The Vampire and His Fairy

Smoke rose around her, it was so thick she could not see, she could barely breathe. She heard screams of people all around her. She thought to herself: “This can’t be happening again! I lived through this already! Please let this be a dream!” The sounds of metal clashing with metal as people around her fought. The sounds were deafening. She was crawling along the ground. She was trying to find something she could use as a sense of direction to the outside the house. As she crawled, she stumbled onto the body of the Fairy Queens bodyguard. This was her parents' personal guard. She wanted to scream, but she knew if she did she would be caught. She could sense the forest she grew up in, it was in flames. She could hear the older trees scream in pain of both loss and injury, tears started to streak her face. She heard her father yelling orders for evacuation locations. She followed the sound of his voice through the smoke. As she got closer she could see people moving about quickly. She got to her feet and started walking as quickly as she dared. She hated the fact that she was still too young to fly fast or long distances. The most she was able to do was fly across her room. As she moved through the smoke, it cleared enough that she finally saw the survivors and her father. Finally, she was safe. Or so she thought, just as she reached her father, that is when She appeared. People called her the Dark Queen, what her name was no one knew, and if they did, they would not speak it for fear of summoning Her to them. The Dark Queen form could be seen through the smoke, a horror from a nightmare a spider-like form with the torso of a woman. Around her, this darkened aura poured off her like poison, even her own men did not want to be close to her. My own people screamed at the sight of her, even she wanted to hide at the sight of her. The Fairy King pushed his daughter behind him in an attempt to protect her. The survivors nearby rushed behind the King. The warriors nearby came up in attack formation ready. The Dark Queen came closer, the guards did not back down in fear, even those the princess was sure they were scared. The closer She came, the more the princess was sure that this was not just an evil person, but dark magic was involved. She had never seen dark magic in person but had read about it in her studies. Being a fairy, she learned magic and the differences of each kind. Her brother Tel’faine came up with another group of soldiers. He stood close to his father, the King. The King turned and looked and saw both his children and said to his son: “Get your sister safe!” Tel’faine nodded. She could see he wanted to say something, but there was no time. He turned and grabbed her hand and led her away with some of the other survivors. As the smoke engulfed them, she heard the sounds of fighting and screams. She fought back tears, she did not know if her father was still alive, she did not know where her mother was, all she knew was burning down around her. She could not tell where Tel’faine was leading them, but she hoped it would be safe. As they got farther from the sounds of war, the smoke cleared some, and she could make out that they were headed towards the Eastern part of the Forest Kingdom. She hoped they were safe. When they stopped to rest, the smoke was almost gone. She was so tired she fell asleep on the ground next to a big tree. Her brother let her sleep. It had been a long night, in the dense forest it was still dark, although he knew it was morning already. He sat there too worried to sleep. He did not know what happened to their father or their mother, let alone the rest of the family. What he knew of the Dark Queen did not lend any hope that many people were left alive. He was scared, he wished he knew how the Fae would come back from this if at all. He knew that there were different groups that either wanted to enslave the Fae or kill them all, but he did not think anyone would actually do something like this. He sat there with a deep feeling of hopelessness, he just wanted some guidance about what to do. Instead, he was left feeling clueless, and lost with the responsibility of looking after his sister. The forest was quiet. He did not know how long they had been sitting there, but he knew they needed to get moving again. He did not want to wake his sister, he was able to slip his arms under her and carry her so she could sleep. He flew away. He was trying to make it to the border. The Woodland Elves were allies. He hoped they would give them shelter as well as aid for the survivors. His senses started to go crazy. There was something not right. He could not pinpoint where though, he stopped and hovered midair trying to figure out why or what was off. He had two choices: either go a longer way to the Elves or risk everything and keep going. Time was something he did not have that he knew very well. However, they would not be able to get help if they were caught and killed. He decided to risk it and keep going. He went higher up in the canopy of the forest and flew even faster than he was. They had to make it. He then saw what he was sensing: the Dark Queen and her minions. Her foul aura filled the forest and made all living beings run for their lives. He was out of time and he knew it. He stayed as silent as he could, he focused on getting to his destination. The Dark Queen sensed them even though they were high up. She ordered the net throwers to be ready. Her guards do as they are ordered. The whole group goes quickly to get in front of them. Just as they are both in view, the net throwers get ready and take aim. Once they are ready, they fire the crossbows that are specially designed to shoot nets. The nets take flight and wrap around both of the fairies, it causes them to fall from the air to the ground in a loud thud. The Dark Queen is pleased she caught the two royal children before they could cause any trouble. She was going to enjoy this greatly, she had such wonderful plans for their deaths. The Dark Queen smiled to herself, this was almost too easy. Taking over one kingdom was the first step in her plan to take over the world of Karth’ven. She knew it would be simple, but she did not think it would be this easy. “Well, you did not make it far enough, did you, boy? No matter your family will be disappointed in your failure, won’t they?” The Dark Queen said with a smile. She knew this would be enough to start breaking the boy. He was going to be the best food that Her Heart had in a long while. They were dragged back to where the Dark Queen was keeping her special prisoners, a hole in the garden of the Palace Tree, where they were thrown in. Their family was in a way where there were three of their sister-cousins and four brother-cousins, but not their mother or their father were there. For them, that was hopeful that meant one of them might have made it to get help from their allies. All they had was hope in this dark hole in their once beautiful home. Then the next few days were some of the worst for them. One by one someone would be taken, and they would hear the screams and then there would be nothing but silence. For Kataya, the forest was anything but silent. It was it screamed at the pain that the Dark Queen was inflicting or weeping from the destruction that she had caused. Tel’faine tried his best to comfort her, but he could tell that it did little to help. He knew about her gift but did not know how to help. Finally, they were the last ones in the hole. They both knew that the chances of them getting out alive were slim to none. They waited in the darkness of the hole, then the guards came for them. Instead of taking only one as they had been doing, they took both of them from the pit. As they were taking them to the Dark Queen, she could see ashen statues of those she had killed. It was like they were standing in total fear when her power hit them. As they drew closer, her heart felt like it was in her throat just when she thought she could not bear this nightmare, Kataya woke up with a start. She found herself lying on the small pile of straw she used as a bed. She saw the gray stone walls of her chamber, she sat up and pulled her knees to her chin she cried into them. She had not had that dream in quite a while, but even still it broke her heart every time. Thinking about everything that happened that fateful night, she lost her home, her family, even her people. She knew little of what happened to her people. What she knew was from stories others told her. None of the stories were good. There had been raids of the Kingdom, many fairies were taken as slaves to witches or dragons. She knew she had been lucky to be sold to humans, they at least would not kill her for some potion or just for her wings. “Lucky!” she snorted the word out load. The day before, she had not been so lucky. The Quartermaster was allowed to have his way with her, which meant pain and his s****l pleasure. She had been thrown back into her chambers, which was unusual. He normally left them wherever he finished. She looked down at herself and saw the dried blood from the whipping. She looked at the bruises as well as the gashes on her sides where the whip had dug deep in her flesh. Each movement shot pain into her body. Then she remembered he had r***d her, she felt dirty in a way that made her feel like dying. She remembered the pain of each thrust, and she looked down and saw the dried blood between her legs, more tears streamed down her face. She smelled of dirt as well as blood, her hair was a disaster, she did not want to think about what state her wings were in, the joys of not being allowed to wash properly. “Why can’t that dream go away like everything else?” I thought to myself. It had been so long since the Dark Queen’s attack, yet I was still plagued with the memories of that fateful night. I watched as the morning light crept into the barred window of my chamber. "I wonder if there's more that I could be. Will I always be a slave?" I had these thoughts often. I wished for more than these gray stone walls. I longed to be able to fly free, something I had never done before. As these thoughts were lingering in my mind, I heard him, the Quartermaster.