The Missing Guardian

Chapter 5 - Motion Sickness (West)

Twig (West)

I can feel his eyes on me, but I am unable to open my eyes or move. My muscles are starting to ache from being unable to change my position. But I am still calm… Yet I am alone in a room with the unknown she-wolf and what I assume is the Alpha of this pack, I know no one and am completely at their mercy. The essence rolling off the young girl is now a calming deep blue, but I can feel the fear emanating from her. Why is she so afraid? Should I be afraid, why am I not afraid?

This has been going over and over in my head, while they were having their conversation, I am listening, but my mind won’t seem to shut up long enough for me to concentrate.

I can hear the man she is with is now talking to someone else, but I cannot hear their response. Weird, but thus far it sounds like she is trying to help me, and I am not her prisoner.

The man goes silent, the only thing I can hear is their breathing, so I push out to find his essence, a royal red aura that demands attention, he must be an Alpha. But there is a sadness to the colour I cannot understand. As I am trying figure out what it could mean and let my head go off on its own direction, he places the box I am in onto the table I presume is nearby.

“I need to know how you found her.”

His voice gentle, almost worried.

“Today is the anniversary of my mother’s disappearance, sir.”

As she says that, his essence becomes dull, almost like rust had suddenly taken over the bright red.

“I am aware.”

That’s all that is said, as if they need a moment to acknowledge the weight of the meaning. My curiosity now bubbling in anticipation. I am desperate to know their story, but I cannot fathom why, but at this moment, I have nothing else to do but listen and let my imagination run wild. I may as well enjoy whatever moments I have left. My thoughts are interrupted once more when she starts talking again, her voice soft, gentle in a way.

“I went up to the cemetery, as I do every year, and when I got there, there was this sound…”

She pauses for a moment, her essence now back to its swirling pastel colours, as she thinks about what she says next I suppose. Her essence is beautiful to watch, like a living abstract painting, its colours colliding with one another like waves almost of different hues, combining and then crashing against the next one. As she continues, I watch as the colours slowly start resembling emotional bursts in a way, each colour a tactile feeling almost. Like her essence is talking to me…

“The sound was like a buzzing noise, like thousands of bees were inside the Tree, next to her headstone.”

“Where was the Fairy?”

The man is growing impatient, I can see as his essence begin to darken slightly as he asks the question.

“I don’t know sir, but then the wind picked up, really bad and it bent the tree, which snapped it down the middle, it may have been lightning, but I don’t remember seeing lightning to be honest, but none of it really made sense…”

She begins to ramble as she tries to get her story out as fast as possible. Her waves now crashing at a slightly faster rate.

“And then something told me to go look at the tree, once the wind had died down, which was strange as well, because one moment it was there, thrashing and breaking down trees and the next it was gone, but when I went to go look at the remains, I noticed the Tree was hollow, which seemed off.”

The Alpha cuts her off with his own question.

“The tree was struck down by lightning, or wind and it was hollow, how can a tree be hollow?”

Her story makes no sense, and I guess that’s why she’s rambling, but I have no reason to believe she is lying, though I can understand the Alpha’s disbelief at the story. Before she can answer though, there is a knock at the door.

“Enter”

The Alpha booms out to whoever is on the other side of the door, making the poor girl jump in her seat. I hear her come crashing down back onto it as she lands.  

I can hear someone shuffle in, but I can’t see their essence, I can sense it, but I have no visual, their essence is clear or hidden. Curious… I have fallen down the rabbit hole and found myself in a strange world indeed. I have never not been able to see someone’s essence. Maybe its another species, I have never traveled out of the Southern Delta region, I may have not met a species who doesn’t have an essence. I am now consumed by the fact that I cannot pick up an essence from this being.

“Alpha, you said you wanted to see us, my mother has been called to the South unfortunately and is unable to attend right now.”

A woman’s voice floats across the space around me. Young, sweet almost. I hear feet shuffling, but can’t determine from where, my brother would scold me for not concentrating hard enough. I can almost imagine his scowl as he lectures me about not letting my mind wander when you need to focus on what is happening. Ugh, he must be furious! I am going to have to recount every second of every moment, and how am I going to be able to do that, who knows… I’m not even concentrating now... Damn… Luckily, I haven’t missed anything as I hear the Alpha begin.

“Thank you for coming Willow, I have a sensitive matter to discuss with you.”

That name, where do I know that name from? I can’t seem to place names and faces, but even if I could, it surely couldn’t be someone I know, I didn’t pick up any essences that I had seen before, but I haven’t been able to pick up her essence. If she has one… Surely, I would remember meeting someone with no essence.

The girl that found me hasn’t said a word and I can still feel the fear swirling around her like the pastel colours that make up her shape.

“Alpha Keittle, I can assure you that whatever you wish to discuss, will be kept within these walls.”

The woman with no essence replies, her voice is vaguely familiar, but I still cannot put a face to her.

“Willow, this is Ebony Baryn.”

Suddenly there is a faint gasp, almost inaudible, but I pick it up just as he introduces the girl that brought me here, she must have heard it as well because her essence changes into an almost white colour at the sudden attention.

“Ebony has brought me something she found, and we are hoping that you could help.”

He carries on as though he never heard the gasp, before picking the box I am currently in up off the table and handing it to the unknown woman in the room.

The sudden motion makes my stomach lurch, but I start to try breathing deeply, getting my nausea under control.  I hear the lid being removed before I can feel the air around me change as the colder, exterior room temperature leaks into the box.

The woman doesn’t say a word, there is a silence that is hard to explain as I presume, she looks me over. I then feel the box being moved and placed on a surface. I can hear the shuffle of feet, then a bag being opened, and bottles being moved around, the banging of thin glass in the air. The bag is closed and the shuffle of feet again.

“We need to move her to a bedroom, if possible, Alpha, is there anywhere we can take her?”

The Alpha grunts as he exhales, obviously thinking about the best possible solution, or getting annoyed that this requires more from him, his essence doesn’t give away any indication. He is very good at keeping his emotions in check. 

“We can use the guest bedroom adjacent the smoking lounge, it barely gets used and is currently empty, Ebony, you may go, I will call for you again if anything…”

But before he can finish the sentence the woman interjects.

“Alpha, if I may, I think that she should accompany us, there is a reason she was the one to find this soul, we do not know the connection yet, we do not know the consequences of separating them.”

“Very well, follow me.”

I hear him say before being lifted and carried to this guest bedroom they spoke about. The walk was silent, except for the sound of glass being jiggled ever so lightly in the distance, which must have come from the bag that the other woman brought, I am aware that the Alpha is carrying the box I was brought in, I pay little attention to him, but I notice Ebony’s essence stays the white colour, maybe it is fear, or excitement? I couldn’t figure out her code as of yet.

Not that I could determine much from other people’s essences to be honest, hers is the first that has ever done more than the colour change slightly when the person felt something. I am in completely uncharted territory.

The walking is making my motion sickness so much worse. The irony isn’t lost on me, a warrior fairy, that can fly, gets motion sickness. But flying is controlled by me, and I can see my surroundings, right now though, I am swaying to someone else’s motion. That’s when I realize that I didn’t get motion sick on the way here, maybe I was too focused on finding a familiar essence, or I was still partially unconscious. There is probably a reason, but I can’t put my finger on it right now.

The Alpha stops and I feel myself slide to the other side of the box; I think he’s forgotten I am in here.

"Is this the room sir?"

Willow asks from in front of us somewhere.

"Yes, that's the one, the door should be unlocked, we haven't used it in a while, so it may be a bit musty, but at least it is out of sight of prying eyes."

His answer surprises me, what prying eyes could he be talking about, could it be everything we have kept shut out of the South? I only know a fraction of the meaning behind why the South suddenly stopped all communication, ostracizing themselves from the Union and became impartial in the council.

I hear the bag of glass jars is placed down somewhere near and then the motion of being handed over and the lid being opened. This room is much lighter than the last and I can almost make out a few splotches of darkness in contrast to the brightness against my eyelids.

I am delicately lifted from the box by someone behind me, yet I am unsure who at the moment. I desperately try to keep Ebony’s essence in sight as I feel fingers gently wrap around my torso. My body refuses to cooperate and I flop like a rag doll in their hands.

I hate this feeling of helplessness; I am at their complete mercy and the royal blood pumping through me is disgusted at my circumstances. It has been a long time since I felt this way and after the last time, I swore to myself that I would never feel this way again, but here I am… completely unable to defend myself right now.

The hand that has me engulfed is clammy and moist, I can feel the dampness against my skin, but at least they don’t smell bad, maybe a bit musky but not unpleasant at least. From the size I can guess that it is the Alpha that has me, but I could be wrong, I still do not know who or what Willow is…

“Place her on the bed, gently please.”

Willow speaks as the thought of her appears. So, the Alpha must have me as I can see Ebony’s essence in the distance, probably on the far end of the room.

As he starts to walk toward what I presume is the bed they were discussing, my motion sickness pushes itself forward and my body wretches uncontrollably as my muscle’s spasm in response. In that instance it was like time stopped and I got to watch in slow motion the events that unfolded due to a simple bodily reflex.

The Alpha began to shriek and then I was suddenly in the air, floating somewhere above everyone else, the feeling of the breeze calmed my nausea and then it suddenly struck me… I’m in the air and about to suddenly start my descent and who knows how high up I am. But then I realize I’m not panicking, I seem to be calm about this situation, which is indeed very alarming in itself.

Then in a flash there was a blur of white and I was snatched out of the air in someone’s grasp ever so gently, I barely felt myself land. As I did though I noticed who had caught me and was surprised to see Ebony’s essence engulf me in a white light. The brightness increased until I was completely surrounded. At least my eyes are closed or I’m sure I would be blind right now. The light is so calming though, I completely relax and slowly start to drift off, I hopelessly fight against the sudden urgency to rest, I had to focus and gather as much information as possible. But as much as I fought against it, I couldn’t help but doze off into sleep, I was so comfortable I had no other choice.