Private Tales Beasts and Blizzards

[Fraeya]

It was a few weeks after the ball at the Autumn Court. A few weeks since she'd interacted with so many fae outside of Delun's estate and somehow managed to survive.

Fraeya was high in a tree in the Ixchel Wilds. Right on the border of the Autumn and Winter Court. If she looked through the branches, she could just make out the snowy mountains of the Spine in the not so distant distance. Could feel the chiller air, too.

It was the end of apple season and she perched in a green-apple tree, reaching for one of the season's last ones. Her stomach rumbled in protest and she was more than hungry. She was out on an errand for Delun and she hadn't realized she needed to travel so far. She'd already camped on night and with stretching the food she'd brought, she'd run out the other day. She needed this.

Delun often forgot how much food a human needed to survive.

Reaching precariously, her fingertips brushed the outer edge of the apple when the branch suddenly snapped beneath her booted feet and she was falling.

Ariel

 

[Ariel]

Ariel often walked the far edges of the Winter Court, not only because he enjoyed crossing into the mortal realms but because he wasn't truly important enough to stir up any trouble in adjacent territories. Autumn and Winter were friendly enough, but faerie politics and brutality were one and the same.

He actually wasn't sure which court he was in at the moment. The air was crisp and chill, which could attributed to either, and there was a pleasant crunching of leaves beneath his boots as he strolled. The weeks since the ball had been relatively uneventful. He hadn't heard from Isiell since she disappeared with Lorcan and figured she was out causing some form of chaos or another. It brought a smirk to his lips whenever he thought of the madness she was likely visiting on the poor chap. He'd have to ask her all about it when she next came by.

Leaves swirled in a fresh breeze from the east, and Ariel's nose perked up at a curious yet familiar scent on it. Human. A human female.

Ariel's reputation was well known in the faerie courts, although he did feel there were some unfair assumptions circulating amongst loose lips. He did enjoy the company of mortal women, that was very true. He liked everything about them: their looks, their scent, their curious minds and their calloused touch. Yet most assumed his interest to be little more than fetish or deviant curiosity, an assumption he considered offensive to himself and those he spent his time with.

He moved quicker now, although his motions still appeared as a walk. He knew this scent, he had smelled it before... but where? He flicked through his memories for any humans he had met near this border but none fit. Besides, while the aroma was delightfully mortal, it had the tang of faerie as well.

He heard the snapping branch with sensitive ears and saw the blur of Fraeya's fall. In a flash he was under her, feeling the cool burn of magic through his limbs as he boosted himself forwards, and caught her.

He looked and then grinned in gleeful recognition. "My, you are far from home, Fraeya." His voice was like a cool stream, and he smelled of wintergreen.

 

[Fraeya]

“Ariel,” she breathed, a tangle of limbs in his arms. He’d stopped her from spraining an ankle or snapping her neck. Looking into his eyes, feeling the strength of his body around her. It was easy to believe the rumors around him.

“What’re you doing out here?” Lime-green eyes finally refocused. “You can put me down now,” she added quietly.

Too close. He was too damn close.

 

[Ariel]

“What am I doing here?” he echoed her question, setting her back upon her feet. “I am a member of the Winter Court and free to roam it as I please.”

He put out an arm and leaned against the tree from which she’d fallen. “You, however,” he crooned, “What sort of task had Delun set you on that placed you in my path?”

 

[Fraeya]

That touch of his lingered on her skin. Like a cool and refreshing stream. She took a half step away from him as he put her down. A half glare but not at him, at that apple that had managed to stay on that branch in the tree. Eyes snapped back to Ariel.

"Winter Court? Last I knew these lands were Autumn." Hands fell to her hips as she stared him down. All those fae parts of him. She couldn't be sure they were autumn since they were so close to the border but she would stand by it.

Arms crossed indignantly.

"And any tasks I'm on is autumn court's business not winter." Her pack was on the ground so she scooped it up. "But thank you for not letting me break anything." Words were curt and guarded as she spun her back to him, meaning to walk away.

 

[Ariel]

"Winter Court? Last I knew these lands were Autumn."

"Are they?" he looked around to scrutinize the forest. It was sometimes difficult to tell the borders, given the vastness of each court. It was clear from his expression, though, that he couldn't care less which court they were technically in.

She punched out some choice words and gave half a 'thank you' before turning on her heel. Now, Ariel was not in the habit of forcing mortals to do anything. He found the notion of taking familiars or warlocks or whatever questionable at best.

Yet this would simply not do. In a step he spun round in front of Fraeya's path. "Do I look like I report to the court officials?" His teeth were unnaturally white as he flashed them at her. "Besides, is this any way to treat your friend? You needn't repay me for the rescue, you can have that as a gift, but come now, surely Delun couldn't be up to anything so nefarious you can't spare a single hint?"

He had, after all, delivered her from Lorcan's wrath following her violent rejection of his advances (a memory that still made him smile).

 

[Fraeya]

"Oof," she found herself running into his chest as he appeared in front of her. She stumbled back a step, head snapping upwards, accusatory gaze flashing across her pale-green eyes. Ivy above, did they have to move so damn fast?

"Do I look like I report to the court officials?"

"You look like trouble," she commented dryly. Being around most fae, she knew to try to keep her tongue in check. She knew to blend it. Seem ordinary so as not to draw their attention. With Ariel? With him it was different. With him it was almost impossible.

Amusement mixed with her frustration as her golden brows lifted. "A rescue? I would've been perfectly fine. Perfectly capable." It was a bold faced lie. She definitely would've hurt something in that fall.

"And trust me you don't want to kn-," there was a growl in the distance. Fraeya's face instantly paled. Nagai. The hunters were a lot closer than Fraeya ever imagined. And they didn't just feast on human blood. Eyes snapped to Ariel's. "Do you have somewhere close we can go?"

They needed to hide and fast.

And if he treated all this as a joke so help her, she was going to slap some sense into him.

 

[Ariel]

"You look like trouble,"

"Oh, you have no ide-"

His head snapped up and his face immediately dropped from impishness to coldness. He sniffed the air with flared nostrils. Why hadn't he sensed their approach? He should have been able to smell them, or at least hear them, yet he had felt nothing. That in itself was more worrisome than anything.

Unfortunately, he did not have anywhere close for them to flee to. This close to the border was little more than woodland, and he did not know the locations of cabins and hunting lodges here as well as he would have liked.

Ariel could handle a nagai, perhaps two or three if he were really pushed... but a whole pack would present difficulty.

"Apologies," he said to Fraeya, and without so much as looking at her or waiting for a reply, he scooped her up into his arms and ran.

Though the trees were a blur to mortal eyes he could hear the beasts behind them. Were they after the girl? Had they smelled her and thought her easy prey? What reason could Delun have had for sending her out here on her own?

He needed to find water. "Did you pass a lake, or a river? A creek, even?"

 

[Fraeya]

Even with the growls and hisses in the background, she found her gaze fixed on Ariel’s face. And in that instance of his change of merriment to something serious, she saw the part of all fae that made them ancient, alpha predators. A small instinct begged her to run not only from the nagai but from him as well.

“What’re you..,”she began to protest but found herself against his chest a moment later, arms encircled around his neck as she held on for dear life. Not like she needed to. His arms were firmly wrapped around her. And she made the mistake of opening her eyes, seeing the blur of landscape they left in their wake. And the blur of dark figures moving with the same preternatural speed.

“I CAN run you know,” it was a feeble protest even as she closed her eyes. She pushed down her nausea. “There’s a lake. Not far.” She peeked an eye open again and quickly closed it. “Northeast. Half a mile.” When she passed it a week ago it hadn’t frozen yet.

 

[Ariel]

A lake. It wasn't running water, but it would do. Ariel adjusted their path to the northeast and carried on. Half a mile wasn't far, but the nagai were so incredibly fast. Under normal circumstances he would have enjoyed Fraeya's closeness more. Her body was small and light against him but even that little extra weight had slowed their escape. Why did it have to be nagai? He could have outrun a banshee, or any number of lesser fae options.

Fraeya's protests went unanswered. He could smell the nagai's breath now, hot behind them. Once or twice he thought he felt a claw graze the back of his leg, but it could have just been a stray twig. Surely that had been it.

He felt the lake before he saw it, and its mirrorlike surface came into brilliant view through the brush. It grew close, and when the pair burst from the treeline Ariel did not stop. They did not tumble into the waters or dive beneath them, Ariel merely continued to run.

His feet glanced over the glassy water, ruining its perfect reflection with their ripples. With each stride they barely dipped an inch and Ariel took them further and further from shore. He took a final bound to the center of the lake and landed with a loud crack as a thick floor of ice exploded out in all directions.

Only when they had slid to a stop atop the newly frozen floor did he set Fraeya down. Their little island was maybe twenty feet in diameter and sturdy, and they had a good distance of open water between them and the nagai that seethed on the shore.

Ariel was breathing heavily, and sweat glittered across his brow and neck. The escape had taken more out of him than he cared to admit.

"What," he asked again, through panting breaths, "are you doing out here?"

 

[Fraeya]

She found herself trying to catch her breath too. He was just so…fast. And her head spun and stomach wobbled as he set her down. She found herself sinking to a seated position on the cold, hard ice as her body failed her.

Her eyes remained open, fixated to the shore. There were five of them. If they’d found her alone. A shudder went through her. Arms wrapped tightly around herself. How long would they stay? Ariel would last a lot longer than she would out here on the ice like this.

She didn't look at him as he repeated his question. She couldn't take her eyes off the snarling and hissing creatures prowling at the shore. Sniffing the air. Disappearing into the tree line they just left and reappearing moments later to assess their prey in the middle of the lake.

“I told you, it’s Delun’s business.” The Erlking’s business. “But,” she breathed, finally letting her eyes drift up toward his own. “I can tell you that there are rumors of courtless fae who are working with creatures like the Nagai. To what end I’m not sure.”

She’d been sent to deliver a message. And now she had to wonder what was in that message. If it had been intercepted. If she was now targeted because of that message. Or if all this was coincidence. Unrelated to that note. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because she didn’t think her death would send that much of a message. Fae didn’t count the loss of a human life for anything. Not usually. Even if said human was now bound to the Erlking and under the household of Delun.

“I didn’t realize you could do magic like that,” she said quietly. The cold seeping up where she sat. “Maybe you should sit down,” she noticed his exertion. Fatigue. It was always concerning to see that in a fae. “Wouldn’t want to have to save you.” The smallest twitch at the corner of her mouth.

 

[Ariel]

Even now Fraeya managed to pull a half smile out of the corners of his mouth. "Would that I could be so lucky," he said, settling down on a knee. The ice shelf held steady and thick, mostly unmoving. The nagai moved back and forth in frustration. They would't cross the water, not if they were smart, but Ariel did not want them to summon more. He couldn't stay on this lake forever, the mortal girl even less so.

"I think it's pretty well my business now," he said, nodding to the dark beasts at the shoreline. "I don't think the nagai will forget my involvement." He tried to to let it show how much her other words had troubled him. Courtless fae were... unpredictable. His very best friend, Isiell, had been without a court for some time and although he loved her dearly, he pitied anyone who set foot against her. If she was the best of the unaffiliated during her time, he didn't want to think of the worst. Even she wouldn't have worked alongside the nagai... surely not.

He glanced around the lake. Unfortunately Fraeya had been right: this was the Autumn Court. He didn't know the area as well as he would have liked, and despite Winter and Autumn's alliance he would easily run into trouble without a good reason for being here. Thankfully, escorting Delun's pet counted as a good reason.

He'd get more out of her later. Right now they needed to lose their tail. After a particularly long time in the brush a couple of nagai emerged back to the shoreline carrying a medium-sized log. They had apparently found it and thought, what? That they would float across on it? Ariel swept his hand out in front of him with a quiet grunt and send a heft wave to shove it back out of the water.

"Keep you eyes on the tree behind us," he said quietly. If she paid attention to the shores around them Fraeya would notice that their ice sanctuary had started to move very slowly to the bank opposite the nagai. "If you even think you see something, you tell me."

 

[Fraeya]

She twisted, peeling her eyes away from how he used his magic and did as she was told. She’d grown up with it. Fae and their different types of magic. Hells, she lived with a shapeshifter. She was surrounded by rock trolls and other wonders. But magic?

Magic never cease to amaze her.

Perhaps it was healthy to keep being amazed by it. Even if she was a little jealous by it. She knew she could do some things other humans couldn’t. Like travel the Fey roads.

But nothing like what Ariel was doing.

The opposite bank was quickly approaching. “Clear. So far.” The trees were larger. Bright green eyes narrowed as they closed in. Some birds and other creatures. That was a good sign. They usually fled when nagai were around.

She shifted carefully on the ice to a crouch. Weight rolling back to the balls of her feet. Readying herself. She didn’t know where they could go. She had to wonder how persistent the nagai would be in tracking their scents once they hit land again.

“Do you know a place across the border we could get to? If not,” she took a breath. “There’s a small grove about a day away. If we can make it…it’s warded.”

It was one of the hunt’s resting and revelry spots. For after their kills. Or on a long night, a spot to regroup.

 

[Ariel]

Ariel kept his gaze fixed on the nagai across the glassy pond. His sight was keen, but even he could not penetrate the thick leaves and branches when one slinked off into the underbrush, only to reemerge from a fresh spot. He hoped they were the same individuals, and that they had not recruited more to the hunt.

Soon enough they realized what was happening, and began to slowly fan out around the banks. They didn't run, they didn't have to. The pack could match Ariel pace for pace, especially if he were carrying a passenger.

The ice flow picked up its speed, leaving deeper ripples in its wake.

“Do you know a place across the border we could get to?"

Ariel tried to think about where they were. He wasn't as familiar with these lands as his own, but he could get a rough idea from the landforms on the horizon. He searched his memories, more than a century of hopping the border... were any such trips made from here?

"There is one place I know of but..." his face tightened as he recalled it. It would serve them well. The nagai would not likely cross the border and if they did would have trouble with the stream-ridden hills thereafter. Nevertheless, he wasn't keen on the idea of returning there.

But he could not outrun the nagai for a day. "How good are you at fighting?"

It was either try to escape to the mortal realms, or kill the demons on their heels.

 

[Fraeya]

She swayed at the sudden movement, her hands tightening around his shoulder for balance as they sped toward shore. The opposite bank was growing closer. She was standing now, next to his kneeling form.

“I can fight,” she said resolutely. She was still a human though. She’d always be just a little…shower than them. And it drove her mad. She pulled a bone dagger from a sheath on her thigh and gripped it tightly. Crouching, she readied herself to jump just before their ice-island made impact with the bank.

Her boots crunched on the pebbly-shore as she staggered, catching her balance and still gripping that knife.

There was a roar of outrage from the opposite banks and they were sounding closer. She looked to Ariel. Neither if them would make it if the pack came at once. “Use me as bait. Get to higher round,” she offered. A part of her wondered if he’d run away and save his own skin.

 

[Ariel]

Ariel quickly looked from the bone dagger to Fraeya's small figure, and it was only by grace of being tired that his face did not show obvious doubts.

"Absolutely not," he huffed as he stepped to the bank himself. He left out the part where she would buy him at most a few seconds against that pack, and just held up two daggers that glittered in the sunlight. It was not clear where on his person they had come from, but they were terribly sharp and almost translucent.

The nagai came at once. Enraged by the previous delay, they leapt on the pair as a unit. Ariel moved quick enough that a grasping, black hand closed around his blade, and he sliced a clean gash through the palm. It was enough to keep the first attacker at bay while he kicked at a second. The weight of the creature reverberated up his leg.

He sincerely hoped Fraeya had not been lying about being able to fight.

 

[Fraeya]

They were...huge. Powerful. Made of nightmares. Adrenaline pummeled through her system like a raging river. She ducked under the claws of one. The other she slashed with her bone knife. A roar met her ears and...surprise and rage from the creature.

This is where being a good dancer came in handy.

She was light and graceful on her feet. Almost not like a human. Almost. She could feel her energy waning. She hadn't eaten in over twenty-four hours. She'd been traveling. She knew she could keep up fighting and dodging only for so long.

There was another slash of her knife. Another roar of pain. One of the naga lunged at her and she held up her knife even as she knew she wouldn't dodge in time. It's weight crashed into her as the knife plunged into its chest. Her back hit the ground as she was pinned by its body, its teeth inches from her neck even as the life faded from its eyes.

 

[Ariel]

Nagai were fierce and strong, but they were not smart. It was easy to anticipate their attacks and Ariel only wished that made it easier to endure them. Strategy wasn’t really required when you were all fury and claws.

Those claws bit into his shoulder with a grunt of pain, met be slamming one of the icy daggers into the creature’s neck With teeth grit, Ariel threw the second into the belly of another, causing it to stumble and double over onto the ground.

He heard Fraeya’s commotion and whipped around to see her pinned. ”No!” he roared and single-handedly grabbed the back of the dead nagai’s neck and tossed it into the lake. He panicked for half a second until he could see that she was still alive.

“Enough of this,” he hissed, and he drew a sheet of water from the freezing lake and spun it around the pair of them. The nagai’s distorted bodies could be seen rippling through the thin veil before it froze into solid white with a loud crack. Then, with a groan that was more exhaustion than anger, Ariel shattered the protective spear and perforated their enemies with a thousand freezing needles.

He fell to his knees, and his vision blurred while he determined that the nagai were all dead.

“That’s… alluuhhh….” he drawled out and fainted heavily to the ground.

 

[Fraeya]

She was stunned on the ground. That crushing weight suddenly gone. Her body bruised but still alive. Her hand still gripped the bloodied bone knife. And her eyes widened at the cold fury on Ariel’s face. That sharp tang of metal hit her nose as his magic exploded outward. A puff of warm cloud escapes her mouth as the temperature dropped around them.

Chest heaved as she sat up as the nagai fell. As Ariel fell. Cut and bruised hands latched out. Her body against him, arms wrapping instinctively around his fae body as he fell. With a grunt, she lowered him gently to the ground next to her, cradling his head in her lap. Fingers stroked gently through his hair as she took a moment to rest. Catch her breath. Slow her heart rate.

Make sure he was still breathing.

“Looks like I’ll save you after all,” she huffed, lifting her head to look around them. Soon she’d have to get up and make some kind of shelter. Get a fire going. Soon. But for now she’s sit here and stare at his beautiful face.

 

[Ariel]

Magical exhaustion was not a pleasant sleep. Even through his dreams he ached. His body did not show outward signs of damage, but they were there. Faeries had been given permission to draw from the leylines, but they did not own them. That power was alien, eternal, and beyond understanding, and when it coursed through his body of flesh and blood it left fissures in its crackling wake.

He’d learned to channel it with practice, and those common pathways had grown scarred and tough, but this latest outburst had overflowed those canals. Now his body was healing from a million microscopic cuts, a million etchings the leyline power had left behind.

Needless to say he did not rest easy, but somehow he slept quieter than he should have. If his brow creased, it felt a gentleness to straiten it. If a tremor shook him, a warmth stilled it.

When his eyes opened, slowly, he could see the fire that must have been the source of that warmth. He pushed himself up, seated with on leg bent and the other stretched in front of him. He rubbed at his head and willed the throbbing to subside and his vision to unblur.

“Fraeya did you… did you do this?” He asked, gesturing to the surroundings.