The Fae of Blue Bay

‘There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.’

Her words echoed inside my mind that were nearly drowned out by the sounds of the low groans of a great beast rose through the valley. The size of the beast made me realize the possibility that the mountains around us could be more of them.

Each boulder and striation was a piece of scale on the beast. Every motion rattled the ground and the trees, sending rock slides cascaded down on the distant peaks.

Mesmerized wasn’t the word for it. The sense of awe left my head empty and my heart thrashed in my rib cages like an angry cat. It was as if being dropped from on the peak of a rollercoaster and faced with the possibility of death itself

I stared as it stirred from it’s ancient slumber to answer her call from an ancient horn made from such a beast. We had searched for it for a month, scouring the West Coast museums and oddity shops for it until she found it. Then it was just a matter of the hike here which took nearly a week. My legs had long forgotten their ache at the scene.

‘There weren’t always dragons in the Valley…but their world is changing. Just as much as it has since the cities started getting bigger.”The elf spoke.

Months ago the concept of seeing dragons in the Rocky Mountains and elves that lived in little seaside towns would have had a person with a normal life and normal career running as far as possible. I thought perhaps I was destined to wear a tinfoil hat as a mad man screamed about the fairies, dwarves, elves and fantastic beasts that walked the thin veil between us and them.

Bewitched, my Nan would say.

Her cheeky smile at the boyish wonder that radiated off of me was near blinding as the long shadow of the dragon in front of us grew taller.

October was always cold early on in Blue Bay.

The harbor smell permeated the air which left the smell of a salt bog through town that wouldn’t disappear until the afternoon burned some of it away. Everything turned from a blue haze to a gray one until then. My mornings were always the midnight blues just as the sun was barely peeking over the mountains and the shops were closed save for the restaurants who only opened their eyes ready to entice the morning workforce.

My beast to feed was one of the higher end restaurants in Blue Bay. An eatery that fed some of the few with a refined palette who came for the cold seaside festivals and all the fried seafood one could want called Le Fin.

There was, however, one place that was always open all hours and Mr. Kim’s was the one place I could go to get their uniquely flavored bean water they called ‘coffee’.

It wasn’t the best.

It tasted as if the pipes they used the water for it had shed through and left a metallic taste mingled among the cheap roast.

Yes, it was gross. Yes, I could also have made it a home…but the early morning prep work needed fuel. A good helping of sugar usually made the experience better.

“Mr. Henry, good to see you! Busy at Le Fin this morning too?”He cackled a little as he packed more cigarettes into the display behind the counter.

“Always. Some of our kitchen staff have kids so…Someone’s got to cut carrots.”I rubbed the scruff on my face and down my neck. For months, I stopped shaving and when I did, it seemed to grow back overnight thicker than before.

It paired well with the bags sitting heavy under my eyes from late nights and early mornings that blurred together. I know that my ragged appearance turned everyone’s noses up, which is why I preferred working in the back kitchen.

“Well that coffee will do it! Keeps the bad spirits away in the morning, I say. It’ll even heal up that arm of yours. ”He laughed, his old yellowed teeth flashing, as he took the two dollars off the counter I left for him. His eyes always fell the the clean bandage on my arm. Always telling me his miracle elixir of a brew was the best cure all but the best it did was keep me awake and warm me a little when it wasn’t lukewarm.

I sighed out mist as I stepped back into the midnight blue and tugged my flannel sleeve under my coat a little higher with my free hand.

The street lights flickered in the mist and for the first time in a while, there was more sounds than just the sound of the heavy boots to fight off the cold and damp.

Hammering?

Down the way from Kim’s, I could see the signs of new life with the sight of the spindly legs of a ladder and a heavy-set man hammering a thick, carved wooden sign onto the side of one of the older buildings in town. Usually, other than Mr. Kim, there was only little sign of life in the twilight.

I leaned to see the name but the man’s broad shoulders blocked out half of it.

“The…”I muttered.

“The Veil and Spindle.” A sleepy woman’s voice spoke from behind me.

I hadn’t heard her step beside me and when I caught a glimpse of her, I was surprised I didn’t hear her heels on the cement. She was a short woman who barely came up to my shoulder with bright blonde hair that seemed to glow brighter under the streetlights. It was long but around her face it cropped and mischievously curled at her cheeks.

The name sounded like a novelty shop. Back East, in places like Salem or small towns, there was always that one curiosity shop of tens that sold crystals and alternative healing methods. She seemed the type and the clothes she wore resembled much of the bohemian flow of those folk. The heavy embroidered coat seemed to swallow her stature nearly to the ground.

“A fabric store? Sorry Miss but they’ve got a big chain store in the next town over…”

A smooth laugh slipped out of her and for a moment, the blues of her eyes seemed to remind me of the greener seas.

“Far from it. I’ll tell you what…”From her long, tapestry-like coat that didn’t seem thick enough to fight the morning’s biting cold, the blonde stranger produced a business card. “You can be my first client.”

I looked down at the card and saw the eye on the back of as it stared at me in the silver embossing. I reached out to take it but for some reason, I felt wary. The old injury under my shirt burned. For a moment, I caught her eyes as they flickered to it with interest.

The strange woman took my hand, slipped the card into it and flipped it over to reveal a date, October 15th and small symbol of an umbrella with a few stray lines around it that was supposed to be rain.

It was days off but conveniently, my next day off.

“Bring an umbrella. It’s supposed to be miserable.”She forewarned.

“Are you a living Almanac? That’s nearly two weeks out…”She seemed too odd to be accurate.

“Alright. Get wet…But I will see you then, Henry.”Her grin lit up the morning before she stepped away and took the small flight of stairs up to the second floor of the building. A new-old historic building that was now occupied by another curiosity, a parasite nesting in the old bones and walls.

Looking up, the short stocky man was watching me as I walked away from The Veil and Spindle, looking down at the name of the owner that glittered on the card.

Kallie M. Lee. Alternative Therapist.

Alternative Therapist? So she did run an oddities shop.

I spared a glance back at the building as the woman’s helper descended the ladder, and revealed that he was truly stout at only about five feet tall He had a beard that was thick and lusciously russet to make up for the lack of it on top. He made only a small, slightly growling noise at me before he lifted the tall ladder, snapped it closed and carried it around to the back.

I paused a moment in turning back and jerked back to look at the shop again.

How did she know my name?