Gossamer Wings: A Book of Wings (Part One)

By Cade Redwood

Haylia Thorn is a fairy hunter. Kavi is a fairy.

Their lives change forever the day Haylia catches him in her firearm’s sight. Before she can even fire, she knows that she can not kill him. There's a baby with him after all.
With a fairy in her house and his daughter to now take care of, how long can the three stay hidden? Long enough to change the world and protect faekind? Long enough to keep their new family safe?

Gossamer Wings is a story inspired by the writing of classic fairytales in the style of simple narration. Take a journey into the fairy woods of Avalon and glimpse at a world reminiscent of our own. This novella explores the magic of star-crossed lovers, and what it means to truly love someone different. See what happens when fantasy meets domesticity in this premiere book, Gossamer Wings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312195721

Book preview

Gossamer Wings

By Cade Redwood

Copyright Year: 2023

Copyright Notice: by Margaux Allen. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact [e-mail].

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Book Cover by Margaux Allen

Illustrations by Margaux Allen

The above information forms this copyright notice: © 2023 by Margaux Allen. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-312-19572-1

Imprint: Lulu.com

Acknowledgement

Thank you for dreaming,

for it creates the fantasy we love.

Thank you to those that listen to dreams,

for you are the ones that help fantasy become real.

Thank you to those that are still dreaming,

for you are the ones that help create fantasy.

Special thanks to my twin flame Gabrielle,

for you are the one who helped light the fire in me.

Special thanks to my father,

For you are the one that nurtured the flame.

Without you all there would be no dreams, no fantasy, no flame.

Chapters

Chapter One      7

Chapter Two      19

Chapter Three      32

Chapter Four      40

Chapter Five      53

Interim      62

Chapter Six      72

Chapter Seven      81

Chapter Eight      93

Chapter Nine      104

Chapter Ten      112

An Addendum      123

About the Author      125

A cartoon of a person in a forest Description automatically generated

Chapter One

The valley of the fairy lands wrapped like a snake around the safe walls of Avalonia. Beyond its iron peaks and thorny gates was a crescent of hills unlike any other. Large cedars and weeping willows overlooked the world with their gnarled loops. Perfect arches made of shimmering stone fell abandoned to the wild of the woods. It was an all-consuming landscape that was constantly hungry for another sun weary traveler to stumble through its fae doors and circles.

One such traveler stood sweating beneath the intense sunlight; her hands were wet inside her stiff leather gloves. Salty drops beaded beneath her pine-colored collar before rolling down the length of her neck and into the nape of her woolen cape. The fronds around her quivered with each heavy footstep and gave the ravenous mosquitoes a chance to feed. The forest shook awake at her approach, for she was no common traveler. Her dirt-stained boots had walked this earth before, and the forest had failed to pull her deeper into its magical embrace. It was only a few more laborious yards before she had arrived at her previously scouted spot. The underbrush was thicker here. Finally, she paused. She was exactly where she needed to be; the center of fairy country: Avalon.

The sun-worn strap of her blunderbuss slapped weakly against her outer thigh as she checked the direction of the wind. She had chosen a large bush with tall grass for shade. With its downwind position, her target would never smell her blind. The sun was unbearable here, worsened by the meager breeze. There was a stark difference between the cool climate of Avalonia and the fierce summertime of the Avalon fairy lands, but that made it easy to tell when the veil had been crossed. The real difficulty was finding the same spot twice.

The hunter Haylia Thorn made quick work of setting up shop where she was not welcomed. Luckily, the veil had not shifted in the past two days, and the same ragged hammock swung on the same tree that she had found two nights before. It was a fae camp and an unusual one at that. She had never seen such a human-like abode, but the pop of red mushrooms and fairy stones hinted at its true resident.

The hunter had returned once in two days to check if the creature was still in the area. Beneath the net, a pile of small trinkets and shiny trash had been hidden in a bush. It was a collection of bottle caps and broken picture frames; any tiny bits of metal the fairy could scavenge. It worried her how close the creature must have gotten to town to source the objects. She resolved to return and handle the issue promptly. Today was that day.

What she could not seem to forget, as she leveled her barrel and stared through the sight, was a small pinwheel she had found amongst the pile of trinkets. It had been crudely assembled from scraps of cans in the fairy’s hoard. It was a harmless toy that suggested a great amount of thought behind its construction, and she could not help but picture it as clearly as her firearm’s glint in the light of the sun.

Such a delicate spinning thing. Such an innocent creation. She swallowed hard.

This wait could be an hour, an evening, or a full day. She couldn’t risk mulling over such thoughts, for the thinking would drive her crazier than the dull hunt. She had yet to know what kind of fairy she was stalking. The difficult thing about winged creatures is that they often leave no tracks. If it was as dangerous as a banshee again, she could not afford to lose focus by second guessing.

She couldn’t imagine many banshees made pinwheels, though.

As the heat made the iridescent trees in the distance shimmer, she was nearly content to sit and watch. Then the brush north of her began to rustle. It had been mere minutes; a fortuitous turn of fate, good luck, or the blessing of Elfator. Avalon had delivered her another mount for the mantle. Her heart began to race as she bore down the line of her gun and waited for the creature to emerge. She pulled back the first of the double triggers, listening for the enigmatic click before turning the second into a hair-trigger. She had finally found another monster worthy of death.

The hunter was now totally silent. The leaves beneath her did not rustle. She lived for this single moment.

At last, the wind turned, and the leaves crunched beneath her target’s step. All that was left now was the distance of a few yards between hunter and prey. With her finger on the trigger and her heart in her throat, she prepared herself to do what a killer must.

Then she saw its auburn locks and golden eyes. Every thought that she had came screeching to a halt.

He nearly looked human.

The dappled light coming through the foliage carved thick lines across the plane of his cheek. His jawline was seemingly cut from the same stone as the riverbed, and the locks of red barely covered the otherworldly curl of his ears. He was naked, or nearly so, with just enough flora to cover the most important aspects. She could not help but stare at his wired frame. White lines trailed across his arms and back as if carefully plotted and tattooed. From each nexus, a magical bloom of plants and vines had sprouted. He was beautiful.

Her hands felt uncomfortably sweaty again as the gun weighed heavy in her arms. His eyes gradually shifted from side to side as he studied his surroundings. She could not look into his golden gaze.

No matter how he looked or how beautiful he seemed, he was still a fairy. He was a dangerous creature that would rip her throat out at a moment’s notice if given the chance. She had seen it done before with the soft neck of a newly recruited hunter. His appearance could easily be a trick of the light or hide beneath it a grotesque mound of flesh. Changelings were known for their human-like disguises. That’s what he seemed to be, at least. This could simply be what she wanted to see: a creature worthy of mercy.

She could not afford to make the same mistake twice. It had nearly cost her life the first time. She could still remember the scrape of the banshee’s claws against her.

As she fixed her aim, she imagined what it was she was actually shooting. Instead of warm skin, it was bubbled flesh and a scaly spine with scraggly fur. Instead of a delicate nose and innocent smile, there was nothing but teeth and two slits for nostrils. It had to be something wholly unlike her; something incapable of forgiveness. She leveled her gun at a mirage of a man.

With nerves steeled and sights trained, it was only a matter of time before the fierce crush of reality came down upon her a second time.

There were no scales, spikes, talons, nor teeth. As soon as the changeling finished plucking berries from a bush, he turned towards an outcropping and parted the grass without the slightest noise. A young fairy child sat before him in the brush. Her hair was as fiery as her father’s, and her eyes were as bright as sunrise. She smiled.

A raw, rough feeling burst within Haylia’s chest, her resolve wounded. Guilt overran her. She hesitated.

She watched, dumbfounded, as the infant grasped for her father’s hands, slurping up berries with purple stained cheeks. He lovingly wiped the mess from her face, speaking softly in an unknown chatter. It was as natural a scene as any human family could have. The only difference