Water-Nebula's Trash Can

Eira focused ahead as she flew, searching. She was a frost sprite, with pale blue hair, brown eyes, and ivory skin. Her pack had received word of a caravan traveling to a glade in the area, and they were determined to intercept it. A small movement up ahead caught her eye. It was Fay, the Threnos fairy, who was currently acting as the information wielder.
    She was in her shrunken state to avoid prying eyes, and delivering her update on the target. After sharing a few words with Seda, the green haired canopy fairy flying ahead of Eira, she flitted away. Eira wondered what the big deal was with the planning. Most canopy fairies were reckless, yet Seda seemed obsessed with controlling every moment of a hunt.
    She had to know each and every variable before making a move, and handled everything with constant precision. It was irritating, but reassuring in a way. At least everything was under control. Seda and Fay weren't the only fairies around though. Eira snuck a glance at the tide churning beneath her.
    This water had been torn from the nearby Shard river, and was being redirected to help with the operation. It flowed like a giant serpent beneath her, winding and twisting across the forest floor. It was Sachiel, the water sprite. He had cut off the flow of the river, and was hidden somewhere down in the torrent. Sachiel was immensely powerful, but useless without nearby water.
    He could summon his own as a last resort, but Seda ensured he would have an existing source for the task. Next to her flew Lilith, the storm sprite. She was possibly the friendliest of the group, but unnerving. She possessed bright yellow hair, and gray eyes that Eira swore occasionally flickered, as if there were miniature storms trapped in the irises. Far ahead of everyone lay Kera's resting place.
    She was a dusk nymph with moth wings, dark purple hair, and vantablack colored skin that seemed to absorb any light that hit it. If anything went wrong, she would be the trump card. Currently she was watching somewhere in darkness, waiting for everything to go south. Almost all the members had attended, except for two notable absences. Achlys, the mist fairy, was nowhere in site as usual.
    She only seemed to emerge in the foggy mornings and would vanish soon after. Shadrach too, was missing. The male crimson maiden had some sort of vendetta against eating humans, treating them as if they were people. Eira pondered the use of a pack member who never hunted, but Seda insisted on letting him stay. It suddenly occurred to Eira that she might feel sorry for him.
    Before she could consider the thought further, her magic sense alerted her of nearby humans. She stopped and hovered, her companions doing the same. It only took a few moments of pinpointing, and the location of the target was known. "All right, it's time", Seda announced. "Get ready".
    Eira knew what that meant. Already, her skin was starting to harden. She willed herself to crystalize, breaking apart into a flurry of snow. The others had already reverted. Seda's form had phased out until she was simply a transparent distortion in the air.
    Lilith became a ball of crackling electricity. Somewhere below her, Sachiel had liquified and merged with the river water. They were ready. A loud rustling noise alerted them to something pushing through the foliage. The wagons appeared,  crashing through the forest beneath them and seemingly anxious to get to their destination. It was a shame they would never get there.
    Accompanying the wagons and even pulling them were clay constructs. Animated by magic no doubt, they would be a bit of a challenge to fight. From what Eira had heard, these golems had no weak points, and were fueled by the ambient magic of Felarya. Luckily, they were made of clay, not something tough like stone or metal, so they wouldn't be too hard to destroy. The hyaloid form of Seda descended toward the caravan, signaling for the others to do the same.
    Sachiel was the first to strike. The river water collided with one of the wagons, toppling it over and wrecking the wheels. One of the clay golems suddenly imploded, spraying water and clay everywhere. Emerging from where it stood was Sachiel. He harnessed more of the river water and lashed at two more constructs, eroding away more and more of their earthen armor.
    Eira and Lilith joined in, each choosing a golem to fight. Lilith struck hers with a bolt of lightning, while Eira flurried behind one, shattering it with a freezing cold blast of ice. A few of the passengers carried guns, but Seda quickly warped the weapons away using her dimensional magic before they could fire. Three of the golems were left, and the prey were escaping. Seda had warped a few stragglers back, but Eira knew that they couldn't fight and watch at the same time.
    Deciding to take the risk, she flew away from the fight. Freezing all the excess water, Eira built up the ice and shaped it into a wall. She molded it around the caravan, carefully maneuvering around the battle to finish the structure. With the walls in place, there was nowhere left to run. Their objective was secured.
    It wasn't without cost though. That spell had required much of her magic to accomplish, and frost sprites like herself tired easily in the jungle. Floating over to the sidelines, she knew she would be vulnerable now. Sachiel, Seda, and Lilith now turned on the clay soldiers. Sachiel conjured short blasts of water to knock them back, Seda summoned arrows and rained them down on the enemy, while Lilith destroyed them with her lightning bolts. Only two enemies remained now, one retreating and one advancing toward the fairies who proceeded to mob it.
    Eira wondered what the retreating golem was doing, before realizing that it was setting it's sights on her.
    Oh no. Panicking, she jolted upright, deciding on an escape. She was weakened now, and almost all her magic was spent. She could try increasing her own size a bit to make herself more durable, or shrink herself to seem like less of a target.
She could also try to run, but she probably wouldn't make it very far.
       Too late. The golem advanced towards her, and Eira braced for impact. A moment passed. Nothing happened. She opened her eyes just in time to the clay creature's shadow apparently come to life.
       Kera grabbed the golem, before dragging the struggling construct into its own shadow. The golem sank into the patch of darkness as if it were water, and soon the remaining silhouette faded altogether. "Th-thank you" Eira finally stammered. Kera just grinned before vanishing back into the shade. Seda approached her.
       "Are you all right?" she asked. Eira sat up "Yes, I'm fine. Kera saved me". Seda gave a triumphant look. "Well it's good that we had the foresight to arrange a backup plan. Otherwise, something..." she hesitated for a moment, "...unfavorable could have occurred". Before Eira could respond, Lilith sped past with a smile.
    "Anyway, let's eat!". Growing to giant size, the fairies left Eira to rest and approached the damaged caravan. The two wagons contained a total of nine humans. Laying back down, Eira noticed the tiny form of Fay approaching her. She expand in size until she was the same height as the tired frost sprite.
    "Here", Fay shyly handed her a single shrunken human. "You did a nice job trapping them", she added, before flying away to join the others. Eira looked down at the quivering human in her palm.  Smiling, she gingerly lifted him up to her mouth and swallowed. He slid down her throat, before finally reaching her stomach.
    She could feel the him moving, and the struggles invigorated her. Eira got up, and walked over to see if her friends had saved any more food for her. Lilith parted from one of the wagons and flew up to her, shrinking to human size. "I shrank some for you!" she said with a grin, handing over a pair of humans, one male and one female. "Sachiel didn't want them", she explained.
    "He says he hates eating food that screams, so I thought you might like some". Eira accepted the two humans "Thank you". Lilith beamed. "No problem! You did a really great job!". Her stormy eyes menacingly flashed, and Lilith flew off.
     Eira lifted the small woman to her lips, and swallowed quickly. She looked down at the remaining human. She would savor this one. She lifted him up to her mouth. "No! Please I-" he shouted to no avail.
     She had already placed him into her mouth. There would be no escape.

                                .................


It was a humid early morning. Mist crept through the darkened forest. Achlys was awake