Fleur

Chapter one

Fleur

Xana looks into the water with her white eyes glowing brilliantly. She drags her ice-tipped fingers across the top of the water tracing lines of frost. Her pale skin sparkles in the sunlight and her wings let off spectrums of colors like a diamond. Her ice gloves and the icicle spikes on her shoulders shimmer, but never melt in the sun. She sits on the ends of her thick dark blue hair that shines like slick black ice. Perched atop her head is her ice circlet indicating that she is one of the two precious ice faeries left.

There aren’t any ice faeries left, just Xana and a middle-aged man, which is a great shame. They are some of the loveliest creatures in the faerie world. But after the war there were substantial casualties of the ice faeries. More than three fourths of the population was lost, including Xana’s mother and father. Over time many have died from just simply being in the war, the madness taking over their minds and forcing them to end themselves. Xana, thankfully, was young at the time, so her memories must have dulled in her head. There are only two ice faeries left; that’s all.

That terrible war also took Xana’s right arm. She now has a metal prosthetic arm in which she covers in a layer of ice. She has a mechanic she sees every month for maintenance. He’s an earth faerie, but he uses metal more than he uses earth. Their families were close friends and fought side by side during the war. Xana and Demetri grew up together and until the day they were given covens they were always inseparable. Now they hardly see each other. But today we’re going to see him.

“Xana. Let’s go.”

She looks up at me with her white eyes. “Ok.” She gets up from the side of the fountain. She smoothes out the skirt of her dark blue dress. It’s snug on her thin body on the top and the skirt flares in the middle of her hips. The skirt is short except for the back which flows down to her heels. The whole dress sparkles like snow in the sunlight. “Let’s get this over with,” she mumbles.

“Oh don’t talk like that. You love visiting Demetri.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “What makes you think that?” she pouts.

“Oh please, he’s your best friend.”

“That doesn’t mean I love seeing him.”

“Sure you do. I see the look on your face when I tell you it’s time to see him.”

She huffs. “Are all you flower faeries like this?”

“Like what?”

“Really annoying?”

“Oh shut up or I’ll make your allergies really bad this spring.”

She smiles. “Now that’s the Fleur I know.” I bump her shoulder while trying to hide a smile.

Xana is my favorite coven sister. I love all of my coven sisters, but Xana especially. In all there are ten of us; Adana, Sora, Aleen, Cecile, Kiri, Nerina, Starling, Jinx, Xana, and me, Fleur. Adana is an earth faerie, Sora an air faerie, Aleen a light faerie, Cecile a night faerie, Kiri a tree faerie, Nerina is a water faerie, Starling an animal faerie, Jinx is a magic faerie, Xana an ice faerie, and me a flower faerie. Aleen and Cecile have some sort of thing for each other, Kiri is a class A gossiper, Nerina is always off playing near the stream, I never know where Starling is half the time and Sora and Jinx, well they’re pretty cool, but Xana is my best friend. We’re a very tight-knit coven, but even so I still play favorites.

Xana’s ice heels click as we walk to Demetri’ mechanic shop. I wear shoes made from petals of our magic daisies, so they make no sound. Even my dress is made of petals, but from a magic grown light pink tulip. My orange hair is braided with normal flowers of every color and my makeup is made of colors extracted from even more flowers.

The magically grown flowers are made extremely big so us flower faeries can dress ourselves. You see us faeries aren’t small at all. We’re the same size as humans. We’re just really good at hiding.

You see the magic flowers aren’t just made for clothing; they’re also extra big so they can hide us from human eyes. The magic faeries hex the flowers towering our city so humans stray away. I’m not sure what the humans see, but it’s enough to keep them far away.

We walk through the streets of the city, Fey City. The whole city is built around a huge magically grown oak tree. Homes hang from the branches of the tree or below at the base of the trunk. Tall glass buildings scrape the skies we fly in. Faeries flitter around above entering shops in the middle of buildings or exchanging gossip. Coven homes are tucked into the tree, sitting on mammoth branches. The Queen’s home is at the center of the tree. It’s also were Fey Hall is. A shiver runs down my spine as I think of Fey Hall. It used to be this lovely place where dances were held and lovely ceremonies were celebrated, but now, after the war… I shudder to even think about iit.

I glance over to Xana. She swings her arms like child as she walks. I suppress a giggle. She really is an odd flower. “Ooo! We’re here!” She flutters her winks excitedly and takes off towards the little shop near a large root. I smile and follow her example. She’s already knock knock knocking on poor Demetri’ door. “Open up Dem! I know you’re in there!”

“Xana stop, he may have a costumer.”

She ignores me and keeps knocking. The wooden door swings open and Xana knocks someone in the chest.

She freezes. “Oooh, I’m so sor-”

She looks up to see Demetri’ smiling face. His tan skin is smudged with oil, his chocolate brown hair has a streak of oil on the side and his smock is covered in grime. His brown eyes glint as he looks down at Xana. “You knocked?”

“Hey!” Xana jumps into his arms.

He chuckles and squeezes her tight. “How’s my favorite costumer?”

He set her down and her wings flutter happily. “In the need of a nice tune up.” She jiggles her mechanical arm in his face.

He chuckles. “Well step right in.” He changes his attention to me. “Hey Fleur. No time no see.”

“Oh tell me about it.” I skip over and give him a quick little hug of my own. “Come on in you two. You guys want some tea? Draco’s making some.” Oh Nix, Draco’s here, I think to myself.

“Draco’s here?!” Xana runs past him and into his shop. “DRACO!” we hear her shriek happily in the shop and then there’s the sound of breaking china.

He snorts at her. “She’s a bull in a china shop.”

“Almost literally,” I add.

He laughs. “Come on.” I follow him into his tiny shop. The shop is bright and musky and smells of oil and rust, but it’s something familiar and comforting to me now. There are lights all over the shop; near Demetri’ work table, by his crates of parts, and even by a hospital bed he “borrowed”. The bed was put there just for Xana. The shop used to be a home, but Demetri’s father converted it into his mechanic shop when he was a young man. Rumor has it that Xana’s father and Demetri’s father were coven brothers, hence their close relationship.

“Xana,” sighs Demetri from the other room. “What did you do now?”

“I didn’t mean to! Let me help clean up.”

“No!” I hear Draco and Demetri cry in unison.

“I mean-” Demetri sighs again. “Why don’t you just lie down and wait for me. Draco and I’ve got this.”

“Fine.” Xana stomps out of the kitchen and into the main room. She plops down on the hospital bed and frowns. “Hey Dem!” She calls into the kitchen. “When was the last time you changed the mattress on this thing? It’s all lumpy.”

“One month later than last visit.”

“Soo, nine years?”

I hear a faint chuckle. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“Ewww.” Xana makes a face at the mattress. She gets up and pulls a white blanket from underneath over top the bed. “There.” She sits back down and stares towards the kitchen. “Can you help me make a new mattress for him?”

“Sure dear.”

“You must be happy,” she says softly.

“What? What do you mean?”

She looks over at me and smiles. “Draco’s here. I know how you fancy him.”

I feel my cheeks blush to the shade of a red rose. “I do not!” I hiss.

“Oh yes you do! Don’t give me that crap Fleur. Your one of my coven sisters, I know everything about you.”

“Do not,” I mumble.

“So ladies!” booms a voice as a dark boy enters the room. “How’s it like on the East side of the city?” asks Draco.

Draco is a super ripped, super handsome sky faery. His bleached really short hair and sky blue eyes are so hot. His large biceps ripple under his chocolate skin as he hands me a cup of tea. “Thanks,” I choke.

He smiles sweetly at me. “Welcome Fleur.” Demetri walks in while swinging a wrench around his finger.

“Here Xan.”

“Thanks suga’.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Demetri and Xana snort in unison. “Ready?” he asks her.

“When am I not?” She takes a quick sip of tea before she lies down on her stomach and lays her arm on top of Demetri’ work table.

“Uh Xan? You think you could-” He stares down at her arm still encrusted with ice.

“Oh!” She lifts her arm over Demetri’ head and unfreezes the ice. Cold water splashes down on his head. “Hey!” he cries and gives Xana the dirtiest look.

She smiles mischievously. “You looked in the need of a nice clean up.”

“I hate you,” grumbles Demetri as he dries himself.

“No you don’t,” she sings and her wings flutter happily.

Demetri rolls his eyes and picks his wrench back up. “Arm down, now.”

“Aye aye captain.” Xana obeys her orders. I watch Demetri play around with her arm as I sip on my tea. His handsome face is scrunched in concentration as he unscrews bolts, nuts and plates. He slowly and carefully dismembers her arm until only a few pieces and all the wires connected to her nerves are still connected.

The first time I came here with her we were thirteen and had just become coven sisters. I decided it to be my job to take care of the poor crippled ice faery the moment I saw her, though then I didn’t know that Xana doesn’t need anyone to help her. I took it upon myself to take her to her checkups and sit there with her to make her feel better. Demetri did the same thing he’s doing now; taking her arm apart to check that all the wires work properly. At that time it was something I’d never seen before and because of that I had to leave the room. Xana wouldn’t meet my eyes for days. I felt so bad about leaving her like that, but the image of all those wires connecting to the stump of her shoulder... I was just too squeamish for that.

But now it’s no big deal.

“I can’t move my index finger very well,” informs Xana. She even moves the skeletal metal finger wrapped in colorful wires. “See it was delayed.”

“Gotcha.” Demetri bites on the wrench with his lips and holds it there like a dog with a bone in its mouth. He starts playing around with the wires. Every so often Xana’ll wince and Demetri will mumble an apology.

“So how’s East?” Draco asks again.

The girl coven houses are on the east side of the tree and the boy coven houses are at the west. So unfortunately we hardly get to see those of the opposite sex except when working. “Same old same old,” answers Xana.

“Yeah same with the West. We’re all working hard for winter.”

“Tell me about it,” groans Xana.

“Oh yeah, how’s it going with the ice folk?”

“You can’t exactly call us folk anymore; there’s only two of us left,” she says sadly. “Izo and I are working as hard as we can. The only reason I got off is because I needed a maintenance check up. I mean, I come home everyday completely exhausted.”

“It’s true. She’ll nap for a good four hours, eat dinner and then go right off to bed,” I input.

“Must be hard,” says Demetri softly. “Especially after the war.”

“Yeah,” says Xana in a small voice as she looks at her dismembered prosthetic arm in dismay.

I instantly feel sad for her. I personally don’t know how she lost her arm; she doesn’t talk about it. Not even Demetri told a single soul and I doubt he ever will. I assume she fought in the war among the other ice faeries. I know every ice faerie was recruited to fight in the war. The ice faeries are the warriors of our kind. I don’t know much further about the war, my parents never talked about it near me. Whatever conversation about it was ended when I walked into the room. They tried making the whole four years as pleasant as they could, even when the glow of flames shone through my bedroom window at night.

“Izo is showing the signs. He’s skittish, and scared. Paranoia is crawling up his back. I can tell the madness is getting into his brain. It’s only a matter of time before…” She lets her voice trail off.

Oh no, I think to myself. I hope she’s wrong.  I must not have been the only one to pick up on Xana’s sorrowful vibe because Draco perks up and says, “Well you know, you have us wind faeries! We can carry that cold weather far and wide for you!”

“Yeah,” says Demetri flatly as he tries to concentrate on his work and have a conversation with us at the same time. “And us earth folk can cool the ground for you.”

“Oh and water folk can help extra hard with the snow this year,” I add cheerfully.

Xana smiles, though it doesn’t reach to her eyes. “Thanks guys. You always know how to make a girl feel better.” She rests her chin on top of her other arm and looks at the wall in front of her.

“Hey Xana?” asks Draco.

“Yeah?”

“You know we love you, right?”

She twisted her head to rest her cheek on her arm. She smiles at us and this time the smile reaches her eyes and brightens them slightly. “Yeah, I know.”

�-–

We’ve been here at Demetri’ for a little over three hours. He’s checked all the wires and put her arm back together, sometimes replacing old parts with new ones. She now sits up on the lump bed and tests her arm out. She bends it at the elbow a few times, wiggles her fingers and swings it around like a swimmer getting ready for a race. She stretches her arm across her chest. “Everything feels great Dem.” She shakes her arm out. “Hey Drac, let’s spar in the yard.”

“Sure, but in exchange you’ve got to teach some ninja moves.” He pretends like he’s a ninja and swipes his arms around sharply. Xana laughs. “Sure thing big guy.”

His eyes sparkle excitedly as he follows Xana outside. Demetri starts to clean up his work spot. I stand up from the couch and walk over to him.

“Need help?”

“Yeah sure, can you pick up all the hex washers?”

“The whats?”

“These.” He shows me a type of screw thingy with the head in the shape of a hexagon.

“Oh, ok gotcha.” I start collecting all the hex washers. Outside we can hear Draco and Xana sparing up a storm.

“How is she?” he asks lowly.

“Hm?” I hum.

“How’s Xana doing?”

“Oh.” Sometimes I forget that he and Xana don’t get to see each other much anymore. I guess I’m his eyes and ears now. I look out the door. I can’t see Xana or Draco but I can hear them fighting and laughing. I look back to the table and continue collecting hex washers. “She’s been keeping to herself now more than ever. She seems to always be off in her own thoughts, though they never seem to be pleasant.”

“I expected that. The anniversary is coming up.”

“Oh. Oh no.” I look back towards the door sadly. I forgot that the anniversary of Xana’s parents’ death and the day she lost her arm is coming up on Thursday. Every year she locks herself in her bedroom and doesn’t leave all day. She skips work, doesn’t eat, and never lets anyone in. “Will you be visiting?”

“Yeah, Draco and Gill will be coming too.”

Oh goodness, Draco in my coven house?! I almost start hyperventilating. “She’ll be glad you’re there.”

He smiles slightly. “Yeah, it’s always good to be with someone familiar.”

Author's Note

It's sloppy and rushed, but it'll kinda stay like that until after NaNoWriMo