Amaranta - Rival of Fairies' Queen

Wonderful poultry house

Gold roses quietly ranked in the wind. Their ringing resembled singing. With such a gift and minstrels are not needed. Roses themselves sing her serenade.

With one memory of the face of the king elves, the heart beats like a bird in a cage. And why only elves are so beautiful? The nature laughed, creating people aging and imperfect, next to such magic creatures. It is clear why people and elves fought without end. Two such different races, like human and magic, do not get along with one land. The strongest will eventually survive more weak. So she may be on the side of the stronger? Amaranta tried to get away from the hallucination. Someone exactly inspires her thoughts.

Twitter of birds away immediately distracted her. It was heard in the hall behind the arch, the ruins. Where only in the human castle took a gloomy arch with rune inscriptions around the edges? It would more reach the atmosphere of elves. Although Angus will certainly have erected this arch from witchcraft. Then now there is no need for it. After all, the union with the magic world was concluded.

Near the arch was surprisingly quiet. Only came from the hall the chirping of birds. In the castle, somewhere there is a large poultry house, equipped by Angus. Probably it is. Angus boasted the fact that the rare species of birds were collected here: both local and overseas. You need to go to see.

Infanta was alerted.

“What is it?”

“It seems that the castle poultry house. I remember how I was in my homeland, Angus bought white peacock for it, and he won at the cards from the Royal Advisor an interesting parrot. And he also bought the real albatross from the navigators. He collected a variety of birds everywhere. So it should be beautiful here.

“No, I do not go there!”  The white Infanta felt bad from the type of cages She sat on the fountain before the arch.

“As you want!” Amaranta went into the poultry house and was surprised by how pleasant and warm was the floor with a glitter. Start on it is the same as they sail along the wave of sunlight. Some persons observed below. Probably, they were drawn on the floor, but the drawing is erased. Anyway, she could distinguish that the outlines of horns, wings and sharp ears appear around these individuals.

"Another bird itself came to take a place in a cage," they whispered. “An overseas bird named Amaranta.”

“What?” Amaranth turned to the voice, even though he came straight from the floor. But if there is no one in front of her, it means that we have said to look at the back.

Behind it, something orange, similar to a flame figure, was really shot. It darted a fast swirl to the window and disappeared. Amaranta even really did not have time to consider him.

Well, let! The breed of birds were interested in it much more than some kind of pursuit. Nightingales sang in the cages, bullfinches were affected, laughed militant parrots of all colors and sizes. There were also canary, larks, and cardinals, and crimsons, and even a pair of pink flamingos. Inside the cages were spacious, there were pans with palm trees. The cages themselves were also very fanciful. The rods were woven in the form of hearts, then in the form of palm leaves, then arabesque or floral patterns. Silver and gilding sparkled on the lattices.

"Have you already visited the swans in the garden pond? Say them hello from me!”

Has she a fever? Or the raspberry in a round cage really spoke to her.

Amaranta sat in front of the cage and touched the rods. There is a bird here. Can the common non-magic bird talk to her in human language.

“So do you say them hello from me?”

Amaranta nodded slowly.

“Okay!” The bird did not even peck her into his fingers, although it was in a millimeter from them.

“Is it good here?” She decided to support the conversation. “Or did you want to return to your house? In the forest, for example?”

“Only not in the forest!” The bird even frightened. “One day in the forest Pixies saddled me and forced me to carry their carriage from the maple leaf. It was terribly unpleasant.”

“Pixies?”

“Yes, such tiny fairies and elves, dimensional size. They are very evil elves.”

“And are the elves evil?”

“Not all!”

Amaranta hardly realized that it was capable not only to understand the language of birds, but also to talk to them. If only she does not dream it all. At home, she did not notice this ability by herself. Well, only once. And it could be an illusion.

“You're beautiful!” noted the birds from the neighboring cell.

Someone called Amaranta by name from the opposite part of the poultry house. She got up and looked around. Nobody. If only the next bird did not speak with her. Amaranta noted a large cage with multicolored pigeons.

From one cage a hot radiance was raised to the ceiling, as if the sun was taken from heaven and sharpened behind the rods. In the cage sat a real hot-bird. Her shine tail was quitted through the rods down, like a peacock. Only in contrast to the color of a peacock, it was entirely orange. Amaranta touched it and burned her fingers. Even the fire in the fireplace does not hurt!

“Well, you are burning!” Amaranta did not keep from angry comments.

“So do not touch without permission!” answered the firebird.

“Sorry!” Amaranta was so surprised again, hearing the bird’s speech, which did not pay attention to the arrogant tone of the firebird. Such a luxurious creation has the right to be proud of itself.

The hand was terribly painful. Sorry, there is no Dagda near, to heal it with one kiss.

“Come here!” Her called, as it turned out,  a peacock.

“What do you want?” Amaranta obediently moved to him.

"It's nice that a lady came here, who understands me," it admitted. In a huge cage with the company of white peacocks, it looked excess. Its feathers were greenish blue. Amaranta raised one feather dropped from it.

"You're handsome," she praised it. “It is cruel to keep you in a cage when the garden is so sunny and warm. Do you want to let go to fly?”

Amaranta touched a tag, but it did not succumb.

“Not worth it!” The peacock opened a lush tail. “In the garden today it is dangerous. We were locked, because peacocks disappeared from the flower garden. They say, at night the Queen of fairies visit the garden, pulls flowers, breaks the bushes of roses, steals and kills birds.”

“The Queen of fairies?” Amaranta frowned. “For the first time I here about her. She was not exactly at our wedding with Angus.”

“ And it is good! Otherwise, your girlfriends would not have died as birds in the garden. The Queen of fairies is very bloodthirsty, especially when it comes to the pretty girls, like your maids.”

She was curious where the peacock has already managed to see her girlfriends? Was it released from the cage for some time or have all her companions already visited the poultry house? The peacock was clearly glad to talk at least with someone, so it could chat.

“Do not trust it!” The voice seems to be woven from the darkness, called from afar. Her ears got sick immediately.

Amaranta looked at the sound. It proceeded from the furthest corner of the hall. At first, it even seemed to her that there was nothing there, except for a dead end, but it was worth looking, and a narrow passage was discovered behind the cages.

“Do not go there!” exclaimed the peacock, but Amaranta was not stopped. At the courtyard in her homeland, they said that curiosity would not bring to the good. And she was extremely curious.

In addition, what dangerous maybe in the poultry house? Here her husband just collecting birds, and not engaged in a sorcerer. Although the dark surveys at the end of the bird hung out for witchcraft.

Amaranta has already managed to look at all kinds of birds: from Ostriches, Ibises and peacocks, to small titmice and sparrows. And what kind of birds are these? In the farthest rows, as if in the hope that no one would notice them there. They are not gilded cages, but from some kind of outdoor alloy, shut down on the keys, and not on the neck. And where are the keys themselves?

Amaranta jerked the narrow door of one cage and a terrible bird's paw with thirteen claws almost pulled her hand. Inside the cages, cast in the form of turrets and fortresses, there are birds or monsters: horned, with a multitude of paws or with several heads. One bird had even a malicious human head, but it did not know how to talk, just whistle.

“This is an alkonost! Stay away!” Suddenly someone said.

Amaranta noticed in the lower cage an eagle, or a monster. She became bad from its appearance.

“Do not grumble so, a beautiful girl! Not everyone was so lucky with appearance as a severe Dagda,” a bird stretched with sarcasm. “Do you think I'm stuffed, and he is handsome? I would know how it really is. You would be surprised!”

The laughter of the bird was like an evil echo. From it, frost ran over the skin.

“By the way, did you like to understand the crackle of stupid falcons, hawks and parrots? Once the kiss of Elf gives you the ability to hear what rain drops and fire in the fireplace are talking about. It can be crazy! Fear of Dagda’s gifts.”

“I'm not afraid!” Amaranta froze near the cage, can not move away. Or these are the red-monster bird’s eyes so hypnotized she that there was not enough strength to move.

“And if you have a couple of children-monsters from the elf? Then you get scared?”

“What could be?”

“Look at me! Is my kind of pleasure? Does it not annoying?”

“You're still one from the collection of Count Angus.”

“And you are another naive young countess that does not understand what to live at the borders of the magical kingdom even more dangerous than on the border with hell.”

Amaranta sat down next to the cage, rustling lush skirts. There was no strength anymore, the knees were prevented. And the Monster Bird was laughing.

"Sneak the keys from your villain-husband and free me," it suddenly demanded.

“To steal is not good!” Amaranta became scary.

“And otherwise he locks you in, like me, because you are also magical! Therefore, he married you to locate. A wife can always be declared insane, and no one will deal with that she is actually a fairy.”

“I'm not a fairy!”

“Do not listen to it, Milady!” It was Theobald. He as a faithful bodyguard rose behind her.

"It is from the kingdom of Medea Shai," Teobald reluctantly explained.

“And what is it?” The name seemed to her vaguely familiar.

“This is a black tract where all sorts of monsters nest.”

“There, too, rules the king of the elves Dagda.”

“Probably soon will rule.”

“By war? You are categorically against hostilities.”

"Only not me," Theobald put one hand on the handle of his sword.

“And with the kingdom of Medea Shai we are not friends?”

“Medea Shai is a Black Fairy. She is with all in enemy relations. And she leads the hordes of monsters.”

“Is she an enemy of Dagda too?”

“His people relieves that everything is decided by marriage.”

Amaranta’s heart failed her.

“That is, he is in love with her.”

Everything was an ideal - he is a blonde elf, she is probably a terrible brunette, probably even dark-skinned. The most beautiful blond guys often pulls to black-haired  ugly girls. Amaranta has never seen a blonde handsome boy with a blonde beautiful girl. And she is just a blonde. The elf cannot pull to her. And she is just pulling to him, as with a witch magnet. The heart beats like a bird in a cage.

 She wanted to the marriage bed with Dagda. With an elf, not with a man. She wanted to be on the place of Medea Shai, even if she will have to exchange her beautiful appearance on an ugly black-colored body. Judging by the appearance of the ugly creature caught in a cage, all her subjects are ugly. So, their mistress is still more disgusting. But the beautiful, like a dawn, Dagdu, for sure likes her. After all, the opposites, as everyone knows, mutually reacts. He, as a clear morning, she, as a nightmare. By uniting, they can rule two peoples immediately and become half a stronger. Such a marriage pair will be obeyed and beautiful elves, and all-conditioning monsters. How successfully everything will work out!

Amaranta felt that she would faint now. Theobald supported her.

“Do you feel bad?”

“Just a headache.”

“Do you want to sit down?”

In the corner there was an elegant bench with an openwork back. Next to it fled from the wall a fountain. From above, the water fell on the marble seashells of the droplets, at the bottom of the jets. Amaranta has always become better from the proximity of water. She never thought about Watermen, which are allegedly able to control people through water flows.

“It's bad that if Medea Shai and Dagda connect, they can go to war against us, and against the whole world,” Theobald recognized the evidence of the threat.

“But Dagda seems to be against war and bloodshed.”

“Yes, this rejection is associated with the past, in which he was forced to fight against his own, when the magic folk shared the territory before the appearance of people on earth. After a forced mortal fight with his best friend, he brought a vow to prevent senseless victims. But Medea Shai can poison the consciousness of anyone. From her castle goes such evil that people, having been there lost their reason, and throw away to kill everyone in a row. Even with the royal messengers, this happened and then there was a mass confusion due to the decrees near them. And Medea Shai laughed from her castle over the human stupidity so that the earth was shaken.

“She must be killed, and it is impossible to love her!”

"But if Dagda wants to please her, then he will fight the first thing against us."

“And what can be done?”

“Seduce him!”

“What?!”

“ He likes you. I noticed how the elf looks at you. Flirt with him. Hint what is also not indifferent to him, but you can not betray her husband. Let him dry by you, not getting anything.”

“Do you suggest me to drive him behind his nose?”

“This is to benefit. He can not focus on the queen of evil. Let him sympathize and the mortal girls. Then he will not want to exterminate us.”

Infanta still flashed into the poultry house, and she became bad. Amaranta has never seen the magic bird in a pre-corrupt state.

“There are some cells around!” she was damaged. “All birds are in the cells!”

“The wings of Infanta became so weak that she collapsed to the legs of Amaranta.

“Bring me from here, Mrs.!”

Hurray, Infanta has already become called her Mrs. and not a girlfriend. The sight of cells and locks taught something even a proud magic bird.

"I'll think about how will be best to all of us," promised Amaranta.

“Just do not tell Angus! He is extremely jealous and sometimes hot-tempered.

“You offer me them both to deceive: and king of elves, and my husband.”

“ Sometimes human lives are more important than honesty.”

This is already a good argument. Amaranth didn’t want to imagine, what happened here when war was carried out between people and elves. After all, the power is clearly not equal.

“What if elves now listen to us through the locking wells and cracks between the worlds? Then they already know everything about our insidious plans.”

Theobald did not think about it, and his appearance was concerned. The knight even excitedly looked around. Amaranta, when she left, really it seemed that Dagda watches her into some kind of secret window and laughs from anticipation.