15. The Blood Fairies: Melanie.

All ways of silencing the commotion amongst them had been aimless. The family of the Blood Fairies was in total disruption. They were wisely keeping their distance from the Dark One and her companions. For hours they'd been mourning, weeping and mostly, arguing and throwing all sorts of tantrums.

The woods was darkened with the blackness of the sky above them.

"Calm down everyone!" Melanie's voice called out a few times as she'd been doing since, but to no avail. The roars of the rest were effortlessly more louder and stronger. It was the cries of the sad, weak and victimized. "Where are you, your majesty?" she muttered to herself. "We don't have time..." Truly disturbed by the unfortunate state of the people, she panicked. Only the voice of the queen was strong enough to calm the people. And they were running out of time.

The Blood Fairies had no physical home—when night time was at its peak, they all just died; disappeared into nothingness, and then came back to life as soon as day came. The arrival of a tree snake was the signal, like a bedtime awareness.

Although, they only died during night time, if they wished to, them may chose not to wake the next day and remain in hiding until a new day. Their queen was mourning the death of her son, and so for twenty days now, she had not set foot outside. Melanie could only hope that she would hear the cries of her people, and come out to restore peace.

She decided to walk up to Zuri once again after countless of attempted times, perhaps she would had been calmer and ready to speak.

Zuri appeared worst than before. Her hair had been rougher than earlier, and it perfectly matched the weariness that had grown on her face. Her mouth was slightly let opened as if she had a lot to say, but the strength to mutter a word had been robbed off. She was weak and tired that her whole body posture had failed to hid the fact.

The unconscious bodies of her friends still laid on the ground, Zuri sitting beside them on a large wood. A fire had been lit just in the center, to warm them and hopefully, brighten up Zuri's mood. It hadn't worked.

"Zuri? You need to come back to us. What is happening?" Melanie sat next to her, resting her hand on her shoulder. "Your friends are alright. I promise you. They should be up in a couple of hours now."

No response.

In just a matter of moment, the tree snake would crawl up on a tree in the woods, and the Blood Fairies would begin to disappear.

"Your majesty, where are you?" Muttered an agitated Melanie. She bit her fingers in frustration, wondering what had happened wrong. The order had been straight forward enough. 'Bring me the Dark One, and her companions.'

Nothing was supposed to go wrong. Why had it all happened like that? She didn't mean to take the lives of her family that way. Her lips tightened and curled inwards, her eyes blinking hard as though if she did it hard enough, she would reverse back in time and stopped all that had already happened. In that moment, hard realization began to hit her. She was crying without even noticing. The lives of those four... What did they ever do to deserve their fate?

Moments later, she brought herself to confidence. She was put in charge for a reason, and weakness wasn't a friend of a leader. It was its greatest enemy.

"Alright people, secure the area with your greatest defense. Time is almost up."

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The room was filled with total darkness—the kind that to any mortal, it was close to blindness. You could only hear, and sniff out scents and perhaps feel the touch of anyone or anything around, but you would be completely be unable to make out any imagery from your vicinity.

The Dark Fairies were there. They were unconscious and only their soul was alive. Only the strongest of them could awaken to this sense of life, that being the Elders Fairies.

(A misconception about the Blood Fairies—i) they were not Fairies! Some humans that had survived their attacks before, misinterpreted them to be Fairies because due to an old myth about Fairies living in trees, they imagined them to be dwellers of the woods. They even named their sanctuary as The home of the Blood Fairies.

ii) They were dangerous! That's because to survive, they fed only on human blood. No one knew why, but only the Blood Fairies themselves could explain the unfortunate phenomenon that went on in their midst, causing them to only feed on poor humans.)

"Your majesty, you must come out of your hiding." A lady's voice said. The Elders of the Blood Fairies consisted of only eight, although they used to be more than that, death had miraculously succeeded in taking them with him. That night, it was just the queen and Melanie. " The commotion was too much. Besides, Zuri is just as powerful as we have feared. Perhaps more powerful!" She wondered why the queen uttered not a single word. What was she afraid of?

Melanie's mind went back to the way Zuri had turned. She was frightened, scared and disgusted in herself. It truly saddened Melanie's heart that four of their family had to die, but what was more upsetting was the way Zuri blamed herself for their deaths.

"She truly felt ashamed, your majesty. Guilty. It wasn't her fault, you and I both know that. Zuri's innocent!" A sharp ache pierced through her chest as anger overwhelmed her. How long were they going to remain slaves to Dalia? Zuri was innocent. She always was. Melanie decided to add. "Your majesty, we must tell her the truth. She deserves to know. We must tell her-"

"-you must do nothing! Say nothing!" The queen barked out, and for a split second, her heart stopped beating. Fear gripped her internal organs, and squeezed them that her stomach began to churn. "Dalia is more powerful than any human in the world. We are alone in this wicked world, and no one, not even the Dark One can save us. Do you understand?!"

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