The Fae Princess (The Pacific Princesses Book 2) by Ektaa Bali (books to improve english .txt) 📗

be able to get past the Bottomless Sky. While they were in the palace, they were completely safe. That’s the way it had been for thousands of years. The Fae were always protected.

But now, that was all going to change, because she was going to go and find the Bunyips. It would be dangerous and it risky, but if the adults falling asleep had told her anything, it was that she had to act to act fast. Somehow, the Bunyips were stealing Fae energy, and she needed to figure out how to get it back.

A heavy thought weighed at the back of her mind. If the Fae magic kept decreasing, the Fae children would end up falling asleep too. And then… it would be over. Everything would be over.

She went into her parents' room where Toad was sleeping on a mattress on the floor next to baby Mahiya’s cot. They had lifted her father back onto the bed, and Vidya watched them all snoring softly in the dim not-yet morning light. Give us some of your strength, mother, she said in her mind. She had once witnessed her mother single-handedly take down a rogue crocodile that had gotten loose in the city. She smiled fondly at the memory of the all the Fae watching, open-mouthed, as their queen jumped on top of him and using rose bush vines, tied him up tight, transporting him back to the Fae pond he had come out of so the mermaids could take him back to the river where he lived.

Vidya tip-toed around the room, kissing them all on the forehead, including Toad, before shouldering her backpack and heading out the door.

She met the other three Fae kids in the entrance hall, eating bananas for energy. Lotus looked bright eyed and ready to go, yellow wings fluttering enthusiastically. Willow looked glum, but otherwise awake, gripping his bow tightly. Lily had a new bandage around her wrist but smiled at Vidya reassuringly. Vidya couldn’t but help smile at the group. No matter how scary this mission was, these kids were still willing to do their part, and even be excited about it.

They walked out of the palace and rose into the air quickly in the same V formation from the Princess Sonakshi mission. They crossed the Bottomless Sky, and before they knew it; the team was in the trees of the Fae forest once again, the dawn sun colouring the sky pink.

Vidya’s plan was simple. They would fly through the Fae forest and search for a Bunyip. Vidya had collected her father’s strongest ghost berry juice. With it’s help, they would follow the Bunyip back to their nest where they would hide in the trees and silently watch them, ready to gain any information about their new enemy.

They landed at the edge of the forest, Vidya handed out the ghostberry juice, and they all took a bottle each, draining it completely. They needed to be as ghostly as possible for as long as possible. Once Vidya collected the empty bottles back and they all looked like ghostly forms of themselves, they entered the forest on foot. Lily took the lead and fluttered up to a low branch on a gum tree. From there, she fluttered to the branch of the next tree. Lotus followed her pattern through the branches, with Vidya and Willow close behind. The Fae called this ‘branch-hopping’, and it was the easiest way to pass through a forest without being seen by a human, or in this case, Bunyip.

They fluttered from branch to branch deep into the forest where the trees grew closer to together and blocked out the sky completely. Vidya noticed, with unease, that the forest was quiet this morning. No birds chirped random words at them, nothing scurried beneath them. There was only silence.

Ahead, Vidya noticed Lily’s ghostly body pause at one branch, Lotus stopping on the branch above her. Vidya paused on her own branch and felt Willow pause in the tree behind her. She strained her ears for any sign of danger. Lily fluttered down from her branch, and Vidya watched as she crouched to inspect the soil.

Above her, Lotus had his head cocked to one side, and his mouth was moving as if he were whispering. Willow fluttered next to Vidya and silently pointed to the branch above Lotus, where two red rosella birds were perched, looking down at Lotus and Lily. Within a minute, the rosellas flew away, and Lotus turned, beckoning them to fly to him. Vidya and Willow fluttered onto the branch next to him.

“Those birds were talking gibberish,” he whispered. “The fading Fae magic is stopping them from talking normally, but I could tell they were warning me to get out. They kept saying ‘danger’.”

Vidya nodded sadly. Most the animals in the Kingdom were either sleeping or silent just like the adults.

Lily fluttered back up to them. “I can see the tracks down below,” she whispered.

Vidya nodded, “Alright, let’s go after it.”

Lotus nodded and branch hopped to the next tree, the others following.

After a minute of hopping through the trees, they heard it. Heavy, dragging footsteps. Lotus stopped in his tracks again, and his body went rigid. He raised his hand up in the air. That was the signal that told them he was seeing a Bunyip. They all froze on their spots, listening and peering into the dark.

Lotus lowered his hand and turned, placing a finger to his lips. He waited a moment before carefully hopping onto the next branch. Vidya fluttered forward as silently as she could.

The Bunyip was walking just beyond their tree, its huge shiny black body moving slowly on powerful black legs. It’s dog-like head was pointed at the ground, and it sort of swayed as if it were sleepy. It made its way through the forest, and silently, the four Fae children followed, fluttering through the branches. They were still in the Safe Zone of the forest, but none of them had ever been