valarltd | Fairy progress

For your entertainment:

He kept a wary eye on the lily-of-the-valley that seemed to be edging nearer to the foxglove. The little bells, an unwholesome gray instead of clean white, would sound an intruder alarm if they sensed him. He held his breath and made himself very small inside the blossom that sheltered him. Hoping hard that Tangle wouldn't come until the lily crept on, he waited.

It had moved along to the roses that were all thorn and no flower when Tangle hurried up and ducked under the flower's edge. Thorn didn't even greet her. He just spun her around and seized the button between her wings. It was nearly as large as his head and he wrestle it as it seared his fingers and arms.

Tangle used a thorn she'd wrested from a rosebush, or maybe a lily, in passing to slash at the cloth above the rings that weighed her down. Thorn ripped off the tattered scrap that had been his kilt and wrapped his hands and arms in it. There was no time for modesty.

The button came free and Tangle stepped out of the dress, naked as the day their mother had emerged from the birthing bower in the raspberry bush with Tangle in her arms.

“Now me, beloved sister. Hurry.” He handed her the scraps of cloth. She twisted at the beads of iron, trying to wrest they off. Thorn heard footsteps.

“Somebody's out too latesy,” came the nasty singsong of Kala's minion, Mornt. “There's an ickle beddy-bye missing an ickle fairy-wairy. I gots the magnet.”

“Hurry!' he implored Tangle. “We're going to get caught.” He bit down on the whimper that tried to escape his throat.

“I am,” she spat back and gave a great wrench. Thorn felt as if she was tearing his wings off. He swallowed the scream that would shatter the glass of the greenhouse.

Then the burning stopped. He flapped his wings for the first time in months. They were weak and wouldn't bear him yet. They were free of the magnet, though.

Thorn peered out to see where Mornt was. Three rows over. They ducked under the low leaves and flowers, fleeing their iron bonds before the magnet could find them. Tangle stifled a little scream as her foot caught on a twining root that tried to pull her under. Thorn jerked her free. They rested under the leaves of the rhododendron, slumping to the black petals.

“Now we split up. But not without a kiss for luck.” Thorn held his sister's hand.

She gave him a sweet one, smiling happily. “For luck. Meet me at the secret place.”

“I only hope we heard the directions right. It's under a waterfall-” Tangle laid one burned finger across his lips, wincing as she did. Iron-made wounds healed only with time, not magic. Thorn took the hint and shut up. “I'll see you there.” He kissed her forehead and ducked off in the direction of the carnivorous orchids.

Tangle, free of her confining clothes, stepped out from under the rhododendron and went straight up, aiming for an air-vent in the glass of the greenhouse. Thorn watched her from under a hosta leaf and saw her vanish into the night sky like a twinkling star.