Chasing Aurora

Arriving in France, we had a van waiting for us. Robby and I sat in the back while Flora and Merriweather fought over who would drive. Fauna just seemed content to sit back and let the two argue. Finally, Flora let Merriweather drive but the two of them still bickered over which way was faster. Robby sat back, looking over the maps trying to figure out a plan. The difficulty was we were looking for a nail in a haystack.

“If we go off of what we know of where you were held, it makes sense that Maleficent would prefer to stay away from major cities. We should focus on isolated houses with lots of acres. Probably with a manned security team and high gates.” Robby said without looking up from his maps.

“The problem is that Maleficent knows what our faces look like. She will have her guards looking out for us.” I said.

“She doesn’t know mine. I can pretend the car broke down, try to approach the gates, see how they react. We should be able to determine which places have higher security, go back and scope it out at night.”

“Just remember this is France, not Canada. They’re not going to be as helpful and welcoming you in for coffee.”

“Yeah, but I just got to double down on the accent ya know bud.” He winked laying on the accent thicker than usual. I barked out laughing. “Ya know, if ya hang a Roger up here we could get a double-double at Tims.”

“You are the most ridiculous person I’ve ever met, you know that right.”

“I try, but it can work. At least I can scope out the security at the front gate.”

“We can help see if any of the properties show evidence of Maleficent’s energy.” Fauna added with her usual chipper attitude. I’m starting to see that she is the cheerful one of the group, “Because she is so powerful she tends to leave traces of her magic around after she casts.”

“Like the dark cloud she has around her?” I asked.

“That’s her aura. Typically, the more powerful a person is, the stronger the aura. The colour can also tell you a lot about the person and the type of magic or powers they have. I’m surprised you can see them, most Guardians can’t.” Fauna explained.

“Yeah, hers was pure black. Is that why your hands glow when you guys use magic?”

“Wait their hands glow when they use magic?” Robby asked.

“Yeah, Fauna’s is green, Flora’s is pink, and Merriweather’s is blue.” I explained before turning back to Fauna, “What about gold? What would that mean?”

“Gold, not many people like that around anymore.” Fauna said, “Usually that means that the person is extremely powerful, but also fundamentally good. They’d be far more powerful than house fae like my sisters and I combined.”

I sat there for a moment thinking about Ella and that golden aura around here. She said that she liked seeing someone like us succeed, could she have been hinting that she’s fae? If she was as powerful as Fauna said, it would be handy to have her on my side. She did say to call in case of weird. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the business card suddenly very glad that I had it.

“Who’s Ella Bishop?” Robby asked.

“A woman with a gold aura,” I said, dialling the number on the card. I lifted the phone to my ear hoping that she would remember me.

“Hello, Ella Bishop speaking.”

“Hi Ella, I don’t know if you remember me, but it’s Piper Jennings-”

“Piper? Oh my god! I heard you were missing, are you alright?” She interrupted; her voice filled with concern. I guess Fauna was right about people with gold auras were fundamentally good.

“I’ll be okay, but I think I need your help.”

“Of course. What do you need?”

“What do you know about fae?”

There was a pause on the line that made my heart stop, “Not much but give me one second. I’m going to grab my wife Andy. She’s much better with these kinds of things.” I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn’t quite ready for her to laugh at me. I was really hoping she could help cut down on the amount of time we spend searching for Aurora. “Alright Piper, I’ve got Andy here on speakerphone. I want you to explain everything that you need our help with.”

So I laid out everything for them, the dreams of Aurora, Guardians, Maleficent, everything. They just listened, asking a few questions here or there for clarification. Once I was finished, they were quiet for a moment before Ella’s wife spoke up, “Well, we’ve never had any dealings with the fae, but I’ll talk to the Elders to see if they can help.”

“Wait, you’re not fae? What are you then?” I asked.

“We’re witches.” Ella said, “I thought you were too, but I can’t get them all right. We will do whatever we can to find Aurora.”

“I’m thinking Ella and I try to cast a location spell. Even if Maleficent has some wards up, it still should give you a search area. If she does have wards though, I’m thinking that if we can gather enough witches we should be able to cast a spell that can get through them.” Andy said.

“That would be amazing. Most we know is that she is in the South of France near the ocean.”

“We’re going to need something personal of hers if we want an accurate location. Can you send us her address? We should be able to find something sentimental there.” Ella said.

“I’ll send it to you right away. Thank you so much guys. I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay you.”

“Just invite us to the wedding,” Ella said before we hung up. I sent them Aurora’s address and sat back in my seat.

“Well, things are just going up for team- uh, we need to come up with a name for our team.” Robby said, “Ooh we could be Team Ninja Death Laser, that will strike fear into the hearts of Maleficent and her goons.”

“We are not calling ourselves Team Ninja Death Laser.” I laughed.

“Ha, you laughed! We’re keeping it. Team Ninja Death Laser forever.” He cheered. I didn’t bother arguing with him. Leave it to me to take a complete moron on a quest.

We drove for hours until we reached the coast. We found a hotel and I booked us three rooms. I may end up killing Robby if I have to spend every second of every day with the guy. I love him, but I need space. We were exhausted from travel and although I would love to start the search, it would be best to wait for the witches to give us some search parameters. Without that, I was wasting precious time and energy.

We got some food at the restaurant downstairs before we all turned in for the night with a plan to meet up in the morning. As I got ready for bed, I realized that it had been over a week since I’d had a good night’s sleep. The exhaustion was starting to weigh me down. The second my head hit the pillow; I was out like a light.

-----

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my phone going off. I rolled over with a groan. The time flashed on the clock. It was just after five-thirty a.m., but as soon as I saw that Ella was calling me, I answered. “Hello.”

“Hey Piper, so Andy and I have been working all night but Maleficent’s magic is like nothing we’ve ever encountered.”

I could feel my heart drop into my stomach. “You got nothing.”

“I didn’t say that. We’ve been able to narrow it down, but the area is still larger than I’d like. I’m going to send you the map we’ve got now, but we are going to meet with the full coven on Saturday. The spell we’re going to cast is best done at midnight so, hopefully, we can get you a location then.” She said. I could hear the exhaustion in her voice.

“Thank you so much Ella. Just make sure you take care of yourself too. I can’t have my secret weapon wearing down on me.”

“I’m not exhausted cause of you, don’t worry. Our daughter has been having nightmares every night for about a week now. Andy is with her now, hopefully she can get her to bed.” Ella sighed.

“I didn’t even know you had kids.”

“We have three. Gabriella, JJ and Casey. It’s a lot of work, but I love them.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you. Have a good night Ella. Give everyone my best.”

“Will do. Take care of yourself Piper.”

We hung up and I sat there for a moment staring at the screen. A familiar desire bubbled up inside of me. I had always wanted kids but since I’d always been single it didn’t seem possible. Now, I realized for the first time that it could be. I knew that Aurora wanted kids. She wanted two, a boy and a girl and I had to agree. I couldn’t get the image of a small baby with Aurora’s bright green eyes.

My phone vibrated in my hand pulling me out of my daydream. It was the map from Ella. I sent a quick text to Robby to come to my room when he woke up, before going over to the desk. I spread out one of the maps we picked up at the airport and began outlining the area Ella had sent me. It was a large one, one that would take days to explore. I sighed as I stared down at the map. There had to be a better way.

Come on Piper, break it down, I thought. I grabbed a straight edge and began breaking the area into smaller squares. Now, we are looking for estates with heavy security. Maleficent likely wasn’t going to be in an area with a lot of tourists, so that crosses off the larger cities and tourist traps. I started methodically going through each square and ranking the possibility on a scale of one to ten. I was pretty proud of myself when I finally heard a knock at my door. I walked over to see a yawning Robby dressed in some sweatpants and a tank top that showed off his muscular frame. I had to stifle a giggle when I noticed a hot French woman checking him out behind him. I guess he was attractive... for a man that is.

“Come in.” I stepped out of the way for him.

He walked in and went straight over to the desk. He started examining the map before he let out a whistle. “Damn Pip. How long have you been awake?”

“Ella called me at five-thirty,” I said, sitting on the bed.

“Jesus, you need to make sure you’re getting rest too. We need you ready in the case of a fight.”

“It’s not like I’m going to be doing much today other than sit in the car. Even if we manage to find Maleficent today, we’ll need to survey the property. As much as I would want to go running in there and rescue Aurora the second we find her, we have to play it smart.”

Robby pulled the chair out from in front of the desk and sat in front of me. “After you went to bed, I spoke with Flora. Don’t be mad, but she told me the state you were in when she found you and she also told me what you had to do to get out. I know she healed the physical wounds, but the mental ones are still there. I need you to make sure that you are taking care of your mental health through all of this. So, when you’re ready to talk, you can talk to me. In the meantime, I’m going to make sure that you get enough sleep, and enough to eat. Okay?”

I could feel the tears start to gather in my eyes. I was so thankful to have a friend like him but, at the same time, I hated feeling like this. I could still feel the sting of metal on my flesh, I could still see Doc’s eyes filled with joy as I screamed. Focusing on Aurora let me escape all of this. Being a hero was something I could understand. Being the victim, just didn’t sit well with me.

“Okay.” I nodded. Robby wrapped his arms around me and gave me a tight squeeze. “How about we go over our plan for today over breakfast?”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll go wake up the fae. If they sleep. Do you think fae sleep?” He asked as he jumped up, back to his normal self. I found myself smiling up at him.

“I have no fucking idea.”