The Moonlight Boy | Ferry's Tale # 1

Shattered plans

Ferry opened his eyes to discover all his friends leaning over him. Each one of his Guardians held a lantern and the blue flames flickered on his face.

"Ferry, are you all right?" Matilda asked with a trembled voice.

He laid on the grass, protected by an old tree. He tried to stand up, but the pain pierced his foot, making him scream.

"You're hurt!" Matilda shouted.

Baldie examined his wounds. "Worry not, Rosemary is going to foment your wounds. She's a healer. She knows all the herbs, potions, ointments, and remedies to heal all the wounds, whether body or soul. Even the weeds leech in her hands."

Ferry watched Rosemary crashing two stalks with her fingers and a viscous, yellow substance oozed on his wound, healing it under his very eyes. He couldn't believe it!

"Thank you, Rosemary," he said. "You truly are gifted."

"Oh, I'm afraid Thyme is being too generous with his words. I would've loved to be that sort of healer... But I'm not. I can't heal the wounds a body is born with... " she said and Ferry could read a shadow of regret in her voice that made him wonder.

He jumped up to his feet but felt the ground and sky twirl. Baldie was at his side at that moment. "You should rest..."

Ferry shook his head, "I don't want to rest, there isn't time for resting. They are looking for us. For me!" he said, his fists clenched. "I'm tired of this place! Tired of secrets, lies, and intrigues. Everybody talks in riddles; everybody has two faces... I don't know who to believe anymore. I don't know what to believe anymore," he said between sobs.

"What do you mean?" Matilda asked. "Did you find the Queen's Chamber? And the scissors?" she continued, turning just as agitated.

Ferry picked up his backpack and slowly took out the scissors. They looked like ordinary scissors. Oh, well, maybe not that ordinary because they were made of solid silver.

"So? What are you waiting for? Cut off this darn wire on my foot!" she urged him.

But Baldie stopped him in time.

"Stop! Once you'll use the scissors, everyone who's after us will be here in a blink of an eye. We must cut the wire only when we are close enough to the door between the worlds. Else, they will get at us before we could save the others."

Matilda skewed. Shadow stepped closer, "Baldie ─ I meant... Thyme is right, Mattie," he mumbled under Baldie's frowned look. "Wouldn't you want your mother with us?"

"I guess you're right," she said, sighing.

"Worry not, it shan't be long," Shadow tried to encourage her.

And he was right. The Moon had risen in the sky, bigger than any other night. Brighter and closer, and Ferry thought he could have reached it if he had only stretched out his hand.

Baldie took the scissors from Ferry's hands, "I think we need to hide the scissors until the moment of our departure," he said.

"But where?" Ferry wondered.

"The best hiding places are those in plain sight. Just like the greatest secrets. If you really opened your eyes, you could see that they were right in front of you all along."

Ferry felt like Baldie was talking to him only. That's exactly how he felt whenever he thought about the people of Tenalach, especially Oona. He watched how Baldie measured the distance between two trees and stuck the scissors somewhere in the middle.

"Say, did you see the Queen?" asked Izzy, pulling Ferry out of the abyss of his thoughts. "Is she as young and beautiful as they say?"

"I don't even know what I saw... There was a castle-tree with a will of its own. And it was full of the oddest things. And then, there was a large room with an energy orb in the middle. And a tunnel that gets smaller and smaller... And a chest that wasn't a chest. And a being of light..."