Another Moment

When Layna's head cleared and she returned to consciousness it was bright and sunny in the early morning light. How long she had been unconscious she didn't know, but outside her water spotted window she could hear the birds singing and she knew she had to be closer to Matt than she had been before, but how? The last thing she remembered was hearing him scream out, calling to her "Help me Layna, help me" he had said, and then she heard the awful clang of chains in the back of her mind and she was out cold. Now she sat there the car turned off, how she didn't know, and wondered about what she would do next. It seemed to make sense that she start the car and warm up because it had been off all night and she had been unconscious in the cold of the rain and the storm. As she reached out to start the engine, Layna noticed a single rose on her passenger's seat with a tiny scroll attached to it. Startled, she leaned over and unraveled the small piece of paper. On it was a tiny set of lettering in what seemed to be elvish. She blinked and then she read: "Saved you have been, rest you must, find your way through mud and muck. In the brush the castle lay, where only you can save the day." It took sometime for her to realize that this was much to small to be elvish handwriting and could only belong to one other creature. A faerie, no not the evil spunky sprites or devilish and deadly pixies, but a gentle faerie with hands so soft and a heart so pure that it made even the godliest of saints look devious. Layna leaned back against the seat, closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She needed to find Matt, she needed some form of direction, but it did not come. After awhile she started the car and headed out to find the nearest town. She needed to eat, it was important and she wanted to clean up. It would only take a few hours, and it would help her clear her mind. This was her logic and she drove on, a happier tune now playing from her radio. "I will find you Matt, if it is the last thing I do I will find you." It had seemed like years, but in reality it had only been a few hours that he had been locked in the room with the woman who just might be the death of him. Now all he could think about was contacting Layna, leading him to her. That's why he had sent her. Isabella was one of the few faerie folk he knew of that would help him, help anyone, with no price for services. Long ago Matt had met her in the woods, he was merely a teenager then, and he had lost his way. Little did he know that the light that seemed to be guiding him was a very mystical creature, one many believed never existed in any realm of the universe. She had flown in front of him and guided him back to the small farm on which he lived, since the day after he found his way home, and when he knew of the faerie people, he and Isabella had been close. He simply had to call to her in his heart and his mind and she would be there, to provide any assistance possible. She was skeptical when Matt had asked her to go find Layna and to make sure she could get to him. He had given specific instructions for there to be a single red rose left on her seat and a clue to his whereabouts. Somehow, he couldn't understand exactly how he had managed it, he got the message out without alerting any of the guards on Daiquiri's staff, or the ice-bitch herself. God he hated that woman, and now his hatred was even stronger, more vibrant and realistic because she had not only endangered his life but the life of someone he loved more than anything. Exhausted from the events of the evening, Matt laid back against the wall and closed his eyes, he listened for any sign of Layna, he felt for her, but her energy just wasn't there at all. It was nearing morning now, and all Matayas could do to keep his emotions in tact was gently slide into the world of his dreams, or rather of his nightmares. Something big would be revealed to him in the hours to come, something that even Toran, the most powerful man alive, could not control.1