#andy wright

Art by ANDY WRIGHT

Panchiko - That One Time a Girl Sang and Saved The Galaxy (Ferric Oxide - Demos 1997-2001, 2020)

“What if we just left? If we all just went now on foot we’d probably find Ardri and Sam way before these guys come up with a plan. If they ever do.” Bran cocked his head and looked at him, thinking. “Well,” the crow said slowly. “I don’t think they’d actually let us leave. They’re a lot more observant than they seem, and they’d definitely get angry if we just did what we wanted instead of waiting for them to decide the right course of action. But... you have a point about how long they’re taking. I don’t see what we can do about it though.” Oliver lay back against the mossy rocks with a sigh of resignation. He might as well relax as best as he could if they weren’t going anywhere for a while.

Natalie Imbruglia - Leave Me Alone

In no way had he been expecting them to end up arguing with Giants about the best course of action. They’d come to the place where the colossal Faerie creatures met whenever they woke, because Rienna had said that if any were not sleeping, they might be called upon for aid. Instead of simply one Giant, they found all of them. Faerie was vast, perhaps even eternal, and yet there were only 17 Giants in existence. To call them giant was not enough to truly describe them. Big enough to sit among mountains and still have their heads rise above the peaks. Yet they were not like many human stories that concerned giants. They were not ugly or foolish, they did not keep gold laying geese nor mystic harps that played music of their own accord, they did not waylay travelers or eat unsuspecting children. No, the giants were as beautiful as any Lord or Lady of Faerie. Elegant and dreamlike, as if the very land had claimed them as its own, as part of the horizon’s beauty, not to be questioned by mortal conceptions of appearance. And their thoughts were strange to most Folk, they were concerned with only that which was as all encompassing and great as they, and could hardly conceive of anything lesser or more mundane. Some spent eons calculating numbers of inconceivable sizes, reaching for ever higher infinities. Others thought of eternity and immortality, or of Love and even Death. To them the world was merely history, a sweeping array of great deeds and cruelties, of rulers and crowns, of triumphs and defeats. The place where they met was a sea of blood red waters that glowed softly from below, and surrounding the sea were a chain of mountains that had been carved to make them a ring of thrones they could rest upon as they spoke. In the center of the sea, floating high in the air above the waves, there was an island of stone. Those who wished to speak to the Giants could stand upon the windswept grass of that lonely isle and say what what they wished. It was not certain that the Giants would ever truly understand what even other Faeries spoke of, but they would listen carefully just the same, and ponder it with the very same seriousness as they did all things. For four days they’d been here and Rienna had discovered that while the Giants agreed that the events happening were important enough for their attention, they did not necessarily agree on what must be done. Rienna wanted to drive the armies that ravaged Faerie’s wonders back into their prisons, or better yet into another world entirely. If they could not be saved, and could not be killed, then they should be cast out so that no others were hurt by them. Surprisingly, the Giants disagreed. They spoke long and often of cycles that repeated, wounds that did not heal for millennia. How to end the destruction without causing it to come again in the future? They weren’t the only ones who had come to speak with the Giants. A small group was there as well. Three humans and an old, powerful Fae who Bran learned was the King of Summer. When he spoke with the humans he discovered that they knew Ardri, and two had come from the Human world with him. The other human was the one he’d traveled with for a time, who had taken the form of a heron, and had given him the lantern. He learned her name was Ellie, and that she bore the Crown of Summer. The other two humans were Oliver and Andy. In truth they had come to ask the Giant’s aid in getting quickly to where Ardri was sure to be waiting for them, but they too had found that the Giants were unwilling to simply bear them forth without discussing at length whether it was for the good of all if they were to rejoin Ardri or if their path to save Faerie lay elsewhere.

“We’re wasting time! Where can they be?” Nod the Satyr and the Lord of Autumn watched impassively as Ardri paced back and forth in the nearly empty meeting hall. There were still one or two minor city officials who remained in their seats, but most of those who hadn’t been captured in the initial attack on the city were out seeing to its ongoing survival and defense. Sam had claimed one of the seats reserved for the city lords as his own and no one dared to tell him no after catching sight of Ardri’s warning look. It had been several days and still the others hadn’t arrived. Oliver, Andy, Ellie, and the King hadn’t been seen anywhere, nor the ship they were supposed to have come on. The Lord of Autumn had suggested they send a message to the giants to inquire to their whereabouts, while attempting to dissuade Ardri from heading back himself. “The very reason you came this way was due to the need for haste. You must go forward, not back.” Ardri agreed reluctantly, though he still didn’t like the idea of leaving until the others arrived and he knew they were safe.The wilds of Faerie weren’t safe, but they hadn’t been going far, and they had the King and Ellie with them, they should have been well protected. In the end it was decided that Ardri and Sam would stay for a few more days, attend a feast the citizens were putting on in honor of their “savior”, and then begin the journey to find the Winter Court. In the meantime, someone would be sent to find what had become of Ardri’s human friends, the King of Summer, and the bearer of the Crown of Summer. As he was leaving, Ardri remembered Sam’s questions about the crowns and stopped to speak quietly with Nod. “Do you know the origin of the first three crown in the cycle? Star, Moon, and Sun? Or can anything be found of their history?” The Satyr paused, thinking. “There is a ballad, or so I’ve heard. Sadly, I do not know the tale myself, but I will see if any can be found that does know it.”

It was beyond the sea with black waves that they found the Autumn Court waiting for them. In the ruins of a massive city still smoking and crumbling. The Phoenix landed and faeries scrambled out of their way, staring with unabashed curiosity as Ardi slid from the bird’s back and turned to help Sam climb down. They were met by Nod the Saytr, who greeted Ardri with much joy and embraced him. Though really it had been only a short time since they’d parted, Ardri felt that Nod was somehow much older, his eyes sad, his shoulders drooped beneath a greater weight. “And who is this?” asked Nod, turning to Sam with interest. “A servant? Perhaps a toy?” Ardri felt himself stiffen. Perhaps once before he might have found such a question ordinary, normal even. But now... he’d seen how the humans lived. Their wonders, their questions, their hopes, their fears. He’d met Oliver, Andy, and of course, Sam. And there had been others too, others with lives that they deserved to live, lives that didn’t touch upon Faerie. “No, he is my friend, my companion, and is very dear to me though I have only known him a short while. I have sworn an oath that I will do what I can to protect him and those others who came with him to our world.” He met Nod’s eyes and the Satyr looked stunned for a moment before he was bowing and smiling, both to Ardri and to Sam. “My apologies, I meant no offense to you or your friend. If you are hungry we might offer food and drink, as well as baths to wash away the dust of your travels. Then, the Lord wishes to meet with you again. He wishes to bring you to the one who bears the Crown of Autumn,” he paused to glance at Sam. “Another human.” Ardri nodded, there was no point in getting angry. Many of the Folk viewed humans as lesser, as merely toys or insects. It was a common enough view. “Both, I think, would be welcome. And set someone to watch for sky ships, we have more friends that are some ways behind us.” This was accomplished in a very short time as Nod called over a guard, a Dryad who smiled kindly down at Ardri and Sam through the tangled weave of her dark green hair. Once she’d heard what they wanted, she agreed pleasantly and ordered two more guards, clearly she was a captain of some kind, to fulfill the duty. This finished, Nod led Sam and Ardri off through the city till they reached areas which were largely untouched. Clearly the dark armies simply hadn’t cared enough to raze everything to the ground, only targeting the palace and the richest public areas. Residents had opened their doors to the refugees and offered them food and clothing and shelter, despite the state of their city and the disappearance of their Emperor and Empress. Sam and Ardri found themselves being bustled into the home of an incredibly fat and grandfatherly elf, who immediately took to Sam and began chatting amiably with him about the Human world and people and places he’d met there. Food was provided, safe enough for Sam to eat even here in Faerie, and Ardri forced himself to relax. He’d hoped to feel safer, more at ease. He once had felt that way among the Autumn Court. But it was as if seeing how dangerous the Faerie world could be for humans had opened his eyes to how dangerous and cruel it could be even to the Folk. Smiling and nodding along to the conversation, he couldn’t stop his eyes from darting every so often to the slowly darkening sky outside the windows.