Ticket to Faerie (3 page)

"Now, hang on a minute. That just doesn't make sense. Why
can't we retrace our steps?"

"Because this is Faerie, love," the mouse said. "The way in
isn't the same as the way out."

Alyssa muttered under her breath.
And, I'm supposed to
believe a stupid white mouse and a dog who gives away my stuff.
But she trudged off in Max's trail. The dog slowed until she caught up
with him, and then resumed a brisker pace.

"Max, I've got to carry this pack and the jug. Don't go so
fast."

"At this rate, it's gonna take us a couple of days to get to the
coach stop." But he slowed his pace a little.

"How come we can't make it back to the coach stop in a
couple of hours? Only took us that long to reach Giserella's."

Max ignored her.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Struggling to keep up with Max,
Alyssa didn't have enough breath to rant out loud.

As they walked, the path became a road and the forest
drifted into meadows. The meadows slowly became tilled fields of
tall pink grass on one side and some kind of orange, bean-like crop
on the other. Off in the distance, Alyssa occasionally saw an
odd-shaped house or barn. One, although freshly painted, had such
strange construction it looked like it would keel over at any minute.
A little later, they passed a shed near the road with one wall and its
roof missing. Odd shaped pieces of wood, rusted tools, and other
debris littered the ground around it.

Alyssa had walked several yards past the mess when she
stopped, turned around and walked back. She set down the jug and
pulled a couple of round pieces from the pile of wood.
Wheels
.

Max sat down in the road.

Miss Lisle wiggled her whiskers. "What in the world are you
up to?"

"If I have to traipse around Faerie for another day or two,
I'm not lugging this jug." Alyssa dug through the pile and found two
long poles, a shorter one, and a few square flat pieces with holes in
them. "My shoulder's killing me already." She stripped off her pack
and set the mouse on top of the jug.

She mucked around in the mess until she found a hunk of
metal big enough to use as a hammer and a couple of dozen nails in
various sizes and stages of rusting.
Good thing Mom talked Dad
into letting me take woodshop.
One after another she held pieces
together and pounded in nail after nail. She put the shorter pole
through holes in the side pieces and attached that to the wheels. In
the end, her contraption didn't look half bad. "Max, will you pull the
jug for Grandma?"

He tilted his head to one side. "I suppose. Your grandma
always gives me a big rawhide bone for Christmas." He licked his
chops.

With him standing between the longer poles and the mouse
making useless suggestions, Alyssa played with the leash until she
came up with a way to attach it around the dog's chest, and leave
enough slack to fasten it to the poles. She lifted the jug up into the
makeshift cart.
Well that will give my shoulder a break, at
least
.

She bent down and rubbed at the red marks in between her
big and second toes.
This sucks. Shoulda changed into my sneakers
when I found out how much walking I'm expected to do.
She
yanked her socks and sneakers from her pack. After a moment's
consideration, she took out her jeans as well. She just couldn't bring
herself to wear Converse sneakers with a skirt. After she put the
jeans on under her skirt and tied her sneakers, she stuffed the flip
flops in the pack and hoisted it onto her back.

"You may as well put the pack in there, too. I don't think I'll
notice the difference." Max stepped forward and the cart lurched
after him.

Alyssa wedged her pack between the jug and the side of the
cart. Without the heavy items slowing her down, she kept up a brisk
pace. Even so, although the sun still blazed in a pristine blue sky, she
needed to dig her hoodie out of the pack and pull it over her head.
She noticed patches of ice in the fields on either side and, as the
shadows grew longer, snow covered portions of the road and mud
mucked up the rest of it.
Why me? How do I end up somewhere
that it snows in the middle of August?

She finally took pity on the shivering mouse and stuffed her
into the fleece pocket across her belly. Only Max didn't seem
concerned about the weather, although the mud and snow made it
difficult for him to pull the cart.

"I thought Faerie would be more fun, romantic even." Alyssa
pulled the hood over her head. "I mean where's Prince Charming?
And, I haven't seen a single fairy."

Lilse stuck her head out of one side of Alyssa's pocket. "You
didn't ask for a ticket to visit Prince Charming, love. You asked for a
ticket to see Giserella."

"You mean, if I'd told the ticket lady I wanted to meet Prince
Charming, I could be lolling around in some castle right now instead
of trudging about through the snow?"
Why the hell didn't I think of
that earlier
?

"Well, yes, love, although Prince Charming isn't one to allow
visitors to loll about."

"And, you wouldn't have the magic to help your
grandmother." Max wagged his tail.

Assuming the vile concoction Giserella poured into that jug
actually works.

"Well, I suppose if I have to choose between meeting Prince
Charming and helping Grandma..."
C'mon, no way Prince
Charming'd have any interest in me anyway
.

Max yelped and Alyssa rushed to his side. He lifted his left
front paw and she saw blood dripping from it. A large metal shard
protruded from the pad.

This is so totally lame. What else will I have to put up
with
? Aloud, she said: "Poor baby, let me get that out of there."
Blood gushed when she pulled the metal out. She grabbed his paw in
one hand and squeezed, while reaching for her pack with the other.
When she got the zipper open, she dug around until she found her
cotton bikini briefs. She wrapped them around Max's paw, tying the
pink fabric over the top.

Geez, now I'm using my underwear to bandage my dog. I
should have stayed home
. "Can you walk?"

"Not if I have to pull the cart."

Alyssa unfastened the cart poles from Max's harness and he
limped off on three paws. She stood between the poles, lifted them,
and followed. Despite the mud, pulling the cart beat lugging the
heavy jug on her shoulder. Of course, she could just abandon it and
concentrate on finding her way home. For all she knew that wicked
little Giserella had filled the jug with icky stuff that wouldn't do
anything to help Grandma. But, Alyssa had given up her MP3 player
and the Pink Floyd t-shirt Dad had given her,
plus
an
opportunity to meet Prince Charming and see real fairies. At least if
she brought home something that helped Grandma, Dad might buy
her a new MP3 player and let her get her belly button pierced.

"Max, do you know how much farther?"

"How much farther tonight, or until we get to the coach
stop?"

Alyssa sighed. "Tonight, I guess." She didn't want to know
how much longer she would be stuck here.

"Well, I don't think we'll find an inn on this road. We'll have
to look for some kind of shelter."

Alyssa shivered. When the sun set, even if she huddled with
Max all night, she didn't think she could survive in this cold. A tear
crept down her cheek.
I think I liked it better when Grandma's
presents didn't work
. She wondered how Max knew not only
which road to take, but whether or not they would find a place to
stay along the way.

The sun hovered at the horizon and Alyssa couldn't see well
in the gathering gloom. But she glimpsed a dark spot in the hill above
the road and hoped it was the entrance to a cave. She couldn't pull
the cart up the rough incline, so she tugged it off the road and behind
a shrub, hoping it would stay put overnight. She put on her pack,
used the leash to shoulder the jug, and struggled up the hill. The
indentation in the hillside hardly qualified as a cave, but it would
give them protection from the wind and the overhang would keep off
any snow or rain.

Max ran off. Alyssa tucked the pack and the jug into a corner
and gathered as many sticks, bits of dried bark, and the largest
pieces of wood she could drag back to the shelter. Remembering
Dad's instructions when he took her camping earlier in the summer,
she piled the smaller sticks close to the outer edge of the shelter and
stuffed some dried leaves underneath and in between. With the
dragon pen/lighter, she lit the leaves, and when the sticks caught
fire, she pulled one of the larger pieces of wood up against the
flames. At least they could stay warm if she didn't let the fire go
out.

Lilse crawled out of Alyssa's pocket and curled up in front of
the fire. "Just lovely."

Alyssa ate two of the energy bars, and let the mouse have
the crumbs in the wrappings. She worried about what she could feed
Max. She didn't need to hear him whining that he was starving.

When he finally returned, Max had blood on his muzzle.
Alyssa didn't want to think about what he had eaten. She poured
small amounts of the bottled water into her hand and let him and
Lilse lap it up. "One of us needs to stay awake and keep watch."
That's what they did in every adventure story she had ever read and,
if this wasn't an adventure, Alyssa didn't know what was.

Max sat down next to the fire. "I'll watch out while you get
some sleep. I can roust Lilse when I need a nap."

Alyssa pulled two more big logs into the flames, curled up in
front of the fire and, despite the hard ground, fell asleep in an
instant.

Lilse woke her by pulling on her ear in the dark of night. "I
need to sleep a bit more, love. Can you stand watch 'til dawn?"

Alyssa stretched her arms and sat up with her legs crossed
in front of her. The fire had died down to embers. She rolled another
log over the hot coals and watched until it caught. When she felt her
eyelids grow heavy, she stood up and stepped out of the shelter far
enough so she could look up at the black night sky, sprinkled with
stars like powdered sugar on the French toast Dad burned when
Mom let him make breakfast. She sniveled.

Max lay curled up with his tail over his nose and Lilse had
settled into the crevasse between his haunch and his side.

Yesterday Alyssa had set off with no expectation that magic
could work. She had forgone whatever pleasant adventures Faerie
offered to bring home a huge, heavy jug because someone who
allegedly ate people claimed it contained enough magic to save
Grandma's life. Although she'd traveled a few hours to request the
magic, so far her return trip had taken the better part of an afternoon
and evening. Animals talked to her and kept watch and some even
wore clothing. But other than that and some bizarre colors, Faerie
didn't feel that much different from the rest of the world.
And,
where are the damn fairies anyway
? She crept over to her pack
and found her cell phone. She turned it on, and shut it off again when
it failed to find a signal.
Figures
.

A screech sounded in the distance. When the sound got
closer, she crawled back into the shelter.
Okay, I'm standing
watch. What the bleep am I supposed do if someone or something
actually tries to attack me?
Something howled in answer to the
screeching. Next she heard a distant noise that sounded like a herd of
elephants tromping through the woods. She jumped up and kicked
dirt onto the fire until the glowing embers disappeared. If someone
or something was stalking her, the fire would make her easier to
find.

Alyssa huddled, shivering, against the back wall of the
shelter until dawn tinged the edge of the sky with orange and pink.
When the screeches and howls finally gave way to bird songs, Max
sprang to his feet. Somehow, Lilse managed to stay on his back. With
a sigh of relief, Alyssa stuck another energy bar in her pocket,
shouldered her pack, and lugged the jug down to where she had left
the cart. She hoped they wouldn't need to spend another night
outdoors. For that matter, she really didn't want to spend another
night in Faerie.

The cart sat where Alyssa had left it, but the wheels had
disappeared. She sat down in front of it with her head in her hands
and wept.
All that time building the stupid thing and now
someone's taken it apart. I can't possibly carry this horrid jug around
all day again.
Max rested his muzzle on his paws until she took a
deep breath and stood up again. Crying wouldn't bring the wheels
back. She put on her pack, slung the leash attached to the jug over
her shoulder, and trudged down the road.

"Wrong way." Max turned in the other direction.

"But that's going back where we came from." Alyssa
suppressed another sob.

"Yesterday it's where we came from, today it's where we're
going." Lilse sat on Max's back, near his tail, clutching his fur in her
paws. "Cheer up, love, if we make it past the gatekeeper, we should
get to the coach stop by noon."

"Gatekeeper?" When the animals didn't answer, Alyssa
turned and followed Max. Although he still limped, he did put some
weight on his injured paw. At least Mom wouldn't yell at her for
hurting her dog.

By the time she finished nibbling on the energy bar, they
had reached a crossroad she hadn't seen the day before. A rocky path
led off to one to side, into a dense woods where all the foliage was
aquamarine.

Max looked back. "Watch me carefully. Only step on the
rocks that I do. The others aren't real."

Lisle had crawled up to Max's head and whispered in his ear.
He jumped to a flat stone and reached his front paws out to another.
Alyssa put one foot on the first rock and, when Max moved forward,
her other foot on the second. Rock by rock, they worked their way
through the trees. The jug weighed on Alyssa's shoulder. The air
became oppressively hot. She wanted to take off her hoodie, but
none of the rocks had room for her to set down the pack and the jug.
She found it difficult to concentrate on which stones Max had
stepped on.