Page 30 of Lost Starlight
“She is not yours! You stole her!”
“Foolish human! Foolish human!” they chimed. They spun around me, and I desired to push them away, yet I refrained. If I injured one of them, it might have been worse for Gwen.
“They need a mother. Mother! We need her! Need her!” they chanted. Suddenly, Gwen was there, emerging from behind the waterfall. Her eyes were wide, and she wore only a nightgown—white with a blue ribbon around her waist. She looked beautiful—she was beautiful. My heart beat wildly in my chest as I stood in awe at finally seeingher again. It had been a painful month since I had seen my beautiful storyteller. I was happy that she did not seem to be injured, but I ached because I saw that look in her eyes: emotional pain and fear.
“Let her go!”
“We cannot! Not! Not! We cannot!” they hummed around me.
I did not say anything, but I quickly walked over to her, the sounds of the pixies swarming around me, but I only looked ather, focused onher. She was kept back from me as the pixies created a wall, causing me to stop when we were only a few feet apart. Only one small section of the lagoon was between us.
“Peter!” she called. It was the first time she had used my actual name, and I paused. I had always imagined that moment—hoped she would say it in a different way—not as she just had in despair. A new anger ignited inside of me. Gwen was mine, and I would not let them have her.
I could see hope and something else alight in her eyes. My heart was pounding.
Gwen, how dare they do this to her! So sweet, kind, and delicate.
“Let her go, now!” I shouted.
“No, no, No, no!”
“It’s okay, Peter; they are kind—”
“Kind? How isthiskind–when they took you from your home in the middle of the night?”
“There are children here–so many children,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“Children?”
“Yes, they were brought here. Many from the orphanages in Walden—”
“The missing children?” I said in surprise. My mother had worked tirelessly, trying to discover how or why they had been taken. One of our greatest fears was that Captain Veeto was doing it. But no, it had been those pixies.
Gwen’s tears dripped down her cheeks. I turned to the pixies.
“You have stolen the children from Walden, and my—Gwen, and yet you have no remorse?”
“They need us! Need us!” they chimed.
“The children are not being hurt, and I do believe the pixies think they are helping these lost children,” Gwen said.
“And yet, this is harmful. Pixies are fools,” I said to her, hating that she was in that position.
“Peter, I missed you,” she said softly. My anger dissipated at her words.
“I can tell because you have finally called me ‘Peter.’ It was more glorious than I ever imagined,” I said, watching her cheeks blush.
“Well, considering the circumstances, I thought it would be better to be direct.”
“Yes, always be direct from now on,” I said with a wink. If possible, her cheeks seemed to grow even more rosy. “I am so happy to see you—find you. Do not worry, I will find a way to get you and the children back to Walden safely.”
She nodded, and the pixies swarmed her, pulling her away from my view, back behind the waterfall. I leaned into the group of pixies that swarmed in front of me.
“No! Gwen!”
“She is ours! Ours, Ours! We need a mother, Mother, mother! Mother and Father!” they said, pulling me away from where Gwen was. Once I was on the other side of the lagoon, they let me be.
“Mother? What are you–?”
