poemtry and prose

"Please come inside," the faerie in the middle called out to them.

Hazel gripped Cassie's hand and they stepped forward into the room. Hazel stopped and dropped to his knee, "Sire, I have found her as requested."

"Rise child," he said. Hazel stood. "And introduce us to your companion."

"Sire, my Ladies, i would love to present my friend to you. This is Miss Cassondra Brown," Hazel announced, gesturing both his hands towards her.

Cassie did not know what to do, so she bowed to each of them. "It is a honor and a pleasure to be in front of you."

The woman on the right waved at her, "Rise, daughter of Adam. We have much to discuss."

Cassie nodded her head. Everyone seemed so serious and formal. She guessed that if she had come at another time the Elders would be less formal.

The man spoke once more, his center eye blinked, "Hazel, please leave us, we would like to speak to Cassondra alone."

Hazel bowed once more. "It is okay Cassie. You are safe with them. I will be outside waiting for you." He placed his hand lovingly on her shoulder and leaving Cassie alone with the three Elders.

"Allow me to introduce myself and these lovely Ladies behind me," the Elder began, signaling for the other two to come forward. "I am Atim, Elder of the Dragonwind clan."

He waived his hand towards the Elder at his left, "That is Bridget, Elder of the Phoenixstone clan."

Cassie waived. Bridget folded her arms over her chest and winked.

"And this young Lady to my right is Innowen, the Elder for the Ravenflame clan."

Innowen waived, "Hello." She snapped her fingers and a table and four chairs appeared nearby.

"Please sit down. We have much to discuss," Atim said. He continued speaking as they sat, "Do you know why Hazel brought you here?"

Cassie nodded, "Well, I do not know the full details but he told me that there is something wrong. That someone or something is making the faeries here sick."

The Elders looked at one another and nodded. "You are very astute, Cassondra," Bridget said. "Yes, we have quite the plague and mystery on our hands."

Atim took over the narrative, "It started about two months ago. On the outskirts of the continent. A ship had come in from the Western countries carrying cargo. One of the men on board fell ill days before docking. The fishermen and townspeople were stumped. They had never seen anything like it. Their shamans did not recognize it either."

Atim cleared his throat before continuing. "They wrote to us describing the symptoms." A scrap of parchment appeared from thin air. Tri-lens reading spectacles appeared on the table. Atrim placed the spectacles on his face and began reading from the letter.

"Sire, we have not seen anything like this. Ever. The plague begins as such. First the afflicted contracts a fever. A fever never that never breaks. We tried placing blankets over them and fed water and healing potions to them, but they continue to shiver and sweat. Their body temperature never cools to normal. After a three or four days of this, the afflicted's skin breaks out in a rash. None of our known salves, potions, charms or healing chants seem to clear the constantly darkening red spots on the skin. Our immune system seems to completely dissolve the second the plague enters the body."

"On the fifth day, the plague morphs. The rash develops large, red scabs all over the skin. They do not itch or bleed at first, but after 4 hours after the first appearance of the scabs the afflicted twitches and cries out in pain. They complain that their body is afire, and if methods of restraints are not employed then they rip at their skin with hands or claws. If the afflicted has wings, they too become diseased; giant holes appear in them at this time, the skin's thin membranes drained dry of all liquid substances."

"We found that by the time the rash starts it is a wise idea to sedate the afflicted. This way they do not claw and rip apart the flesh on their skin as soon as the scabs appear. Shortly after their appearance they begin causing pain, they ooze with green pus. The afflicted's body hair begins to fall out at this time as well. The scabs continue to grow, feeding on the flesh and bone of the afflicted, wrapping them in a strange cocoon of pus, hair and skin. The afflicted remains in this position for three more days, unable to move or eat or speak. At this point, we cover the whole thing in a thin layer of pain-free healing salves, hoping that the person trapped inside does not continue to suffer in pain. Whether or not that salve has any effect is unknown, it just feels like the most compassionate thing to do."

"The third day after the body is surrounded in the cocoon, the unthinkable happens. We were not present at the time it happened to the sailor brought to us, as it was night time and every one had fallen asleep. But that next day, when we sent someone to check in on him, the whole thing had vanished! Not a trace of the body, cocoon or even any waste products left by the plague remained. It was as if the poor soul never existed at all."

"Once after we knew we were dealing with something new, we isolated the afflicted far from the rest of the port. We limited all contact, allowing only the afflicted's immediate kin, two shamen, myself and an attendant to keep watch. All in all there was no more than five people near the afflicted at any given time. We also secluded the ship's crew, confining them to their ship. Food was magically transported in and out of the two locations."

"Two days before the afflicted vanished, I spoke to the crew aboard the ship. I questioned the captain and the closest friends and mates of the afflicted. Where did the ship dock to? What cargo was it carrying? Did the afflicted disembark the ship when it docked? What did he eat, or go? Did he frequent any brothels? The ship's manifest did not list anything out of the ordinary. The ship had just returned from a small island off the coast. They traded fish and herbal and papyrus supplies for silk and tomacco plants. The plague did not seem to have come from the island or any contaminated cargo."

"I examined the crew as well. No one exhibited signs of the plague. No one complained of any illness or fever. They were concerned about the afflicted, of course; and wanted to know when we would lift the restriction placed on them and their ship. Men had families they wanted to see, the ship had two more coastal deliveries to make. We kept them separated for five days and found no further evidence of the plague. At that point, we had no choice to lift the ban and let them go free."

"News of the afflicted's death spread rapidly. We burned both hut and any personal effects from the afflicted's room aboard the ship. We hoped that in doing so, that would kill the plague. But we were wrong."

"A week passed, and all was well. Then two more people started showing the symptoms of the plague. One was an ogre, the other a herder beast. They died the same as the first afflicted, two weeks after the fever started."

"Sire, we fear the worst. This plague seems go undetected. We cannot tell how it gets transmitted from one body to the next. We have seen 10 cases of this in our town alone. And it is spreading. Rapidly. Two days ago, men from the southern towns arrived, spreading tales of the same plague symptoms we have been dealing with here. All attempts at creating a cure or diving where this horrid plague originated have failed."

"I write this letter in the hopes that maybe one of your shamen or seers has heard or seen news of this plague. And that a cure can quickly be manufactured or found. Let this parchment also serve as a warning to the lands inland and west of us. I fear that they too shall fall to this plague soon. Do not fear, I am quite certain that our blessing and cleansing rituals have removed any trace of contamination or plague that this paper has been in contact with. "

"In any case, please advise us. Tell us what we should do and supply us with any medicine that you may have to help us fight this."

A tear rolled down Innowen's cheek. "We received this parchment just days after the death of the first afflicted. We do not know of how many others have vanished due to this plague, but we do know that it has turned inland, spreading among the surrounding towns."

Atim removed the spectacles from his face. They and the parchment disappeared, returning to wherever vault they resided from. "We called the seers, shamans and mystics from all reaches of the world to the obelisk days after we received the letter. There must have been fifty men and women gathered here. Representing all the various races and clans."

"We read them the letter. And asked for their council. Giving them a week to divine, commune and read the ancient texts for any sign of this plague. What it was, where it came from, who unleashed it against us-- if possible, and most importantly, how do we cure and protect ourselves against it."

Bridget spoke next, "They came back to us after deliberating for quite some time. They choose a spoke-seer to address us three, telling us their methods, providing names of the texts they consulted and summarizing their findings. The poor seer, I could tell she was frightened beyond belief. I was not sure if she was terrified at what we could do to them if they failed or of the grave situation in general."

"Once she finished her summary, she stared at the ground. All the texts, all the gods, their divination tools said nothing about this plague. They, too, were at a loss for an explanation of what was going on and how we could stop it from spreading. Knowing that we would be disappointed with their answer, she offered one possible solution."

"That's where you come in," Atim stood. "We have been separated from the sons and daughters of Adam for quite some time now. While our two worlds border one another and in some cases mix, neither one of our kind knows the other is there."

"This brave seer, suggested that a solution could be found among a son or daughter of Adam. It was a long shot suggestion but it was also the best suggestion we heard. So we gathered everyone up once more, and had them seek out energies of people that we could enlist their help. But their search turned up nothing. It seemed like our only salvation turned into a dead end."

"We even sent out announcements to the towns, calling forth anyone who had contact with the sons and daughters of Adam, to step forth and assist our search," Innowen added, "Your friends Hazel and Stick came from their homes upon hearing our announcement. They came to the obelisk and told us about you. How they met you, what you were like. They even told us about your special gift of seeing colors."

"We called a few seers forward and they listened to Hazel and Stick speak as well. Some divined your essence into the cards, others watched your friends describe you. All the seers came to the same conclusion, your connection to Hazel and Stick and this world may provide us with an solution to this plague."

"We asked them to bring you to our world, before us," Bridget spoke. "They told us that they lost touch with you. They had gone into your world and could not find you where you normally hung out with them. So once again we turned to the mystics. Luckily for us, they found you."

Cassie nodded and smiled, "I am grateful for all your help in getting me out. I was sent to a not-so-happy place, where they dulled my sight and kept me away from them. As it stood, there was no way for me to get a message to Hazel and Stick, telling them what was going on. If I knew that they were going to take me, I would have tried to run away."

The Elders looked at one another and nodded.

"I will be honest with you. I am not sure how I can help you and your world, but I shall do anything I can to help you out. It is an honor to be chosen and I can only hope that I am able to do something. And to live up to your expectations."

Atim stood from the table and walked over to Cassie. He placed a rough hand on her shoulder, "All we ask is that you do your best. The three of us have given it some thought and we think we know what you can do to help."

Cassie relaxed her shoulders, "Great. I would love to hear them. When Hazel told me what was going on, my mind drew a blank on how I could help you. We have no disease, no sickness matching the symptoms you describe."

"Well, we consulted many of the ancient texts as well. We found a passage in one book that chronicled a tale of a hermit who lives in the mountain peaks just beyond Stonehaven. No one has ever climbed to the top of the mountains to verify whether or not the story held truth. We think that if there is such a hermit, and if they are still alive, that maybe they can provide us with some insight into a cure to the plague."

"Cassondra, daughter of Adam, we would like to send you out to investigate whether or not someone does live at the peak of those mountains and find out if they know anything about this plague."

Cassie blinked, startled, "I do not know my way around your world. Can Hazel and Stick come with me? I will do as you ask, but without their help I will get lost."

Bridget laughed at her question, "Cassondra, we would not dare think to separate you from your friends. Of course they will venture out with you. We have already talked to them and they are preparing for the journey."

"Okay, then. I will do it. I will go seek out this hermit and see if they have anything to say. But what happens if they do not know anything about this plague? What next?"

Innowen averted Cassie's piercing stare, "We do not know. We will figure something out when the time comes. Do not worry about things in the future that you cannot control."

Cassie started to smile, but before she could even get a smirk out, her stomach rumbled. Rather loudly too.

Bridget laughed out loud, "Oh my. That is one hungry stomach! Pray tell, when was the last time you had anything to eat?"

"Hazel cooked some blue eggs before we started hiking early this morning ma'am," Cassie said. "I know I am rather hungry but I did not want to be impolite."

"Child, it is us who have been rude and impolite," Bridget spoke. "We have already eaten our noonday meal but in our rush to speak with you we forgot our manners. We should have offered you something to eat. A snack at the very least."

Bridget clapped her hands. A small servant faerie appeared from a door to the right. "Yes, my Lady?"

"Selan, please escort our Guest to her room. Make sure she is comfortable and has everything she needs to clean up before the festivities."

Cassie though, "Festivities? What festivities?"

But Bridget only winked at her. "Cassondra, daughter of Adam. We extend to you the hospitality of the Obelisk. We have already made arrangements for you to spend the night here. And you do not think we would send you off without celebrating your arrival first?"

Cassie grined. "Thank you my Lady. Now that you mention it, I think a bath and a bit of some rest will do me good before eating."

She stood up from the table, "I also wanted to thank you all for getting me out of where I was. And for the honor of allowing me to help you and your world. I do hope that I do not let you down." She nodded to each Elder, who also nodded in return.