Queen of the Freaks

“Tianna, don’t say anything! Just run, get away from here!” It was Finn, and Bob was with him, wielding a sword which was pointed at Stan.

“What the—” I stared, unmoving. Stan didn’t flinch. He didn’t move a muscle even though he had a sword pointed straight at him.

“Ti, seriously, get out of here!” Finn tried to push me with one hand, the other holding a stake. So Stan was a vampire? I was so confused.

“Wait guys,” I stood my ground. I didn’t want them to fight, but if they were going to, I wasn’t going anywhere. “This dude is cool. He didn’t hurt me or kidnap me. In fact, he took me to Amy.” I pointed to her unconscious body. “He doesn’t mean any harm.”

“Did he happen to mention who he was,” Finn was almost yelling now. “Or did you just follow him into this world because he was nice to look at?”

How insulting!

“His name is Stan,” My anger was building now. “And he, unlike you, actually helped me.”

Finn snorted. Bob remained frozen in battle mode with the large sword.

“Stan.” This time Finn addressed the man they were pointing their weapons at. “That’s good. She’d never guess that Stan was short for Tristan would she?” Finn inched closer.

My mind started to race. Tristan.

“My brother?” The revelation shocked me. Tristan was the name of my twin brother who had remained in the magical world with the evil guy, Dagda I think was his name. The confusion doubled.

“But you guys told me that he was evil! This guy hasn’t done a single evil thing since I met him, he has only helped me. And, to be honest, he brought up some good points about what exactly your motives might be.” I shot Bob a look but he ignored it.

“Tianna, please. Just trust us and we’ll explain more later. You need to get out of here. Now!”

Just then all hell broke loose. The cave became alive with creatures who appeared out of nowhere. Creatures who had very scary looking weapons and who were coming straight at us. I glanced at Amy, who was clearly still unconscious and would hopefully be ignored by the creatures with weapons. Then I got ready to kick some serious ass.

A goblin ran towards me from the side and I jumped out of the way, only to be sideswiped by the large creature on my left. If I had to guess by it’s sheer ugliness and massive size, I would say it was a troll. Thankfully, trolls weren’t too quick on their feet and I kicked his knees out with one movement. He fell, shaking the ground and momentarily knocking me off balance, which was exactly when the dragon shot a stream of fire at me.

The fire burned my right leg, from ankle to mid-thigh and I screamed in agony. Just when I thought I was going to die from the pain, it was reduced and I looked over to see Finn dumping a box of baking soda on the dragon. I couldn’t even manage to say thank you to my bodyguard for undoubtedly saving my life, or at least a limb or two. My body was in shock and I was shaking uncontrollably. I glanced around and saw the battle from my position on the ground. Bob appeared to be some kind of samurai master, taking out half a dozen creatures on his own. Finn was busy fighting with something that looked like a flying monkey. I looked over and saw the troll getting back on his feet. I tried to stand but the pain was so intense that I could barely roll over to my side much less stand.

Was this how I was going to die? Burned by a dragon and killed by a troll?

“Do NOT kill the princess!” Stan bellowed out for everyone to hear. I looked at him, curious why the man who everyone swore was evil was trying to save my life.

He turned to look at me. “You have a very important decision to make.”

Then he disappeared. Literally. I really needed to figure out how to do that trick.

The troll might have had orders to not kill me but he looked like he would be quite content with permanently disabling me. Trying my best to ignore the blinding pain, I tried once again to stand. I got about halfway up when someone grabbed me from behind.

I lashed out with my arms before hearing Finn’s voice in my ear. “Tianna, go. We will catch up with you later and explain.”

Next thing I knew I was sitting on a horse that was galloping back out through the cave and into the light of the forest. While I was grateful for the rescue, my leg throbbed in pain with every single gallop. I shut my eyes and focused on anything other than the pain. Sunny days, new shoes, shopping sprees, kissing Josh, tanning on the beach, anything that took the focus off my leg.

After what felt like an eternity, the galloping slowed down and gradually stopped. I opened one eye and then the other. Yep, we were still in the Technicolor magical world where the brook beside us was bright blue and everything looked like it was brighter, more colorful and more alive…kind of like that weird blue alien movie.

Then I noticed I wasn’t sitting on a horse. I was sitting on a unicorn. He sort of bent down so that I could slide off his back and onto my good leg. From there I hobbled over to an area of soft moss and had a look at the damage.

My leg was scorched, there was really no other way to describe it. It was disgusting and I was sure I was going to have to amputate it because I could already see infection settling in amongst the blisters and blood.

“Place your leg in the water, Your Majesty.” The gentle male voice called out to me.

I looked around but the only creature in the area was the unicorn. I tried to focus on communicating back to him but I just couldn’t muster the energy.

“You do not need to talk to me just yet. You need to heal. Immerse your leg in the healing waters. Trust me.”

I was supposed to trust a talking unicorn? I sighed. Well, what harm could it do?

I used my arms and good leg to crawl over to the water’s edge, which was thankfully only a few feet away. I slid my leg into the water slowly, feeling nothing but cold water against my exposed muscles and tendons. Then I felt nothing at all. The whole leg went numb, which was good because the pain went away but it was bad because I wasn’t sure if I would ever have feeling in my leg again.

My mind started to panic and I was about to pull my leg out when I heard the unicorn again.

“Trust.”

Trust. Yeah, easy for the unicorn to say, his legs were all just fine. Suddenly, I felt a little tingling sensation. It wasn’t much, but it was a little indication that water was doing something.

The unicorn was beside me now. I looked up at him, taking in his magnificent coat. It was white but light reflected off of it like a shiny pearl or one of my grandmother’s opals, so it looked sort of silver. The single horn on his head was not as large as the pictures in my childhood fairy tales. It was smaller than my hand, but it shone like a lightbulb, with a white glowing light all around it.

“Drink, Your Majesty.” I watched as he bit his own bottom lip and then stuck it out to that it was close to my face.

Um. Ew.

I really didn’t want to offend the unicorn or anything but sucking blood off his horse lip was really not my idea of a good time.

“It will heal you. Drink.”

Ugh. Could this day/night/week/month possibly get any worse?

Reluctantly, I leaned towards the bleeding horse lip. Once I got a whiff of the blood, however, I wasn’t quite so reluctant.

The sweet barbecue scent hit my nostrils and I eagerly grabbed at the source of blood. I closed my eyes and drank until I felt full and satisfied. When I opened my eyes back up again and moved my head away from the unicorn’s snout, I felt a little…awkward. I mean, wouldn’t you?

“Look at your leg, Your Majesty.”

Oh right, my leg! I looked down and saw a perfectly healed, normal (and nicely waxed I might add) leg that had no signs to indicate that dragon breath had been anywhere near it.

“That’s incredible!” I said out loud. “Thank you.” I spoke to the unicorn through telepathy.

“You can speak to me in your human voice if you wish, I can hear you either way.”

Sweet. I’d have to see if that worked with Ginger when I got home. Wait, I’d almost forgotten about going home!

“We have to go back and save Amy!” I hauled my leg out of the water and stood up, energized and ready for another battle.

“Your friend will be fine. Tristan won’t hurt her because she’s a connection to you.”

“I’m not worried about Stan hurting her, I’m worried about the goblins and dragons and trolls.” I shuddered.

“Tristan is their leader, therefore, your friend will not be harmed.”

“Wait, Stan told those creeps to attack us? I’m confused. Why would he kidnap my friend and then take me to her if all he wanted was me? That’s the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard. He could’ve snatched me out of the woods at any time.”

The unicorn never answered, he simply looked away. I thought about the situation a little more.

“Plus, he said that Bob was the one with all of the plans to keep me in the dark.” I rambled on. Little light bulbs were starting to go off in my head. “Do you know that Bob never even told me that it was my choice whether or not I wanted to be queen? Then Jimbo is Bob’s cousin, and Bob knew all along that my life was on the line, and he didn’t even tell me how to get into the magical world that I’m supposed to rule and stuff.”

I was on a roll now. It was all coming together. “So maybe it was actually Bob who sent me texts with the phone that HE stole for me and sent Jim after me to make it look I was attacked by a bad guy, and then he kidnapped Amy and tried to frame it on Stan so that I would try to kill my own brother, who is actually one of the good guys, and then I would be tried for murder and locked away somewhere so that Bob was free to rule the whole kingdom by himself.”

There it was, the whole evil plot. It made total sense! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out sooner.

The unicorn continued to keep his head turned away from mine.

“Don’t you agree?” I asked him. “I mean if Tristan wanted me dead he would’ve just killed me. It’s more likely that Bob wants us both gone so that he can rule.” I paused. “Right?”

He turned his head towards me slightly.

“I knew your parents.” He said.

Okay. My theory was clearly being dissed but his words had me interested.

“You did? What were they like? Was my mom pretty?” I paused. “Did my dad drink human blood?” I almost couldn’t believe I was asking that question, but it was one of the areas I was concerned about. Bob had told me that my parents were good, but now I didn’t know what to believe. Maybe my dad had killed lots of humans, or even started up that “Fountain of Youth” child-blood station thingy. I shuddered.

“Your mom was the most beautiful fairy I’ve ever seen. Your father was a good man, some said he wasn’t good enough for your mother, but she loved him and wouldn’t stand for anyone who didn’t accept him as a part of her. How they met has always remained a mystery, but their union was a joyous one.” He started walking and I stayed beside him, my leg feeling one hundred percent better.

“During your mother’s reign, she achieved a lot of good for our land. She set in place rules for equality among the races and your father helped build educational centers.” He lowered his internal voice a bit. “Of course, not everyone approved of the changes.”

We walked for a bit before he spoke again.

“Change is hard for some people. Sometimes, even if it’s a good change, people are so afraid of the unknown that they will fight to the death to defend the old ways simply because it’s what is comfortable. They become used to their routine and life and just can’t accept that there might be something better around the corner. They can’t let go.”

I wondered how much of that applied to me. I wasn’t exactly accepting this queen role whole-heartedly. He was right. Change was hard. Especially when it was really, really fucking weird.

“So groups formed who were opposed to your mother and her decisions. As they became more vocal, they also became more physically active. Your parents refused to live in fear and never thought that the groups would become dangerous. They truly believed that they could reason with the people who were opposed to their ideas, and maybe they could have, if Dagda and the Unseelie Court hadn’t gotten involved.”

“Dagda…I remember Bob mentioning him. Isn’t Jim a member of that Unseelie Court group?”

“There were a lot of members of the Unseelie Court. There still are, and Dagda was their leader.”

“Was?” I asked.

“Well there has been a lot of speculation in the last year. First, let me explain that shortly after you and your brother were born, the opposing groups had become dangerously strong and assertive. There was great fear among the people. Your mom thought that she could reason with Dagda, that they could come to an understanding about things, but there is no reasoning with evil. He came up with a plan that would not only end your mother’s reign, but would also ensure that the Unseelie Court remained in power in all future generations.”

“He killed my parents and wanted to raise my brother and I as evil. Right?”

“Yes. He managed every part of his plan except one.” He looked straight at me and I gulped.

“So, he did manage to steal my brother then?”

“Yes. He killed your parents and stole Tristan. After that, very few people ever saw Dagda. The Unseelie Court took care of destroying what your mother had put into place and instilled fear into the people who followed her. Your brother was raised by Dagda, who ensured that he would have all the skills necessary for ruling our world when he turned nineteen.”

As we were walking, I noticed the colors were fading. They weren’t nearly as bright as they were earlier, and yet not even as bright as they were at home. It was almost as though everything was turning grey.

“As you know, your brother turned nineteen the same day that you did.” The unicorn continued. “However, there is one tiny rule that is keeping him from the position of power.”

“Why do I have a feeling it has to do with me.”

“You are correct. Until recently, most people assumed you had died along with your parents and that Tristan was the only surviving member of the royal family. On your nineteenth birthday, you received your powers, as did Tristan, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed, you’ve only gained a certain portion of your powers.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s the whole half-vampire, half-fairy thing. It means I have short fangs and small wings and stuff. It sucks.”

“No. Your powers are reduced only because you are sharing them with the other person who shares your blood. Your twin brother.”