The Fairyhunter

Part 20

"Neena!"

Adrian awoke in a panic, seeing the world around him in giant form. He could feel her weight on him holding him down but started to worry when he could feel no heat coming from her. She didn't even feel real, he thought, the panic mounting. He pushed gently, then panicked even more vy and leaden. He tried to shake her awake, but she felt cold and slick. "Oh, jeez, no, Neena!"

Adrian had been around enough fae to know what was happening. Neena was made entirely of magic, like all fae were. When they died, a fairy or sprite's magic returned to the natural world, becoming part of the mana that made up the natural world around them. If their magic left them before it was supposed to, the shell of their bodies was left behind in a crystalline form. Adrian had personally never dealt in such trade, but he knew this was one of the preferred methods for mages who needed natural magic and had no druid magic to channel it with. It wasn't a very gentle way to go, either, since every statue he'd ever seen had had that look of pain on horror etched permanently on its crystalline visage.

The thought of this happening to his favorite sprite was wholly sickening.

Gingerly, he tried to pry himself away from her, but found her arms wrapped around him and froze in place. He was terrified he might break them and any chance of helping her, but if he couldn't even get up to GET help...? He realized he was trapped in the arms of his girlfriend (girlfriend?!) in a giant world that was going to take as little pity on him as he'd taken on her kind for years.

"HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!!!" he hollered. "Somebody HELP MEEEEEEEE!"

He started suddenly as the dryad phased out of her tree again, shorter than human sized, as usual, but still far taller than he was at this size. "Oh, you gotta help me! Can you get help...no, damn, you can't leave your tree. Dammit! I need to find that guy...that Turlock guy!"

The dryad smiled at him and put a finger to her lips. Then, to his surprise, she phased away from the tree and became solid. She walked to a tree a little further away and whispered something, causing another dryad to phase out and nod at her. For a moment, she looked back at Adrian, gesturing to him questioningly. He frowned, trying to understand why she seemed to be trying to gesture a flowing outfit, then realized what she meant. "Yeah, yeah, a skirt! A plaid skirt! He's the big guy in the plaid skirt, er, kilt!" The other dryad left her tree and went to another one, whispered again and brought another dryad out. She went a little farther away and repeated the process. Adrian gave the first dryad a small smile of relief. "You're passing it on to him?" She nodded and he relaxed a little. They'd be able to find him, no problem.

How long it took was another matter. Would Neena be able to hold on, or was she already lost? He had no idea what happened to sprites and fairies in this state, whether they were truly gone or just dormant somehow. If I ever get out of this, he vowed, I'll find out and I'll find every sprite or fairy I ever caught and...

Noises in the underbrush near him stopped his train of thought cold. It sounded like footsteps, but they were his size, not giant sized like they should have been. "Who's there?" he called tentatively.

From the bushes came a thin, brown little man, dressed in rabbit skin. An few more stepped out and leered at him in a way that told Adrian his problems were just beginning. "Hey, leetle man, what you do, hah? You not brownie," one grunted at him.

"No, heem not brownie, stu-peed! Him human...look at him! He too clean...smell like pretty girl!" scoffed another, much to the delight of the other four.

"Yah, heem big sissie, right, hu-man?" The nearest brownie kicked his side with at foot and Adrian grunted in slight pain.

"Hey, me think you fairyhunter from big woods that way, hah? That who you is, hu-man?" demanded the first brownie.

"No, I'm...just passing through."

"You passing through OUR ter'tory, hu-man!" said the second brownie, kicking him again.

Adrian tried to flinch or even tense up, but Neena's position on him made this impossible. He took the full blow to the side of his stomach and gasped for air as it left him in a rush. "Sonuv..."

The brownies laughed. "Hey, look, heem no can get up, eh? You little woo-man, she lose magic on you, hah? Maybe we take her off you hands, make big sell to you friends, hah?"

"No!" he coughed, as they bent down trying to to take Neena from him. "Leave her alone!" He clutched her tightly against him, afraid that the struggle in opposing directions would break her, but even more afraid of what would happen if they were separated while he was outnumbered like this. "Get away from me!" he yelled, but they paid him no heed, laughing louder as they shoved and kicked him around, trying to yank him free of the clinch he was stuck in.

A whirring noise over head caught his attention, then the attention of the brownies. "What that?" one asked. They all paused a moment, looking uncertainly about. Suddenly, the brownies looked up and away from Adrian, focusing on something he couldn't see behind him. Adrian watched their faces change from confusion to irritation, then mayhem broke loose. He could see the brownies fending something off, but could only catch a fleeting glimpse of what it was, a flash gleaming here and there. The brownies began to scatter, one by one, until finally they had disappeared.

Still feeling the new pain and some disorientation from their abuse, Adrian tried to look about again and find his mysterious savior. Without warning, a shape took form in front of him, a winged one about his size with translucent dragonfly wings, blue eyes, very dark skin almost like a dark elf's and a long braid of dark hair. She wore a gauzy blue dress that looked far more spritely than Neena's normal wear and made her look like an angel.

"Turlock!" she called. "I found him over here!"

And as Adrian heard the giant feet tromping toward him, Adrian closed his eyes and decided that she was just that...a sprite angel.

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