A moment later, however, the smile disappeared from Mithril’s face, as if he had suddenly remembered something.
“What’s the matter?” Keith asked with a frown as Mithril hung his head.
He looks…different than usual.
His single wing, which was always pulled taut, now hung limply behind him.
“I…would have liked to become a color fairy…,” he muttered.
He sounded exhausted.
Somehow, I just can’t settle down.
Anne and Challe had been tied to a slim tree trunk near the lake. Anne’s arms were bound together, and she had been secured to the tree by her shoulders. The rope around her wrists pricked at her skin.
Since she had been tied up right next to Challe, the two of them were nestled tightly together, close enough that she could smell the grassy aroma of his skin.
She felt uneasy, like something was stirring deep in her heart.
I wonder how everyone at Hollyleaf Castle is doing. Especially Mithril Lid Pod…
Out of everyone, she was most concerned about Mithril. He was typically energetic, but lately, something had been off about him. Last night, he had seemed to weigh almost nothing when she cradled him in her arms.
“We ought to go together!” said a voice, remarkably loud.
A short distance away, the fairies were gathered around Allele. They had been talking for some time. An angry voice rose from within their circle.
“Splitting up to run makes me nervous. Everyone should go together.”
“But with this many of us fleeing, we’re sure to stand out,” said Allele. “Let’s escape one by one, so everyone can go where they like.”
Someone agreed. “Let’s do that.”
But then another objected. “I don’t want to go alone. I don’t even know where I should run. Humans are all over the place, aren’t they?”
“You can hide from them like we’re doing now.”
“And keep fleeing forever?! I don’t know how long I can stay on the run. Eventually, the fairy hunters will catch me. It’ll be the same as before. If that’s how it’s gonna play out, we should all stick together.”
“If we try to move with this many people, we’ll be too conspicuous!”
The fairies raised their voices here and there. When things started to get out of hand, someone shouted at Allele.
“Help us decide, Allele! You’re the one who said we should run away and planned all this.”
“My opinion hasn’t changed. We should all run away, however we please.”
“No!”
“Shut up! Everybody, just calm down for now,” Allele shouted, rising to his feet.
He was imposing even from afar, with his loud voice and his robust, muscular build. It seemed natural he would wind up a leader. His eyes bulging, he glared at his companions.
The other fairies fell silent and hung their heads in exhaustion.
“For the time being, let’s find something to eat in the forest. Everyone’s hungry, and it’s making us irritable. If we don’t get a proper meal, we won’t even have the strength to run away. Let’s look for something edible while it’s still light out.”
The fairies rose sluggishly after Allele’s forceful speech. One of them grumbled, “Wandering around the forest searching for food, huh…? What a miserable way to live.” Then the fairies walked off in ones and twos.
Allele grimaced.
Freedom? If this is what it means for fairies to be free, then something is wrong.
Anne bit her lip. She felt a pang in her chest.
This was what liberty looked like for them after taking their wings and running.
Afraid of being recaptured by humans, they’d gone into hiding. If this cruel existence was the only way they could be free, then humankind had truly made a mess of the world. Everything was twisted.
The sun began to sink, and the forest darkened. When Anne looked up, she saw there were still some sunset-tinted clouds drifting through the air, but the thick canopy of night would soon be upon them. The fairies built a small bonfire for light.
Gathered around the flames, the fairies evenly divided up the nuts and berries they had gathered. By the time they were done with their meal, the sun had completely set.
Fearing an attack by wild beasts in the night, the fairies took turns staying awake to keep the fire going.
After midnight, Allele’s turn at the fire came, and he sat there throwing pieces of wood into the flames. The red fire illuminated his indigo-colored hair.
The croaking of frogs rang out from the edge of the lake.
“…Challe.” Once all the fairies had settled down to sleep, Anne softly called Challe’s name and craned her neck to see his face. “Is this what freedom means to fairies?”
“In our current world, there is no freedom, even if you get your wing back.” He answered her evenly, without showing any particular emotion. He was staring with pity at the fairies lying around the bonfire. “They must realize it, too.”
Hearing those words, Anne was finally able to understand Challe’s true intentions.
The night before, Challe had purposely let the fairies go. He must have been trying to teach these fairies what freedom looked like under the present circumstances. Once they had experienced the kind of liberty on offer, the fairies would reevaluate the future that Anne and the others had spoken of.
“This is all wrong,” said Anne.
“That’s why I’m placing my hopes in all of you,” Challe replied. “Your sugar candy will be the thing that changes the relationship between humans and fairies.”
Every time the wind blew, the trees in the forest would rustle softly. When that happened, the two of them heard quiet singing mixed in with the noise. It was the same indistinct male voice that Anne had heard sometimes at Hollyleaf Castle.
Someone’s singing?
She looked around, searching for the owner of the voice. The only fairy still awake was Allele, who had his back to them. It must have been him. Anne was reminded of her mother Emma as she watched him sing under his breath.
But she wondered why Allele was singing such a song. She didn’t think it was something a fairy would know. It was a human tune. She was sure that fairies must have songs of their own.
Just then, the energetic croaking of the frogs stopped, and there was a succession of plops as the creatures jumped into the lake. Allele rose to his feet.
The fairy briefly looked over his sleeping comrades. Then he slowly turned around and quietly walked away, one step at a time.
He came close to Anne and Challe but didn’t speak. He almost passed by the tree where they were bound without so much as looking at them.
“Escaping on your own?” Challe asked quietly. “And leaving your fellows behind?”
Allele stopped walking.
“I could shout and wake them up for you,” Challe continued.
Allele approached him, anger clear on his face.
“Don’t. Don’t call out,” he groaned.
“Did you determine you’d have better odds alone? Is that why you’re abandoning your comrades?”
“Wrong. There’s something I have to look for. I’m not running away. But I’m not like the rest of them, either—I have a purpose.” Allele knelt down and lowered his voice. “Shut up and let me go. I have to continue my search.”
“For what?” Anne asked without thinking. “Or for who?”
Allele frowned.
“I might be able to help you,” she continued. “Tell me. I traveled with Mama all around the kingdom, so I know about many different places.”
After a hesitant silence, Allele answered.
“I am…searching for a fairy who was sold near Southcent. One with hair the same color as mine… A woman. Good at singing. I overheard the fairy dealers talking about selling her as a pet because of her voice. Have you ever seen her?”
“No, I’m sorry…”
Allele snorted through his nose and stood back up.
“Allele? What are you doing?”
A voice came from near the bonfire. Allele’s wing jerked. One of the fairies who had been sleeping beside the fire had raised his head and was looking their way.
“Nothing. Just checking that their ropes haven’t loosened.”
Allele turned back toward the fire. However, the other fairy stood up and hurried over, his face grim. Out of nowhere, he grabbed Allele by the collar.
“Liar! You were trying to escape on your own, I bet.”
“No way. I was—”
“You said from the very beginning that we should split up and run. Am I wrong?! Either that, or maybe you were gonna let these two go and demand the humans repay the favor by overlooking your disappearance.”
“Quit it with the false accusations!”
Allele shook off the other fairy’s hands. That made the fairy even angrier, and he grabbed at Allele again.
“If you weren’t up to anything, then why were you whispering and plotting while everyone’s asleep?!”
The sound of their shouting woke the other fairies. They sat up or raised their heads, then began to gather around Allele and the other fairy, looking surprised.
“What are you doing?”
“Allele was trying to run away on his own!”
“No way…”
“I wasn’t,” Allele insisted, but there was no force behind his voice. He couldn’t maintain the lie. Anne could see there was an upright, honest side to him.
The other fairies pressed in steadily, surrounding Allele. The single wings on each of their backs were all stretched taut. Allele’s face stiffened.
“He really was just checking to make sure our ropes weren’t loose!” Anne shouted spontaneously.
Allele’s eyes opened wide.
“I tied up Challe initially,” she continued automatically. “So he retied the ropes.”
She had no confidence in the lie she was telling. But she managed to keep her breathing steady and to speak in a normal voice.
The fairies, who had been seething with anger, deflated before her eyes as they processed what Anne had said. She was relieved to see the change in their expressions.
“Just a false alarm…,” one of them said.