ELO Page 8

  "What did you do??" Elo paused, grinning madly. “At first I did nothing, I was so afraid of it, it came closer. The crying got so loud, I thought my ears would bleed." Elo pounced forward and let out a shriek. Cael fell over in fright, and Bree panicked, grabbing Faelorn's hand with a gasp.

  "The wraith screamed just like that!" Elo collapsed in giggles, and Faelorn yelled at her. "It not funny, Elo!" Elo wiped tears from her eyes, "you fall for it every time!" Bree was clammy with nerves. She didn't realize that she was holding Faelorn's hand so tight that he winced as her nails dug deeply into his palm. Bree took a deep breath calming her anxiety. Elo apologized, "I'm sorry, I was just playing." Bree whispered loud enough for Elo to hear. "It's fine." She forced a smile. Elo shrugged, "you two scare so easily. I should just ask the king for your job, Faelorn." Faelorn rolled his eyes. "It not that easy; you still don't know if you saw a real witch or not."

  Elo shrugged "either way, I wasn't afraid, not one bit. My feet hurt, I was starving, and mostly I didn't want my little brother to get eaten by a wolf or a crazy woman crying in the forest. So I say to myself, well, If I'm going to die, I will die fighting. I ran at the great apparition with all I was good for, swinging me marm's broom. I even hit the dammed thing, and it disappeared. I found my little brother, he'd fallen asleep crying, hiding in a great tree's roots. I took him home, and that was that. No more witches." Bree and Faelorn exchanged looks, and Cael, having recovered from the great scare, began chirping like a monkey at Elo. He jumped at her hanging off of her golden hair, yanking. Elo swatted at him, hissing "you great bugger, git out of my hair! I was just having a laugh."

  Bree suddenly became acutely aware that she was still holding Faelorn's hand. She turned to him, nervous, and caught him staring. His eyes had changed from brown to deep green; Bree stared fascinated. He smiled shyly, giving her hand a squeeze that sent her heart pounding before pulling away. When she looked back at his eyes, they had returned to black. She took a deep breath, amazed; she hadn't known that Faelorn's eyes could change colors. Faelorn was red at the ears, embarrassed. Elo shoved wooden bowls full of vegetable stew into both Bree and Faelorn's hands.

  "Well, are you two just going to stare at each other, or are we going to eat!" Elo served herself and even apologetically offered a bowl to a pouting Cael, she continued. "Well, I've been babbling like a brook. Bree, I didn't mean to be insensitive about my story. I guess I've got witches on the brain. I'm sorry; how about Faelorn tells us a story? After all, nights about to fall, I wouldn't mind one more good story before the darkness creeps in." Bree shivered, not wanting to hear another story; the last one made her skin crawl.

  Faelorn eyes where serious, Cael perched on his shoulders.

  "There is a place in these woods." he looked deep into the fire. "Elves used to walk here, but they all left long ago. Witches, they took up in some of the ruins trying to draw from their reminiscent magic. These witches were lead by a single leader who was once a human woman who lived in the human realm. It is said that every hundred years, when the power of the moon eclipses: they gather from all the kingdoms, and they seek to summon and feed darkness so terrible that it never dies. It walks this forest, looking for prey. It is the reason bereaved haunt these woods, witches use those unfortunate souls as vessels for their familiars." Bree swallowed nervously; both she and Elo were silent; the air was serious. "This is why I protect these woods, and that is why I won't rest until I have driven every witch from this realm." Elo interrupted, "You ruined it; you're supposed to entertain, not tell more scary stories." Faelorn's brow was furrowed "I'm sorry, I thought I could do it. I can't tell stories like you, Elo. Joltrun thinks I'm paranoid, but I think the witches have returned. Their real, and they're here; it not enjoyable to even hear of it. Your story and Bree's reminds me of the troubles I face daily." He looked at Elo "Your bloody lucky that you didn't get killed by the witch that was after your brother." Elo made a face, and Bree gathering her courage touched Faelorn's arm, "it's okay." Bree noticed Faelorn was shaking, sweat glimmered on his brow. Elo grunted, "well, if a witch can be scared away with a broom, then I doubt they are that difficult to get rid of." Faelorn looked down at his stew wearily. "I'm sorry for ruining your story time Elo, once we started talking about witches, I couldn't get them off my mind."

  He got up, his face dark, and he walked towards the shadowed woods disappearing. Elo patted Bree on the shoulder. "Well, I suppose his jobs not easy, and he doesn't talk much about it. I guess telling a scary story was a bad idea, next time I'll just bake a cake and we can just eat and talk about food..." Bree drank her stew, the broth was golden with dark green herbs floating on top. The vegetables where tender and the soup was so savory that Bree found herself indicating to Elo for seconds with her hands.

  Elo glowed "well, I'm glad you like it, so, you know what you should do, you should take Faelorn's stew to him. I'm afraid I upset him. I doubt he wants to see me right now. You know I should have asked him to talk about the elves. I forgot that Faelorn has been acting strange lately. Maybe the witches are why. What a fool I'm being. You'll take it to him right, Bree? If the soups this good, he'll have to forgive me." Bree nodded, eating her second bowl, she stifled a giggle. Cael was half bathing in the Elo's bowl to her fickle disgust. Elo said rolling her eyes,"well, fairy's are messier than a toddler and deadlier than the hunter." Bree stared at the creature for a moment. She would not have believed that the fae were real, only the child part of herself ever held such fantasy. Perhaps her grandmother's story was true, and she had danced with the fae in the woods.

  After Bree finished her meal, she helped Elo clean the bowls with the water pump. When they were finished tidying, Bree quietly took Faelorn's dinner and headed in the direction she saw him leave.

  Elo stopped her, looking worried; she held Cael in her arms. Elo said, "stay in the light, you should be fine. I can smell him; he's not far. Just through the tree straight ahead." She wrung her hands "Tell him I'm sorry, I should have known better than to talk about witches. I forgot that he has trauma. Well, he hasn't had the best time with them." Bree nodded, wondering what had upset Faelorn enough to run off. Elo as if reading her mind. "He's like that flighty, nervous. Eating will bring him down, Cael will keep you safe, the woodlings are vicious little buggers." She placed the fairy on Bree's shoulder. Elo turned, opening the cupboards, she pulled out a dusty lantern. She lit the candle inside then handed the lantern to Bree " He's had this for ages. He can see in the dark, so this doesn't get used much. You take it, just in case." Elo went to the sink, pumping water into a kettle, turning to wink at her. "I think he's soft on you. You like the fae as much as he does," Bree turned red and rolled her eyes. She wanted to say, "yeah, and pigs will sprout wings and fly." Men were never soft on her; they generally hated her dress and mannerism; she was much more male than female to most of them. Bree remembered the village maidens snarling to one another, "What a freak, choosing to hunt and live alone in the woods with her daft grandmother."

  Bree pushed the painful memory away, focusing instead on taking Faelorn his dinner. She left Elo to hurry up the trail. Bree shivered; the breeze was chilly as night began to fall. Holding Faelorn's abandoned dinner in one hand, she carefully gripped the lantern in her other hand.

  She stumbled awkwardly through the woods, as the day began to slip into the night. She walked straight through a thicket of trees and up a steep incline that opened into a hillside of blue-green grass the lead into a great lake. Faelorn was neither beast nor man, but he stood watchful vines and moss growing from his green hide and horns sprouted from his forehead. His black eyes were full, Bree lost her breath. He was terrible and beautiful, like something from a pagan nightmare. An angel or a demon, she was uncertain. Why God had allowed such a creature to roam these woods was lost on her. The sound of her footsteps made him turn quickly, but when he saw her, he panicked. He hid behind a tree, and when he reemerged, he was his usual red-headed self. Bree shivered magic was something that she still strugg
led to get used to. She handed him his bowl of stew, and he took it, looking at it awkwardly, then back at her. "Thank you..." he turned back towards the rising moon and stared at the lake that lay ahead of him. He was covered in a cold sweat, clinging to a tree as if it were a person comforting him. When she looked at his face, she was put off by the saddest face she had ever seen—his eyes looked like an animal that was backed into a corner. He said, "Bree, you should not be friends with me..."

  Bree was taken aback by what he said. She had no words, and her voice was aching from all the speaking she had forced herself to do today. Instead, she quietly stood next to him, holding the lantern. Cael clambered onto Faelorn, patting his face gently as he nestled in his hair. Elo said, "This place is not for you. You should move on, become one with the herd, and when you are done grieving, let God take you home, where you can start a new, better life." Bree did not take out her paper or charcoal to write to him. He sat looking at the stars, counting them, and Bree sat next to him. He continued, " I have seen so many souls pass through these woods, as numerous as the elves that used to haunt these lands. I'm destined to stay here all of time; I am not a man anymore. I'm a creature; my job is to guard the weak souls that rest in these woods. Abandoned children, lost wives, and men who fought in wars only to be forgotten. I am… not of the world, you came from." She sat staring at his face, then out into the woods. She saw a herd of red deer grazing, and for a long moment, both her and Faelorn stood watching the magnificent creatures, the moon reflecting off their coats, making them look as purple as the dusk sky.

  He said, "This place is ageless and leads to many worlds and times, its not a place for a mere human to live here." Bree let the silence hang between them.

  Faelorn caught her look, and as if he had said too much, began stuttering, "I-I-I didn't mean to make you feel bad. It's just friendship isn't for someone like me. Elo is my only friend, and one day she to will pass into the King's Land. I just thought you should know what is best. I don't want you to turn into a bereaved. That is the fate for those who stay in these woods for too long. Only those of the fae can stay here for a long time without turning into a bereaved."

  Bree pulled her journal and scrawled carefully, handing it to Faelorn, who read aloud her words. "Are you going to eat or not?" Faelorn looked at the food that had long gotten cold. He looked sheepishly, "I suppose I should." He ate, and Bree hugged her knees. She wasn't sure why she found the woods so enchanting. After her terrible life, she was happy to be surrounded by such beauty and the fae she had daydreamed about since she was a child. Bree wrote on her scroll. "Why do you stay here, Faelorn?"

  He read her answer, pausing to think about it. He answered,"I suppose I stay because it is the right thing to. I was once a helpless child, taken advantage of by monsters, not unlike those who hurt you. I was alone, but the Spirit of the King saved me and gave me a new life. If I can master my powers, I can protect the weak and help people like you cross over….that….and. " His face changed, "and I can get revenge on those that hurt me." His eyes were cold when he said his words. She shivered; his eyes had changed from green to black when he spoke of revenge, he asked her. "Bree, if you could kill the men that enslaved you, would you do it?" Bree was taken aback. This was not a question that she knew how to answer; she shook her head and mouthed. "I don't know..."

  "Ahhh," he said, "I'm sorry, I-I am stupid. This is why it is better to be alone." As he got up and headed back to camp, he turned to her, the torch's light sharpening his wild face. He said, "I'm sorry about my outburst; things in this wood have changed. Before winter, I hardly ever saw witches. Now they attack regularly in large groups. That story I told you, nothing like that's happened in well over a hundred years. Joltrun doesn't believe me when I tell him about the attacks. He thinks I'm just paranoid and imagining the coven reuniting." He saw her worried look, and he stuttered "I-I- I shouldn't bother you with my problems. I haven't told Elo about the attacks; I don't want her to worry. I was upset by all the witches' talk; I couldn't take my mind off them. I owe Elo an apology and a story; thank you for bringing me dinner."

  Bree hopped up following him clumsily; she scrawled in her journal as she ran after him and pushed the paper in his hands. "You shouldn't be alone." He read aloud. He seemed taken aback, smiling shyly; he did not look at her as they returned to camp. When they arrived, they saw that Elo had fallen asleep. Her white hide glistened in the moonlight as the great deer lounged by the fire. Bree tread carefully, Elo opened her eyes to look at them and returned to sleep. Faelorn served Bree tea, and they sat together. Faelorn stared into the smoldering flames of the fire pit. He said, "I was going to tell a story about the elves." Bree perked up listening.

  "Before the elves left this land, they used to live wild in these woods. They could talk to the trees and the birds, and they could control nature to defend themselves against the shadows from the wastelands. Once the darkness took shape into that of a man. A leader among men, who gave himself to evil to become powerful and began to enslave beings, he deemed lesser. His ultimate goal was to twist all of nature into his own vision. All of the creatures of the wood thought that night had come forever. The evil one, he and his evil creatures would soon reign over all the land." Faelorn said this grimly.

  "That monster, he is the reason the bereaved haunt these mystical forests. He could twist the forest creatures into monsters, and he could make men go insane until their regrets and hatred turned them into the bereaved. The evil one is a monster that haunts the dark and feeds off the pain of others." Bree hugged herself, scrawling a question for him to read. He said, "is that what you do, hunt down the bereaved?"

  Faelorn stirred the embers.

  " y...y...y..yes, I kill bereaved, and I-I hunt down the witches that haunt these woods. Mainly I guide souls to the King, so that they may go in peace to the afterlife." Faelorn said leaning foward, " The evil one destroyed the wild forest twisting it using machines, evil fae, and goblins." Bree clenched her jaw stressed "Machines?" she thought. She remembered that living machines had been used to purge her homeland of life. "There used to be an entire elvish society that lived in these woods. They were a great people with the magic of the elements. They could summon and control nature bending it to their will and their God's will the Three. When the evil one invaded this realm, they and the guardian of the forest fought many battles. The elves used nature's power to unite with the forest guardian to finally entrap the evil one in their dead king's tomb. This was a thousand years ago, and a great evil was purged from these woods, never to return."

  Bree started crying a dry sob escaping her lips. Faelorn, bewildered, patted her back. "D-D-Did I-I-I say something!" Bree ignored him, hiding her face. She was trembling, remembering the machines that had torn her life apart. She thought of her dead village and her time in captivity. There was nothing left; her grandmother had been cut to pieces by the slavers that had ravaged the town. The forest had been set ablaze. She was lucky that they had let her live, though after what they had done to her; she wished sincerely that they had slaughtered her like her grandmother.

  She couldn't hear Faelorn trying to soothe her, her emotional distress causing him to change as his mouth was soon muffled by fangs and vines sprouted from his hair. A cold windswept from the forest and a howl tore into the night. Cael, who had been nesting in Faelorn's hair, squeaked nervously, leaping onto Bree in panic. Faelorn stood looking towards the woods. He changed into his full form, shifting from man to beast. His eyes black with anger, he let out a roar. Faelorn moved so fast Bree felt the wind pass as he galloped into the darkness. It was Elo's warm embrace that comforted Bree. Bree stared at Elo, her tears streaming down her face. She said, "I'm sorry…" Elo held her, "there there, little one. It's normal to cry; you lived a hard life. I would understand." Elo rubbed the sleep from her eyes; she had been awoken by Bree's crying. Bree wiped her face she hugged Elo whispering desperate into her ear.

  "I don't want to go back home, and yet...I miss it," her v
oice was a harsh whisper threatening to fail her. "I never got to say goodbye. Every moment that I'm not with you or Faelorn, I think of them. I never got to bury my grandmother." She sobbed, her voice cracking and shutting down. She hacked and cough blood. Elo said, concerned ."Don't talk anymore..."

  Elo shivered, shifting back into that of a white deer. "That howl darling. It was a bereaved. Thats why Faelorn changed; he's hunting it as we speak. " Bree calmed herself and sipped her tea. Elo softly reassured her, "I'll keep you safe. The bereaved don't usually challenge Faelorn. It is odd for them to have drawn him into the wood. If I'd known there was even a chance that a bereaved would be here tonight, I wouldn't have dreamed of bringing you here." She nuzzled Bree cheek, "Oh, and look at me ruining the night with a scary story."

  Cael anxious leaped from Bree shirt collar and scampered off into the woods. Bree worried about the little fae as she was sure that he had gone looking for Faelorn. Elo reassured her, "Cael can handle himself, he's not as helpless as he looks." They waited by the fire; hours slipped by. Eventually, Bree fell asleep leaning against Elo, her head on the changeling's neck and shoulder. Elo wrapped around the sleeping Bree, tucking her forelegs under her body; she kept watch all through the night, not falling asleep until dawn was about to break.

  Chapter 9

  It was the morning that Bree woke startled by the sound of heavy footfalls. The bright sun made her blink the sleepy from her eyes. She saw Faelorn illuminated by the purple dawn; he was a creature, a walking pallet of the forest. Bree stared as he attempted to change back into a man, vines, leaves, and moss sinking into his bare flesh. He was sinewy and well-muscled, his long matted hair decorated with plant life and wooden beads. He stopped mid-transformation, shaking in pain. He was taller than a normal man, still antlered, and his feet were cloven. Cael hung off his dreadlocks chattering in the fae's language.