Charlotte's Fairytale Ch. 10

"Exactly, I laughed at her attempts, inwardly. She really tried to be so fierce, lots of growling and grinding of teeth. Fairies are just not convincing enough with their shape shifting powers, unless they can follow the emotions of their public. However, when they can feed on that, they could bring your worst nightmares to life. Not something I would like to watch myself."

"What was Lilah guarding so furiously? There is a nice meadow up there, but not much else I could detect."

"Oh, it was hidden quite well, probably still is. Inside the mountain near it, there is a cave. It took me three visits to gain access to it. The raven had shown me only its general location. Inside the cave was a huge ancient looking tube, it extends deep down and up beyond the cave itself. It has a large opening towards the cave, a human or fairy could enter or exit it with ease. Looking down, it was pitch black, but upwards I could see stars, though not like our normal night sky. There was a feeling of ancient magic surrounding it. It felt older than the mountain around it, perhaps as old as the earth itself. I wondered what its function was, what those stars above me were.

"I camped besides it that night, entering the cave had worn me down. During the night, I felt the magic increase greatly. It was so strong now that it overwhelmed me. I could see multiple places at once. One like the one I was in but very cold. And another place with stars, not unlike I had seen in the tube, but these whirled around me, constantly changing color and form. I had to pull myself out of it or otherwise I could have drowned."

"Have you spoken with other witches about it?"

"Oh, yes. You know how often I had visitors. But I never got a conclusive answer from them. I even tried to reach the place again later, but by then the place was guarded by many fairies. A fairy queen of considerable might lives there now. No witch can visit the place anymore unless she is invited by her."

They ate dinner and didn't talk about fairies anymore. The evening was quite pleasant for Charlotte. She had always wanted her mother to stay longer at Isabel's place. But those visits had been short, and Charlotte had been forbidden to visit her mother herself. She had to follow orders from her teacher instead.

The next morning she warmed up water to wash themselves inside the house.

"Do you know a witch called Beatrice Perry?" Charlotte was not allowed to talk about Patrick the warlock, but his mother had been a normal witch.

"Yes, I know her quite well. She is a bit younger than me, but quite a bit more ambitious. Wanting to be a student of Samantha Wood, nothing less. That old woman was quite a bit more vicious then, than nowadays. Beatrice had some nerve but had not disappointed Samantha too much. She was sent on some important mission later to the capital. I have not heard anything about her returning from it.

"Samantha has been looking for her since that time. Lately, she seems to have lost some of her harder edges. All that searching has put a real strain on the old women. The current young witches will not remember anymore how frightening she had been in the days when I was young. Do you have any news on Beatrice? Samantha would love to hear anything about her."

"Nothing recent," was Charlottes vague answer. "I heard about her, were you rivals?"

"In retrospect, yes. I gained extra motivation knowing what she could accomplish. It still stings me a bit, but I'm here, and she is probably somewhere far away or perhaps even dead."

"Do you want to join me when I walk to town? I want to talk to James about your arrival."

"No, please ask him to come here. I have no urge to wander through your town. You know the people there, and they know you. I was there only briefly for two times."

Charlotte left her mother at the house and walked into town. James was at the smithy but immediately joined her when she asked him. They walked back, but near her house, Charlotte felt a different aura around the place. She thought she heard something, and asked James to be quiet. Barely audible notes floated over the meadow. A simple and sad tune.

"Do you hear that, James?"

"What do you mean? No, I don't hear anything special, but I do feel sad suddenly."

"It is a magical melody. I have another guest; my mother doesn't have a musical gift. Let's have a look, if it was too dangerous my mother would have dealt with it already."

They walked to the house and entered. Inside there was a very big hairy man lying on the carpet. He was naked and played on a flute of wooden pipes. Looking further, Charlotte noticed that his legs were strange. Covered with even more fur, and ending in hooves like those of a goat. Bianca was sitting on the sofa but had a furious look in her eyes.

"Welcome, daughter of Bianca. What a pleasure meeting you." The satyr lifted his torso up a bit and extended a hand to Charlotte.

She did not grab it immediately but pushed James outside again. She hissed, "Stay outside for now, it is a fairy." James did not object, and directly walked out of the house.

"Why the rush to send the man away? The more the merrier you people often say."

"Don't complain Piers, you wanted to meet my daughter, nothing else."

"Ow, those fiery eyes and stinging words again. Spare me mistress from your heated wraith."

"You are not my servant, and I am certainly not your lover."

"But I am your servant. I have been that for so many years. What can I do to please you more?"

"Leave this house, leave this valley. I asked that already."

"Oh, that again. I really want to meet your lovely daughter first. What might be your name? You look much nicer than my evil mistress."

"My name is Charlotte." Charlotte shook his big hand. Even Dan would have felt tiny in it. "I did not welcome you here. Why do you bother us with your presence today?" When her mother wanted him to leave, she would not give him more reason to stay.

"I followed mistress on her travel. Someone made me lose my way before. I could not find this valley on my own. Now I know the road to here again. I needed to be quick, or I would still not know it, had she left already."

Bianca chimed in. "It is better for you to be fooled, this place now has a summer fairy court. They will not welcome you."

"You know, I helped you opening the court again. They might not welcome me, but still this place is so much better than it was. Look around Bianca at the trees, the grass, it looks so vital now. Even now the village here is doing great."

"I did not ask you for a new fairy court."

"You wanted to find a cure for Isabel, and also you wanted to know what became of Beatrice. I gave you both."

"What? No! Isabel is still not better off than before, and I certainly know nothing more about Beatrice."

"Patience mistress, time will tell you all. Bring Isabel here on a summer night, she will forget her troubles certainly, the magic here will cure a spell like that."

"Humpf. It would not be easy to manage that, but still it might be true."

"Oh, Isabel. She was so nice to me. I gave her everything she asked and more. She screamed so nice at ev'ry form I took. She might forget a few by I will not. Shall I show you what I learned that day? You might be pleased with some. She obviously has trouble to hide her lust for it."

"No, I don't need any perversions from you!"

"Oh, I learned so much. Could I be the servant of you witches for your life?"

"Stop! Enough of that for today. What about Beatrice?"

"Witches can help opening the port for us, a warlock even more. You know the barren land far south of here? A queen of fairies had her court in there, she might have sired a warlock to open it again for us. You need the power of this court to help her reach her goal; your witch will be there too."

"What! A warlock lives there now? That place has no magic and almost no fertility in it. No wonder Beatrice has not returned, she would not have any of her normal powers, and she would probably be enslaved by the evil warlock too."

"I like the warlocks that I met. Much more than witches, who are too pent up."

"That would be normal for you, yes. We differ in our options about them. I am grateful no warlock lives in these parts anymore."

Charlotte had to suppress her urge to tell her mother everything about Patrick.

"I think you had some use to me today, but you overstayed your welcome here nonetheless. Be gone Piers, I don't want to ruin this place by beating you out of here."

"Oh, Charlotte, help me in my plight!"

"No, Piers, I agree with her, go away."

Then the satyr crawled out of the door and danced away.

"Ouch, why did he follow me here? He clearly has his own agenda with every word he spoke. I liked him better as a silent raven. Even then, he clearly steered me more for his own plans than mine. What have you heard of Beatrice, can his story of this warlock be true?"

"Yes, I think she lived here around twenty years ago. She left under great distress, so she could have gone on a desperate mission after him."

"What gave Beatrice that distress?"

"She was in love with the baron here, Gwendolyn and Samantha came here to argue about that. It might have been that she had abandoned her mission about the warlock before." Charlotte still steered around the fact that Beatrice had left a son.

"Hmm, that could have been the case, yes. I need to inform them of this news soon." Bianca sighed, "I do not look forwards to retell this conversation any time soon. He can really get under my skin, I feel exhausted."

Charlotte felt an urgent call herself, her spell on the door of the merchant house had triggered. She had to leave her mother, quickly she called James indoors.

"James, please come and talk with Bianca. Come lie down on the couch mother. I have to leave myself, so let James entertain you for awhile."

"What is so urgent, that you will leave me here?"

"Sorry, I will tell you about it when I return."

Charlotte grabbed the broom and left the house. A rousing aura still hung inside, Charlotte had noticed drops of pre-cum from the satyr on her carpet. James and Bianca could take all the time they needed to relive old times. Charlotte had a plan on her mind. Determined she pushed the broom under her, she jumped and flew off towards the town. As she flew, she could almost hear the laughter of a satyr echoing through the mountains.