Page 83 of Enchanted By a Pirate
"She'll be where she belongs, just like you." Then she called louder, "Guards! To the dungeon with him!"
Anna opened her eyes. "NOOOOO!" She tried to grab Chris's hand, but the captain, the Snow Queen, and the space around her evaporated as if it were merely a dream. Vertigo seized her and carried her away — far, far away — until she fell onto the hard ground. Dazed, she blinked. Where was she?
31
Everything hurt as she struggled to sit up. It was gloomy, with only dim light illuminating the room she was in. Was this the cave where the fairy dust source was? Had the Snow Queen magically sent her here? As if this realization were the final piece of the puzzle, the snowflake she was still holding to her chest glowed and dissolved. At the same time, she was invaded by images. At first, they were just incoherent sequences that grew increasingly longer. They were her memories. They were returning.
She sensed the seed being blown out of the anemone by a strong wind and felt it fly over the flower meadow until a beam of bright sunlight hit the pollen seed. Warmth flooded her and she grew arms and legs as well as beautiful, iridescent wings. Her birth.
She saw herself working in the meadow with other fairies, saw how they wandered to the source of fairy dust to fill their bags, and watched the people who treated them with respect after they sowed the seeds in their fields.
They had celebrated festivals and laughed, and the fairies' laughter had filled the land with warmth, confidence, prosperity, and blossoms. They were peaceful times.
Many, many years had passed. Then she met Anton. She saw his awkward face, his shy grin, and his bright eyes when he realized that she wasn't fleeing from him like other fairies and humans. She relived their budding friendship and observed the many hours they spent together searching for adventures and exciting stories to tell each other. They had often sat on that meadow near the port city in the Kingdom of Flowers, looking out to sea, full of longing…
The giant wanted to show her his kingdom. Her heart pounding, she relived the escape from the angry giant and the subsequent encounter with the captain, her first encounter of many. They had seen each other again, spending countless evenings together in the bay where they had said goodbye to each other until they kissed for the first time. Their bond had grown deeper with each passing day until there was no longer any doubt that they belonged together. Ani and Chris. The fairy and the pirate.
Then the images grew darker. Grief settled over her when she realized that the first fairies were disappearing. What was more, the amount of fairy dust released from the fountain was less than before. Panic seized her, along with fear and anger at whoever was responsible. She saw herself and Chris speculating together and traveling through Linnenberg and the port city of the Kingdom of Flowers in search of answers. At some point, she started working at Lotti's nursery because she thought she had discovered someone there whom she hadn't seen in ages and who she thought had disappeared. It was a fairy, one of the first who hadn't returned.
Calla.
As soon as the fairy's face and her brown eyes, red cheeks, and pouting lips appeared clearly, Anna gasped in shock.
Elena. Calla was Elena, the friend whom she had supposedly worked with at the nursery and drank cocoa with at Ingrid's during breaks. But that wasn't true. She had neither helped out at Lotti's, nor had she ever spent a break with her. She just thought she'd seen her there. So why did Calla, aka Elena, in Linnenberg, say they had?
The images were unstoppable now and continued to bubble up. She brought Chris the rum barrel of fairy dust as a reserve and spent the weekend with him on the Fortuna. From morning to night, they discussed what it all meant. She wanted to return to Lotti's nursery, but Chris thought it was too risky. He didn't want her to be in danger and would take apart the store with his men until he could free Calla. They suspected Lotti was the culprit but never found any proof.
She convinced the captain that it was important to tell Iris and Jasmin about her suspicions and that she would return to the nursery. She had to keep the fairies informed and warn them so that they would stay in their tree until the danger passed. He agreed, albeit reluctantly. He had never held her back, never locked her up, or refused to let her have her way, no matter how difficult it had been for him to let her go each time. She read the worry in his eyes, the pure fear of losing her. But she wouldn't be dissuaded, since she needed to solve the disappearance of the fairies — and then she herself disappeared.
And how this had come about was finally revealed to her in the lonely, deserted-looking cave of the fairy dust spring.
She had flown to Iris and Jasmin and warned them. Iris had been furious that Anemone wanted to leave again instead of hiding with the fairies. She warned her not to join forces with the pirates. No matter how hard Anna tried to convince her, Iris distrusted the captain.
Unable to convince the fairies, Anna was on her way back to Chris when Calla fluttered across her path. Calla. Whose absence she had noticed and for that reason, had started working in the nursery.
"Anemone, quickly, come with me! I know what the disappearance of the fairies and the fairy dust is all about."
"I've searched for you everywhere. I thought something had happened to you. Where have you been?"
"I was hunting the culprit, and I've found him. Come on, I have to show you, otherwise, you'll never believe me." The fairy impatiently pulled Anemone with her toward the cave where the fairy dust spring bubbled up. Alarmed, Anemone zipped after Calla, who flew through the forest as if there was no time to waste. They slipped through the tunnel of bushes into the cave and further on to the room where the basin, decorated with countless flowers, stood. Instead of flying into the room, Calla pulled her into a dark corner and put her finger to her lips.
Anemone looked around warily. What were they waiting for? Suddenly, soft footsteps sounded through the darkness. Someone was approaching. And it wasn't a fairy — they always walked barefoot and hardly made any noise. Curious, Anemone leaned forward a little further as the first outlines appeared.
"Here it is, men. Just as he told us."
"Come on, take as much as you can carry. He'll reward us handsomely, he promised."
The men's voices seemed strangely familiar to her. She would have liked to rush forward and stop the men in their tracks, but she remained next to Calla when she noticed the heavy boots, the torn shirts, and the sun-tanned faces.
Pirates.
And they weren't just any pirates, they were men from Chris's crew. The very scoundrels who had abducted her from herapartment. Who did they mean by "he" who would reward them handsomely? That didn't mean…?
Transfixed, Anemone watched as the pirates filled one barrel after the other until there was barely a speck of dust left in the well. Calla discreetly pulled her out of the corner and back into the open. Then she flew with her higher and higher, fluttering into the infinity of the sky as if the answer lay up there.
Finally, far above the clouds, Anemone found her voice again. "Calla, what does that mean?"
"The captain was merely using you. In reality, he told his men where our source was hidden. He had them clear it out while you were away. And he eliminated every fairy that got in his way."
