The Fairy Diary Day 690 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Today will live long in my memory.

I set aside my armor and my pendants for the first time in an age. Clothed in a robe of gossamer and shod with golden sandals I was escorted before a throne at the entrance of the repository by my closest friends – Rumble, Dunfallon, and Noralei. Tinadell smiled down at me. Flanking him were Merlin and the prime minister on one side, and Gibley with the five dragons on the other. Everyone in my dream of yesterday was in attendance. So many faces, and all smiling for me.

The Fairy King addressed me, “Meribabell of Nonin-gal-dith you have found favor with me and our fairy folk. You are worthy to take up the mantle of the High Fairy.”

At this the prime minster stepped forward and spread the mantle over my robe.

Tinadell then continued, “And if you promise to faithfully serve me and the fairy folk…”

At this I replied, “ Yes, I promise.”

“ Then receive the sign for your office.” He turned to Merlin and handed him the chain of office – whose gems glistened like a rainbow in the sun.

The wizard stood before me, knelt, and placed the honor around my neck. Its weight settled there and then lightened by its own power, spreading its warmth over my whole being.

The cheers of all reflected off of the trees of the repository behind the throne, and seemed to center upon the spot where I stood. Gabhe at that instant added his bleats of praise and seemed to bound everywhere.

Navril and Herblas then ushered my friends and me from before the dias to the great common area of the repository.

I admit that my tears kept me blurry-eyed thereafter.

And the idea consumed my thoughts that tomorrow upon my return to Nonin-gal-dith, my work truly begins.

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The Fairy Diary Day 682 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

We passed into the pixie territory under lowering skies before midday. A storm appeared to be brewing ahead in the direction of our destination. We could not see Gilgorgon’s mountain as of yet, but the gathering blackness seemed to be settling over its general location.

My companions did not like the look of it. Nor did I.

About that same time the voice from Dunfallon’s ring was intoning an alarm urging us to be on the alert. And the pendants on my chest throbbed in unison.

I passed the word to our escort to be vigilant. And Dunfallon ordered his soldier less weapons to close ranks around the cages. Rumble reined in Cluyjil to a steady walk.

I felt a rush of air behind me and turned about in time to see a black bird swoop down from the sky and attempt to close its talons on one of the cages. It missed. I notched an arrow to my bow and let it fly after the retreating bird. It caught one of its wings and the bird spun to the ground, bursting into flame upon impact.

We halted and sent the escort back to retrieve the remains. They returned, bearing only the arrow, and reported that dust was all that remained of the bird.

Rumble interrogated the Caretaker afterwards, but he could give no answer to his questions, and protested that neither he nor the renegade queen had ever seen the like before.

The thing of it is, we had.

The Fairy Diary Day 655 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

We held out the hope that we could outdistance the force that Dunfallon had observed – perhaps even cross over the border before they reached our road. (Though I wondered whether or not that would stop them from following after).

Matters intensified when Dunfallon returned with word that our pursuers had disappeared. Merlin allowed Navril’s elves to close ranks on the wagon and to send out some scouts. We were tense anyway, I guess the wizard figured it would not hurt for the soldier less weapons to be more alert. 

When my pendants began to glow and transfuse their warmth through me, I knew something was about to happen. Dunfallon’s “army” sensed it too. While half remained close, the other half went on the attack. 

It was then that I could see their targets. In the swirl of movement the cloaks of invisibility worn by our opponents lifted, revealing the elvish feet rushing towards us. 

Navril’s elves stood on the defense, but I could see the attackers made no move toward them. 

Noralei was about to release Rayjil to join the fray, but soon there was no need as the spears and swords of Dunfallon’s army decimated the enemy. 

I thought our peril had past. When looking around I saw two elves break away from the rear guard and charge for the wagon. I wondered if they saw a danger that we did not. 

However, Rumble was between them and the cages on the wagon. Out came his sword and he opposed the first, disarming and forcing him to yield. The second was about to leap up to the wagon when he tripped over our eager Clemjil. (I do believe the dragonling was only trying to help).

Merlin trussed the duo up like packages before I could shout “Hold them.” He turned them over to Navril. 

When Dunfallon returned he was upset at having missed “all the fun.”

The Fairy Diary Day 638 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

I escorted the renegade queen up into the tower. Once there Merlin offered to look at her wings, and while she submitted I took over monitoring the seers stone for the wizard.

I could see that Captain Goff was maintaining his lead over the approaching line of ice crystals. I winced with the thought that if it were to catch up, the ship would be crushed under the pressure of the burgeoning ice. Then, I saw that Nora was lending a hand. He was circling the ship constantly, churning up the water and preventing it from going solid, and seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

Then, that thick line of blue fairies halted its forward movement and came to rest on the ice floes. 

With the morning they were still motionless. They looked exhausted. And one lone Frost Fairy stepped out of the pack and with ceremony sheathed his sword.

I told Merlin that we needed to go out there to meet with them. He gave me permission and added that we should take the dragons. I had turned to leave, but he called me back. 

“I think you should go under your own guise,” and he removed all of our blue disguises.

We left Clemjil with Gibley (still recovering) as he guarded our prisoners. Dunfallon selected Cluyjil, who then led Noralei on Rayjil, and myself on Conjil out to the waiting blue masses. (It was good to be back in our own skins).

We passed over our ship, then outdistancing the static line of frozen water. Nora broke off and began to follow behind us.

One by one we landed on the ice floe in front of that lone figure. He asked us directly, “Where is our king?”

With those thousands of eyes on us, we were silent for about sixty wingbeats. Then, I answered him, “Your king is no more.”

They answered us with silence also, but then cheers erupted from the front and carried all the way back into the distance, culminating in a unified shout of exultation.

I proposed that this fairy, their new choice for leader accompany us back to the tower for a conference. And I had him mount up on Conjil behind me. The warmth from my pendants has me expecting a fortunate outcome to this new development.

The Fairy Diary Day 630 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

We arrived at what we believe to be the passage through this endless barrier of islands and shallow water. All indications – the voice from Dunfallon’s ring – my pendants- and the seers stone – agreed that this is the way we are to go. 

This time Gibley took Conjil up and scouted ahead. Upon his return the goblin pronounced the middle of the channel adequate for the passage of our vessel. He also reported a strange reflection on the face of the water – a series of rungs on a ladder that continued up the expanse of the sky. 

Merlin sprang up at this news and called for Conjil to be harnessed to the ship. And said simply, “We are going up!”

Gibley and Noralei saw to that task. And Dunfallon went to check on his “army.”

I do believe that Conjil divined what was expected of her, and submitted readily. 

Captain Goff pointed the ship into the channel with the help of Rumble and me. Gibley atop Conjil went over the side and they swam to the front. And like the time before with the wagons, the wizard waved his staff and the dragon and the ship slipped from the water and rose into the sky on the ethereal ladder which we could then see was a flow of water cascading down from above. 

A cry came from behind us, “Wait ! Take me too!”

It was Nora the water horse. And Merlin with Noralei’s help roped him along side. 

We passed through some rain, then a cloud, and then an absolute deluge before surfacing upon another vast ocean.

The Fairy Diary Day 613 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Dunfallon pulled me aside to talk before we left for the treasury this morning. He was greatly upset. Noralei had shown him the small bag of coins she had selected for her payment yesterday. All of them had been minted by a former chieftain of the pixies from his territory, not by the Dromadilians. So, he is nagged by the suspicion that the great wealth of his friend is ill-gotten. 

To my mind the fact that the king tried to maneuver Dunfallon away from the treasury tended to lend a little more weight to our suspicions. And then there is that ancient history about the bad blood between the Dromadilians and the Laguayilians over that disputed treasure. 

Still, I advised my friend to await further developments. There just may be a completely innocent explanation. 

I believe he took my advice to heart for he turned his energy to the task at hand back in the treasury. Lining up his soldier-less weapons in an arc around us, we followed Gibley’s lead as he investigated the movement of air on the side of one of the stones in the center of the wall. After trying to pry it forward with one of Dunfallon’s spear soldiers, Rumble discovered that it yielded to a push instead. 

Our pixie piled through with his “army,” taking up defensive positions on the other side. And we came in right behind them. 

We found that we could only walk so far. Rumble, Noralei and I took to flight and by the light from my pendants we surveyed the vast area ahead. It was clear that we needed to bring a boat down so that we could all search for a blockage that was holding this body of water in place. It needed to be drained to remove the threat to the surrounding structures below the burrow city of Dromadil. 

Dunfallon and I went up to report our findings to the king. 

The Fairy Diary Day 609 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Before we parted Willie gifted  Dunfallon with a striking ring. It glows with the same color as the Wisp. My pixie friend was quite taken with it, and kept looking at it as we flew along. 

When Gilgorgon’s mountain came in view, I had the urge to visit our dwarf friends – a notion that my pendants confirmed with the sensation of spreading warmth. So, I asked Gibley to take us over there. Dunfallon was all for the move, but Gibley wondered if we should at this time. When I told him that it may just prove to be crucial to our current quest, he urged Conjil on to that destination. 

We had some trouble at the main entrance with some guards who were unfamiliar with us, but once Herblas was sent for, he had us in and settled in short order. 

Gilgorgon received us gladly and called for a sumptuous meal. While it was prepared he invited us into his private chamber and listened intently to my account of our recent doings. When I revealed the problem faced by the Dromadil pixies, Gilgorgon became very animated and sent for his chief miner whom he introduced as Dibla. 

From Dibla we learned that Dromadil had been built over an abandoned work excavated by the dwarves long ago – back during the time of the building of the Low-way of the Dwarves. The more he talked the more connections I made between these underground areas and the activities of the Frost Fairies and their manipulation of water in that sphere. 

I asked Dibla if he were free to accompany us to Dromadil. He hesitated and put us off with the plea for time to consider – which we were more than willing to do. 

The Fairy Diary Day 599 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

The challenges of the day drained us all completely. That is all except Merlin. Thankfully his vigor was tireless and even now he stands guard over us. 

The hordes of Frost Fairies that boiled out of the abyss in their first waves made Conjil the focus of their assaults. She handily defended herself at first, but when their sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm her, the presence of Noralei and Gibley on her flanks proved crucial. Noralei’s sword was everywhere beating back the blue frenzies with an unstoppable frenzy of her own. And once the goblin unhinged his jaws, he made short work of those hapless frost fairies who skirted the dragon’s fiery breath.  And Navril, Rumble and I from a distance worked our bows to marvelous effect. 

Before their second wave hit, Dunfallon had his ’army’ mustered and advanced into place where these ’soldier less’ weapons decimated their numbers so much that little was left for us to mop up. 

But they still kept coming. 

It was then that I realized that Merlin, standing at our backs had been controlling the flow of the Frost Fairies and he was then allowing a third, a fourth, and a fifth wave to stack up. And at the breaking point he gave me a nod. 

With my pendants tingling their readiness, I rose into the air and the burst of light from them drained the very blueness from our adversaries and propelled them back into the abyss. 

As I slowly settled back to the ground, my friends ran to the edge to look. And from there I heard them call back, “They are gone!”

The Fairy Diary Day 590 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

We could not but feel helpless. And dispirited. Out of the silence between us, we eventually got around to weighing what next we should do. 

There was no agreement at first. Rumble wanted to leave immediately. Before anything else he argued that we must contact Merlin. I could agree that we needed Merlin but argued other things needed to happen first. 

But my friend was really sensing the need for action now. And wanted to return to Nonin-gal-dith and check into the High Fairy’s residence for his means of communication with the wizard. 

I was not not feeling the same urgency. In fact, my pendants were not spurring me on to do anything. I proposed that our first need was to link up with Dunfallon and Navril. And the best way to do that was to stay put and wait for them to come to us. 

Rumble countered with the thought – what if they had been here already? I answered that I could visualize where that could have happened – and I was certain that Dunfallon would have indeed set off again – but not without leaving word about their intentions. 

Besides I added we needed to come together and no longer be splintered. 

My friend then agreed to wait one more day for our missing pixie and elf. So we took refuge up in the most secure place in the repository. 

And a good thing we did. 

The Fairy Diary Day 587 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

My friends dropped by first thing this morning to check on me. (I was fine, though I was touched by their concern). Tinadell had with him two scarves and two pairs of mittens for me. The latter he had fashioned from the leftovers of the cobwebs, insufficient to make a third scarf. I thanked him. 

Rumble wanted to talk. Really, he wanted to finish our discussion of last night. Then he had been trying to convince me to set out to the repository sooner rather than later – and not wait for the arrival of Merlin. He explained that his feelings of urgency then had only increased. 

At that point he turned to Tinadell and asked him to share what he had told him last night after they had dropped me off. With reluctance Tinadell spoke of the uneasiness that has upset him ever since Noralei and Gibley departed. He added that something is wrong – very wrong. 

Rumble chipped in that the wizard would be sure to find us. And Tinadell said that was certain because he would tell the wizard himself when he returned. (Rumble in the heat of the moment had forgotten that Tinadell was sentenced to remain in Nonin-gal-dith by royal edict). 

I told my friend we needed to prepare to be off. For throughout our conversation my pendants were warming alarmingly.