Free Bloody Fairies (Shadow) by Nina Smith

for a while,” she said. “I happened to have the opportunity to read a very, very, ancient fragment of text that led me to believe Pandora’s Box was not in fact an analogy for the dangers of arcane knowledge, or the loss of innocence, or whatever else, but in fact an actual physical object of immense value. According to what I read, the myth about Pandora opening the box was all wrong. It was a cautionary tale. The box was in fact created to hold something the ancients feared, and she guarded it. Of course I searched in all the wrong places, until I found irrefutable evidence that led me to believe Medusa was invoked to guard the treasure. I knew there was a temple to Medusa in ancient Thebes, so naturally I came here. To a sealed cave. And found you two and your acrobatic friends.”
    Pierus scowled. “You were nearly right,” he said. “We are in fact in search of the same artefact. And it is indeed hidden here.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Because I helped to hide it. And if I have my bearings right-” he turned in a slow circle. “We must be close. Now tell me young woman, what did you intend to do with what you call Pandora’s Box once you obtained it?”
    Poppy straightened her glasses. Her voice was perfectly friendly and even. “It would have to go to the museum, of course. It would be a national treasure.”
    Pierus gave a low, deep chuckle and walked on down the tunnel. “Really. So you are not down here for any kind of personal gain?”
    “I absolutely resent what you are implying,” Poppy said. “I’m trying to build a professional reputation as an archaeologist here.”
    “And what do you intend to do when the fairy and I return to Shadow with it and leave you here?”
    “Well seeing as you’re obviously both insane I’m not all that worried about you disappearing.”
    “Then you won’t mind accompanying us for the moment.”
    Hippy trotted alongside the two of them, only half-listening to the conversation. Somewhere nearby she could hear the unmistakable sound of water trickling over rock. She wandered away from them, seeking the source of the sound. The tunnel dipped down and the sound grew louder. All at once she teetered on the edge of a hole in the path. She yelped and jumped back.
    “Hippy?” Pierus called from somewhere nearby.
    “I found water!” Hippy dropped to her stomach and looked in the hole. Three feet below, a shallow, dark stream rushed past. She shuddered. She didn’t want to fall in that.
    Pierus and Poppy caught up and leaned over the hole.
    “Well done my dear,” Pierus said. “This is exactly what we were looking for.”
    Hippy beamed.
    “We’ll need to go down there.”
    Her smile vanished. “Down there? Into the water?”
    “Is that a problem?”
    Hippy scooted back from the edge. “You go. I’ll wait here.”
    Pierus raised an eyebrow. “I thought you came to help me, not sit around while I did all the work.”
    “Oh for Heaven’s sake, you two.” Poppy put her hands on the edge of the hole and dropped down into it.
    “Come along my dear,” Pierus said.
    Hippy pouted. “I don’t like water.”
    “Now.”
    Hippy heaved a sigh, stalked back to the hole and dropped into it. She landed with barely a splash in icy cold water that went right up to her waist. She screamed.
    Poppy, just a few feet away, put her hands over her ears. “Would you not do that? It echoes in here!”
    Hippy quickly hiked up her belt to keep Fluffy Ducky dry and put her arms out to get her balance. “Yuck, yuck, yuck!”
    Pierus swung himself down from the hole and slid into the water behind her. He had to bend his head to avoid hitting the roof of the tunnel. He looked both ways. “In which direction are we from the temple?”
    “Just south,” Poppy replied.
    “Upstream,” he said, and started walking against the current.
    Hippy followed him. Walking against the swift flow of the water was difficult enough to start with. The wetter her leggings and dress got, the