The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) by Dani Swanson (read aloud books txt) 📕

out to the creatures she knew were watching from the thicket of the forest, but none were brave enough to respond.

  Robin helped Thea line up the little bodies as she tried to heal as many as she could. She was weak, tired, and wet. Robin passed out arrowroot dust to them and shook some of the fairy dust onto the fallen. There were too many to save and not enough power left in Thea. She started to bawl as she placed her hand on what seemed to be the thousandth small body and pushed her power into it. Thea was coughing up bile and finally fell over in a slump and was unresponsive for a moment. Robin ran to her side and picked her up out of the mud. She grabbed one of the fairies and shook her dust over Thea.

“Are you all happy now? She can’t handle fixing everything that you break!” Robin hissed at the creatures who were peeking out from their houses and the surrounding forest. Robin laid Thea by the edge of the fire. She looked up to see Anastasia looking down from her palace window and shook her head in disgust up at the Fairy Queen.

  “She needs to wake up!” Willow came zipping by Robin’s head. “There are so many injured that need her help!”

Robin reached up and grabbed Willow by her leg and swung her around to face her. “You all made this choice to fight,” she started out sternly in a low voice. “We were asleep and you came and decided to involve us.” Robin’s voice started to become more angry and louder with each word. “This is not my fight!” she screamed at the little fairy. Robin flung Willow across the circle into a tree, as she screamed “Leave us alone! She needs to live! I need her to live!”

 Robin started to slap Thea’s face and Fig was licking her hand. “Come on! Wake up Thea!” She finally hit Thea hard enough that she opened her eyes and started to hack and cough. She rolled over onto her side and discarded a pile of the blackest bile she had yet produced.

“Water,” is all Thea could rasp.

One of the elves came over with a canteen of water. She drank its entire contents in one gulp.

“How many more do I need to help?” Thea asked weakly.

“None, Thea. They did this to themselves and I am not going to sit by and watch you kill yourself because of these creatures.” Robin was petting Thea’s hair back away from her face, and speaking to her in a soft, soothing voice, the way a mother would to her sick child. “You need to rest now.”

Thea attempted to fight the forced restraint, and then realized that she could not handle healing one more body. “Call a parlay,” Thea said in a small voice. “Get the Elf King and Anastasia. Call a parlay.” With that last word Thea lost consciousness again. She fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

     Thea did not wake until nine days later in a small cave down by the lake. There was the sweet smell of burning leaves blowing through the cavern. The creatures had left her a jug with water and some dried meat next to her blanket. Fig’s sweet face was nuzzling her cheek.

“I’m awake, Fig,” she said with a moan. She could feel her heart beat behind her right eye and the warmth of a fire on her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Fig just a few inches away from her nose, watching her intently.

Robin walked into the opening of the cave not long after Thea woke up. “You better drink some water. I’m sure you are quite dehydrated.” Robin unloaded more food out of her bag onto the blanket, and joined her friend for brunch. “You have left an impression on both ends. They agreed to a standoff, until you woke up for your ‘parlay’,” Robin made air quotes as she talked in a sarcastic tone.

“I take it you still feel we should not interfere with these creatures and their fight?” Thea questioned.

Robin nodded in agreeance as she was slicing pieces of an apple and eating them off the blade of the knife. “Not my fight,” Robin said sternly.

“But what happens when they destroy each other? Where is the balance of the universe then?” Robin just looked back at her stubbornly as Thea continued. “We’re all here for a reason…fairies, elves, humans, cats, everything….if we allow them to kill each other off, then where is the balance?”

They sat there in silence for a few moments. Robin slowly chewing her breakfast and watching her friend get situated against the wall of the cave.

“I think you hit your head when you passed out,” Robin said jokingly as she tossed a crust of bread at her.

Thea stuck her tongue out at Robin. “I’m serious.”

The girls finished their brunch and then Robin left to get the Elf King and Anastasia. They were joined by the little blue fairy and Moonbeam. There was also a water nymph in tow who wore a silvery crown wrapped around her forehead, with her silvery blue hair wrapped amongst it into a messy bun.

 “Thank you for the parlay.” Thea started as she sipped on some sweet tea. “We need to find a better way for you all to settle this battle.” The elves and the fairies glared at each other and the nymph sat with the straightest, stiff posture off to the side. “You cannot kill each other. You need to find a compromise that won’t hurt one another.”  Thea continued on calmly.

“The land belongs to the fairies. When the elves stole our gold, we earned the right to the land,” Anastasia hissed furiously.

Moonbeam was the first to respond. “We did not steal your gold! You kidnaped us in our sleep!” He was on his