Florisia Read online

  He snapped his mind back to the present. The more time he spent in this worn-out old body, the more his mind seemed to wander. Knowing how much better his brain worked when in his true form, he locked all the doors and pulled the curtains over the windows.

  Closing his eyes, he released the required energy to flow through his body, the crinkly old skin of his elven form melting away. Even after so many years, he still got a thrill from the sensations aroused by the transformation. He grinned as his nine glorious tails burst out of their confinement, whipping out behind him in joyous release. White fur streaked with gold sprung up all over his body, so much more regal than the dull red fur he endured for his first one hundred years. He stood tall and majestic, revelling in the feel of his strong, lithe body, so unlike the frail shell of his Elder persona.

  He smiled at the image of Tyranius the Kitsune in the mirror in front of him. Far superior to the disgusting reflection of Tyranius the elf. Oh, how he wished he could rule Florisia in this regal form and shed his fake persona forever, like the Council members in Dragardia. Soon, they kept telling him. But his patience had worn thin over the years.

  Tyranius shuddered as he recalled the first one hundred years of his life in Dragardia, spent in his true form, as a fox. He remembered his one-hundredth birthday as the greatest day of his life. Finally old enough to shape-shift into human - or in his case elven - form, he stepped into the role he was born to fill.

  Life as the ruler of Florisia turned out to be a dream compared with the battle for survival he endured growing up. He shuddered at the memory of his own Guardian, a cruel taskmaster, alternately beating or starving him when he didn't perform to the high expectations demanded.

  He snickered in disgust. All that to prepare for this? In the one hundred and twenty years since being appointed the Elder Guardian of Florisia, his only hardship came from dealing with the few brats who managed to elude death from the creatures he sent after them. Not that it happened often, but it was annoying never-the-less.

  Tyranius moved away from the mirror, pulling his mind back to his immediate situation. He would contact his spy at the Fey Academy to keep an eye on the three new mixed-bloods. In the past, children who arrived on the same day often stuck together for the first week or two. While this presented a problem when only one of them had mixed-blood, in this case, it could present an opportunity to be rid of them all at the same time. Then he would only need to transport the Hellbeast through the veil once.

  He groaned at the thought of having to deal with yet another Hellbeast. Such tiresome creatures, and their masters demanded more and more gold for the creatures' services lately. Still, their high success rate, coupled with the lack of evidence they left behind, justified the cost.

  The sound of footsteps in the corridor outside told him it was time to change back. He sighed, hating the thought of returning to the old elven body. Grudgingly reversing the energy flow, his magnificent body began to shrink, his tails silently shrieking in protest at having to return to their confinement. His aged, elven skin once again replaced the silky white fur, his long black robe falling back into place. With a final shudder, the transformation was complete.

  Tyranius, once again the old elven Elder Guardian of Florisia, shuffled across the room and flopped into the chair behind his desk. The sooner he sent a message to his spy, the sooner he would be able to dispose of the latest mixed-blood brats.

  Chapter Five

  - Leah meets Dub -

  Leah stepped out of the portal, her mind dazzled by the colours and aromas all around her. She stood in a clearing, similar to The Circle in Naissance, except a thousand times more beautiful.

  Towering pine trees, their needles blanketing the ground around her, surrounded the small area. Trumpet-shaped flowers of the purest sky-blue nodded in the gentle breeze, interspersed with brightly coloured mushrooms, ranging from dark red to lavender pink. Leah took a deep breath, inhaling the heady scents invading her senses.

  She spotted a path through the trees leading to a dirt road that disappeared off into the distance. To her right, a sprawling mountain range nestled beneath the clear blue sky, while to her left, a lush green forest teemed with trees and foliage, the like of which she'd never seen.

  Ok, so far so good. But now what?

  She looked around, unable to find any sign of life. So much for whoever owned the gravelly voice telling her which door to pick. He must have decided not to hang around after all.

  Yeah, thanks for nothing. Fine, she would just stay here for a while and soak up the beauty of this amazing place. Looking around for a place to sit, she spied a large rock to her right, offering the perfect place to sit and wait.

  "Don't even think about it," the rock said, in the same gravelly voice she heard inside the portal. Before she could even begin to register her surprise at the rock's seeming ability to talk, she realised it wasn't a rock at all.

  Leah watched in horror, as the most hideous creature she had ever seen unfolded its short, squat body and stood before her. A mane of long, flowing hair surrounded his ugly face, his protruding eyebrows almost touching the over-sized bulbous nose below them. His jaw jutted out so far, his lower incisors rested on his top lip. Although his eyes darted in every direction, he couldn't hide the hurt look in his eyes.

  "So, this is how you thank someone for trying to help, is it? By wanting to sit on them? Honestly, I think it might be time I retired from this job. Some people are just so rude!" he muttered, brushing the dirt off his ugly clothes.

  "I'm so sorry, I didn't realise... I thought you..." Leah stammered in confusion.

  The creature waved his hand in dismissal. "Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I'm Dubheasa, but most people call me Dub. And I do apologise for being the 'most hideous creature you've ever seen', but coblynaus aren't usually known for their beauty." He almost spat the words at her, mimicking her thoughts exactly. "Whoever named me must have thought it a great joke calling me Dubheasa, which everybody knows means 'dark beauty.' Either that, or they hoped I might grow into it."

  Leah gasped, the heat rising in her face. How did he know...?

  "Because I can hear your thoughts, as if you're yelling them, obviously," he sneered as she stared at him in dismay. "How else would I know about your problem deciding which door to choose? Mind you, if I knew then how rude you were, I certainly wouldn't have bothered."

  Leah wanted to curl up into a ball and die. The first person she encountered in this new world, and he thought her a rude, ignorant brat. And she didn't blame him one little bit. Every word he'd said was true; she had no right to go around judging other people.

  "Oh alright, I understand you didn't mean to offend me. To be honest, I'm still recovering from the shock myself. This is all new to me too - first time I ever heard someone's thoughts. I was just sitting here minding my own business, waiting for someone to step out of the portal, when a voice popped into my head. I figured the voice had to belong to the person inside the portal, because you were obsessing over which door to open. Come to think of it, I don't recall ever hearing of more than one door appearing either. Mind you, I only do this job when they can't find anyone else, which isn't often, luckily."

  She smiled in relief at Dub's readiness to forgive her. Snapping his fingers as if he suddenly remembered something, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook and a pencil. He flicked past a couple of pages, and then held the pencil poised over the page.

  "Ok, so today is your fourteenth birthday, and you came from Naissance Three. So... name?"

  "Umm, Leah. And yes, I came from Naissance. But wait... why did you call it Naissance Three?"

  "Well, all the villages are called Naissance. You see, Naissance simply means 'the place you grew up'. So each village has a number, in case we ever need to check which one you came from."

  Leah couldn't decide whether to be angry or sad at the news the village she grew up in was 'just another number'. So did her name belong solely to her, or would Leah two and
three be turning up soon?

  Dub studied her with a puzzled expression on his wrinkly brown face. "Why does it matter?"

  Leah shrugged. "I'm not sure, really. I think it might be because I hate feeling like I'm just another number." She thought of Miriam cooing to the new baby earlier that morning. Well, Miriam had never been hers, and now it felt like Naissance hadn't been either. For once, she wanted something to be hers to keep.

  Leah noticed Dub nodding in sympathy as he listened to her thoughts, surprised to find she liked not having to put what she was thinking into words. Dub winked in agreement, then stuffed the little notepad and pencil back into his pocket.

  "Well, welcome to Florisia. Now we'd best be moving along, Madame Persimmons doesn't like it when we're late."

  "Ummm... what's a Florisia, who's Madame Persimmons, and where are we going?"

  Dub stopped, and slapped his forehead. "Oops, sorry, keep forgetting you don't know anything. Florisia is the name of the world in which you are now standing, and Madame Persimmons is the headmistress of the Fey Academy, where you'll be living and going to school."

  Leah opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Dub held up his hand. "I promise you, all your questions will be answered soon. But we need to get a wriggle-on. It's a good ten-minute walk to the academy, and we've dawdled long enough. Oh, and before I forget, don't mention the stuff about me talking to you through the door. We're not supposed to interfere, and I'd rather not have to explain about the extra doors or the mind reading thing."

  Dub stood with his hands on his hips, waiting for an answer, so she smiled and promised to say nothing. He nodded, appearing relieved the subject had been dealt with.

  They veered left at the fork in the road and headed towards the Fey Academy. Questions tumbled through her brain as she tried to keep up with Dub's surprisingly quick pace. Okay, so she was in a completely different world? She would be living in a school? Well, at least that meant being around other kids, right? She might even make some new friends? So many questions she might finally get answers to from this Madame Persimmons. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

  "And can you please stop thinking so much! You're giving me a headache," Dub grumbled.

  Chapter Six

  - The Fey Academy -

  The room Raff was shown into at the Fey Academy had a cluttered, lived-in feel, as if whoever owned it valued comfort above prestige. The three soft leather armchairs pulled up in front of the desk looked both comfortable and inviting, and Raff intended to take up the invitation as soon as he finished exploring the room. On the wall behind the desk, hung paintings depicting the lush green forests and rugged mountain ranges he glimpsed on the way to the Fey Academy.

  Not that he'd had much of a chance to take it all in. He had to almost run to keep up with the ugly little creature who'd been waiting for him outside the portal. Not only was the creature ugly, he also displayed about as much personality as a dead fish.

  When Raff first stepped out of the portal, the creature introduced himself as Funder, who was something called a coblynau, and then rattled off a speech in his gravelly voice. "Welcome to Florisia. You will have many questions I'm sure, but they will need to wait until we arrive at the Fey Academy. Madame Persimmons, the headmistress of the school, will explain everything when you meet her."

  From then on, he'd shaken his head and held his hand up in front of his face every time Raff opened his mouth. Seriously? As if anyone who stepped out of a portal and discovered they were in a totally different world wouldn’t want to ask questions... right?

  Funder had not spoken another word until they'd arrived at the door to this room, at which time he informed Raff that Madame Persimmons would arrive shortly and abruptly turned and left.

  Shaking his head at the memory, Raff ran his hand along the spines of the old, worn books encased in the bookshelf running down the entire length of the right side of the room. He'd never seen so many books! He read the faded writing on a few: Fairy Types and Affiliated Gifts, Elven Lore, Mages and Witches, and lots more written in an unfamiliar language.

  Okay, this place was getting weirder by the minute. Why would the bookshelves be full of fairy-tale type books? He chuckled, as he looked up to find the bookshelf ran all the way to the ceiling, wondering how anyone even reached the top ones.

  Turning away from the bookshelves, he sucked in a breath at the view from the floor to ceiling windows to his left. He’d never seen anything like the spectacular panorama of a lush green meadow, sprinkled with yellow and white flowers nestled against the trunks of the randomly placed shade trees. And grazing in the meadow were the most magnificent horses he'd ever seen.

  Still gazing out the window in awe, his heart skipped a beat when he heard the door behind him open. Yes! Finally…

  He turned, expecting to find Madame Persimmons. Instead, a dark-skinned girl, who looked about his age, was ushered into the office by a creature who bore a strong resemblance to Funder. The creature repeated the same garbled words he'd been left with and then the door closed, leaving the poor girl standing in the room looking so lost and nervous Raff thought she might throw up.

  "Hey there, I'm Raff,” he said, hoping to ease some of her nerves. “Might as well come and join me. Something tells me we're going to have to wait for whoever belongs in chair number three." He swept his hand towards the three lounge chairs.

  "Hello, I'm Belle," she said softly, crossing the room. "Is this your first day too?"

  "Sure is. I only arrived from Naissance about an hour ago."

  Belle tilted her head and frowned. "That's weird, I'm from Naissance too, and I thought I knew everyone from my village. How come we've never met?"

  Raff shrugged. "No idea. Yet another mystery I guess. I'll add it to the list of questions for this Madame Persimmons, if she ever gets here. So, was your tour guide as unhelpful as mine?"

  "Sorry?"

  Raff smiled at the dazed expression on Belle’s face. She was staring out the window at the horses.

  "Awesome view eh? Are you into horses?"

  "I've never had much to do with them, but I've always thought they were such beautiful creatures. Umm, sorry, did you ask me a question before?"

  "Yeah, just about the little coblynau dude who dropped you off. He looked a lot like the one who brought me here. I was wondering if you found out any more than I did?"

  Belle frowned, and shook her head. "I'm afraid he didn't tell me much at all. Except his name, and that he was a... ummm... coblynau? Oh, and we're in a place called Florisia. Then he said all other questions should be directed to Madame Persimmons."

  "Hmmm, exactly the same as what I was told. I am so sick of secrets. I wish someone would just TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!" He cringed at the worried look on Belle's face. Okay, so he didn’t mean to yell. "Sorry, can you tell I'm a bit over secrets?" he mumbled, feeling like an idiot.

  The sound of the door opening again relieved the tension in the room. Maybe now they’d get some answers. The relief turned to frustration again as another girl stepped into the room. Was it really too much to ask for another guy to start on the same day? Fairytales and girls? So much for a great adventure!

  Raff’s attention snapped back to the girl, his jaw dropping when he realised she was having a conversation with the coblynau beside her. What the…?

  "Thanks for all your help Dub. I hope I'll see you again soon."

  "You are most welcome Miss Leah. I'm sure we'll run into each other around the place. Madame Persimmons should be here any minute. Good luck, I hope you get all the answers to your questions." Did he really wink as he backed out the door and closed it behind him?

  Raff scratched his head, watching the girl as she turned and looked around the room. It sounded like she somehow managed to make friends with the coblynau who dropped her off. This should be an interesting story! He jumped up to introduce himself.

  "Hey, I'm Raff, and this is Belle. I think this chair might be yours."

  "Hey,
I'm Leah" she replied, as she crossed the room, her eyes taking in the décor as she crossed the room, widening as she caught sight of the view from the windows.

  Raff's skin started to burn, as he became aware of her startling ice-blue eyes. He groaned inwardly, picturing his red face meeting up with his red hair, the combination resulting in what he called his 'pumpkin-head' look.

  Get a grip Raff. She’s just a girl!

  "Ummm…” pull yourself together. “It, ah, sounded like you were having a conversation with the coblynau who dropped you off," Raff said, as she dropped into the chair next to Belle. "How'd you manage that? Belle and I were just saying we couldn't even get ours to answer one question."

  "Oh, you mean Dub?" She turned her perfect eyes in his direction and he gulped. "Yeah, he was a bit prickly at the start, but we kind of warmed to each other. So, first day for you guys too, huh?"

  Desperately trying to think of something clever to say, Raff sighed in relief when the door burst open, and in bustled a short, rounded, rosy-cheeked woman wearing a cheerful, welcoming smile. Raff nearly choked. This couldn't be Madame Persimmons? He'd expected tall, stern looking and efficient, and instead she was short, kindly looking and dithering. Although, he should have guessed this room would belong to someone like her, rather than the sour-faced headmistress type he thought she'd be.

  "Please forgive me for keeping you waiting so long, my dears. Welcome to Fey Academy. I know you must have a lot of questions, but let's sit and get acquainted first, shall we?" As she talked, Madame Persimmons lifted the bottom of her long, pale-blue robe and bustled her short rounded body across the room and behind her desk.

  Sitting down with a blissful sigh, she beamed over at the three of them. "My name is Madame Penelope Persimmons, and you would be Raff, Belle and Leah - am I correct?" They each nodded in turn. "Excellent. Well, I usually find new students want the details of the past and the present sorted out before we deal with the future. Would I be right?" They all nodded again.