A Song of Sixpence

You’d think it would be easy to find one witch when you have a hundred beings looking for her. But I’d forgotten that these were Her woods. The distance between trees seemed to multiply with every step we took. I didn’t have any breadcrumbs to throw on the path, but if had, I suspect I might have crossed the same path more than once. In my group were two of the dwarves, Wolf, and a talking blackbird named Jacob. For two hours we patrolled the woods, until no other creatures could be heard around us. The night had fallen abruptly, without the usual fading of the sun we were used to. None of us said so, but we knew that it was the witch’s doing. Unused to walking, my feet began to ache almost immediately. Fortunately, someone in the masses had thought to bring extra clothes and shoes. I’d gladly shed the curtain, but the shoes had made me uneasy. “They’re too big,” I’d whined to Wolf. But the real reason for my apprehension was that fairies didn’t wear footwear. “Don’t be silly,” Wolf had told me irritably. As we walked, the shoes flopped on my feet like paddles, chaffing my heels and rubbing my big toe raw. We stopped for a rest beside a stream sometime later. “What’s your story, Jacob?” I asked, plunging my feet into the cool water. His feathers ruffled. “No story.” “So you were always a talking bird then?” Wolf asked coldly. Jacob stared at him with one shiny black eye. “The witch done it,” he cawed. The dwarves nodded to themselves. “You’re lucky she didn’t kill you,” said the dwarf with the permanent scowl. “Or worse,” said the one with the spectacles. “What could be worse than being dead?” I asked. “You could be asleep forever.” He replied. The angry looking one started to sniffle. “Poor Snow.” Wolf’s head snapped up. “What happened to Snow White?” The dwarves exchanged a look before the one with the glasses continued. “She was poisoned.” “Apple,” the other one added. “It would have killed her if I hadn’t caught it in time. The antidote I fed her did little more than stave off death. Now she’s trapped in sleep forever.” There wasn’t anything to say after that. We were all too depressed. After eating some of the provisions the dwarves had brought, we continued the hunt. It was during our next break that I spoke the obvious. “We’re lost.” “You would think with all the creatures we have in these woods we would have ran into one of the other groups by now,” Wolf grumbled. “Jacob!” the grumpy dwarf called. The blackbird had flown ahead at some point. I couldn’t really blame him. I remembered how freeing it was to fly. “Here,” the bird said, landing on a branch above us. “Is there anything ahead?” “Naw,” came the reply. “Well go see if you can find us a direction, Bird-brain!” Jacob sprang into the air and disappeared. We continued walking and I tried not to complain. “Wolf,” I whispered after awhile. “Uh-huh.” “I’m sorry I left without you.” “Yeah, that was pretty stupid.” “I thought I’d be back before you woke up. Then I stumbled into that trap and well, you know the rest.” “I’m just glad you’re alright.” He was somewhere beside me, hidden by the lack of moonlight. I wished more than anything that I could read his face. “ARE you alright?” He asked, almost as an afterthought. “I guess.” The pain in my feet said otherwise. “Should I even ask about the new body?” I could tell he’d been dying to ask. “Long version or short version?” “Short. The long version can wait until we’re out of this mess.” My throat tightened. I wanted to tell him how much I hoped there would be an afterward. “I saw the Phoenix,” I said instead. “Is he here?” Wolf stopped walking. I continued on so that he had to. I didn’t want the dwarves to overhear our conversation. “No.” My face flushed with a heat so intense that I felt as if something inside me had caught fire. “I don’t think he’ll ever be coming back.” I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to tell him that the Phoenix and I were one and the same. But I felt so small and insignificant still, that the statement was too enormous to voice. “Did he do this to you?” He asked hesitantly. I tried not to be offended, but I was. “Why, do you think I’m ugly?” He coughed, or choked, I couldn’t tell. “No! I’m just not used to it.” What was wrong with me? “Good. Because I don’t think I can go back now.” He must have caught the tone in my voice. “Did you choose to change?!” He was incredulous. I didn’t know what to say. “Fae.” “Yes,” I croaked out. I had dropped down to a crouch. “Why?” He was close enough now that I could see his face. My breath moved the soft gray whiskers on his muzzle. “I did it for you.” His eyes opened wide. But before he could reply, shrieks split the air. “Caw! Caw! Caw!” Jacob landed on a ground in front of us. I jumped up, startled and angry. “People ahead,” he said. Then he took off again. The dwarves ran up from behind, weapons drawn. “Whose people?” The one with the glasses asked. “Ours, most likely,” said the other. “Let’s go!” We took off into the night, following the bird as he dipped in and out of sight. It was so dark that we nearly ran into the group we were running to meet. I stopped barely an arms length away from their leader, a green-tinted woman almost exactly my height. “Death to the Queen!” Yelled the nymph. “Long live Phoenix!” I replied, the code we had all agreed on before we’d parted. She relaxed, realizing we were on the same side. “How did you know we were coming?” She asked, motioning her clan forward. I pointed at the blackbird above us. “Jacob.” The nymph frowned. “You mean Nabal?” “No.” How could she be confused? I turned to Wolf for reassurance. The nymph suddenly gasped, causing me to jerk back around. Her mouth was gaping open; her large round eyes were looking down. I reached for her in confusion. Then I saw it. Protruding from her ribcage was the point of a spear. She looked up at me with fear and pain in her eyes. “Why?” She mouthed before bursting into leaves. Behind her was one of the Queen’s guards. He stooped to pick up the spear. I shouted a warning just as something grabbed me by the hair. Twisting and punching I managed to free myself. I expected to turn around and see the Queen, or at the very least a guard. What I saw instead was a blackbird. “Jacob?” I cried, just as the bird transformed before my very eyes. I knew in a moment that we had been duped. The Queen had magicked her men into birds! We’d had one among us, as did the nymph. It was fair to assume that every group had traveled with one. "Attack!" I screamed.