Page 20 of The Tricksters Deception

“And kept going. I don’t really stay anywhere for more than a few months.”

“So, you’re well traveled then?”

“I’ve spent the last six years travelling around this continent, and I still haven’t been to half the cities around here. I’ll find one to suit me eventually.” It made me a little sad he hadn’t found somewhere to call home after six years.

“Have you been to the Capital before?”

“No. I hear a lot about it though. We will stop in the next village we get to, though it’s best to avoid talking to people if we can help it.” I understand why it wouldn’t be in our best interest to have long conversations with people, but I can’t understand why he is so persistent about everyone being the bad guy. I suppose I shouldn’t judge, especially since I misjudged him to begin with. My horse stops for a moment and takes a cautious step back. Attached to a tree along the path is a Skelly, and even though it pays us no mind, my horse is far from pleased. Corvu grabs my reins and pulls its face away, then keeps moving. Gecko’s horse also has no problem maneuvering around to avoid looking at the creature. Why do I have to be so useless? Nearly a day of horse riding, and I should be able to learn quicker than this.

As the canopy above us becomes thicker, the direct sun fades out. Now I’m starting to think I’m seeing things. Amongst the moss and algae, small fireflies start to come out in the darkness. I’m stunned. There could easily be millions of them as far as I can see the forest stretch. If only places like this existed in my world too. Corvu’s horse pulls up next to mine. He grabs my wrist and turns up my hand, only to place something that reminds me of bread crumbs in it. An involuntary blush creeps across my face as he smiles at me. I hadn’t noticed that one of the nearby fireflies decides to settle in my hand to eat the crumbs, and then another. Only, they aren’t fireflies at all. Lifting my hand up to my face to see closer, I can finally see what they are. They are the tiniest fairies, with bright green glowing wings. It doesn’t look like they are interested in me, just in the bread on my hand.

Gecko giggles. I look up to see that quite a few of the fairies have landed in his hair. Corvu just scoffs, “They’re probably confused as to why you’re wingless, pixie-boy.” Gecko tilts his head in Corvu’s direction, giving him a foul look. I hadn’t seen him do this before, but Gecko’s eyes start to glow in the same strange green as the fairy wings. Corvu’s saddle makes a strange jingling sound, and he then proceeds to slide off to the left side of his horse. He grunts as he hits the ground. When Gecko laughs, the fairies fly out of his hair.

“Gecko!” I say, “That’s not funny he could have been hurt!” But he just looks at me like I’m crazy. The horses stop, giving Corvu a moment to get up and dust himself off.

“Don’t worry. Tricksters are not built to be breakable.” My forehead creases as I try to understand what that means. Corvu goes over to his horse and does the buckle on the saddle back up. He looks at me as he mounts the horse once again, but the expression on his face just seems confused. “Tricksters are freaks. I heard one got squashed by a boulder and barely broke a bone.” That’s just mortifying.

“Probably fractured plenty though.” I mutter. He responds with his trademark devilish grin.

“Were you worried about me, Princess?”

“No!” I exclaim, a little too loudly. Gecko tries to hide his laughter under his breath but it doesn’t really work. “Oh, you think that was funny?” I ask, trotting my horse beside his. I put the crumbs on top of his head, where the fairies seemed to already be enjoying hanging out. “There, now you can make some more friends.” I laugh. Gecko isn’t actually upset by it, in fact I think he kind of enjoys being covered in the tiny fairies.

“Good thing Nightlights are so peaceful,” Corvu begins, bringing his horse up to our speed, “, can you imagine if all of these things wanted to hurt you? They can get to some pretty nasty places.” I think it was cute they were called Nightlights, but I can’t help but wonder,

“So they aren’t fairies?”

“Oh, they’re fairies, but the subgroup is Nightlights. Small ones that glow in the dark.” Interesting. Without meaning to make it so obvious I grab the pen, or inkhold, and journal out from my satchel and write that fact down. Corvu appears to be okay with me taking down information and talks at a slightly slower pace. “Pixies are their closest relative, but most pixies are human-sized, maybe a bit smaller.” It occurs to me I should just be grateful that everyone I had met so far spoke English. I couldn’t imagine learning a new language at the same time as all of this.

“What group are Tricksters?” I question, although I probably should have thought twice before being so blunt about it. He hesitates to answer.

“Cursed.” He mumbles, I heard him, but I wanted to make sure it was really clear,

“What?”

“There’s a group referred to as The Enchanted. They are unnatural creatures that don’t really fit in anywhere. The subgroup for me is Cursed.” He seems upset by it, maybe that’s why he tries so hard to help people. If I was known as a Cursed person I’d want to do whatever I could to prove people wrong. I feel like I understand Corvu a little better.

“I kind of thought you were an Elf when I met you.” I smile, mimicking pointy ears with my two index fingers. “Elves do have pointy ears, right?”

Hesitantly he responds, “They do. But not ones this long and pointy.”

“Is that how people know you as a Trickster? The ears?”

“It’s...a combination of things.” I look at him, tapping the inkhold against the journal, waiting for him to continue. I had to admit that even though riding a horse for several hours hurt, it wasn’t as bad as going by foot for days, and it was handy for conversation. “Okay, so most humans know me as a Trickster because of my ears and teeth, but it’s my eyes that probably give me away the most.” I look at his eyes again and wonder what he means. To me they were just a light brown color. They were nice, but not that unique.

“I don’t get it. My eyes are brown.” I comment.

“That’s normal for a human, and normal for many other Daemonaria. I look a lot like an Elf, as you suggested. But people will know me as a Trickster even if I keep my mouth shut and don’t bare my fangs simply because Elves don’t have brown eyes.”

“Oh, so it’s like an immediate giveaway. That’s why you hide your ears all the time.”

“Right. It’s normal for humans to have brown eyes, so I rather people just assumed I was one and didn’t judge harshly for other reasons.” I spot Gecko looking at Corvu from the side of his eye. Perhaps, like most kids, he was feeling a bit guilty for his previous actions.

“Does it make you sad? Being judged for what you are and not who you are?”

“Sad?” He ponders that for a moment. “No, determined.” He smiles confidently. “Proving that Tricksters aren’t bad or cursed will be a long road, but one day I’ll get to show it to someone. Then maybe others like me won’t get picked on so much.”

“It’s a little sad that Tricksters get picked on. I mean, you’ve been nothing but amazing to me. I just wish there was something I could do for you.” I sigh as the light from the sun begins to break its way through the canopy. There are less Nightlights around, even the ones that were in Gecko’s hair have left. The clearing in the middle of this forest was abundant with wild flowers of varying colors and sizes. Some appeared to be ground covers, others as tall as my horse's knees. Corvu pulls on my reins and stops the horse right in the middle, where it’s obvious many travellers had stopped to build camps since it was mostly just grass and dirt.

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