Chronicles of Eden - Act 2 (7 page)

“Um… so?” Luna asked looking back to her sister. Falla show a dull expression then glanced to the human girl who was looking down at the grass while holding her hands together.

“If we can get Daniel to think we’re trustworthy we might get a chance to be near him when he’s alone. Think about it, we’ll stay with them the entire time we’re looking for a home for this girl, he’ll think we’re good monsters who only care about the child, and he’ll let his guard down. Once he does we can nab him and get his seed,” she explained slyly.

“But what about Triska and the other girls, they won’t let us get him, they never do,” Luna reminded while shaking her head.

“Not at first, but if we play the part of babysitters for this girl, they may let their guard down as well. This is our chance, this girl is our ticket to getting a free ride on Daniel,” Falla said with a wink. Luna thought about it then looked to Emily.

“But… what about her?” she asked.

“Like you said, with Daniel and his friends she’ll be safe. And I’m sure they’ll find a home she can stay at during their travels. The important thing is that we keep Emily with us to get closer to Daniel, once we get his seed we can leave her with him, they’ll be fine,” Falla reasoned. Luna looked back to her with wonder, with Falla nodding with a sly smile.

“Daniel will think we’re noble monsters if we take care of a child, and with that we can get closer to him,” she said assuredly.

“So… we use her to get closer to Daniel?” Luna asked worriedly. Falla smiled weakly and shook her head.

“I wouldn’t say
use
; we are protecting her from danger and helping her find a safe home. We’re helping her, Luna, and she’s going to help us too, even if she doesn’t know it,” she reasoned. Luna nodded then looked back to Emily.

“Well, ok, as long as she’ll be safe,” she said softly.

“Don’t worry, Daniel and his group will watch over her, they’ll find her a new home,” Falla reassured. Luna smiled then looked to Falla.

“Ok, so what should we do first?” she asked.

“We need to be nice to Emily and get on her good side, if she speaks highly of us to Daniel then that will help us get even closer to him faster,” Falla said looking to the human girl with a smirk. The sisters nodded then walked back over to Emily, the girl looking towards the sound of footsteps in the grass.

“Emily, I’m so sorry about what happened to you,” Falla said gently as she knelt down in front of the young girl. Emily showed a saddened expression as Falla wiped a tear away from the girl’s cheek.

“You poor thing, it just broke our hearts to hear what you went through. It’s a miracle you made this far on your own, you’re so lucky,” Falla said softly. Emily nodded and looked down with a whimper. Falla smiled a bit and held a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Emily, I know we’re monsters, and that you must hate monsters after what happened to your family. But, please believe us when I say that my sister and I want to help you,” she said genuinely. Emily looked towards the sound of her voice as Falla gently took hold of the girls’ hands with hers.

“We’re not bad monsters, Emily; I pray you can believe me when I say that. My sister saved you from being washed away in the river because she wanted you to live, we both do. I don’t know if you could find it in your heart to trust two monsters like us, but please, let us help you,” Falla pleaded gently.

“You want to help me?” Emily asked softly.

“Of course I do. We giant butterflies adore children; we hope to have daughters of our own someday. We may not be strong on our own, but we know of some travelers who are. If you’ll allow us, we’ll help you find them, they’re not too far from here. They can help us find you a new home, one where you’ll be safe again,” Falla said kindly. Emily remained silent as she just stared in Falla’s direction, with Falla glancing away with impatience for a moment before looking back at the child with a gentle smile.

“Please, we promise to watch over you like you were our own daughter,” she assured. Emily looked down for a moment then back toward Falla.

“You mean it?” she asked worriedly.

“Emily, I would never lie to you. You can trust us,” Falla said gently. Emily whimpered then quickly hugged the butterfly girl, with Falla holding her with a calm smile.

“Ok, if you say so,” the young girl said softly.

“There there, we’ll take good care of you, I promise,” Falla said glancing to Luna with a wink. Luna nodded with a warm smile at them, with Falla then standing up and looking down to Emily with a smirk.

“Now then, we need to find Daniel and his friends, they’re going to be our protection from those bad monsters out here,” Falla informed gently.

“The man-eaters,” Emily breathed out with fear.

“Yes, but don’t worry, we’ll be flying up over the land, they won’t be able to get you, you’ll be perfectly safe,” Falla assured kindly.

“Flying?” Emily asked. She trembled and looked down while holding her arms around herself. Luna smiled gently at the girl and walked over to her, kneeling down and holding her close.

“It’s ok, I’ll carry you myself, it’ll be fun,” Luna said gently as she picked the girl up into her arms, with the child’s legs hanging over one arm while her body was held close with the other. Emily clung to Luna tightly and trembled a bit before Luna nudged her head with her nose. The child looked up towards Luna’s face as the butterfly girl smiled gently at her.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you go. I’ll take it nice and slow for you, ok?” she said softly. Emily nodded then held onto Luna tightly. Luna fluttered her wings then gently took off into the air, with Emily clinging to her nervously as she felt them rising up higher into the air. Falla chuckled then followed after, watching as Luna carried the human child in her arms while they flew off in the direction Daniel’s caravan had gone earlier. As they flew over the forest and up into the air Falla had a sly smile on her face, her wings fluttering behind her as she kept pace with her sister.

‘Once Daniel thinks I’m some kindhearted girl, he’ll let me get closer to him out of trust, then his seed will be mine.’

*****

Rolling along a worn path a caravan was moving at a steady pace, being pulled by a single white horse with a human at the reins. Daniel watched as Lucky continued on the path of worn dirt and grass while trees and hills passed by on both sides, the sun shining through some clouds above as the travelers made their way across the land.

Inside the caravan Triska was looking down at a map she had set on the floor, with Specca beside her and going over their planned route through the outerlands. Alyssa was sitting on the other side of the map and looking at their path while drumming her fingers on the skull ornament on her staff at her side. Next to her Squeak was tilting her head curiously as she looked at the map, not seeming to understand what anything on it meant too well as she listened to her friends talking.

“So we’re not too far off from the village of Eston, but we’re still a ways off from reaching the elven forest,” Specca concluded while tracing her finger along the map.

“This is taking so long to get there, especially if we zig and zag around the outerlands like this,” Triska complained as she traced out their planned route, which was anything but a straight line. Specca shook her head and eyed over all their planned stops and markers.

“A straight shot would be idea for time; however we need to explore more of the outerlands on our way there. Remember, you came across an ant girl nest where one wasn’t supposed to be. There could potentially be other monster races along the way to the elven forest we could find, and every bit helps Daniel’s cause,” she reasoned. Alyssa nodded and eyed the map carefully.

“The more ground we cover, the more monsters we could find. Still, this route is going to add much more time to reach the elves, here’s hoping we find others who can help us,” she pointed out. She blinked then showed a dull expression as she glanced to Specca.

“Um, Specca?” she asked. The girls looked to her as she pointed to something.

“Tell me we’re not traveling
way
out here just for a lake,” she inquired, pointing to a lone lake on the map that was far off from their route. Specca glanced away sheepishly with a shrug.

“Hey, we need to explore everywhere we can, right?” she reasoned.

“That’s going to take two days to get out there, and two days to get back to our planned route, and there’s nothing else remotely close to it,” Alyssa mentioned.

“Leave no stone unturned, as they say,” Specca commented with closed eyes.

“Then why are we ignoring here, here, and here?” Triska questioned as she noticed that Specca’s route swerved and avoided three areas by a large margin. Specca glanced to the map then looked up with a shrug.

“To dry and barren there,” she reasoned.

“Specca!” Alyssa shouted out, with the nixie flinching then looking to her nervously.

“You’re just having us go anywhere that has a river or lake near it, we can’t limit ourselves to areas that have water,” Alyssa scolded. Specca pouted and looked down to the map.

“But it’s a good route though, I worked really hard on it,” she whined.

“We’re also missing this place to check out,” Triska mentioned while pointing to a section of the map.

“Here too,” Alyssa added while pointing to another.

Squeak pointed to another part of the map that had been carefully avoided by the nixie’s route with a squeak.

Specca looked around at the girls with a flustered expression and shook her head.

“But… but we can’t go
everywhere
out there, there’s just not enough time… we can’t…” she stuttered. The girls just looked at her with dull stares.

“Leave no stone unturned, as they say,” Alyssa repeated flatly.

“But, Triska, you just said it’s taking a long time to reach the elven forest, if we extend our route to all of those places that’ll double our time at the very least,” Specca reasoned nervously. Triska nodded while eyeing the nixie with a raised eyebrow.

“And in doing so we may find more proof for Daniel’s case with the queen. I want to get to the elven forest soon, but I don’t want to miss an opportunity to help Daniel along the way,” she reasoned. Specca stammered something then looked to Alyssa with a nervous smile.

“But, Alyssa, we don’t have enough provisions to last an extended trip as it is. If we change the route we won’t be able to stock up on supplies in some of the towns when we need them, and I know you don’t care for little meals such as simple sandwiches and water,” she mentioned with a few nods. Alyssa just gave her a dull stare for a moment before rolling her eyes.

“We have enough food, I can get more food from home, Triska can hunt for food, we’re not going to starve out here. And yes, I don’t care for what Triska considers to be a full meal-”

“Hey, I don’t see you whipping up an elaborate spread every day!” Triska barked out. Alyssa paused for a moment then continued.

“However, this isn’t a joyride out here, we’re helping Daniel with his quest, remember? For that I’ll deal with Triska’s poor cooking,” she reasoned.

“Poor cooking? Excuse me if I don’t use magic to make everything perfect!” Triska shouted out.

“Aw, you think my cooking is perfect? That’s so sweet of you to say,” Alyssa said with a giggle. Triska growled and reached back for her sword, with Specca grabbing her arm with both hands and struggling to keep the girl from unsheathing the blade.

“But… but… what about Squeak’s nest? We can’t take too long getting to the elves and then to Rockhelm, Squeak’s nest is moving closer to Ashwood as we speak, remember?” Specca pleaded while trying to keep Triska from taking out her sword.

“And we need more proof for Daniel’s case to show the queen of Rockhelm, which we can get by searching all the areas we can on our way to the elven forest, now let go of me so I can show Alyssa how my sword tastes!” Triska yelled out as the nixie kept trying to hold her arm back.

“Triska, stop, no swordplay in the caravan,” Specca pleaded nervously. Alyssa shook her head then looked to Squeak who was eyeing the map with worried eyes. Hearing about how her nest was trapped between the city of Ashwood and ant-lionesses got her worried about her kind’s safety again.

“We have time, Squeak,” Alyssa assured gently, with the ant girl glancing to her with a quiet squeak.

“We have time, so we need to use it to get as much proof for Daniel’s case as we can for the queen,” Alyssa reasoned. Squeak nodded and looked down to the map while Triska finally gave up and yanked her hand away from Specca with a grunt. Triska glanced to Specca then to Alyssa with a scoff before looking down to the map.

“We need all the help we can get for this, so we search anywhere we can. We need to explore every option we have, the elves alone won’t be enough for us,” Triska pointed out.

“Squeak’s nest has time still, it would take months at the very least for them to be in range of Ashwood, we need to make good use of our time and find any races we can to help us,” Alyssa agreed. Specca looked around at the group then down to the map with a pout.

“But those other areas are so dry,” she whined.

“Specca,” Alyssa and Triska sternly said together, with a squeak from Squeak as well. Specca flinched then nodded with a sigh.

“Fine, we’ll change our route to cover more ground,” she said in defeat. Triska nodded then glanced up to Alyssa, the witch watching her with a smirk on her face.

“Anything else you want to compliment me on?” Alyssa asked sweetly. Triska gave her a dull glare for a moment then smiled and leaned back on a pillow against the wall.

“Yeah, there is. I’m impressed you’re taking being picked to go
last
so well,” she said smugly. Alyssa looked at her with a frustrated scowl as Triska crossed her arms and twitched her eyebrow with an arrogant smile.

“I thought you would be rolling around on the floor, crying and whining about how unfair it was, but you haven’t done that. Good for you,” Triska said mockingly. Alyssa trembled a bit with anger then glanced towards the back of the caravan, with the other girls looking over as well. Near the back wall was Daniel’s section, with his bag full of books set near the corner while his sleeping blanket was neatly folded and resting with the pillow for the day. Alyssa gulped silently then glanced to Triska, seeing the teen looking at the boy’s sleeping area with a proud smile as she knew what tonight held for her.