Dark One- The Khiara Banning Series Book 1

Thirty

(Song, Holocene, by Bon Iver)

AN: Thanks for waiting! This is the raw only personally edited version, so ignore the errors. The manuscript final version is for publication only ;) 

Some of the Fae that Grandma Coal personally called in have arrived, and I don't think anybody could have prepared me for the sheer amount of awe they inspire when all together. They're camping out in the woods behind Liam's house in tents. The fifteen Elves with their pointed ears though nothing like in the movies, all about seven feet tall, are idly sitting by the fire, holding what looks like arrows and breathing on them reminiscent of how Grandma Coal breathed on Cara and I when she healed us. Cara informs me that they're embedding magic into them. The smallest of them all and about the size of my hand, Pixies, all perch on the shoulders of the Elves. There are twenty-five Pixies in total.

Ten of the eighteen Nymphs have chosen to be in fox form, and they languish in the heat of the fire, and when they become too hot roll in the snow, barking with appreciation. I've never seen anything like it and I can't help but soak it up.

Three of the eight Nymphs who chose not to be in their fox forms are currently standing with me and Cara at the edge of the forest, giving Cara tips of the trade. There are only two Nymph Halflings – Halfling meaning half Fae and half human – as opposed to the four Elf Halflings; Cara and, ironically a boy from town named Paul Virtue who as it turns out, is Cara's cousin though not by blood, but by element. It makes sense, now that I think about how awkward he was being when I caught him with her in the car – they'd just been talking about a gathering they were supposed to attend out in Portland.

Of the two, Cara is the most advanced as it turns out, mostly because she was able to shift into a fox at all, an accomplishment which is rather rare for a Halfling, but also because she can do other magic that isn't part of her element. For some reason, she's more Fae than human and her powers just keep getting stronger the more she uses them, since before she had to use them in secret most of the time. But Paul, it seems, can hardly produce enough fire to light a match.

"I don't know if I'll be much help," he says, "but I'll do my best when the time comes."

Trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about, I pat him awkwardly on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Any help is appreciated...for whatever is going to happen."

"You don't know?" asks a woman with dark brown skin and bright blonde dreadlocks, a Wind Nymph named Melania whose accent marks her as a sister Mainer. She looks to be about thirty years of age, but insists she is actually fifty by saying, "The Wind has kept me young."

"Welll," Cara draws the word out, "no. It's a long story, none of it very good," she bites her lip shyly and I smile. She's always playing damage control when I open my dumb mouth and say something idiotic.

"How's about we hear all about it when dinner arrives," says a voluptuous middle aged woman named Patty, with a thick Australian accent. Her tanned skin and brown hair mark her as an Earth Nymph.

"Vicky and Tristan should be back with the food soon," says Cara. "If they don't kill each other first. It's just pizza and fries for most of us, but there are veggies and berries for anybody who doesn't want that. They agreed on Millie's Pies for desert, since that's about the only place you can actually find edible goods outside of Cael's shop – that would be Khiara's boyfriend – who is probably the best baker in this whole town. Millie's the oldest person in this town, actually. She turns eighty in four months!"

"Wow," says Melania.  "Well then, I guess we'll talk when the food gets here."

"Guess so," I say quietly. So many eyes are on me, it feels so strange. "Guess so."