“I can’t go any farther,” I said.
“Hmmm,” he said, taking his own step forward.
He didn’t seem to have the same problem as me as he moved forward as if whatever was weighing me down like a wet blanket didn’t affect him in the slightest.
He kicked rocks over, shoved bushes to the side, and genuinely made a mess of everything in his way, but instinctively stayed away from the one thing that I could feel the cause of my shivers emanating from.
“The stump,” I said, pointing. “Check the stump.”
He frowned and looked around.
“Where?” he asked.
I pointed to the stump.
He looked down and scowled.
“What do you see?” he asked.
It was my turn to be confused.
“You can’t see it?” I asked. “It’s right between your feet.”
He shook his head.
Concentrating, I focused on what it looked like to me, and projected that image out to him.
It was like me showing him what it looked like by playing a video of the scene straight from my eyes into his brain.
He inhaled deeply, then dropped to his feet.
“Weird,” he said. “Is what you’re feeling bad shivers, or good shivers?”
Perdita stepped up to where Nikolai was crouched down.
He kept his eyes on the stump, though.
With one hand, he started to peel the bark away.
Something broke off.
“Not good or bad, I guess. It’s just making me feel like cold liquid; something is pouring through my veins,” I explained.
“Hmmm,” he said.
Perdita was the one who started acting weird.
Drunk, even.
She swayed first one way, then caught herself.
She overcorrected, then swayed back the other way before rolling completely over.
She started to writhe on the ground.
“What in the world…” I said.
Then an explosion of light poured through the dimly lit forest, and I was thrown ten feet backwards until my back slammed hard against the tree.
It felt like it was cushioned, though.
Almost as if I slammed against a mattress rather than a tree.
Nikolai was still in his same spot, staring at me like I was a demon coming up from the pits of hell.
The picture I’d been projecting at him cut off abruptly, and he was left staring at his hands which were around something that he couldn’t see.
I, on the other hand, could see perfectly.
“Whattttt the fuuuuck,” I drawled, looking in awe at what Nikolai had exposed.
“What?” he asked worriedly, freezing.
It was good he did, too, because suddenly the tiny little things, the size of a hamster, started pouring out of the hollowed out shell of the tree stump.
Nikolai froze when they started to climb up his hands.
“Don’t!” I cried, stilling his instinctive reaction to brush them off.
“What…what the fuck is it?” he asked.
“I…” I hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“Show me,” he demanded.
I frowned and sat up, crawling on my knees until I was directly across the log from him.
Once settled, I stared in awe at the tiny little pixie…things.
Then I projected the image to him.
He froze, his hands falling limply onto his knees, palms up.
“Holy…holy shit.” He breathed shakily. “Oh, holy shit.”
“What is it?” I asked. “Tell me what it is.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he did, and croaked as he tried to speak.
He cleared his throat, licked his lips, and then tried again.
“They’re Fairy dragons,” he said. “Fairy dragons are the smallest of all types of dragons. More like pets than actual dragons. Fierce and loyal. They’ve never been on this side of the ‘pond’ before.”
Perdita rolled onto her back and started to scoot across the forest floor like a large dog.
“What’s she doing?” I asked.
Nikolai breathed out shakily.
“Fairy dragons are so rare…so blasted rare and true, that they bring out the good in almost everyone,” he explained. “I don’t really know what she’s doing, but I’ll be sure to ask her once she’s back to normal.”
Perdita looked like she’d imbibed on enough alcohol that she was punch drunk. It was actually kind of…cute.
“What’s their story?” I asked, giggling when one of the pink dragons—and they were pink, bright pink— jumped up from Nikolai’s arm to his shoulder.
“Fairy dragons grow up to be the size of a housecat,” he said, shivering when one of the dragons started to curl herself into a lock of his hair just behind his ear. “But they’re so rare, that no one really knows anything about them. There are a few articles about them in the archives, but they just cover the basics on them. What I’ve gathered is that, mostly, they’re social creatures that show up when someone worthy is brought forth. Those that can see them are worthy.”
“So I’m worthy…of what?” I asked.
“Their loyalty,” he said with a shrug.
“But they’re not on me, they’re on you.”
He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
My head started to ache from holding the picture in my head for too long, and I sighed.
“I have to let the picture go,” I admitted. “My head hurts, and I think I need to lie down.”