Chronicles of Eden - Act VI (13 page)

“Pip, don’t you remember me holding the carrot right in front of you?” Triska asked carefully.

Pip looked down in thought, seeming to strain herself with remembering while the group watched her with curious eyes now. She rubbed her hands against her temples while shutting her eyes tightly as she murmured quietly.

“I think…” Pip said before looking at her hands then around the table. “But where did it go? It was right here.”

“Does she really not remember eating it?” Specca wondered.

“Pip, don’t you remember us holding food out for you?” Daniel asked.

Pip turned to him with puzzlement then looked down while scratching her head. She blinked then burped with a tiny hop.

“How come I’m not hungry anymore?” she asked looking down to her belly and patting it. “I was hungry a second ago, but now I’m not.”

“You just had some of our food,” Triska told her, with the fairy watching her curiously. “You don’t remember eating anything at all just now?”

Pip merely shook her head at the girl, with the group exchanging confused glances while Clover just watched the fairy with a dull stare as she ate her breakfast.

“I don’t understand,” Specca commented. “How can she not remember eating anything?”

“She didn’t even look at the food while she ate it,” Triska mentioned. “She just gobbled it up while staring at us. It was like she didn’t even see she was eating it.”

Squeak pointed to the fairy then her plate while squeaking something before slowly stopping and looking down with remorse as she remembered she wasn’t being understood by anyone.

“Was the fairy that came to your grove like that?” Daniel asked Clover, getting only a fleeting glance from the elf as she continued to eat her food. “Did she not realize she was eating anything when she really was?”

“No, she wasn’t a brain-dead dolt like your fairy is,” Clover dryly replied.

“Don’t talk about her like that,” Triska snapped at the elf.

“She doesn’t remember eating something she was
just eating
,” Clover retorted. “That’s gotta be a new level of stupid right there.”

“Don’t talk about Pip like that!” Daniel shouted at her. Clover jumped and looked to him with surprise while the other girls watched him with wonder as he was angered by the elf’s words. “I told you before, Clover, don’t speak badly about
any
of the girls or else you’re not coming along with us.”

“I’m just saying it like it is,” Clover defended. “You fed her stuff and she doesn’t remember that at all. That’s not normal. Something’s really messed up with her.”

Pip sniffled then quickly flew over and hugged Daniel’s chest, clinging to his shirt while burying her face in it as the group watched her whimpering with her wings drooping low. Daniel sighed then gently held the fairy in his hands, holding her up to face him while she wiped her eyes and sniffled with a saddened frown.

“Pip, how come you don’t remember these things?” he asked, with the fairy watching him with a worried eye as he slowly shook his head with concern. “You don’t remember how you fairies breed, you don’t remember what happened to your sisters, you don’t even remember eating something seconds after you do so; I’m really getting worried about you, Pip.”

“I don’t know,” Pip sadly said. “I don’t remember a lot of things.”

Triska glanced over to where Alyssa was still asleep then looked at Pip curiously.

“But you remembered Apoch and Astreal,” she reminded her, with the group turning to her as she eyed the fairy carefully. “You remembered them, you were even afraid of them. You knew them, didn’t you?”

Pip nodded while rubbing her eye before she looked over towards the sleeping witch.

“I don’t like them, they scare me. I like Alyssa, she’s nice to me. But they’re not; they’re not nice to me, not at all. They always try to send me away with their magic, they don’t want me here.”

“Send you away?” Specca worriedly asked. “To where?”

“I don’t know,” Pip sadly confessed.

“Is it because you’re a fairy they don’t like you?” Triska wondered.

“I don’t know.”

Squeak shook her head and squeaked something with a curious eye at the fairy.

“…what?”

Triska watched Pip with concern as she could see the fairy was upset by talking about this subject then felt she needed to address one more mystery regarding it.

“Pip, you mentioned Apoch and Astreal aren’t like Alyssa. How are they different from her?”

“If Alyssa dies she’s gone forever, she’s dead and gone,” Pip answered, with the group feeling uneasy about where this was going. The fairy looked to Alyssa as the witch slept quietly on the bed then to Triska with fearful eye.

“But if they die they just come back, again and again, never staying dead.”

In the world of Eden there was little that compared to the power of family. Each member would contribute their own strengths, no matter how small or large, for the benefit of the whole when needed. Should they be lost or separated they would band together to find one another. Even those that weren’t as close, the lone wolves, outcasts, or even black sheep of the family, could still come to the aid of their kin all the same and were not to be undervalued. Because whether they were a traditional family or a group of those who loved and cared for each other all the same, this was how it was for them.

Nobody, not even a Darker One, would come between them.

*****

Alyssa slowly opened her eyes with a quiet murmur escaping her lips, the world around her focusing again while her mind seemed numb still. Not being sure if she was dreaming, or if what she had heard earlier was also a dream, she continued to lay there on the bed while questioning if any of this was real, staring up at the ceiling as if in a trance while memories of her daughter started coming back to her again.

“Ember,” she quietly spoke to herself, only to shut her eyes tightly as the haunting sounds of the landslide that took her daughter away roared loudly in her ears again. She heard Lucky neighing out of fright, rocks crashing into and through her carriage, her baby crying right behind her, and then silence as everything suddenly fell quiet.

‘My baby… could you really still be alive?’

Opening her eyes again she realized where she was in the caravan before she slowly sat up, her body feeling heavier now while her mind was still groggy.

“Alyssa?” Luna asked next to her. Alyssa looked to her side and saw the butterfly lying back on the bed while watching her with a small smile. “Are you alright now?”

“You’ve been out for a while,” Falla said beside her, with Alyssa turning to see the other butterfly lying next to her as well. “How are you feeling?”

Alyssa didn’t reply as her eyes seemed to gaze into space while the two girls watched her worriedly. Slowly the witch looked around the cabin, seeing that they were not alone. Squeak was standing over by her boxes of magical ingredients next to the bed while curiously eyeing them over with her antennae twitching now and again. Over on the couch Clover was lying along it with her feet crossed and hanging over the armrest while she was aiming an arrow up at the ceiling with her bow, firing the bolt straight up and into a rafter where two other of her arrows were set.

“Dammit, Clover,” Specca snapped while sitting at the table with Daniel and Triska, none of them bothering to give the elf a fleeting glance while the nixie breathed out in discontent from hearing the familiar whack of Clover’s arrow. “How many times must we tell you? No archery in the caravan.”

Alyssa watched as the three were observing Pip who was standing on the table, the fairy curiously looking at them while Specca was writing down something in Daniel’s monster guidebook.

“Alright, let’s try this again,” Triska said holding out a grape to the fairy. “Now, Pip, keep your eye on the grape.”

“Okay,” Pip replied while watching the fruit held out in front of her.

“Do you see it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you hungry?”

“A little.”

“Then eat the grape,” Triska encouraged.

Pip sniffed the grape a few times then quickly gobbled it up with quickly munching teeth. Daniel and the two girls watched her with wonder as the fairy ate the fruit before turning her eye to Triska with a curious look.

“Do you remember eating it?” Daniel asked.

Pip blinked then looked around quickly before back at him with confusion.

“Eating what?”

“I don’t understand,” Specca said shaking her head while going over what she had written down in the book. “She’s was perfectly aware there was a grape before her eyes, proceeded to eat it right up, and then has no memory it.”

“Do you taste it still?” Triska asked the fairy. “Do you taste anything in your mouth right now?”

Pip smacked her tongue and lips together a few times then showed a puzzled expression.

“I taste something. What is that?”

“You just ate a grape,” Daniel explained.

“I did? When?”

“Don’t you remember seeing the grape right in front of you a few seconds ago?” Specca tiredly asked.

“I think I do…” Pip said looking down and rubbing her hands against her temples. “But where did it go? Wasn’t it right here a moment ago?”

“I can’t figure her out,” Specca told Daniel and Triska with genuine concern. “She only remembers bits and pieces of what she learns. She knows Apoch and Astreal, but doesn’t at the same time. She saw there was a grape right before her, and then forgets ever having eaten it when she just did. It’s like she always forgets key moments in her memories and only remembers small parts of others.”

“Is that just how fairies are?” Daniel asked scratching his head.

“I have no idea, we don’t have anything else to compare this to,” Specca answered looking to Pip. “The only other fairy we knew of that existed blew up in Clover’s grove, and she did appear to be just as naïve as Pip from what we’ve heard, but that doesn’t tell us if how she is now is normal.”

“Is something wrong with me?” Pip worriedly asked.

“I… we don’t know,” Specca said softly. “You appear to have trouble remembering things, very much so. I’m not sure if that’s how fairies normally are, or if something is affecting you.”

“What do I do?”

“I don’t know,” Specca replied looking down to the book. “I don’t know if there is anything we can do.”

Pip sniffled then noticed Alyssa and the butterfly sisters watching them from the bed, with the witch having a tired expression on her face while Luna and Falla sat up and glanced to her with concern again.

“Alyssa, are you okay now?” Pip asked, with everyone then turning to see the witch was up.

“Alyssa,” Triska said standing up from the table. “How are you feeling?”

Slowly Alyssa stood and started taking small steps while seeming to be in a daze, with Luna and Falla getting to their feet behind her while Clover sat up and watched the witch with a dull stare. Squeak walked over next to the butterfly sisters as everyone saw the witch still reeling from what she heard earlier.

“Am I dreaming?” Alyssa asked wearily looking around the cabin. “Is this all a cruel dream?”

“You’re awake, Alyssa,” Daniel assured as walked over to her. When he got next to the girl Alyssa dropped to her knees, with the group except for Clover quickly rushing over to her.

“My baby is alive,” Alyssa whimpered as Daniel knelt down before her, eyes staring straight ahead as she shakily breathed in and out. She then broke down crying and clung to Daniel as he held her gently in his arms. “My baby is still alive! My Ember is okay! Thank god my baby is still alive!”

“Alyssa,” Daniel gently said as he held the crying witch. “I’m glad to hear that as well, I really am.”

“You should have told us you were a mother,” Specca mentioned with a smile as she and Squeak knelt down and gently rubbed the witch’s back. “We would have loved to hear about your daughter.”

Alyssa sobbed and buried her face in Daniel’s chest, her hat dropping to the ground as she held onto him tightly while crying uncontrollably.

“My baby! My little girl, she’s still out there!”

“We’re going to find her, Alyssa,” Daniel promised, with Alyssa looking up to him with teary eyes. “We’re going to help you find your daughter again.”

“Why?” Clover asked, with the group looking to her as she shook her head with confusion. “I thought her daughter was on a warpath to kill her, and everyone around her. Isn’t that the warning those other two witches gave you? To stay the fuck away from this Ember person?”

“She doesn’t know what really happened,” Daniel reasoned with her. “She thinks Alyssa abandoned her, that she left her behind. That isn’t true, Alyssa tried to find and save her, she loves her. We need to find Ember and tell her what really happened.”

“We need to find and set things straight with her,” Triska agreed. “Alyssa deserves to be with her daughter, we’re not going to let her lose Ember again.”

“Again, she’s trying to
kill
her,” Clover repeated while pointing to Alyssa. “So you want to get those two together? That seems like a very bad idea.”

“Reuniting Alyssa and Ember seems like a good idea to me,” Daniel countered, looking down to the witch in his arms with a gentle smile. “Quite frankly that seems a bit more important to me than getting to Ruhelia right now.”

“Daniel, you mean it?” Alyssa shakily asked. “But… what about-”

“But nothing,” Kroanette spoke from the doorway. The group turned to see the centaur holding aside the curtain and leaning forward into the cabin with a proud smile on her face. “Your own daughter is out there as we speak, lost and confused about her life. I agree with Daniel that finding your own kin needs to come first before we continue our quest.”

“But… Daniel needs to…” Alyssa whimpered while looking down, feeling conflicted inside about what to do. “We have to… we still have to…”

“We have plenty of time to reach Ruhelia and speak to the centaurs,” Specca assured her. “They’re not going anywhere. But Ember is out there right now, and she needs her mother. Alyssa, we wouldn’t dare ask you to set aside searching for your long-lost daughter in order to help Daniel with his quest. That wouldn’t be right.”