Dark Queen: The Cybelline Prophecies

Chapter 6

"Thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven..." Cybelline whispered quietly as she pulled herself up onto the branch. Perspiration dripped from her short hair onto her tunic like rain, still she persisted.

The sun had barely risen out of the deep purple sky, the still dark forest stood on the edge of wakefulness. Cybelline pulled herself onto the trunk of her tree at the 60th pull-up. She scanned the horizon and grinned. Her strength had been returning faster than she had ever expected. She never felt better and this new body seemed to heal twice as fast as her old one. Look at a tree that was four meters away from her, Cybelline grinned and leaped.

In her old body she might have made it on a good day. In this one, she found herself flying over the tree and heading straight for another at an impossible speed.

Cybelline braced herself for impact with the trunk of tree but that impact never came. Opening her eyes, she looked.

She was floating in the air, her face inches from the trunk.

What the hell? Behind her was a light, almost humming noise. She looked back and bit back a gasp.

Wing like shapes carried her, fluttering faster than a hummingbird. They were nothing but shadows of wings.

A second later, they disappeared.

Suddenly she was falling. Cybelline grabbed a branch and swung down to the ground. Once there, she inspected the back of her tunic. Nothing

Cybelline frowned, but not wanting to waste a moment on another mystery that she could not solve, she headed into the forest to train some more.

At the peak of dawn, Ithos woke up to see the child he had rescued roasting fish a large trout.

"Yer up too early." He groaned, sat up and stretched. Scratching his peppery whiskers he took a deep whiff, "That smells good."

Cybelline grinned, "Thanks. I like cooking." She didn't mention that after two days of his cooking, she was ready to eat tree bark. To change the subject in case he felt like helping her, she asked, "You said we'll be at your village soon?"

Ithos nodded, "Today's the last day on the road. We're at the edge Helmshire now, once we get past the Barrier Forests, we'll be on the road to home."

They packed up quickly after lunch. Ithos never asked her how a young girl like her was so efficient in breaking camp, though Cybelline knew that his sharp eyes missed nothing.

The two of them walked for three hours until the forest had began to thin.

Cybelline's eyes lit up in excitement. In the past three months, all she had see was trees, trees, and more trees. They soon found themselves on path that lead up to stone walls that were at least thirty-five meters high.

Cybelline whistled as looked at the impressive structure. Ithos chuckled, "Ye should see what the other countries constructed to keep the creatures out."

Cybelline frowned, "Why?"

Ithos looked at her, "Ye really don't know?"

Cybelline shook her head. Ithos sighed and motioned her to sit down with him at the side of the road.

"Child, I don't know how ye was raised, or what happened to ye. But now that yer gonna live here, ye hafta know the rules."

He looked at her sternly, "Never tell anyone where yer from. If they know yer from the Folk Forest, they'll kill ye. They'll mistake ye for magical kind they'll want yer powers."

Cybelline frowned, "But I'm human, aren't I?"

Ithos looked at her thoughtfully, "I think yer a changeling."

"A changeling." Cybelline repeated. Her mind was buzzing as Ithos nodded, "It's said that the Folk and Fae will steal human children and raise them until they're fattened and ready for eating."

Ithos looked at the confused look on Cybelline's face and proceeded patiently, "Long ago, there were two magical races. The Fae and the Folk. The Fae were a race of creatures with extraordinary powers who were worshipped as gods. They were the holders of magic. Theres was the only race whose magic never ran out. They also were the ones who gifted the Folk and some humans with magics as well."

"Now, the Folk was divided into different Families, each rulin' a different element. The dwarfs were masters of the land, the elves the lords of the forests, the dragons the rulers of the beasts and such. Their magic was decided by the purity of their blood, which only gets stronger as they live longer." The man shrugged, "Legend says that their First Bloods were the royalties of royalties and had power second only to the Fae. The Fae and Folk all lived under one ruler who made the human kings tremble at the mention of her name."

"If they were such powerful entities, how is it that they're hunted like this now?" Cybelline wanted to know.

"Dunno." Ithos said, "Tis was thousands and thousands of years ago. Some say that a great civil war wiped out the Fae. And when they fell, the Folk did too. Others say that a great illness took the Queen and they died because she did." Ithos shrugged, "But their powers weakened over time and us humans began to fight back. We built walls to imprison them and when our ancestors realized that their blood could prolong our lives" He shrugged, "We've been killin' them ever since."

She remembered the dead bodies that the soldiers had burned to get this single drop. This world was as cruel as her own, then she remembered the rock he had given her, "What was that rock, the blue one that healed me."

"A Healin' Stone, mined by the Dwarf slaves of the Shadow mountains. They mine all sorts of stones from there, and they can do a great many things. One of which is keep our mages powerful."

Correctly interpreting the look of distaste on her face, Ithos sighed, "Child, one thing ye best understand about the world yer going te enter is that if ye aren't powerful enough to change it, ye best not get in its way." He put the two things away, "Now ye know, let's get home."