Embers of the Lost
Chapter 4: The Dregana

The feeling of warmth on her skin soothed her body but pulled her mind back to consciousness. It both made her feel safe but at the same time it took away the numb feeling around her limbs. The sting, the throbbing and the stabbing of different pains caused Lily to groan uncomfortably where she lay on a soft patch of ground.

“Well, you’ve been through hell.”

Lily sat up instantly, raising a hand defensively at the sound of a voice. Her vision blurred and went black at the sudden movement and her stomach churned angrily.

“Whoa! Easy.” The voice spoke again, this time accompanied by hands settling on Lily’s shoulders to keep her steady. Blinking stupidly in the direction of the voice, Lily could do nothing but wait those moments it took for her vision to come back. When it did, she found herself looking into purple eyes on a cocoa-skinned face with purple scales under the right eye.

“Xalina…?” Lily breathed.

“Hey Lil.” Xalina chuckled, taking one hand away from Lily’s shoulder and sitting back a little. Glancing around, Lily found the force of warmth. A small yet glorious fire sat in the centre of the cone shaped room they were in. There was a small hole in the ceiling where the smoke from the fire was released, but otherwise the room was sheltered and kept cosy away from the frigid mountain she had been on. Lily spotted Kiki and Oscar snoozing by the fire, her eyes prickling at the relief she felt to replace them ok.

Finally, her eyes wandered over to the figures in the doorway, standing with their back to her and Xalina as though acting like guards.

“It’s ok. I told them you’re a friend but they wanted to speak to you before taking the guards away.” Xalina commented, drawing Lily’s attention back to her. It was the first time Lily had seen the Draconian in a proper lighting this close. Her hair was a beautiful violet colour that shimmered in the light of a dancing fire; it had a gentle wave to it that Lily’s straight hair could never have and it settled just below her shoulders.

“Them?” Lily questioned, taking a moment to catch up with the words that were spoken.

“My tribe.” Xalina chortled. “They found you on the mountain side and said you’d asked for me… so I explained what you were trying to do at the school and that you weren’t dangerous. So, they’ve been healing you.” She motioned down, causing Lily to inspect the state her arm was now in. It was properly bandaged and the sting was no longer there, as though some cooling ointment had been used to soothe the pain.

“They said the stitching was good… but made of plant material?” Xalina continued with a raised eyebrow.

“I didn’t have much else to use…” Lily mumbled, though she didn’t expect a bright laugh to come from the entrance.

“I always knew you were a badass!”

Lily’s head snapped around, her eyes widening in shock as she focused on the owner of the voice, the cropped black hair, the dark blue eyes…

“Tanith?!” Lily’s face spread into a surprised smile at the face she hadn’t expected to see.

“In the flesh!” Tanith replied, striding over to take a seat beside Xalina, unabashedly greeting her with a kiss to her cheek and gaining a kiss to her nose in return.

“You’re Xalina’s partner?” Lily voiced out what was an obvious question, and she received a droll, sarcastic raised eyebrow for it.

“No. You don’t say!” Tanith laughed.

“So, did you…?”

“Know you were a fairy the whole time? Yeah, we have no secrets.” Tanith chortled, though Xalina did glance at Lily with a slightly sheepish expression. “I was doing some digging back at home to see if I could help and then the alarm went through the kingdom that you had attacked the main city. Which obviously was insane! But everyone seemed to believe it…”

“Everyone?”

“Everyone.”

The look between the two girls was all that was needed to know that by ‘everyone’ they both meant ‘Dia’. Lily sighed. Dia believed Lily had used her, and had been the villain of a story she wasn’t aware was playing out. Which meant she believed that Finnigan was a victim and possibly a hero for being willing to turn against his villainous ‘ex-girlfriend’.

Tanith reached out and ruffled the white locks on Lily’s head before offering her a smile. “We know you ain’t a bad one though, right?”

Lily chuckled and nodded. She didn’t want to be hated by everyone, but she did know in herself that she wasn’t the villain here.

“What happened?” Xalina asked gently, motioning to the injuries. Lily the recounted her side of the story; explaining that the small dots over her body were from the peyadu when Finnigan had turned on her, that the scarring on her wrists was from when she was arrested by her own kind, the ankle was an accident and the newest ones on the sides and back of her arm were from Finnigan once more.

“He’s hunting you?!” Tanith growled out at the end. “So, he tricks everyone, uses you, betrays you, breaks your heart and now he’s leading teams to kill you? I’ll throttle him myself!” She had gotten to her feet and started pacing, and her fists were now balled tight by her sides as though there was nothing more she wanted than to punch someone… Well, not someone, Finnigan. “I don’t understand. I saw how he looked at you! That was love on his face! How can someone lie that well?! Liche!!”

Both cats jolted awake at the insult that was yelled by Tanith, immediately jumping up and hovering in the air with their hackles raised.

“Sorry, don’t mind me,” Tanith commented, continuing her pacing.

“Lily! You’re awake!” Kiki said excitedly, flying over to the fairy and landing in her lap purring.

“You had us seriously worried there,” Oscar added, nuzzling his head against Lily’s when he reached her. Lily turned her head to let his fur cover her face as she nuzzled him back with a mumbled apology, her good arm moving to stroke over Kiki’s fur. They were so warm and she could feel their little heartbeats strong under their skin.

“I’m glad you guys are ok.” She whispered softly, relief making her immediately tired once more.

They were safe. Finally.

As though her body knew that fact, her stomach soon drowned out Tanith’s grumbling with a loud gurgling demand that caused both Xalina and Tanith to snort with laughter.

“I’ll get you some food.” Xalina chortled, pushing herself to her feet and exiting the room.

Lily turned her attention to Tanith and tilted her head. “How come you didn’t tell me?”

“Huh? About Xal?” Tanith finally settled herself back down on the soft floor which looked like the coat of a wild beast. “Yeah, sorry about that. I figured it would be something difficult to talk about without Dia getting suspicious why we couldn’t tell her something. Besides,” she continued, “I guess I got into the habit of never speaking about Xalina in case I got her in trouble. Oh, thanks for springing her from the Lockup by the way.”

The smile Lily received was heartbreakingly soft. It was an expression that somehow seemed surprising on Tanith’s features with all her confidence and wild aura. The only thing anyone should be able to do in the face of that kind of love is smile, and that’s exactly what Lily did. She couldn’t help it; one of the people she would class as a best friend looked so gentle and happy to the core of her soul when she looked at the Draconian walking back into the room.

Xalina handed over a bowl of hot broth that smelled rich and spiced, it was all Lily could do not to drink it immediately and scold her throat.

It was blissful. The heat of the broth warmed her to the core, the spices brought pink to her pale cheeks, the scent awakened her mind and memory to the warmth of meat dishes in the winter months at Quintegia, the laughter that had surrounded her.

“This is amazing…” She sighed out after half of the bowl was gone and her stomach was gurgling with the effort and eagerness to digest something other than its own lining.

“I am surprised that a Fairy could stomach our spices.” A calm voice came from the entrance to the room and all eyes turned to face the owner. Their hair was as white as Lily’s but their scaled wings were dotted in pale blue patches much like areas over their weathered skin.

“Ah.” Xalina got to her feet to give some kind of greeting which involved curling her left hand into a fist, bringing it to rest against her lips and bowing her head. Tanith did the same motion from where she sat. Once the elder had repeated the action in response, Xalina continued. “This is our Dregana, she is the head of the tribe.”

Lily went to stand to pay her respects, however the pain of her ankle hadn’t faded completely and she wobbled and ended up on her knees.

“Oh, do not strain yourself. You’ve been in quite a battle,” the Dregana spoke, her voice aged with wisdom and hard decisions.

“I want you to tell me your story.” She added as Xalina helped her to sit on the ground in front of Lily, her fingers interlinking with each other in her lap. “We thought it was unwise for Xalina to be meddling in the affairs of others, and now you are here on our doorstep. I would know your story to determine whether Xalina is right in her judgment to help you.”

“And, if you don’t think she’s right?” Oscar chimed.

“We’ll burn that bridge if we get to it.” The warning in her deep blue eyes was unmissable; Lily was not going to receive any help if this woman didn’t deem her cause worthy enough.

Gulping back the dread that threatened to seal her throat, Lily settled herself back into a more comfortable sitting position.

Recounting her story, Lily couldn’t help but recall the way Kipar had responded in doubt, anxiety set in that she was going to be met with the same response now.

“It was all a lie based on greed, people don’t need to keep dying.” Lily finished, her mind tired from recounting the tale, her evidence from her back laid out on the floor. The Dregana was scanning through the journal with the spell requirements and Tanith was leaning over the family tree rolled out on the floor.

“There is much hate between the races…” The Dregana started.

“Yes,” Lily interrupted, surprising the others there by the look on their faces. “But someone has to break that hatred; someone has to offer friendship… or it will just continue.” Lily glanced at Tanith and Xalina. “Right here in this room we have proof that it doesn’t just have to be hatred between races! You two love each other and I, a fairy, love you both and want to fight for you, not against you.”

Why couldn’t the world see that? Lily sighed. This whole thing had blinded so many, yet no one wanted to fight apart from those who benefited from it.

“It’s not that simple.” The Dregana said, causing Lily to deflate and slouch herself in her seated position. Why wasn’t it that simple? Why were people unwilling to make it that simple? “I don’t think your aim is wise, however, you are welcome to take shelter here. Rest, recover, and learn.”

“Learn?” Lily repeated.

“You can join our training activities.” Xalina clarified as she assisted The Dregana to her feet and once more held her fist to her lips and bowed her head in respect as the elderly female left. “It’ll help build up your muscle and physical fighting skills in case you need them.”

“I don’t want to fight.”

“Lil, you’re standing in front of a tidal wave that’s been going on for years… if you want to keep convincing people of what you’ve found, you are going to be met with people who don’t agree or even those who want to silence you.” Xalina sighed. “You won’t be able to take this path without a fight.”

“You know that already though…” Tanith added, motioning to the bandage around Lily’s arm. “If you go back down the mountains, Finnigan is probably going to be waiting.”

Lily glanced down at the wound and then across to Oscar who looked back at her with something akin to empathy. Neither of them wanted to fight, neither of them wanted to be in pain or cause pain. Was there no way to do this without that?

“Finish your food, and get some more rest.” Xalina spoke softly, reaching out to pat the white fairy on her shoulder in a gesture that was both full of support and sympathy.

“They might be right, you know.” Oscar breathed as Xalina and Tanith left them alone to settle back down.

“I know. I just wish they weren’t.”

“Well, so what if they are?” Kiki chimed with a small growl. “Personally, I think Finnigan and his family deserve a good beating for what they’ve done.”

Lily chortled as the socked-feline batted at an imaginary enemy in front of her as though that would help her point.

“I’m sure you’ll teach them a lesson if you get the chance.” Lily ruffled Kiki’s ears and found her hand pounced on by the feline who was still in the mood for a fight. A play-fight between Kiki and Lily’s hand wasn’t uncommon and always ended in Kiki pinning Lily’s hand to the ground and sitting on it in triumph, never mind the fact that Lily could have still lifted her. Instead, Lily would flail her fingers and exclaim, “Ah, you killed it! You win!” and lay herself down beside the victorious cat so she didn’t pull her hand back to herself.

It was a silly exchange, but it lightened Lily’s heart considerably. Even if everything else was changing or getting darker, at least Kiki and Oscar were the same as ever.

With Kiki snuggled up over the defeated hand, and Oscar curling up against Lily’s stomach, the fairy found sleep.