The Errand: The Queen. Leo LaFleur

      

      Leo LaFleur & Adam Oehlers

      VOLUME3

      ERRAND

      The

      The Queen

      To Kath, without whom, none of this exists.

      Leo

      For my Girls, Nom, Nova, and Vaida, and my boy Elkin, welcome to the world.

      Adam

      Leo LaFleur & Adam Oehlers

      p  

      VOLUME3

      ERRAND

      The

      The Queen

      K

      neeling down to quench your thirst,

       you notice a small insect crawling

       along the cliff of a ooling gully.

      Just below it, within the channel, a tiny, swirling current dives down to the river’s bottom:

      a fierce whirlool.

      e creature takes a ste, but loses its footing on the wet rock,

      and…

      slash…

       in an instant,

      all hoe, lost.

      Nothing to fear for me, goes yourthought.

      Now from darkness like a dream, a morning glade, a etal’s gleam…

      Lying in a small clearing, you can just make out the edge of the

      Eastern Forest on the horizon.

      e warlock’s gates are two days’ journey behind you and his ghouls have given no sign of chase.

       You’ve awoken with the dawn of the third day feeling refreshed.

      Preare yourself with vigor.

       e Queen of the Fairies is the most owerful being in the Eastern Forest—with bush, branch, and leaf all bending in her favor.

      You must not, in any moment, forget this truth.

      Now on with you, and quickly—the road is long to the queen’s Forbidden City at the heart of forest.

      As your ace quickens, your hand brushes the bag bearing the queen’s ackage, reminding you of your urose and the warlock’s directions.

      Reaching into the bag, you wra your fingers around a small, cold, rounded bottle filled with magic—the shrinking otion.

      A wondrous shiver travels along your sine as you down the elixir on the move.

      Disaearing into the trees, you can feel the elixir take effect so quickly that in an instant your feet no longer touch the ground;

      and at a thimble’s size you

       dro from waste height and

      lummet totheearth.

      Gather yourself, and be quick about it.

      You’ve entered Fairyland, and all of the creatures of this world are now visible to you. And worse yet— you to them. It is an uncertain task, but since you’re here… well, you don’t even know how to get big again if you wanted to.

      Move.

      Climbing the stem of a flower, you half tumble, half caer off the first leaf that resentsitself.

      With a single bound, you are unintentionally carried ast the width of six large trees, landingalmost gracefullyato the drooing sag of a tall iece of lily grass.

      Extraordinary?

      Yes.

      But this is not the time for awe or wonder.

      e queen has placed a great magic around the forest, guarding it from unknown visitors, and the longer you stand in one spot…

      Run—and do so for your life.

      You find yourself lunging through the undergrowth of a sea of flowers— a forest within a forest.

      Here resents your first real challenge.

      Sringing u from the ground all around you— growing from seed to full height within an instant—are daisies. Hundreds of daisies.

      It would aear their urose is to fling you u and out of the forest using their yellow button-tos as launching ads.

      Your legs start to wobble.

      Remember your family. Focus your mind.

      ough fear is great for small in size, a dawn has srung with srightly eyes;

      with courage one may

      find their strength far greater than theirstature’s weight.