Dragon Fey by Mara DragonClaw (top 10 books to read txt) 📕

“Ahh!” Aria cried out in surprise as her jump stopped short. She beat her wings furiously against Furmius, but he was too strong. Furmius gave a wicked grin and began to pull Aria in, using her leg like a rope. No matter how much she kicked and screamed and flapped her wings against him, he still held fast. At this point, three of the five men that Aria had managed to count had made their way into the room. They were all watching their leader with smug expressions on their faces, sure they had this battle won. At least, they did until the small blue ball of fuzz with a yellow tulip stuck to it’s head started to move.

“What the?” said one of the men when he saw the blue puff start to move swiftly over to where Furmius was standing by the window. It climbed up the leader’s leg and up his back, and from the sounds that were coming out of Furmius, you could tell that it wasn’t very pleasant. This was probably because the blue fuzz ball was biting him.

“What in the name of?!?! What the heck is this thing?” He yelled, trying to swat at the ball with his elbow because his hands were preoccupied with holding a still struggling Aria. His men were so shocked at the moving, hostile, blue piece of lint that they didn’t do anything to help him.

They puff ball continued up Furmius’s arm and onto his hand. The ball of blue fuzz looked up at Aria with it’s big, sad eyes before biting Furmius for the last time, hard on the hand. The force of this bite was so strong that Furmius let go of Aria’s foot, dislodging the blue puff. Aria took this chance to escape, but she didn’t get far before her own wings made her turn and look back with hot tears streaming down her face.

“NO!” Aria cried in anguish, bursting into tears at the sight of her savior falling into the darkness of the forest. There was no way she could catch him now. Her bag over her shoulder and her head in her hands, she flew away from her Hollow.

As she flew, she cried harder than she ever had. She cried for everyone and everything that was now lost to her; The Hollow, her house, Calea, Jacob, and Festus. For of course the heroic little blue ball of brave fuzz had to have been him.

“You're back sooner than I thought you would be. I assumed ‘later’ meant tomorrow,” Jack was saying this as Aria landed at the outcropping, “And where’s that friend that you were talking about earlier? Are they joining us later or- Oh,” he must have noticed the tears streaking Aria’s face, “What happened?” He asked in what had to be the most sensitive tone Aria had ever heard him use, and that was including the one he used after Aria told him that she had been behind the rocks after he landed and had heard all his cursing.

“My friend met me at my house,” Aria began quietly, sitting down on a rock with her head between her knees, “He said we needed to leave right away, that some men were coming for him already. I was upstairs when they came. Jacob-” Aria choked back a sob. Jack managed to get up and sit down next to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

“What else happened?” He asked gently, sensing that the whole story had not yet been told.

“They came up to my room, broke down the door. I tried to get away out the window but my bag got stuck,” Aria was wracked by another onslaught of sobs before she could continue, “I got it unstuck, but the leader of the men grabbed me before I could fly all the way away. And Festus-” this time the sobs came so uncontrollably that Aria curled up in a ball. If it hadn’t been for Jack, she would have fallen off the rocks she was sitting on.

“And Festus,” Jack had no idea who Festus was, but he could tell that he was very important to Aria.

Aria took a couple of deep breaths and mostly got control of the tears, “And Festus climbed up and bit his hand. The man let go, and Festus fell. I couldn’t catch him,” the tears kept coming, but they had slowed to a controllable trickle. Now Aria sat in solemn silence, mourning her lost friends.

Jack knew it was probably insensitive, but her still asked, “Who was Festus?”

“He was my pet fey windle. One of the blue one’s,” she sniffed wiped away a few tears and smiled a little at her memories of Festus.

“Wait, you had a fey windle?”

“Ya, why?”

“You couldn’t have had a fey windle, they hate fairies.”

“Not Festus.”

“It isn’t something that changes with the fey windle Aria, all of them hate fairies.”

“Animals like me,” she shrugged.

“What?”

Aria repeated, “Animals like me.”

“You’re a Anim Tameir…” Jack said in a bewildered voice before trailing off.

“A what?”

“A Anim Tameir. A special skill possessed by some dragon fey. They can tame any animal.”

“Okay, so it’s not that big a deal?”

“No, it’s a big deal.”

“Why?”

Jack looked at Aria in a way that made her want to squirm, “There hasn’t been a Anim Tamier in thousands of years.”

Aria stared at him, “Okay, so?”

“Traditionally an Anim Tameir was the leader of a group of dragon fey. When the child of the last known Anim Tameir was found to not possess the ability, leadership was handed off to the Wintirre, or the dragon fey that could control water and ice. There was only ever one Anim Tameir in a Coulve. Well, one fully recognized Anim Tameir anyway. Now that there’s a new Anim Tameir, well, you’ll probably be expected to take up leadership. Of course, it is extremely likely that the current king won’t back down.”

“WHAT?! Sorry, but I am not going to go and rule a Coulve, whatever that is. I need to find Jacob! You have no idea what will happen to the world if I don’t!” Aria was rapidly shaking her head, “Nope, sorry, I am not going to rule the dragon fey. It is out of the question.”

“But Aria, it isn’t really optional.”

“Then don’t tell them I’m Anim Tameir! It isn’t that hard. You just keep your mouth shut!”

“Quiet down! If you really don’t want them to know, it’s a bad idea to shout it out loud in the forest at night- Ah!,” Jack cried out in pain, the cotton oils were starting to wear off. “Do you think you could hurry up with that medicine?” He asked through clenched teeth.

Aria shook her head sadly, “No, I can’t,” she put her head back in her hands, “I can barely do any medical work at all. I’d just make it worse.”

“Then why did you say you could?”

“Because I thought I’d have Jacob.”

“How would having Jacob change that?”

“Jacob was the most talented fairy in the Hollow. He could cure anything with the right ingredients. I know where to find the ingredients, but without Jacob I couldn’t do it with the manual and a trained instructor helping me.”

“You have to try! If you don’t who knows what will happen to my wing?!”

“I do,” Aria said sadly, “If the wing rot isn’t treated, then eventually it will spread to both wings and eat away at them both until all that’s left is a stub. At that point the wings can’t be repaired.”

“Okay then, if you don’t then I will lose my wings. I for one, do not want that to happen.”

“I’ll spread it to both wings!” Cried Aria in despair.

“According to you, it will spread to both wings anyway. Might as well give it a shot.” He gently grabbed Aria’s chin and lifted it so that her emerald green eyes looked into his electric blue ones, “What are the ingredients?”

Aria’s expression hardened with newfound determination, “Wait here,” she stood up and to a walking leap into the air, allowing her wings to unfold, their scales bleached to a white glimmer in the moonlight.

Jack watched her as she flew over the rim of the small clearing and out of sight, “That wasn’t really the answer to my question, but I’ll take it,” he managed to walk over the the bed he had pulled together made of the cotton puffs after Aria had left the first time and laid down on his side. His last thought before drifting off to sleep  was, I hope I made the right decision.

About two hours later, Aria shook Jack awake, “Jack! Jack wake up, I found the flowers.”

“Whaaa?” Jack groaned as he was pulled out of a rather pleasant dream he was having about flying higher than any fairy had ever flown before and going up above the trees, flying through clouds and touching the sun. He seriously doubted that what he was waking up to would be any more pleasant.

“Jack, you need to wake up. I found the turquoise bush again. We’re lucky it still had some flowers on it, it’s almost picking season! Now, I need your help to make this properly, so you need to wake up now!” Aria kicked Jack hard in the shin.

“OW!” He shouted and sat bolt upright. Aria, who was leaning over him, had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by his head.

“Hey I’m standing right here! You almost hit me!”

“Sorry.”
“No you're not,” Aria said, mocking a conversation she remembered having with Jack earlier.

“Ya, you're right,” Jack seemed to be playing along. Of course, he could have meant it.

“Look, you need to keep really still throughout this, and I mean really still. Even when it hurts, got it?” Jack nodded, “Okay then, bite on this,” Aria bent down and tore a strip of mouse hide from the bottom of her left pants leg and handed it to Jack, “it will help you deal with the pain.”

Jack nodded his thanks before putting the mouse hide in his mouth. He gagged and took it out again, “Gods! When was the last time this thing got washed? It tastes terrible!”

“Just bite it!” Aria said stubbornly and practically shoved the leather back in his mouth. Jack glared at her, Aria glared back.

Aria turned him around and half shoved half pulled him into a position that left him practically face down in the dirt. He tried to lift