Intertwining Destinies

Chapter 28

Emerald strolled through the tall grasses towards a grove of trees away from the lake side. She was pleased that Nuada had let her take a look around without following her. His manner had completely changed towards her. She rather liked him as he had sat with her, listening to her stories of escape and of becoming friends with Carol. It was unbelievable how a slight smile had wrought such a pleasant change in his otherwise stern and sometimes, cruel face. It was even more incredible that he'd been absolutely sincere when he told her that he would protect her.

The sun warmed her face and the cool breeze lifted the strands of her hair to stream long behind her. Her shredded BPRD jacket lay discarded somewhere amidst the roots of the wisteria tree. This was a strange land where she felt far away from reality, her only companions being three Bethmooran elves. Stranger still, was the fact that they were eager to help her. They knew what she was. Added to their list were Hellboy and Abraham Sapien, who knew that Professor Alasdair Bruttenholm was not her real father. It seemed like the world was more aware of her origins, than she herself. Perhaps people were not wrong in feeling strange when they looked at her. "I am really not human, after all," she thought ruefully.

Her old life seemed like a far-off dream to her now, where her world had revolved round her father, their joint research on Bethmoora, and the Blackwoods Gallery. All that had changed on that fateful night when she had decided to quit academia to pursue her own personal research. She could never have imagined that she would come face-to-face with a lost elf prince, and that he would carry her into his world of faeries and monsters. "Maybe I'm the one who jinxed it," she mused.

A lovely fruity smell filled her nose as she entered the grove. Looking up, she found that she'd come to an orchard of peach trees heavily laden with fruit. The aroma of peaches was so delicious that her mouth watered and her stomach grumbled. Not able to recall when she had last eaten, she went to the nearest tree and tried to grab the fruit on a low-lying branch by jumping on the spot. She was able to grasp leaves on the end, and drew the whole branch down towards her. As she plucked the peaches, a shout from behind startled her. Slowly she looked back, not knowing who it could be. She was even more surprised when she saw a young girl of about four or five years old, looking up at her and smiling.

"You're so tall! Mycah has to climb the trees or beg the tree spirits to send them down to us. I am Leiya, and I live in the village down by the Lotus pond. Who're you? And where do you come from?" The child said it all very fast and in a flash, Emerald realised that she had spoken in Elvish, though not with Nuada's elegant style. Most unexpected to her, was the existence of a human child in what was supposed to be fae territory. The girl had bright blue eyes, a lightly freckled face and red hair worn in two braids. She was dressed in a long tunic of pink with a white sash, and went barefoot. While she took in the girl's appearance, a noise of someone panting became louder with the arrival of another creature; a humanoid having a face, hands and legs that looked made of wood. He was two heads shorter than Emerald and was dressed in much the same way as the little girl. She guessed him to be a wood nymph; and so he was.

"Leiya, don't run off like that. You know my legs aren't as fast as yours!" he huffed. Leiya giggled. The nymph stared at Emerald; a stranger who appeared to be human. He had never come across an adult human in this land, and was both curious and wary.

"How did you come to be here?" he asked her suspiciously.

"Prince Nuada brought me here. I am Dr. Emerald Bruttenholm," she replied in Elvish, pleased at how easily it flowed through her lips. "I'm surprised to see a human child here, though. I thought this was purely a faerie land."