“I can think of several scenarios where being soggy while obtaining vital information can be a very fun activity.”
“You walked into that one,” Cynthia told Crina.
Crina snorted out a sharp laugh. “I’m too tired to think about Jen and having to filter all of my statements right now.”
They gathered around the fire that Peri had conjured up with her Fae mojo, as Jen referred to it, and slowly began to thaw and dry out. They ate Fae bread and sat quietly staring into the dancing flames of the fire. Sometime later, Peri began to speak.
“If my plan goes like I hope it will, then this time tomorrow we should have your males back in our care,” she announced to the group. Heads flew up, eyes widened impossibly so, mouths hung open, and there was stunned silence before the bombardment of questions started at a quick-fire pace.
Peri held up her hands to silence them.
“I’m going to explain, good grief, keep your panties on.” Peri waited until they had all stopped blurting out questions. Alina gave her a pointed look that said get on with it or I’ll eat you for breakfast, so she got on with it.
“I’m taking us to the troll who guards the bridge to the In-Between. I have a bargaining chip for him.”
“A troll?” Rachel asked, softly. “Last I remember trolls where not the most friendly of beings even on their best day.”
Peri nodded. “That is true, but you forget healer, trolls are greedy. Shiny things easily sway them. The trick is in the wording. I can’t just say we want to go in to the In-Between because then he will not let us out. I can’t just say that we want to go in and out, because then he would not let us bring anyone back with us.”
“Jen is practically Johnny Cochrane when it pertains to loop holes. Just run it by her and she can tell you if it’s fool proof.” Sally eyed Jen across the fire. Jen gave a slight smile to her friend, but that’s all she could muster.
“So what happens if the troll goes for it?” Cynthia asked.
“The simple part is he opens the veil and we go through.”
“What’s the hard part,” Elle asked, dryly.
“Making it out alive with the males.”
“Oh, is that all?” Crina quipped.
“You guys are just one big bowl of rainbows and butterfly soup,” Peri snapped.
“Okay wait,” Jen raised her hand to Peri. “I just have to know, how the hell would you get rainbows and butterflies in a bowl. If you did, who the crap would want to suck down some butterfly guts?” She shrugged her shoulders. “And who is Johnny Cochrane?” She asked Sally.
Sally and Crina both tried to muffle their laughter at Jen’s comments, but failed miserably.
“Go on and let it out,” Peri told them as she crossed her arms. “If you try to hold those laughs in your mouth any longer their liable to come out your ass.”
That comment broke the peace and they were all laughing. It was the kind of laugh that started in their toes and radiated up their bodies until they were writhing around like they had bees swarming inside. They laughed until tears flowed from their eyes and their stomachs throbbed with the effort from it. Peri stood there watching them, wondering how in the world any of them even dressed themselves in the morning.
“Are you finished?” She asked once the laughing had trickled down to a few random giggles.
“Wait,” Jen cautioned, and looked around as if expecting something then looked back at Peri. “I think we’re good.”
“As I was saying, the In-Between is dangerous, not because things will attack you, but because your mind becomes your enemy.” She began to walk slowly around the outer ring of their circle as she spoke. “We must get in quickly, and I don’t care if you have to sing the sound track to Greatest Love Songs of the Century a hundred times to keep your mind focused, then do it. If you have to shout as loud as you can over and over that you are real and your mind is lying then by all means shout. But, you must not give in to the thoughts.”
“If the guys can’t even do that, how do you expect us to be able to?” Elle asked.
“The males have been sent there. We are going of our own will. There is a big difference. Because we aren’t going there as a form of punishment, it will not affect us the same way. It will be a much weaker disruption in our minds, but it will still be there. It will dig in deep, rooting out your darkest fears, so you might as well face them now. I want you to close your eyes and picture what your worst nightmare might be. Make it real to yourself, breathe it in, feel it on your skin, bask in the heat of the fear it erupts in you. Once you have it in your mind, imagine yourself facing it and winning. Imagine standing up to that fear and telling it to….”
“Go suck it?” Jen added, helpfully.
“If that’s the terminology that gets the job done, Jennifer, then by all means, tell it to suck it until hell freezes over. The point is to face the fears that are going to be thrown at you, face them, and defeat them because the greatest fears are the ones your mind creates. Those are the only fears that can truly have power over you. Don’t let them.”
They all sat in silence, their eyes closed and their minds twisting and turning, taking them on turbulent rides through the terror that lie deep inside each of them. Peri watched as their faces changed and morphed as they went through the process of dealing with their fear.
One by one, they opened their eyes. Sally squinted against the brightness of the flames from the fire. She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She had pictured her greatest fear, had stared it straight in the face, and she had not fallen before it. That was her triumph. It was still there, simmering in the dark, but she had faced it, and it had not broken her. She wouldn’t let it. Not now, and not when they entered the In-Between.