Read The War of Odds for Free Online

She saw that Sara was awake and staring blearily at the TV as she entered. Smiling, she handed Sara one of the soft drinks, and said, “Hi, are you feeling better now?”
    Sara grinned. “Yeah… a lot, actually. I’m sorry I conked out on you guys. I don’t know what came over me.” She took a drink from the can and looked around. “Where’s Nate?”
    “He needed to head home but, you know, I was thinking that maybe, if your dad says it’s okay, we could head down to the Full Moon tonight?   It’s a restaurant where a lot of the kids go to hang out on school nights. I bet there will be a pretty big crowd there tonight, after what happened this morning,” Chloe grinned and added, “also, Nate works there.”
    Sara blushed. “He seems really nice. Are you two…?”
    “… An item?” Chloe finished Sara’s unspoken thought. “Nah, we’re just friends. We’ve been friends since the fourth grade and, although I think he’s pretty hot now that he’s getting past the geek stage, I don’t think either one of us are interested in anything more, you know?” She studied Sara’s face for a moment. “I think Nate might feel differently towards you, though, especially after what you did for him.”
    Sara shook her head. “Really, I didn’t do anything! I think that there was just a lot of blood, and we both thought it was worse than what it was…” she stopped, staring at the floor in confusion as the memory of Nate’s arterial blood spurting out of the deadly gash in his arm surfaced   again in her mind.
    Chloe watched her new friend’s face for a moment and then said, “Okay, fine. He’s all right now. That’s what matters, right?”
    Nodding gratefully, Sara stood up and said, “Wow!” as the room swirled around her.
    Chloe grabbed Sara’s arm and said, “Hey, are you dizzy? Sit down for a minute. I think my mom should have a look at you… she’ll be home in just a few minutes.”
    For a moment, it sounded as if Chloe was a million miles away and then, with a rush, Sara was back and staring up at the tiny girl with wings who was gazing back down at her with concern.
    “No… no,” Sara smiled. “I’m fine, really! Just stood up too fast, I think.”
    She did feel good, suddenly, as if the nap she took had healed what ailed her. She was also happy and hopeful for the first time, in a long time. She had found a new friend it seemed, and maybe even a possible new boyfriend…
    She grinned, gave Chloe a spontaneous hug and said, “I would love to meet up with you later. How do you want to do it?”
    The two young women smiled at each other and made plans to meet later, at the Full Moon cafe.
     
    *
     
    Time moves differently in the fairy realm than it does for humans. Sometimes it whizzes ahead, like a firefly in the dusk, tripping merrily through dances and balls, revelries and dizzy excess, ever nimble, easily forgotten.
    At other times, time condenses and trickles slowly, like honey from a tipped pot. War, disease, anger and grief could, and often did, paralyze elves and fairies, pixies and pooks, bogeys and bodachs, like flies in amber.
    While Chloe and Sara planned their first night out together as friends, Sylvan, Pollo, Hissaphat and Muriel, the wood nymph, sat together within a ring of toadstools and talked about the dark magic that was beginning to permeate the land like a noxious, inky shadow.
    Muriel was a witch and a healer. Although she was quite old, as nymphs go, she was still as green as a new leaf, and her cobweb hair caught the sunlight in glittering flashes of silver and gold. Her large, amber eyes stared out at the world with cool detachment, and her beautiful brown lips were, more often than not, turned down in a grimace of disgust or annoyance. It actually hurt Pollo’s eyes to look at her, so he kept his face averted in respect as Sylvan asked the nymph what should be done about the newly discovered human witch.
    Muriel was not overly fond of human beings. They were