Welcome

Roween zipped through the trees, her morning duties already finished. Ron had been kind enough to keep his promise of maintaining the forest in the areas that people visited. She had seen to the rest. Nature was at its best when left to itself. Although a bit of fairy magic never hurt. She remembered the trees telling her about the hunters, and she was on the lookout for them today. She not only protected the plants but many of the animals that relied on them as well.

It was almost noon, and she had yet to come across any sign of the two hunters. Although summer had gone, Fall was still nowhere to be found. The trees still held their leaves, and the tiny flowers still bloomed. Roween used her magic to speak with the trees, but none knew the locations of the people hunting within the forest. She spoke with the Sylphs, asking if they had seen anyone as they played. To her surprise, she was told the same.

“No humans or foul, only bloomin and owls.” One sylph chimed musically, making Roween look around the tops of the trees as she floats with her magical brethren.

Then one of the sylphs mentioned that the nixies spoke of some humans yesterday, down by the river. The fairy’s interest was piqued, and she listened when the sylph told Roween where the glowing sprite herself dashed off through the trees.

When Roween reached the small stream, she was met by a pair of water lizards eyes peering just above the surface. Roween had been around as long as magic, and she knew who was watching her. She greeted the lizard with the familiarity of any sprite she knew. Within moments the eyes changed, as its face became that of a small man—his shiny, moist skin reflecting like the surface of the water. Roween spoke in her typical rhyme, only to have the nixie respond.

“You fly above the ground, never thinking about us down here.” The nixie replied.

Roween stood her ground, her stance now one filled with annoyance. “It is a question so simple, no anger to mean. So, smile and dimple, be ample and glean.”

The nixie looked confused by Roween’s words and was about to ask what she meant. But, the nixie could see the arrogant smile creeping along the edge of the fairy’s lips. Roween spoke nonsense, knowing that the nixie would have no choice but to think and become reasonable. She knew what nixies were like. She remembered her own words from long ago.

Nixies are like water. That’s what they are. Calm, then swatter when pushed too far.

The nixie shook his head, his vision clearing now, and were his thoughts. “Sorry fair friend. I do not mean to speak in anger. Things have been strange since the hunters were around. I am Fastel” The small glistening man seemed to think for a moment. “But I do not know what they were hunting. I cannot seem to remember.”

Roween asked what he did remember only to be told that there were two men in the forest, the wore strange glasses, dark as the night, but that the lenses shined with the sun’s light. The glass seemed to be of magic, but none that he was aware of. She then looked to the water, it’s surface clear and moving. Here mind was looking for an answer to the unusual knowledge she just learned. Her thoughts snapped to order when the nixie said, “I think it left tracks when it drank from the stream.”

The fairy flew fast, and she searched the wet dirt, her eyes finding the evidence she sought. There were hoof marks of a horse, but not just any horse. Roween crossed her arms, and a scowl filled her face. She spun around, slowly scanning the forest around her before she spoke.

It is rare to hear a fairy’s words filled with such distaste. “it’s clear-cut, my friend, I hate to inform. But, it seems, just, in our midst a proud unicorn.”

The nixie’s shoulders lowered, his head hanging, “That’s why I couldn’t remember. I must have looked it in the eyes. I hate those self-loving creatures. They’re always trouble.” The small man tapped the water and spoke. The language was not one any human could understand. The waves of the water rippled, and they traveled. Like the sylphs, nixies used their element to communicate, and that realization made her think of her human friends. She had told Linda long ago how nixies spoke along the ripples of the water. And to not cast a stone into rippled water on purpose, you might interrupt a conversation.

The nixie walked toward Roween, making sure to keep his feet connected to the water. He looked up at her, “I warned everyone about that unicorn. We can deal with it if needed.” He paused. “But what about the humans who were hunting it?”

Roween looked to the nixie as she landed, her feet touching the moist ground making her lift her foot as the mud stuck to her. She thought about the glasses that the nixie mentioned. Is there another sorcerer hunting magic creatures? Did someone like Terrel return? Roween thought about the glasses and that the nixie didn’t know the magic. But Roween suspected she did as she looked down the stream, and her eyes drifted skyward. Her mind thinking about humans running into the unicorn. She knew that it was sometimes funny. Unicorns could make almost any creature do what they wanted just by looking into its eyes. But, the glasses were probably made to protect the person wearing them. That fact concerned the fairy.

“If that unicorn is still around, I pity any humans that meet it,” Fastel said

Roween agreed as a smile came across her face. She remembered seeing a unicorn long ago and making a man and deer dancing together and even having the man give his clothes to the deer. And in the morning, the man woke, wearing nothing and wondering why the deer sleeping next to him was wearing his clothes.

But, Roween’s mind returned to the men and the glasses they wore. She then looked down the stream, and her mind remembered Ron’s cabin. The fairy sighed.

“The men with those glasses are a concern. But I have friends that may help me learn.” Roween said, looking despondent.

Fastel smiled, “great. Then we can get them out of here as well.”

Roween nodded, but she peered out into the forest in disappointment. Seeing her reaction made the nixie asked, “what is it?”

The fairy took a breath, her mind now thinking of Ron and Linda since Amanda had left to return to the city. “They are friends of mine, that is true. I know them fine, and will find help due. I hoped to leave them and let magic cede. But, their help it seems again we need.”