In Search of Auria (7 page)

“And since I ate all your fruits,” Erik
continued, raising the first bag, “I brought you a full bag.” Auria
took it and looked inside.

“You didn’t have to do this,” she said,
making eye contact.

“Please, accept it as an apology. And also,
to show my gratitude for not killing me when you had the chance, I
present you this.” Erik picked up the second bag and put it upright
on the table.

“What is it?” Auria asked. Erik carefully
pulled down the bag, and when he revealed the gift inside, Auria’s
eyes bloomed with emotion.

“Oh, it is so pretty. I have never seen such
an elegant flower. What is it?”

“It’s called a sunflower. You know, since
you like the sun so much, and it has its shape, I thought it
would---” Erik cut his sentence short when Auria jumped and hugged
him.

“Oh, thank you so much!”

Erik shyly hugged her back. He felt her
soft, silky wings; the feminine curves on her body; the captivating
warmth of her being. She then looked at him and said, “I will put
it at the balcony”. She pushed away and took the sunflower. Erik
remained still, with a vague smile on his face.

It went on to be a fine morning, snacking on
the fruits and chatting about the “fairy life” up in the treetops.
Erik asked her how old was she, and she answered that she had lived
through 33 summers. Erik was stunned. She was 33, but her attitude
and appearance were of a 22 or 23 year old damsel. That meant the
daystars aged slower than humans. But if that were so, Erik
wondered how old the elder fairy was.

Auria explained that the elder was her 120
year old grandfather, named Glorio, and the boy was her 18 year old
cousin, called Beam. Erik couldn’t put an age on Glorio, since he
was older that any man he knew, but Beam looked like a 12 year old
kid. Auria continued saying that Glorio was the eldest of the
daystars, and held an authority of wisdom among the fairies. And
Beam was energetic and adventurous. He sometimes liked to disappear
for weeks in the forest, just exploring and flying around. They had
both passed by for a visit.

Nearing noon, Auria made Erik a meal. She
took some of the uneaten fruits and cut them into pieces. She put
them in a large wooden bowl with water and submerged her hand
inside.

“What are you doing?” Erik asked. She looked
at him and smiled, keeping her hand still at the bottom of the
bowl. Suddenly, a bubble burst on the surface. Then another and
another, until Erik finally realized she was using the Sear on the
water. She made the water boil with the intense heat of her
hand.

“Who needs fire?” Auria joked, making him
laugh. She added some spices and some, yellow, sticky lumps of
something and stirred the soup.

When she served it, she called it Writhe
Stew. It tasted quite good and earthy. After eating, Erik leaned
out to the balcony, enough to not be seen. On the neighboring tree,
he saw a peculiar hole beside the door of a house. It was big
enough to fit in.

“Auria, the hole beside the door, what is it
for?” he asked.

Auria went to see, “Oh, that’s the home of a
writhe. We make them by carving an upright tunnel, just under the
bark of the tree.” Erik wondered what type of animal a writhe was
until he saw one crawling out of the hole. It was simply a big,
pudgy, brown caterpillar. Its tiny legs moved quickly, carrying its
plump body. A fairy kid opened the front door and fed it
leaves.

“So,” Erik said sourly, “the stew I just ate
had maggot?”

“Yes,” Auria answered beaming.

“…Splendid!” Erik expressed, hiding his
disgust with a fake smile.

He mentally tried to prepare his stomach for
what it was about to digest, when he started to hear a drumming. He
peeked outward again and saw a male fairy on top of a high branch.
He was hitting a hollow trunk with sticks.

“Hey, Auria, is he playing music?” Erik
asked, but he immediately discovered it wasn’t what it seemed. A
life-sized crow darted over the fairy and snatched him away,
clutching his head with its claws.

“What the hell!”

Auria ran outside to the balcony just to see
another crow rush by. She ran back in and closed the balcony,
lowering the wall painting.

“Auria, what are those things?” Erik
bawled.

“They are the Corvus. It is bit cloudy; they
sometime come when the sun cannot appear.” She then went to the
front door, but Erik grabbed her by the wrist.

“Wait, you can’t go out there. That guy just
became their food,” he said.

“I have to help my kind, especially the
children. You stay.” She freed her hand from his grip and went
out.

“Auria, wait!”

Erik went after her, but when he came out to
the landing, it was madness. The corvus and daystars were clashing
in the air, a type of battle Erik hadn’t seen before. The daystars
ganged up on the birds, grabbing them by the neck and wings,
forcing them to crash against the trees. But the crows were too
strong. They flapped their sharp wings and cut the fairies with
their sharp primary feathers. Others tried to burn them with their
hands, but it only caused slight damage to their slick feathery
coat.

Only one had the strength to kill the birds
of prey; a male fairy with a vine jacket and wooden gauntlets. He
flailed his wings and flew up high. An aura started to revolve
around his wings and shifted into his back. The shine ran along his
arms and ended in his palms with an outstanding flash. The daystar
then outstretched his hands when rays of bright gold shot out his
palms, burning and slicing to pieces every corvus caught in the
way. The rays waved like water as the daystar changed direction.
But, he could only keep it up for so long. A crow whizzed from
behind and tackled him. There were just too many flying about. The
daystars were losing.

Erik had to do something. Auria was flying
around these monsters. He took his shield and sword and climbed
down from the corridor. He landed on a branch where he saw a corvus
dragging a young fairy by the foot. The fairy helplessly screamed
for help as Erik charged to the rescue. He slammed the bird on the
side, making it open its beak and releasing the boy. The crow
turned and looked at Erik as if he were its next meal.

“Not today, you overgrown chicken!”

The crow cawed as it jumped to him with
opened wings. It attacked with a peck, but Erik hopped to the side
and cut its beak off. The crow fled away with a high pitched cry.
When Erik offered to help the fairy to his feet, the kid refused
with a fearsome stare. He got up by himself and flew off.

“Well, you’re welcome!” Erik yelled. He then
ran up the branch when another bird darted for him. It opened its
claws to clutch him from above. Erik blocked with the shield, but
the bird grabbed it around the corners and lifted him up. The bird
flapped its wings with tremendous power, soaring to reach the top
of the forest. They passed and whirled through branches and the
ongoing battle, until Erik had enough. He grinded his sword against
the shield’s rim, slicing off several of the bird’s toes. The bird
cried and released Erik. He landed on one of the higher branches,
almost rolling off.

There were lots of houses on that height,
with lots of crows pecking at them, too. On the same branch as
Erik’s was a grown female fairy protecting half a dozen younglings.
These were too young to fly, so she was doing everything she could
to keep the corvus at bay. Erik dashed to help. He went to the
closest bird, cut off its left wing and kicked it over the edge.
The fairy got shocked to see a land dweller, but it only distract
her. A corvus bit her hand while another was about to peck her
chest open. Erik jumped over the younglings and put his shield over
the woman just in time. She then pulled her arm off and punched the
bird away, while Erik thrust his sword through the chest of the
other.

“Take them inside,” Erik told her. She
gathered up the younglings and hustled to the nearest house. Erik
kept the birds at bay until they were safe inside.

“Come on, you flying roaches! You can’t keep
up with me!” barked Erik. But suddenly the birds became wild,
cawing in unison and flying in circles above. Erik didn’t know what
to make of it, until a shadow loomed over him. The biggest of the
corvus had arrived. Erik heard the deafening flapping of its wings
and felt the pressure of its gust as it passed over him. It landed
on the branch with a heavy thump.

This crow was different from the rest. Other
than being triple the size of the smaller ones, its color was more
grayish than black. It had a crest of blue feathers on the back of
its head, and the end of its tail was yellow.

Erik looked back to check on the younglings
one more time. The female fairy was at the door of the house,
holding it open for him. But, another fairy pushed her and closed
it shut. He heard all the doors slamming shut. He didn’t see any
fairies flying or fighting the corvus anymore. It was only him
against the flock.

“Hey, fairies, could use some help here,” he
called, but none responded. The great corvus stepped forward. It
slowly opened its wings with each step, until they were fully
spread. Erik strode backward, trying to think a strategy, but the
bird made its move. It lunged its beak forward, almost taking his
head off. It repeatedly jabbed on, with him only deflecting the
strikes with the shield. It felt like when he fought the giant
Sebastien; a lot of blocking and not much room for offense. The
bird continued its lunging until Erik got pushed all the way back
to the door of the house. With the door against his back, he
knocked with his elbow, hoping the fairies would let him in.

“We cannot! We cannot!” he heard from the
inside.

There was no escaping from the menace. But,
beside the door was a hole: the hole of a writhe. While the bird
was preparing to deliver a final peck, Erik tucked inside the hole
and covered the opening with the shield. He held it from within,
but the bird went after him, pecking with force. Every time it hit,
it shoved the shield in more and more. If it kept going, it would
crush Erik inside the limited space. He groaned in pain after each
blow.

“No!” Auria yelled. She was inside one of
the nearby houses watching from a window. She went for the door,
pushing other fairies aside, but the powerful male fairy stopped
her.

“You cannot go,” he said. Auria looked
towards her grandfather, Glorio, but he shook his head. All she
could do was watch in distraught. Her eyes then filled with tears
when Erik stopped yelling. The bird had pushed the shield all the
way inside the hole. It looked as if Erik had been crushed! Auria
turned from the window and buried her face in her hands. The crow
turned around and gave a resonant shriek, having the rest of the
birds flying and swirling around. But, its victory caw did not
last. Erik broke through the bark above the bird and landed on its
back. Auria had told him that they carved the homes of the writhes
upward, close to the bark. He remembered that.

Once on the corvus’ back, Erik grabbed unto
the crest of its neck and held on. The bird bucked and twisted,
trying to flip him off. He managed to stand and stabbed the back of
the beast. The corvus cried and fell on its belly. It attempted to
stand, but Erik pulled hard on its crest, forcing it to stay. The
bird struggled, but Erik’s pull dominated it.

“Come on, turn your head,” Erik yelled,
“Look at me, you sick beast!”

The Great Corvus looked back at him and met
its end. Erik pointed his sword and thrust. With its head on its
side, the tip went through one eye and came out the other.

The bird jumped in pain, stumbling and
losing its senses. Its jolting flipped Erik off onto the branch.
The corvus attempted to fly away, but without its sight, it flew
directly into a tree. The impact twisted its neck with a snap, and
crashed down into the dark bottom of the forest. The other crows
panicked as they watched their leader fall. They rapidly flew out
of the canopy and fled in terror.

Erik got up on his feet and peeked down to
the bottom. He then yelled in victory, “Yes! You were no match for
me, you flying rat!”

The fairies started to come out their
shelters. Having witnessed his victory over the Great Corvus, they
all went to him from different sides. Some walked near him while
others floated around.

“You won’t have to fear any longer. The
monster is dead,” Erik said, but they did not respond. He went on
to the other side and tried again, “Sing and rejoice for the sky is
yours once more.” But again, they remained quiet. They just stared
at him and maintained their distance.

“Um, you guys aren’t even a little bit
happy?” Erik asked, raising his shoulders.

The daystars looked at one another and
murmured. From the crowd appeared Auria. She seemed worried. Erik
went walking to her when the powerful fairy landed right in front
of him. He stared at Erik with unmistakable abhorrence. Receiving
his unmerciful gaze, Erik understood Auria’s concern. Calmly, he
put away his weapons and said, “I do not wish any trouble. I come
in peace.”

The daystar didn’t seem to care.

“Oh, damn it,” Erik sighed, “I’m going to
have my arms tied behind my back, aren’t I?”

Ten minutes later, Erik was strapped to a
seat, tied from neck to toe. He could only buck his head back and
forth.

“Aw, come on!” he barked, “I just saved your
shiny butts from those flying rodents!”

The fairies had him against the wall of a
tree. They had gathered around him, whispering and muttering.
Glorio, Auria and the powerful fairy stood in front. The last
raised his hand and everyone went quiet.

“How did you get here, land dweller?” he
asked. Erik saw how Auria’s face frowned. She wanted to do
something, but the male fairy seemed to have authority over the
rest. Erik perceived she couldn’t go against him.