over her chest. She had tried to learn how to swim when she was a child and failed. She fell into a river when she was 114, a young teenager, and went through the drowning thing again. When she gave up magic, her father suggested she try to master swimming. She tried, and drowned… again. That was when she swore off swimming and avoided all bodies of water deeper than a tub. In the human world she had to walk around lakes and have Flike carry her over rivers if they couldn’t find a bridge. She hated water.

“Kyrin?” Flike called.

She stood shivering by a grove of trees. Flike walked over to her.

“We should keep going. In the morning we can sleep.” He said.

“No.”

“Kyrin?”

“We aren’t going back to the Fauye realm.”

“But I thought you wanted—“

“I’ve changed my mind, Flike. I must fulfill my curse.”

Flike stared at her in surprise.

“But what about the wall?!” He exclaimed.

Kyrin smiled.
“Who goes through a wall, Flike?”

“What?” He asked confused.

Kyrin climbed onto his back.
“Burmir said that to me.”

“No wonder it doesn’t make any sense,” Flike said as he took off. “But I still don’t understand why we are going back. Or how you can fulfill the curse with the wall in the way.”

“The wall is in the way, Flike. This whole time I’ve been trying to find a way through the spell, through the wall. But walls are built so people can’t walk through them.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I must find a way over the wall.”

“How?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m thinking on it.”

Flike nodded his head. They flew back over the land controlled by the Landons. High up in the sky, they saw the peaks of the Forbidden Mountains. As dawn approached, they reached the castle. Flike landed on the balcony.

“Thank you, Flike,” Kyrin said. “You may rest for as long as you need.”

“What about you?” Flike asked.

“I’m going back into that dark room to find a way around the wall.”

Flike turned back into an eagle sized bird and flew off. Kyrin headed straight for the dark room. She made her way back into the magic realm. As she approached the huge wall, she smiled.

“You were created to protect those who are not human. Which means what magic is already inside you cannot be harmed, even if it left your borders. It could return to your insides because it comes from inside you.”