Chapter six

Bryony was sitting on a rock next to a beautiful pond, watching the little ducks, geese, and swans swim around. Aven didn't tell her anything, which she wasn't surprised about. He rarely ever talked, but she still wanted to know what was going on here. Where she was, and what she was doing there. If what Elon had told her was true, her parents were somewhere here and she had to find them, but she didn't know where to look. Aven had left her at the pond as he went out to do who knows what, but Bryony was bored and annoyed. She wanted adventure. She was in a new place, with new creatures and surroundings, she just had to explore. She didn't know when Aven would come back anyway. For all she knew was he left her for good and wasn't coming back.

Bryony stood up, making the ducks swimming next to her immediately swim away, so quickly, Bryony jumped. She didn't know they were right next to her. She heard a screech from above her and she looked up to see that big red bird again, except this one was different. It had blue feathers on top of its head. It landed like twenty feet away from Bryony and was watching the fish in the pond, ready to strike and catch some if they came near it.

Bryony got curious and started slowly walking towards the bird. It was huge, like a horse. She could ride it if she wanted to, but she was a chicken when it came to heights. Bryony was quietly sneaking up towards the bird, trying not to make any noice. The closer she got, the more creepy the bird looked. For some reason it had sharp teeth in its beak, and its eyes were a dark red. Its talons were like needles, super skinny and super sharp. Birds didn't have teeth. Why did this one have teeth? Feathers were sticking up on its head, making it look like a mohawk. The bird stomped its feet on the ground, staring into the water.

The bird spotted Bryony and she froze as it tilted its head towards her. It narrowed its eyes at her, eyeing her very closely that she just stood completely still. She was afraid that if she moved, it would attack her or something. The bird ruffled its feathers, standing up straight and spreading its wings out, which made Bryony gasp. It looked even more gigantic than before. The bird made a light chirping noice as it touched its beak to Bryony's cheek. Her eyes were wide as she just stood there, too frozen and too stunned to move. It stared at her, eyes slowly narrowing even more. It looked her up and down, studying her.

It opened its beak and blew some kind of green fog stuff in her face and she immediately started coughing, fanning her face with her hand in an attempt to fan the fog away but it wasn't working. She coughed as the bird screeched and spread its wings and lifted itself in the air, the gust of wind almost knocking Bryony down. She bent over, coughing and choking, and clutching her stomach as the bird flew up. It dove for her, talons out and ready to snatch her up. She ducked as it flew past, barely missing her. She stood up as the bird turned around to dive for her again. Still coughing, Bryony turned to run the other way.

What was it with everything attacking her? She didn't do anything.

As she ran, her legs were wobbling from underneath her and she felt weaker. Whatever the bird blew in her face was making her weak. She covered her mouth with her elbow and coughed, running as fast as she could. She saw the shadow from the bird above her, and she wasn't paying attention to where she was running that she tripped over something and fell over with a yelp of surprise. She scrambled back up, gasping and rolling out of the way as the bird nearly snatched her up. The bird screeched again, obviously mad it kept missing her, and turned to dive for her again.

Great. Bryony thought as she stood up again. How many times is this thing going to chase me?

Bryony turned to run, but stopped as she saw another bird behind her. This one was smaller, with brown feathers instead of red. Probably a female. It screeched, wings opening and flapping as it eyed Bryony like she was a piece of meat. She turned to see the red bird giving her this look like it was mocking her. How dare it mock her. Birds don't even mock people, they're birds. She folded her arms, glaring, as the bird landed behind her so she was trapped between that one and the brown one.

"Now that's not fair." Bryony said, but both birds made a noice like they were laughing, and eyed her closely, making sure she wouldn't escape and run.

The female bird stepped closer to her, making her step back, but immediately stopped as she felt the male bird right behind her. She was trapped. There was no way out. Bryony looked around to see if there was anything she could use against her, but she didn't see anything.

The female bird leaned towards her, but Bryony put her hands out. "No." The bird stopped, eyeing her closely, tilting its head a little to the side in confusion. "Don't eat me. I will taste gross, trust me. You don't want to eat me."

The male bird screeched from behind her, making the female look over at him before looking back at Bryony and narrowing her eyes. She screeched and opened her beak to grab Bryony, and she ducked, covering her face with her arms. "No!"

The bird grabbed Bryony and she screamed as it threw her in the air, opening its beak to catch her in its mouth. Bryony screamed and thrashed around in the air as she fell, and just as she thought she was going to die and squeezed her eyes shut, she felt something grab her. She opened her eyes to see the other bird had snatched her up with its talons and flew up. The female bird made an angry screech as she took flight after the other that had Bryony. Bryony screamed as she saw how high up she was, and she immediately squeezed her eyes shut, screaming louder when she felt the bird just suddenly dive down really steep, making her gut twist in fear.

"Put me down!" Bryony shrieked.

The female bird slammed into the male and it dropped Bryony, and she screamed as she fell. She kicked her legs and flailed around as she screamed, getting closer and closer to the ground. Just as she was about to hit the ground, something grabbed her ankles, stopping her fall. She was upside down, face inches from the grass. She tried to look up to see what was holding her, but she couldn't see. She heard the birds screech from above and kicked her legs, freaking out, accidentally kicking whatever had her so they let go. She fell onto the ground on her head and winced as she sat up. She clutched her head as it ached, looking up to see the birds diving towards her.

She didn't see anything that could have grabbed her, stopping her fall. She didn't know what happened, but then she saw a swarm of fairies fly up to the birds, throwing balls of light at them. The birds screeched in pain, using their wings to guard themselves from the blinding hot lights and flew off.

Some of the fairies flew down to ground. One with beautiful long brown hair flew up to Bryony. Her eyes were a beautiful blue, as was her dress. Her wings were a very light blue, glittering a little as she flapped them. She was wearing a crown of silver flowers on her head. The blue fairy smiled at her. "Are you okay?" She asked. Her voice wasn't as high as the other fairies she saw earlier were.

Bryony nodded. "I think so."

The blue fairy nodded as a few other fairies flew down. The largest of them all had long wavy auburn hair and beautiful brown eyes. She was wearing a long pink skirt that flowed over her feet and a pink flower bikini looking top, showing her stomach. Her wings were a beautiful pink color with a little gold. The smallest of the fairies had extremely long curly red hair, up to her ankles (that was a lot of hair) and light green eyes. Her dress was long and sleeveless. It was green with purple on the bottom. She had a cute golden bracelet on her arm, just below her shoulder. She wore a big gorgeous pink flower in her curly hair, with some gold strings hanging off of it. Her wings were huge compared to her and probably dragged on the floor when she walked. They were light green butterfly wings.

Another fairy had beautiful shoulder length purple hair. She was wearing a long purple dress with spaghetti straps. Her eyes were purple and she was wearing a moon charm hanging from her forehead. The last fairy had really short black hair and dark blue eyes. Her dress was black and sleeveless with a bow tied in the back. Her small wings were a sparkly black and dark purple, and she wore a dark red flower in her hair.

"You are all so pretty." Bryony said in awe as she stared at the tiny woman hovering in front of her.

The red head fairy giggled. "You're the one that's gorgeous."

Bryony shook her head, making a face. "No."

The blue fairy put her hands on her hips, tilting her head to the side. "What is your name young one?"

"Bryony." Bryony answered. "Who are you?"

"I'm Aerwyna." The blue fairy said.

"Celeste." The largest fairy said.

"Dianthe." The smallest fairy said.

"Lorelei." The purple fairy said.

"And I'm Maraja." The fairy with black hair said.

Dianthe flew close to Bryony's face, giving her a cute smile. "We saw you with Aven earlier. Two of our sisters went to meet you. They didn't come back so we came out to see what was wrong. Have you seen them?"

Bryony shook her head. "I remember them. They were not as nice as you guys, but I haven't seen them since they flew off. I'm sorry."

Maraja scoffed. "Oh hush you, no need to apologize." She flashed Bryony a smile. "We'll find them."

"Need help?" Bryony asked.

Dianthe opened her mouth to say something but Celeste covered her mouth and spoke up, earning a scowl from her sister. "No, we are fine. Aven is coming back, he'll explain things to you."

"But he doesn't talk." Bryony said.

Dianthe shoved her sisters hand from her mouth and opened her mouth to speak up, but this time Lorelei put a hand over her mouth. "It's not his fault, flower. He's been like that since he was little, we don't know what it is. He has a hard time speaking because it hurts him a lot. He can't even eat without choking it up, so usually he just drinks from the falls."

Aerwyna nodded, giggling, as she flipped her long brown hair behind her. "The falls are magical. The water helps you live without having to eat, and it does more than that. It can heal you if you touch it and it can make weapons magical if they are touched by its water, but our Aven only uses it so he doesn't have to eat."

Bryony thought it was cute how she said 'our Aven' when she spoke. Everything here seemed to like Aven, but it was adorable. Dianthe shoved Lorelei away from her and put her hands on her hips, making this cute scowl. She looked younger than the rest and she was the smallest, so maybe out of these few fairies she was the baby sister. Maraja turned to her sisters. "We should go now."

"It was nice meeting you, butterfly." Lorelei said, nodding her head at Bryony. Bryony smiled at the nicknames she had given her. Fairies were cute.

Aerwyna waved. "See you."

Bryony watched as the fairies flew away, but Dianthe stayed. She smiled when Bryony turned to look at her. "Aren't you going to follow the others?" Dianthe shook her head. "I will in a bit. They're bossy and treat me like a child, I'm staying with you until my Aven comes back." She giggled when she said Aven's name.

Bryony nodded, but didn't say anything. She sat down on the grass and watched as Dianthe flittered towards a couple of dying flowers and used her magic to bring them back. "So what kind of fairies are you?" Bryony asked, making Dianthe look over at her. "I mean, don't fairies all do different jobs? Like some might take care of flowers, others animals, others water or something?"

Dianthe smiled proudly. "Yes. I'm an ocean fairy. I don't know if you have seen the ocean here yet, but that is where I live. I take care of the animals and plants in the ocean and making sure the water is clean. Lots of us fairies do. The mermaids are always teasing us, but that's because-"

"Wait, there are mermaids?" Bryony asked, putting a hand over her mouth. "Oh my gosh, Amara would be so jealous!"

Dianthe nodded. "Mermaids are rude and think they're better than everyone. They'll call you names and mock you, don't trust them. They're lying little devils." The fairy rolled her eyes.

Bryony nodded. "Okay, so what other fairies are there?" She thought it was best to change the subject back to the fairies. Dianthe flew over to a small rock next to Bryony's feet and sat down. She smoothed the wrinkles in her dress before looking up at Bryony.

"Aerwyna is a water fairy. She takes care of the ponds here and the magic falls. She and the others like her make sure the water is always clean and fresh so other creatures can get a drink and play around in the water. Celeste and others like her take care of animals. It's their job to make sure the woodland animals are healthy and have the food they need to survive. They take care of the babies when the moms need to go hunt or get food, it's actually really fun. Celeste let me help her with baby birds one time, and even though I suck at it because that's not my job, it was still fun. Lorlei's job is during when the moon is up, we just call her a moon fairy. She is up all night helping make sure the animals are okay. Lots of the dangerous creatures come out at night when the moon is shining and it's her job to keep things safe and under control under the moonlight." Dianthe said, "and last, Maraja is a dark fairy. Well not dark as in evil, she helps keep things in the shadows that belong there and doesn't let them come into the light. There are shadow creatures that like to come out and attack things."

"Wow, that was a lot." Bryony said.

Dianthe nodded. "There are other different types of fairies but you just haven't met them yet. One of my closest sisters is a rainbow fairy. She and others are the ones that make the rainbows shine in the sky when it rains or just because they feel like it. It's always so beautiful - oh look, it's Aven!"

Bryony looked up to see Aven walking towards her. He looked clean, all the mud on him earlier was gone, like had jumped in the pond or something. He probably cleaned himself in the falls when he went to drink out of it like the fairies said. Dianthe jumped up and flew over to him, landing on his shoulder and telling him something. He nodded and then she flew off quickly, back to join the others. Aven held something out for Bryony and she gasped, standing up, and taking it from him. She gave him a confused look. "Where did you get this? And what's in it?"

Bryony opened her backpack to look inside. There were useful stuff inside, but she didn't want to go through it right now. She looked up at Aven. "Did you go to my house? Why didn't you take me and take me back?"

"You can't go back." Aven said quietly. "The woman you lived with packed that stuff for you. I went back to tell her where you were and that you were fine. She understands why you're here, she was best friends with your mother. She told me to wait while she packed things and told me to give them to you. Her kids were confused, but she said she would think of something to tell them."

"Wait what?" Bryony said. "Auntie Collette knew about all this? Why didn't she ever tell me?"

Aven didn't say anything, and then Bryony's eyes widened as she knew why. "Oh. She didn't tell me because I wouldn't have believed her."

"We need to go have a visit with Langston." Aven said.

"Who's Langston?" Bryony asked, but Aven didn't answer her, he just started walking away. She put her backpack on and ran to catch up with him.

She needed to know what was going on, maybe this Langston person could help her.