The Return of the Firefly (The Year Of The Firefly Book 4)

Book summary

In The Return of the Firefly, Ariel, a rebellious fairy princess, defies tribal norms to learn from an elven colony. Amidst punishment, new responsibilities, and a family crisis separating her closest friends, Ariel must navigate an uncertain future with courage. A compelling story of growth and resilience in the Year of the Firefly series.

Excerpt from The Return of the Firefly (The Year Of The Firefly Book 4)

Chapter 1

Ariel

July, Week 1

Elyon is the father. Logos is his son and creator of all things. Spirit is the giver of life. They are the Three Great Ones.

Logos made everything. Except for Man. The Three Great Ones made Man together. They called him Adam.

Balial was the leader of the guardians who Logos had made to watch over and guard everything. He didn’t like Man.

He started a war with The Great Ones, but he and his followers lost.

They were banished to Earth.

Where Man was.

Elyon, Logos and Spirit made Woman and Adam named her Eve.

The man and woman were told not to eat the fruit that would teach them about evil or they would die.

Balial tricked them into eating it anyway.

Logos killed some sheep to take Adam and Eve’s place, so they wouldn’t have to die, that was a blood sacrifice. The lambs died in Adam and Eve’s place.

But they died later because they got old.

They were kicked out of the garden Logos made for them, so they wouldn’t eat the fruit that would make them live forever.

Logos and Spirit left with them and taught them to plant food to eat and how to make fire and stuff.

They had two boys and taught the boys about what had happened to them.

The boys figured out that they also did wrong sometimes, so they wanted to let Elyon know they were sorry.

They each made a sacrifice – one was plants, and the other was a blood sacrifice.

Elyon liked the blood sacrifice, but not the other one.

So, the one son killed the other because he was jealous.

Adam and Eve had more kids. Adam lived to be over 900 years old.

When Adam died, he went back to Elyon, Logos and Spirit. Eve and his good son were also there. They all had new, perfect bodies that will live forever.

I might be able to do that too, but I’m not sure how, because I haven’t heard that part yet.

My mom might be with them.

Someday, somehow, Balial and the Man are going to kill Logos.

Ariel repeated everything she remembered about the stories of Elyon each morning before she even got up. Keeper had banished her for two weeks, and remembering the stories she had heard from her new-found friends gave her some comfort in her exile.

Stupid Keeper! But no, that really wasn’t right. She knew he was one of the smartest people she’d ever met, but oh! It was frustrating how he acted and the rest of them just went along with whatever he said. He’d banished her for sneaking into their stupid old Assembly after he’d told her not to. Dill had gotten everyone to see why she should be there, and they’d welcomed her. Okay, so not Hallow and a few others, but everyone else was fine with her being there!

Except for Keeper, and his opinion was the only one that mattered.

Stupid Keeper!

And so, her thoughts went around and round, chasing each other as she lay there on her bed.

It was past time that she should have been getting up. She could hear the other flyers moving around in the barn and talking, but still she lay, moping and brooding at the injustice her life had been dealt.

“Ariel?”

From her alcove in the cinder block, she looked over her shoulder at the young teenager standing there looking down at her. It was Dew. Behind her stood the female called Fern and two young males named Blaze and Fox.

“Are we going foraging today?” Dew tentatively asked.

Oh, yes! In her mental tirade at Keeper, she had momentarily forgotten her activities of the past few days.

“Sure.” The princess sat up and threw back the thin scrap of cloth she and her father used as a summer blanket. It was torn, filthy, and reeked of body odor, but flyers never washed things, so no one cared.

Except for her. Memories involuntarily flooded back: the spotlessly clean quilt on Basil’s bed, Rosie’s dresses that smelt of her lavender soap, Grandma Love’s crisp apron scented with the cinnamon rolls she liked to bake. The smell of leather that hung so prominently over Tanner. Basil’s home swept clean and tidy and smelling tantalizingly of whatever was cooking that day.

Here, everything was dirty and smelt of filth.

Even the four teen flyers that stood before her.

Even her.

She stretched her lean five-and-a-half-inch frame and fluttered her wings to work out any stiffness from their night of dormancy.

“Let’s go!” she said, trying to sound more cheerful than she felt.

She didn’t bother to strap on the tattered strips of cloth she used as boots. It was summer now and she, like the rest of her colony, was fine going barefooted. The girl stepped out of the hollow in the cinder block and looked around. The flyer colony were all going about their daily routines. Most of the men were gone – out on a hunting party, surely, trying to scrounge up meat for their families. The women were huddled in their small groups, gossiping and sending suspicious glances at the other cliques as they tended to their babies. Filthy, half-naked children ran around the dirt floor of the barn playing games together. Many had taken to the air, chasing each other through the beams of light spilling in through missing boards in the walls and ceiling of the dilapidated home.

And then there were the adolescents – too young to join the hunting party and too old to join their younger siblings. They gathered in groups along the walls of the barn, moping and watching with surly expressions. Life in the colony was difficult for them. The males were not taken seriously by the men, and the girls were constantly eyed as potential mates. Slave is a better description, Ariel thought to herself. Women owned nothing and were not even allowed to leave the barn once they were married. They were the last to be fed and the first to be hit. That would be her life soon enough. In nine short months, she would turn sixteen and be expected to choose a husband.

She shoved that thought to the back of her mind as she spread her wings and lifted off.

The other four youths followed her example and headed after her out the hay loft opening. The teens along the walls watched them enviously. For now, SkyKing had limited the expedition team to only his daughter Ariel and the four others. These five got all the glory for their finds, while the other teens looked on hoping one of the explorers would fall from grace and be replaced.

Some of the younger flyers tried to follow Ariel’s team, but they were called back and reprimanded by their mothers. Someday they would be allowed to go too, but they were still much too young to face the dangers that might be out there.

What dangers? Ariel silently chastised. Warm air? Sunlight? Why did her people teach their children to fear? Hiding in the barn all the time only bred fear and starvation. It was only because she herself had dared to explore that she had met the other elves in their valley and had discovered all the possibilities that were out there. And those discoveries were what helped feed their people now.

“So, in that direction are those berries from the first time,” Blaze remembered, pointing. “And the mushrooms are over that way.”

“And only eat the ones that Ariel pointed out were safe,” Dew reminded everyone. “The others can be poisonous.”

“Those trees on the edge of the field there are pecans,” Fern added. The teens grinned at each other, proud that they could remember where to find food items now without Ariel having to remind them of their locations. Fox had actually pointed out a pecan tree the day before that Ariel hadn’t identified for them. Dew had been able to recall where the strawberry patch was well enough to lead them there the day before. Ariel’s four students were quick learners and proud of their accomplishments.

“Where to today?” Dew asked.

“Let’s try that field,” their guide suggested. “Maybe we’ll find something there.”

Of course, Ariel knew they would find something. It was the field where the Weaver children had first introduced her to blueberries nearly four weeks ago. She didn’t realize blueberries were out of season now, but there were other berries in the meadow and other elven folk hunting for them.

“Look there!” Blaze pointed. Coming out from beneath a bush were a few young children. They were hopper youths, and, instead of flying like flyers, hoppers hopped. Ariel recognized them from the days she had secretly spent that spring among the other elves in their valley. It was Ezekiel Weaver with his little brother Timothy in tow. Beside them walked their friend Josiah Carver. The two older boys carried a bulging sack in each hand while young Timmy proudly hefted a sack of his own. Blaze and Fox exchanged smirks and headed down to where the young hoppers were.

“Blaze! Stop!” Ariel commanded, but the two were either already too far out of range to hear her or were choosing not to.

The male flyers alighted a few paces away from the hoppers and stared at them, hands on hips, glowering down on the smaller trio. The youngsters came to a stop, cautiously looking up at the teens who towered over them.

“What you got there?” Blaze demanded, pointing at the sacks of berries each boy was carrying. The young boys stared at the flyers, eyes wide and mouths opened.

“He asked you a question!” Fox barked, grabbing a sack from Ezekiel.

“Leave them alone!” Ariel shouted as she came in for a landing. Fern and Dew touched down behind her and watched from the sidelines. “They’re just little kids!” she angrily reminded the male flyers.

“What is this?” Fox demanded from the shaking Ezekiel, holding up a berry he’d fished out of the sack.

“A gooseberry,” the boy answered meekly. Little five-year-old Timothy started crying as he clung to his brother’s hand. Ezekiel did what he could to shelter his sibling, but being only ten, he knew he stood little chance if things got rough. He looked over at his friend Josiah. The eleven-year-old was at a loss for ideas also. Ezekiel’s eyes darted back and forth from the bullies to Ariel, wondering just whose side she was on.

“Can you eat it?” Blaze wanted to know, jerking a sack out of Josiah’s hand.

“Yeah,” Josiah answered hastily.

“Then, we’ll take them.” The aggressors moved to grab the two sacks the hoppers still held, but Ariel came between the groups and glared at her companions.

“This isn’t how we’re doing this!” she snapped. “We’re not taking stuff away from kids!”

“It’s food, Ariel!” Blaze reminded her. “We’re here to get food, remember?”

“I don’t have to listen to a girl!” Fox sneered. Ariel didn’t say anything to that. Instead, she snatched the remaining sack out of Josiah’s hand and swung it at Fox with all her might. The berries, each roughly the size of a flyer’s head, were just starting to fully ripen so were still firm. The perfect size and consistency to cudgel someone with. Fox went down with a thunk.

“What’d you do that for?” Blaze demanded, looking down at his friend who was holding his head and swearing.

Ariel planted her feet firmly, adjusted her grip on the mouth of her sack, and glared Blaze in the eye. She nodded to the dumbfounded hoppers.

“Boys, go get your sacks.”

Blaze stared at the princess, slack jawed. Every tense muscle he noted in her body was poised to take a swing if he wasn’t compliant. Josiah came up to him, and the flyer reluctantly relinquished ownership of the gooseberry sack. Ezekiel grabbed up the sack Fox had dropped when he was struck. Having retrieved their possession, the boy scurried back behind Ariel.