Seraph Hunter 3 Chapter 21: Letting Go
Sunrise
Brenzel didn’t know how long she’d held Fey, for eventually she fell asleep, too, Fey’s little body nestled in her arms. When she awoke, she could see light coming through the door between the strings of flowers. Fey was still resting peacefully, so Brenzel didn’t move except to stroke her dark green hair. It was wavy but not curly.
She thought back to how she was so afraid of the bug in her home when she was a young child. At that time, scared by the unknown, she couldn’t understand why her dad wasn’t afraid. When she grew up, though she never liked bugs, she wasn’t terrified of them anymore, for she understood. In fact, like her father attempted to do, she would simply put them outside and let them live in peace.
Yes, outside, she thought.
“Fey…Fey…” Brenzel said gently. Her small form began to stir, tiny arms stretching as her two wings unfurled and stretched, too. She snuggled closer into Brenzel’s bosom, clutching her clothes, with a look of contentment on her features.
It’s all a matter of how you see things, Brenzel thought. I’m holding a fairy with magical powers, or that’s what anyone seeing this would say. The truth was even stranger, but until you knew it, Fey was just a fairy, not a person.
Wake up my friend
“Fey, my friend, wake up…”
Brenzel saw her small friend’s eyes open, blink, and then look up. “How long was I asleep?” She asked in her small, melodic voice.
“Most of the night. I fell asleep, too.”
Fey looked around as she sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “I can’t remember the last time I slept,” she said.
****transition here?
It took some doing, yet Brenzel persisted, finally convincing Fey. Fey protested, then told her she was afraid, but finally she saw the wisdom in her big friend’s bold plan.
“Do you have clothes?” Bren asked her.
“Well, yes, but they’re all too big. I became so sad I stopped eating, but I didn’t get skinny, I just got smaller. I don’t need them, Brenzel, everyone knows everyone here. We’re not strangers.”
“Well. . .if you want, we can take care of that later,” Brenzel concluded.
Fey handed her a strip of cloth. “Can you help me tie this around my eyes? The sunlight hurts them. Don’t worry, my other sense are so sharp, it won’t matter.”
Brenzel started tying the strip of cloth around her, then, having an epiphany, began rummaging around in her pouch. She pulled something out and told Fey, “These may be too big, but let’s try them. If not, we can put on the blindfold.”
Opening her favorite sport sunglasses, she put them on Fey, tying them in the back. You look ridiculously cute, Bren thought as Fey smiled.
“Promise to stay with me?” the small features looked up questioningly.
“Yes, we’ll hold hands the whole way.”
Fey nodded, looked towards the day, and said, “I’m ready.”
Parting the hanging flowers, Brenzel and Fey emerged into the filtered sunlight coming through the trees. Brenzel judged that the second sun must already be up. Fallon must be worried sick.
A new friend
Slowly coming out to the clearing, the ferns that ringed it almost taller than her friend, Brenzel resisted the urge to pick Fey up and carry her. Fern giving way to moss, Brenzel spied Fallon, laying on the ground, apparently asleep. Releasing Fey’s hand she went quickly to her young friend, shaking her gently.
As she woke, Fallon looked around, then up at Brenzel’s concerned face. “I must have slept,” she said, “I’m sorry, I kept awake as long as I could. Is everything okay?” Then she noticed the small figure wearing big dark glasses. “What – who is that?”
Pulling Fallon up, Brenzel said, “It’s our new friend, Fey.”
Fallon looked at the small person. “Hello, I’m Fallon. Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”
Fey nodded, not saying anything.
“Please go and wait for me with Komae and her friend,” Brenzel said. “I need to go for a walk with Fey. I will come as soon as I can.”
“But, Brenzel,” Fallon protested, “I want to go with you.”
Fey said in Brenzel’s mind, It’s okay of she wants to come with us, I don’t mind. Besides, she is worried about Derek.
You’re right! Ugh, almost forgot about that… “Okay, come along, Fallon.”
They’re waiting
Out of the woods and onto the stone street leading to the City of Fey, the three walked slowly. Fey looked at everything as they went, but did not speak, out loud or in Bren’s mind. They met no one on the way and Brenzel began to worry that something may not be right.
However, Fey eventually said, “Don’t worry, they’re all waiting for us in the amphitheater.”
Surely enough, as they walked through the gate and down the raised platform the whole bowl-shaped meeting place was filled with Fey, sitting and mind talking among themselves, waiting. As they passed the crowd of people who saw Fey, looks of surprise and awe covered their faces, none having ever laid eyes on her before. As she walked, she allowed her two wings to unfurl to their full size.
Yeah, Brenzel thought, she’s a fairy.
As they came to the center of the concentric meeting place, Fallon gasped. Brenzel turned and saw Derek, and Fallon running to him, hugging him tightly.
Fey and Brenzel stood in the center as everyone’s minds quieted. Fey spoke out loud in her small, flute -like voice. “My friends, today you see my true form for the first time. . . .and I am sure you are surprised, but,” she paused, “I hope not displeased.” She looked around at the people’s eyes, intensely focused on her. “We have come a long way together, each of you sharing your pain with me and with each other. We are Fey.”
As her friend paused again, Brenzel thought, you can do it.
Body and mind
All minds remained quiet, a stillness falling over the listeners, like the presence of a predawn lake before the sun rises on it’s placid water. Fey said, again out loud, “I have been sad of late, and in my loneliness sometimes my thoughts have grown dark. I thought that knowing you from afar was good enough, but I realize now that I need to be with you in body, as well as in mind.
“It is my choice to live among you from this day and forward. Fey will dwell in the City of Fey.”
At that, a spontaneous cheer went up along with clapping. Fey looked around in wonderment. She obviously had not expected such a heartfelt welcome. After a while, the cheering died down and Fey looked at Brenzel with tears in her eyes. “I did not know.”
Putting her small arms out, big sunglasses on her face, Fey continued. “I know in my fear, I kept you all very close, perhaps too close. I am sorry.” Her voice broke, then she swallowed hard. “Perhaps. . .perhaps the tragedies we have known among us have been my fault.” She took a deep breath. “But I know now there may be some of you who wish to leave our city, who long in their hearts to return home.”
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd, some shouting, “No!”
Again she raised her arms to quiet the crowd.
Let every choose
“Brothers and sisters, good Fey, let everyone choose their own path. If they wish to bear their pain alone, let us release them to their choice. Perhaps, through being Fey for all these many years, they are healed enough to choose a different destiny.
“For those who desire to leave,” she motioned toward Bren with her arm, “my friend, Brenzel of Eden, will lead you out. You who wish to make the journey with her, meet here at first light tomorrow morning.”
Fey took Brenzel’s hand and walked with her up the steps of the amphitheater, Brenzel hearing in her mind a veritable ocean of voices all discussing the event.
I’m proud of you, Bren said in Fey’s mind.
Fey gripped her hand tightly. I hope they understood, I’ve never heard them like this before. Some are very fearful. Then looking up at Brenzel, she said out loud, “It’s hard to let go.”