Beyond The Iron Gate (The Faery Meadow Book 1) Read online

  The hold on my hair loosens and he lowers his head to my level.

  I jerk my head back from him fighting back tears, attempting to increase the distance between my face and his.

  "Now stay nice and still just like that." He whispers eerily. He's nose to nose with me, staring at me with his deep red eyes.

  I'm about to risk pulling my hair out thinking I can yank away out of his grasp, but what he does next startles me.

  He smirks when I finally stop struggling, then he blows red glitter onto my face.

  "What on earth-" I say gritting my teeth, but he interrupts me.

  "Save the questions for later human." He replies coldly.

  Enraged at my helplessness, I take one last look at him. A huge feeling of sleepiness crashes into me like a tidal wave, I feel myself losing consciousness. I clench my fists, but I feel them loosen as my body gives in to the dull pull of sleep.

  I feel my captor "flame hair" pick me up and heave me over his shoulder as if I'm a sack of potatoes.

  Unwillingly, I pass out and succumb to darkness.

  _____________________________________

  "Wake up." A familiar cold voice orders.

  Apparently, I'm not dead after all. I mean, at least not yet. I touch my face remembering the red glitter he blew on me, I rub off the remaining glitter, most of it probably fell off when I was being carried.

  "What did you do when I fell asleep?" I ask with suspicion.

  "I carried you to here human, then dropped you off here on the ground. Then I went hunting, made a fire and woke you up." He says in a serious tone. Even though he's a stranger, I believe him for reasons unknown.

  "Is my family okay?" I ask with a nervous gulp.

  "Human, they are perfectly fine. They won't even realize your absence." He spits.

  I roll over groggily, immediately I sit up, I take in my surroundings.

  An itchy blanket lays below my head, acting as a pillow. The rest of me, however, is laying on the ground. My tee shirt is slightly wet, from the cold damp grass, my pajama pants are wrinkled at the bottom and slightly dirty from the ground. I'm definitely not in my house, or home for that matter. The sun is just rising beyond the unfamiliar trees that hang over me. In other words, I have no idea where I am.

  The sharp crackle of the fire snaps me back into reality. My kidnapper "flame hair", sits silently across me chewing something. He sits on a log and holds a stick tending the fire. I try to give him the most hateful glare.

  My stomach growls embarrassingly loud. How long was I asleep for?

  "Are you hungry, human?" He asks with a hint of mockery.

  He throws a piece of cooked meat at me. It looks like an animal leg of some sort.

  "Eat it." He says sharply.

  I shake my head no.

  "If you plan on surviving, I suggest you eat that piece of meat I so kindly hunted for." He grunts.

  I spot a sharp looking knife resting by him. Not wanting to provoke him, I hesitantly pick up the meat. I then start to take a little bite, eating it bit by bit.

  When I finish eating it, I wipe my hands off in the grass, I glance up at him and see he is intently watching me with his piercing red eyes across the fire. His hair is practically blending in with it.

  I eye the knife again, should I try to make a run for it? For some reason, I feel this isn't a normal forest. In fact, it must be early morning and I haven't heard a single bird.

  "Where are we? Who are you and what are you planning?" I demand with a spark of bravery I didn't know I had.

  "We are not anywhere you would know of, so what is the point in me telling you? As for who I am, you may just call me Lorcan." He replies harshly.

  "You didn't answer my last question, Lorcan." I say, finding the sound of his name slightly funny, despite my situation.

  "That I will eventually tell you. You should hope for now that you will last that long, human." He replies.

  By what he's telling me, I don't think he's planning on killing me, yet. He definitely has a deadly, intimidating presence though. His bone chilling evil laugh resounds in my head, as a reminder.

  "I have a name." I say surprisingly loud, raising my voice.

  "I guess it is only fair if you know my name, that I know yours, human." He replies nonchalantly.

  He then looks around carelessly, as if he's distracted by something in the forest surrounding us.

  "My name is Elaine." I announce with an even voice. Realizing he probably ignored me, I throw the bones from my meat into the fire pit and stand up, stretching my legs.

  Suddenly, I whip my head around, towards the sound of pounding heavy footsteps off in the distance. The sound of crunching leaves being stomped on echoes towards our direction. Whatever is coming, is coming our way. However, the far off sounds die down, silence once again fills the air.

  I turn back towards Lorcan, to see he is violently stomping out the fire.

  "What are you doing? It's freezing out." I say raising my voice.

  "Silence, huma-" He hisses, but he's cut off as the most hideous looking animal I've ever seen jumps out of the bushes, straight towards us.

  Chapter 8-Trapped

  Lorcan swiftly grabs the knife by the fire pit and steps out in front of me. I hide behind him, much like a child. I watch nervously as his broad shoulders tense, I realize he is a lot taller than me. I back up a few steps giving him room to fight the beast. Feeling useless, I'm forced to completely rely on him to do the fighting.

  At some point, I need to learn to protect myself, but for now I must carefully watch Lorcan. Who knows? He might just change his mind and leave me for this terrifying animal to eat.

  "Only one, we will survive. Don't make a sound, human." He says while eyeing the beast.

  The creature encircles us, its eyes a dull yellow. It's dark black fur has scars all over it. It snaps its terrifyingly large mouth viciously, eyeing Lorcan and I.

  No doubt the animal is starving. It shakes and twitches repeatedly, snarling.

  Apparently, we are its breakfast.

  Suddenly, the wolf-like creature stops. I feel my hands grow sweaty at the tension in the air. I gulp in anticipation of the animal's next move.

  The animal takes a few steps backward, I almost am relieved thinking its backing away. However, it suddenly makes a giant leap toward Lorcan.

  "Look out!" I yell from behind him.

  He takes a step forward and jumps at the animal, like a crazy man. Is he serious, he's going to charge at it? Just seeing the animal's razor sharp teeth and claws is enough to scare me away.

  Lorcan swiftly slashes at the animal's throat using the knife. I hear a yelp, then a whimper come from the beastly animal.

  I'm too afraid too look, but I don't have a choice as the animal abruptly gets up and rams into Lorcan, throwing him to the side.

  Immediately, he drops his knife in the chaos. I don't hesitate to grab it. I take a nervous glance behind me, I could run away now. I shake my head, he risked his life to save me. I can't be a coward.

  I grip the knife tightly in my hand, taking a deep breath. The animal and Lorcan continue fighting, Lorcan narrowly missing the animals frightening speedy lashes. He has nothing to attack the wolf with.

  It's now or never.

  I run at the animal, even though I've never hunted. I take a guess at where I think its heart may be. I run up to it until I'm about five feet away, then I thrust the knife towards its heart. The knife, to my dismay, lands on its neck instead of its heart.

  Automatically, I capture the beast's entire attention. I watch as Lorcan jumps up to a offensive stance, his arms are covered in deep wounds from the animal's claws. He stealthily grabs the knife out of the animal's neck, while its distracted by me.

  "Get away-" Lorcan hisses at me, giving me a death glare.

  Abruptly, the animal surprises both of us as it turns and lunges into the shrubbery, as if something scared it off. Lorcan watches the animal run off, then turns toward me. I should pro
bably thank him for saving my life.

  "Thanks...for saving me." I say with a nervous waver.

  "You stupid human." He says shaking his head at me, as if I'm a helpless child.

  "I was just trying to help." I quickly add.

  "Sure you were, bet you were aimin' that knife at me." He says with a cold glare.

  Does he really think that I was trying to aim the knife at him, that I was trying to kill him? I was just trying to help him, since he was trying to protect me. At least I hit it, so it would stop attacking him.

  "I was trying to kill it, not you." I say with a grunt.

  His piercing red eyes land on me and he pauses for a moment while cleaning the blood off of his knife.

  "Careful who you trust, human." He spits.

  I guess that's the thank you I get for trying to help him.

  _______________________________________________

  Lorcan said even though the beast will probably die of its wounds, other larger predators will come out to eat it. So now we are trudging through the forest, I asked him where we're going a couple times, but all he would do is retort "silence human" or just ignore me. I'm really getting tired of him calling me human too.

  "What are you going to do about your wounds?" I say in a gentle voice.

  Perhaps we are going to a town, then again, I haven't heard any cars or signs of civilization.

  He looks down at me with a curious face.

  "They will eventually heal, human." He says vaguely.

  I tighten my fists at my sides, he called me human, again. I decide to give up on talking to him.

  I imagine its lunch time, the sun looks like its middle of the sky, I can barely see it through the thick foliage above us. I feel hungry, but I ignore the feeling.

  Are mom and dad wondering where I am right now?

  I don't even know where we are or where we're going. How long will it be until I can go back, if he lets me leave. Or is he waiting to kill me?

  Either way I'm forced to follow him, whether I want to or not. We continue walking silently through the woods for a good five hours at least.

  Eventually, my feet grow sore, I don't even have shoes on and I can start to feel them blistering.

  Suddenly, his head jerks to the left, as if he hears something.

  "Stay here." He commands. Without another word, he runs off, jumping over fallen logs and making a bunch of racket as he steps on dead leaves and branches. So much for being quiet.

  I'm left completely defenseless, for anyone or thing to attack. I decide to follow his orders for the time being, so I sit down on a rock below a low laying branch. I wonder how long he will be gone for? The dead silence of the forests fills my ears. I rather it not be so quiet, its dawning to not hear a sound of life.

  The forest is so thick if something were to sneak up on me, I would never see it coming.

  Abruptly pulled out of my thoughts, I hear the snapping of sticks and crunching of leaves again. Sure enough, Lorcan arrives his red hair looking duller under the shade of the trees.

  When I look at his shoulder, I almost gag. A very large rabbit, with hollow white dead eyes stares back at me. Its fur was probably once silky and smooth, but now it is coated in dark red blood.

  I was too distracted by the rabbit to notice he brought fire wood too.

  He throws the wood on the ground in front of me and sets the dead rabbit on a near by rock.

  "Make the fire. I'll skin it." He says indicating the poor dead critter.

  I glance uneasily at him, but I gather the wood anyway and find a spot to start the fire. Dad taught me how to start a fire, so I can at least do that. After several attempts, the wood finally starts smoking.

  When the fire starts going, I walk over to Lorcan.

  "I'm almost done, human." he mumbles in annoyance. I continue to watch silently as he skins the last of the rabbit with the razor sharp knife.

  At last, he finishes and takes the meat over to the fire. I sit back on my "rock chair" and Lorcan stands over the fire cooking the rabbit.

  I watch the flames of the fire, almost in a daze. I think over what time it must be. We've walked far enough, it must be around dinner time.

  Hearing a howl off in the distance, I sit up straight becoming more alert of my surroundings.

  I glance up at Lorcan, he seems to be intently looking into the flames as well, then his blazing eyes meet mine.

  "It's done." He says bluntly.

  He quickly cuts the meat, giving me the smaller portion. Well, I am smaller than him so I guess that only makes sense. He's the one who hunted it after all.

  "Thank you." I say quietly.

  However, he only responds by giving me a familiar cold stare, then he resumes eating.

  Eating the rabbit meat was easier than I thought, it makes the hunger go away at least. I finish eating the last of it so I throw the bones in the fire, then I wipe my hands off in the grass.

  Lorcan already finished his share of meat.

  "We'll camp here tonight. We're more than half way to our destination." He states vaguely.

  What if something sneaks up on me while I'm asleep? Or what if he abandons me here to die in this awful forest?

  The air suddenly feels colder, I shudder and move my feet closer to the fire.

  Suddenly a rough scratchy blanket is thrown at my face.

  "You can use that, human." He grunts.

  "Thanks." I reply. Gratefully, I wrap the blanket around me and find a spot to make my "bed".

  There aren't many options. I decide to just sleep right on the grass, I can tell its going to be really cold tonight. I gather a pile of leaves to cushion my head, I'm about to lay down, but I glance over at Lorcan.

  He has no blanket, he lay silently on his back by the fire.

  "What, human?" He mumbles in annoyance.

  "Nothing, Lorcan." I reply quietly.

  He sits up on his elbow, watching me with a serious face across the fire.

  "I will stay awake." He says assuredly, while poking the fire with a stick.

  For some reason I'm slightly relieved. I lay my head back down, listening to the soft crackle of the fire.

  Eventually I'm lured to sleep, unsure of what tomorrow may bring.

  Chapter 9-Gurnava’s House

  Hearing the soft sound of the fire, my eyes open slowly, fighting the pull of sleepiness. It must still be late night, the only source of light being the fire.

  I squint my eyes using the fire as a "flash light", to my dismay I don't spot Lorcan anywhere, at least near the fire.

  Perhaps he's keeping watch in a tree or maybe he's just laying farther away from the fire than I thought. The hum of some kind of cricket draws my attention, I find the noise nostalgic. I close my eyes again, letting the warmth of the fire comfort me and assure me I'm safe.

  I snuggle into my blanket wrapping it tightly around myself. I smile, maybe this is going to make up for my failed attempt at sleeping outside the other day. It is surprisingly comfy, even though I'm practically laying right on the ground and I can feel some small rocks through my blanket. In fact, my "leaf pillow" isn't that bad, its quite comfy. When morning comes, I'm sure my hair will look crazy though.

  I roll over on my back and look up at the stars. I spot some familiar constellations. Wherever I am, there's no light pollution.

  Snap

  The sharp snap of a twig yanks me out of my thoughts. I lay perfectly still on my side facing the shadowed woods, feeling my face heat up in anxiety. My heart lurches.

  "Lorcan?" I whisper hesitantly.

  However, the cricket I heard earlier has stopped chirping and whatever I heard beyond the shadows of the trees doesn't respond.

  Suddenly getting the feeling of being watched, I quietly roll over on my side towards the fire pit attempting to forget the noise and fall asleep as quickly as I can. I gently tug the blanket tighter to me and squeeze my eyes shut.

  I hear the soft rustle of leaves as a gentle breeze picks up from o
ut of nowhere. Frustrated at my failed attempt to fall asleep, I try laying on my back.

  An embarrassingly loud shriek escapes me when I see what sits directly above me.

  It's familiar blood red eyes stare openly at me, the only things I can see other than the flames of the fire. That's all I can make out of the thing, before it drops down next to me.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I hear a voice screaming in my head to run. I unconsciously ignore it and stare back at the glowing red eyes.

  Without warning, something crashes through the forest and yells as if it's in a battle. Is it a human? Maybe they can save me!

  "Help! If your still there please help me!" I holler in the direction of the crash.

  I stand up, forgetting the haunting red eyes from earlier as they disappeared at the sound of the crash.

  "Hello?" I ask into the now empty air. I can tell the fire is dying, I'm losing sight of my surroundings.

  I see a bright blue glow from out of the corner of my eye.

  A middle aged man with a brown short beard and dark green eyes, is miraculously floating. On top of his head rests a helmet. Is he some kind of magic knight? Then my eyes automatically look to over his shoulders, to see wings. Fairy wings? Surely, this isn't real, my mind reminds me.

  The glowing blue man, however, doesn't seem to see me. When I see the sharp long spear in his hand, I'm glad he hasn't noticed me yet. His apparel is simple clothing; brown pants and a dark tan shirt. Strangely enough, he looks exactly like the fairies in the green journal I read.

  Since he looks like the good fairies that were peaceful, I'm relieved. The long pointy spear in his hand, however, makes me question him though.

  I decide to stay hidden, I slowly back away, watching him each step as I finally watch him from behind the huge trunk of a nearby tree.

  "Come out you monster. We know you're here. We've been tracking you and I have to admit, I'm glad I'm the one who will kill you." He taunts approaching the fire pit.

  He walks casually around, as if he has night vision, he scans the tree lines suspiciously with his eyes glaring into the darkness. I hold my breath, hoping he doesn't spot me.