Chapter 10

Nothing can be worse than Mr Toad and his dancing club. That's what Sorrel had thought, at least.

He didn't know if being stuck in a cage for the rest of his life would be any better.

Sorrel attempted to tug down the deep-navy jacket covering his white long-sleeved shirt, finding it a little tight. Considering his new captor, Jeffers, was the one who had given it to him, he was surprised by its quality.

It looked similar to the remarkable clothing that Sorrel had admired on Cypress' body.

His pants were the same colour, and both were soft and silky, almost like the delicate fabric would break under his touch. His shoes were black, matching the long tie running down his chest.

As usual, his hair was tied back, but Jeffers had asked that two braids be added to the front. He constantly pushed them behind his ears.

I think he wants me to look more like a bug.

For the first time in his life, he felt wonderfully dressed.

When he'd been first told to don the clothing, he'd thought, I wish Cypress could see me like this.

What he'd worn with Cypress in the town was terrible in comparison to this, disgraceful even. Sorrel would have looked so out of place with him. Still, a mild smile curled his lips as he remembered dancing with him and each heated kiss.

It was still the best night of his life, even if it ended up turning out so horribly.

Even his ‘cage' was nicely decorated.

Within Jeffers' rather large establishment were multiple small nooks, with broken, uncoloured glass being utilised as wall-sized windows. There were multiple nooks on many floors. Inside them, Sorrel and dozens of others were trapped.

Jeffers' establishment was some kind of menagerie for the odd. Although a few people paid to leer at his special collection, mainly Jeffers was the one who walked around and admired them all just past the safety of the glass separating them.

How long have I been here?

It felt like forever.

He looked around his nook. He thought the fairy lights above had been turned off perhaps four times – maybe more, as he hadn't started counting straight away.

They illuminated a floor softened by fur hides, feathers, and colourful cloth. His bed was made from a walnut filled with cotton fuzz, and there was a lounge formed by some kind of mossy log.

If the space wasn't so narrow, he may have used the walnut and the log to smash his way through the glass, but he couldn't get enough of a swing to do so.

At least it was warm, since winter had fully come.

His gaze slipped to the butterfly sprite trapped across from him.

Her wings were two colours, making her appear to look like different species. Her left was bright orange with black lines and yellow dots, while her right was blue with black lines and purple dots. Apparently split wing colour was a rare phenomenon in butterflies, and even more so in sprites.

She was small, even in comparison to him. She must have only stood to his chest height, but she had quite the large personality.

Despite having been stuck in her pretty cage since spring, she constantly shouted at Jeffers from behind her glass, bashing on it, demanding to be let go.

Sorrel had already given up doing that, as he wouldn't waste energy on something that mattered naught.

Instead, he rested back on his moss chair, and stared up at the lights with a listless, hope-fading gaze.

"Why do you not fight?" Serenity asked from across the way.

Who she was talking to, nobody knew. Likely, all of them in their nooks.

To her left, Sorrel occasionally peeked at a male albino squirrel sprite. How Jeffers had managed to capture such a large sprite was impossible to imagine, and his nook was more fortified than Sorrel's.

To Serenity's right, a pink grasshopper sprite barely moved, as if they had given up.

"What point is there in fighting?" Glay, the squirrel, said. "If I can't get out, what hope is there for you smaller animal fairies?"

He had a good point.

"There must be something we can do," she whined. "He's even violating the treaty by keeping a flower fairy."

"I'm not a flower fairy, remember? I can't use magic," Sorrel rebuffed, letting his head roll to the side so he could look at her. "I'm not even an animal fairy."

He was an ugly freak, apparently, as Jeffers and many of his patrons liked to sneer. That had been hollowing over time.

At least the animal sprites received compliments for their differences, whereas he was apparently useless, colourless, and boring. Perhaps that was what truly crushed his spirit as time passed.

The only thing battling it was how Cypress had called him pretty. Beyond pretty, actually. As if his beauty transpired this world and into the next in his eyes.

Sorrel rolled over into a ball, giving the glass and everyone else his back, when a cold pang radiated around his heart.

A boom vibrated the atmosphere, as it had many times this day, while the trickling of water and the patter of rain sounded outside the walls. It made him feel all the more miserable.

Sorrel lost hope when he'd learnt that flower fairies usually went into hibernation during winter. There was no use for them since the world froze. No plants needed maintaining, the winter season cold and barren.

He isn't looking for me. Nobody except maybe Greta would be.

She'd never find him. No one would.

Those who came here did so infrequently, and they were who Jeffers explicitly trusted.

Each day in his cage took more and more life out of him. The first day he'd fought, much like Serenity. The second day that waned, but he still cursed behind the glass.

By today, the fifth possible day, Sorrel's enthusiasm had completely died. The boredom killed his hunger to move, and already he was turning into the pink grasshopper that did little but stare pitifully at the wall.

He missed the sun, the warmth, the sky. He missed looking out his window at the stars. He missed Greta and the motherly way she held him in her warm, wrinkled hand.

Another boom sounded, the thunder reverberating. The tree shook as an unusually heavy gust of wind caused it to creak and twist. If only that was enough to break or dislodge the glass so they could escape.

Sorrel flinched when a droplet splattered on the ground next to him, then tiny flecks of wetness sprayed the back of his neck.

He turned to look at it, before eyeing where it had come from above. A crack at the corner of his nook leaked, as if the bark had peeled partially away due to the rain. No light shone through.

Another droplet fell, and he scrambled to his feet.

Once more, he looked up at the fairy lights. The ceiling glistened, and he realised it'd been glistening for a while when he thought it was just the reflection of the lights.

Walking over to the wall, he touched it and it felt mushy. Then he jumped, only using a small amount of his bouncing power, and shoved at where the water was coming from. Although soft, it was obvious he wouldn't be able to break through it. The minuscule crack looked fairly new.

His gaze shifted to where he saw more water trickling against the ceiling, and he stepped back when he noticed the floor was saturated. It'd run across the roof and then split against the edges of the glass keeping him inside.

They were usually fed through the small hole next to it. It, too, was wet.

Sorrel walked over to it, a small puddle sloshing around his feet, and he touched the wood between the hole and the glass. It was mushy and soft.

Is this my chance?

With optimism rushing through him like the billow of a flame, he pushed on the glass keeping him trapped. It didn't budge, but it did wiggle ever so slightly – more than usual.

After ramming his shoulder into it a few times, gaining the attention of Serenity, he dug his fingers into the softened wood between the feeding hole and the glass. A thin chunk broke off.

His lips parted on a silent gasp as he looked down at his hand in surprise. He couldn't believe a piece actually came off.

His eyes slowly drifted up to Serenity, whose gaze narrowed on the wood he was clutching.

Then he was in motion, clawing and ripping at the bark. It was slow as he dug around one side of the glass, only pausing when some of Jeffers' guards roamed the level they were on.

As he tried to weaken the wall, Serenity and Glay, the squirrel sprite, came to watch. Even the little pink grasshopper sprite appeared to have more life as they also watched.

His finger poked through a small gap, wiggling for freedom. Once he was able to get his fingers through, he gained the ability to rip off larger chunks until he'd made a decent hole.

"Now bash on the glass," Glay quietly demanded. "Digging will take too long. Hopefully you can dislodge it."

Doing as instructed, Sorrel rammed his shoulder into the glass with all his might. It wiggled and shifted forward. He did it repeatedly until the glass twisted where they had locked him in from the outside and he stumbled forward into the space within the middle of their nooks.

On his hands and knees, he looked up at all those trapped.

"Free us!" Serenity demanded.

"Quiet, you fool," Glay snapped out with a whisper, hissing at her through his teeth.

Just as Sorrel was getting to his feet, heart stammering at being free, Serenity bashed her fist against the glass. "Don't you dare leave us!" Then her feelers lowered as if in dejection as she added, "Please."

Sorrel didn't know how to help, but he eyed the area for something sharp or hard. There was nothing.

He bolted for the entrance that led to a staircase to a lower area, having seen what was below him when they'd carted him to his cage.

"Coward!" Serenity yelled.

He made sure the space in the next area he entered was clear before stepping into it. Inside were gems, crystals, and coins that Jeffers had collected, all standing on little platforms.

Grabbing a silver coin, the weight of it rather heavy due to its size, he ran back up the stairs. Then he ran to the squirrel's glass.

"Can you help free everyone?" Sorrel asked as he bashed the edge of the coin against the glass. It cracked.

"Yes. If I have room to move, I should be able to break everyone out."

With a nod, Sorrel bashed the coin again, and the crack split further. Since Glay worked to free himself now that there was a chance to, Sorrel broke Serenity out as well.

"We have to be quick," Sorrel stated, knowing the sounds he was making would soon cause alarm.

"I thought you'd abandoned us," Serenity said with a relieved sigh once she was freed.

"I may be wingless, but I'm not a coward."

Just as Glay was free, and Sorrel was helping the grasshopper, Jeffers and his gang exited the staircase leading higher.

"Fuck," Jeffers spat, seeing so many angry eyes upon him. Then he bolted away.

The guards remained, acting as a barrier that was quickly destroyed when Glay used his larger body to barrel his way through. As a group, they freed everyone before making their way outside.

Or rather, everyone else did.

More guards appeared behind the group of escapees, more than Sorrel thought possible.

Someone grabbed his arm, and he was pulled into an area that all the other quickly fleeing sprites ignored. They wanted freedom – that's all they cared about.

Ripping the coin from him, Jeffers flung it down and snarled at him from within the dim light. It clinked along the floor before settling. "You! You did this."

Horrified, Sorrel's eyes widened when he pulled out a baton from under his wings. He'd never used it on Sorrel, since he'd never needed to, but Sorrel had heard Jeffers be rather cruel to other sprites.

Before he could swing it, Sorrel tackled him around the waist and slammed him to the floor. Straddling Jeffers' waist, Sorrel fought to get the wooden baton away from him. Once it rolled away, he leaned back and punched the beetle sprite in the face twice.

His black, buggy eyes rolled from just two hits, and Sorrel used that as his opportunity to get off him. He ran, taking the chance at freedom while he could, instead of meting out retribution.

He didn't want to still be here if a guard came.

Which was wise, as, when he was almost to the staircase that led higher, two came from the stairs of the lower levels. Sorrel sprinted, using all his strength to get away.

Light up ahead was accompanied by fresh air. Cold, frigid air that felt like razors across his skin when he escaped into it.

The area was quiet, all the escaped sprites gone.

He was alone.

Shit. I was hoping someone could help me get down.They likely thought he'd already gotten away, not realising he'd been dragged off to the side.

He sprinted to the edge to find he was a long way up. He couldn't jump it, not if he didn't want to fall to his death.

Movement from behind made his heart clench.

Staying in this damn tree was worse. Despite the danger, he started climbing down the side of it, using the creases of the bark to help him stay gripped to it. He was scared, but there was nothing else he could do.

He used his anger to fuel him for his long climb downward, rage and adrenaline burning in his muscles. It also warmed him, flushing the back of his neck as tingling energy flooded his blood.

Damn the toad, damn the beetle, and damn everyone else. Sorrel would find his own way home. He didn't need anyone's help.

The moment his feet touched the safety of the ground, after nearly slipping during his descent multiple times and almost falling to his death, the temperature plummeted. He sunk all the way to his calves into snow.

Then, just in case Jeffers came after him, Sorrel chose a random direction and ran as fast as he could, even though he had no idea if he was going the right way to the farmhouse.