Source: designcrowd.com

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode, click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

Trapped in a cave by the vengeful pixie princess Feyrdú, Gina had begun stalling for time by “confessing her sins.” Meanwhile, her brother Zack had assembled a search party…

The moment his nurse announced that Feyrdú was not in the Palace, Prince Jenblevó guessed where she might be. He ran to the royal stables, saddled his favorite squirrel, and raced off across the low-lying lespin limbs, followed by his closest friend, a pixie boy with uncontrollable hair. The immense bird Aviar scooped Zack up onto his back and shot nearly vertical, then executed a vomit-inducing twist and soared out over the treetops.

Despite the emberous glow of the Light Forest, Zack couldn’t make out anything smaller than trees, and certainly nothing as small as a pixie on a speeding squirrel. Will I ever be able to go home? he wondered. Will Gina?

Is she even alive?

“The lad rides well,” Aviar observed. “Where is he now? Ah, yes, through that claven bowl and up the cliff…very smart…saves him having to…aha, there the formations change. But why? Could be a mound formation or…there must be a cavern beneath it…yes, that’s it!”

——————————–

Gina was deep into her epic confession, which she was gauging to last exactly as long as it took for one princess and two huge black widows to fall asleep. They have to sleep sometime, and then I’ll make—must make—my escape! To fail would be to die an unthinkable death—pierced eyeballs and a poisoned brain! No! I won’t think about that because it’s not going to happen. I’m going to get away—period! But how? How can I…  Stop it! With all the self-control she could muster, Gina continued her “confession”:

“Bilbo wasn’t satisfied…” She’d been reciting the passages she could remember and paraphrasing the rest. “…because, even though he was a hobbit, and hobbit’s believe in comfort, he wanted something more—”

“I ask the confessor’s forgiveness,” Feyrdú interrupted, “but I do not understand how this story about your—”

“Father.”

“Yes, your father—”

“Bilbo Baggins.”

“Yes, your father Beelvó Bahgains — I do not understand how a tale about your father can be a confession, Lady J’nah.”

“Well, it’s all because of this ring I inherited.”

“Ring?”

“Right, see, my dad, um, Bilbo, found this ring. Actually, I spotted it first. Did I tell you that? I said, ‘Hey, Bil’—um, I mean—‘Hey, dad, look at this cool ring.’ Only it turned out to be radically evil, right?”

“The ring was eveel?”

“Yeah, completely, because of the Ringwraiths, you know?”

“Wing rays?”

“Yeah, and then there was this other guy who wanted it too, my, um, cousin…Gollum…”

——————————–

“Ahhhhh! There! He’s approaching that cliff face!” Aviar veered to the right.

Zack struggled to stay alert. He was tired and cold and dishrag limp. The pursuit of Jenblevó, who was in turn pursuing another pixie who might or might not have captured Gina, had lasted over an hour. Would they ever find her? And even if they did, how had she become this mighty ‘girl knight’ everyone spoke about? Will she even want to go home? Maybe I should just leave her here and go back to my cozy little cloud with Liulah.

“There…that cave!” shouted Aviar just as he went into a death spiral.

 φ

Thoughts: Have you ever been involved in a desperate search for someone whose life was in danger? What went through your mind?

To read the next episode, click here.