Fable - Ask Wild Kelpies for a Prince

[Ianthe]

If you have ever wondered what a kelpie sounds like when it laughs, then ask a sailor what he hears late at night when on watch alone. It was a deep, almost musical noise, that many described as the call of the ocean. It didn't call a person to their death like the sirens, it did not deafen them with its roar like the kraken. It was playful, it was dangerous, it was soft and yet wild.

And it was entirely directed at Saang in this moment.

The scaled, shimmering body disappeared back beneath the waves. She didn't dive as deep this time so the silhouette of her form could be seen from his aerial view. Every now and then she let one of her fins appear above the surface too. It almost appeared as though she was going to behave.... until suddenly she dived, bringing her tail up...

and smashing it back down to cause another, huge wave.

 

[Saang Lusce]

Under normal circumstances Saang would have relished in the sound of kelpie laughter. Regardless of how much devilish mirth resided on the undertones, it wasn't something one heard very often. The magpie flitted back up, gaining height over the water for a better view, and swooped into a quick corkscrew spin to dry himself off before moving back to his flight path.

Okay. Good. She'd gotten the message. Now she was leading clearly and sticking to the plan. Finally, training and years of working together were paying of-

SPLOSH

Saang's eyes bugged out as another wall of water rose up from below, soaking him yet again and sending him into another feather-busting tizzy of jabbering angrily at the kelpie while performing aerial acrobatics.


This went on for some time, her little game, but he managed to catch on by the third attempt and batted the water back down at her forcefully with magic. Not that water had any effect on her. He might as well have been petting a spoiled cat for knocking a priceless teapot off the counter. So instead of staying angry like any other Handler might have, Saang decided to find some warmth and delight in her play. The next splash he turned into a floating water ring to fly through. It was a welcome reprieve of light from the dark and dangerous business he would have to face when they reached their destination.

 

[Ianthe]

Any passing sailors would have turned around and gone home at the sight of the large scaled water horse leaping from the waves and through the watery ring Saang made for her. It took a vast amount of power for a creature her size to propel herself entirely from the water and still land with a grace more likely to be seen in a dolphin in the warmer seas. The mirth and enjoyment from simply being was enough to take her mind off their mission and the deeper implications. Kelpies weren't bred for politics but that didn't mean she didn't concern herself with them like she let on. She knew this mission went another war and she had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that this one would decide once and for all who wore the crown.

For now, however, all she cared about was her own amusement.

Saang was right in thinking the journey was a long one and the further they travelled the less places there were to stop that would be considered habitable. In the end Ianthe signalled for them to stop on a large iceberg that from her survey was a good 30ft long beneath the water. It would be safe enough to rest on. Shifting back to her fae form she heaved herself dripping from the water and flopped on the cold ice with a loud exhale.

"I just need a few hours," she commented as she shut her eyes against the setting suns light.

 

[Saang Lusce]

The magpie circled overhead of the iceberg once, twice, then carefully glided down into a slippery, skittering landing on the ice. Magpies weren't built for ice walking, but Saang wagered he'd recuperate faster in this form. Stay warmer far more easily, too.

Watching Ianthe lay on the ice, completely and utterly comfortable with the dastardly cold gave him a chill he couldn't quite deny. Ruffling his feathers in the sea breeze, he scooted across the ice with several graceless hops and came to perch on one of her knees, "How much farther out are they?" he asked after her curiously.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe raised a lazy hand to push back strands of blue from her face and to peer at the bird perched on her knee.

"There isn't really a... time frame in finding the Wildlings," she sighed. It was part of the reason why she had dreaded coming on this adventure to begin with. "By tomorrow evening we should hit the Great Open, but where they will be within that..." she shrugged. "It could take us days to find pods or weeks. I don't think I've ever crossed it to the other side even when I lived out here for the months after the war started," and she had tried. Morbid curiosity and 400 years of captivity had made her hunger to find the exact edge of her new cage.

 

[Saang Lusce]

That...all made a great deal of sense he supposed. Saang's experience with kelpies had been primarily those in captivity. Only a handful of times had he been out hunting for wild kelpies to add to the wartime collective and that had been well before Ianthe was born.

"Seems they've moved their home waters farther out..." much farther out, he mused, "when I was a boy, there were several large schools of them just off the southern coast of Eretejva." The magpie adjusted its wings, hunkering down against a sudden strong blast of wind, "But that was before the court split. The King was far less interested in war and more interested in the Hunt."

Of course, none of this was interesting to Ianthe, he reminded himself. With a click of his beak he adjusted on her knee to put his back to the wind, small talons clinging to her with as much care as he could muster not to pinch or dig into her bare skin. He was, of course, doing his best to divert his attention and gaze elsewhere from her naked figure, but there wasn't a whole hell of a lot else to look at. He settled on closing his eyes and turning himself into a puff of feathers.

"Very well, it takes as long as it takes." Just hopefully not too long. He didn't want to be away from his family for longer than absolutely necessary. Especially not with the more recent developments.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe cracked a saltwater crusted eye again at the resigned and determined tone of his voice. That only meant bad things for her like, wasting valuable smuggling time on a fools mission. She gave a soft snort, her breath fogging in the frigid air and trailing upwards on the slight breeze. For the icy waters they were navigating it was a rather pleasant evening.

"You're not the only person who is recruiting," recruiting was perhaps a strong word for what Tulok was sending his handlers to do. She'd seen the capture of a small pod in her first 100 years of freedom. They'd driven the family further onto the rocks until they had had no choice but to go into the iron cage or dash themselves to death. It had been horrific to watch.

"Kelpies who were born free... they don't want to give it up and they don't see this as their war to fight."

 

[Saang Lusce]

That was what he was afraid of. Tulok fancied himself the leader of the black shuck pack, but to hear he'd also been rounding up kelpies gave Saang a momentary relapse of deep and painful regrets. Anger. Hapless grief. For years he'd dreamed of an end to the war, but every one of those dreams became nightmares when it meant the death of one of the Princes ... and countless, fathomless others of their kind.

Was there no solution to this other than death and savage violence?

"Why do you not live with them now?" he asked, a question he often wondered but never felt right asking until now. "The wild kelpies, is it not what you want?"

 

[Ianthe]

Something akin to pain clouded her dark eyes and she looked away, turning so that the golden glyphs that ran down her neck caught the last rays of the dying sunlight.

"Because I'm not like them, am I? I'm not free," not like they were. She would never have what she wanted whilst this war waged on and then afterwards? If she was on the losing side she supposed she might obtain the greatest type of freedom with death, but if she were on the victors side, would he let her go?

"They are uncomfortable with having me around, and I don't like being places I'm not wanted."

 

[Saang Lusce]

That response nearly made him flinch and Saang was, once more, grateful he was in his present avian form that she could not witness the reaction so easily. The sting to his heart at hearing those words - how did she live, then? If she did not wish to be within the confines of Prince Kana'ti's kingdom, yet was also not welcome with her own kind? The truth of the matter was damn near heart breaking.

To him, at the very least. Had she been on this mission with any other handler, they would not even have stopped for her to rest.

"That's...a fair point," Saang replied quietly.

A few moments passed by, and though he felt it perhaps offensive to press the subject, Saang could not help his curiosity, "Is that where you would be, then, if you were free?"

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe was growing restless with the topic of conversation. Her eyes slowly shifted back to the magpie and then she abruptly flipped herself over and rested her cheek upon her folded over arms.

"No."

The Great Open called to her sense of freedom but roaming it alone was... well it was lonely. She might have preferred her own company but even when she was alone she made sure she was in busy places so she could be around people. She couldn't be alone and that's what she would be out here.

"Somewhere south. Somewhere away. I've heard there are Kelpie pods far beyond Arethil."

 

[Saang Lusce]

The abruptness with which she flipped... or was it a flop? Regardless, the magpie spilled back onto the ice with chattering surprise, skittering about, wings flapping, trying to regain some sort of composure. He wanted to hiss at her in irritation, but the notion felt vastly inappropriate given the context of present discussion. Righted, finally, Saang folded his wings and took the cue with a sense of ruffled dejection.

He'd done this to himself and he knew it. Time to suffer her stubborn silence.

Another heavy sigh, he decided to leave her be in spite of how very comfortable a perch upon her perfectly round ass would have been. Saang hunkered down upon the ice, puffed out his feathers, and tucked in for a rest.

 

[Ianthe]

As Ianthe had predicted, once Saang and she had reached the Great Open the next day, they did not happen upon a pod of Kelpies straight away. In fact it took aimless, hopeful, wandering until they happened on signs of a pod and then more time to track them. In the end it took five days for the pair to finally catch up with a surprisingly large pod of kelpies who had chosen to make their stop within a jagged maze of dangerous bergs which were no doubt meant to deter predators that might hunt on their young.

Ianthe stopped a few miles out before they would catch her scent and poked her head above the water.

"Have you got your speech prepared?" if kelpies could grimace she would be right now. "If we get that far, we might be killed on sight," she pointed out bluntly, not for the first time their trip.

 

[Saang Lusce]

Saang had spent much of the ensuing five days in relative silence. Ianthe's displeasure with the mission continued to crop up regardless of the subject of discussion, and rather than press her into deeper and greater doubts and discontentment, he opted to simply let the kelpie do her job while he maintained his own unease. It was not easy going, and by the sixth day when they finally found strong evidence of a nearby pod, the Warden would be lying if he said he wasn't tired.

Swooping in to land upon the ice, the magpie whisked away in a swirl of red flames. Saang stepped out in his fae form; the scales of his sea serpent bodysuit glimmering in the pale light and loose tendrils from his braid of scarlet hair whipping about his face in the wind, "Your lack of faith in me stings," he replied to the kelpie. He wasn't the Warden and Commander of the royal Night Court kelpies for nothing.

"But if this goes badly, I will clear a path for you so you can retreat to safety. The last thing I want is for you to be hurt." A deep breath filled his chest and he donned near the same look on his face that he wore before going into battle: stoic determination. "I'll follow your lead."

 

[Ianthe]

"Great, my lead," she muttered as she turned and begun to swim down the narrow icy corridors. "My lead would be turning and getting the hell out of here," she continued under her breath. That little spark of grumpy rage kept her warm in the frigid waters but it also helped to tame her nerves. Wild kelpies were a different breed. Oh, Ianthe was strong. Her bloodlines were some of the most sought after in the fae world, but a wild kelpie was...

She swallowed and pushed on.

The swim was disappointingly short before the haphazard waterway opened up and revealed the inner sanctum the wild kelpies had chosen for themselves. The ocean was calmer here and safe for youngsters to be unattended and play, which they were in the shallows where the ocean gave way to a cavern. Black sand coated the beach upon which the older kelpies were gathering food, talking, or making places to sleep.

Almost as soon as the pair appeared a piercing whistle split the air and a second later from the depths rose a kelpies scaly head, its lips pulled back to reveal sharp razor teeth in a snarl. Ianthe held up her hands.

"We just want to talk, Nuka."

 

[Saang Lusce]

Saang slipped into the frigid waters behind her, hissing at the sudden shock of COLD to his system even with the barrier of his suit protecting his body. The Warden had been slowly burning his inner candle, so to say, keeping his body temperature up with his control of heat and though it took a minimal amount of energy to do so, having that candle slowly but constantly burning for the last five days had put a noticeable drain on him. He hoped, as he followed after Ianthe, that he would not need to test his limits this day.

Upon reaching the protected cove he maintained himself as Ianthe's silent shadow, eyes slowly scanning over those gathered and watching the interactions of younglings among themselves, as well as those of the adults watching over them, only solidified the resolve he'd found over the last few days.

The sharp whistle instantly snatched his attention and his calmness, shifting the duannan into a state of braced readiness - to protect his guide as much to flee and protect his own skin. He gave this Nuka several moments to consider Ianthe's request before speaking up himself.

"We come bearing no ill intent," Saang lifted his hands to his chest and dipped his gaze down as a sign of peace, "I need to speak with whoever it is that leads here."

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe's skin held that odd purple glow that betrayed she held herself on the edge of shifting forms back to that of the kelpie. She'd chosen her fae-woman form to appear less of a threat but she would not hesitate to show her own teeth is the numbskull in front of her didn't back down. The scaled horse peered down its long nose, red eyes shifting slowly from one to the other. Saangs words did not seem to have much of an impact other than for the kelpie to peel back its lips in a silent snarl. That was, at least, until a woman's voice sounded from the shore.

"Would you put your cock away, Innik. Since when did we attack unarmed strangers?" the woman who called out stood with her fists planted on meaty hips on the bank. Her hair was mostly grey instead of black now but her skin still contained a smoothness that made it hard to place her age. Ianthe let out a quiet breathe only Saang could hear and she let her head dip closer to his so she could murmur an explanation.

"A stallion might seem the leader of a pod, but it's the lead mare who really calls the shots. It looks as though you may get a chance to speak," for how long for however... well that was left to be seen. The kelpie in front of them snorted but in a burst of green light later was nothing more than a man treading water. He made a show of waving them on then bore holes into their back as Ianthe and Saang swam towards the shore.

"Welcome, Little Daughter," the woman smiled and offered a hand to help Ianthe from the waves. "And..." her eyes drifted over Saang and her lips tightened. "Well. I'm sure a story explains your companion. Please, come and drink tea. My name is Sorelia."

 

[Saang Lusce]

Saang held fast in his stance, heart strongly and steadily pumping fire through his veins in preparation for the instant in which he'd need to act. As close as she was to him, Ianthe would feel a palpable sense of heat radiating off his form, but Saang made an effort not to allow it to breach into the visible nature of flames. He did not wish to spook their hosts, least of all his guide.

An unwavering gaze held that of Innik - Saang may not have the knowledge of kelpie society in their natural, wild culture, but he knew full well how to comport himself under their acts of intimidation. Body language was major and key and in that he held firm in his posture, shifting his gaze only when the mare on the shoreline spoke up. Ianthe's explanation was ... enlightening for certain. The power shift between captive recruits and wild kelpies was interesting.

He said not a word as Innik receded, swimming forward just off Ianthe's flank and getting to his own feet as they reached the shore. Sorelia seemed to be addressing Ianthe alone and he did not yet feel as though his chance to speak had arrived. Perhaps Sorelia wished for a reason to hear him. Nevertheless, he was nothing if not respectful to women - a nonexistant trait in most any other Night Court male. Saang remained smartly silent and attentive, hands kept at his sides and in plain view. He followed where Sorelia lead them, taking cues from further body language to stand or sit as expected.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe had no such tact.

As Soreila led the way up the black volcanic sands to the small dwelling area the pod had created for themselves which consisted of a small fire pit and furs, the young kelpie was frantically gesturing with her hand at her side for Saang to talk. That's what the bloody man had dragged her here for wasn't it and now, here he was, and he was the model of polite society. What the fuck! She shot him pointed looks over her shoulder when the gesturing apparently fell flat and was quite close to simply telling him to get on with it when Sorelia came to a stop and motioned for them to sit.

Ianthe chose a perch on the furs a healthy distance from the fire pit.

"You must have travelled quite far, I was not aware of many others in this part of the Great Open," the older woman continued, her gaze slowly roving from the young filly to Saang and back.

"I was beginning to think there were no pods left until we came across your tracks," her lips tilted in the hint of a smile. "We come from the main lands. My name is Ianthe and this is my...." her lips pressed together for a beat. "This is Saang, he is the..." she searched for the right word. "He's a protector of our kin."

 

[Saang Lusce]

Saang naturally took up the space left open between Ianthe and the fire pit, leaning into the warmth of the flames for several moments while the ladies settled down and exchanged a few pleasant words. He'd not missed Ianthe's impatient, impertinent gestures. Far be it from he to take advice from her on how to conduct himself respectfully in the home of another. His lips remained sealed.

After several moments he took a seat facing Sorelia with his back to the flames, haloed in their vibrant light, and allowed a concerning gaze to shift to Ianthe as she explained their presence here. Brow knit, his expression did not shift much but adapted lines of the anxiety that had plagued him the entire journey here. Sorelia served tea and, he noted, dropped an extra lump of ... was that sugar? into his own stoneware cup. He took it gratefully and with all the practiced grace and dignity of countless tea parties with his babe sisters, mulled over the curiously exotic scent before giving it a sip.

Saang sputtered - not at the heat, never at the heat, but at the flavor. He coughed, he swallowed, he cleared his throat into his fist, eyes slightly watering, "Delicious..." another cough, "hem- thank you for your welcome, Lady Sorelia. I am Saang Lusce and I am afraid the tidings I bring are not going to make for good pleasantries."

The man sighed, his gaze breaking from the matriarch as he struggled with where to begin. What to say. How to say it. His golden eyes stared into his cup of tea for several moments and the murky reflection of himself he saw there, then drifted over to Ianthe. Saang frowned.

"I am a protector of your kin ... at least, I try very hard to be. It occurs to me now that I have not tried hard enough. For your kin ... or my own. Lady," Saang slowly drew in a breath and looked to Sorelia, "I am the Warden General of Prince Kana'ti's Kelpies. I have been tasked by the Prince to recruit more numbers to his army. War is coming and it is assured. But I am not here to recruit you or any of your kin. I am here to warn you and ...I hope, to help you."

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe wondered, not for the first time, whether she had done the right thing in bringing Saang here. Oh, sure, he could have Voice commanded her to complete this mission but... but a part of her mind railed against the thought that if she struggled and resisted hard enough she would have failed in not carrying out the instructions. It would have been painful, it might have even killed her, she didn't know exactly how the bond worked for it was magic far higher than her mind could comprehend. Wouldn't it have been worth it though? Worth it not to have this single question churning over and over in her mind.

Was she a race traitor?

The kelpie almost flinched when Sorelia's eyes narrowed and turned towards her as Saang announced who he was. The flicker of disgust she had predicted crossed her features for the barest of seconds, and the older womans fingers curling around the arms of the chairs as if she intended on rising. But then, Saangs last words had both kelpies turning their attention back to him.

"To help us?" Sorelia repeated coolly. "The only reason you are not dead is because your manners are refreshing, but we do not shelter Kingsmen. We heard the stories of your people kidnapping and torturing our brothers and sisters into joining your war. Land wars mean nothing to us. I will not bleed for a trifle between two colts in need of gelding!"

 

[Saang Lusce]

"And I am not asking you to," Saang had expected a scathing reply as such, and surely he deserved it.

"It is not your war to fight. It never was and the fact that your kin were forced to partake is an affront to your honor that I, along with many others, bear the weight of. Though I have tried to be kind to the recruits..." Saang cast a weary gaze askance at Ianthe, "even I am bound by oaths to fulfill certain duties. Oaths I mean to break. Understand, Lady, that this war will lean heavily in favor of Prince Tulok. His forces are greater, as are his numbers, his ambitions, and his claim to the throne. The day that he wins is the day that every wild fae in these waters will be at his mercy. There will be no stopping him."

He wanted to speak on how helping Kana'ti win could have gained them their freedom in the long-haul, but that still would have required their service to the Court. Still would have seen many once-free kelpies die for a war that was not their own to fight. He swallowed those words as though he swallow shards of glass.

"You will all be in danger. I wish for an end to this that did not mean the spilling of more innocent blood, but you know as well as I that it is not possible if something is not done, and soon. Please hear my warning, save your kin from this nightmare to come. Leave these waters, travel west as far as you can. Seek refuge with the other Courts if you must, I just want for you and your own to stay safe and free as you are and I will do my utmost to free those who fight for the Princes against their will."

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe imagined she might be able to reach out and physically touch the silence that descended across not only the cave but the waters beyond. She wasn't sure at what point exactly the children had stopped playing, or at what point the group of gossiping elderly kelpies had gone quiet and turned to look. She couldn't even say when she'd stopped breathing herself or when she'd become aware that to breathe was to make too loud of a noise for this moment.

Sorelia began to tap, tap, tap her fingers on the arm of the chair like an ominous war drum. Her eyes narrowed as she considered the man across from her and her jaw worked as if she were grinding her teeth together. Ianthe wondered if she was just chewing some of that walrus blubber.

"You seem to have given it a lot of thought, Lord," every syllable seemed to be dragged out as though she were stalling to get her own thoughts together. "And this is a long way to travel just to give us a warning, but then I suppose it would be convenient for your kind if we all disappeared. Then the Great Open would be yours and all the treasures it hides, no?"

"Sorelia, he doesn---"

She held up a hand.

"And you want me to believe you, child? After you brought him here? To our home? But then I don't expect a captive-born to understand the meaning of family."

 

[Saang Lusce]

"That is not her fault," Saang bit into the anger that threatened to rear on the tone of his words. He was perfectly willing and prepared to take the ire of the Kelpie matriarch for all that he had done in his long life to dishonor, abuse, and offend her kind. He was not in any form willing to allow Ianthe to come under attack, verbally or otherwise.

"But it is the meaning of family that brought me this long way to find you and warn you of what is to come. I have stood by for too long and bowed under the orders of my superiors simply because it was they who spoke them. I've tried to do my part to mitigate as much of the damage as I could but I haven't done enough. Not even by half."

"The threat that every northern wyld fae faces once Prince Tulok wins this war is that of their freedom and their lives. You must know this - you've seen what he's capable of, what he does to those he views as beneath him. He does not want your seas or your treasures, he wants you to suffer for his whims and pleasure. He wants your lives for his gain."

No one knew these things better than Saang. He'd been the proverbial big brother to both the Princes in their youth and tried his best to curb the savagery of their tastes. Unfortunately, given their father, there was little hope for either of them. That Kana'ti had turned out the way he did was a small miracle, but given the reverie Saang had experienced just a week prior ... it was far too small a miracle to hold his loyalty when his family was on the line. He frowned, pleading with Sorelia to understand. Holding back the use of his empathy powers to make her see logic and truth. It would be far easier to sway her to his argument doing so, but then she'd never trust his word again.

"Is there nothing I can do to gain your trust in my words and intent, Lady?"

 

[Ianthe]

Sorelia's barb hit as hard causing a muscle nerve to twitch within her jaw. Saang leaping to her defence brought up the conflicting feelings of warmth and anger. He had her back; but she had her own! And what Sorelia had said was nothing less than what Ianthe had told him days ago - he had no right to be mad! But he was... on her behalf. She squeezed her eyes shut to try and quell the raging storm of emotions inside of her as Saang went on. He wasn't wrong but she wasn't sure how any word from her mouth would help now. The lead mare only cared about protecting her home and her family. She wouldn't leave these waters. None of them would. She'd wished he had told her the real aim of his mission earlier.

"You could take The Trials."

Ianthe's eyes bugged open as she stared, open-mouthed at the elder who sat back in the chair with an air of smugness and folded her arms. A general hushed murmuring broke out amongst the others.

"You claim you are a Protector. That you see this girl as kin. If that's the case, prove it. Three Trials. Three days. If you survive them all I will listen to you as if you were my own brother."

Ianthe audibly groaned and slunk down in her chair.