Lina: Twisted Fairy Tales Book Two

16: Reunion

Drool strung between sharp teeth, a long tongue pressed me to the roof of a wet mouth as I struggled frantically to free myself from the death that awaited me. Gravity shifted as the creature fell to its feet on the ground, and I desperately used talon and beak to tear at delicate gums, tongue and flesh along the upper mouth. In my panic, I couldn’t think of how to reorder my body into a new shape. Gravity shifted again, and I was certain I was about to be swallowed, but with a sudden swing forward, I was expelled onto the ground.

Feathers coated in saliva, I struggled to right myself in order to face my foe while desperately trying to call on a Shift. Something moved closer to me, and then a body collapsed in front of me. Large, gentle hands scooped me up off the forest floor. Hands I recognized.

“My daughter.” My father sobbed, wiping what was most likely wolf spittle from my feathers. My quick breaths slowed as I stared at him in disbelief. Wolves surrounded us, but I didn’t understand. We were still in Faery. Was this just an illusion then? A trick of the Mists? I shook off, awkwardly maneuvering to my feet, and then tried to decide which form to take. If this were real, then I was desperately overjoyed and had so many things I wanted to say to him. But if it wasn’t, I needed to be able to defend myself. And a hummingbird wasn’t going to manage that, as had just been demonstrated to me quite well.

Faery

Ward

I clutched my daughter’s bird-form to my face, rubbing my cheek along her feathers, still not quite used to being in my ‘human’ mindset after so long as my animal. It took a moment for me to realize I might still be expressing more of those animalistic instincts. Feathers began to fall from my hands abruptly and I jerked, afraid I had injured her somehow, a whine already building in my throat as my hands flew away from my face so I could see Malina properly. Instead of the tiny hummingbird form I expected, her fox-form watched me warily. I supposed she had good cause. I hadn’t meant to frighten her. I had been following the scent of my most hated enemy when her scent rushed towards me on the wind. I simply reacted, trying to stop her before she could get away.

I admit I acted a bit rashly, catching her with my mouth, but it was no different than when she was a pup and I’d scoop her up by her scruff when she misbehaved. I just reacted instinctively, terrified of losing her again. I hadn’t been human in so long, and my animal had limited means of reaction..

“Malina..little pup. It’s me. Your Papa. I won’t harm you.” Perhaps she was afraid I would try to eat her? Gods, please.. If she had forgotten us, I may never recover! A growl built in my throat and the need to hunt down my most hated enemy grew. She struggled slightly, ending my growl abruptly and forcing me to release her. She couldn’t escape my hands quickly enough, circling to face me with her tail swishing impatiently, her ears alert and her eyes slightly narrowed. Her body appeared relaxed, but there was a certain tenseness to the set of her head and shoulders. Crouching in front of her, I suddenly didn’t know what to say. The wolves milled around us restlessly. So I said the only thing I could think of. “We’ve missed you. Will you come home?”

Faery

Malina

My eyes widened slightly. As if I had a choice in the leaving. My tail lashed angrily. Speaking of which.. How did he get here in the first place? I looked around Papa, trying to see through the Mists and restlessly moving wolves. Papa looked over his shoulder too, following my gaze in that perceptive way of his.

“Oh.. I’m not really sure.. I just followed my nose.” Whether he was answering my unasked question or telling me how he intended to get us back, I wasn’t entirely sure, but as usual, his capacity for reading me in this form impressed me. He told me once I would one day pick up on all the subtle clues a person or animal gave off, but I wasn’t sure I would ever be as good as he was at it. He cleared his throat slightly, an almost nervous sound, not like the usual, strong and decisive man I knew, and my attention was drawn back to him. For the first time, I really looked at him. He was too thin, his cheeks sharp ridges on his face, his eyes sunken in His ribs were showing in sharp relief, his shoulder bones stood out so clearly it looked painful and created dark valleys with his collarbones. What little spine I could see in his twisted position were like knobs down his back. His muscle tone seemed to have melted away, and though he always looked a little ill, he now looked like he might fall over dead at any minute. Alarmed, I moved forward, automatically reaching up a paw to place it on the knee he had upon the ground. He startled slightly and looked back down at me with a small smile.

“Let’s go home, Malina. Your mother will have both our hides for this.” The ghost of the smile he offered me and his words brought back so many memories. So many times Papa and I had gotten into things Mama would scold us for.

Coming back with our fur covered in mud or snow, trying to sneakily avoid her as we made our way to the bathing chamber so she couldn’t complain about us tracking it everywhere. Telling us this wasn't how a King and Princess behaved. Getting mad at me when I told her I wasn’t sure why she was angry, the servants would be the ones to clean it, not her.

That was actually the first real time they sat me down and told me Papa’s origins. Explained how some of the very people I was disparaging with my comments had saved their lives, and mine before I was born, and that I now called them ‘Aunt’ or ‘Uncle’. Then to drive the point home, I was pulled into working side by side with my parents and the people. Getting a first-hand experience to broaden my perspective, is what my mother called it. I never told my parents, but it was enough knowing that Papa had once been a poor man living off the land in the woods. That the man I so admired had survived like that had awed me, and made me realize I could never do the same. If someone left me in the woods, I would probably die. I didn’t even know where food came from. Servants just brought it to me, though my fox-form was learning to hunt it, I still wouldn’t know how to cook it or anything. It made me try harder to be more self-sufficient and learn how to care for myself, to survive if something ever happened to me. It was some time later before I understood Papa grew up in the woods with his family, but the point had been made, and the impression left.

I jerked my head at my father, realizing I’d been staring too long, and he nodded back, falling into his wolf-form with a grace I would always envy. He shook out his fur and howled, the call being taken up all around him by the wolves. It was not the lonely call of a wolf, but a triumphant shout of the pack finding its lost member. I couldn’t quiet the yipping bark that escaped me as the wolves surged forward, following my father, with me right on his heels.