Natia (Part 5)

   I sat next to Percy and sobbed until I gasped for breath.   "My dearest  friend, taken!  I don't know what I can do!  She's such a feeble little thing, and she can't heal herself if she gets hurt!"   The cool night air should have helped my burning face, but it only made it worse.
   Percy patted my hand, but I pushed it away.   "It'll be alright, Natia.   We'll do something.   It's okay."
   "No, it's not okay!"   I sprung up in a passion of tears.   "She'll not know what to do!   She's so very scared and timid.   It'll harm her forever!   Why couldn't Andromeda taken me?   I would have bared it cheerfully for her sake.   As long as they didn't take my sweet dear Anakis.   I wish I had known!"
   Percy kept a steady eye on all of my actions, not speaking.   I knew he had no words to make me calm down.   I finally sat down with only a sniff.   "Andromeda will surely kill her, Percy.   I can't save her."
   I then had a sudden thought.   What must Prid be feeling right now?   "Oh, my heavens, Percy.   Think of Prid.   He's so sensitive about everything.   I must go see him."
   Percy stood and helped me to my feet.   "Would you like me to come as well?" he asked.
   I shook my head, brushing the dew off my face, for when fairies cry, we do not cry the salty tears of humans.    We cry the fresh dew of mourning.   "No." said I.   "This is not your pain."
   I went off to the tent that Prid shared with Adonis.   When I came in, Adonis was not there, and Prid was sitting on the bed, holding in his hand something that glittered in the low lantern light.   It was a tiny piece of Anakis' wing, soft pink and more perfect than the moon.   Just the sight of it made me start on another flaming passion, swearing that I'd kill Andromeda and that drunkard of a ruler Felix, too.   Prid's eye's glinted a bit, looking both tearful and angry.   I wondered if I'd be in for a lion companion soon.
   At length he spoke.   "Anger doesn't solve anything."   His voice, indeed, sounded as if he had been crying, yet now he was calm and composed.   "I miss her, but we cannot do..."   He paused for a shuddering breath.   "We cannot do anything.   She's probably dead by now."
   "But surely, Prid, you do believe we must avenge her, if she is-"   My mouth refused to form the word.
   "Yes.   But I can't.   Not today.   I feel like I must bury this."   Just then, he took out a thin golden ring, so pure and beautiful.   It had a tiny speck of coal in it.   "This is a magic ring, made by the only real people in Afriki, a part-lion tribe," he explained.   "When wedding vows are said, the coal turns into a diamond.   It was my mother's.
   "I had planned-" here his voice began to be choked with tears, "-that I might win her hand with this very ring.   I think that now-"   Prid stopped to take a breath as a tear rolled down his cheek.   " I think now it'd be best if I just buried it with her bit of wing."
   I nodded.   Prid's speech had made the tears flow even more.   There was a horrid ache in my throat where the sobs should be.   "I think...I think I'll go now," said I.   I walked over to my tent where Percy no longer was.   I sat on what used to be Anakis' cot...
   And I let it all go.