Away with the Fairies

*°•○Part Twelve○•°*

When they finally touched the ground, the birds admitting that they were too tired to fly any farther, it was quite dark. The sky was illuminated by an enormous, nearly full moon and at least a few thousands of tiny, pulsating, and shimmering stars. And it was cold. Very cold.

They all trembled in the northern wind blowing from the seashore, like the dry leaves clinging to the misshapen and twisted branches of the only tree growing close to the edge of the tall cliff where they had landed, until Roza waved her wand, conjuring up warmer clothes for all of them. After she had prepared dinner for everyone, the birds included, the two Rose Elves said that they would look around and see if they could find a place for them to sleep. It was too windy to spend the night in the open, on top of the cliffs towering above the sea, which they could hear roaring angrily in the depths. So, as Rosalind, Hans, Louise, and the birds started to eat, Roza and Rolo disappeared over the precipice, determined to search the beach.

They came back just when Hans, who got bored of waiting for them the moment his stomach was full again, walked to the very edge of the steep promontory and studied the damp rock wall shrouded in shadows impenetrable to the moonlight. He squinted his eyes behind the lenses of his glasses sprinkled with the sea spray brought to his face by the chilly wind as he scanned the rocks, nearly as black as the surrounding night, for a path that would permit a wingless human to reach the half moon shaped beach lying deep down.

Roza and Rolo did not come back alone. They were accompanied by three tall, dark moths, whose large wings glittered and shone in the silvery light of the moon as if they were sprinkled with stardust.

"Princess," one of them spoke to Rosalind, its voice deep and mysterious like the cold night. "The Blue Swallowtails send you their regards and ask if you would like to join them."

"You found them!" Rosalind called to her elves as she scrambled to her feet.

"We did, Princess. They are camped down on the beach, but..."

"Thank you, Rolo, and thank you as well, " Rosalind said, approaching the Moth Fairies. "We would love to join you."

"Very well, Princess. Let us carry you to our camp then. You, Flower Fairies, don't fly well in the dark, and it's too windy... Will your birds be able to carry your elves? It's not very far."

"We will. Show us the way," Orangebeak chirped, spreading one of his wings to the ground to help the elves climb up.

"Just... Hmm... You must be strong, Princess," Roza said as she walked past Rosalind and wrapped her short arms around the fairy's waist briefly on her way to the waiting bird.

"What's wrong, Roza?" Rosalind asked the elf even as one of the Moth Fairy boys lifted her in his arms and took off immediately.

"You'll see soon enough..." Roza sighed.

Louise squalled and closed her eyes when another Moth boy scooped her in his arms and followed his friend who carried Rosalind.

"Hmm... I thank you, but... Skylar?" Hans asked tentatively, not liking the idea of being held in a Moth Fairy boy's arms like the two girls.

"Of course, Master Hans. Here!" The nightingale laughed in its strange, warbled way, then hopped closer to him and let the boy settle on her back.

"Alright. Let's go," the moth carrying Rosalind said.

The place where the butterflies were staying was not very distant. Rather than flying, the moths, followed by the birds, glided down towards the sandy beach, letting the wind carry them to a place where several leafless shrubs grew at the foot of the cliff.

Someone had built a large, tent-like shelter here by spreading many wide sheets of fabric among the bushes and securing them to their branches.

Spider silk, Hans thought. The sheets, so shiny and silvery-white that they seemed to glow under the moonlight, reminded him of the soft baskets made for their dandelion seeds by the spider in the meadow.