Chapter 3

Alana felt weak, her body protesting the constant teleporting as she, Holly and Haley chased after that damned elusive fairy. As she joined hands with her two Phoenix companions to make the next jump, she felt a mild annoyance that they didn't seem tired.

"We can feed you energy, my queen," Holly offered, grinning at Alana's (by now) automatic grimace at that irritating phrase. "We pull our energy from our life force, which exists outside the physical universe. There is an unlimited supply ... easily enough to replenish you, even if you require nourishment with blood."

The vampire seriously considered her offer, her body craving food and her tongue thirsty for some thick, rich blood, but she didn't want to compromise the powerful Phoenix girls in case they were attacked. There was a dragon around, somewhere.

"We'll make a couple more jumps, then I might take you up on that offer," Alana decided.

The girls shrugged, joined hands with each other and their queen, and disappeared.

Suddenly, Alana found herself surrounded by fairies. There were at least a couple dozen, and she had evidently teleported right into the midst of them. She swatted wildly with her hands like she'd just walked into a flying ball of gnats, but that only seemed to infuriate them.

An individual fairy might weigh as much as a single leaf, but several dozen of them flitting around her eyes and pulling her backward by her hair were a considerable surprise. Alana found herself lying flat on the ground and completely unable to move her head so she could get up. In addition, several fairies were blocking her nose and mouth so she couldn't breathe.

Pulling a fairy off her nose, not really caring if she broke a wing or two, Alana found that another immediately took its place, willingly, eagerly sacrificing its safety in the effort to subdue this oversized, unwelcome intruder. Alana swatted it away, and several more landed, covering her eyes, as well.

Forcing herself to relax, Alana concentrated on conserving what little air she had left in her lungs. Once she was relaxed, she could hear dozens of voices in her mind as the irritating, iridescent creatures discussed what to do with her. Holly and Haley were completely unconscious, having been drained of their Phoenix fire by the tiny creatures. The fairies seemed upset that they couldn't rob her of her life energy as well.

It had been quite a battle, it seemed to Alana as she listened to the mental chatter. One of the Phoenix girls had flared the instant she was attacked and incinerated about fifty of her attackers. It was Holly, most likely, Alana thought, knowing how much more volatile she was compared to her sister. The fairies didn't seem upset about the loss of their winged comrades, though. And although they didn't intend these intruders to survive, they weren't filled with animosity or righteous anger. It was simply survival.

'I want to survive, too!' Alana sent out into the mass of mental thoughts. 'We are only searching for our lost children!' She added an image of the six mentally 'gifted' children she'd been forced to exile in this time period.

'They belong to us, now!' several voices chimed in response. 'You go not where they are. You do not belong and cannot follow.'

'Where have I heard that before?' Alana wondered, trying to search back to find that nagging, similar instance.

Several of the fairies following her thoughts were suddenly startled at Alana's memory of their previous encounter (a thousand years earlier in Alana's mind, but still in the far distant future of planet Earth).

'You are an Immortal, ' a chorus of fairy voices chimed in her head. At the same time, Alana felt the fairies vanish from her face. Grateful, Alana opened her eyes and drew in a deep breath. 'The Murda includes that you be returned to fulfill your purpose.'

"Wait!" Alana cried out loud. "Returned where?" In the midst of her protest, Alana suddenly realized the fairies were arguing amongst themselves.

Alana stopped paying attention to the squabble when she suddenly saw Holly and Haley lying motionless on the ground. Hurrying over to Holly, she felt the girl's neck, hoping for a pulse. There wasn't one. In addition, there was no mental activity inside the lifeless husk.

'They drained her!' she realized, then stood up and turned to the swarm of flittering fairies, rage filling her mind.

'STOP!' she commanded, blasting out with a mental command that dropped every fairy from the air. Grabbing one and accidentally crushing its wings, she angrily commanded it to restore her two friends. The fairy disintegrated in her hand. Angrily, Alana grabbed another one, only to have it turn to glittering dust as well.

'What's wrong with you?' she screamed, her need to help Holly and Haley driving her toward the destruction of the entire group of fairies. 'Help me! My friends are dying!'

Through the boiling haze of rage in her mind, Alana could feel the anger and despair radiating from the dozens of petrified fairies lying on the ground. Forcing herself to become more calm, she could pick out individual thoughts from the morass of emotion surrounding her.

'We are of the Murda. The Murda creates us to do his bidding. We feed the Murda the fire of the abominations. One escaped us before, but we vanquish it now. Its fires are consumed to give the Murda power. It and its unnatural companion are no more.'

"It is you who are 'unnatural'," Alana snarled, "stealing life from others different from you! Entire races of sentient beings have been exterminated by creatures with your narrow view of what's natural and what isn't! Who are you to judge?"

'We feed the Murda. It is our purpose to protect. Those who infect the life-force of the Murda are not permitted.'

"What the fuck?" Alana murmured. "Is this some kind of lunatic fairy religion?" She decided there was only one way to find out: 'Show me an image of this Murda of yours, ' she commanded.

The terror that swept through the remaining fairies caused another dozen or so to disintegrate, but a swift, brief image came back. The Murda was ... an egg.

"You give your lives and kill others to protect an egg?" Alana asked incredulously.

There was confusion among the fairies regarding giving their lives, but they all understood the part about killing. As far as protecting...

'We are the Murda. The Murda is us. We protect and feed the Murda. We protect and feed.'

"What about the children?" Alana wanted to know.

'The hatchling has taken them. They are to be... ' the concept didn't seem to clear, but it came out that they were to be hatched, just like the Murda.

"That is very confusing," Alana fumed. "You mean they're to have babies? Who's going to impregnate them?"

'The hatchling has taken them to a safe place, too far for you to find.'

"What is this 'hatchling'? Alana insisted.

The image she got was... 'That's the dragon that attacked us, ' Haley's mental voice whispered into Alana's mind.

'Are you okay?' Alana sent back on the same quiet frequency. 'You had me worried sick!'

'We're fine – just don't let those friggin' fairies know. We'll regenerate after they've left. Whenever we try to regenerate while they're here, they just siphon off our fire. Major inconvenience, that.' She felt Holly's nervous laugh behind Haley's mental mirth. Alana nearly collapsed at the knowledge that her friends were all right.

"That's the dragon that attacked our settlement," Alana told the fairies, relieved enough so that her mental stresses no longer kept the fairies incapacitated. "Why would it do that?"

'The hatchling felt the power of the small ones. It wanted them to make more hairless ones like yourself.'

"Why is that important?" Alana asked, realizing even as she asked the question that if someone wanted 'hairless' ones, there had to be 'hairy' ones. 'This is evolution! Perhaps Darwin didn't have all his facts straight after all.'

'The Murda demands it. It has hatched many times, seeking, waiting. The Murda feels the small ones. It demands.'

"If the 'Murda' is an egg, as you suggest," Alana asked, sitting down to acknowledge that she was no longer a threat to the fairies, "then there had to be a first Murda. Do you have knowledge of that?"

'The Murda is forever, ' sang the fairy voices in her head.

The fairies fell silent, an odd hesitancy broadcast by their myriad minds.

"So, this 'Murda' is the hatchling," Alana concluded. A faint murmur of agreement tittered from the fairies. "And Murda has wings and can fly?" Again that murmur of assent. "So Murda is the dragon that attacked our settlement? And he's looking for his mother."

'The song is not yet finished, ' several fairies announced. 'We are working on the part about the young ones who sing with their minds.'