Berganashio - Chapter 7

The totters had acclimated very nicely to living with the fairies. The only fairy that they really interacted with much was Jovie, and they greatly enjoyed her company in the evenings. They continued to share stories with Jovie many evenings and she also did her best to share stories that they would find entertaining. She was always so kind, sincere, and was always ready to giggle about something. It was nice for the totter children to have a motherly presence. Jovie had never had any children of her own, so in a way, she felt grateful to have the two totter children around. One day the totters were out by the river catching more fish. Sister totter was busy packing the fish in the cloth sack, as was their daily routine. She felt especially happy and carefree. Mindlessly, she started to hum and then sing a few lines of an old song that her Momma used to sing to her when she was just a couple years old. Before she realized what she'd done, her Papa had risen from the water and heard her. His heart felt like it had jumped out of his chest.

"Stop!" he yelled. "Ohhhh noooo...."

Before she even realized what she'd done, a massive swarm of all the fireflies flashed through the air, and flew off and away from the fairy vine village. The three totters were terrified. Sister totter shook in her skin. A few minutes went by, and Jovie appeared.

With a grave expression, Jovie commanded them, "Come with me."

The four of them scampered up to where Queen Finyellë was waiting for them in her chamber. The walls of the room were covered with colorful rocks and shells of various sizes. It was breathtaking, but the totters hardly had time to appreciate the beauty of the room because Queen Finyellë had turned red with fury as she saw them hustle in.

"Here they are," Jovie nervously announced as if the Queen could not already see them.

Queen Finyellë appeared more angry than ever, "I see that!" She paused, inspecting the totters from head to toe. They had brought in mud on their feet from the riverbank. "One rule!" she spat. "I gave you one rule! Right, Jovie? You told them?" she asked, staring at Jovie.

"Yes, I did," Jovie nodded and looked down.

The queen glared back at the totters. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Papa totter braced himself. "We're terribly, terribly sorry for this."

The queen started pacing across the room. "Sorry?" she asked more under her breath than to the totters. She stopped pacing for a moment. Looking at the totters again, "Do you realize what this means?"

Papa totter didn't know how to respond so he stood there frozen. Then he responded by saying, "The fireflies are gone."

Sister totter couldn't keep quiet any longer. "It was my fault! I was the one who sang... not Papa! I forgot about the rule... I was careless... I'mmm soo soo sor-ssss-sorrrryyy..." Sister totter sobbed on the floor. Jovie rushed over to her side and gently patted her shoulder.

The queen shook her head at the totters. "I should have known better." Then she keenly looked up at the servant fairies who were lining the perimeter of the room. They were always alert and ready for action. Commanding them firmly, "Put the shell-shields out! Have the fairies get water from the river and drench the trees and vines. We need everything to be wet and not dry. We must be ready for the next attack. This time, we're going to have to fight back and defend ourselves more than ever before!"

The fairies dispersed in a heartbeat. The whole village was more alive than ever. The hustle and bustle of the village was full of fairies carrying shells and placing them on the vine bridges. There were dozens of fairies flying down to the river, collecting thimblefuls of water to pour on the trees.

Jovie helped the totters regain their composure. She helped dry sister totters tears with her sleeve. “Everything will be alright,” she whispered to the totters, even though she had no idea if things would really be alright at all.

After the queen waved them out, they went back down to gather the fish that they’d caught for the day. Then, the rest of the evening, they helped the fairies get the village positioned for the next attack. It was only a matter of time before the fiery arrows would appear.

As night began to settle, before they were fully done with the defensive positioning, lots of fiery arrows appeared, jetting through the sky. As usual, they seemed to come from thin air. This time, the arrows stuck in various parts of the village, piercing some of their rooms and vine bridges. Several times the fires caught some of the tree branches on fire. The fairies shuddered but flew to put the fires out as quickly as they could. They beat at the fires with wet blankets.

One of the largest vine bridges caught on fire, despite the shells that were being used as shields. The fairies' hearts sunk, but they didn’t give up even though some of their wings were getting singed in the fight with the fire. Finally, the arrows stopped, after what felt like an eternity. Many fairie had bad burns and were missing parts of their wings altogether. The fairies who were not injured badly, kept watch that night and Papa totter agreed to stand guard with them. Jovie graciously stayed with the totter children so that they wouldn’t be alone that night.

In the night there were no more arrow attacks. Queen Finyellë desperately tried to sleep some but was restless instead. In the middle of the night, she fell asleep from exhaustion but then started to have a nightmare. In the nightmare she saw two merfaries looking at her with disgust. At first, she thought that they were her parents before she ran away from home but then their faces changed into different faces. The man’s face started looking more like her brother from what she could remember from long ago. The woman’s face was unfamiliar, but she was holding the man’s hand. In the nightmare they said to her repeatedly, “We will destroy you… we will destroy you… we will destroy you.” Then fiery arrows shot out from their mouths. Queen Finyellë jerked awake from the nightmare with a frightful expression and a shriek.

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