Hamlet Thriving (Black Lake book 2)

Chapter 10
Verner

~

I darted at the gnome that appeared, barely avoiding the other majie’s swat. Collided into the beast’s forehead, and dipped into the ethereal to escape another sweeping hand. Keen appeared beside me in an instant, proclaiming her glee that she had managed to pinch the gnome’s ear hard.

We returned to our daemons’ side, ready for war again. We flew madly about in the fading light, looking for any interloper.

“Settle down,” Kelza cooed at us. “The gnome’s gone.”

“They really hate when the other kind come about,” Drazy mumbled softly, reaching out to pull his mate back down into the covers next to him. “I don’t blame them. The stinkin’ gnomes are an intrusive bunch. We don’t get much privacy as it is, but one more beastie flittin’ in isn’t necessary.”

“We shouldn’t have saved the orcs,” Kelza said. “Ever since, the gnomes have been a pain.”

Drazy quieted his mate with his lips, pulling her tightly against him. Keen blushed and with a giggle, pulled me back with her into the ethereal. It was time for our favorites to be alone. We cuddled into our nest, moved by the sensual emotion we picked up from the daemons. As brutish as the giants could appear, they loved as hard as they snarled.

I wrapped Keen in my arms and the two of us nestled to get our wings out of the way. Snuggling for fairies is such a complicated thing, compared to the daemons we have adopted. Those two could writhe their bodies together for hours. Just thinking of it tired me. Love should be soft and gentle, as the word implies. Keen burrowed firmly against me, nibbling on my throat, and the lingering thoughts of Drazy and Kelza faded.

~

First light, Keen and I returned to the other realm to check on our favorites. We blasted in ready for a battle, but there were no gnomes about. The adult daemons mostly ignore us, though the clan’s children situated around the endless dining table giggled and greeted us with shrieks. They do love their favorite fairies to buzz past their noses, our normal morning ritual, before I settle in Drazy’s dreadlocks, and Keen settles in Kelza’s.

The morning lazily plied on and the clan set about performing chores. There would be no hunting. That made me happy. Drazy bores pursuing prey, and takes his impatience out on me, as though it could possibly be a fairy’s fault a deer didn’t fall into the daemon’s lap.

Instead, Drazy settled upon the stoop to whittle with his youngest bull-child. I dug into a thick tress to watch. The little daemon scraped at a stick with a dull knife, while Drazy slowly hewed at the musical instrument he had started during winter, working the hard ash. Drazy kept up his half-hum, half-whistle, as though it’s required to pass the time. The tyke did the same. It’s a bit of an irritating sound to me, but I’m mostly used to it.

“Are ya gonna do that all day?”

I jerked, startled by Kelza’s irritated retort behind us.

“I may, to irritate ya,” my bull-daemon answered, with a smile in his voice.

“Ya finished that precious smoke house yesterday. Isn’t it about time ya started fishin’ for that pike you dreamed of smokin’ for so many years. I wouldn’t mind tastin’ a little of that dream myself.”

“I didn’t think ya have dreams,” Drazy baited her. He loves to tease his mate.

“More like nightmares, of spendin’ the last days of my life stuck with ya.”

“They must be more like wild fantasies, then.” Drazy grinned.

“Only if I could follow Keen into the ethereal to get away from yar lazy self.”

Kelza nudged Drazy a little meanly with her booted toe. He slipped his knife in its sleeve at his waist, reached around and grabbed her leg. She pulled to get away. The jostling displaced me from my little hidey hole. I flew into the air, flying a circle over the daemons’ heads, unhappy my peace was broken. Keen joined me.

Our admonishments didn’t settle Drazy and Kelza down. It quickly turned into a wrestle. After a moment, Kelza tumbled over her mate, the two rolling down the two steps, and the child jumped on his father’s shoulders. The three rolled farther from the porch and into the pine needles of the walkway, giggling, squawking, making a din.

Keen and I turned away from the daemons’ antics as a half-dozen gnomes appeared nearby to watch. I led Keen after them. The much larger majies snarled at us two fairies in their high pitched voices, and whiffed at us. Keen and I bore upon them with all our fury.

“The daemons are ours,” I shouted at the gnome herd.

“Presumptuous of you, you silly fairies,” one answered back. “What right do you have following them into our realm?”

Their realm? I poked one of them in the eye before blinking out. I returned in time to see Keen get swatted by one she wasn’t paying attention to. She flew awkwardly through the air but managed to right herself. She dove back at the herd with a vengeance. That’s my perky little mate.

I joined her. Together we crashed into the face of the sneaky gnome that had struck her. The majie disappeared as we attempted to thrust our fists into his eye.

Everything about us changed!

The cabin was gone, as were the gnomes and our daemons. Tree limbs blocked the sun overhead.

Keen and I found ourselves in an unknown place, pulled along by the escaping gnomes into an unknown plane of the ethereal. We hovered, looking about. Keen covered her face with her hands and cried. I tried to console her. But fear ripped at my heart as much from her emotion, as the fear that we might never be able to make it back to where we belong, on the shoulders of Drazy and Kelza, or our own home in the ethereal.

Long minutes passed and I wept with Keen. Pulled her along into the shelter of a tree to think, and to feel for our realm. The hours passed as we watched for our kind. We huddled in each other’s arms, trying not to cry. If this was a gnome’s realm, where were the gnomes?

“I think we were pulled only half-way,” Keen managed between a cry. “How can we ever find our way home?”

I pulled her tight, not knowing what to tell her. The sun fell and rose. We remained in our tree, frozen in fear. Midday, something began to tug at my consciousness, but it remained faint. I didn’t mention the voice to Keen, not wishing to give her false hope. I sat concentrating, trying to hear where the soft call came from.

The sun crossed from one side of the horizon to the other. I finally sensed a direction. Sitting still wasn’t getting us anywhere. I stood and took Keen’s hand, looking deeply into her eyes. Though I didn’t know my own intentions, she nodded. I flew south with her, to follow the tweak in my mind. This world was nearly identical to our daemons’ realm. We found a similar lake. I flew over the water as the tug in my mind became a clear voice.

Without knowing how I knew, I recognized the race reaching out to me, to us—leviathans. Two of the peaceful creatures broke the surface of the water and their thoughts cleared.

“Jealousy brought you here, did it not?” asked the voice in my head.

I didn’t know how to answer the leviathan. Guilt for my accused-transgression coursed over me.

“I thought as much,” echoed in my mind. “Your kind, I’ve heard, do not like to share. Tis a shame. Perhaps we can help you get home.”

I closed my eyes and listened. Had never had to work to find either of my two realms before. I wasn’t even aware there were more than our two. It was as natural to flash between them as taking a breath. The leviathan’s instructions felt bizarre.

Keen held my hand and our wings collided. The discomfort disrupted my concentration.

“I don’t understand,” I finally told the enormous creature of the lake.

“You first must understand how you travel. Reach out with your mind, and see your destination.”

The afternoon passed, night fell, and exhausted, we returned to shore, and the elbow of a tree to sleep—and cry.

~

The leviathans returned late the next morning. Keen and I were so distraught, afraid we had been forgotten, we could hardly speak. The two leviathans spent half an hour simply calming us. The four of us returned to our efforts and, as though the process had needed the night for our effort to decant in our minds, Keen and I were quickly able to sense our path home. We flowed through the ethereal and found ourselves in front of our daemons’ cabin where we had last been two days ago.

We hugged, Keen almost squeezing my breath out.

“We didn’t tell them thank you,” Keen said when her excitement ebbed a tiniest tad.

“True. But I don’t wish to risk going back, do you?”

She shook her head, many of the tiny braids evenly spaced around her head dashing into her face. I took her hand and we turned to search out Drazy and Kelza. The two weren’t about the cabins. We finally found them at the smoke house. The grumpy dwarf who helped the daemon-bull build it was with them, advising how best to use it. Evidently the clan had a successful fishing trip while we were gone.

The gnomes who were frequently with the dwarf glared at me and Keen, prepared to battle, but Keen and I flew to the shoulders of our respective giants, to quietly nestle into their dreadlocks.

“There ya are, sweetie,” Kelza cooed at Keen. Kelza blew my mate a kiss. “We missed the two of ya. Where’ve ya been?”

I didn’t look toward the gnomes, but I knew the dwarf the gnomes claimed never spoke sweetly to them, like Kelza did with Keen. The dwarf is actually quite rude to them. I felt a devilish smile etch my face.

~