Chapter 6

         Whereas Lokey liked to trail behind the group occasionally, usually a quarter mile behind, Crystal enjoyed taking the lead every once in a while, usually a good quarter mile ahead. Ian and Magbert were almost as deliberately slow as Lokey, it seemed and she simply had to know everything that would befall them ahead of time. Besides, there was just too much going on around them to let it all go to waste in a leisurely pace.

         She'd fly ahead for 15 minutes or so, then return with all sorts of information on every sight, every sound, anything that could possibly enter her path and its surroundings. Then, after relating all this to a saintly patient Magbert and a highly bored Ian, she'd take a breather on Magbert's shoulder then zoom ahead again and start all over.

         She'dve probably done the same thing this time, too, if she hadn't hit a small problem: she was stuck.

         She was sure she'd hit a spider web, at first, but those were easy enough to escape from. In fact, she normally passed right through them without much trouble. This web, however, was curiously different. It felt thicker and stronger and strangely unnatural.

         So taken aback by this new web was she that she forgot to struggle. She was unable to move much else but her wings, so she gingerly tested the strength of her bonds, not wanting to destroy them. As she did, the bushes near her parted and a human woman stepped out. She was rather tall, but her build made this height look quite natural to her. She seemed almost as interested in Crystal as Crystal, oblivious to her presence, was in the web. She had thoughtful brown eyes and long chestnut hair held mostly by a strap of black leather. The loose ends she unconsciously swept behind one ear as she bent down near the trapped sprite.

         The two sat for a few seconds, the woman watching Crystal and Crystal fooling around in the web, when suddenly, the woman said, "You're a lot more interesting alive."

         Crystal nearly leapt free of the web in shock. "Wh-Wha...who..." she stammered in fear.

         "Don't be scared," said the woman, smiling a little. "I've just never seen a live sprite before. Well, I have seen sprite wings, but not attached."

         "Well...you just snuck up on me and...that sort of scared me," said Crystal, recovering from her initial shock into a slight wariness. "Could you help me out of this, please? I just ran into it and...what do you mean, not attached?"

         "Of course you did, silly," said the woman, avoiding the question. "It's a trap. You're supposed to run into it. Of course, Kathyrn's sprites and fairies are all dead by the time she finds them here."

         "What do you mean, dead?" Crystal demanded. "Who are you, who's Kathyrn and what do you mean not attached?"

         "I am Drianna, the Soon-to-Be-Great Evil Sorceress and Kathyrn is the Great Evil Sorceress," said the woman, matter-of-factly. "I'm studying under her to be as powerful myself. Anyway, you got caught in the fairy trap, but you're supposed to have struggled to death in it. That magic web is supposed to drain all energy from you when you move. See, this is the first time I've ever gone out and checked the traps myself. Kathyrn goes to check the traps and she always comes back with wings in her bag and no sprites, so I just assumed they were all dead."

         "You mean...your mistress traps fairies..."

         "And sprites."

         "And takes their wings off?" gasped Crystal in horror. "But why?"

         "Wait a minute, aren't you scared yet?" demanded Drianna. "I'm fairly powerful myself, y'know. And I'm really evil."

         "Sort of...yeah, I guess."

         "Oh, gee, thanks," said Drianna cynically.

         "Will you answer the question, already!"

         "Least you could do is look scared or something..."

         "I am, I just wanna know what the wings are for," sighed Crystal in vexation.

         "Well, that's one of the basic ingredients for most spells," shrugged Drianna. "It doesn't hurt."

         "Wanna bet?" retorted Crystal. "It hurts just thinking about it!"

         "That's ridiculous! Nothing can hurt by just thinking about it."

         "Oh, yeah? Well, think about having you arms ripped off your body."

         "That's not the same thing. Wings aren't like arms. Pulling my arms off would hurt."

         "That is exactly the point," sighed Crystal. "To me, the pain is equivalent to having my arms pulled off."

         "Well, not if you're dead. And killing you is not a problem."

         "Well, maybe I don't want to be dead! Maybe none of the fairies and sprites you two have murdered wanted to die! Maybe they were just having fun flying through the forest being happy and in love when some incredibly mean human like you just takes and lets them die in some horrible magic trap and then tears their wings off for some lousy spell that probably only works once!" Crystal had been squirming furiously during this discourse, but now she stopped. "Oh, I don't feel good," she said, disoriented.

         "That's because you're dying," said Drianna, unsympathetically. "The more you fight, the worse it gets."

         Crystal glared at her angrily. "How very sensitive of you," she growled.

         Drianna shrugged loftily. "I'm not training to be sensitive. Besides, I was only telling the truth. And I wish you'd hurry up. I'm trying to finish a spell and I really need those wings."

         "Am I holding you up?" Crystal said in sweet sarcasm. "I'm sor-ry. What sort of spell did you need my lovely and extraordinarily-necessary-to-my-existence wings for?"

         "A regeneration spell. See, Kathyrn's familiar lost its wing in a fight and..."

         Crystal screeched in exasperation, then flew into another rage, causing herself more harm than help. She stopped finally, too exhausted to struggle anymore, then realizing how close she was to dying, she burst into indignant tears, causing Drianna her first moment of actual discomfort.

         "Well...well...well, don't...cry-y!" she groaned.

         "You wanted me to be scared!" Crystal wept.

         "Yeah, but not upset," Drianna returned. "You're just dying, for Pete's sake."

         "But I don't wanna die!" Crystal wailed despairingly. "I don't want my wings pulled off and I don't want to be here anymore and it's just not fair!"

         "Well, just don't cry about it. Then I'll feel bad."

         "You'll feel bad?" asked Crystal. "As mean and evil as you're being to me, you think I really care how bad you'll feel?"

         "Well...well, I'm not being deliberately mean and evil, I'm just trying to help Kathyrn's familiar," said Drianna, defensively.

         "And what about me? What do I get out of it?"

         Drianna thought hard a moment, then said, "The satisfaction of having helped Kathyrn's familiar."

         "I'll be dead!" Crystal sobbed, beginning her tears again. "I won't even have that, as if it were some sort of comfort for my own death!"

         "Oh, don't start crying again, please!" Drianna begged. "I won't have the nerve to take your wings off."

         "You won't?" asked Crystal, as tearfully as she could.

         "No," said Drianna, then she added, "Not saying I still won't do it, but I just wouldn't enjoy it."

         Crystal looked up at Drianna, her eyes still wet with tears. "You'd actually enjoy it?" she asked gravely.

         Drianna looked back at the sprite, whose strange erratic behavior had already started to grow on her. "Well...no," she replied, sounding almost disappointed.

         "Well, neither will I," came Crystal's weary voice, her tears shutting off almost as quickly as her hope. "Well, I...guess that's it. I'm getting too weak to say much else, or even worry about it." She paused to close her eyes with a wistful sigh. "I can't believe I'm going to just die," she added softly, her breath barely effective. "And only minutes away from help...oh, death is too cruel."

         Drianna gave the melodramatically dying sprite a look, then sighed herself and muttered a spell over the web. There was a shudder through the web, then it became insubstantial and fell away, letting Crystal fall with it. Crystal's strength raced back into her little body, bringing her back to her energetic self just before she reached the ground. Zooming upward, she reveled in the feeling of renewed life before realizing the magnitude of what had transpired. She hovered momentarily, then flew closer to Drianna, who had turned away.

         "Thank you," began Crystal shyly. "I mean, you didn't have to...but I'm glad you did...because I could've.."

         Drianna waved as if to say "it was nothing, now get out of here". "You talk too much," said Drianna. "Bad for the spell."

          Crystal backed up as if to leave, then flew a little closer to Drianna. "Aren't you gonna get in trouble if you don't bring something back?"

         "How did you guess?" replied Drianna, somewhat wryly.

         "Well..." sighed Crystal, then she landed on Drianna's knee. "I guess you could take one wing, if it didn't...well, no, that would be bad. Maybe if you just let me talk to her..."

         "No, you don't understand my mistress too well. She'd just as soon kill you while you spoke, if not before. Whole sprites are just as good for spells as their wings."

         "Uh, that would be bad, too," nodded Crystal. "Well, maybe we can come up with something else..."

         "What's your name?" asked Drianna suddenly.

         "What?"

         "Your name."

         "Why?"

         "Well, seeing as how I'll be dying for this little interaction, I thought I might as well get to know the creature who brought about my downfall," said Drianna.

         "Crystal," she answered.

         Drianna nodded, turning this name over in her mind. "Mine's really Wenlin, but Drianna sounds much nicer," she replied.

         "I like Wenlin. It has a royal sound to it," said Crystal dreamily. "The Princess Wenlin. The Lady Wenlin. The Queen..."

         "Yeah, well, only you know that name, so let's keep it that way," said Drianna. "Hey, can I ask you something relatively off the subject?" Crystal shrugged and she continued. "I've never seen sprite wings on a live sprite before. Could you just spread them out with moving them so I could see?"

         "Well, sure..." began Crystal (who was rather proud of her wings) with a cordial smile, then she paused, backing up a little. "Wait a minute, you're not gonna try to take my wings off me anyway, are you?"

         "I swear on my honor as Drianna the Could-Have-Been-Great-Evil-Sorceress," said Drianna solemnly. "That lasts as long as I live, which isn't much longer."

         "Well, I certainly won't kill you," giggled Crystal, landing on Drianna's hand and kneeling down backward to display her wings.

         "Yeah, but when Kathyrn finds out, she's gonna kill both of us," murmured Drianna.

 

 

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