Chapter 20

           Nixie led me out of the dining hall and into the small restroom like room besides the dining hall.

“So, what do you think about the ladies in waiting?” she asked handing me a leaf to dry my mouth off with.

“You mean those girls who made me drink that foul substance? Yeah, they’re just peachy…,” I said sarcastically while raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, Marissa and Clarissa are two of the most interesting twins you will ever meet.  I’m surprised Gwendolyn allows them to be her ladies in waiting,” Nixie replied.

“You got that interesting part right,” I laughed while finishing the final touches on fixing my dress.  I smiled slightly at Nixie who had the look of concern on her face as she carefully examined my dress. 

“Umm, Nixie? Is something wrong?” I asked, shooting Nixie a small smirk.

“No, it’s just that your dress is kinda…well…not in style,” Nixie replied sheepishly.  I grinned, placing a hand on my hip.

“What? You don’t like it? B-but it was an original,” I said faking the sentimental part of the dress.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it that way! It’s just-,” before Nixie could finish rambling I laughed, interrupting her.

“Nixie calm down, it’s not sentimental or original.  I got it at a small thrift store for ten bucks a year ago,” I giggled as Nixie gave me a playful glare before smiling.

“Anyway, my point is that maybe I could help you design an original dress,” Nixie said, fluttering up straighter.

“You mean like one of your dresses?” I asked.

“You bet!” she squealed.

“And it will be out of flower petals?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Correct,” she replied.

“Are you sure it will be comfy just like cotton is?” I asked skeptically.

“I don’t know what that is, but sure,” Nixie said giggling. 

“Fine, but absolutely no pink,” I said sternly.

“Oh, all right,” Nixie sighed.

“Do we go get it now or do we wait a bit?” I asked curiously.  Nixie laughed before she playfully hit me in the arm.

“No, silly! We take you to my home where I can design a dress personally for you!” Nixie replied beaming with pride.

“Sounds good to me,” I answered.

“Good, now let’s go to my place!” Nixie squealed, grabbing my finger and began pulling me through the halls once again.

Chapter 19

          “That’s acorn sauce for on your berry surprise, which is the purplish gooey stuff.  Then you have mealworm morsels which are those tan slimy things with the leaf under them,” she replied.  I cringed at the thought of pulling goo covered mealworms out of my teeth.

“And what’s that…?” I asked hesitant, pointing at the white liquid substance in the hollowed out acorn top.

“That’s-,” before Nixie could finish the blonde haired lady in waiting stuck herself between me and Nixie.

“That’s the best stuff! You’ll love it!” the girl laughed.  Gwen sighed and placed a hand on the side of her head.

“Are you sure…?” I asked skeptically.

“Positive!” she exclaimed before scurrying over next to the other brunette girl.

“Okay then…,” I sighed as I nervously picked up the cup.  As I held it, moving it closer to my lips, I gently shook the cup expecting it to spill but instead it jiggled! Food doesn’t jiggle unless it’s Jell-O! Let alone a drink!  I finally managed to gather enough courage, and taste the drink.

           The second it touched my lips, I immediately dropped the cup on the floor, spit out the wad of white goo, and gagged.

“What the heck was that?” I exclaimed, gagging between words.  The blonde girl was over in the corner laughing until her face turned blue and she was gasping for air.

“That wa-,” she stopped between breaths and burst out laughing hysterically until she fell over with a thump.  Still laughing!

“That’s curdled spider milk, Annabelle!” Nixie exclaimed before handing me a cup of water which didn’t take me long to gulp down.  Gwen then stood up from her chair, walked over to the blonde girl, and then…snip! Gwen cut off a bit of the girl’s hat’s stem!

“Clarissa, what have I told you about giving guests the curdled spider milk! On purpose!” Gwen reprimanded.

“Sorry your highness! But I just had to!” Clarissa replied laughing.

“I give up,” Gwen sighed before walking over to me.

“Annabelle, are you okay?” Gwen asked, offering me a hand.

“Yeah, I’m so sorry about the mess,” I coughed as I wiped saliva off of my chin and standing up.

“Its fine, Clarissa at this rate won’t have any stem left for me to snip,” Gwen grinned.

“Now then, Nixie why don’t you take Annabelle to clean up?” Gwen asked Nixie softly.  Nixie nodded as she took my finger and led me out of the room.

 

Annabelle illustration by Kristen Strutt

Chapter 18

          The next day I was awoken to someone shaking me and calling my name.

“Annabelle! Annabelle!” I stirred knowing that voice was none other than Nixie.

“Nixie? What do you want?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

“Get up! I’m your tour guide today but first we need to get you to breakfast!” she squealed.

“Fine, I’ll be down in a minute…” I mumbled sitting up and noticing Gwen was missing.

“Gwen!” I yelled before quickly jumping out of bed and running down to the dining hall nearly slipping and tripping as I ran.  I hung onto the wall for dear life as I snapped myself around the corner and to my relief, there was Gwen, Nixie, Liliana, Azura, and two new girls in the dining hall.

            The two girls were a tad shorter then Gwen, and both looked very similar to the other.  They had very long torsos but their body shapes were very beam like, with not many curves.  One girl had golden blonde hair and the other was a brunette, they both also had their hair up and tucked away inside of their pink buttercup hats.  As I looked closer I could notice both of them had different length stems on their hats, the blonde’s being shorter than the brunette’s.  They had bright green vine corsets which were attached to a bright pink petunia skirt which flared out from their tiny bodies.  The girls both had paler skin which was a clear sign they don’t get out much which accented their twinkling eyes.  The blonde had gorgeous emerald green eyes and the brunette had sapphire blue.  As for personality, I could already tell these two were a handful.

            “Annabelle?” Gwen asked aware as she stood to her feet.  I sighed a sigh of relief before slouching my shoulders soon finding myself standing there awkwardly in the door way.

“I-uhhhh, I just wanted to make sure that you were in the dining hall already,” I laughed nervously.  Gwen looked at me for a brief moment with a confused look on her face, but she finally sat down.  I causally made my way over to the empty seat at the opposite end of the table where I found myself in between Nixie and Liliana.  Within minutes of sitting down the two girls behind Gwen’s chair snuck out of the room giggling and returned moments later with trays full of interesting looking foods.  I wrinkled my nose as the interesting smells, and leaned over to Nixie.

“Hey, Nixie, what exactly is this?” I whispered, pointing to the plate full of interesting concoctions in front of me.  Nixie smirked slightly before smiling and pointing to every object on the plate.

Chapter 17

          “Gwen, what’s this?” I asked picking up the book, blowing dust off of it.

“That’s what I need to discuss with you,” she replied, sitting on her bed.

“I’m listening,” I said softly as I took a seat next to her.  Gwen sighed before taking the book from my hands and gently opening it.

“This is my journal, Annabelle.  Every chapter holds a new adventure, but recently things haven’t been the best,” Gwendolyn spoke softly before pointing to a picture on the page.

“Ah!” I screamed at the picture before toppling over backwards on the bed and onto the floor with a loud thump.

“It’s a bug! Gwen is it dead?” I squealed, peering over the edge on the bed.  She gave a small smile before looking at the picture again,

“It’s not a bug Annabelle, it’s a Crognard,” Gwen said softly.

“A w-what?” I asked cautiously as I slowly made my way onto the bed again.

“A Crognard.  Annabelle I will tell you right now, you have no idea how much damage these horrible things have caused up,” she added with tears forming in her sparkling eyes.

“What damage…?” I asked shyly.

            Gwendolyn placed her hand over the Crognard before she began to talk,

“The Crognards are the sworn enemy of our kind Annabelle, we have lost several of our kind to them, including my parents.  They have been trying for years to attack and destroy us, but all that the king wants is this-,” Gwen stopped as she lifted up a small pendant necklace which was around her neck and held it out to me.

“This pendant holds every dream that is occurring right now, and I have the power to make the new dreams every night and send my dream carriers, the fairies, to deliver those new dreams and bring back the old ones which are in the leaves.  However, if Varkus, the evil king, gets ahold of this pendant he has the power to change those dreams to nightmare.  Thankfully it’s just him who can do that, not his Crognards.”

“Why do they want it if all it does is control dreams?” I asked.

“It doesn’t just control dreams, if they get this necklace and if they kill me, they will officially have the power to destroy the entire forest.”

            I immediately felt my face flush white of fear as I swallowed hard,

“T-they want you d-dead?” I choked out the words.

“Unfortunately…,” Gwen sighed.

“What now…?” I asked.

“I’m going to let you spend the night with me, and tomorrow I will send you off with Nixie for some fun activities,” she replied before snuggling under the petal and shutting off her lamp.  I sighed before soon falling asleep at the foot of Gwen’s bed.

 

Illustrated by Kristen Strutt

 

Chapter 16

          I sat there motionless in the crystal wing of the dragon, our eyes locked upon each other. 

“Help?” I whispered timidly.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Help with what?” I asked as I sat cross-legged, getting comfortable in his wing.

“Protecting this entire civilization,” the dragon said calmly.

“From what?” I asked, at this point I was beginning to feel like a nuisance to the dragon for asking so many questions, but I couldn’t help it! He wasn’t giving answers!

“Has Gwendolyn here told you about the Crognards?” he whispered as he gave a cold glare over at Gwen.

“First off, no.  Second of all, how many unknown creatures live here?” I exclaimed as I rose to my feet.

            Without a word The Keeper placed me on the ground next to Gwen, looked intently at both of us, and then vanished in a spiraling whirlwind of crystals and fog.  Gwendolyn stood there silent with her hands placed gently against her soft petal skirt as she stared at the ground.

“Gwen…?” I whispered quietly.

“Annabelle?” she asked, looking up at me.

“Yeah?” I replied.

“There’s something I need to explain to you,” she said quietly. 

“Okay,” I replied.  Gwendolyn took my hand as she lead me past the trolls, up the slide, and back into the tree. 

“Where are we going?” I asked looking around at the gold wooden ceiling.

“My room,” she replied and took me up a pair of ivy stairs.  As we walked up the ivy I noticed the slight look of concern on some of the people and creatures in the main entry.  Within seconds two men dressed in clothes made of leaves carrying a piece of wood with a dead leaf on it walked in the room.  Several of the people wept, hugged, and whispered amongst each other.

“Gwen, what happened?” I whispered.  Gwen turned around to see the people and sighed.

“Another great warrior has been lost…those Crognards won’t give up on destroying us,” she choked, holding back tears.

“Crognards…?” I asked softly, placing a hand on Gwen’s shoulder.

“I’ll explain when we get upstairs,” Gwendolyn replied.  Before we made it up the stairs Gwen gently moved her index finger in a spiral motion which swiftly covered the leaf in vines and pink rose petals.  The people looked up at Gwen and slightly nodded their heads at her with tears on their faces before resuming crying and talking.  After a silent walk up the stairs Gwen slowly creaked open the door which led to her bedroom.

            The room had tiny white crystals all around, buried in the cracks in the wooden walls.  The floor was a light maple wood color, and perfectly polished.  There weren’t any windows, but there was a small glowing mushroom sitting on a carved out nightstand which provided light to the room.  There also was a violet colored orchid in the corner of the room with two rolled up leaf pillows and a white rose petal blanket on in.  Then I noticed a small book on her floor.

 

Chapter 15

          As Annabelle, Gwendolyn, and The Keeper prepared to go into conversation, across the forest there were others preparing for certain matters.  Deep into the blackened emerald heart of the forest roamed a colony of unusual human like creatures known as the Crognards.  These so called Crognards were controlled by their evil king, named Varkus.  Anything he says goes.  Yes, Varkus is the evil king of the forest, but his appearance is very pleasing to the eye.

            He stands a little over three inches tall, with a muscular and broad twenty-eight year old body frame.  Though he looks twenty-eight; just like Gwendolyn, he too is ageless.  A wide smirk is seen slurred across his grim jaw line.  He looked up from the ground with a mysterious glimmer deep within his gorgeous dark grey and silver eyes which were complimenting his devious smirk flawlessly.  He rested his back up against the inside of the Stenwitch Sycamore Tree’s blackened and decayed walls.  He placed his right arm on his stomach, wrapping his hand around his waist while using his left hand to wonderingly stroke the ghost of a beard upon his handsome face.  Varkus sighed deeply before then running his left hand through his midnight black hair which also had a violet tint to it making it shine softly in the moonlight seeping through the crevices in the tree bark.  His hair was shaved short the whole way around his head with perfectly trimmed sideburns lining seamlessly in front of his ears, framing his face beautifully.  His bangs however where roughly tousled from the back but were spiked to a peak in the front. 

            Varkus’s clothes consisted of several emblems.  His shirt was tank top styled, open chested shirt made up of black crow feathers and dead leaves which were also black, and all sewn together with black spider silk thread.  He wore pants made up of the molted skin of a black snake, however he went barefoot.  Last of all he wore a cape which was made up of crow feathers and the furry carcass of a dead rat. 

            For Varkus and his colony of Crognards destroying the Queen and Nocotee was and still is their number one priority, however they have failed every attack they have launched on the enchanted forest.  Little did they know victory would be the hardest to win not because of fighting, but because of something a million times stronger than fighting ever could be?

Illustrated by Kristen Strutt