Chapter 3 – Enemies

Her sword was unsheathed, but she didn't speak right away. He took advantage of the look of surprise on her face to smile with all his teeth and slowly get closer, knowing that'd probably be enough to send her running with her tail between her legs.

In the end, he was the one who slightly recoiled. She had placed her sword in his direction already, not breaking her position. Her gaze was a bit shaky but straight.

"Listen," she spoke in a voice surprisingly powerful for a fairy, "I'm not here for trouble. I came to help someone who got lost."

He glanced down very briefly at the glistening weapon but didn't let any surprise show.

"This forest's off-limits to fairies," he hissed. "I assume you'd be aware."

She blew a strand of hair playfully out of her face. "Not very friendly, eh? Do you know—"

–who I am, she had been about to say, but she cut herself off immediately. He didn't know who she was.

"Err… where… they might be? My companions. Have you seen them?"

He blinked at the unexpected response. He hadn't seen a fairy from so close in forever, and it was almost daunting. He hadn't even known there were some that would have the guts to look at him straight in the eye with a weapon raised… and besides, he had heard they were vulnerable under the rain.

"What? So… there are… more of you?" He raised his staff higher, falling short of making it a threat.

It took her half a second more to reply. Not only did he not recognize her, Marianne realized, he also hadn't noticed the two guards on the other side of the giant roots. Maybe it wasn't too late, then, to defuse the situation…

"No, it's just… the both of us. My mistake." Her face looked placid once more. "He's, err… somewhere, I'm trying to find him."

The confidence in her posture had somewhat faded, though.

"So that's why you were heading for the heart of the Forest?" He summoned his angry, menacing voice back. "What, exactly, makes you think that would be a great idea?"

Then, to his pleasure, the iron in her look returned. "I'm not going to repeat myself. Either you get out of my way until I bring him home, or you help me find him."

A smile formed on his narrow face.

"Help you? No problem, tough girl. Don't concern yourself with him anymore. We'll take good care of him for you. In the meantime, there's a free room in the dungeon," he gestured with his left arm like an invitation.

She took it as her signal and threw herself at him, sword first, with as much focus as she could. He blocked her slice, but she kept the pressure on it.

"Look, I'm telling you," she warned between her teeth. "I don't want to fight you. But if I must, I won't hold back, and you're going to regret it."

"Ha! What'cha gonna do with that sword? File my nails?"

Marianne's lips stretched into an amused smile and she stole a quick look to his hands. "Yeah. They even look like they might need it."

They were smiling at each other.

"So go on, goblin. Try me."

He pushed her as hard as he could and tried to hit her from her right side, but she avoided it by letting herself fall backwards, coming back at him from beneath, sword brandished. He gave himself a good jolt with his wings to avoid it, a quick "Oh!" escaping his lips and her wings brushing him. Slashes of her sword flew from all directions, and he managed to block them all. Relaxing again, she forced herself to stand still in front of him with powerful flutters of purple that splashed a few droplets at him.

He was impressed, but tried not to let it show. Instead, he threw himself at her with a scream and a wide vertical blow that Marianne was able to dodge by flying simply… much closer.

They both froze, the blade of her sword at his throat, his staff at arm's length in front of him, next to her shoulders.

Although he was surprised for a second, his right hand jumped to her right arm, releasing his staff and letting it slide to his left. His grip crushed her arm at first but he quickly released a bit of pression (not entirely meaning to). They both held each other's gaze as she took note of his subtle restraint.

"You have guts touching me," Marianne taunted.

He puffed a laugh. "Come on, I'm sure you can get out of it."

She jumped at his hand, one foot at his chest, wriggling through his fingers to free her arm in twists. Her tactic's success proved non-existent.

"That's not very effective, is it?"

"The answer is: yes, I am able to get out of this myself. You just watch!"

She went back to her grimaces trying to break herself free, and as she did, he noticed how soft her hands were.

The thought taking him by surprise, he pushed her away and grabbed his staff defensively. Soft? Only weaklings appreciated softness!

She looked… insulted? "What the hell was that for?"

He rolled his eyes. "It was gonna take you an hour."

"Oh yeah?" She charged at him with a furious look on her face. "See if you can dodge this!"

They exchanged blows and hits in close combat again, neither of them managing to touch the other.

Marianne even surprised herself at the amount of effort she put in every movement to make them strong, constant and elegant. It was like she was putting on a show more than battling him. (At the back of her mind, she was also painfully aware of the fact that the misty rain was making her eyeliner run down, which was probably ruining the aesthetic.)

"Come on, goblin. I'm bored already!" she taunted before taking a pose.

As for him, he was having the time of his life spinning with her, swinging his staff knowing that she would see it coming. Once, she blocked him by keeping their weapons over their heads. Her face even got momentarily closer to his, almost too much for his own comfort.

Also… goblin? She had no idea who he was, he realized.

"Not bad!" he teased with a half-honest, half-evil laugh. "For a fairy!"

"Look who's talking," she said coolly, looking at her nails, and then back to trying to notch his staff. "You're not even trying to hit me!"

"Of course not, tough girl! Why would I, when I can merely make you—"

His next move was more sudden than the previous one and had an unexpected turn of the wrist. Her sword flew out of her hands, to her right.

"—surrender?" It was his turn to point his staff at her throat with a wide smile and a playful look that said, "I won!"

They were both panting. She shook some water out of her hair, but a few strands stuck to her cheek. For a second, he was mesmerized.

Marianne felt she had to make a difficult decision. The rain didn't seem to bother him at all, but her wings were getting heavier by the second, and at this rate, she'd tire out way before him.

Gaze steady, she suddenly grabbed his staff with both hands, kicked his torso to stun him and launched herself towards her sword, both wings half-furled to make herself glide through the air.

He followed her to the forest floor, unable to stop her from retrieving her weapon. To his surprise, though, once she landed, she didn't turn around: she gave herself another push to the left and rushed up through the trout lilies. He followed every random turn she took, gradually losing distance, until they were inside a garden of white lettuce.

Suddenly, she hid and stopped. He came to a halt, trying to guess where she had fallen to, listening for a breath, for a step through the sound of the rain; looking for a purple flash in the plants.

"What's wrong, tough girl? Too tired already?"

A small voice in his head said: "Wait, don't go; it was fun." He suppressed it with a growl.

All he was hearing was his own breathing and the trees.

He started walking around, a curse on the tip of his mouth, feeling like an idiot. As his search grew pointless, realization dawned upon him: she had beat him.

While impressive, there was no denying the affront. Oh, and he didn't like it! The only creatures that were usually able to outrun him were dragonflies. Now, a single fairy had fought him in close combat, and successfully escaped without a single scratch?

Moving in wider circles, anger boiling minute after minute, he eventually gave up. "Don't worry, tough girl... We will meet again, and this time, you'll be mine!" Deciding she was probably already gone and that it was useless to waste more time, he headed home to deploy search units.

This was going to be an interesting rival, he thought with a smile he couldn't contain. The Bog King found himself looking forward to the time he would see his enemy again.

(ahem— fight. Fight his enemy again.)

(Besides, she was probably faster because she was lighter. It wasn't his fault his torso was bulky.)

She couldn't believe her luck. He was agile, but she was faster in sprints. Still, how on Earth had she been able to escape such an impressive creature?

And what was he? she wondered. Couldn't be a fairy, but couldn't be an insect either… Was certainly no goblin after all, and definitely no kappa. But he spoke her language…

Trying to free her head of images of him, Princess Marianne grounded herself back to a calm state of mind, and carefully tried to shake the water out of her wing's scales. She'd have to find her way back to the soldiers soon. If that guy sounded an alarm, they'd all be found in no time, and that would be a disaster.

"Wow. That was scary."

"Which one? The Princess or… that thing?"

"…Both."

"…Yeah."

They had watched them fight, and gasped when they had seen the twinkling of the Princess's sword flying through the air. Once they had dove to the ground, the soldiers had lost sight of them. It had been both relieving and worrisome.

"Good thing he didn't spot us."

"I know. What was that thing, anyway?"

"I've no idea. A flying mantis?"

"An oversized grasshopper?"

They sat back down, resuming their sketches on the soil.

"Hey, you know… If they find us, it's all over."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what's happening to our wings? It's because of the powder, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"The whole army has powder now. Everybody's going to get sick. I'll bet you there won't be a single soldier who's gonna be able to fly tomorrow."

He kept drawing on the ground, letting the drama settle. "Yup. The kingdom is now completely defenseless."

The other fairy slapped a hand to his cheek in comical shock. "If someone tries to invade us, we won't be able to fight back…"

"Exactly."

Both considered the scenario in silence.

"The ball is in the Princess's court now, I guess," said the one with a hand to the cheek. "Hey, can you imagine what would happen if she actually met the king of the Dark Forest?"

"That wouldn't be good! She wouldn't stand a chance!"

"Well, she might be able to buy us a bit of time, but we have to get out of here right now, before anyone sees us."

"And realizes our whole army is sick. Yeah… We probably should."

They lazily turned their heads to the wall of mud, then sighed.

"You know, maybe if we removed our armours, we'd be lighter."

"'You serious? No way I'm removing my armour. It's the only thing keeping me dry right now."

"Me too. Ugh, I guess we'll just have to wait for Sir Roland. I'm sure he's headed our way anyway."

"Yeah, you're right."

At the castle, a low panic was starting to rise in the king's chest. He could feel it even from his stomach.

Dawn had reported from the Elf village. Her beautiful wings were badly infected, like someone had burned them and poured poison over the wounds. He had barely been able to look at her.

Now, two dozen soldiers, including the one who had gone to pick Dawn up, were in the royal infirmary, which was already overcrowded. All with the same black spots on their wings. All doctors known to the royal registries had been summoned.

Treason, he decided. Whoever was using this powder… had a purpose. He'd have to investigate this matter before the culprits fled.

Of course, the king had immediately taken the time to silence the doctors. All known infected soldiers were in quarantine in the castle. They had also met the Elf that had been hanging with his youngest daughter to let him know he wouldn't be allowed out of the castle until the disease cleared. They used the pretext of possible contamination.

What if the Bog King knew of this? Since he was already holding the Sugar Plum Fairy captive, a citizen of the Fairy Kingdom, there was a good chance he was waiting for an opportunity to avenge himself from… whatever torment she must have made him endure. What if he knew his neighbour was helpless?

Or worst, what if the bees heard about it? They had coveted the flowers in their kingdom a long time ago and had lost the battle, but if they attacked again, the fairies wouldn't stand a chance. They'd all become slaves, and the elves wouldn't survive their stingers.

The elves… what if the elves decided to overthrow them? They seemed content as mere subjects of the royal family; elves had arrived on the territory after the fairies, and the fairies had promised them protection in exchange for food products. Still, the king suspected the only thing that was really keeping them out of the decision-making circles was the sheer knowledge that by being able to fly, fairies had a sizeable advantage in combat, and thus, that fairies were superior. Now, if they were given an opportunity for a rebellion, would they take it?

Oh, what was Marianne doing outside in this time of crisis?