Dust (Of Dust and Darkness) - By Devon Ashley Page 0,32
and lead these pixies once I’m gone.”
My neck snaps so fast I’m lucky it didn’t break. “What?” I ask a little too harshly.
Juniper peers over the cliff and scans the world of life beneath us. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I almost forget at times that beauty still exists. Flowers still bloom, animals still play, trees still dance in the wind.” I look to the few straggly trees outlining our prison. Nothing moves here. It’s like we don’t exist so the wind doesn’t bother to come. Juniper sighs and spreads her lips outward. “Nature is a beautiful thing.”
A wave of guilt overwhelms me. Here I am drowning in my own self-pity because my life has been stolen and turned upside down for a few weeks, when poor Juniper has been suffering here for more than a decade. I’m such a selfish brat.
“How are you doing these days, Juniper?”
Her mouth twitches and her eyes dart frequently at the distant landscape, not focusing on anything for more than a second. “I’m not a young pixie anymore. My body fades a little more each day.” She turns and her glistening eyes meet mine. At least something still sparkles naturally. “This is why I need you to be strong. You’ve seen these pixies. They need someone to lead and take care of them. Together I think you and Willow can do that.”
“Willow!” I burst. I sense a few pixies hear and turn our way, but since Willow sleeps on the other side of the pit, I’m hopeful she’s deep enough in sleep to not hear. “She’s not going to work with me. She hates me.”
“Willow’s hatred lies solely on the faeries and spriggans that keep us here. Try not to judge her too harshly. Her anger is how she deals with our situation. It’s what keeps her strong and moving forward. I’ll take that over defeat and submission any day.”
Those last few words make me feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach. I don’t mean to be submissive, it just creeps up on you.
“Juniper, what was it like back home for you?”
A weak smile curves her lips. “You know, no one’s asked me that in a long time.” She stares off across the canyon, and her lips twitch, as if she sees something that reminds her of home. “I came from Birch Hollow. They’re skinny little trees so we didn’t live within them like most Hollows. Instead we’d find a clump of several together and build a home between them using the trees for outer support. I imagine it wasn’t too unlike your tree house, Rosalie.”
“I wouldn’t mind one of those right now.”
“Me too,” she says, sighing. She grabs my bowl and holds it in the air before me. Reluctantly I take it, but I manage to slowly get it down while she talks. “My best friend was Mimosa. Mother Nature we were a handful growing up. Our families lived side by side and we did everything under the sun together. We ate together, pranked together, explored the forest and worked the same jobs together. We even pined over the same teenage pixies when we were older.”
Juniper pauses and I turn to see her golden eyes begin to glisten. “But then…Mimosa fell ill when we were eighteen. The elders said it was a type of rare disease pixies sometimes got from an unknown source in the forest. A pollen maybe, or a fungus that grew on our food that wasn’t completely washed away. They really didn’t know. A few pixies overcame the disease, but Mimosa wasn’t one of them.” I feel pressure behind my eyes as tears began to fall from hers. “I was so distraught. There was this hole inside me that I was never able to fill again. My family was upset because they didn’t know what they could do for me. I moved out on my own, choosing not to take a mate. I just wanted to be left alone. I felt guilty about taking Mimosa throughout the forest exploring new things, because maybe that’s where she caught it. And I felt guilty for not getting sick too, and surviving in this world without her.”
I look to her solemnly, trying to decipher the meaning behind her words. “You think you deserve to be here, don’t you?” When she doesn’t answer, I know I’ve hit it on the mark. “Juniper, what happened to your friend wasn’t your fault. Pixies get sick. None of us deserve to be here. Being captured and thrown