A Stir of Fairies by S.E. Babin

Author:S.E. Babin [Babin, S.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

I waited there, frozen like a statue, for at least three minutes before deciding it hadn’t worked. Nothing happened. I felt the same as before. With a disappointed sigh, I moved, carefully placing my foot down but as soon as I shifted, both feet left the ground. I lifted into the air, my arms pinwheeling to keep myself from turning in a complete circle.

“Aaaaaah!” I squealed as I rose toward the ceiling like a helium balloon. Keelie poked her head out of my shirt and squeaked in surprise.

“Violet!” she hissed. “Why are you floating?”

I blinked rapidly and tried to mouth what was happening, but Keelie just stared at me, her eyes wide. She flew from my shirt and tugged on my collar, but I was far too large to move, even while floating. “Use your arms,” she whispered. “Like you’re swimming. But in the air.” She sighed and shook her head. “Or float to the ceiling and use that. Crawl on it like a freaky spider or something. Just hurry up and get us out of here.”

The dragon shifted again, sending more coins tinkling to the ground. My brain short circuited. If he woke up, I was so screwed. Unless maybe…I craned my head up and peered at the ceiling. Keelie had a point. I could sort of crab walk it, then come down the wall. If I could do that, I could hopefully open the door and pull myself through. This might work better than me expunging the potion from my bloodstream and trying to make the jump.

“Hold on,” I mouthed to the fairy. She nodded, wide-eyed, and ducked back down into my shirt. It took a bit of jerky, marionette movements, but I finally made it to the ceiling where I latched on to a pipe, carefully and quietly. Once I got my body upside down, moving proved a lot easier.

The dragon settled in and fell into a deeper sleep. A breath of relief escaped me. Almost there. Getting down might get weird, but as long as nothing screwy happened, I could be in the clear. At least until the second door opened.

It took only minutes, but it felt like a hundred years before I made it to the edge of the ceiling by the exit. Holding on to the pipe with one hand, I nudged Keelie with the other. She popped up, saw where we were, and flitted out and through the bottom of the door, extinguishing her light as she did.

Seconds later, she was back in. “Clear,” she whispered. “But it’s another hoard. Much, much larger.” Her face had paled, and her eyes went wide. “I think it might be the king’s.”

With a nod, I waited for her to tuck back in before I painstakingly crept down the pipe, one hand over the other. There was just enough space for me to put my feet down, but it took a while for me to figure out how to get there without contorting myself into a knot.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.