The Fae Princess (The Pacific Princesses Book 2) Ektaa Bali (free ebook reader txt) 📖

us guardians of the Earth. It makes sense that it has incredible powers to change creatures like that,” said Lobey.

Vidya nodded. But what more could it do?

“You’d better get out of here,” said Meera, peering around at the dark clearing. “It’s not wise to be out here at night time.”

“And we’re freezing,” shivered Pancake. Vidya smiled at him despite her own freezing bones. His cute little voice would never get old.

“Thanks, Princess Meera,” said Vidya. “Without you, we might not have been able to figure this out.”

Meera brushed her fingers through her long black hair and smiled. “I’m not sure when I’ll see you again if the Fae ponds are not working,” she gestured at the glassy shards of the Fae pond in front of her. The surface had already begun to reform, staring to close it off once again. “I wish I could’ve helped you more. But it looks like you guys are fighting this war on your own.”

Vidya and Lobey exchanged a worried look.

“We’ll be okay,” said Vidya hopefully. “Especially now we have the Devil’s Fingers on our side.”

They bade goodbye to Meera, who jumped back into her Fae pond to join Bob, her purple tail rapidly disappearing below the water.

“Jimmy will escort us back to the cliff,” said Lobey, leading them out of the clearing. “He lives deep in the forest here with his family, so he can come back if I call for him.”

But they had only been walking for a minute before an almighty roar made the ground beneath them tremble. Vidya and Lobey’s heads snapped toward one another, mirroring the others’ terrified look. But that roar was joined by another, and another again. The colour drained from Lobey’s face, and Pancake shook violently in Vidya’s arms.

“Run!” hissed Lobey.

“No!” Vidya grabbed the girl’s sleeve. “Fly!”

The girls leapt up into the air, fluttering their wings, but Vidya had forgotten that her magenta wings were still damp from the water. So as Lobey ascended up into the trees, Vidya tumbled back down to the ground. Jimmy scooped her up just as Lobey let out an ear shattering scream.

Two Bunyips crashed through the trees, their dark forms like black menacing demons towering above her. One swiped at Vidya. Jimmy swept her out of harm’s way with one of his powerful branch-arms. But the second Bunyip roared and came at Jimmy with his mouth wide open and with a loud crunch, broke into Jimmy’s trunk.

“Grab Fae!” came a gravelly voice. “Get them!” came the voice of another.

Vidya’s heart pounded in her chest. This was the second time she had heard them speak. Up close, their voices were terrifying, and also intelligent. These were not stupid creatures at all.

Lobey screamed Jimmy’s name from the trees. And a third Bunyip crashed into the scene. But this one leapt up into the air and, with a powerful sweep of his fleshy wings, flew right into the trees.

“Go, Lobey!” cried Vidya, “Fly away!”

The other two Bunyips flapped their wings uselessly. It seemed they hadn’t gotten the hang of flying yet. Jimmy grabbed Vidya around the waist as Pancake screamed from inside her pocket, bolting away from the Bunyips as fast as his roots could carry him. Jimmy was fast, and he seemed to be able to see through the forest in the dark, instinctively knowing which rocks and roots to avoid. The Bunyips crashed through the trees behind them, and Vidya’s mind raced, trying to see a way out of this. Her wings were drying, but they still felt damp. She couldn’t fly her way out of this just yet. The other problem was, she couldn’t tell which way Jimmy was taking her, his rooty-feet were pounding away into the forest, and it felt to Vidya as if he were leading the Bunyips deeper into the forest, not toward the cliff edge by the Palace.

“J-j-jimmy!” she cried, but it was impossible to talk as he jostled her with each stride of his legs, carrying Vidya like a rag doll through the Fae forest. On and on he ran, and quite quickly, the sounds of the running Bunyips behind them got fainter and fainter, but Jimmy did not slow down. He seemed so spooked by the Bunyip that had bitten part of his trunk off that he wasn’t going to stop until he probably felt safe, which was likely when he got back to his home.

Stop, Jimmy Vidya silently urged him Oh Earth, help us! Stop, Jimmy, Stop! Please.

Vidya could feel the forest around her close in the way her father had described the deepest parts of the Fae forest. The trees grew tall and wide and menacing. It was so dark and damp that the very air got heavy and made it difficult to breathe. Vidya couldn’t take it anymore. She was so tired, she just needed him to stop. She beat on the branch arms that held her tight.

“L-let me go, Jimmy!” she cried weakly. She punched at his arms. Pancake, likely inspired by Vidya’s efforts, opened his mouth and bit down hard on Jimmy’s barky arm.

Jimmy, surprised by his second bite of the night and traumatised already by the sensation of teeth on his bark, stumbled upon his own roots. Vidya felt him release his grip around her waist and as he tripped and fell, she flew through the air, her wings flailing uselessly behind her, Pancake cried out as he too soared through the air. The two of them hit an impossibly enormous tree and slumped onto the soft soil. Jimmy, terrified enough for the night, didn’t notice he had lost Vidya and got onto the root-feet once again and continued his run back to his family of trees, deeper into the forest.

But neither Jimmy nor Vidya had been in the right state of mind as they had run through the Fae forest. Unknowingly, Jimmy had run east. Unknowingly, Vidya, the current leader of the Eastern Bushland Kingdom, had called out for help. And unknowingly, they had run straight