Dust (Of Dust and Darkness) - By Devon Ashley Page 0,18

fire rolled through once and nature never recovered. There are a lot of trees still standing, but without wings to fly, there was nowhere to hide from the spriggans that would give chase. And right now is my best time to run, before I get any weaker from starvation and begin to look like my fellow prisoners. I feel a little more defeated inside. I realize with each passing second how difficult it’ll be to escape this nightmare. But still, the temptation to run is great.

The line stalls and I lightly bump into the pixie in front of me. She doesn’t turn or react in any way. I brave a peek above her shoulder and see the opening to a cave. At first I wonder if it’s the one I was kept in, but I don’t see any water dripping over the entrance or collecting on the ground, so it couldn’t be. Two spriggans stand guard as pixies begin to disappear into the cave, collecting a glass lantern as they enter. Two of the pixies collect a basket made of dried out vines and head off into the forest. A third spriggan follows closely behind. My head follows them, then to the surrounding forest. Still nothing to hide behind if I run. No wonder the faeries chose this place for a slave camp.

I hear a quiet, “Uh-uh,” from the pixie behind me but don’t dare turn to face her. She continues with a hushed, yet harsh, “Don’t. It’s been tried before. Don’t”. The way her words came off all mumbled, no way she opened her mouth to say any of that. I turn my head forward again and catch the black, beady eye of one of the guards. It startles me, and I drop my head and stare at the ground, refusing to look upward again. As I near the entrance, I too collect a lantern and step through, fighting the incredible urge to take a closer look at the guards. Of course it doesn’t keep me from smelling them though, and the sourness makes the water in my stomach churn.

The line moves slowly as I step into the cave. Probably because each pixie is waiting for her eyes to adjust like I am. Once we’re advancing again I take a peek at the stations I pass. The first has a couple of square holes recessed in the cave wall. Two pixies are piling wood from the log stacks into the lower holes. My best guess as I continue on is the heat is used for drying the mushrooms, an absolute must when powderizing mushrooms we use for dust.

The rest of the work line is one wood table after another, with each section descending in height ever so slightly. Since each section has its own hand-cranked conveyor belt, the slight decrease allows room for the mushrooms to be dumped at the next station without affecting the rest of the line. Some pixies are already in position, but since the line hasn’t officially begun, I’m not quite sure what all the steps are. I make my way to the back of the line, which happens to be the end of the cave itself. Holly is already there, waiting patiently. She reaches for my lantern, and surprisingly, sets it down on the front end of the table. Without it, our spot in the back of the cave is incredibly dim.

I look forward at the entire line. The cave is long and skinny and I can barely see the fire glowing from the pits up front. Two other pixies, both sage in color, share our station and begin sifting through the dust on the table without even acknowledging our presence. Holly just stands there watching the line intently, leaving me utterly confused, not knowing what to do.

“Alright,” she says. For some reason, she doesn’t begin working on the pile of dust before us, but steps back and sits against the back wall. She pats the ground beside her and I willingly join her. “Rosalie, I’m guessing you have a lot of questions. Scratch that. I know you do. But today you and I have the back end of the line, which means we get to rest. Every day we advance the line in pairs, or threes, depending on our numbers. Which basically means you’ll complete the line in about ten days. As I’m sure you’ve probably figured out on your own, we don’t get days off. We work sunrise to sundown every day.