Close Encounters of the Magical Kind Read online

  Thinian ducked low and came back up holding a stone pestle. He questioningly held up a matching mortar.

  “What about this, your majesty? Will you require the mortar as well?”

  Ria shrugged, “I’m not sure. Set that aside for now. Sarah? Please place the flower on the vyla mesh.”

  Sarah turned to her husband, who was already holding the bundled shirt out to her. She gingerly took the shirt, moved to the counter, and unwrapped the flower, being careful not to disturb any of the petals. Once done she tossed the wadded up shirt back to Steve.

  “What now?” Sarah asked, as she gently placed the flower on the velvety white mesh. “I sure hope whatever we do doesn’t harm the flower too much. I’d hate to mess up something this pretty.”

  “The petals must be plucked,” Ria sadly told her. “Then each petal must be wiped along the vyla. We must have every last bit of pollen, including any that might have collected on the petals.”

  Sarah groaned with dismay as she looked at the exquisite golden flower. Not only was she disappointed the flower would be destroyed, but it had to have dozens and dozens of petals! Each one must be plucked and rubbed against the white mesh? How long would that take?

  “Are you well, Sarah?” Ria asked, concerned.

  Correctly guessing the nature of Sarah’s concern, Steve jumped to her rescue.

  “Uh, is there anyone that might be able to give you a hand with this?” he hesitantly asked. “There are a lot of little petals on that thing. That’s gonna take some time and I can’t imagine you’re okay with this taking longer than a few minutes.”

  Thinian’s head jerked up. Comprehension dawned behind his eyes as he nodded at Sarah. He approached the golden flower and bowed in front of the queen.

  “Your Majesty, perhaps I could continue to be of some service? Would you like me to see if I can perhaps find some others who could come to our aid?

  Ria, who up until now had been leaning heavily on the counter as she ordered Thinian to retrieve certain pieces of equipment, swayed dangerously as her strength continued to fade. Sarah rushed to her side and caught her before she could topple over. She glanced over at Steve and saw that he had been watching her with a worried expression on his face. Sarah pointed at a chair on the other side of the room. Steve nodded.

  “Here,” Sarah soothingly told the Fae queen as Steve slid the chair behind her. “Rest. Sit down.”

  Ria patted her hand and gave her an appreciative smile before turning to Thinian.

  “No one else is left to help.”

  Thinian swallowed nervously.

  “Then let’s be certain we don’t become the last. What do you require of me, your majesty?”

  “Please assist Sarah in dusting all petals with the vyla mesh. And I would advise you to hurry. You’re right, Thinian. There are precious few moments left. I… Lady Sarah? What is the matter?”

  Her emotions had finally caught up with her. With the fate of the Fae out of her hands, Sarah had a chance to let her thoughts wind down, only they refused to cooperate. They reminded her, rather harshly, that there was still a young griffin cub somewhere out in Lentari that needed help. She couldn’t help it. She started crying. Steve was instantly by her side and put a protective arm around her shoulders. He looked at the Fae queen and gave her a helpless smile.

  “We ran into some difficulties in getting the flower,” Steve explained to the Fae queen, correctly guessing what was bothering Sarah. “We had to make a couple of deals, and one of them – and I’ll bet I know which one – is eating away at her.”

  Ria’s eyes had opened wide.

  “I had no idea that… Thinian? Please begin working on the petals. Time is of the essence. Thank you. Sir Steve? Would you tell me what happened?”

  “Long story short,” Steve began, “the flower was located at the top of the only mountain on Ranal. There was no way for us to reach it without help so we had to enlist the aid of two griffins to reach the mountaintop.”

  “Please continue,” Ria urged, keeping a watchful eye on Thinian’s progress.

  “Both of these lady griffins were already deceased,” Steve said. “One had been poisoned and the other had been killed while protecting her cub.”

  Ria’s hand fluttered over her mouth, “That’s horrible!”

  Steve nodded, “Yes. It gets worse, I’m afraid. Right now that little cub is still out there, buried under the body of its dead mother, which in turn is buried under a landslide. The griffiness says there’s still a chance her cub could be alive. The deal we made with Nyx was that we’d find her cub and rescue him. Or her. Sorry, I can’t remember what it is.”

  “What can I do?” Ria exclaimed, trying to rise to her feet. Steve put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back into her chair.

  “Nothing. You aren’t going anywhere. You don’t have the strength. Besides, you have something more important to deal with. You have a sick tree. Heal it. You told us that this nectar from this flower will do the trick.”

  Ria solemnly nodded, “You’re right. And it’s the pollen we’re after. The fate of my people lies in my hands right now. I wish I could help you, friend Steve.”

  “I know you would,” Steve gently assured the queen. “You’re busy. I’m not. With that being said, I have a feeling that Sarah and I are going to need to split up. I’ll go see if I can find this cub while she helps you harvest whatever you need from the flower so that you can save your tree.”

  Ria nodded, “I understand. Of course, you must go. Hurry! There is nothing more you can do here. Nimble fingers would help us best now. No offense, good sir.”

  “Trust me, none taken,” Steve assured the queen.

  “Actually I will be the one going,” Sarah clarified. “I’m sorry, Ria. I have to leave my husband here with you, if that’s alright.”

  “Of course,” Ria immediately answered.

  “Wanna run that by me again?” Steve asked at the exact same time.

  “Steve, if you’re the one doing the searching then it will take forever,” Sarah explained, turning to face her husband. “We just don’t have that kind of time.”

  “Excuse me? My sense of direction isn’t the greatest, I will admit. However, I don’t think it’s as bad as you make it out to be, thank you very much.”

  Sarah gave him a fleeting smile, “Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I’m the teleporter. I’m the one who can jump from one side of the kingdom to the next. That makes me the best shot at finding the cub before it’s too late. I can cover way more ground far faster than you will ever be able to.”

  Sarah watched the surprise on her husband’s face be replaced by anger, and then almost as quickly, melt into resignation. Steve sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. He glanced over at Thinian, who was carefully plucking flower petals and delicately rubbing them along the white mesh. A faint smear of gold dust could be seen marring the delicate white fabric.

  She and her husband watched Thinian finish with the latest petal, drop it on the growing discard pile, and gently pluck the next one from the flower. He carefully tipped it upside down and slowly wiped it along the surface of the mesh, like a mother would do if wiping the face of her newborn baby. After making at least five passes to assure himself no more pollen could be found on the flower’s fragile petal, it was discarded and the process started over.

  Thus far Sarah estimated Thinian had finished processing half a dozen of the petals while there were at least ten times that many left. The flower, reminiscent of what she knew cabbage roses to be like, could have upwards of a hundred petals on them, and those were just the varieties she was familiar with back home. Who knows how many petals a Lentarian flower might have?

  She glanced up at her husband and swallowed a giggle. Steve had such a look of utter disgust on his face that she had to sympathize. The last thing she was sure he would want to do would be to have anything to do with that flower. Yet here they were, about to separate again, because there were two Fae who could despe
rately use his help.

  “Now, no using your jhorun,” Sarah warned as she took Steve’s hands in her own and gave them a squeeze. “You cannot run the risk of damaging any of the pollen. They’re going to need every speck they can get their hands on.”

  “But…”

  “I have to search for Nyx’s cub.”

  “But…”

  “You’re going to be fine, Steve.”

  “But… you want me to help them pluck flower petals? Seriously?”

  Sarah smiled and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

  “You’re going to do just fine. Trust me.”

  “But I don’t know a damn thing about flowers!” Steve protested. “What help am I going to be able to…”

  He trailed off as Sarah blew him a kiss and vanished.

  “…give them?”

  A quick glance at Thinian confirmed the dread he was feeling was written all over his features. His Fae friend immediately slid a second chair over and patted the cushion. Steve grudgingly sat on the stool and glared at his new friend.

  “Not a word, dude.”

  ****

  Nearly an hour had passed. Sarah still hadn’t returned, so he could only hope that she had found the cub but was now looking for Nyx’s mate. Steve scowled to himself. Sarah was out there, in the wilds of Lentari, in the dark even, while he was sitting here. Wiping flower petals on what looked like a long piece of white toilet paper. His large, clumsy fingers had already knocked two of the petals to the ground – on accident, of course – rendering them useless, and unless he hunched over with both elbows on the counter to steady his hands, he would end up doing the same thing to other petals.

  The problem, unfortunately, was that prolonged exposure to the hunched over position would generate protests from his back. Vociferous protests. As a result he had to stop every five minutes and stretch his back.

  “Are you sure we’re doing this right?” Steve asked yet again as he eyed the gold-stained vyla mesh on the counter. “This can’t possibly be getting enough pollen to be considered useful. I mean, look at this. It looks like all we’ve done is wipe King Midas’ nose.”

  “Who is King Midas?” Thinian wanted to know as he dropped a recently processed petal onto the discard pile. “I am not familiar with him.”

  “He’s… someone you won’t know. My point is, we’ve recovered only a tiny portion of pollen from all these petals and we’re more than halfway done. How do you plan on collecting the nectar from this mesh thingy?”

  “The queen has her ways,” Thinian cryptically answered.

  “You don’t know, either,” Steve guessed.

  Thinian shrugged, “Correct.”

  They both glanced over at the queen, who – after Thinian insisted she should get some rest to conserve her strength – was asleep in her chair. Steve glanced down at the flower, which by this point looked like it had had an unfortunate encounter with a weed whacker. He looked over at Thinian, who was hard at work processing another petal.

  Steve let out a sigh. This wasn’t his idea of fun, but then again, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he couldn’t allow anything to happen to the Fae, either. Even if it meant killing his back for over an hour while they slowly plucked the petals from this large golden rose-looking-thing.

  “Listen man,” Steve began, using a soft tone so he wouldn’t disturb the queen, “I gotta know. What happens to you if we’re not successful? What happens if there’s not enough nectar to revive the tree?”

  “There certainly isn’t enough time to find another griffin willing to make their Final Journey,” Thinian told him, keeping a close eye on the queen. “I doubt very much we could find the third flower. More than likely it was destroyed, like the first specimen I found. Besides, even if we could somehow find another griffin willing to help us, do you really think Usol would allow us to step foot on his island again?”

  “Probably not,” Steve agreed.”

  “How do you know that name?” Ria quietly asked, startling both of them.

  “A thousand apologies for disturbing you, your majesty,” Thinian said, bowing low. “We should have kept our voices down.”

  “Your voices were down,” the queen agreed. “I can barely hear you. Speak up, please.”

  Steve grinned, “You want to know how we know Usol?”

  Ria nodded weakly, “Aye.”

  “We didn’t meet him personally,” Steve said, nodding at Thinian, “but we certainly figured out who he was. And he definitely knew we were there.”

  “He most assuredly wanted us off his island,” Thinian confirmed, reaching for another petal.

  “How did Usol interact with you?” Ria wanted to know.

  “How do you even know who he is?” Steve countered.

  “He is one of the Ancients,” the Fae queen answered. “It has been so long since I have heard any of their names that I had thought all of them to be extinct. Hearing you speak his name just now startled me.”

  “The Ancients?” Steve repeated. “Are you talking about deities?”

  “No mere words would suffice when trying to describe an Ancient,” Ria said, shaking her head. “They are beings that existed long before the beginning of time. One for each of the elements. Oros, Creator of Fire; Aeus, Protector of Water; Eion, Master of the Winds; and there’s Usol, Guardian of –”

  “Earth,” Steve whispered. “I should’ve seen that coming. So how does it work? What will this pollen do?”

  “The pollen will restore the essence of the Tree,” Ria explained. She leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Once the Tree’s life force has been replenished then it will once again begin sharing its jhorun with the Fae.”

  “Why did you ask the humans for help, your majesty?” Thinian asked. “Friend Steve, I mean no offense. I am simply curious why you didn’t trust your own people to complete this mission. We are more than capable of performing such a task.”

  “It became clear after the Tree was drained of all jhorun that we would need to seek outside help. Help from beyond our realm.”

  “Far be it for me to disagree with you,” Thinian began, “but…”

  “Then don’t,” Steve hastily interrupted.

  Thinian shot him a dark look.

  “As I was saying,” the Fae continued, “we wouldn’t have needed the help. Not only did we discover the location of the flower but we made it there without human assistance. In fact, I was on my way to the mountain to get the flower when I encountered the humans.”

  “You didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell in completing your mission without us,” Steve told the Fae, to which Thinian harrumphed. “Let’s just say you could have found a way to the top of the mountain – and you couldn’t, by the way – then once you picked the flower how were you going to safely get off the mountain?”

  “I would have found a way.”

  “How?” Steve pressed. “You couldn’t fly. You were just as grounded as we were. You lost your companions, you were all alone, and you were completely out of time.”

  “I had no idea how dire the situation had become,” Thinian softly admitted. “Fine. I will admit I was very glad to see you and your mate up there.”

  Steve held out a hand. Thinian grasped his arm moments later.

  “I’m glad we could help,” Steve told the Fae. “And I do mean that. I just wished we hadn’t ended up pissing off a god. That can’t be good, no matter how you look at it.”

  “We’re no longer on Ranal,” Thinian reminded him, plucking another petal from the flower. “We’re out of his clutches.”

  “I just hope he realizes we had a good reason to do what we did,” Steve said, wiping his petal on the soft white mesh. “I don’t like knowing that, as I’m walking around on solid ground, I’ve got an angry Earth Guardian glaring down at me from up high.”

  Nearly an hour later Steve and Thinian were done. They had plucked every single petal from the obsceia flower they had worked so hard to procure, dusted each of the p
etals with the white vyla mesh, and handed the tray to Ria. After Thinian woke her up, of course.

  The Fae queen, with Thinian’s assistance, began the process of purifying the pollen.

  “Be careful not to snap off the pollen sacs,” Ria was saying, as she watched Thinian carefully reach into the plucked flower with some type of thin metal tool. “Gently swab the collector in a circular motion.”

  Steve stretched his back. He left Thinian and the queen to work on the primary pollen extraction while he stepped outside to pace about the silent corridor. It was going on two hours and there still hadn’t been any word from Sarah. The sun had long since set. It was probably pitch black out there. How in the world could Sarah possibly hope to see what she was doing? What if something had happened to her? What if she needed help?

  Steve angrily shook his head. He was going to have to trust her. Sarah was a grown woman and more than capable of taking care of herself. If she felt she was in danger then she’d simply teleport herself back to Dynwe at a moment’s notice. So why, then, wasn’t she back? Was she not able to find the cub? Perhaps she found the cub but couldn’t find the cub’s sire?

  Steve groaned. There were too many unknowns. He would likely give himself a headache if he worried about it too much. If she wasn’t back in 15 minutes then he was calling out the cavalry. Of the wyverian sort.

  Thinian suddenly appeared at his side. The Fae’s expression was encouraging. In fact, he was smiling!

  “We have it!” the Fae proudly announced.

  “It worked? The Tree has been saved?”

  “Oh. No, I was referring to the pollen. The harvesting is complete. Her majesty has requested your presence.”

  Steve followed Thinian back into the workroom and saw that the queen, smiling weakly at him, was holding up a cauldron small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

  “Would you do the honors, fire thrower?”

  Steve nodded. He pulled a stool towards him, plunked his rear down, and held out a hand. Once he was holding the small cauldron he ignited his hand and gently increased the flow of jhorun.