HALIA'S POV
Phi flew into our nest that night and created a gust of wind that startled both Aras and I awake.
"Halia!" she screamed. "You will never guess what happened!"
"My eyes!" my godmother cried. "Dust!"
I gave a severe look to my friend and rushed my godmother to the water reserves to help wash her face. The Tisannieres had greatly diminished our reserves since they had used a big part of it for the curative tea.
"I know what you did," I told Phi while I checked Aras's face. The lack of light did not help. "You left the alley."
It was obvious. I had not seen her all day and we had never been separated before. I had looked for her everywhere and when I learned the king had taken some of the dwarfs and goblins to go with him, I knew exactly where she was.
"You left the alley?" Aras repeated, her eyes wide.
"Oh! Halia!" Phi screamed. "It was wonderful!"
"You disobeyed the king's order," I warned her. "There will beâ"
"King Siegfried is not upset with me," she said. "He even saved my life."
"What?" my godmother interjected. "Phi! You should never leave the alley. It's dangerous out there. Humans might have seen you, or thought you were a bird of prey."
I gulped at the idea but Phi seemed untouched.
"It was wonderful!" she repeated. "The world is so big, and this is only a city. I can't wait until we get to the New World!"
"We're going?" I asked, suddenly forgetting about everything else.
"We are leaving today, or rather, after tonight!" she declared.
Aras and I shared a look.
"I have to get ready!" Phi said before disappearing as abruptly as she had entered.
I shook my head and my mouth curved into a smile.
"I wonder how her grandmother can bear her," Aras said, shaking her head.
It was true. Phi always came and went like the wind. Sometimes I wondered if the name "bird fairy" was appropriate. Maybe "wind fairy" would suit her better.
She was right, though. At the first streak of dawn, all the fairies had gathered their belongings and were ready to leave our gray backstreet and bad memories behind.
I was crammed into a carriage, an old human goblet to which wheels had been attached, along with my godmother and other fairies. It was not comfortable, but it was forgivable since the outcome was that I was never going to set foot in the alley again.
Before I knew it, King Siegfried had lifted the mist that had covered our alley for centuries. Nothing of what Phi had told me last night about the world outside could have prepared me for what I saw. Thousands of houses, churches, and animals. A world so big I felt dizzy. So many colours, so many faces. Human men wore ridiculous hats. The women wore impossibly heavy dresses. They looked like clumsy giants the way they trotted up and down the streets. I could almost believe they were gentle, but for that I would need to forget what they had done to our world. I had to remember our curse. I had to fear them.
The feeling in my stomach intensified. Or perhaps it was just eagerness.
We arrived at the alley near Saint-François port where King Siegfried and his troop had encountered the gray cat the day before. The Queen of Complaints used some of her magic to leave a bowl of enchanted milk for him, to protect him from the evil cat fairy that had attacked Phi.
"Goodbye, mice, thank you for your help in getting here," the king said. "Are you sure you do not want to come with us?"
"Eek eek," said the mice, meaning no, they were afraid of seasickness.
We parted ways and crossed over to the port to return to La Petite Belette, where the goguelins welcomed us as politely as their race could permit. With a handshake first, then grumpily showing us around.
"You'll all stay here," the goguelins said, pointing at a small corner of the hold. "Better use an invisibility spell so that the humans don't see you."
We did as they said.
King Siegfried did a quick head count. Just under a hundred. Everybody was there. The will-o'-the-wisps, the korrigans, the berstucs, Banshee, Cailleach Bheur, Fossegrim, the dolles, the dwarfs, the goblins, Dugnai, Flora, Nixie, the Tisannieres, the merrows, Aras, King Siegfried, the Queen of Complaints, the laminaks, the three Matres, the margots, the pillywiggings, my other friend, Tönx, Phi, her grandmother, and me.
"Won't the sea water extinguish us?" the will-o'-the-wisps asked, frowning.
"Don't worry," the Martres replied in a motherly tone. "You're not affected by rain, are you? Well, rain is water too. You'll all be okay."
"Guess you're right," Will replied with a hesitant smile.
No one could resist the effect of the Martres' affection. Three fairies each representing the difference faces of motherhood. A hopeful young mother, an experienced middle aged mother and a wise grandmother.
The humans arrived shortly after us. I heard their thundering footsteps and loud voices. Finally, the ship raised its anchor.
I heard the humans talk about another ship coming to the New World with us. Our ship, La Petite Belette, was the bigger one; and Le Faucon was the smaller one. In total, on both ships, there were sixty-one men.
One of the humans came down into the hold, threw himself onto a cot, and grunted before falling asleep. He was so close, his fetid breath blew my hair and his loud snoring reverberated through our bodies.
As the ship cut through the waves, the air in the hold became more and more damp and stale. The will-o'-the-wisps helped in drying out the moisture with their flames. Overall, although we all huddled together, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing, we were all excited with the promise of a new life.
The joy dissipated, however, when a storm blew in, rocking the ship through exceedingly high tides. Phi and the other creatures whose elements were not water began to worry about how far the ground was under their feet.
"But when you fly," I asked Phi, "aren't you as high above ground?"
"It's not the same thing," she said. "When I fly, I can breathe."
She was right. Being a nymph, I always knew I could breathe underwater and it did not occur to me that my friend couldn't.
"Nothing will happen," I said, trying to sound sure.
"You don't know that," she replied.
Right again.
Suddenly I, too, was afraid. Afraid of losing everyone I knew.
I looked at Banshee, with her long white hair that drooped from her pony tail. She sat, lips shut, in a corner of the hold not far from me.
She hadn't scream. There was nothing to fear.
I wasn't convinced and for once I wished that nausea would hit me again. I wish I were sick and could feel if a change is coming. Only there was still too much lunar energy running through my veins, numbing the pain.
*
During the night, while the humans slept, the goguelins brought us to the deck for the first time during our trip.
"You have nothing to fear," they explained. "We will call out the ocean nymphs for you."
My heart raced at the words. I had never seen the creatures before and always wondered if I could be one of them.
The goguelins whistled at the sea and in a matter of an instant, creatures half-women, half-fish, and riding huge sea horses emerged out of the waves. Their hair was decorated with beads and shells, and their skin was glistening with a slightly bluish hue.
Tönx clapped his hands. He was not a fairy. Not exactly. He was a water spirit and despite having never seen the ocean in his life, that is before our trip, he had always been obsessed with everything related to water. The element itself and all the creatures it contained. Every time he opened his mouth, one knew he was going to say something fishy.
He could not hide his enthusiasm. "When I will become of age, I will marry an ocean nymph," he declared.
The Elders laughed at the idea. "Then you better learn how to grow a tail," they told him.
A blue-haired nymph climbed aboard the ship after ordering her horse to head back beneath the waves.
"I would not mind marrying you if you grow up to be as handsome as a god," she told Tönx with a whimsical smile.
It was the first time I saw Tönx turn scarlet. He did not expect the Oceanide to have heard him.
I also was feeling uneasy because of her beauty. She had large and penetrating eyes that haunted me for nights to come.
"I will tell you about our life underwater," she said. Her voice was clear and sounded like the echo of the ocean. As if it were one of Grannie's stories, the fairies surrounded her to hear. "Some of us live in the depths in a golden palace, while others dwell in a silver cave. Wherever we live, it is so deep underwater that no or very little sunlight reaches our home."
"No sun!" said a goblin. "Now that must be a very dark and scary place to live."
Like our alley.
"No," the Oceanide replied. "We do have light. To compensate for the sun, some plants and creatures learned to shed their own lights. You should see how beautiful our fields of flowers are. They have nothing to envy from those blessed by the sun."
"Is it cold down there?" Tönx found the courage to ask. I felt that a great array of questions would ensue.
"It can be cold, yes," the sea creature said. "The light we get from the plants and creatures are not enough to warm us up. So we use our tridents to create blue fire."
"What is a blue fire?" Tönx asked again. I knew it!
"Imagine a fire like you have on land, but with blue flames. It does not burn but provides us enough heat for our dwellings and when we leave our homes."
"Is this why your skin is blue?"
The Oceanide smiled. "Well noted, little one. Yes, my skin is not naturally blue unless I wear a thin layer of the fire on my skin. My hair, however, is always this color."
Her smile was charming. "What do you eat?" I asked.
"In the name of the Mother," Phi said. "Don't tell me you eat fish!"
"Of course not," the creature said. "We eat plants and always make sure to grow one back as soon as one is picked. We spend a great deal of our time doing this, hunting for plants to eat, and helping animals on the way."
She went on to talk about the different animals that lived in the sea. The whales that kept swimming as they slept, the playful dolphins jumping in front of ships, her daily encounters with seals and lobsters.
We talked until the yellow star rose behind the never-ending horizon and made the sea of gold. Then, she swung her fish tail over the ship.
"Don't forget," she said before diving into the morning waves. "If you ever find yourselves in trouble at sea, we will find you and help you. You are in no danger."
I turned to Phi and smiled.