The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen (26 page)

Kloee came across Garf and Mary
still squabbling. She flew up to them as they argued, fairy dust
littering the floor and the air around them as they shouted and
waved their arms around.

 “
Garf,
Mary, a people’s hurt!” Kloee shouted as she hovered next to them.
They ignored her and carried on arguing over who they should have
followed. “HEY!!!” she shouted again and they both stopped and
glared at her as she stood there with her hands on her hips.
 

“
Oh, very
stroppy aren’t we!” Mary said and was about to continue when Kloee
shouted.

 “
There’s a people hurt back there, he needs our
help!”

 
Mary
and Garf looked at each other and back at Kloee. Their expressions
instantly changed and Garf said, “I’ll fetch Muttley” and flew off
up the path. Within a minute he was there too and, their animosity
forgotten they sped to where Kulkrain was lying.

 “
Poor
people,” Kloee said, her voice full of concern. “We need to get him
to master.” She hovered over Kulkrain’s injured shoulder and then
looked at the others.

 
Muttley
nodded. “Ok, let’s do this the way we were told ok?”

 
Without
any discussion they each moved to hover above a foot or a shoulder
and, looking at one another Kloee counted to three and then they
all glowed bright orange. Kulkrain lifted off the floor, rising
slowly, his eyelids fluttering in his deathly white face, his arms
lolling to the side. Then, with as much care as they could give,
they gently flew home with Kulkrain between them. 

Chapter
18

As Maximo and
the boys approached the front door he turned to them.
 

“
So I think
we should get you all dried off and there’s some lovely food
waiting for you…,” he continued when suddenly there was a high
pitched voice that shouted:

“
Master!”

 
Maximo
turned quickly to the sound and Jared was astonished to see four
small fairies with light glowing around them like oversize
fireflies, flying around a man who was shirtless and bloody. He
appeared to be unconscious and Maximo ran, surprisingly quickly for
someone his size, to intercept them. 

The fairies gently placed the
man down on the floor on his back and the orange lights around them
gently faded. “What happened?” Maximo said, feeling for a pulse on
the man’s neck. Jared and the boys crowded round.  

“
Found a
people in the woods master!” Kloee replied. “He fell on me when I
was collecting for you.” 

Jared
remembered the first aid course he’d been told about when he went
rafting with his father the summer before. He looked at Maximo.
“Roll him on his side, the opposite one to his bad shoulder. He
could choke on his own tongue.” 

Maximo looked
at him confused for a moment but then moved forward and after some
twisting and gentle pulling he rolled Kulkrain onto his side.
Mordalayn emerged from the rear door of the house and strode
quickly to where they were gathered. “Move aside,” he said in a low
but clear voice and without hesitation a path was cleared for him.
He looked at Kulkrain and saw the tattoo on his right arm.
“Alegrian brotherhood,” he noted, crouching to check the wound on
the shoulder. “He’s badly hurt; we need to get him
inside.” 

Maximo turned
to Kloee. “If you four would be so kind as to take this poor man
into the house, to my bedroom and lay him down. We will deal with
his wounds.” 

“
Of course
master!” Kloee said eagerly and once again her and the other three
hovered over Kulkrain and drew him up in the air, the orange glows
from their bodies shining brightly as they took him into the house.
Mordalayn cleared a path of open doors and when they reached
Maximo’s room they laid him gently on the bed. Maximo’s wife came
running into the room and Maximo removed the grimy shirt from
Kulkrain’s shoulder. The wound was messy. He turned to his wife;
“get me hot water and bandages and ointment for this. He appears to
have lost a lot of blood.” She scurried from the room. Maximo then
turned to the others. “Everyone else please wait outside,” and
pointed to the door. Jared and the boys left and the fairies
flittered silently out the room. Maximo closed the door, leaving
him and Mordalayn alone with the injured man.

 
Outside
Kloee turned to Jared. “You’re very clever young master” she said
blushing. “I didn’t know about putting the poor man on his side.”
 

Bue looked at
Kloee hovering above Jared and smiled. “Oh, think she likes you
mate, when a fairy finds a human it likes, you can’t get rid of
them.” 

Kloee frowned
at Bue and hovered next to Jared looking at him adoringly. “Young
master’s lovely,” she purred as they moved down the
corridor. 

Chapter
19

Makeo held
his finger to his lips and gestured for the others to follow.
Silently they crept out into the corridor and made their way to the
back door that led to the garden. Stifling giggles, the smaller
boys gripped towels and held their shoes in their hands. The light
from the fairies lit the way, giving them just enough illumination
to see by. The fairies grinned broadly. Being mischievous was part
of their nature. As they reached the back door Makeo turned and was
about to speak when a harsh voice boomed. “AND WHERE EXACTLY DO YOU
THINK YOU’RE GOING?” 

Makeo jumped and Getruhl yelled
in fright. Kloee squeaked in terror and flew behind Jared’s
shoulder, sparkling dust flying up in the air in her wake. She
timidly peeked out behind his neck at the owner of the
voice. 

Maximo had
appeared from nowhere and was stood in front of the doorway, the
lamp light casting deep shadows on his thick face. He stood with
his hands on his hips, his fists balled. He glared at Makeo, then
at the others. He was still dressed in his day clothes and had his
shirt open and his waistcoat unbuttoned. Makeo silently cursed
himself for not waiting till later when Maximo would have been
asleep before he’d excitedly arranged this midnight pool
trip.

 “
I said
WHERE do you think you’re going?” Maximo shouted, his voice sterner
still. 

“
We just
wanted to…” 

“
Well you
know what ‘want’ did, don’t you?” Maximo snapped at him.

 
The
other fairies were hovering over their charges. Jared and Bue
looked sheepish. For all Bue’s cheeky behaviour, he knew this was
wrong. 

“
I gave you
AND your Madame gave you, strict rules about your conduct in my
house and you act like this?” Maximo said, rounding on Jared and
Bue.

Makeo said
quickly. “It wasn’t their fault Master Cherubsayl. It was my
idea.” 

Maximo thought for a moment and
looked at each one of them. Kloee and one or two of the other
fairies were still scared and peeped timidly out over the boys’
shoulders, tiny auras winking in the light. 

Maximo
finally relaxed. “There are rules in this house for a reason. I do
not impose them just to make you unhappy. Do you understand
that?” 

Makeo looked
at the floor, his cheeks burning with
embarrassment. 

The hovering
fairies also bowed their heads and Jared felt awkward. He glanced
over at Bue who shrugged. 

Maximo’s face
softened and he turned to Makeo. “You are a good boy Makeo but you
need to learn. The pool is dangerous at night.”

 
Makeo
nodded, still looking at the floor. “I didn’t mean any harm
Master,” he said, tears welling in his eyes. 

Maximo placed
a reassuring hand on his arm and gestured back down the corridor
and smiled. “Come. Let’s go to the kitchen. I will make some hot
chud and tell you a tale.” 

In the
kitchen they sat round the large oak table while Maximo stirred the
a thick, light brown liquid into mugs and handed them out. The
fairies had gone, back to their own quarters and once everyone had
a cup in front of them they began to drink. It was hot and reminded
Jared of toffee fudge.

Then Maximo told them a story.
The story of someone who had only meant well.

“
Many years
ago in Alegria there was a family who took over a big house when a
rich aunt died and left it to them. She loved her family and they
loved her and the house was so big and so full of things that it
took weeks to get everything sorted.

The attic of
this house was enormous. Full of exciting things and the children
of the family loved to go up there and see what treats and
surprises and treasures they could find in boxes, sometimes dusty,
sometimes old, sometimes broken but always captivating and
interesting. Their curiosity knew no limits. 

One day they
were clearing the attic when the youngest sister found a statue of
a little boy. It was elegantly carved and made of a beautiful
creamy coloured marble. The boy had his eyes closed and appeared to
be at peace, his hands clasped in front of him. The statue was
small, maybe four feet tall but heavy. They thought it was very
lovely and their father got the servants to bring it downstairs and
put it in the girl’s room. She had it placed near her window and
the next morning when she woke up she found the statue had come to
life. The sunlight through her window had warmed it and it was a
little boy who said his name was Nakal. She ran and told her father
and family and they welcomed the smiling, magical, happy boy. He
said he’d been asleep in their attic for over 50 years and was so
pleased to see them.  

At first
hesitant of this magical imp, the family soon warmed to his
friendly nature and his constant joyful energy. He just wanted to
be friends and all day he was with one or more of the children
playing games and if they went out he went with them, laughing and
singing the whole time.

 
Soon it
got around that Nakal was living with them and more and more people
wanted to meet him. He was a creature of joy. He lived only to be
happy and to make others happy. Wherever he went he made children
smile and the joy he brought was felt by all.

One day the children went with
their family to the lake and as Nakal was popular a lot of other
children came along to be with him.  

They played
games on the shore, they swam, they had food and then Nakal was so
happy that he had made so many wonderful friends after so long
sleeping, that he started to sing. He sang on the shore, his arms
raised and thanked life for being so good to him. As he sang the
lake responded by making waves, sending him the message that it too
loved him.

 
Unfortunately Nakal didn’t know when to stop and as he sang
the waves got bigger and the water got rougher and the children
further out were frightened. Those nearer to shore scrambled back
and those near to Nakal pleaded with him to stop.  

He couldn’t
hear them though, he was so caught up in his own happiness that he
sang. His eyes were closed and the song while beautiful, caused a
storm that threatened to drown some of the
children. 

Finally he stopped and looked
around dreamily and only then did he see the fear and terror he’d
caused. One boy was pulled out from the water unconscious and had
to be revived. 

Shivering and
scared the frightened children left, their normally friendly faces
looking at Nakal with distrust and fear for the first
time.

 
Nakal
was confused and couldn’t understand why people hated him when he’d
only been singing to show how much he loved them
all. 

The boy’s father approached him
and shouted angrily that he must never EVER do such a thing again
and Nakal cried, not understanding what he’d done to make everyone
so angry.

 
When he
finally came home, his eyes were red from crying. The oldest
brother, who knew in his heart that Nakal was not evil, approached
him and took him for a walk. His anger gone, he looked kindly on
Nakal and they sat in the garden and he said. 

“
Do you know
you could have killed that boy today?” 

Nakal sobbed and the brother
put his arm around his tiny shoulders. 

“
I am so
sorry,” he wept “I never meant to hurt anyone. I only wanted you to
love me.” 

The brother
hugged him and said, “I know that. We still love you Nakal but what
you did today was foolish. No one thinks you did it to be horrible
but it was a silly thing to do.”