@MadEmperor
"Are you
sure this is a good idea?"
Krysta giggled and spun on the end of her branch to look back at Galon and Brix. "Of course it's not," she pointed out with a grin. "That's what makes it
fun."
The other two young pixies had quite different reactions to this concept. Galon swallowed nervously, but Brix beamed and fluttered up to join Krysta at the end of the branch. "If we get caught, we
are blaming you," she informed the princess.
Krysta chuckled and nodded. "Oh, of course. Now shush, the guard change is in three minutes."
Sneaking out passed the castle guards was never particularly difficult; in fact, since she'd come of age, the Crown Princess of Dreamhaven had actually entered into a sort of unspoken understanding with half the royal guard that--as long as she didn't cause too much trouble--they would turn a blind eye.
But the guards at the edge of Dreamhaven
itself were another matter entirely. Pixies weren't
forbidden from leaving the magical barrier that surrounded their queendom, but it wasn't exactly encouraged either. And Krysta was
definitely not allowed to do so.
So rather than going
through, the current plan was to go
over.
"That was
too close."
Brix huffed and put an arm around Galon's waist, pulling her beau in to peck his cheek. "It was
fine."
"That hawk nearly had you!"
"It did not." Brix rolled her eyes. "It didn't even see us."
"It dove!"
"For a rabbit!"
Krysta smiled a bit to herself as she listened to her friends bicker. Brix and Galon were always around for one of her larks, and she had to love them for it. Of course, she would never try to lead them into something
actually dangerous--
"What is
that?"
"For goodness' sake, Galon!" Brix exclaimed. "Stop worrying--"
"No. I heard something too," Krysta cut her off. She paused in her flight path, fluttering above the undergrowth of the forest. They hadn't gotten too far from the border of Dreamhaven, but even this close one could see the difference: more of the evergreen trees native to the area, a chiller early spring breeze, less some creatures roaming about this close to dark.
The sound came again, a low moaning noise that almost
echoed in a way that indicated it came from quite a large creature.
"...What is that?" Brix whispered. Krysta glanced back to see she and Galon had shrunk back beneath the broad leaves of a fern.
She smiled at them, hoping to portray a confidence she suddenly didn't feel. "No idea. I'll go check it out, you two wait here."
"Krysta--"
"We can't just--"
"Wait. Here." She said it gently, but firmly, brooking no argument. "If I'm not back in five minutes, head back to Dreamhaven and alert the guard."
Ignoring their protests, she fluttered up and turned in place in the air. AS the sun continued to set, the faint shimmer from her wings became a soft glow, giving her a gently halo of pale light as she bobbed through the air toward where she'd heard that strange noise.
Not far from where she'd left her friends, she found the large mouth of a hollow. It wasn't quite a
cave, exactly, formed mostly from an overhang in the earth and a leaning pine tree whose roots had grown downward in a sort of curtain around it. And there was
something inside it.
Something big.
Krysta lit on one of the arched roots near the entrance, peering into the darkness as she tried to make out the shape of the massive shadow within. Her wings fluttered nervously, increasing the glow around her hand-span sized body.
