1.5 True of Blood: Kallen's Tale (4 page)

Chapter
3

I find myself in a forest with snow at least two feet deep
all around me
.  Considering the thin air, I am assuming I am in a mountain range.  Grandmother could have at least given me a map.

Perhaps a map is not necessary.  The back of my head begins to tingle, letting me know that other Fairies are near. 
Not all Fairies can do this, and none of the Cowan Fairies have the ability, so I have the upper hand in that regard.  I can sense them, but they cannot sense me
. 
I now know that
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
are
definitely
here
. 

Not wanting to alert them of my presence
for as long as possible
, I shift into my animal form.  I become a raven.
 
I fly
up the mountain
in the direction I know the
Cowan
Fairies to be
,
and
I come upon them
shortly
. 
They
are chasing
a girl through the forest, and
Maurelle
is almost on top of
her,
while
Olwyn
and his brawn trail behind. 

I cannot help noticing that this girl is the
most beautiful
female
I have ever seen.  Her long, bone straight black hair is flying behind her as she runs.  Her bright green eyes look as if they hold secrets that I would
like
to know, and her creamy, flawless skin
glows brighter than the snow. 
Her face is perfect, her bone structure delicate yet strong and her lips are full and red. 
Kissable lips.
  That is the only way to describe them. 

I am so absorbed in assessing her physical
assets,
it takes my brain a moment to comprehend the situation.  She must be the Witch Fairy.  And for some reason I cannot ascertain, that makes me angr
ier than I already was
.

Maurelle
has her pinned to a tree
now
.  Or, I should say, she has used the tree as a weapon, smashing the girl’s face against it, leaving her stunned. 
Maurelle
grabs this beautiful creature
by the neck
, intending to cause harm. 
I am about to rush to her rescue, but a
bright
flash of light proves that the girl is not stupid.  She is wearing a Fairy repellent
amulet
. 

I fly to the lowest branch of the tree
to observe
,
when
Maurelle
notices me.  Most would have a problem identifying me as a raven, as I have no distinguishing
marks
in this form.  But, Tabitha
wa
s
correct;
Maurelle
has made it her life’s mission to study
me in the hopes of luring me into a hand-fasting
. 
Something that will never happen.
 
Not e
ven if she was a full-blooded Fairy.  Not only do I find her physically unappealing
with her square features and shapeless body
, he
r personality is that of a Tasmanian devil – ready to snap at the slightest provocation.

“Kallen,” she says, momentarily losing interest in the girl.

“
Maurelle
,” I say
evenly
, as I morph out of my raven form. 
I jump to the ground
, just a few feet away from her
.  “I will not let you take her
,
”
I inform her.
  Though, I should
, the back of my mind is telling me
. 
This girl
is responsible for ruining
my life.  The fact that she is gorgeous has completely left my mind
, now
. 
For the most part.

“There are two of us, Kallen.  You cannot fight us both and expect to win,”
Olwyn
says
,
pulling himself up to his full height. 

What a joke.  A Cowan Fairy thinking he is a match for me.  I am tempted to use magic
to prove him wrong
, but I do not want the girl to know how strong I am
yet
.  It is always best to keep your enemy ignorant of your skills
for as long as possible
. 
Better to take them by surprise later. 
“
Maybe not
, but I can slow you down,” I say, pulling
two Fairy darts that I had carried in my feathers.  I hit both him and
Maurelle
in the chest.  That will
definitely
slow them down.  If I used two, they would be close to death, but I want to scare them at this point, not kill them.

The logical thing for someone to do when their stronger enemy has been neutralized is to run.  But
instead
,
the girl
has slumped down the tree and
is just sitting there.  Is she dense?  “Run,” I yell at her, hoping to get a reaction
.  I feel the need
to determine if she is in charge of her mental faculties or not.
  I may have been too hasty
a moment ago,
when I assumed she was not stupid.

To my surprise and relief, she does as she is instructed.  She begins to run in a direction that I assume will be towards her home.  Leaving
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
to deal with their reactions to the Fairy darts, I f
ollow the girl.  Her speed is disgraceful;
her pace is so slow that I can barely call it jogging. 
I have this nagging idea in my consciousness that I may be overcritical of her
,
considering my current state of mind, but I am ignoring it. 

It only takes a moment to catch up with her.
 
I find her winded and slowing to a walk.  Does she have no sense of urgency, or stamina?  “Why did you not use your magic?”  I demand, still wondering about her mental faculties.

“I-I don’t have any magic,” she stammers. 

That
i
s it, I
a
m convinced.  She has the intelligence of a gnat
.  Okay, a beautiful gnat, if there is such a thing, but still a gnat
.  “Of course you have magic,” I scoff.  “The amulet around your neck is proof of that.”

She looks down at her necklace as if she
i
s surprised it is there.  Instead of responding to my statement, as I would have expected, she says, ““Don’t you have clothes?”

She is seriously concerned about my state of dress?  True, I did forget that I am sky-clad, and honestly, as I feel the cold
of the snow on my legs and feet
now that she has brought my attention to it, I do feel
the need to be dressed
.  I am about to clothe myself when I notice the flush in her cheeks.  She is uncomfortable
with my nudity
; more than uncomfortable, actually
.  And she is
absolutely
stunning
when she blushes.  Disgusted that I just thought that, I
fold
my arms over my chest and say, “I am perfectly comfortable being sky clad.”

She looks at me in confusion
, careful to keep her eyes from wandering
. 
That is a shame, I think, before I squash the thought. 
“Sky clad?”
she asks.

Apparently, the term is not
part of the modern vernacular.  I wonder how many other terms I
use
will be antiquated
in this realm
.  Great, now I
a
m even more annoyed at being here
, and I had not thought that possible
.  “Clad only by air,” I snap.

“You could have just said naked,” she responds, “and around here, we prefer clothes.”

Seriously, this is her biggest concern at the moment?  “You have just been attacked by Pooka warriors and you are concerned about my state of dress?  You are a silly, ignorant girl.”
  I am tempted to walk away from her and leave her to defend herself.

“Hey, what’s your problem?” she asks, her face scrunched up into a pattern of equal amounts of irritation and fear.

I saved her
from those two
and this is her gratitude? 
Beauty aside
, she is one irritating female. 
I am determine
d
to spend as little time as possible in her presence. 
I
vow right now to
observe her from a distance
after this
. 

“My problem,” I say
,
through a clenched jaw, “is you flaunting
yourself
about these woods as if you had not a care in this world.  Do you not care if the Pooka take you?  Are you in league with them?”
 

“I don’t even know who the Pooka are
,
but I do know that you’re a jerk and I’m going home.”  She turns around and walks away from me.  Now, I am really mad.  I catch up to her in just a couple of strides and grab her hand to turn her around.  Damn it, that hurt.  I let go in a hurry.  I forgot about her
damn
necklace.

“Why does it keep doing that?” she asks
, looking stupefied as she looks down at the
glowing
amulet
.

Perhaps I
was
also
too hasty in determining that she has the intelligence of a gnat.  I believe that may have been giving her too much credit.  I do not hold back
the
disdain
in my voice,
as I say, “Because it is iron bound by amber bound by silver.”

“So?”

My
irritation
is growing by leaps and bounds.  “Did that Witch of a mother of yours not teach you anything?”

“Look, Kallen
,
or whatever your name is, I don’t know who you think you are
,
but you need to leave my mother out of this.  And my guess is, you don’t know why it’s glowing either
,
or you would just tell me.  I am so out of here,” she says, and then she walks away from me yet again. 
Unbelievable.

I am beginning to think that my grandmother
was
simply trying to get rid of me, because even simple communication is proving to be impossible with this girl. 
H
er ignorance apparently knows no bounds
, which leads me to believe that she will be stupid enough to open the gateways regardless of what I say or do.  This truly is a fool’s
errrand
.  “It is a Fairy repellent.”

She wrinkles her nose, which makes her look cute.  I have to stop thinking these thoughts. 
She is nothing but trouble wrapped up in a pretty package. 
“There’s no such thing as Fairies. 
Or magic.”

I must have been too busy
trying not to admire
her physical assets, because it is not possible that she said what I think she said.  The expression on her face, though, tells me that she did.  “You do not believe in magic?”  A thought hits me that I had not contemplated before.  “Your mother has not taught you the ways of magic?”

“Nope, because there’s no such thing.”

I am
now
completely dumbfounded.  Her mother kept even the
existence
of magic from her?  “How could she have been so foolish?” I ask.

The girl
whirls around
with fire in her eyes, which turns them a darker, sexier green
.  “Look, I don’t care if you insult me
,
but that’s the second time you’ve said something nasty about my mother
,
and I’m not going to stand for it.  Why don’t you go back to wherever you
came from and leave me alone.”

Perhaps I should hand her over to
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
; it would save me from having to deal with her ignorance
. 
A
nd her attitude.
  She would probably fit right in with the
Pookas
. 
Except for the fact that they plan to kill her
.
 
Which puts me back to the beginning.
  I have to try to save this realm, which means, I have to save her. 
“You are an ungrateful little snit.  Do you not care if you are in danger?”