The Secrets of Elderville

After what seemed like an hour, Rose couldn’t hold Theo any longer. They begin to slowly fall lower to the ground. Rose looks back to see that the elder tree was still in their sights. Rose punches the ground, “damn it! I thought I could get us far away from him. My escape plan failed, I’m sorry Theo.” Theo, laying against a rock, smirks at her, “we’re no longer in a cage Rose, so your escape plan was a success. But I’m the one slowing us down, you’ll get further if you leave me behind.” Rose stares at him, as she starts to yell at him that that wasn’t going to happen, a faint buzzing noise is heard. Rose turns to see a large group of wasp guards with one of them carrying the wasp king flying their way. Rose goes to lift Theo up, but he doesn’t let her, “you go Rose, find Jessa, I’ll be fine. What more can he do to me?” Rose looks at him, tears swelling up in her eyes, “I can’t leave you! Please Theo let me get you up!” She starts to lift him again, but he puts a hand on top of her head, patting it. “Go Rose. Now.” She takes one last look at his pale face; his brown eyes no longer had the spark it once held. She kisses his forehead and darts into the tall grass. She hides, as she sees the wasp guards lift Theo up, taking him back towards the elder tree, the wasp king screams, “you! Find the other little brat!” Rose let slip a whimper, one of the guards turned in her direction and began to approach her, the wasp king smiled. Rose felt a sudden zap, her body was frozen.

Opal, Delilah and the army make it to the mountains, they fly into the hole at the top of the cave, landing their hummingbirds all around the pillars. The mountain wanderers all came out one by one of their holes in the mountain walls, woken up by the loud fluttering of hundreds of hummingbird wings. King Grog and Captain Vlad go to meet Opal and Delilah, Delilah towered over all of them, carefully trying not to step on anyone. She decides to sit on one of the boulders in the large cave. King Grog, Vlad and Opal go to one of the pillars closest to Delilah, discussing the plan.

“Jessa has gone on without you?!” Opal gasps. Vlad puts a hand on her shoulder, “she was determined to save her siblings, there was nothing I could do to change her mind.” Opal nods, “yes, it’s that Underway fire in her, once we decide to do something, there’s no stopping us. Now since she’s probably almost there, the plans have changed a bit. Delilah and I must be at the front of the army, and we must find Jessa immediately when we arrive at the elder tree.” Delilah nods her head, then leans it against her broom, still nervous about what’s to come. Opal decided not to notice, she must focus on her plan for King Grog and his army. “After my army initiates the first attack, you and your army will ride in as the second attack. Then Jessa, Delilah and I will corner the wasp king and end this war once and for all.” King Grog nods, then motions for one of his mountain guards. They bring out a barrel of black obsidian swords and spears. “For you Opal, and your army. We shall win this war and there shall be peace for us all.” Opal pulls out the powerful dagger with the maiden, mother and crone symbol on it. King Grog gasps, “the symbol, that couldn’t be the legendary moon dagger, is it?” Opal smiles, “yes, we were lucky enough to find it. It has chosen me as it’s wielder.” King Grog could not take his eyes off it, but quickly shakes his head as Opal tucks it back into her hip strap.

Opal hugs King Grog, then climbs back onto her hummingbird, as does Captain Vlad. “I will see you on the battlefield old friend,” Opal tells him. King Grog takes her hand, kissing it lightly. “I look forward to it,” he gives her a wink. Opal, Delilah and the army rise slowly and darting up in a line out of the opening of the cave. King Grog then mounts the biggest of the black foxes, along with his army, they approach the tiny hole entrance of the cave, the guard wanderers stamp their spears, as the hole widens. King Grog pets his fox, “well Cora, looks like you get to see one more battle, are you ready for it?” Cora gives a low growl, then speaks in a mystified tone, “I’m always ready.” They then leap out of the hole, with his army on top of the other black foxes and run straight out of the cave and down the snowy mountain.

As Jessa and the group sit around the fire, getting to know their new friend Pip, a rustling sound is heard. Pip’s ears flicker, “do you hear that?” he says. The group, puzzled, looked around them. Jessa takes out her bow and arrow, drawing one of her arrows back, Matteo and Morty take out their axes, ready to swing. Suddenly a tiny body flings out of the flowers, Jessa gasps. She runs towards her, “ROSE!”

Rose is gasping and coughing, her knees and arms scraped up and the large bump on her right eye had been cut a little, blood had been trickling down her face. They bring her closer to the fire, giving her water and aiding her wounds. Jessa begins to cry, “oh Rose, what has he done to you!” Rose holds Jessa’s hand. “We must go immediately; he still has Theo! He’s going to kill him if we don’t leave now!” Rose starts to get up, but Lily lightly pushes her back down. “Not before we take care of this gash on your head. How did this happen?” Rose looks up at Lily, “the wasp king didn’t like being challenged. He wanted to show me who was in charge. But I didn’t get it as bad as Theo.” Jessa felt like she couldn’t breathe, “what did he do to Theo?” she whispered. Rose looks at Jessa, tears forming in her eyes, “he…he ripped Theo’s wings from him! Theo won’t ever be able to fly again!” Jessa gasps, holding her chest. She begins to sob; Hawk goes to her and holds her tightly. Hawk whispers into her ear, “we’re going to kill that son of a bitch. I swear to you.”

Once Rose was bandaged up and given food and water. They all begin to pack up and head for the elder tree. Jessa helps Rose onto Corny, Corny introduces himself, “hello little Rose! I’m Corny, your trustee owl friend! Let’s go take back your village!” Rose smiles at him. They flew off towards the elder tree, the sun began to rise as they got closer and closer. They land at the familiar old rotting sign that read ‘go no further’.

“You stay out of sight Corny and look after Pip,” Matteo tells him, Corny flies off with Pip on his back to a tree nearby. Rose’s eyebrows shot up, “army?” Jessa nods, “yes, our aunt and hundreds of wanderers are on their way, and even a human. Her name is Delilah, she’s going to help us too.” Rose smiled widely at her; she took her big sister’s hand as they creeped towards the base of the tree. The tree was eerily silent, not a sound could be heard. “Be on your guard everyone,” Morty instructed, she took the lead as they slowly flew up the tree to the last branch. Rose motions to Nail’s hollow, “that’s where he was keeping us,” they all approach the dark hollow. Jessa enters and sees the cages, both empty. She noticed fresh blood splatters on the floor, she looked to Rose. Her eyes were blank, in a dull tone she says, “we need to go to the throne hollow, he must have Theo there.”

Hawk and Matteo enter the throne hollow first, Pan, Lily and Morty follow with Rose and Jessa coming in last. They take in the scene that’s before them, Theo is strung up by his arms and legs, hanging in the middle of hollow. Jessa runs to him, cutting him from the ropes. Jessa lightly pats his face, “wake up Theo, wake up,” Theo’s eyes slowly open, suddenly panic fills him. “Jessa! Jessa where’s Rose!” Jessa hugs him, “sshh it’s okay, she’s okay, she’s here.” Jessa then turns her attention to the wasp king, who was sitting silently on the throne, she almost didn’t notice him, he was as still as a statue. “YOU!”

She runs at him, with a knife in her hand, but before she can strike him down, Theo shouts, “NO! DON’T KILL HER!” Jessa halts and turns to him. “Theo? What are you talking about?” Matteo goes to help him up, “it’s not the wasp king, it’s mom!” Theo screams. Jessa looked into the wasp king’s eyes, but they were no longer red. They were green, filled with terror and tears. Jessa drops her knife, grabbing her mother’s face, “mom?” But her mother didn’t move, she couldn’t move. She was frozen in place by a spell, her hands were also chained to the throne.

Suddenly a demonic laughter came from behind them, Rose stepped forward. Her eyes a blazing red and her skin had turned a sickly yellow. “Was I a convincing Rose? I’ve had years to practice,” he then flies towards Jessa until he’s face to face with her. “How?” Jessa steps back from him, the wasp king laughs, “simple body swap spell, like I did with your dear mother. I transferred my soul into your sister’s body. I could’ve done it to any of you at any time, you three are also part of me. You have my rage; you have a piece of my cold dark heart in each of you.” He goes to Isobel, lightly caressing her face. Isobel whines, tears forming in her eyes. Jessa takes a step forward, “don’t.”

The wasp king then takes his nail, slowly creating a cut on Isobel’s cheek, Jessa runs at him. He laughs, lifting Rose’s wand and pointing it at her, “MILLE TAGLI!” Matteo throws himself in front of her, “Jessa!” The spell hits him, cuts slash all over his body. Lily screams, “Matteo!” she casts the fire spell but misses. Torry throws her spear, the wasp king catches it, snapping it in two. “Enough! This is child’s play!” He takes the wand and waves it. Suddenly everyone is thrown against the walls of the throne hollow, unable to move. He then points his wand to Isobel, removing the statue spell. He grabs her and throws her to the ground, Jessa screams, “NO!” Struggling to lift her head and arms from the wall. He laughs, then lifts Isobel up with a levitating spell, “Jessa if you want to fight me, meet me at the top of the elder tree, alone.” He leaves the throne room, with Isobel’s suspended body floating after him. As soon as he leaves, everyone drops to the floor with a loud thud.

Jessa runs for the hollow door but Hawk steps in front of her. “Absolutely not, wait for Opal,” Jessa pushes past them. Matteo tries to get up, but Lily stops him, “Jessa, stop! You can’t face him alone!” he yells. Jessa stops and turns to all of them, “my mother and my sister are up there. I’m going. Please look after my brother.” Theo’s body lies unconscious on the ground, Jessa takes one last look at him, afraid she may never see him again.

Jessa’s pushes off the branch but before she could fly off to the top, she hears Hawk yelling after her. “Wait!” They grab her right leg, yanking her back down to the branch, pulling her face to theirs. They kiss each other, slowly at first, the world fading away for mere seconds. Every time Jessa would pull away from Hawk, they pulled her back in, refusing to let her lips leave theirs. Finally, Jessa had to push them away, “They need me. I have to go Hawk, I’m sorry.” Hawk began to cry, grabbing her hands, squeezing them tightly, “But- I need you too, please just wait for them to come. Please don’t go up there alone. Take me with you, take somebody with you, please Jessa.” Hawk begins to sob uncontrollably, Jessa hugs them, then quickly darts up to the top. Hawk jumps to go after her, but it is Pan who grabs their leg, pulling them back down. Hawk shoves him away from them, stomping to the tip of the branch, searching for any sign of Opal and the army.

As Jessa arrives to the top of the elder tree, she sees the wasp king tormenting Isobel, spinning her in circles in the air. When he spots Jessa, he abruptly stops, sending Isobel’s body crashing down through the leaves, smacking down onto the branch below. Jessa makes a move to go after her mother, but the wasp king stops her, “uh-uh, my little princess, our fight begins now.” He shoots out a flaming arrow from the tip of his wand, she dodges it, nearly missing her face by an inch. The wasp king claps, “ooo did we go and learn how to fight? Good, I was hoping this would be interesting. But you’re still no match for me, my dear.” Jessa takes her wand from her hip strap, the morning sun illuminating it, making it glow a bright sparkly red, “we’ll see about that, you demon.”

Jessa casts the fire spell, barely missing the wasp king, singeing a bit of Rose’s hair. The wasp king laughs, “do better, sweet Jessa, or do I need to wait for your aunt to arrive for a better duel?” Jessa’s anger bursts out from her, she lunges at the wasp king, tackling him down, they crash through the leaves, clawing at each other, their bodies bouncing from branch to branch. Hawk hears the noises, turning to see Jessa and the wasp king, falling past them. Hawk yells for everyone to follow, excluding Theo who was left behind in the throne hollow.

Jessa and the wasp king land on the last branch of the tree, the wasp king pushes Jessa off him. He reveals a golden handled dagger, the blade imbedded with rubies, but before he could take a swing at her, it is knocked from his hand. They both turn to see Opal and Delilah with the army not far behind them, “Rose? What’s going on here?” Opal hops off her hummingbird to stand next to Jessa. “It’s the wasp king, Opal. He can transfer his soul into my siblings and I,” Opal’s eyes go wide in horror, she steps in front of Jessa, shielding her from him, pulling out the moon dagger. The wasp king’s blood red eyes gleamed at them, smiling, “yes, I can, your poor family are my puppets, to do with as I please. See, I could just,” he makes a cut onto Rose’s cheek, the blood trickling down slowly. Jessa tries to run at him, but Opal stops her. The wasp king shivers, “oh yes, I can feel her fear, her pain. It’s like a drug, it exhilarates me so.”

Delilah flies in closer to the branch on her broom, “you’re sick.” The wasp king turns to her, “oh and you must be the human hero, come to destroy me. Your ancestors couldn’t do it, what makes you think you can?” Delilah smiles, “because it’s my destiny.” Delilah reveals her own wand, a dark brown viny wand, with flecks of gold at the base. The wasp king’s smile disappears as Opal and Jessa do the same, all three aims at him.

The wasp king grabs a dark gray dust from his pocket and throws it to the ground, a huge cloud of smoke appears just as Hawk and the group make it down to the last branch. They hear the wasp king’s voice bellow, “MY CHILDREN! YOUR KING IS BEING ATTACKED! PROTECT YOUR KING!” Out of the hollows burst the entire village of wanderers, all have been turned into mutated half wanderers, half wasps. Matteo is quickly attacked by a mutated villager with a large sword in hand, barely giving him time to grab his axe that hang at his hip. Lily goes to try and help him but is also attacked by another villager. Soon everyone is in the thick of the mutated army of wasps, surrounded by the sounds of buzzing and clashing of weapons. Spells ricocheting off the bark of the elder tree, pieces of the bark being blown off by random bomb spells.

Opal’s army finally catches up, making their way through the army of wasps. Jessa and Hawk are back-to-back as they fend off the wasps with arrow after arrow. They quickly run out of arrows and begin to cast fire spells at the wasps, knocking them out in a wave. Just as Jessa turns to look back at Hawk, she feels a sudden cold breeze, a chill runs down her spine, it feels as though she couldn’t breathe. Her body tightens, then relaxes, but she could not move her arms or legs. Her own voice whispers out loud, “you’re mine now.” The world around her turns a shade of dark red. No. Get out of my head! She hears the wasp king’s laugh echo in her mind.

Oh, you foolish child. I am in control now. Jessa tries to move her hand, but instead of it balling into a fist, it goes to grab a fallen sword one of the wasps had dropped. No! I am in control! I am in control! Stop! The wasp king laughs again, this time out of Jessa’s own mouth. I’m seeing precious memories of this little vixen in front of you. I’m going to take this sword and stab them through their heart. With Hawk’s back still turned away from her, the wasp king forces the sword forward, missing Hawk’s heart and stabbing their left arm. Hawk lets out a painful scream, grabbing their arm. They look at Jessa with a horrified expression on their face, they whisper, “Jessa?” The wasp king forces out his low, deranged laugh, “afraid not, Jessa is taking a break. I’m running the show now.” He takes another swing at Hawk but is blocked by Opal’s dagger, it glows a bright white, the metal blade morphs into a crystal opal, glittering in the sun. It sends a blast towards the wasp king, knocking him down.

The wasp king rises, smiling, “awe Opie, can’t we kiss and make up?” Opal rushes at him, casting a wind spell sending him off the branch and into the sky. Delilah zooms up to him, casting a spell knocking him further away from the tree. Opal follows, flying towards them, casting the statue spell but the wasp king rolls his body away just in time. Below them King Grog and his army arrive on their foxes, some of the foxes rush up the elder tree, throwing off any wasps in their path. Down at the base of the tree, the battle of wanderer against wasp ensues, with a large group of wasps tackling down one of the foxes, but quickly a second fox comes barreling toward them, with a barrage of mountain wanderers flying off the fox, knocking the wasps from the other fox.

Morty makes her way to Hawk, slicing down the wasps in quick sharp motions with her axe. Hawk still fending off the wasps as well with their one good arm, when suddenly one of the wasps knocked the sword from their hand. Before it can swing its blade down onto them, a loud thud is heard, the wasps’ body tumbles down onto the ground below with Morty’s axe stuck in its back. Morty helps Hawk up, carrying them to Nail’s hollow. “Stay here,” she instructs Hawk, but Hawk refuses. “I can still fight! I have one good arm,” Morty blocks the hollow door, “you’re a liability, I won’t lose anymore wanderers out there. STAY. HERE.” Morty then takes out her wand, making a shackle appear on Hawk’s right wrist. Hawk lets out a guttural scream, “YOU CAN’T DO THIS! SHE NEEDS ME OUT THERE! I HAVE TO PROTECT HER!” But Morty refuses to listen, she darts out of the hollow, grabbing a second axe from her hip and immediately throwing it at another wasp.

Hawk thrashes against the chain, like a rabid animal, banging it against the wooden floor. The screams of wanderer and wasp echo outside, Hawk tries to unlock the lock with their wand, but it was no use, only the caster of the shackle spell can unlock it. They then look around the room searching for something small to jimmy it open. A loud crash is heard behind them, they snap their head towards the window to see a gangling old wanderer man breathing heavily, struggling to untangle himself from the dining table and chairs. The realization hits Hawk, “NAIL! What in the hell are you doing here?! Get me out of this!”

Nail quickly moves towards them, pulling out a tiny needle from his beard, with two quick seconds of fiddling with the lock, it clicks open. Hawk rips the shackle off their wrist, “thank you! Now let’s go!” Nail grabs Hawk’s wrist, with his one dark eye, he shakes his head at them. He reaches behind him to reveal his trusty rusted nail, handing it to Hawk. Hawk nods, putting a hand to his cheek, understanding what this meant. They then dart out the hollow door, leaving Nail alone in his hollow.

Nail looks around one last time, with a deep sigh, he lets go. His body slowly disappears, leaving his clothes in a pile on the floor and the faint scent of elderberries.

Meanwhile, in the sky the battle rages on between the three of them. The wasp king dodges every attack they throw at him, you can’t win, wasp king. We will defeat you. Jessa tried to force her hand open to drop her wand, but the wasp king’s will was strong. He aims a bomb spell at Delilah, it hits her shoulder, popping it out of place, she screams. Opal flies towards him, casting a sleep spell, it hits the wasp king, knocking him unconscious. Jessa’s body begins to fall, Delilah catches her midair and lands on the ground with Opal following.

Delilah lays Jessa’s body onto a large rock some feet away from the battle. Opal lands next to Jessa, pointing her wand at her. “Delilah, repeat after me,” Delilah readies her wand, pointing it towards Jessa as well. Opal shouts, “BANDIRE!” Opal repeats the spell again, with Delilah repeating it too. Finally, red smoke oozes out of Jessa’s mouth, it creeps into the sky creating a large cloud of red. Sparks crackle around in the smoke, as it slowly fades away, revealing the wasp king’s true form. He was two times larger than any wasp they had ever seen. He begins to chant in an old dark wanderer language, Opal gasps. “He’s trying to curse the land! If we don’t stop him, he could send the whole world into an eternal nightmare!” High winds start to blow all around, the sky darkens a sickly yellow, clouds begin to form shooting lightning out towards the elder tree, lighting the tip of it on fire.

Jessa’s head shoots up, gasping for air, Opal pulls her up. “Ready yourself Jessa, it’s time!” Jessa straightens herself, pointing her wand at the wasp king. Delilah and Opal nod at each other, Opal turns to Jessa, “when I count to three, say this spell,” she quickly whispers it into Jessa’s ear. Jessa hesitates, dropping her wand and shaking her head, “I know what happens! I know that Delilah is the crone! I won’t let her sacrifice herself!” she begins to sob. Opal screams, “I’m sorry Jessa, but we must! The wasp king must be stopped! Whatever the cost!” Jessa still shakes her head, “No! I can’t!” Delilah kneels next to her, “Jessa, I’m ready to go. Let me go.” Jessa gazes into her hazel eyes, she then nods. All three of them aim at the wasp king, the wasp king unable to defend himself tries to flee. Opal screams, “1, 2, 3, NOW!” In unison, they all shout, “ESPLODERE!” From their wands shoot three beams of light at him, then Opal throws the moon dagger straight for his heart, hitting him. The wasp king screams, his body bursts open, sending his guts flying everywhere. It begins to rain lightly onto the ground.

One by one the mutated villagers began to drop, the sickly yellow tint on their skins vanishing and the buzzing ended. Each of them waking, confused and disoriented. The other wanderer soldiers help them up, immediately giving each of them aid. Two mountain wanderers fly to the top of the tree, using a water spell to put out the flames.

Opal and Jessa hugged each other, then fly to Delilah, hugging her face. Delilah holds out her hand, they both land onto it. Opal smiles up at Delilah, “we did it, thank you Delilah.” Delilah smiles at them, her eyes beginning to flutter, her body starting to lose balance. She falls to the ground, Opal and Jessa quickly fly to her. “Delilah! No!” Jessa screams, but Delilah smiles at her still, “it’s okay Jessa, I’ve done my part. I’ll see you in the next life,” her eyes slowly close. Her breaths become short and then all but stop altogether. Jessa and Opal collapse in front of Delilah’s face, holding each other and sobbing. “It had to happen Jessa, there was no other way,” Opal says with a trembling voice as the rain started to pour heavily onto them.

A voice is then heard from behind them, “there is always a way.” They turn to see Isobel, a bright ray of light through the rain, floating down towards them. Rose is by her side, carrying Theo with them who was finally awake and beaming from ear to ear. “Mother!” Jessa runs to her, Isobel opens her arms, hugging her daughter as tightly as she could. Opal stands, “can you help her?” Jessa breaks away from her mother, Isobel glides towards her sister. “Yes Opal, but I’ll need your help,” she then turns to Jessa, “you too, my precious.”

Jessa steps towards them, Isobel holds out her hands, “grab my hands, both of you.” Opal and Jessa do as she says, “now, say this enchantment, ENGA HERALD AWA WATH!” a bright golden light beam from them, emanating onto Delilah’s body. Delilah’s body is lifted up, the golden light engulfing her, the light so bright, it blinds them, her body no longer visible. Suddenly the light quickly bursts, sending golden sparkles to rain down onto them. Delilah’s body shrunk in size, she then descended slowly down to the ground in front of them, the heavy rain ceased, and the clouds cleared showing a bright blue sky.

Jessa and Opal run to her, as Delilah opens her eyes. They help her stand, she looks around at them in bewilderment, “did you guys grow?” Jessa and Opal giggle, “no, you just shrank down a bit. Welcome to our world!” Opal exclaims. Delilah suddenly freezes, feeling a new sensation on her back, slowly her new and sparkly marigold wings rose. Her body started to hover in the air, she looks down and gasps, “oh my god! Am I?”

Isobel approaches her, “yes dear, you are now one of us. I hope you like your wings; I decided this shade was perfect for you.” Delilah beams at her, rushing towards her and wrapping her arms around Isobel. Jessa and Opal join them, along with Rose and Theo, all together at last.

End of Chapter Fourteen.