Book 3: Chapter 80 (1/2)

Stella frowned and furrowed her brow. She was hovering over a red boulder with an arrow stuck inside of it. “You alright, Sheryl?”

“Do I look alright?” Sheryl asked and whimpered. “There’s an arrow in my butt!”

Stella tilted her head. “Rocks have butts?”

“She’s an elemental, not a rock,” Vur said from his place on the table. The chains were still tying him down. While the elementals were attacking the army outside, Mervin was working on setting Vur free with the drill he used to poke holes in people who wished for larger mana channels. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working.

“I can’t do it,” Mervin said and shook his head. The drill in his hands disappeared with a poof as he sighed. “The chains aren’t wrapped around you. They’re coming out of you and wrapped around the table. They’re snaking out from inside your body like the spawn of botflies wriggling out of gaping holes in—”

“Stop,” Stella said and threw a bit of red boulder that had fallen off of Sheryl at him. “I don’t want to hear it. If you can’t free Vur like you said you could, then it’s your job to distract the army while Sheryl heals.”

Mervin scrunched up his forehead. “I’m just a single genie king. How am I supposed to stop an army of millions that even three really strong magical rocks couldn’t?”

“They’re not rocks,” Vur said.

Stella placed her hands on her hips. “If Vur wished for you to stop those people, could you do it?”

“Well, yeah,” Mervin said and nodded.

“How?” Stella asked.

“I’d go out there and—”

Stella threw another piece of Sheryl at him. “Then do that! Every second you spend arguing is a second closer to my home’s impending violation!”

Mervin rubbed his forehead where the red rock struck him. “Alright, I’ll do it,” he said and smiled at the angry fairy queen. He darted out of the cell, disappearing before anyone could say anything.

Sheryl stopped tugging on the arrow embedded inside of herself and blinked at Stella. “Why does he listen to you when you’re so mean to him?”

Stella sighed and lowered her hands from her hips. Her wings slowed, and she landed on top of the red boulder. “You see, Sheryl. Some people…, some people like being treated like that. It makes every part of their body happy.” Stella nodded. “We call those people freaks.”

“Oh,” Sheryl said. She pursed her rocky lips before grabbing onto the arrow again and tugged. “That stupid, stupid archer. When I get this arrow out of me, I’m going to fly out there and stick it up his butt and see how he likes it!”

Stella pursed her lips. Why was she the only normal one here?

***

Ralph wiped away at his forehead with the back of his hand. He didn’t feel exhaustion anymore as a being made of blood and magic, but going through the motions let him feel human again, if even for a brief moment. A tremor shook the ground and the frontline of the army tripped, delaying the whole procession. A tiny, high-pitched voice that seemed to be floating along the wind pierced his ears, “Greetings!”

Ralph and the other soldiers swiveled their heads, looking for the source of the voice. Lord Briffault pointed an arrow at a tiny figure in the sky. “There.”