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

It only took a few minutes before Lotus raised his hand again for them to all stop. Vidya could see a clearing up ahead, so there were no more branches for them to hop to. Lotus fluttered down to the ground, crouching behind a row of bushes, and signalled to the others to do the same.

All four of them crouched behind the bush, trying to peer through the leaves. Lotus pressed his finger to his lips again, his eyes wide. He pushed his hand through the bush and leaned back so Vidya could peer into the clearing.

Vidya had to cover her mouth to stop herself from gasping.

In that clearing, over one hundred Bunyips lay asleep. Hulking dark shapes made small black hills throughout the grass in front of a gigantic cavern. A huge boulder that must’ve sealed the entrance shut for all those years had been pushed to the side, leaving it wide open. The reality of the situation hit Vidya hard in the chest. This was the cave her grandfather had locked the Bunyips in two hundred years ago.

The strangest thing of all was the yellow glow coming out of the cave. It shone so warm and bright it was the complete opposite of everything that represented the Bunyips. Vidya felt as if the gold light was drawing her toward it, and she had the strongest urge to run into the cave and see where it was coming from. She did not realise she had leaned right forward until Willow gripped her arm strongly. Vidya shook herself when she realised she had been about to barge right through the bush into the clearing! She needed to see where that light was coming from, no doubt about it.

The four Fae children surveyed the Bunyips. This might be the only time they got to look at the creatures properly, without flying away in fear of being eaten. The beasts were huge to be sure; they had long powerful limbs and their faces were terrifying even during sleep, with drool dripping out of mouths full of sharp teeth. A few of them snored, rumbling softly throughout the clearing. But it was the sheer number of them that was overwhelming. Vidya noticed a chair in the centre of the clearing. It looked like it had been roughly put together, with a rock base and branches twined around to make the backrest. It looked like a throne. Then she saw a Bunyip, bigger than any other in the clearing, lay in front of it. His huge shape could have been mistaken for an enormous rock. A throne, Vidya thought. A throne for a King.

She shivered but was immediately drawn back to the cavern filled with that golden light. It was hard to ignore. Mesmerizing and intense, she was desperate to know more about it.

“What is that?” breathed Willow, nodding toward the cave with the golden light.

Vidya shook her head. “We need to find out.” Something in her gut told her that this was it. This was important. But maybe a hundred Bunyips slept between them and the cave. How on earth would they get to see what was inside without waking a single one of them up?

Pancake squirmed in Vidya’s pocket, and it was then Vidya had a spark of inspiration. She lifted Pancake out of her pocket. He looked at her with wide shining eyes.

“I need you to be brave for me, Pancake,” she whispered. “Can you do that? For the Fae?”

Pancake gulped, but he nodded seriously.

“Okay, see that light over there? I need you to sneak in there and find out what it is.”

Pancake’s mouth fell open, but Vidya ignored him, instead pulling out the spare bottle of ghostberry juice she had in her bag.

“Because you’re so small, if you take this, you’ll basically be invisible,” she reassured him. “Just get in there and get out without waking anyone.”

Pancake looked solemnly up at the four Fae who were staring at him and nodded.

She held the bottle of ghostberry juice and carefully tipped five drops into his mouth.

“Climb back up to my shoulder when you return.”

Pancake nodded as his body disappeared. Vidya slowly lowered him to the ground and felt his weight shift off her palm as he scurried away.

Be careful, Pancake, she thought. She tried to steady her heart as it raced in her chest and focused on what was in front of her. She thought it might be smart to inspect the Bunyips while they were here, but she saw Lily had beaten her to it. In her hand was a pen and pad of paper, where she was quickly sketching out she shape of the Bunyip closest to them.

Vidya gazed at the cavern while they waited. That yellow glow was so familiar. Where had she seen it before? She’d known it from somewhere, she just knew it. Perhaps she needed to go to the library and see if she’d read about something like that before. Or maybe seen it. Maybe she had seen it in the Fae forest somewhere and forgotten about it? No, she decided, something like that she would never have forgotten about.

Just a few minutes later, Vidya felt a tiny movement by her shoe and then tiny claws up her leg. With a sigh of relief, she realised Pancake had come back and was climbing back up to her shoulder.

When he reached her shoulder, he began chattering excitedly non-stop in his quokka language, clearly very excited.

“Quiet, quiet!” hissed Lotus. “You’ll give us away!”

“Quiet!” murmured Vidya, and Pancake stopped chattering. Instead, Vidya could hear him panting shakily on her shoulder, trembling with adrenaline. He would have to fill them in back at the castle. They couldn’t afford any noise right now.

But it wasn’t Pancake who gave them away.

The Bunyip closest to them rolled over in his sleep. As he did so, it revealed wide fleshy flaps attached to his back. Vidya’s heart felt into her stomach.

Wings. They had somehow grown wings.

Vidya gasped loudly,