Page 19 of Enchanted By a Pirate
His face beamed like a child's. "Truly? Finally, Anemone. I knew you could do it." Cautiously, he pressed her to him and they laughed. It sounded exactly like she remembered. Anna couldn't remember anything other than this image she had in her mind, but her inner voice whispered that as incredible as it all sounded, the two of them were speaking the truth. She originally came from this land. She hadn't seen herself as a fairy and she couldn't truly believe she was one, but she knew her home was in this magical world and not the other one in which she had been trapped for years. Exiled, so to speak.
Hope and a sense of belonging that she hadn't felt in a long time flowed through her. She would remember — of that much she was certain. And now it was time to find out what had happened back then and why she had given fairy dust to the pirates and what the captain had done to her afterward.
8
"I'm glad you remember, Anemone. Do you recall how we met?" Anton looked at her expectantly.
She would have loved to tell him that everything was back, but there was still nothing more in her head than the one image of the two of them by a waterfall. But she clung to those scraps because the rest was stuck in frightening darkness. She shrugged apologetically. "Unfortunately, no. Would you mind telling me?"
A laughing look crept into his eyes and he took a deep breath. "Once upon a time…"
Margerite flapped her wings nervously and the jingling sounded as restless as she must have felt. "The short version, Anton. Otherwise, we'll lose too much time."
The giant looked at her blankly. "Are we in a hurry?"
"Naturally! The fairies are dying out. And if Iris finds out I'm showing Anemone the location of the source since she can't remember, she sure as heck won't let me return to the fairy tree."
Anna felt guilty when she heard the fear in Margerite's voice. Because of her, this fairy ran the risk of not being able to return to her family. Was it wrong to ask her to lead them to the source?
But Anton didn't let her worries bother him. "Well, Anemone, I told you I'm a little…unusual for a giant."
"Yes?" Curious, she looked at him. The smile that played on his lips and the light that crept into his eyes made her forget her worries.
"My kind are more of the simple sort. But from an early age I wanted to learn more and explore the world. Giants are not particularly social creatures, which is why none of my relatives noticed when I wandered off. After walking through the Kingdom of Rocks, I discreetly crossed the border to see the entire magical world."
“Discreetly?" Anna snorted at the idea, and Anton chuckled. Meanwhile, Margerite was still fluttering nervously around the two of them.
"As discreetly as a guy my size can be." He winked and the deep laugh that escaped him was reminiscent of the lightheartedness of a child. Even if they hadn't known each other before, Anna would have wanted to be his friend.
"What did you see?"
"As luck would have it, the first place I came to was the fairy realm."
"Probably because it's the easiest way out of the Kingdom of Rocks," Margerite replied, but the two didn't pay any attention to her.
"I reached a flower meadow and the scent of the flowers filled my nose. It smelled so lovely that I lay down in the meadow and fell asleep. You have to know that there are few flowers in the Kingdom of Rocks and most of them are eaten by the goats before they can properly bloom. Anyway, I fell asleep in the middle of the meadow and after a while, I was awakened by a gentle voice telling me something I had never heard before. A story."
Anna frowned. "Wait, giants don't tell each other stories?"
Anton shook his head sadly. "There is generally little talk. The children are taught the basics so that they can look after themselves as early as possible. Sometimes, I'm surprised mothers even bother to teach us to speak. And before you know it, you're lying in your cave, feeling solitary, and the only thing you hear is the snoring of another giant."
Anna swallowed. "How lonely."
"I thought so too. In any case, while I was half asleep, I heard someone narrating a story about a prince and a princess, a ball with rustling dresses, and a plot to overthrow the king."
A premonition came over Anna and a grin crept onto her face. "Was it me, by chance?"
Anton's eyes seemed to grow even larger, though it hardly seemed possible. "Do you remember?"
Grinning, she shook her head. "I still love stories about royal families the best. What happened next?"
"I listened to you for a while, lying quietly and inconspicuously so that you wouldn't stop and…"
A giant who didn't immediately catch someone's eye? "How is a giant supposed to lie inconspicuously in a meadow?"
"I'll show you." He carefully placed her in the meadow, lay down — the earth only shook slightly — and closed his eyes. Raising an eyebrow, Anna watched the giant while Margerite groaned impatiently.
"If this takes much longer, I'd rather leave, Anemone. I could get into trouble. If you can't appreciate that, you can try to settle your debt without me."
