The Secrets of Elderville

The buzzing of the wasp guards woke Rose up for the third time, “ugh will you gossiping ninnies take the conversation outside! I cannot sleep with the sound of your constant buzzing!” She throws the bowl of mush that they tried serving her at their heads, they duck and buzz out the door. Theo laughs, “good aim,” he says sarcastically, she stares at him with fury. Theo holds up his hands, “hey now, I’m just kidding,” he then takes his bowl of mush, holding it close to his body. Rose curls up into a ball, trying to fall back to sleep, but Theo begins to loudly chew on the bowl of mush. “Theo zip it or I’ll zip it for you. For the love of the elders can’t I get a little bit of sleep?!” Theo begins to quietly chew his food, finding it difficult to swallow the cement textured mush. He decides to put the bowl back down and begins to fiddle with the lock once again. Rose told him that it was useless, the lock was enchanted to only open for the key that the wasp king ate. Nothing would open it, but Theo was positive if he just kept messing with it, it would open at some point. Though secretly he kept fiddling with the lock to keep his mind distracted, otherwise he would simply lose it out of sheer boredom.

The wasp king had not come back to the royal hollow since last night, and Theo’s impatience was growing thin, for he had also not been able to sleep. Rose told him that he should at least try so he will have the energy for the war to come. But he refused, he wanted to be alert in case the ugly wasp hag came in. He had thought up some pretty good insults while sitting in his cage. Ugly wasp hag, smelly horsefly dung was another. His favorite one was an old swear word humans use, bastard. He decided he will use that the next time he sees the bastard. Frustrated that he could not get the lock to budge he throws his wand hard on the floor of the cage. It clanged loudly, shooting out sparks, suddenly Theo got an idea.

“Rose! Rose! Wake up!” Rose ignores him. Pretending to sleep, hoping he shuts up. “Come on Rose, I’ve got an idea on how to get out of here!” Rose peaks one eye open, “it better be a real good idea or else I’m taking your bowl of mush and sticking it up a place you won’t like.”

Theo takes his wand and begins a fire enchantment, but Rose stops him. “What do you think you’re doing? Trying to set us on fire?!” Theo shakes his head, “no, see if I light the wasp king’s bed on fire, the guards will smell the smoke, see the flames and will have to take us out of the cage! Then we can overpower them cause, well they’re idiots and then we escape and head for Jessa! It’s brilliant.” Rose stares at him for a minute, immediately thinking that it was the worse idea ever. But she was tired and desperate to get out of this stinky room and cage, so she agrees to the plan.

Theo starts the enchantment again; he points his wand to the bed and yells “FUOCO!” sparks went flying towards the bed and instantaneously bursts into flames. The guards buzz in and they start to panic, buzzing at each other and pointing to Rose and Theo. They decide to enchant the cages to levitate and slowly Rose and Theo start to rise and float out of the royal hollow, still in their cages as black smoke bellows out the hollow door.

Once they are set down on the branch outside of the hollow, Rose whispers to Theo in an annoyed tone, “well that plan was a bust.” Theo looking at Rose innocently says, “well at least we’re out of the stinky hollow. Maybe they’ll put us in a much nicer hollow?”

The guards moved Theo and Rose to Nail’s hollow, which was empty and quiet. Not as smelly as it once was but the smell of elderberries was still faint. Once the guards exited the hollow to stand guard, Rose looks around the room, “where’s Nail? Do you think the wasp king killed him?” Theo looks around as well trying to search for any clues. He realizes that Nail’s weapon is not in its usual spot by his bed, “look! His nail is gone! Maybe he escaped before they could capture him.” Rose clutches her stomach, “I hope so. Maybe he went to join Opal and Jessa, to help them fight.” Theo grips the bars of his cage, then leans his forehead against the cold metal. “I can’t help but feel so useless,” he sighs quietly. Rose quickly snaps her head to stare at him in disbelief. “Theo, how could you think that? You’re not useless!” She tries to reach to him through her cage, trying to offer a comforting hand, but he shrinks away. “But I am. I’m supposed to have come from the strong royal wanderer bloodline and yet I can’t even spell us out of some dumb cages. I’m probably adopted, that could explain my lousy magic.”

He fiddles with his wand, while feeling his sister’s burning stare, waiting for her usual uplifting speech to try and make him feel better. But after a couple minutes, it doesn’t come. He looks up and sees that Rose is crying, startled, he dashes to Rose’s cage, “Rose! I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you with my negativity, it’s just I’ve always felt so weak compared to you and Jessa. I’ve never felt like I belonged in this family.” He rests his head on the cage bars again, he then feels Rose’s hand on his shoulder. He looks up and she’s still softly crying, “I’ve felt the exact same way about you and Jessa. I always thought of myself as the bookworm and the nerd in this family. But you and Jessa, I’ve always looked up to you two, because you’re both so brave and headstrong. You always have a plan of action, and you try your hardest to accomplish those plans or dreams. No matter who or what gets in your way. I wish I was as strong as you, Theo.”

Theo couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he didn’t want to believe it, but all his life Rose had never been wrong. So how could she be wrong now? He smirks, “Thank you Rose, but you’ve got it slightly wrong. Now all that stuff you said about you being a nerd is true, but the other stuff you’re way off. You’re just as strong as me and Jessa combined. You’re the strongest in our spell casting lessons, and your speed when you fly is unbelievably fast. Mr. Milo nicknamed you hummingbird!” Now it was Rose’s turn to smirk. “Thanks, that’s true” they both simultaneously sniffle and wipe their noses. Then quickly giggle, both saying “jinx.”

Jessa and her friends are almost to the halfway point, where Corny’s nest is. Jessa was eager to land soon so she could start her training, but she notices that they slowly start to descend towards a car driving on the street down below. Jessa yells to Corny, “Corny! What’s going on? We’re almost to your nest!” Corny lands on the moving car, they all slide off him onto the roof of the car. “I’m sorry Jessa, but I’m afraid I had too many mice last night, I need to excuse myself and go find a tree to relieve myself. I will be right back, hopefully this car stays on this road, it heads straight for the tall pine tree that my nest rests.” Corny then flies off out of sight.

Jessa huffs, crossing her arms, “unbelievable! We can’t waste any time, my sister and brother need me!” Matteo holds up his hand for a moment to console her but then quickly drops his arm when Hawk clears their throat, “come on cutie, sit over here and we can eavesdrop on the humans while we wait for Corny. These two are funny ones,” Jessa looks over and sees that there is a big opening in the top of this car, where Hawk is sitting, dangling their legs from it. Jessa stomps over and plops down next to them, swinging her legs around to dangle as well. Jessa inspects the humans, the person in control of the car is a man, he is singing very loudly to music that is even more loud. In the seat next to him is a woman, like Delilah, only this woman has short blonde hair and is holding the magic box that holds infinite knowledge, just like the one Delilah owns. The woman says loudly, “JULIEN! I CAN’T HEAR THE GPS, PLEASE, TURN THE MUSIC DOWN FOR JUST A SECOND.” The man named Julien, complies with the woman’s request, “yes wifey,” he says. He leans his body slightly towards the woman, gently putting his hand on her knee. “Anything for you wifey,” he says in a low funny tone, that makes the woman laugh. “Thank you, husband,” she says in the same funny low tone. Hawk laughs, Jessa looks at them in adoration, she loved their laugh. Their laugh made her feel warm, as if the sun was inside her stomach. Hawk catches her eye, then slowly moves their hand to her knee. But before Jessa could react, Corny crashes down onto the car, making a loud bump. The man named Julien screeches the car to a halt, Jessa and Hawk quickly climb onto Corny, as do Matteo and Lily who were sitting towards the back of the car roof. Even Vlad was so startled that he hopped on Corny too, then they all flew quickly away from the humans as they got out of their car just in time to see them fly off. The man turns to the woman, “Jenna, did that owl have something on its back?” The woman named Jenna, squinted at the owl, who flew further away, “I’m not sure I don’t have my glasses on, maybe it was a baby owl on its back?” The humans shrugged and continued on their own journey.

Corny lands onto his nest, and they all slide off, “those humans almost saw us! I can’t believe it!” Lily said, holding her hand to her chest, which was moving up and down quickly. Matteo laid a hand on her shoulder, “it’s alright Lil, they didn’t see us, everything’s fine now. Let’s set up for training,” Matteo leads Lily to his bag that was full of weapons from the training hollow. Jessa notices that Matteo’s hand lingered on Lily’s lower back for just long enough to cause suspicion. She arched her eyebrow, staring at them, then feels a nudge in her ribcage, “jealous?” Hawk whispers in her ear. She jumps, her ears start to burn, “what? no? why? How would I? How could I be jealous? They’re friends and Matteo and I, we’re friends who-…” she pauses, Hawk finishes her sentence, “who made out in the kitchen cupboard?”

Jessa freezes, staring at Hawk. Fear starts to creep in as Hawk continues to stare at her but then they break their stare and start to smirk at her. “Lily spilled the tea on you and Matteo. But it was obvious you guys had the hots for each other. And I get it, been there done that, but you already knew that.” Hawk winks at her, then shoves Jessa’s bow and arrows at her. “Come on, we’re going down to train,” then takes Jessa’s hand and leads her down to the ground. Hawk’s grip was tight, it frightened her but also enticed her. She didn’t want Hawk to ever let go. Yet as soon as they landed, they did.

Matteo and Lily stayed up in the nest to train with Vlad supervising them, while Hawk and Jessa stayed below and Corny lay down for a little nap in a little hole in the tree. Jessa was practicing shooting at targets that Hawk set up around the base of the tree. Jessa was beginning to get frustrated, as she kept missing the center of the targets. Her mind was scattered, she couldn’t stop thinking about her siblings, about her aunt, Delilah, the wasp king, Matteo and his wandering hands, and of course- “Look, something’s on your mind, it’s painfully obvious, as you’ve missed every single shot. What’s going on?” Hawk leans against the trunk of the tree, staring intently with their seductive green eyes. Jessa gulped as she felt her face start to warm. Hawk raises an eyebrow, “dude just spit it out already, you look like you’ve got something to say, if you keep it bottled up any longer you might implode, then that precious face is gonna get all screwed up.”

Jessa did feel as if her head could implode any minute, she wanted to confess to Hawk about everything, but she exhaled and hung her head in defeat. It wasn’t the right time to confess feelings, it would be a distraction. She shakes her head and raises her bow again, “it can wait, I need to focus,” but as she pulled back on the string, Hawk shook their head. “You’re way too tense, you have to relax a little bit,” they kick off the trunk with their foot and approach her, moving behind Jessa and resting their hands lightly on her elbow. Jessa was getting flashbacks to when Matteo did this exact thing, but this time the butterflies in her stomach started to go berserk as if they were going to tear their way right out of her stomach. “Relax the elbow a little bit and take a deep breath,” Jessa does as she’s told. “Good girl, now release the arrow,” Jessa releases and it hits the target directly in the middle. Jessa squeals and begins to jump up and down, Hawk yells, “hell yeah!” they high-five Jessa, but then they immediately interlock their fingers with hers, pulling her into them by grabbing the back of her head with their other hand, kissing her deeply and slowly. Jessa didn’t know what to think, it was as if her mind lost all control of itself along with her body. Her other hand dropped her bow and grabbed onto Hawk’s hips, pulling Hawk’s waist towards hers. Suddenly Hawk drops both of their hands to Jessa’s waist, pulling her body to theirs even tighter, their lips begin to vibrate and tingle, their breaths began to get heavier the longer they kissed. Both of their hands pulled at each other’s clothing, Hawk’s hands were the first to lift Jessa’s dress up. They then lifted her up and carried her toward a nearby bush. Jessa hesitated at first, but her urge was too deep, she began to lift Hawk’s shirt.

The moans of passion coming from the bush were drowned out by punches and grunts at the top of the tree, where Matteo and Lily trained with Captain Vlad. Matteo pauses, showing Lily how to properly hold a knife, “you have to hold it upside down like this and make sure the blade is facing away from you, so that way if your attacker comes at you like this,” Matteo moves in a slow-motion grabbing Lily’s wrist, “their hand will be instantly sliced and then you have the upper hand.” Lily nods, Vlad watches above them, hovering, standing guard. Matteo goes to stand on the other side of the nest, “okay on the count of 1, we go, okay?” Lily, visibly nervous, nods her head. “3,2,1 GO!” Matteo runs at Lily, Lily runs at him, he reaches to grab her wrist, she swipes at him but misses. He grabs the side of her neck, but in one swift movement, she ducks down and swings her body to her right, lifting her left leg and swinging at his head. Matteo then ducks, just barely escaping the blow, he catches her ankle holding her there. He smirks at her, thinking he’s won, but Lily then vaults herself up with her right leg, which then breaks Matteo’s hold on her. She rolls away from him, still holding the knife, she sprints at him, letting out a war cry. Lily swings the knife again, Matteo quickly flits to his left, now hovering in the air, “come get me Lils,” he then sticks his butt at her, and shakes it in a taunting way. Lily lets out a frustrated sigh, darting at him, but this time she ducks under him and jumps onto his back, holding the knife against his neck. “Got cha,” she whispers in his ear. Matteo taps her hand, as she is also slightly choking him, she releases him and floats back down to the nest. Matteo follows, rubbing his neck and smiling, Captain Vlad joins them, slowly clapping his hands. “Very good Lily, an improvement indeed. Matteo, you must not get cocky when out on the battlefield, a wasp will not show mercy. They will simply end your life before you know it.”

Matteo nods his head, slightly beating himself up, while Lily smiles, still clutching the knife. Vlad nods towards the weapon, “that suits you, you’re small and quick, you could slice through several wasps in a flash. Come, I will practice with you now. Matteo you will be next.” Matteo nods again, gulping. He goes to sit at the edge of the nest to watch when he suddenly hears strange noises from below. He peaks over the side of the nest, scanning the ground but he doesn’t see anyone. He shrugs and begins to turn back around when the thought strikes him, wait, where are Jessa and Hawk? He looked down again and this time the sound pierced through the sky. His heart sank, he instantly knew where they were and what they were doing. He slumps back down on the nest, holding his head in his hands. The sound of Vlad’s voice cut through his muddled thoughts, “Up, Matteo, your turn.” Lily passes by him, huffing but takes a quick scan of his face and notices the change in his mood. His body was more tense, his hands in tight fists. Lily sits where Matteo had just been, watching the two square up. When her pointed ears perked up at the same sounds Matteo had just heard. It took Lily a minute longer to realize what the sounds were. Her face became cherry red, she covered her ears all while trying to stifle a giggle. She now understood Matteo’s sudden dark mood, she felt awful for him but also secretly rooted Jessa on in her mind.

As Matteo flattened Vlad onto his back with a swift sweep of his leg, the final finishing moan cut through the air from down below. Matteo dripping with sweat, glances at Lily, they both hold each other’s stare for a second, Matteo then flies off to the tree next to them. Lily stands, wanting to follow him but decides it wasn’t the right time. He needed to be by himself for a while, because she understood more than anyone that one needs to be left alone after a broken heart.

Jessa and Hawk lay next to each other, their clothes strewn about around them in the bush. Jessa cuddles close to Hawk, with Hawk’s arm underneath Jessa’s head. Hawk smiles down at her, stroking her head softly. Jessa looks up at them, tracing their lips with her finger. “You’re smiling, you’re genuinely happy right now, aren’t you?” Hawk softly bites her finger, Jessa tries to pull away, but Hawk grabs her hand, holding her finger in their mouth. They begin to suck on her finger slowly, Jessa closes her eyes and moans. But quickly takes her finger back, “wait we have to stop.” Suddenly Hawk’s whole demeanor changes, they slide their arm from underneath her head and quickly begin to dress themselves. As they start to button their shirt, their fingers start to shake. Jessa, still nude and sitting on the ground, stares at them confused. Hawk sighs, looking down at them, “look I get it, I was an experience, but you don’t have to be like that. We were having a nice moment. I understand you probably don’t want it to happen again, but it could’ve lasted just little bit longer.” Jessa thought she could see tears start to well in their eyes, she quickly stands and shakes her head, “Hawk, no you’ve misunderstood me. I didn’t mean stop as in never do this again. This moment was very special to me, a moment I’ll never forget. I mean we must stop because we need to continue training. My brother and sister are still prisoners of the wasp king, I need to get strong and save them and my people, please don’t think that you were just my experiment. You are now my everything.” Hawk turns to her, tears streaming down their face, they rush towards her, embracing Jessa in a tight hug. Jessa strokes Hawk’s head, kissing them on their forehead. They kiss once more, passionately, both softly crying now. Hawk begins to kiss lower and lower on Jessa, but she stops them, lifting their head back up by their chin. Hawk smiles, “sorry, I got carried away again. I can’t help it. You’re intoxicating.” They kiss again and then start to clothe themselves.

The sun begins to set on them as they all regrouped in Corny’s nest for dinner. Corny took up half of the nest so he agreed to sit on the branch next to it while rotating his head 360 every so often, taking guard. The air was thick with tension, the only one who took no notice was Vlad who was happily smacking his lips as he downed a bowl of Selene’s left over chicken and dumplings. He lets out a loud belch, finishing his bowl and setting it aside, “well it’s time to empty the ole snake, be right back.”

He exits the nest to the bottom of the tree, Hawk and Jessa look around at Matteo and Lily who have avoided eye contact with them for an hour now. Jessa looks at Hawk, wondering if they possibly knew what was wrong. Hawk shrugs their shoulders, continuing to eat their food. Matteo then gets up, flying away from the nest, Jessa stands staring after him. Lily looks up at her, she quietly says, “we heard you guys, earlier.” Jessa felt like an ice-cold dagger stabbed her chest. She didn’t want him to find out this way, though in truth she had no idea how to tell him. She puts a hand on Hawk’s shoulder, kissing them on their cheek, “I have to go explain this to him, please don’t be mad.” Hawk wraps their arm around Jessa’s waist, Lily blushes averting her eyes to give them some privacy. “I understand, go talk mister whiny down from the ledge. I’ll be five branches below when you get back, waiting to ‘train’ some more.” They give her a light tap on her ass as she flies off towards Matteo.

Jessa finds Matteo sitting at the top of a pine tree, she sits next to him, leaving three feet of space between them. Matteo speaks first, his tone accusatory, “so you’re with them now?” Jessa drops her head, nodding. “I thought you liked me,” he says, also dropping his head. Jessa turns her body towards him, “I do like you, I had feelings for you first but then those feelings turned into friendship instead. I’m sorry it turned out this way, but Hawk…” Jessa stopped herself. She didn’t want to stomp on his heart after it had already been ripped from him. But Matteo finished her sentence, “Hawk is special, right?” he says in an annoyed tone. Jessa smiles, nodding her head again. Matteo lets out a frustrated sigh, “yeah, I guess I get it. But I’m going to need some time. So, I’m sorry in advance if my mood doesn’t magically change overnight.” He flies back towards Corny’s nest, leaving Jessa alone.

End of Chapter Ten.