Page 13 of Enchanted By a Pirate
"Not since we've met up again, but that doesn't matter. I said I'd take care of you and I have. We'll be with your family in a moment."
Thrilled, Anna clapped her hands together. "I'm so excited." Would she possibly see her beloved parents and then, after hearing everything they told her, question everything she had previously believed? She imagined the two of them standing in the trees waving at her. Oddly enough, she couldn't picture their faces. They were strangely fuzzy, as if she had never actually seen them.
Anton sighed almost imperceptibly, interrupting her musings. Before she could understand what the sigh meant, he stopped at the tree line. His strides were so long that they had already reached the forest and he was so tall that his head rose above the treetops.
"Why don't you continue?"
"Because I don't want to destroy your home." He leaned over the forest and stretched. He held the hand that Anna was sitting on next to his head so that she could look down from above into the forest, which stretched on forever.
It was such an extraordinary feeling to look at trees from above.
It appeared to be an ordinary mixed forest. Nothing suggested any form of magic, let alone fairies. If she weren’t sitting on the hand of a man taller than a tree, she would never consider that such things truly existed. Would she really see a fairy later that day? Would she then be granted three wishes?
"Do you see? There they are. I'll set you down next to them. They'll be amazed you're back." With those words, Anton lowered the hand she was sitting on to the forest floor. An oak branch brushed Anna's head and a leaf stuck in her hair. She casually fished it out of the strands as her eyes scanned the ground in excitement. The dripping of a spring caught her attention. The sound seemed familiar, as if she had heard it before. Were forgotten memories actually coming back?
She spotted the fresh water trickling out between stacked stones and bubbling into a small spring pond. The water level was noticeably low, and there were water lilies growing on the surface. However, there wasn't a single flower next to the round leaves. Where had all the flowers gone? Weren't they in the Kingdom of Flowers?
The giant carefully placed her on the mossy forest floor. Ferns lined up around her and oaks and spruces blocked the morning sun, but Anna didn't see a house anywhere. A bunny swiftly hopped behind a bush and a chaffinch flew up into the branches of an oak tree, but nobody came to welcome Anna. This was where she'd supposedly lived? Where was the family Anton spoke of?
"Hello?"
Nobody responded.
She tilted her head back and peered up at the giant through the leafy canopy. "Toni, are you sure we're in the right spot? Nobody's here."
Anton furrowed his thick eyebrows. "I was afraid this might happen."
"Did they move?" It was supposed to be a joke, but the idea unexpectedly filled her heart with pain. Even though she still wanted to go home and have all of this turn out to be a dream, a small part of her hoped she would actually come to encounter her parents here.
The giant sighed loudly and a sharp wind swept across the treetops, rustling the leaves that then fell to the ground. "No…they're still mad."
"Mad?"
"Look who's here," Anton called out in an unusually loud voice from above into the forest. Still, no one responded.
She spun around. Nobody appeared. "There isn't… "
Anna's attention was attracted by a sparkle darting from one fern leaf to another. Curious, she crouched down. Had the pirates been there, spreading around the glittery stuff? Or was that one of those fairies? If she actually saw one now, she swore she wouldn't doubt anything Anton said. Or at least consider that it wasn't all…made up.
Careful not to scare the delicate creature — if that was indeed what it was — she slowly leaned closer and lifted the fern leaf.
And underneath stood a…
Anna's eyes opened wide in amazement.
…a fairy.
An incredibly tiny woman, barely the size of a daisy, whose wings reached far above her head and almost dragged on the ground. And they sparkled as soon as a ray of sunlight penetrated the canopy of leaves. She wore a dress of white petals that was so cleverly tailored that it could have been presented on any catwalk. Small, yellow beads formed a belt that accentuated her slim waist. She stood barefoot on the moss and herdisbelieving eyes were at least as wide as Anna's as she stared at her.
"Anemone? Is that you?" Her voice sounded melodious and as she flapped her wings in front of Anna's face, she jingled with every beat.
Instinctively, Anna reached out her hand, but the fairy didn't land on it. Rather, she kept her distance as if she feared Anna even though she had called her by what was allegedly her real name.
"I…" Anna was speechless.
Well, that settled it. She'd told herself she would no longer doubt what was happening if she saw a fairy. Well, that time had come. How could all this be real? Was this fairy truly in front of her? Just as a giant had carried her in his hand to this forest? Her heart and her thoughts both raced wildly. She needed to calm down before she went crazy. Starting a conversation was one way…
"My name is Anna and…"
