Chapter nine

The fay around us were no longer hiding themselves so the once quiet and empty looking forest was now bursting with strange creatures. Green women with vines instead of hair and leaves covering their private parts appeared out of some of the trees around me. Some of the beautiful flowers around me took flight, revealing themselves to be creatures similar to the ones that had knocked me and Jules out. Short hairy men sprang out from beneath the ground , so hairy that the only thing visible were their small beady eyes. Satyrs, men with horns on their heads and furry goat's hooves instead of legs, walked out from behind bushes and other foliage. Beautiful women with slightly blue skin swam out of the rivers and streams, completely naked. Their sublime form and shapely figure were quite enticing, well at least they were until they spread their blue tinged lips in a grizzly smile that revealed sharp triangular teeth similar to that of a shark. Even some of the giant trees near me simply stood up, their branches intertwining to form hands and their roots twisting together to form feet. Gnarled faces appeared on their barks and their empty hollow eyes stared at me.

Many amazing and fantastical creatures appeared around me but the ones I paid the most attention to were the ones that looked relatively normal, beautiful men and women who seemed to appear out of thin air. They all had pointed ears like Morgana but aside from that and some unusual eye and hair colors they looked completely human. They were dressed in everything from clothes made out of fur to whole outfits made entirely from leaves and other vegetation to cloth garments that would have looked right at home on a fashion designer's catwalk, some didn't even bother to wear anything at all.

This eclectically dressed group of people approached Morgana and simultaneously got on one knee as if it was choreographed. They bent their waists in a bow and together they said, "Our Queen."

The Tuatha Dé Danann, the rulers of the fay, paid homage to their queen.

They stayed on their knees until Morgana made a small hand gesture then they all rose together. Once they had greeted Morgana, they all shifted their attention to me. Most of them looked at me with expressions of thinly veiled animosity or outright hatred. One particular man who had armor made out of bark stepped forward from the group and glared at me with fury smoldering in the depth of his bronze colored eyes,

"My Queen, why have we not killed this pest? Why did you promise it hospitality ?"

Morgana calmly sat down on a throne of darkness that suddenly appeared behind her before she spoke with a cold chilling tone, "Briac, are you questioning my authority?"

The man visibly paled when he heard that, "No, my Queen. I am just wondering what your reasons were for keeping him alive."

Morgana spoke with darkness slowly swirling ominously around her ,"Information, Briac. This man holds information that could rid us of our biggest problem."

"Ours or yours?"

With that question another man stepped forward. This one had blue hair and deep blue eyes The only thing covering his muscular and well toned body were tribal looking tattoos that covered half his face before they snaked down his neck , covered the right side of his torso and terminated at his feet. Although he was standing on dry land, everywhere he walked waves of water would appear to spray anything nearby.

"We all know what this is about. You continue to pine for that human when you should have destroyed him long ago. Merlin is no longer a threat to us, he weakens himself every time he creates one of those puppets he likes to play with. I could go right now and destroy his entire city with him in it, the only reason I do not do so is because of your orders."

Morgana shifted her gaze from Briac to this new man and if I thought her tone was cold before, it was now freezing; as she spoke a cold gust of air literally froze the waves that the man was creating so that he was frozen on the spot, "Manannan mac Lir , you have been a friend to me for many years so I won't end your life right this moment but if you ever disrespect me like this again I will not be so merciful," the shadows around the man turned into spikes and skewered him in multiple locations, "Do we understand each other?"

He nodded his head weakly after which the spikes vanished, leaving him slumped over , bleeding from multiple wounds and frozen on the spot.

Morgana turned to the other Tuatha Dé Danann and asked,

"Any other objections?"