The Time Capsule

Chapter 18: The Flower of Youth

Chapter 18: The Flower of Youth

***NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR*** I'm sure most of you are aware of the fact that by now I have, most unfortunately slipped up and revealed Aline as 'mine' in the previous chapter. I'm sure you've also noticed that this story is told in third person. I am allowing the writer to keep my mistakes because it shows that I am human, something that will be pivotal as the story progresses. We are all human in this way, we can all make mistakes, get tricked, but we all find a way back in the end. Except in my case, the way back seems next to impossible. Why, you ask? How were you tricked? How could you possibly be writing this to us now? 18 parts in (that's a lot) and I realized I haven't told you very much about my true identity, which is quite foolish as my time is short. Any minute, any second now, I could be tracked down and they'll find me...this book was meant to be my note-***NOTE FROM AUTHOR ENDS

.....

Angelica now sat at an empty table, the plates gleaming clean, having just magically washed themselves after she licked the last spot of gravy off the spoon. She looked somewhat ashamed about finishing the meal so quickly, but the young fairy let out a soft, tinkly laugh.

"You eat very quickly!" Aline said. "We like that about humans, so quick to accept help. Makes it easier to form deals. We've  had many wars with other species because they didn't understand us, or our ways. Because they wanted to take what wasn't rightfully theirs. Our magic is not to be taken lightly." 

From what Angelica had already seen of their magic, she knew not to disagree. She was sitting in a tree stump right now, surrounded by the unknown and quite literally caved in by ignorance. There was so much about this world that she didn't know, and so much that she wanted to learn. This young fairy could tell her anything, how she had been shrunken down from her normal human size to fit inside here, how the chandeliers in the dance hall reflected so much light and yet, the young girl didn't have a shadow...and come to think of it, what had happened to Jillian? And what was this 'war' that everyone kept mentioning? 

"You have a look of curiosity," said Aline, looking rather curious herself as she studied Angelica. "You want to know everything about us...your father was just the same." 

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Angelica asked. "I just want to know where I am..." 

"You are in the trunk of the fairy hive," Aline answered calmly. 

"Yeah," Angelica said. "I worked that much out for myself, funnily enough." 

Aline seemed almost disappointed that her show of words didn't sway Angelica but moved to turn on a light, splaying dramatic shadows across the wall. Angelica assumed this was some kind of theater for fairies, but still couldn't help noticing that Aline herself had no shadow cast upon the wall. Why did this bother her so much? Where was Levi to ask annoying questions when she really needed him? 

"It's really time you knew the things that would have helped you upon entry to our kingdom," said Aline. "The war with the humans and the Wordsmiths devastated our kind ten years ago. You have only seen the upper class here, fancy dresses, ballroom dances, wine..." 

The images changed to even darker shadows, an old man with an almost skeletal spine, wings barely clinging onto his back. Children were crying, mothers came home hungry and gave what they could to their young. The leaves on the trees were burning bare, crumpled and falling to the ground, dead. Angelica gave an involuntary shudder as a gust of wind blew threw the room. 

"Was it always like this?" Angelica asked, her eyes wide when Aline shook her head. "What happened?" 

"We lost the war," Aline said simply. "Hundreds of families were devastated, children left motherless. Widows left and right, and then the ghosts came. That was perhaps the most terrifying thing."