In a Brave New World (Brave New World Book 5)

Chapter 8

Valamir

I smiled.

The look on the pixie's face was so funny coupled with her snort as she landed on her tiny butt and crossed her arms over her leaf-covered chest. Her sulking look was complete when she let her semi-transparent wings droop behind her back. The other females of her insect-sized kind followed her example and propped themselves beside her on the branch inside their crystal dome of a prison.

This was all a pose, I knew. The head pixie hadn't actually expected to be released immediately after the completion of her task. She had just been fishing, and I had not taken the bait.

"Can't I at least see me man?" she demanded to know in her chirpy voice, her skinny legs dangling from the branch. A set of oversize pink eyes, so in contrast to her pale blue skin, shot me a look full of promises of pain and torture in case I said no.

Although her kind couldn't use mine as a host for their spawn, those pointed teeth and corrosive saliva of hers and of the other imprisoned pixies were strong enough to chew an otherwise indestructible yellow mountain crystal into dust. So I didn't doubt their promises could be fulfilled should they break free from the crystal dome and then from the underground cave we found ourselves in.

Still, I shook my head for a no. I also smiled broadly, displaying my similarly pointed teeth for good measure. Even if the head pixie and the five females from her swarm managed to escape the elves' prison, I had caught them once so I could do it again. And this time I would do it not because we needed their dust-making skills, but because I had to protect my Aly and my newly found friends.

The head pixie was just about to say something nasty to me - I could tell by the way her nose wrinkled - when her gaze shifted to somewhere behind me. I turned around to see Tisvali coming in, his face split into his usual grin.

"Speaking with the pixies again, Valamir?" my friend said as he stopped beside me on the rocky floor of the cave.

This space had been specifically created by the local elves to serve as the pixies' prison and workshop. It was still underneath the forest these elves considered their kingdom, but was detached enough from the main cave system the elves called home, to prevent a fatal accident in case of an explosion during the dust production process.

"It's hilarious that you can't talk," Tisvali carried on, "and yet you manage to elicit this pissed-off reaction from them. They are probably envious of your bigger teeth."

I flashed him an amused smile. I didn't know about the pixies, but I knew he was envious of my beard. For all elves had splendid hair, but they could never grow a beard. And although they were repulsed by bodily hair, my beard was certainly causing many curious looks my way every time I met the locals, be it near my lake home or in this cave when I came to supervise the prisoners.

In fact, my beard had intrigued the Queen of the local elves so much during my single meeting with her that she had asked to touch it. I knew hair touching was a private and even intimate move among elves, but I had allowed it because me and my Aly were at the Queen's mercy.

Still, I had declined the Queen's subsequent request to touch my leg when not covered by fish scales. I had been the victim of enough females to know when the look in their eyes meant simple curiosity and when it meant... something more.

"Me teeth can rip ye jugular vein open, elf," the head pixie told my friend, practically spitting the last word at him.

"Me hands can strangle him with his horrid hair," another pixie chimed in.

"Me will help," the youngest of all pixies chirped, clapping her tiny hands excitedly.

Tisvali chuckled. "See, Valamir? They are envious of your teeth and also of my hair."