The Real Folktale Blues Part 7

Someone was playing games with me.

I sifted through the length of the red fabric and my breath caught in my throat. Inside of the hood, a dark symbol was etched. In this particular case, there could only be one reason for a rune.

I walked into a trap.

Even as I think it, the rune in the hood glows, and the entire cloak starts to disintegrate in my hands.

Faerie Fudge...

I didn't even wait before tossing the cloak aside and scooping up every last piece of the remaining clothes. I ran to the edge of the cave with my hands full, taking one glance back at the imposter cloak to see only the hood was left.

I didn't know what would happen when the rune was consumed and I didn't have to, to know I just needed to run; far away from it.

I yanked a s.h.i.+rt from the clothes in my arms, juggling them around as I threw it in front of me. It didn't freeze so I moved forward and picked the s.h.i.+rt up with my toes.

My eyes shot back to the hood, seeing only a sliver of it left as I threw the s.h.i.+rt with my foot.

The tunic froze in the air and I pressed against the wall away from that area before throwing a bra.s.siere from my fingers and moving forward while picking it up with my toes again.

Two more tosses got me by with the bra before it got stuck in a frozen state and I adjusted again.

I knew it was already too late. I was moving too slow.

My eyes fell back to the cloak to see only the glowing sigil left.

My heart wouldn't stop pounding as I tossed another piece of clothing and moved along.

I finally make it to the meadow, leading to the giant flowers, before looking back again to see a glow of humming darkness pulsing from behind the waterfall.

I was so dead.

A few more pieces of fabric hung over the gra.s.s as my bare feet padded next to the flowers. I dropped the clothing in front of them and s.n.a.t.c.hed up a set to wear for myself before glancing around for Kit and the fox.

"There." The red flower pointed with a vine near the storm of plume that the frozen birds caused. Among the feathers emerged the little custard fox with a limp to his step.

I rushed forward, but stopped when I realized this area was littered with time distortions. My eyes shot between the fox and the glow emanating from the waterfall.

"Come on!" I roared with all my voice.

The fox didn't move any faster though.

I could feel each beat of my heart radiating through my body and my breath hitch as the fox looked like he was slowing down and not moving faster.

I wanted to keep yelling, but my voice caught on my tongue. My mouth felt so dry it was sticking together and closing up. Even breathing was harder.

But why?

My eyes widened as I looked back to the glowing sigil. It wasn't behind the waterfall anymore.

There was no waterfall. There wasn't even ground past where the tall flowers were. It all disintegrated in invisible flames, just like how the water had been cras.h.i.+ng against invisible rocks.

My hands were shaking as I turned back and reached out for the fox just as he limped close enough.

My arms scooped around him and pulled him against my chest, with the small collection of clothes in my other hand.

I shot down the stairs, just as I heard the horrible hacking howls of the talking flowers being consumed or erased or whatever was happening to them.

I didn't even want to imagine what it was. I just ran.

I tried to glance around for Kit, even attempted calling for the spirit, but my throat grated any words away before they could reach my lips.

Where was that fey-blasted spirit?

I couldn't wait around. Steps were disappearing rapidly behind me. It was like this world was just... unraveling...

Like the cloak! Of course...

I would have been admiring an unraveling spell of this magnitude, if I hadn't been in the direct path of it.

My heart pattered like a hummingbird as I turned on the last step of the stairs and saw nothing but four steps behind me. I dove backwards while I scanned for Kit one last time.

Nothing but scarlet. The color of distortion and change.

My color.

But it didn't seem inviting now, as I watched the last steps disappear into grains so small they might as well have been nothing.

My heart jumped again as the breath gushed out of me and my face crashed into the cold stone floor of the mirror tower.

Despite the aches, I stumbled to my feet and rushed through the looking gla.s.s without even turning back to look at how close the unraveling was to me.

I fell to my knees on the other side, from the sheer agony I was wallowing in.

I would have pa.s.sed out right there.

I would have.

If it wasn't for the voice I heard, that made my heart soar with such firm happiness that my eyes were tearing up.

"Dori! We made it!"

Six.

Bread Crumbs Walking has to be the most wonderful thing in the world. Well, as long as you aren't being chased by an unraveling spell. I like it though, because it gives me time to think; normally.

Instead, every time I started to have some kind of train of thought on my situation at hand, I would get interrupted by Kit chatting away with borrowed fox lips.

I glanced down into the ma.s.sive pocket where the little cream and custard fox was sitting. Luckily the shorts I grabbed as I ran for my life, actually fit me and had big pockets. It was almost like they were made for me to wear with a fox in them.

I swear someone was playing with me, like a wooden boy everyone knows. I just hope it wasn't really the Blue Faerie; though I wouldn't be surprised.

"Could you silence Kit or something? It is your mouth." I asked the fox. All he did was twitch his ears at me and turn his nose down into the pocket. He was actually trying to silence the mirror spirit. Bless his little fox heart.

Then Kit's m.u.f.fled voice came out of the vulpine lips once more. "You could just ask me instead."

"I have asked you. But a minute pa.s.ses and you have something to say about the terrain." I groaned.

"Well excuse me that I had not ever seen a flower like those before." Kit continued, while I could only a.s.sume he was talking about the blue bell flowers that had been along our path ever since we escaped the unraveling mirror-world and descended the short tower.

"You got to see talking flowers that you stomped all over. Trust me, these ones aren't special. So please, just give me five minutes of quiet. That's it."

I heard Kit huff out a breath before the fox curled up in my pocket and seemed to rest for a bit, hopefully the spirit with him. This finally gave me the peace to think about all the bread crumbs being tossed in front of me to deal with.

The main problem I had now was retrieving Goldie again. Since she was supposed to be my package to be delivered to get this ridiculous favor of Charming's done.

Then there was the matter of my cloak being stolen. Which really on a personal level is more of a concern to me, but much harder to track down since I don't have a d.a.m.ned clue where to start.

To get to my cloak I only knew that Hue, Goldie, and Bonny were nearby when I was knocked out.

I was facing Goldie when it happened, which meant she wasn't doing it, but that didn't mean she wasn't involved with this.

Hue would have just killed me and not bothered with taking my cloak, or wounding me, if he had been involved. In fact the hood was the last thing Hue would take from me. He knew better.

This left Bonny. Someone I hardly knew anything about. Other than she has a single eye the same color as apparently the people to drop me off in that tower.

Two rare eye colors with slightly different designs were far too much of a coincidence. Somehow Bonny was involved in this situation, which meant Charming might be the cause of all this, since Bonny was a soldier for his army.

Then again, it could be an entirely different person causing problems, who could perform an impossible magic.

I didn't exactly tread lightly in the world.

It could have even been some other group, ambus.h.i.+ng right after the transfer before I could find anything about what was going on with Goldie.

After all, whoever took my cloak and left me in that tower, also took Goldie from my care. That meant she might have been the real reason I was attacked in the first place, and the reason I was left alive.

But then why would they take my hood and cloak?

This was all just starting to turn into a headache. Actually the headache I had before was coming back. Right at the base of my skull like something was squeezing the back of my head, constantly.

I groaned.

Apparently my groan meant Kit could talk again. Or at least that was how the mirror spirit took it.

"So, where are we going anyway?"

I ground my teeth, and flicked a strand of raspberry hair out of my face. The makes.h.i.+ft cloth tie I used for my unruly hair, couldn't keep my bangs out of my face, which I wasn't really used to.

"Visit some old friends, twins, if I can just find the trail." I explained, mostly more in thought than anything.

I still only had a mild idea where exactly I was, other than somewhere on the outskirts of Hue's Kingdom, possibly into the territory of Outer zone.

There were no major markers for me to figure out my location, other than the blue bell flowers all around this trail. Real blue flowers always came from Hue's territory. They ended here though, and far to my non-mountainous side I could see the great poppy field of the Outer Zone.

Flowers really were the easiest way to tell what territory I'd find myself in. Charming's had violets. Hue had Blue Bells, the Outer Zone had poppies, Rosa's had gobs of lilies, Adam did red roses, while the Heart Family kept painted white roses. I could keep going all day, but honestly I'd rather not list every single territory.

"Oh, well, where is your friend's place?" Kit asked, which luckily stopped me from thinking any further, or just to make sure I could do it, I would have listed all the territories.

"Not far. I just have to find the trail. Which if I am on the right mountain it should be close." I explained while glancing up at the encroaching twilight sky. "I hope."

The place I was looking for was a secluded village. Similar to the one I grew up in, just different people. The village lied between the Outer Zone, the Blue lands, and whatever the fey Charming called his territory.

There, lived the greatest trackers in all the world. If anyone would be able to find Goldie, it would be them. They were some of the few people I truly trust too.

"Not very convincing are you?" Kit asked, the fox's head poking out of the pocket along with two front paws, one of which was bandaged up completely with a piece of silk cloth from the undergarment I had planned to be wearing.

Hey, only the best for my little fox.

"Who's the one that's been traveling all over the world? And who's been in a mirror tower for however many years?" I eyed down at the fox, even though I knew I was having a conversation with the spirit residing inside of it.

"Still you could sound more convincing. Not see these friends very often?" Once more, the mirror spirit is non-stop with the questions.

"Actually out of everyone I've encountered Ettie and Han are probably the ones I see the most. So a couple of months at least?"

"Ah. Not much for people contact, are you?" Kit asked while the fox's face pointed up toward me from the pocket.

"I like it that way."

"Yet, you have no problem picking up a stray kitsune?"

"A what?" I asked, stopping in my tracks.

"A Kitsune. That is who I am rooming with. They are rather rare, especially newborns. It is amazing that you actually hatched it."

I blinked a few times. "How do you know that?"

"He told me. I am living inside him, see his memories, and see through him. Talk through him, you know. Plus, I know a lot of legends from over the years. It was my only pastime." Kit continued to explain.

"How did that happen anyway? Last I knew the fox was frozen and you were a dragon."

The fox turned his head into the pocket again like he was trying to hide. Kit's voice still arose. "It was the only way I could get him free. By possessing him, he became immune like me. Although the fall to the ground from that distance still hurt."

"Ah... well I did say do anything." I shook my head and started walking again.