.

- Chapter Seven -

- The Minotaur vs The Queen of Faeries -

- Bereallia -

The snow was drifting down thick and lazily, clinging to Miselai's moss green hair. The snow was thick, thick enough for Miselai not to be able to make much out. Great shadows of mountains could be seen in the distance, murky grey through the snow, overlooking the arena. Miselai peered about with her bright emerald eyes trying to make out any sign of her opponent, whoever that may be.

The fairy messenger had come to her while she was seated on her throne, bowing low and full of courtesies. Being the beloved woman that she was, Miselai had heard the young fairy out. She had been invited to a tournament - a series of battles fit for a queen like herself. The messenger was clever to announce the invite in front of Miselai's subjects. She couldn't refuse such an invitation in front of the men and women of her court. Miselai had been told that she wouldn't know who her challenger was until she was standing in her randomly chosen arena. So here she was and there was still no sign of her opponent.

Miselai was a tall woman, standing proud and fair. Her hair had been tied back into a ponytail but she had let long thick strands hang down to frame her face. Her lips were purple, shining in the hidden sunlight. Miselai was dressed in the same garb as she had been on that throne; she had not been given the chance to change. Her dress was brown and soft, open and bound at the side by thin straps. The dress split completely at her waist with two brown lengths of fabric adorned with purple runes on either side of her waist with a larger, thicker brown cloth wrought with flowers hanging straight down. Her fingerless gauntlets and shin guards were made of bark as hard as any metal, while her feet had been left free.

Great purple and black wings inlaid with green thrust out of her back, twitching slightly as the snow slid down their thin membrane. Miselai's face had been cast in a purple glow from the small natural lights that hung on the end of each antennae extending out of hair on her forehead where a small woven crown rested.

Miselai tapped her staff down on the snow, inpatient. The staff was near as tall as she was, with tendrils of bark twisting over a deep purple aura at the top of the staff. The purple aura was faintly shivering around her body, warding off the worst of the cold despite the fact her bare feet were deep in the snow. She couldn't make herself completely ignore the temperature though - who knew how much of her power she would need for the fight ahead. However, she knew she could go all out - any stamina or magic power would be replenished after every battle, according to the fairy messenger.

There was still no sign of whatever man, woman, or beast she was supposed to fight. Miselai gently sketched a rune in the air with her staff. The rune glowed purple for a few seconds before it moulded into the shape of a purple glowing wasp. The wasp split into three wasps around the size of Miselai's head.

"Find him," she whispered, sending her wasps forward. The purple glow disappeared from the wasps, revealing hard armour, sharp stingers, and glowing purple eyes. They shot forward in three different directions, soon getting lost in the snowstorm.

Miselai placed her staff back into the snow and closed her eyes. As clear as day, she could see through all three of her wasps' eyes. One flew close to the ground, darting past small snow dunes and the occasional dark hole. Another got close to the mountains, flying close to craggy stone rocks jutting from near vertical surfaces. The final was the closest to Miselai, ensuring no one was sneaking up on her. The wasp suddenly sent out a signal and Miselai shut off the other two wasps to concentrate on the one that was currently scanning about fifty foot in front of her.

Looking out of her wasps eyes she saw… something… for a brief second. A great hulking beast. Before Miselai could get a better look the signal from the wasp was suddenly lost. Miselai's eyes snapped open and she clutched her staff in front of her with both hands, staring at the snow straight ahead.

There it was - a shadow stepping slowly forward. The blotchy grey shadow slowly merged into a figure; a huge expanse of a back, thick arms and legs, two horns on either side. The figure continued to step forward until its features became much clearer. Then the beast stopped and stood still.

It was a Minotaur, Miselai knew that much, but it was unlike any Minotaur she had ever seen in the stories she had read as a child. His skin was the colour of mulled red berry wine and it seemed near every stretch of his skin was covered in coarse black hair. His back was the hairiest - from what could be seen on the hump that rose above his head. The Minotaur's right arm was bare but for a single gold circlet around his upper arm and bandages wrapped around his hand. His left was heavily armoured with a shoulder plate of black with spikes shooting outwards. He wore black sandals which extended up to below muscled knees, and a skirt of light grey cloth that hung just above the knee.

But the face… the face was the thing with Miselai concentrated on. Facial hair stuck out below his chin and on either side of his face, creating three points. His left eye was white, with a white ivory horn extending directly to the side and upwards. However, the right side of his upper face had been coated in some kind of metal, joined directly to the skin. It was inlaid with gold and had a wrought golden eye resting in a socket.

The Minotaur hadn't moved through all of Miselai's analysis, but now it slowly reared backwards. He opened his mouth and drew in a sharp torrent of breath. Air and snow flitted into his throat but the Minotaur didn't seem to care. After almost ten seconds of breathing in the air he closed his mouth and leaned forward until he was on all fours. His fists sank into the snow as his face bent towards Miselai.

Then he roared.

The roar was like nothing Miselai had ever heard. It was a great torrent of sound, bursting around the mountains. It was louder the First Horn of Okeleil, which summoned the council of the Fairy Queen. It was louder than the Second Horn of Okeleil, which heralded war and drew the forces of the Fairy Queen to the great tree. Somehow, the roar was even louder than Third Horn of Okeleil, which signified the death of the Fairy Queen.

Miselai put both hands on her ears trying to close out the sound but all she succeeded in doing was keeping the ringing of the war cry in her head. The roar only grew louder and louder, a great rumble of a roar, like a titan calling his allies to war.

Then it grew quiet.

For a moment Miselai thought she had gone deaf. There was no sound at all. Whatever snow critters had been singing to each other had quieted and the wind had died down to stop the rustling of Miselai's clothes.

Miselai then heard a low rumble from all around her. It grew louder and louder, though nowhere near as loud as the Minotaur's roar. Miselai quickly closed her eyes and found that only one wasp was left alive. Somehow the one near the mountains had gone. The other one was flying fast, zooming through the snow. It looked backwards for a second and Miselai gasped. Opening her eyes Miselai flapped her wings and allowed herself to fly into the air.

The avalanche of snow smashed downwards into the small valley where Miselai and the Minotaur had been standing. From up here Miselai realized that they had been standing on a glacier, but the blue of the ice was quickly covered by the solid white. The snow crumbled downwards towards the Minotaur, but the beast showed no signs of moving.

Just as Miselai thought the snow was about to crush the Minotaur and the battle would be won before it even begun, it parted and slide past either side of the Minotaur, as if nature itself had been rattled by the war cry. The rumble grew less and less until it was gone completely and the Minotaur looked up.

"You will fear Rogar Mon." The Minotaur said.

"To be entirely fair, I believe I already do, Rogar Mon." The name tasted foreign of her lips, but Miselai feigned a smile. She couldn't lie - that war cry was fear in the form of sound. The whole point, she assumed.

"Come down here, fairy. Rogar Mon would rip your wings from your back."

Miselai gulped and fluttered through the air. "As enticing an offer as that is I would prefer to figure out a game plan. I do so love my wings."

Rogar Mon was certainly best in melee range. The muscles of his arms and his great big fists proved that much. He looked like he could move fast as well, and both metal and ivory horn looked sharp. His whole body screamed 'Danger'! Miselai took a breath and held her staff with both hands, sketching a few soft runes into the air. She decided to finish this as quickly as she could.

She drew almost 100 small runes in the air, quick as the flytraps which threatened her fairy brethren. Each rune slowly merged into the shape of a leaf, and each leaf multiplied one-hundred-fold. Miselai spun her staff into the sky and allowed the leaves to spin around. They gathered speed, gusting through the air until they spun as fast as a tornado. The force of the leaves drew snow up into the torrent until leaves and ice became one. Rogar Mon only stared at the tornado, his teeth pressed together.

Miselai could feel her body shrink by almost a quarter using this much power. Her legs and arms grew shorter and thinner, while her hair came out of its ponytail to hang around her face and engulfing her crown completely. Her chest grew flatter and her hips thinner, causing Miselai to curse lightly to herself. She enjoyed the womanly figure. It gave her subjects a great woman to look at, to love, and to sometimes fear… but sometimes survival made a whole lot more sense than keeping appearances.

She swung her staff downwards and the tornado of leaves carved its way through the snow to approach Rogar Mon. The snow was thrown outwards if it didn't join the tornado itself, revealing the icy blue glacier.

Rogar Mon smashed his fists together as the tornado approached and took one step back. He pulled back his left fist and let it hang in the air behind him. The tornado got closer and closer, until one leaf swiped across Rogar Mon's black nose, drawing blood. Rogar Mon grinned and his hand snapped forward in a flash.

As soon as his fist hit the tornado the wind stopped all of a sudden at the force of the blow. The leaves all dropped to the ground, useless and half covered with snow. Rogar Mon crashed his hands together once more and looked up to Miselai.

"Rogar Mon appreciates the show of strength. Now Rogar Mon would like to tear you limb from limb."

That much of her power, just swatted away? Miselai bit her lower lip with her staff held tightly in both hands. It was now about a head taller than her. With a pause to take her breath, Miselai crafted two more runes. She tucked her staff into a holster of bark on her back between her wings and grabbed the newly created bow and arrows, made from tendrils of bark. She took aim and fired three arrows in quick succession.

Rogar Mon slapped the first two out of the air with scary ease and grabbed the third between finger and thumb. He snapped it with a push of his thumb and let the wood drop to the ground.

Miselai moved through the air quickly with a flutter of her wings and fired four more arrows that shot towards Rogar Mon from four different directions. Rogar Mon just snarled and spun on his hooves with such speed that he almost became a blur. When he stopped, he had two arrows between his fingers on either hand. How could a beast so big be so quick? It seemed that though Rogar Mon was close range, one had to be close range to stand a chance at fighting him.

With that in mind, Miselai summoned two more items with a wave of her staff. This time it was a sword and a shield. The sword was a short-sword, its grip made of tightly woven vines and its blade made of the same hard bark as her armour; the shield was also made of the same bark, and had the image of a tree embroidered in leaves on its surface.

"Finally. Rogar Mon is pleased," said the Minotaur, widening his stance.

Miselai flew forward with a slash aimed at Rogar Mon's face but Rogar Mon blocked it with his armoured arm. Miselai spun in the air and slammed her foot into Rogar Mon's thick neck. The beast seemed surprised and stumbled to the side. "What? Where you not expecting me to be a warrior? I am the queen of the faeries!" Miselai taunted, swinging her sword at his neck. Rogar Mon ducked and the sword deflected off his metal horn. Rogar Mon growled and snapped his hand through the air, connecting with Miselai's shield.

The force of the blow was likely to rip off her arm had she not slid out of shield's straps just in time. The shield itself shattered to near a thousand pieces, the bark standing no chance against Rogar Mon's strength. Miselai tried to ignore it and slashed with her blade. Rogar Mon's hand flew through the air with that intense speed. He grabbed the blade in his hands, ignoring the feel of the blade slicing through his palm. He squeezed and now the sword shattered. Weapon-less, Miselai flew backwards but misjudged her own speed.

Rogar Mon's hand grabbed her foot. Miselai had only a half-second to brace herself before Rogar Mon swung, slamming her hard onto the compacted snow. She gasped at the pain but didn't have time before Rogar Mon swung her through the air again to slam on the ground a second time. He lifted her by the foot, letting her hang down in front of him. His other hand shot forward and slammed into her chest.

Miselai must have blacked out for a moment as she was on the floor, ten feet from the Minotaur. Her chest was burning and there was blood at her lips. Miselai touched the blood and looked at her bloody finger with a grimace. Rogar Mon… his strength was unbelievable. She groaned as she climbed to her feet but there was the Minotaur, on her once more.

His fist connected with her left shoulder and Miselai heard a horrible crack. She couldn't consider what had just broken before Rogar Mon grabbed her left arm and pulled with ease. The pain was so intense that Miselai almost blacked out once more. She watched as her left arm was pulled from her body in a geyser of blood. She couldn't let Rogar Mon do anything else. As the Minotaur through the limp arm away, Miselai took the chance to fly up into the air, her blood dripping crimson on the snow.

She waved her staff in her right hand and a blanket of leaves covered the stump at her left shoulder, sealing it tightly. That was all she could do to treat the injury for now. Miselai closed her eyes to try and recover her strength. She couldn't afford to feel faint; she had to be fast and quick… but how? Rogar Mon was faster and quicker, and stronger too. With her eyes closed, she felt the signal of her wasp. Miselai smiled and opened her eyes. She lifted her staff and swung it in a wide circle and then slammed the end of her staff in the middle of the circle. A great beam of purple shot out to disappear into the snow.

"Rogar Mon despises pretty lights. Come down here."

"Screw that…" Miselai responded, disappointed that her voice was wavering. She had shrunk to half her size now. Her hair was long now, coming down in straight drifts down her back. Her wings had grown smaller as well, almost too small to be seen from the front.

From the snow grew a great shadow, almost ten times the size of Rogar Mon. It was the last wasp and Miselai had caused it to grow with her previous rune. The wasp swung its great stinger at Rogar, ready to skewer the Minotaur.

"I'm sorry…" Miselai muttered, creating a blade to grab out of the air. "I'll remember your sacrifice."

As expected, Rogar Mon caught the stinger of the wasp with both hands. The force caused him to skid through the drifts of snow but that was all. When he came to a stop, Rogar Mon twisted his hands to snap the stinger off.

This was the chance! Miselai shot forward and drew back her sword. About a meter from Rogar Mon the Minotaur sensed something and spun around. The blade struck truly in his stomach going in so far that the guard touched Rogar Mon's skin.

Rogar Mon gnashed his teeth together as a small dribble of blood fell down through his beard. Just as Miselai thought that he looked like he was about to collapse, Rogar Mon's hand shot out to grab around her neck. His fingers also went over her shoulders now that she was half the size. His other arm latched around her right leg. Miselai's eyes widened. "No! Don't you da-"

Miselai screamed as loud as she ever had as Rogar Mon tore her right leg from her body. The blood came out in a torrent, the heat of it causing steam as it landed on the snow. Without being able to hold her staff she couldn't even put a layer of leaves on the wound.

But both Rogar Mon and Miselai forgot about the wasp. It slammed head first into

Rogar Mon's back so hard that even Rogar Mon found himself in the air. His grip loosened as he fell and Miselai reared backwards and flapped into the air. She quickly summoned the covering over the stub where her right leg used to be. It had torn almost straight from the hip, the stub bloody and torn right below her groin.

Miselai panted, feeling stars in her head. She watched as Rogar Mon landed on the ice hard enough to cause cracks but he got to his hooves quick enough. Miselai could only watch as Rogar Mon charged, horns pointed at the wasp. He smashed into it with so much force he tore the wasp asunder and the wasp exploded into purple runes that glittered in the air. Rogar turned and glared up at Miselai. Miselai steeled herself. The small break had been enough to come up with a plan… but she had never tried something like this before. But the best way to fight Rogar Mon was to fool him or distract him. Miselai took a breath, feeling queasy at the lost weight of her body.

She shot forward as fast as she could towards Rogar Mon. Rogar Mon prepared his fist but Miselai changed her angle and slammed her right shoulder as hard as she could into the snow. The force of her blow caused a great plume of snow to rise into the air, just enough to cover her body. She quickly waved her staff to create a complicated rune and stepped into the rune herself. Miselai could feel the effects and realized that it had worked. She had shrunk, almost to the size of the humans rats. To her side stood a copy of herself, in her half-size form.

Miselai's copy shot forward out of the snow plume and over Rogar Mon's head. She made a U-turn in the air and shot toward Rogar Mon again. Rogar Mon turned to face her, his back to Miselai. Rogar Mon's arm flashed forward and he had Miselai's copy around neck.

"Rogar Mon was pleased with this fight," he breathed heavily, before slamming his fist through the chest of Miselai's copy. Where Rogar Mon expected blood, instead he got a face full of leaves. He sputtered, surprised. "Hrm?"

"Hey!" Miselai's voice was squeaky and quiet, but Rogar Mon still heard. He turned on his feet, still blinking away his confusion. Miselai had hosted the end of her staff on her back to point up at Rogar Mon. She had only one leaf of power left... but hopefully, that was all she needed. The rune was already drawn, shining purple in the snow. Rogar Mon growled in annoyance and his fist shot forward. At the same time Miselai stepped forward so the purple end of her staff connected with the rune.

The rune quickly turned into a leaf and shot outwards at an intense speed. Rogar Mon's fist reached it but Miselai had channelled every last drop of her power to make the last leaf of her arsenal as sharp as she possibly could. It tore through his knuckles and sliced through bone and came out the other side of his fist. Rogar Mon snarled at the pain in his hand but the leaf rocketed straight through his good left eye.

Rogar Mon's hand dropped to his waist as blood dripped from his eye down his cheek. He stepped forward, face twisted in anger. It didn't work!? Miselai was sprawled on the ground, her staff next to her. She couldn't move, couldn't do anything. Rogar Mon lifted his arm…

...and all of a sudden his body teetered and fell to the left. It slammed into the snow heavily and stayed still, slowly getting covered by a layer of snow.

Miselai held her breath but it was true… she had done it! It had cost her an arm and a leg, but she had proved that the Queen of the Faeries would fight on until the very end. She closed her eyes, allowing the pain to wash over her.