Page 23 of Lost Starlight
“And you love her!” He called to me, but I was too far down the hall to shout back and made my way to the front of the castle to welcome Gwen, which was my favorite part of every day.
As I stood there with a smile on my face, I had no idea that on that day, my storyteller would not come.
Chapter Ten
Gwendolyn
Two Months Before Present Day
Abright, golden light woke me. I blinked and saw light orbs buzzing around me. I was dreaming; I had to be. I swatted at the light and covered my face with a pillow. Then, there was a tinkling of bells, and I froze. Fully awake, my heart heaved in my chest.
There is no way there are pixies in my room.My imagination was far too vivid. Peter said that talking about pixies would not summon them—because they were extinct. It was a foolish notion to think they were in my room.
I uncovered my eyes and sat up in shock, seeing the most beautiful and magical scene before me, but I was no longer at Darling Manor. I was in a foreign, tropicaljungle.
No, no, no. This cannot be real.
I stood up. Certainly, I would realize I was still in my bed in my home,right?It was just a nightmare.
“Mother! Mother!” The pixies chimed and rang like bells as they chanted and swarmed around me, forcing me to remain standing.
Please wake up. This is horrid.
“I am not a ‘mother;’ I am a lady,” I said, trying to be forceful.
“Your children!” they chanted, pushing me from behind.
It was real. But how in all of Terra could it have been real. How was I taken from my home without knowing I’d been taken?
How?Magic. Magic, that’s how.It was magic that sent them to me and brought me to that place.
Peter!I told him that speaking of pixies could bring them to us–to me.
The orbs shoved me around until I was facing a turquoise, starlit lagoon. There seemed to be reflections of stars down in the water, but as I was shoved closer to it, I realized that there were, actually, glowing rocks on the lagoon’s floor.
How is this possible?
Everything around me was framed in lush foliage. Green tropical plants and beautiful pink flowers dotted the scene. A grand waterfall thundered loudly inthe background, causing a mist to hover over the lagoon, making it appear otherworldly. The pixies continued to push me toward the falls, where I saw a path. As I was pushed behind the falling water, we entered a deep, bright cave, filled with golden gems, sparkling with the same light that engulfed the many pixies surrounding them. I watched the thumb sized human-looking creatures with wings as they worked, moving and storing those gems. Some of them were grinding them down into a fine, glittery powder.
“What, in all the Ancient Lands, is this?” I whispered as they forced me on through the cave. So many pixies, so many gemstones. The cave’s walls were covered with the sparkling gemstones, all gleaming in a warm, yellow hue. Many of the gems were still deep inside the walls. Pixies buzzed around them, working, not only to free them from the wall, but also to carry them into the many piles scattered all around the edges of the cavern. As we moved deeper into the cave, I saw many more pixies shaving the gems down into nothing but dust, dust that they piled high in recesses and corners, and it gleamed–a wonderful sight to behold. Once we reached the other end of the cave, there was another opening, which led into a jungle. They kept me moving, forcing me down a path that wove through the palm trees and the blossoming flowers of pink and yellow mixed with the green undergrowth.
We finally left the thick of the jungle, entering a tiny, rather run-down-looking village. There were small crudelyconstructed shelters there, made from large sticks and palm fronds, nothing that any human should ever have to live within.
“Mother! Mother! Mother is here!” the pixies chimed, pulling the tent flaps open. Hopeful eyes poked out, and small, filthy bodies with tattered clothes crept into view.
I gasped. There were over two dozen children there.
One of them with bright blue eyes looked up at me with a smile; then another without many teeth did the same.
“Are you our mother, Lady Darling?” a young boy asked me, his eyes full of excitement. I’d seen those gray eyes before.
I gasped.
I knew him; I knew them—well, some of them. Those were the stolen children from the orphanages in Walden.
Pixies had taken them?
I looked around at the pixies and the many children and stood there, frozen and in disbelief.
