Fairy Deals Chapter 01 G/t

I was flying towards the river. It was early in the morning…very early in fact everything seemed to be light blueish grey, but I didn’t think it was unsafe to fly like this. I knew my way around after all. Other early birds flew past me probably also to get some water. When I arrived close enough to the river, I landed on a mushroom attached to the trunk of a tree. I stretched my arms over my head and popped a few of my bones. With a yawn I looked around for any danger. I saw some birds my size calmly drinking and bathing in the shallow, calm water so I decided I shouldn’t have second thoughts. I hovered a little in the air before flying near the flock of birds. They gave me some curious looks but other than that I didn’t seem to bother them when I landed.

I walked in the river, the water was around my knee’s height. I washed my face, hand drunk a little. It was so refreshing. After that I just sat down and washed all over my body, my wings felt so nice in this cold water. I flopped them a little to splash some water just for fun. Something big splashed in the water almost right next to me. I got a little startled I admit, but I quickly calmed down when I saw the green frog swimming away from me deeper in the water. He had some fun too. Jumping in the water from a rock that was like a small cliff in there. I smiled and let out a small sigh. My silver hair grew long enough, it was almost as long as tall I was.

“Lya, you will have to cut it soon, it can be dangerous midair.” I thought. As I stood up I brushed my long hair with my fingers and flopped my wings to get them dry. “Gotta get breakfast!” I talked to myself and took off again, still not interesting the birds I bathed with. Humming a tone from my childhood I flew over a path used by the greater ones. Of course they wouldn’t be up just yet but I still wasn’t comfortable being around it. I shook myself from that thought and proceeded to a raspberry bush I remembered from a few days ago. On my way there I passed several trees growing unbelievable sized fruits, apples, pears, even prunes. The Gods really do think of all their creatures. I thought smiling.

When I arrived to the clearing giving home to the raspberry bush some samples of sunlight already shined through the thick layer of foliage above. I saw the bush. Something seemed to twinkle on it in the light…but I thought it was just dew…at the time, I didn’t know any better. I rushed to it to land on it’s branches and start to pick the better looking fruits, but I flew into something.

Something stopped me just in arm’s reach of the leaves. It was like a spider’s web, but it was way thicker and it didn’t stick. I flew into it so quickly…it completely wrapped around me. I was trying to turn back, but I was completely surrounded by it! I pulled on it and tried to fit through it, but the holes on it weren’t wide enough for me to fit through. In only a few minutes I got completely trapped, I could barely move my hands or my wings. I had no idea what animal could’ve made this web. A giant spider maybe.

I was so angry at myself. I should’ve been way more careful! When I couldn’t move anymore I had to catch my breath and save my power. I was captured by something…when it comes to eat me, I will need my strength to fight back and possibly escape.
It’s been hours like this hanging there, the sun came up and shined everything through with it’s yellow light. Soon the flock of birds I met by the river arrived. They were way cleverer than me. I was probably a sign to them to be more careful I assumed. They tested the branches to sat on and soon they started to calmly dine. But I had a feeling they were laughing at my misfortune.

Later in the day they left when some familiar sounds were heard from far away in the bushes. It was the speech of the great ones. Soon I could even hear as their huge bodies moved through the plants, they didn’t walk too silently and I heard they were coming in my direction.

“-Great.” I thought. Maybe they can free me. They would be big enough to rip through the web, like they do with spider webs. I’ve seen that before, a youngling great one was playing with spider webs and ripped it like it was nothing. Very soon one of them appeared from behind the trees. My heart suddenly dropped. Sure I wanted to play tough, but…as that thing slowly, carrying it’s huge weight appeared in it’s blackness and crashed everything under it’s feet as it walked. I suddenly felt the ground tremble and it shook the whole bush, including the branches my net prison was attached to.

“-H-hey! Over here!” I shouted to the creature. My voice was way weaker than I expected it to be. But it heard me. God it heard me.

“-Catch!” It shouted to the others I heard it was with. I gasped at it’s loud voice was way worse than I already readied myself to. And what it said…did that mean I thought it did… I didn’t have much time to be surprised as it quickly made it’s way to my prisoned self, and god, it towered over me like a bear! It seemed to be either fat, or very strong, but he was indeed well fed. It had a long, curly dark brown beard, it was wearing furs and leathers on it’s body. When it arrived near me I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. I couldn’t. It kneeled down to me and I heard all the huge bones in it’s body making weird flashy sounds. It’s face soon came to view. It was gigantic! I was just about taller than the length of it’s nose. It’s green eyes were locked on me and I saw the widest grin on it’s face.

“-There there we got trapped, huh?” He giggled in his ungodly deep voice. The warm air from it’s breath surrounded me and I had to close my eyes. I fell into the trap of a great one. Just fantastic. But…they don’t usually eat fae, at least that’s what I heard. They obviously didn’t mean to catch me right? It was an accident…they wanted…birds…yeah, that’s what they eat. Birds.

“-Yeah. I’m sorry.” I tried to smile back at him. “-Could you please untie me…please? Please.” I tried to giggle like it’s all a huge misunderstanding and we should just forget about it right now.

“-Sure, I’ll untie you, lass.” Answered the beast shortly. I almost felt a little relief when I saw it’s huge hand arriving under me and it cupped me from below.

“-Just be careful…please.” I had to add ‘Please’ to every single one of my sentences, I guess fear makes you polite. The great one answered still grinning.

“-Sure thing. We don’t want to damage that pretty body of yours, right? White ones like you are pretty rare.” I guess he was right. My mom had my hair color but I didn’t really know anyone else with it. Yellow, pink and blue were the usual colors. He was reaching down to his side and shortly brought up a gigantic, shiny metal knife.

“-Didn’t we agree that we don’t want to hurt me?” I quickly squeaked in panic. He giggled. I was so glad he had a great time with this. I rolled my eyes.

“-This isn’t my first time, kid. I know how to cut one of you out.” That was…weird. Encounters with their kind and us were supposed to be rare occurrences. But…I’m sure he just meets a lot of us using his weird bird trapping net on raspberry bushes. I couldn’t believe I was in such a denial at that point still.

His blade arrived next to my face. From up close like this I saw it’s edge was blunt, but it must have looked sharp for HIM. But it still did what it had to, with sawing motions he cut through some critical points of the rope and then he turned me over to continue. I silently waited for him to finish. I started to think about what I will give him as a reward when he’ll set me free. Seven years of good luck, maybe? He will expect something…

I was trying not to concentrate to the fat fingers turning me around doing whatever they wanted to me. I did feel the net slowly releasing me and I could move my arms around finally so I was not alarmed. In a few minutes I saw him putting his knife away. When he reached for me with the now free hand, he grabbed the net on me and pulled the whole thing from around me with one motion.
He really seemed like he’s done this before. I was ready to pull myself up and get my wings ready to fly, when suddenly the pressure from the net returned. The great one’s grasp tightened around me and I felt him stand up.

“-Wha…what are you doing? You can let me go now…” I shouted as loud as I could with my lungs being pressed by his clutches.

“-Who said anything about letting you go?” He giggled again from above. I felt he was very happy with himself. But I only truly realized what his words meant when I felt his hand move, suddenly bars appeared around me and I was put down. His fingers released me and I fell down on a ground with some hay on it. I tried to push the hand from me and get as far away from it as possible, but when I wanted to leave all I saw were bars covered with nets everywhere. His…it’s hand moved away through an opening, and it quickly closed the door that would’ve been my only escape.

“-Is it intact?” Another huge voice sounded from above. It was from a man who was holding my prison, a huge cage. I felt it move and I sat down because I knew eventually I would fall over in this moving hell. The other great one lifted the cage up to his face so he can inspect me too.

“-Great, you didn’t tear this one’s wing.” It smiled at me with an almost innocent expression. But what it said…I got nauseous. Was the fact that it’s friend didn’t mutilate me was really an achievement?

“-You never gonna let that go, right? It was that one time and it still sold.” The fat one answered.

“-Yeah for half the price.” The younger one said as it lowered my cage next to his waist and started to walk.

“-Most of our customers will tear them themselves anyway, I don’t get why you’re so on about it.”

“-At least let them have the pleasure, they are paying for them after all.” I think I went to a state of shock by that point. I was staring at my hands grabbing onto some hay with dry eyes, too scared to cry. The bumps were horrible, this cage was horrible, these two monsters were horrible and I was horrible for letting all this happen! I’m going to be sold to some monster who will find pleasure in tearing my limbs off! I felt weak and my eyesight slowly turned dark. I felt weird fuzz in my head and I collapsed.

***

I woke up to a sharp sound. I’ve never heard anything like it. My head hurt so badly! The sharp noise repeated and I popped my eyes open and jumped. I quickly looked around and took in my surroundings. I wasn’t in the cage anymore, in fact I saw a piece of the blue sky right in front of me. I bolted towards it, there was no way I’ll miss my chance! But only after a step I bumped into something. I fell back and held my head, now it hurt even more. What did I bump into? I looked around more and to my left, there was a huge face. I froze and didn’t breathe for a few seconds. I saw a hand too, probably attached to the owner of that face. It was reaching for me, but, couldn’t grab me. It’s hand stopped in nothing like I just did. Then I saw it’s gigantic mouth move and it talked.

“-G-L-A-S-S.” It explained “-Don’t run into it. It hurts.” Yeah I noticed thank you for the expert advice, beast! His voice was muffled and muted. It almost sounded like normal speaking volume, still a bit louder, but bearable.

“-At least she’s alive. I was convinced you wanted to screw me over.” It said and looked up over me. I turned and saw the belly of the fat one.

“-Does she know any tricks?” The previous great one said, and I turned back to it scowling at him. Tricks? Seriously? You kidnapped me and selling me and you expect me to juggle or something?

“-Look it’s really rare and in good condition, the price is fair.” I heard the fat one’s voice again. I didn’t turn to him this time. He betrayed me, he was dead to me. I looked at the customer stroking it’s gigantic chin. It didn’t look convinced.

“-Can she at least tell jokes?” It raised the question. I was offended by that. Am I not good enough for this great one? I’m rare and pretty and I’m ‘intact’. If anything he should plead to have me. Then I realized…wow I’m being sold and I’m thinking of myself as merchandize already?

“-It was caught in the wild, it doesn’t know tricks and can’t tell jokes. What you see is what you get, so thirty gold is fine?” The fat one started to be annoyed with this kid.

“-Thirty? With factory settings? I will give you twenty and not a silver more!” The customer beast stated.

“-But it’s a white one! Come on! Thirty is a great price!” My kidnapper argued.

“Hm…” The younger one was thinking looking at me, taking my whole body in. I looked back at it’s deep brown eyes and I couldn’t look away.

“Nah.” It. concluded. “Twenty-five tops. And you know you won’t get a better offer than that around here.” It said and stood up. I understood now that I was placed in this ‘glass’ object on a giant table of theirs. And now that it rose to his full height I was facing a part of his body I really didn’t want to have a second look on, I quickly turned to the side and watched what other things were on the table.

I saw huge, round shaped braces made out of shiny stone. Something the great ones called silver. These must have been jewelry for them… they looked more like army equipment for me. Over the silver objects, far away I saw another glass thingy, like mine. And I could make out something blue was in it.

“-One of my sisters, Syla!” I yelped and put my hand on the glass and tried to see better, when suddenly everything around me moved, and I was lifted from the table. This glass was terrifying! Nothing was under me but it still held me. I’m not afraid of heights but I wasn’t flying, and that was scary. I was lifted way up to eye level of the great ones. The table I was just on seemed a little more normal to me now. But I knew something has happened. I looked around and saw fingers all around the glass. They were holding me but weren’t touching me. They made everything look so much darker, blocking out the natural light like that. I saw the face of the customer beast past them. It was the one holding my glass prison.

“-So deal?” The fat one asked.

“-Deal.” The younger one answered.

I was sold. Just now. To this thing! But…my sister! I quickly turned back to where she was and I saw her glass being held by another one of them, it turned her around examining her…like some fruit on a market.

“-Let her go” I shouted and started to tap on the glass, trying to get the monster’s attention. My tears finally appeared on my face. I couldn’t cry for myself, but I could cry for my family.

“-She your friend?” I heard. I looked back at my holder…my owner. He had a confident smile.

“-My…my sister! Don’t let them hurt her! Please! I’ll do anything!” I shouted as loudly as I could because I assumed the glass muted my voice too on the other side. He seemed to have understood me because it’s grin just grew bigger. He lowered me to his chest height. It was so sudden I yelped.

“-What about that one?” I heard him say. What was he doing?

“-That’s a common blue, that’s ten gold.” I heard another voice answering.

“-I’ll take her too.” My owner said. I looked up but I couldn’t see his face from the cap that closed me in here. Did he really mean it? He did this because I asked him to?

“-There ya go kid” I heard, and saw my owner reach his free hand to pick up my sister’s glass. It seemed so incredibly small from this angle. She looked like a little ornament in there. A tiny little pretty something. That was what we seemed like to them? Just…pretty little things?

“-Don’t drop her!” I said half loud when he raised her up past me to his face. He didn’t even take a good look at her before buying her like how he did it with me. I heard Syla scream. The sudden movement was indeed very scary, and being stared at by a great one from that close was horrifying, I didn’t blame her. My owner’s response was laughter to her terror. Yeah this was different for him, he had no reason to take this seriously.

After a few seconds I saw her glass being lowered next to mine. The glass walls knocked together and I saw Syla crouching in a corner in the glass, crying. She looked up at the sound of the knock, and that’s when she noticed me. Her expression changed instantly. She smiled and was excited, but quickly realized the situation and her face saddened once more. But at least she wasn’t all alone in this anymore.
The great one holding us started to move. It was horrible. Seeing what was going on underneath us in the depths. His steps were slow, steady and long. I heard him hum something as he walked. I looked up…

“-Hey” I shouted to him. I hoped he would hear. Soon my prison moved again, up to his face. He was still smiling, very happily.

“-What?” He asked shortly stopping his humming to hear what I had to say.

“-Are you going to let us go?” I asked him. I had to know. My prison shook instantly. I thought he was going to drop me. But it just shook and shook in rhythm with his loud, long laughter.

“-And they said you couldn’t tell jokes!” He giggled.