Chapter 33

The two girls plummeted through the air.

Googlee snared both of them and held them secure in his monstrous sized paws, his grip was firm and resolute as he carried them as gingerly as a mother holding its eggs.

To show their gratitude, the duo blew kisses toward him and hailed their saviour as
he did his best to comfort them in a solemn voice “good soldiers, good soldiers!” he repeated to salve their already jangled nerves.
The two of them looked pained but also relieved, that they were in the right hands at last and heading towards safety, they felt the warmth of Googlee’s pelt and the drumming of his heart as he swaddled them.

Although Brownie did wondered how Googlee flew at all, it didn’t seem mathematically plausible that his wings could carry his girth but in reality, it worked, and they were sincerely grateful.

A white sharp majestic avian shape came into formation at 4 o’clock.
It was Eulin.

They slowly became attuned to the elements around them as they felt the moisture in the air, the wind chill in their bones. it rushed past them, beneath the morning sky, that was furnished with stars of an uncountable amount, that it almost seemed the heavens were dusted with glitter.

The great Wyrzel banked hard to the right as the Brownie managed to scoot up his arm around his elbow joint and onto his back, Elkie followed her closely in her wake until they both assembled in riding position on the great Pegasus’s haunches… the ocean, the houses and roof terraces below stood out beneath the spiny reach of Googlee’s wingspan.

Astern they overheard Eulin curse “what the’!?” he remarked as something behind them disturbed him greatly an entity broad and black that was gaining ground.” what’s up with the bird?” asked Googlee ”he seems spooked by that shadow,” replied Brownie looking behind into the distance. Elkie obscured her eyes from the rain as she rose up precariously and stood as tall as she could despite her slight stature ”that’s no shadow, that’s the thing that was at the market two days ago” she called back
Straining her eyes as she sighed, “oh no! it’s HIM,” she added moments later with very real dread in her voice. “wut’ you mean the’ Knightmare,??” “Yeahhpp”
It was closer now and identifiably black against the canvas of the Brightening sky of the new morn. Eulin hollered back to them “Don’t worry you three ill draw him away” as his feathers glistened with luminescence. “Head toward the temple, fly… don’t look back” he yelled without giving a thought to his own safety as he gave off silver dust of his own and white light that lagged behind him as he flew away as swift as the Legette flies.

They spied the Whitebird from a distance, they could make out a tail of light as he traversed closer to the Leviathan. The small egret was as engaging to it as a single midge or sandfly that hovered around your head and was a nuisance at best. The tiny but Graceful wind dancer persisted, in an endeavour to draw him away. As the manta type creature, barrel-rolled and presented his mouth towards the speck of light. It looked gruesome but indeed more disturbing was the concern that he was incapable of pulling away in time as if he was ensnared in a current of wind that would not let go of him… he glanced back at his family… jaded with the realisation that this was his last goodbye.
The sprite, the ghost, all crossed their fingers and toes, as they hoped and wished that Eulin would break free of gravity. But Alas, he could not, he was running to a standstill as the black chasm of a mouth closed around the Whitebird. swallowed whole and in the belly of the beast. With the rider the Knightmare urging him forward and close behind them in hot pursuit. “Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the little sprite shouted out in horror.
Whilst Elkie looked on with her mouth agape as two tears rolled down her cheek and crystallized. They felt their hearts fracture and break. In the next moment, they saw a supernova of blazing plasma, move across the horizon. in the shape of a Whitebird. As the beast of blackness Was vaporized instantly. The peppermint Wyrzel faintly spied the domed roof and silver spires of the temple looming ever closer when the blinding light struck him like a wave. Though he clenched his eyes tightly, he could still see the white through his eyelids
It bleached everything with light.

no more colours. Just everything whitewashed.

She didn’t know the exact measure of time, she had been unconscious, but she remembered the dark red lips and golden cascading hair of the moon goddess as her image perforated her memory. She seemed to be saying “Birthday, don’t you think they existed before time ever was?” And then her recollection waned to white again.

Slowly her vision began to focus, she was lying on the cold hard dark grey slate flooring of the temple courtyard.

She felt The rhythmic flutter Of a hummingbird as it undershot and barely missed her as she proceeded with her journey on like a blind girl following the perfume of wysteria that smelled fainter now than it was before.

she felt the warmth of the morning sunlight on her face as she staggered shakily and ambled to what she presumed to be the substantial shape of Googlee lying on the ground.

“Sprite!” She heard him say jittery “I’m sorry,” as her vision returned in its entirety. He was outstretched his body was wreckage and his wings were as broken quills with dark ink bleeding into the myriad of shallow puddles. the crimson background and occasional white stripes of his coat were now dark, broken and bloodstained. She knelt by where his face was and run her fingers through his beloved but now matted mane … tears filled her eyes as they fell like the morning rain that soaked through into her hair and clothing as it continued to come down.
They stuck out like a sore thumbs “please don’t cry your eminence… for I would like to take the image of your face as happy as I go to the forests of chirconnell… where my ma’hobbed Laaylee she waits for me there,”
“Please, Googlee … don’t, I need you, don’t forsake me … I, I can’t make it on my own,” she sobbed uncontrollably
“Every story must end…… You’re better than you think you are” he said as the spectrum of light Kissed the shower like a lover.
She heard the squeaky voice of Elkie “Googlee, are you ok?” as she appeared scrappily, knowing full well that the answer would be a sorrowful one, he smiled through the pain “of all the comrades that e’er I had, you are the bravest!” he said looking at her …. he skipped to the end and he announced “my bodies broken, I’m dying… release me, … N’ Don’t be sorry for my going away!”
He peered at Brownie with fatigued eyes. They were yearning to sleep a final rest “take Eulins feather from my hair, so you might remember us when eyes are weary… Between the spaces.” she disentangled the plume from his mane and arranged it in her own.

The Two lost girls hugged the imaginary Pegasus,
“You’re the finest Peppermint Wyrzel I’ve ever known,” said Elkie as she snuffled.

The reverent windchimes clanged gently in the soft rain.

From faraway, they heard the particularly odd but gentle noise of laughter and the clapping of a single pair of hands clapping in mockery of their grief.

a distraction like something nagging, a thread unravelling itself, something insidious and then pernicious they looked up to see the regalia and black armour of the Knightmare as he stood resplendent in his attire that was as black as polished jet, quietly circling them in despair, like a black merewolf bidding his time and rejoicing in it, as he continued circling them, trailing a black cloak whilst he hatched his wicked plans.

Brownie looked at the menacing silhouette, as it stood in the temple courtyard his shadow, long and reaching to the east. he had an average looking face Before … but now he appeared faceless behind a mask that itself was something inhuman, as he glared with his yellow eyes that were cold and amber,
“Go AWAY!!!!!,” shouted Brownie churlishly.
They heard a laugh as if he were gleaning satisfaction from tormenting them, then he answered with a perverse pleasure “Not, without my wand….. hand it over to me now!”
The little sprite considered it … as she thought to herself, that there were some things – that came at too high a price… And she Questioned herself, was it worth it?
Elkie looked at her glowering face as she read her intentions “what, no … you can’t be??!”
“I’m sorry!” she said in a tiny slip of a voice.

“If you don’t, I’m going to make you suffer, and you’ll not stop me.. not you, the ghost, or the big scaredy cat over there,”
He sauntered up to the mortally wounded Wyrzel lying on the floor as he struggled to raise any part of his body to defend himself, but could not… the Knightmare somehow inflicted more pain upon him as he howled in torture. Next, He drew out a large hunting dagger, The Brownie felt sick to her stomach as he held it to his collar like he were an animal waiting to be ritually slaughtered for meat,
“Wait!” croaked Googlee.
“You better educate them on what to do … or I may put out your eyes next, and you know what that will mean, mmmm, afraid of the dark aren’t you??!! Imagine that!!!”
“nooooooooo!!!” They caterwauled in horror as Brownie defeated took the wand from her sleeve and began to gesture it as an offering towards him.
“Wait?” he said scarcely above a whisper as the Knightmare drew himself closer to him so he could hear “I’m not afraid of the dark!” As his voice became stronger and more defiant “I’M ON EDGE!!!!!!!!!” As he hurled himself at the Knightmare with every last ounce of strength he had in his broken body and barreled him over as they heard his bones break whilst Googlee proceeded to gnaw his head to a pulp like a dogs chew toy…

He raised himself up to his full stature a final time his body ragged and splintered, he struck a fierce and defiant pose and collapsed onto the floor with a thud as His eyes gently closed and his breathing became slower and more laboured until his last breath which was as soft as a refreshing breeze on an arid day, the two lost girls held him as they wept uncontrollably his jaw slackened and his tongue unrolled and protruded “he’s gone,” Said Brownie as she wiped her eyes. “Goodbye Friends,”
They held hands as they witnessed his body break into hundreds Of small embers that sailed through the air like tiny sky lanterns through the wysteria trees and onward to the blue yonder above. “I hope you get to chirconnell my friend,” she said thinking aloud.

the two of them slowly shuffled toward the temple steps.
The little sprite. Looked back and muttered “rest in peace! Now your kingdom has come down,”
Elkie looked sternly at Brownie “no, no, you cannot kill his kind so easily, he will be,”
And at that precise moment. Brownie felt severe and overwhelming pain as she witnessed a black spear sticking downwards and diagonally out of her chest and reaching through into the slate tiled floor as if she were some obscure humanoid butterfly with a pin put into her back.

He looked at the Brownie as blood seeped out of her mouth. She was stuck frozen to where she was standing as the little sprite flopped but was held true by the might of the knightmares Lance.
She wheezed hard as if the wind had been knocked out of her and her eyes looked around in disbelief. “Nooooooooo!!!” Screeched the hungry ghost as she. Clung onto Brownies hand. The little sprite tried to give it up “I’m not leaving you…” she said as a cloak of despair began to lower itself.

As the Knightmare stood once again behind them “are you sure!?” He said mockingly “I can’t kill you twice. But I can make you but a slim slither of a shadow!”
She drew vixen the obsidian blade once more as she said with conscientious objections
“I’M NOT LEAVING my friend to die alone like I did!!!!!” proudly puffing out her chest as she tried to make herself taller but was still negligible compared to HIM “well, then a shadow it is ’” as he clicked his fingers and she faded until she was incapable of holding her friend’s hand any longer, she shrieked as she blended into the floor And could scarcely be perceived as the drizzle had darkened the stone tiles, which had expunged any trace of li Elkie’s presence in this world.

The Brownie just gave up. She was alone now…. she bowed her head and succumbed to her destiny, she had fought and lost, and the stakes Were her life…. and it was forfeit.

It was over, they had failed.

the smell of petrichor prevailed as
The rain slowly abated as the shadow sorcerer the Knightmare loomed closer to her as onlookers gathered he could hear them whisper in revulsion as he fancied that his skull hurt as he saw the eye of the sun shine a steady ray upon him the whispering continued and reached biblical proportions As he realized it was in his head and throbbing within him an ominous echo. An ancient picture, he pictured in his head was it his own memory or something much darker. He looked at his hands they were covered in blood, his brother lay slain, he looked upon his own foul reflection on the surface of a nearby oasis laughing at him, a sinister phenomenon of original impropriety, the first sin.

And then he saw the fruits of his labour in the waking world he shuddered and felt remorse over the young doe who had been impaled to the floor as her muscles let go of their tension and she looked like a marionette with its strings cut. The other devotees began to hiss at his deeds as the Knightmare himself retreated, “I will return later. For my property,” as he pointed to the black wand which lay in the Brownies shadow and was rinsed in a puddle of her blood.

The hungry ghost. The image of her was a faint shadow almost comparable to the faintest of negative images cast across the cold slate-coloured tiles.

The courtyard was quiet as the few attendees wondered why this poor soul was not emancipating, as they watched a visage of her suffrage.
Elkie moved away along the floor, not Like an animated image, but as a whole image, that no one saw and no one had ever known had been there at all.

Beneath the vibrantly coloured whether parasols the crowd’s quietly contemplated, they whispered, SHE… the strange faery, she’s not passing, what did this mean they puzzled as they tried to interpret the peculiar signs and portents as they placed numerous flower petals at her head and her feet. They sang and burned incense, washed her skin and re-clothed her as best they could in white silver clothes.

In the peace and quiet, another faint sound could be heard to those capable of hearing. Coming from the bundle of her old clothing. the clockwork doormouse Pica jaunted into life as he scurried out of the sprites pocket and acquired the knightmares wand and began the long arduous slog of dragging to its intended destination, up to the steps into the inner sanctum of the Psychic Temple of Marsly knowledge.