Page 45 of Chased By the Fairy

Not in time, at least.

Either he married Miss Mole or Greta’s farm would be destroyed in the spring.

But I know she wouldn’t want me to do this.His mother wanted him to be happy. If she was aware of what he was doing, she’d be so disappointed that he’d chosen to be selfless.

She’d told him she could survive anything, but Sorrel didn’t know how he’d be able to live with his regret.But she’s already hurting.He could imagine her weeping over his disappearance.

He wanted to bury his face in his hands.No matter my choice, I’m hurting her.He could stay out of her life but surrender his own in order to keep her and the farm safe, or he could risk going to her to ease her loneliness, and watch the farm she had built her whole life be destroyed.

“Well, if you don’t want to go to the prince, why not come with me? We can leave here,” Sunny offered, his hand curling into a fist. “I can take you anywhere. Far away from all the flower and animal fairies of this forest.”

“P-pardon?” Sorrel rasped out, surprise causing his brow to crease.

“You’re beautiful.” Sunny’s feathers ruffled, seeming to puff around his head. “I would never hurt you, never do anything you wouldn’t want. I could take care of you, keep you safe, and fly you wherever you wanted to go. We could avoid winter forever, and always live in spring and summer should you choose it. There are other, faraway lands.”

“You too?!” Sorrel bit out, swiftly getting to his feet to get away from him. “Everyone wants me, but no one seems to care what I want.”

“I-I meant as a friend!” Sunny exclaimed, rising as well. “Well,mostly.But, if you can’t go back to the human for fear of the mole, and don’t want to be with the prince, then I am offering another solution. There could be another fairy you like, maybe in a different field.”

“No! I can’t do that to Greta. I can’t take that risk.” His hands trembled as he stared down at them, wishing he wasn’t faced with the path he was being forced to walk. “Even if I don’t love Miss Mole, and I know my future will be bleak, I have to do this for her.” Then he wrapped his arms around his midsection. “If you see Cypress, tell him to stop searching and that I hope he has a happy life.”

Even if it was without him, Sorrel still wanted him to be happy. He’d shown him one night of happiness. He would forever cherish it, and would never regret it, even if thinking back on it pained him.

“Your name, it’s Sorrel, right?” Sunny reached for him while rising to stand, but Sorrel stepped away even further. “Don’t do this. We can figure out another way.”

“You should leave before the burrow sprites discover you here. Go back to your flock or whatever it is you do. Please, just leave me alone. I’m tired of being chased and taken against my will. At least I’vechosento do this.”

Not that he wanted to make this choice.

Then Sorrel pushed past Sunny to walk down the dirt wall’s path so he could go back to the city. He had to prepare for his wedding, which was in a few short days.

He just wished his throat would stop feeling like someone had strapped a collar to it; one that was too tight and choking him.

Occupying one of the rooms at a bird sprite town, Cypress chose here to rest while he waited for more information, answers, orsomethingthat would give him direction. It was a place filled with nest-like homes that any flying sprite could occupy, and a place he could venture without suspicion.

After weeks of searching without direction, going to every sprite town he could, Cypress had come here after hiring a couple of the sprites to help him search for Sorrel. Bird sprites were some of the few who didn’t dislike flower fairies, and they often helped to train their riding mounts.

A few mercenaries were looking high and low for Sorrel as much as Cypress was, listening out for any rumours of his whereabouts. They were faster, able to cover more ground, and the ground sprites weren’t as wary of them and more willing to talk.

They’d found nothing.

Every day, Cypress asked everyone he could about Sorrel, flying further and further until he bordered the next flower fairy kingdom over. He’d checked every hole, every hollow branch, every mushroom home, and the beautiful man he sought was nowhere to be found.

With an annoyed groan, Cypress continued to pace in his nestroom, the twigs and sticks shifting as he circled it. The bed was only made of fluff and feathers, but that didn’t matter. It was warm.

Winter is almost over.More and more, he feared he’d find Sorrel after the snow had melted away from his corpse. That, or he would never come to know what happened to him at all because something ate him.

Shit!His hands shook as he looked down at them.Where the fuck are you?The fear was strangling him.

Despite this, he glanced out the small window. The sun was just starting to rise, and he didn’t know where he would begin his search today. There was no drawn map of the kingdom, so he had to plan out in his mind everywhere he needed to search.

But he felt like he’d already searched everywhere.

Perhaps noteverywhere, but there were places he couldn’t even step inside of without causing an uproar. Places like the underground cities.But what if he’s in one of them?He’d already tried to sneak his way inside one, but he’d been spotted before he even got a chance to step into the central part of the burrow town.

And there weredozensof burrow cities all throughout the forest. He could spend days – weeks even – searching each one for information.

What gave him faith was that if he was in an underground town, Sorrel would emerge, safe and sound, once the world was no longer a desolate, cold wasteland.

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