Sun Wukong finishes the tale and gives a slight incline of his head. "As you can see, this is a worthy addition."

"Indeed," the leader says. The leader then motions for the book, and it draws close in a slow spiral. "A well selected choice, and we are indeed glad that you could join us this night."

There are additional murmurs of approval and welcome to Sun Wukong, ensuring that he knows he is a valued member of the society. It is both humorous and warming to realize how seriously they take one another's safety.

I wonder if you know that. Tricksters like to give off the impression that they do not need one another, and they certainly cannot be trusted. Perhaps that is why when they come through for another, it means all the more and people are far more startled. And certainly they will do things that are cruel. But one should never cross a trickster because there are many more who will have his back, even if how that will come about is not always clearly apparent or obvious even to that one.

The leader lifts a hand. "Come now, Puck, and present your offering."

Puck springs forward lightly, his hood falling back with the movement. As he has always been, he looks quite young with rather old but sparkling eyes. He removes his own book with a flourish, blows on it, and then tosses it over the fire. It begins to glow a rich ruby red. "I found many wondrous tales that might be passed off as dreams or used to lure people from their way, but this is the one I like best."

As he speaks, I notice that your hand has moved to your dagger.

Puck continues in a rather singsong manner. "So I tell you now the tale of The Fairy Eggs."

Fairy Eggs – Anonymous

Celia entered the old house with great care. The dry boards creaked beneath her feet, and cobwebs floated in the howling wind. The stripped and fading stems of what had once been daffodils were the only remnants of the once vibrant flowers that graced the flowerbeds.

The house, three stories with a balcony and wraparound porch, had not been occupied for years, perhaps decades. Every window was cracked or broken, and the red door hung half open on rusted hinges. The wind blew through the windows, rustling the rotted and moth eaten curtains and pressing them against chunks of broken plaster and glass.

An uncomfortable knot of anxiety rose in Celia's stomach. There weren't that many fae left in the world. The last lich raid had resulted in a loss of more than three dozen unborn fae who had undoubtedly been consumed by this point. This was one of the last few spots rumored to contain fae eggs, and if their reports on the lich movements were correct, this house would be under their control within the next two days. Even if that wasn't true, the spirits of the trees in this cursed forest would consume the house and all inside.

Ordinarily, Celia would not have conducted a fairy egg rescue without a partner. It was too dangerous. The lich had grown in numbers and strength with each passing cycle of the moon.

But she couldn't bear to wait, and she couldn't risk the lich taking any more fairy eggs.

Dengal, her supposed current partner, was probably still waiting for her at the Silver Lake. It hadn't been kind to pretend that they had a task and leave him there. But...she just couldn't bring herself to ask him to join her on this mission. A similar mission had cost her last partner and love his life. It would distract her too much.

Besides, she reassured herself, if she got in too much trouble, she would send up a flare and one of the flying rangers would find her.

She just had to hope that it wasn't going to turn out badly for her.

As she walked further into the house, Celia ran her hand over the rough wooden beams. The house was close to falling down. How long had it been vacant and why had the fae chosen to hide the eggs here? It hardly seemed safe.

The wind continued to whistle, loud and shrill as a woman screaming in the night. Celia paused. Had there been a sound of movement as well? Feet running through the leaves.

A pinprickling sensation that she was being watched grew within her. Time to move faster.

The dark clouds skittered across the sky. For a few moments, they obscured the faint rays of the pale afternoon sun. The weak light was no better than dawn's first breaths, but it was only three o'clock in the afternoon.

Her nerves growing tighter, Celia resisted the urge to run through the house. She had to take this room by room, step by step.

There was nothing in the entry nor anything in the kitchen or the dining room except the remains and rubble of the furniture of the previous occupants. From the tattered paintings and broken pictures, it seemed that this had been a single family home of five, a mother, a father, a grandmother, and two children. Whatever happened to them was horrifying to consider.

It was hard to not let her imagination run wild as she noted the various blackened and dark red streaks that all might have been blood or fungus. But at last she reached the sitting room.

Celia cast her gaze about the disheveled room. It was fairly standard for expectations, a settee, a few chairs, a large table, some bookshelves, a bureau, some paintings, a clock, and other similar items. There wasn't a single inch that hadn't been ravaged by time, weather, or rot. Except...

She at last caught sight of a large hand-carved chest that stood on the top of a cracked bureau. The chest had three dwarves carved into the wood, so lifelike that it seemed that any minute they might come alive.

Celia glanced around once more, searching for signs of an impending attack. The leaves rustled. They sounded like the dead leaves of autumn though most were green and still clinging to the branches.

"Ey, girl!" A woody voice called out from the chest.

Celia jumped. One of the statues was talking to her. "Hello..."

"Get them out of here. Now. You're running out of time," the dwarf whispered, his wooden mouth moving just enough to form the words.

"I forgot the case!" Celia cursed herself under her breath and then reached for the chest. As cumbersome as it would be, this would have to do.

The dwarf shook his head sharply. "No time! It'll slow you down. Just take the eggs. You must save the fairies."

Celia turned up the lid. Inside was crimson velvet and nestled in the center of this were two eggs. She took them up in her hands. Both were so small that she could hold them in a single palm without either touching.

"Hurry, hurry," the dwarf carving whispered.

Celia wrapped the eggs up in the fabric.

Another rushing sound came from out the window. From the corner of her eye, Celia caught the tail end of a creature running. They were here.

Backing up, Celia grabbed a handful of polished stones from a the large-mouthed squat vase. The cold rocks clinked together as she slipped three into her pocket and tucked three others into her tight fitting turquoise sleeve. She tucked the crimson bundle between her breasts and under her shirt to keep them safe and hurried to the foyer.

The pale light had dimmed even more. She hadn't been in the house more than twenty minutes, and already the light had weakened still more. Time to get moving.

As she reached the foyer, Celia caught a glimpse of some large grey forms moving along the perimeter. Adrenaline surged through her veins. She fumbled about in her pack for the flare gun as she ran. The boards clattered under her feet.

Then came a loud snapping break as wood splintered. Celia bolted out the door. Once outside, she shot up a flare and then raced into the forest. It was dangerous to enter these woods at night. At night, it was said that some of the trees lived and devoured those unfortunate enough to draw too close. All except the lich. The lich and other horrid creatures were able to pass through without consequence.

The bushes and foliage rustled. More glass shattered and wood splintered inside. Heavy footsteps sounded behind her. The bushes rustled.

How many of them were there?

Celia ducked under a rotten branch. In between panicked thoughts of how many lich were chasing her was the terrifying possibility that she might actually wind up crushing the eggs. How could she have forgotten that case?

There was no time for shame. She wove around the trees, clambered over fallen logs, and ran until her sides ached from running. The air was thick and still here, even with her gasping and puffing for breath. It was as if the trees or some magic was closing in around her, suffocating her.

The magic was obviously doing something. The trees all looked the same. Tall with thick grey bark and hanging streams of brown-green moss, patches of mushrooms growing at angles, thick masses of spider webs, and broken branches. Celia kept running, but because of the way that she had to weave through the trees, she realized that she might be heading in circles.

The lich that were following her seemed to always be just behind her. From the sounds of it, there were at least five. But sometimes their footsteps seemed to be coming from ahead and then from behind.

The stitch began forming in her side as well, harder, tighter. Celia choked down her fear. The thick musty air was even worse now. How much longer could she keep this up?

As she ran, she at last came across a river. This river led out of the forest. Could she risk swimming? No...The eggs were hatching. The shock of the water might kill them, and if she ran along the river, it would be easier to track her. The earth here was soft, but could she risk getting lost in the forest again? Her heart thundered within her ribcage.

The lich leaped down in front of her. He stood nearly seven feet tall with a massive spear tinged with some black and green venom. A distorted growl flowed from his broken mouth.

Celia gulped.

"Give me the eggs," the lich snarled. "Give me the eggs now or I'll run you through."

The spear that the lich held was certainly long enough to do the trick, and now that she was here by the river, it wouldn't be that hard for him to pin her.

"Are you the only one?" Celia asked, surprised.

"Show me the eggs!"

Apparently he was. The lich tricks were getting better and better. Or perhaps it was her own fear that had caused her to hear more than was there. Even one lich was a problem, but one lich was more manageable than five or even three.

"The eggs!" the lich bellowed again.

Carefully she removed the two delicate spotted fairy eggs and held them out in her palm. "It's only two. Let them go. You know that if you want to eat fae, you've got to let some of them escape."

The lich hissed and lunged for her hand.

Celia darted back.

"Give them to me," the lich snarled. He gripped his spear and pointed it at her. The poisoned head bobbed near her face.

Celia already had a plan. She stepped back another step. "I'll put them here, and you let me go, all right?"

The lich grunted, then nodded.

Celia took another step back, knelt down and, using her own sleight of hand, she swapped the eggs for the polished stones she'd stuck in her sleeve. They shone in the dull light as well as the eggs.

The lich gave a greedy roar, and Celia dashed out of its way. Taking care not to crush her sleeve against the tree, she jumped up into the branches and clambered upward.

The lich pounced upon what he thought were the eggs, letting his spear fall to the ground.

Celia had already climbed well over fifteen feet before the lich roared with rage. She swung herself up to another branch as the lich lunged up at her.

His long, clawed fingers scraped the bark, but he fell back and crashed to the ground with a loud snarl. He flung the spear at her.

The spear embedded in the trunk. Celia snagged it and spun it around. "Come up here after me, and I'll split you through!"

The lich cursed at her. "My kin will be here soon. You can't fight us all!"

Celia pushed that thought away as she continued to climb harder. It was difficult to climb with a spear, but she would rather have the weapon than not.

Higher and higher she climbed until at last she broke through the canopy. Down below the lich continued bellowing and hissing. There were maybe two hours left before dark. Removing the flare gun once more, Celia shot it into the sky.

With the darkness came life of the trees and most likely more lich. She settled down in the crook of the top branches.

Reaching into her sleeve, she removed the speckled eggs. They were both perfectly intact. Providing she found a way out of this forest, these were at least two fairies who would hatch and be free.

But escaping the forest was the next large question, and it was certainly one she didn't have any easy answers for except to wait and hope that someone spotted the flare. She scanned the horizon over the sea of trees all the way up to the blue and purple tinged mountains wreathed with clouds.

Someone would come. She knew it.

The wind tugged at her hair. Already she felt better. It was easier to breathe up here, easier to think, easier to believe even with the weak light waning and the sun sinking.

A powerful eagle cry split the heaviness of the darkening afternoon.

Celia turned her face upwards, and her smile became so big it hurt her face though she could hardly believe it.

There, on the currents of the wind, flew the most gorgeous vermilion eagle she had ever seen and on its back was Dengal. She pulled herself up a little higher as the lich down below snarled and cursed. How on earth Dengal had found her, she didn't know. He should have been wandering around the Silver Lake, but she didn't particularly mind any more.

"Hey! Over here!" she shouted out.

Dengal lifted his hand in greeting, and the eagle swooped in low.

It took just one more leap for Celia to jump astride its soft back and Dengal's arm slipped around her waist to pull her up tight. The erling faes chirruped and cooed with the safety of her palm.

"Hey you," Dengal said. The wind rushed and soared around them.

"So what are you doing out here?" Celia asked.

"Figured out where you were going. Was already on my way when I saw the flares." Dengal tossed her a grin. "You're not as subtle as you like to think."

Celia didn't argue. All had come together well enough, and the fairy eggs were safe. "I'm glad you came," she said.

"If you ever want to get rid of me, you'll have to come up with a few more tricks than that," Dengal said.

Somehow Celia didn't doubt that. And it didn't bother her either.