A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Diary - 12. Scene 12

8th January, 1995

Dear Diary of the Sleeping Beauty,

I can't believe I slept for so long! I closed my eyes in Mr Stranger's car, and next thing I know I'm in a hospital bed with shape-shifter nurses asking me questions I can't understand. There were 3 of them around me, all wearing those blue hospital gowns and masks like I'm contagious and about to infect the whole country with the murder virus.

When I write it down like that, it makes much more sense. Maybe they think murder is a disease? I didn't think the rules for contact with tainted fairies applied to other non-fairies, but maybe they do?

Anyway, they tried to talk to me and ask questions, but none of their words made sense, and I'm sure it wasn't because I was too sleepy to think properly. I kept shaking my head, I wanted to ask them to speak my language because I didn't know theirs, but my lips were stuck together by my own dried saliva (it was disgusting to think about it then, it's even more so now. Yuck!). It took me a while to be able to speak.

'Fadalesh?' I asked them as a short cut to "do any of you speak Fadalesh?" because I'm sure they wouldn't understand the full sentence.

The nurses all looked confused. Maybe the word for my language in their language is something completely different?

But for them to have no idea... I mean, they must have known I was a fairy. Losing my powers didn't magically teach me a new language. How hard is it to figure out that the fairy can't understand shape-shifter language and try to get some sort of interpreter?

It's not even like there are multiple fairy languages! Sure, the regional dialects drive me nuts sometimes (I would spare even my worst enemy from having to deal with the Fableu people. One dose of their ouioui-bluh-bluh-close-my-mouth-in-a-tiny-hole-to-speak-while-being-rude-to-you attitude was enough for a lifetime!), but any interpreter from another region will be able to get the answers they want.

The nurses have been gone for a while now. Maybe they went to look for that interpreter? They didn't seem happy when they left.

And in the end, I didn't learn anything useful from them. I could tell I was in hospital because one look around made it obvious (the nurses, the beeping machines, the IV glued to the back of my hand, the smell of over-sanitised places... the list goes on). I figured they did something to me because I felt much better than last time I remember being awake. And then I saw the calendar on the wall: 8th January?! Where have the last 3 days gone?

I can't believe I slept that long. I need to ask someone about this. What happened to me all this time? What hospital is this?

The more I write my questions, the more I freak out! It's your fault!

The nurses are coming back. I can see them through the giant window next to the bed (handy view of the whole corridor, as boring and blue as it is). There's someone else with them - I hope it's a interpreter.

That someone else has wings.

Shit.

It's a interpreter alright, but not one I can speak to.