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

The team branch-hopped out of the Wollemi King’s territory and back into the darkness of the forest. After the clean open air the and the cassowaries lived in, it was such a shame they would have to retreat back into the uncomfortable, humid darkness again.

Consulting their map, they decided to head back to the palace where it would be safe to talk about their next move. Willow agreed to make the bow and prepare the arrow out of the wood the King had given them. He was the finest whittler of them all, having the sharp eyes for such work. Lily offered to prepare the string for the bow from her guardian plant, the Blackwood tree, which was well suited for bowstrings.

There was still the matter of the ‘earth fire’, the ‘spark’ that the Tree King had spoken of. The bow was meant to deliver that light to the Flower of Awakening to re-charge her power. At the dawn of time, it had been a comet, a ball of earth and fire flying through the sky that had done it. But how were they supposed to get a comet this time?

“Did anyone see that?” Willow whispered suddenly.

Vidya joined Willow on his branch and squinted into the darkness. “No, what was it?”

“You know my vision is good, Vidya, don’t you?” he whispered uncertainly.

“Yes, the best.”

Willow rubbed his eyes and frowned. Shaking his head. “I honestly thought I saw a… koala riding a toad like a horse. He had a saddle and everything.”

Vidya covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. “E-excuse me?” she stuttered. Pancake let out a little giggle from his place peeking out of her pocket.

Willow smiled, embarrassed, and shook his head. “Honestly… I really think I did. But they disappeared into the darkness quickly.” He pointed at a spot just ahead.

Vidya squinted into the distance, then cast a glance backward at Lotus and Lily waiting behind them.

Willow cast a glance backward as well. “Don’t tell the others.”

“I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say anything at all,” Vidya rubbed her arms, now covered in goosebumps. “Did you see anything?” whispered Vidya at Pancake.

“No koala,” Pancake shook his head. “And Toad is back home.”

Vidya snorted. “Yes, she is. She’ll love this story though.”

“Well, whatever it was, I hope it’s the friendly sort,” muttered Willow.

Vidya pulled at a magenta curl of her own hair. She did not need to say that anything in the darkest part of the forest was not going to be the ‘friendly sort’.

She prodded Willow to keep going. With another squint into the darkness, he shrugged and fluttered to the next branch.

Suddenly, Lotus let out a choked cry, followed by a thump sound. Vidya whirled around to see Lily trying to scramble up the tree she was on, while Lotus was lying on his back on the ground below, a heavy rope around his ankles and four small, red, dwarf sized men surrounding him.

“Yarama!” Lotus cried. “Fly!”

The little red men cackled evilly, ignoring Lotus’ attempts to free himself.

Willow let out a cry that was immediately cut short as Vidya watched a thin black rope with a rock tied on the end of it fly toward him, wrapping itself around his ankles. It was yanked so hard that he was hurled toward the ground. Vidya immediately leapt into the air, trying to get higher up into the trees. But she didn’t get far before she felt a rope snake around her ankles and tighten painfully.

“No!” she gasped, flapping her wings hard, trying to get away by the sheer force of her upward lift. The tug on her ankles was not as strong as her wings pulling her upward. If she could just try harder… suddenly, the force on her ankles increased, and she heard the Yarama chanting beneath her.

“Heave! Heave! Heave!”

When she looked down, no less than four Yarama were pulling on the rope leading to her ankles. And with each heave, she was pulled through the air, down, down, down. Next to her, Lily was being pulled in the same way. Vidya thought quickly, and without warning him, grabbed Pancake from her pocket and threw him up toward the trees. “Run, Pancake!” she called, hoping she had aimed well.

By the time she felt small hands reaching for her feet, her wings were aching and sore. They drooped, and she was thrown onto solid ground.

She lifted her head. Willow, Lily, and Lotus lay on their backs, protesting loudly next to her, Pancake was nowhere to be seen. Vidya’s heart leapt. He must’ve gotten away! What great luck. Perhaps he could… what? Vidya thought. Go back to the palace and get help? They were too deep in the forest for that. Vidya gazed into the trees above her for any signs of Pancake’s furry round form but was quickly distracted by the Yarama standing over her, jeering.

“Looky here,” jeered one. “We gots Fae childreys!”

Vidya had never seen a Yara-ma-yha-who up close, except in the chalkboard sketches Master Sunny had drawn for them. And she had to admit though, the real-life things were a lot worse to look at it.

They were the size of small children, shorter than Vidya by a full head. Their skin was a rusty red colour, with bald heads, long skinny arms and legs, and true to Master Sunny’s word, on the palm of each hand were tiny, shiny suckers, like the ones an octopus has, only dirty looking. They all wore the same dirty little shorts and smelled like Mahiya’s diaper, but much, much worse. Vidya couldn’t tell which ones were boys and which ones were girls. They all looked exactly the same.

“Let us go!” demanded Lotus angrily, struggling against the five Yarama that were binding him with black ropes.

“Oooh, the Fae childreys are angry,” taunted one Yarama, pulling a rope taut. “Nope, no letting go. We’re off to our chief! He will be so happy.”

They repeated the action with Willow, Lily, and Vidya, who fought and flailed as