Here's another one already! And my previous chapter count was off: this is actually chapter nine. Point is, though, here it is and you didn't have to wait weeks on end for it! 
Enjoy, and please tell me what you think of it.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Erin was warm. The surface under her was soft. All was quiet, save for the gentle babbling of water. She was comfortable here.
But where was here?
She opened her eyes. Lying on her back, the first things she saw was the blue, cloudless sky and the pine trees rising up into it; she felt a surge of panic that she might somehow be in the wilds of Felarya, until she realized the trees were of a normal size- and were there pine trees in Felarya? Erin had never read about such a thing. She looked to her left. Sure enough, a small creek ran next to her. However, beyond the creek and the bushes and stones sprouting up on both sides of it, she saw something that brought her panic back.
A dark, empty room of wood.
She’d been her before.
“Hello?”
Erin looked to her right. A girl sat next to her, an elf, by the looks of her long and pointed ears. Her hair was so fair as to almost be white, as was her skin, and she wore a long pale blue dress with no sleeves and a multitude of small, brightly embroidered satchels on her green cloth belt. She wore a look of great concern on her face. “Are you alright?” she asked. “You look ill. You’re paler than me, and you were golden like sunstools when you were first brought in…”
“Where am I?” Erin asked, voice direct and frantic, as if she needed confirmation that this were real, that she wasn’t having this awful nightmare again, although she hoped to hope itself that she was.
The elf-girl raised her open hands in a placating gesture- her hands shook slightly but noticeably. “Don’t be afraid, please!” she said with fear barely hidden in her eyes. “We don’t seem to be in any danger here. We’re somewhere in the Forest of Whispers, I-I think…”
Erin’s mind was swept clean. She stared, first at the elf, and then her wide eyes began to wander.
No, she thought,
No, I can’t be here. “E-Excuse me?” the girl asked, lowering her hands and leaning back a little.
No, I can’t be here, I shouldn’t be here, no, no no no no. Was Erin saying this aloud? She must have been- the elf-girl was backing away from her now. Erin began trying to stand, but her body had become limp. Her insides had turned to water. “This can’t be possible, it’s only a nightmare, it’s only a nightmare, it’s over, this is over, it can’t happen again!” She saw a cave of stone not far to her right; with her numb limbs she began to half-stumble, half-drag herself towards it.
“W-Wait,” pleaded the elf, although the panic in her bled into her words. “Wait a moment! She’s not going to hurt us! We can still get out, s-somehow…” Her words tapered off.
To Erin, her voice did not exist. Nothing existed, save for the nightmare in the next room and the shelter of the cave. Whimpering, now unable to speak and whimpering madly instead, she finally reached the cave, and dragged her useless body to the very back of it and curled into a ball, pulling her legs tightly to her chest and throwing her hands over her head. There was quiet now. All there was to Erin in the next few moments was herself and the desperate hope that she would be hidden here.
Eventually- years seemed to pass in those minutes- she heard the elf’s small voice ask her, “Why are you so afraid? She’s not going to hurt us. She keeps saying she brought us here to protect us.” She paused, as if she expected Erin to respond. Erin’s voice was still useless, however. After a few moments, she continued. “There’s a neko in here, as well. His name’s Hallo, and I’m Lonir. He and I have been talking about a way to escape.” Another pause. Erin felt Lonir come closer and sit next to her. The elf-girl said, very gently, “We’re in no danger here, I promise you. She won’t hu…”
“She’ll take you somewhere,” Erin managed to croak, her voice muffled by her arms and her terror. “One day, she’ll come and take you somewhere, and you’ll never come back and then she’ll come and take me and then she’ll…” Her words degraded into unintelligible whimpering, before petering back into quiet.
The elf-girl had nothing to say to this. Instead, she joined Erin in silence. Something broke the stillness, though it was only faint; a voice in the next room.
Her voice.
It was coming nearer.
“No,” Erin gasped, curling up tighter.
The door of the terrarium room opened, and shut an instant later. Footsteps approached the glass prison. “Erin?” a woman’s voice called to her.
Erin’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think, or move, or cry, and all she wanted to do was wake up, as if this were only another nightmare.
“She’s asleep,” a boy’s voice replied dourly. “Come back later.”
The woman did not go away. Erin heard fabric shuffle and something drop lightly to the floor. She was sitting now, watching,
waiting for her. “Please come out, Erin. I only want to see you.”
“Didn’t you hear me?” the boy snapped- this must have been Hallo. “She’s asleep. Go away.”
Something soft but persistent tapped on the glass. “Wake up, Erin. I saved you again. Don’t you want to see me?”
“
Go away!”
The antagonist sat there for a while longer. Every now and then, she would lightly tap the glass and call to Erin again. All the while, Erin remained curled in her ball at the back of the cave, wishing she could wake up, back in her home- not the one in Negav, but her real home, back when she thought her world was the only one and when all she had to worry about was small, trivial things. Wishing she would wake up with someone soft and adorable with long ginger curls and freckles next to her, humming a pretty little song with no words, someone she wouldn’t have to worry about never seeing again because some awful thing that looked human but was anything but might take them as soon as they walked out the door. She wanted to be somewhere she was accepted for what she was, where beautiful women with silver hair and gray-blue eyes and cute little tails wouldn’t walk out on her when she told them she loved them. She wanted to get away from here, away from this, from all of this.
“I’ll come back later, then.” More shuffling fabric, then footsteps moving away and disappearing behind the opening and closing of the door. Was she gone? Had she left? Right now, the thought of that alone seemed like a miracle. Erin wanted to ask, but her throat was dry and her body wracked with cold, paralyzing chills. Perhaps it was all quiet then; both Erin’s body and mind and all her senses were utterly numb now. Perhaps that silence only lasted a moment or two; time felt freakishly elongated now.
Finally, Lonir said to Erin, very softly, “She’s gone now.”
***
Anastasia was not disappointed that Erin would not see her yet. The girl was hers again; she’d be able to see her whenever she wanted now. She had never known joy like this, pride or accomplishment like this. It was as if everything she had done up until this point- as important and virtuous she did, at the back of her mind, still realize it was- was meaningless. But now, with Erin back in her domain, everything seemed brighter and easier and more enjoyable. Her shoulder still ached from where she was shot by a foolhardy pursuer last night, and it had been a pain to remove the bullet and seal the wound, but all the pain and blood had been worth it. Whoever the shooter was, they were left far behind at the Motoro River, and so no more thought would be wasted on them. Anastasia, grinning ear to ear since last night, did not intend to lose her prize again; as she brought Erin in, she had Eowynn stand watch outside the abode to ensure no other fairies would enter. Not even Eowynn was allowed into the terrarium room. Anastasia would take no risks. She had, however, allowed her assistant a look at her treasure when the girl was unconscious earlier.
Eowynn had looked upon the girl as she slept in Anastasia’s palm reverently at first, as though she were looking upon the greatest treasure in all creation. And indeed, she quite possibly was. Anastasia joined her in watching her prize sleep so sweetly. Neither fae said anything at first. Then, Eowynn spoke. “An, she’s…” She paused. “I mean, she’s…”
“Radiant,” Anastasia finished for her. “Statuesque. Enchanting. Ravishing.”
Eowynn was quiet for a moment. Then, she replied. “Right! Just like you said.”
“Right,” Anastasia parroted. “Just like I said.”
Now, Anastasia retired to her bedroom, as Eowynn tried futilely to explain to a pair of fairies at the door outside why they could not come in today. Anastasia had told her assistant not to mention anything about the terrarium and it inhabitants- that would only make the savages want in more. Instead, she told them that there was an accident that morning that broke several relics and no one was allowed in until Anastasia had fixed them.
Anastasia had different plans, however. Closing her bedroom door behind her, she made her way to her satchel in the corner. Inside were dozens of sealed tubes- and inside each of these was a hapless adventurer, shrunken and frozen in time. She took a dozen of these tubes, then, as she undid her tunic, laid down on the bed, and at last began her celebration.
Subject: Re: Darkest Days, Brightest Nights 
Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:46 pm
