Silver Rose

Of Fairy Tales

He gasped and sat up. He heaved stale air in and out of his lungs. He needed more and more; he felt like his empty body would never have enough air. Yet soon it was filled and he could breath at a regular pace. His eyes were closed. He heard nothing at first. Then the sound of snapping and crackling that couldn't be anything else but a fire reached his ears. His eyelids felt like they were stitched together. His eyes moved around, watering themselves until he could pry his lids open. Blinkingly, he looked out into the blurry world surrounding him. Several fuzzy bodies stood around him and even more stood behind them. He wasn't sure if he knew them and as his eyesight came into focus he found that he didn't, save one. Everyone there stared at him and Zander felt like he should say something, but he didn't know what.

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
"How do you feel?" A deep voice asked.

Zander looked up at a tall dark skinned man. He'd never seen anyone so dark. There was a thin layer of coarse hair on his head and his ears were long, thin and pointed straight up. Zander cleared his throat.

"I'm, uh, hungry," he said hoarsely.

"Good," another dark man said. "Get him some food." This man looked like the first one, only his hair was like a well-groomed bush about his head. He was leaning against a dark woman whose shoulder-length black hair seemed to puff out, but was actually a bunch of thick curls. All three wore dark brown trousers, and brown leather vests that came to their knee high leather boots. The men wore long sleeves white shirts that came to their thighs. The woman had a white shirt also, but hers was partially covered with what looked like a brown leather corset with leg length, thick, leather strips that looked like a skirt together, but separated to show her trousers when she moved. All three wore the same silver necklace with a marble sized crystal pendent at the end.

As the other people in the room bustled about, the dark woman led the man to a stone ledge beside Zander. The other man squeezed his shoulder. Zander looked up.

"That was close," he said, sitting in a chair. "You would have been gone when we got here if it hadn't been for her." He pointed to Snow (no Marina, he reminded himself), who was giving a cup to the other dark man.

"Who are you?" Zander asked.

The man chuckled.
"We are Charmints," he smiled. "I'm Cam of Shoy."

"Cam?" Zander repeated. The man nodded. "I'm, uh, Zander Briar of Chasilin."

Cam smiled. He swept a hand toward the other Charmints.
"The woman is Dashi. She is a trained Warrior. The man is Ny. He is a soldier, but is also a trained priest. Since he is closest to the Most High King, he brought you back to life. Ny and Dashi are also of the Shoy tribe."

A woman brought a bowl of soup to him. He recognized her from the stream. Her face seemed even more familiar, as if he'd known her before.
"Can he hold the bowl or should we feed him?" She asked Cam.

"He may not be able to hold the bowl, but he can feed himself, I think," Cam replied.

"You don't know?" The woman asked.

Cam shrugged.
"I'm not the priest here, Miss Mara."

Mara rolled her eyes and handed the bowl to Cam. Cam held it out to Zander.

"Take the spoon." He ordered.

Zander did and sipped at the warm soup. Using Cam's hands as a table, Zander soon finished three bowls of soup. Feeling better than he had in a long time, his curiosity aroused itself and he wanted to know how all of this had come about. Mara insisted that he sleep, but Ny said,
"Let him talk and listen. When he's ready to sleep he will."

And Mara, looking awed, stepped back and sat next to the fireplace. Cam still sat in a chair next to his bed now working on his own bowl of soup. On the ledge next to Zander, Ny was lying down with his head on Dashi's lap. His eyes were closed and he looked very tired. Zander guessed bringing people back from the dead was exhausting. There were blue women and a green one sitting on the other side of the room.

"We," another woman sitting the table spoke up. She gestured between Mara and herself. "Mara and I were on our way to find her memories when some crazy Walocs kidnapped me. They walked with me through Iosis muttering about demons, when I was pulled out of their grasp by some unknown force and thrown into the stream."

The Charmints glanced at each other.

"And I was also pulled out of Iosis like Tara, but you already know that," Mara said to the Charmints.

"We tried to follow you," Cam said with a mouthful of bread that Zander hadn't been allowed to have. "We lost you. So we made our way to Talis as it happened. We'd never been so close to human countries before. We'd hoped to avoid them. But, well, we came upon the nymphs. And after some inquiries, they led us to you."

"Oh, yes," Mara said. "What was it you wanted to ask me?"

"Wait," Zander cut in. "What is Iosis? And what do you mean by pulled? And nymphs? And 'human countries'? ...What are you people?"

Over the next hour, Zander sat through a shocking story about how humans and animals weren't the only creatures in the world. Mara and Tara were fairies with lots of magical power that they demonstrated by making flower bouquets and cakes out of nothing. The Charmints could change into any animal they wanted, heal, and had some control over weather. And although none were present, there were elves somewhere with foresight and acute senses. Dashi said they could appear out of thin air. That made him very uncomfortable. Those were the big magical beings, and there were those with lesser powers like goblins, and nymphs. And there were those who were like humans only in a different form (dwarfs and giants). Soon Zander's head was reeling. By the time the fairies finished their own personal stories, he was ready to sleep for a month. As he closed his eyes he really hoped he would.