Fabled Firefighters, Faeries and Knights

Excerpt

Ben Enigma and the Faery Princess

A banished faery was surely the loneliest creature in existence. Princess Cettia, daughter of King Alcedo, now had to find her way in the land of the mortals. Her banishment had not been the wish of the king, for her poor father lay in a faery coma, and showed no signs of emerging from it. Her faery stepmother, Queen Corvusa, who had partly given over the running of the faery kingdom to her son, Garruluso, had forced her into exile. She had even falsely titled him Prince Garruluso, going totally against the rules of the Royal Faery Constitution, but no one dared argue with the might and wrath of Queen Corvusa and her vile son.

Together, they accused Cettia of trying to bring about her own father's demise by ordering The Olgdha, an ancient faery empowered with infinite knowledge of faery herbs, to poison him. The Faery Parliament believed the claim and sent royal guards to kill the Olgdha, but the old faery, alerted by her son, Apuso, fled and went into hiding. Before Cettia had a chance to flee Queen Corvusa's second son, Laruso, escorted her from her land. It had been a harrowing experience and it did not end when they both emerged from the old burial mound that linked their world with the human world.

Laruso sniggered as he glanced around. "This is a dull world in comparison with ours. Ah, correction, not ours, mine. You are banished and shall never return to the faery realm."

"You are wrong to do this to me," Cettia said, giving a defiant toss of her head.

He stepped closer and fingered Cettia's blonde, tumbling locks. "You have too much arrogance. Show some humility to a prince of the faery realm."

She stamped her foot. "You are no prince! Just because your evil mother says you are, it does not make it so." She gave a gasp as the male faery drew his dagger. The gasp turned into a shriek of dismay when he lifted the dagger and cut off her long, blonde hair, level with her ears. Laruso merely laughed when her hair tumbled to the ground, but he had still not finished with her. His fist slammed into her back, seriously bruising the area where her wings emerged.

"Try flying now, banished faery."

Sobbing, she looked over her shoulder at her tattered wings. They were wings that only faeries could see, for human eyes had not the ability to detect them. Neither was the touch of a human sensitive enough to feel them. "How could you be so cruel?"