Jena pulled on the
extremely large blue flannel shirt she found folded up on the chair and crawled
into the large bed and collapsed. She slept well, despite everything that had
happened. She was tired from her healing, and the bed was quite comfortable with
its piles of feather comforters and pillows. A small voice in the back of her
mind tried to speak up and ask irritating questions like why was she in a
strange man's bed, and is it even safe here, and does Declan follow the accords
of the forest folk, and did she see a packet of lavender at the door for
protection? Or not?
Jena blissfully
slept on, ignoring the questions that would have spurred her into sneaking out
of the cottage if it had been any other situation.
The next morning, as
the day dawned gray and cold outside the thick-glassed window, Jena slowly
opened her eyes. Something was terribly wrong. It wasn't the bed or the man's
shirt she was wearing… It was her fairy sense buzzing wildly. There was energy
outside that was massive, strong, and malicious.
Jena sat up quickly
and started to get out of bed and yell for Declan when the world exploded
around her. She put her arms over her head and huddled as small as she could as
she was pushed by an invisible force off the bed and onto the floor. The walls
bulged outward and shattered, while the ceiling crashed down in pieces. And then all was still.
The cold air outside
mixed with the dust and debris still in the air, and Jena started to cough
uncontrollably. The dark energy was suddenly gone, but the cottage lay in ruin
around her. All around her. She slowly straightened, still trying to catch her breath,
and noticed that she sat in a small but perfect circle of clear floor. There
was strong protective magic at work, but it wasn't hers.
"Declan!"
she finally managed to call out between coughs, "Are you all right?
Declan??"
Jena heard a faint
moan coming from the front of the pile of rubble that had once been Declan's
home. She scrambled to her feet and climbed through the wreckage until she
found Declan's arm poking out from under his overturned chair under a pile of
boards and thatch roofing.
"Declan! Are
you hurt?"
"No," came
his muffled reply, "the chair took the brunt of it. I just had the wind
knocked out of me. " With a large grunt, he tipped the chair back over and
stood up. He surveyed what was left of his home. His eyes were sad, but his mouth
was determined. He looked at Jena and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Aren't you freezing?"
Jena looked down at
the shirt that hung halfway down her bare thighs and suddenly shivered. The
energy she had coursing through her veins suddenly dissipated in the aftermath
of the explosion and her trembling got worse. "I-I-I will be a-a-a-lright"
she chattered as she wrapped her arms around herself. Declan shook his head in
dismay and reached out for her.
"I have to warm
you up," he said, "or you'll freeze. My body heat is all I have right
now." He wrapped her in his arms and lifted her shaking body to carry her
out of the rubble.
She noticed he was
still wearing his boots and realized that he must have fallen asleep in front
of the fireplace fully dressed. At least he would be warm and protected, but
she would have to rely on him for her physical needs awhile longer. How very
irritating for the independent doula fairy. Jena had never relied on anyone,
much less anyone of the male sex, since she had left the nursery bower to
fulfill her life mission in the cold northern territories. She sometimes missed
the ease of being cared for by the nursery fairies, but she took great pride in
sustaining herself and rejected commonly held beliefs that female forest folk
were better off with the larger and stronger males to do all the heavy lifting
and protection. Her lifting was just fine, and her protective amulets would
have been just as powerful as whatever enchantment Declan had laid on the
bedroom. Had she remembered to wear them…
