Fable - Ask Wild Kelpies for a Prince

[Saang Lusce]

He was certain he would find some humor for Sevir's artistry particulars in the morning, but for now he could only offer the matriarch a tempered sigh and nod of his head. Though before he moved off, he caught sight of a mare toward the back weaving a wreath he was certain he would find at his tipi before the night's end.

"I have one more question," Saang looked back down to the matriarch, languid and Queenly in her pipe smoke, "when I have chosen a mate," his words were quite specific on purpose, "what am I to do with the remaining wreaths?"

 

[Ianthe]

"Throw them back to the sea of course," Sorelia blew out a ring of smoke. "So the one it is destined for might find it."

 

[Saang Lusce]

Well now.

He wasn't sure what he had expected the answer to be, though he'd felt quite certain Ianthe's earlier intentions had been only for causing trouble. The truth was strangely far more poetic than he'd thought creatures of such uncivilized savagery capable of.

He made no remark of it, all too intent on staying in Sorelia's good graces, but instead nodded his head to her in understanding and thanks then turned back to Sevir who awaited his chance to parade his latest work out amongst the clan. The cheers of excitement and awe were soon to follow. The touching and fondling of his fresh ink did, too.

There was no escaping the attention or the celebration that roared on for hours in his name. Saang partook in drinking and feasting and socializing, getting to know many other members of his newest family and discovering aspects of the kelpie culture he would not have ever dreamt of. Sevir, despite his earlier discontentment with the idea of Saang taking on membership of multiple clans, soon fell into drunken boastful pride of being the first to mark the Flame of the Northern Sea. He stuck curiously near Saang's side for the majority of the event, introducing him to other warriors of the clan and shooing away young and hopeful mares.

It was endearing to the fire-haired Commander.

Hours passed, and few where Saang's thoughts did not linger on Ianthe. He tried multiple times to sneak away but was found quickly enough by others. When finally things began to die down under the rise of the inclement storm he'd felt coming earlier in the day, he paused to take in the growing piles of wreaths at his tent before he pushed in through the tent flaps coated in snow. The aroma of Sorelia's pipe smoke, the evening's campfire and feast, and the salt of the clan lingered upon him. He'd managed to convince some young kelpies to help him harvest sea kelp and fresh water, claiming it to be for his own needs for too much wine remedy so they would not ask any questions.

There he settled down upon the pelts by Ianthe, setting water and kelp aside, and leaned to check on her.

"You need to drink," he said to her in a low tone now hoarse from all the talking and drinking he'd done.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe had slipped into a fever-dream whilst Saang was gone. The faint sounds of revelry outside wound their way inside her mind and added to the flashes of images her mind concocted to torment her. Chasing, chasing... was she chasing someone or something? She tried to ask one kelpie but they merely looked at her and scoffed, another pushed her over into the black sands and spat. Outsider, they sneered. Suddenly she was out on a floating berg watching the revelry from afar. She tried to shout to get someone's attention but nobody could hear her. Nobody wanted to. She could only watch helplessly, on the outside....

Saang's shaking roused her from her delirium. Her eyes cracked open briefly but the light that permeated the tent hurt her eyes and she squeezed them shut again. Everything hurt. Even breathing.

"Idonwannaitsmellsfunny," she pulled the furs back over her with a shiver.

 

[Saang Lusce]

He smiled in quiet concern, smoothing a hand over the bump beneath the furs that was her shoulder, "Dehydration will only make it worse. It's just water." Though he was aware that maybe it was he that smelled funny. Difficult not to bring the aroma of the celebrations with him, they clung so readily to his hair and pelt cloak.

"Come now, drink and then you can go back to sleep."

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe opened her eye again and then sighed. He had the look on his face he often got when he decided to care too much about something, which in turn meant he wouldn't let this go until she'd done what he thought was best for her. On weak, shaking arms she pushed herself up then took the offered cup.

"Tastes like sharks piss," she complained after downing the whole thing and flopping back onto the pelts.

 

[Saang Lusce]

If it was the sickness making her compliant he couldn't be too grateful, but he'd take what he could get gladly.

"Strange that you should know what shark piss tastes like..." Saang muttered as he watched the cup fly across the tent to clatter into the shadows of a corner. A smirking sigh followed. He wouldn't press his luck with getting her to eat the kelp - that could wait until morning when the hunger pangs hit but nothing else would stay down.

With a strained groan he eased himself down onto the furs next to her, eyes glowing faintly like candle flames in the dim light, "I informed Sorelia that you are free now. No one knows you are sick and I do not think anyone will bother you." He closed his eyes as he settled in, taking care of the tenderness of his fresh ink.

"Storm rolled in just as the last round of wine went out. They're all completely sloshed."

 

[Ianthe]

His words faded in and out, weaving like a river through the fever-fog of her mind. Some distant part of her understood their meaning and the weight of them but she couldn't think on it in that moment. She was just so cold. Her teeth chattered despite her efforts to keep her jaw clamped tight. As he laid down beside her warmth immediately beckoned. Sluggishly she scooted closer. Was it Saang or a real fire? Was there a difference? She settled only when she was flush against him, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Tell... anyone... and I'll... gut you," she mumbled but her shivers slowly died and soon, the kelpie was fast asleep.

 

[Saang Lusce]

Red brows raised so high they nearly disappeared into his hairline as he felt the kelpie's weight shift at his side. Saang lifted his arm out of the way and wrapped it snugly beneath her bundled form, the other coming to loop over top and pull her against him. The shudders and shakes stirred deeper concern and a weighted frown in which he instinctively responded by diffusing the potent warmth of his inner flame into the tent.

Those words, however, got a chuckling response and an affectionate kiss to the top of the blue tornado's head. Though they had hundreds of years of history in camping at battlefronts together, he could not recall a time in which such closeness had ever been permitted. Despite how carefully he'd watched over her through the years, ensuring her good health and livelihood, he'd never allowed himself to think of his fondness for her as anything more than ... something akin to paternal. He had practically raised her, after all.

What he felt now was different. So different.

And the reality of her new freedom ached in a way he'd never expected. Stung at his heart to think he might lose her after she regained her health. Saang realized now that he wanted her to stay, desperately so. But how was that fair to ask? How could he possibly even think to after the life she'd lived?

He worried his face into her hair, nuzzling at her scalp, and held her a bit more tightly as he drifted off.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe was a truly terrible patient for the next few days.

She complained endlessly: she was too hot, too cold, hungry, sick, bored, tired. It seemed no matter what Saang did or offered to help her feel better she made as much fuss as she could over it. Seaweed and kelp tea were hurled at heads, selkie jerky shunned, and the puzzle Saang had suggested on the second day she have a go at had ripped tiny holes in the walls of the tent when she had thrown it. The only thing she didn't seem to complain about was each night when Saang would wordlessly lift his arm and Ianthe would press close and drift off into some of the best sleep of her life.

Of course, she threatened him every time she did so.

It took a full week before Ianthe finally felt fit enough to leave the tent. The pressing need to be submerged in water far outweighed the lingering light headedness she still occasionally got.

"You don't need to hover like a maiden mare," Ianthe muttered as she walked towards the shore, Saang trailing by her side in case she face planted the snow. "I feel fine." Though, she had said the same seconds before throwing up on him a few days ago.

 

[Saang Lusce]

Like an extremely prickly version of his sisters as they traversed their formative teenaged portion of their lives, Ianthe had proven challenging only in testing his creativity. Usually he'd been able to find something to abate the temper of his sisters - they all had hobbies and likes that revealed themselves through their youth. While he knew several things that Ianthe enjoyed, almost all of them involved battle fronts, hunting, or sparring. None of those were conducive to her recovery and he watched multiple times a day as her temper would take out of her all the vigor she'd managed to gain overnight.

It prolonged the recuperation by days.

Still, he would not be a beacon of patience were it not for the many younger siblings he'd helped raise. His fondness for her also helped.

The marriage wreath piles had continued to grow, but with each passing day a little slower than before. While he'd made no announcement of choosing a mate, his time spent alone with Ianthe had engendered confusion on the matter. Saang did not feel compelled to clarify, and so he did not. The attention he'd been getting from the clan began to abate as well as the excitement of his joining died down for newer things. There was no escaping the gossip and chatter about the expected visitation of other clan leaders. Many did not hold out much hope for it to happen, some were offended by the idea of Saang attempting to join multiple clans, others were intrigued. He worried about the idea that he may have potentially sparked unnecessary controversy, but the Commander had to remind herself what the end goal was.

A little intra-clan drama was nothing compared to wholesale kidnapping, enslaving, and slaughter of the wild kelpies. It seemed Sorelia rather enjoyed the sudden stir of frisson among the clan, too. Kept their blood hot.

His gaze followed Ianthe distractedly as she made for the water's edge, a wry smile forming at her scoff, "I'll stop hovering when you start walking in a straight line."

"Besides," he continued, "I want to make sure you are healthy and strong before I return home."

 

[Ianthe]

The kelpie bared her teeth at his insult.

"I can walk in a straight line, I'm choosing not to," if she had been in her horse form her ears would have been pinned firmly back though it was only in part due to his insinuation she wasn't well enough still. Her foul mood could also partly be attributed to learning Saang had decided to go on some nonsense quest to collect the clans like some kind of... person who collected things. Mostly, however, her mood had to do with what he had said.

Before I return home.

Without her.

This freedom had been what she had wished for for years but now it was here she felt hollow. Sorelia had promised she could receive her own ink before the clans arrived but Ianthe still held doubts it would heal the part of her that had never felt like it belonged anywhere. When they reached the shore she kicked off her boots and peeled off her clothes. Before she could second guess herself she dove into the waves.

 

[Saang Lusce]

"Of course you are..." Saang replied, pausing along the shoreline and watching out along the distant waters. He could see the clan mingling among the various icebergs and fragmented sheets. A small school of foals being taught how to dive and forage while others lounged, hunted, fished, and socialized. He'd come to enjoy watching them here, out in the wild sea. It was so different from anything back within the Court where they spent the majority of their lives within the stables.

The longer he lingered, the more he learned, the greater he regretted so much of his life.

Ianthe's naked form disappeared into the frigid waters with nary a splash and for a moment he considered joining her. A pause to think on it made him change his mind. She likely wanted and needed space - time to herself after having been relegated to his forced company for the last week. So instead he moved to a nearby ice sheet that had formed from the last storm up along the shoreline and sat at the ice's edge, pulled off his own boots and dipped his bare feet into the waters. They hissed and steamed as he pushed heat through his body down to his toes.

It would be nice to get a reprieve from having to constantly generate warmth for himself out here. How he would delight in a hot bath. With soap. His hair needed a deep conditioning and a thorough combing. Though it had been in a braid most of the time out here, it was becoming wind-licked and whirled from the salt waters.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe wasn't sure if it was her head still clinging to the last fragments of her iron illness or if she truly was different but the change between forms felt... strange. It came more naturally, like shrugging into an old coat. There was no physical twist of magic she could feel just a rightness to what she did. The salt water tasted crisper, the sounds beneath the waves clearer. Had such a small bit of magic really bound her so much? The kelpie luxuriated in the feeling as she swam along the ocean bed until it fell away to the darker depths below. She skimmed around large icebergs letting the scales of her kelpie form shift from the azure blue to a pale white, making her almost indistinguishable from the berg. Delight filled her. Never had it felt so easy to use her magic.

She felt... free.

Elated, she lost track of the amount of time she spent testing out the new limits of her iron free body. She chased a narwhale across the depths and sated her hunger on a berg miles from shore before finally admitting it might be best to return. The tug to Saang might have gone but an odd almost echo seemed to remain. Or, at least, that is what Ianthe told herself made her want to seek him out and check how he fared. It was still easy to find him; perhaps she merely knew his scent so well at this point she could have followed it across the globe. She shifted back to her two-legged form and pulled herself onto the berg beside him.

"Are you ready for the meeting? Pretty speech all planned?" She teased as she kicked the water.

 

[Saang Lusce]

"Speech?" the fae raised a brow at his companion, "I'm not sure pretty words are going to convince anyone, if what Sorelia says is true."

He hadn't used pretty words with the matriarch, merely the truth. Saang sighed in resignation, gave Ianthe a short look that lingered a little longer than usual along her figure before slumping back onto the ice and closing his eyes against the brightness of the daylight above.

"She did not seem to think it was likely that any other clans would come. Given the history of the kelpies...I cannot say that I blame them. I'll have to seek them out ..." and now they would all be expecting him, though he wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not. "Sevir has offered to take me to the ones he knows. He does not like the idea of me taking their tests to prove myself but I do not know any other way to gain their trust."

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe didn't bother to hide the disgusted face she pulled at the mention of the stallion who had apparently attached himself to Saang in her absence. What made her even more disgusted was that she agreed with the bastard.

"Of course not, it's just not done," she huffed, blowing a strand of wet hair from her face. "I can't believe the Matriarch is even letting you," the kelpie was fairly certain if it were anyone else in the herd she would have skinned them herself, then turned them into a new patchwork cloak. Yet she didn't get the impression she valued Saang any less as a herdmate than her or Sevir.

"It's a stupid idea, but all your ideas have been stupid and yet they keep somehow working."

 

[Saang Lusce]

"It was very nearly her idea..." Saang returned. He'd wondered at the Matriach's keenness about it all and if she truly approved and supported his plan, or if she was simply bored with her peaceful life here and was hoping it would stir up some drama with the other clans. Somehow the latter would not surprise him.

As for his ideas being stupid, he furrowed his brows with a questioning pout, "...thanks?" But she was right. They had worked! The pout bloomed into smug satisfaction at that.

"Where will you go first with your new freedom?" his head turned to the side to look at her, curious and apprehensive for the answer.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe pulled her knees up to her bare chest and rested her chin atop them. It was a questions she had been mulling on since she Saang had promised her her freedom. First in the tentative way hopeless dreamers wondered, then more seriously once the iron poisoning had left her bloodstream and she could feel the glaring absence of the bond.

"Well, I might have to start with rebuilding my reputation with the Goblin Market," Ianthe shot her old owner a glare. The havoc they had wrecked in their mad chase would no doubt have put a dark mark against her name. She would have to sweeten the right goblin in order to get work again from those avenues. "And then... I don't know. Wherever the job takes me. There's oceans out there I've never swam in before."

 

[Saang Lusce]

He made no remark as to her issues with the Goblin Market. Thinking on it still made him cross about what she'd done to his baby sister. Instead he gave a sniff, refusing to make eye contact with her until the subject changed. Had she not run from him in the Market, none of that scene would have played out ... well, at least he liked to think that way. Sybil certainly hadn't helped things, but she wasn't supposed to have been there in the first place.

Maybe he'd grease a few Goblin hands with gold so they might overlook the entire affair...

Concerns far afield from what lay central to his present plans. The Goblins would simply have to wait. The idea of Ianthe swimming halfway across the world drew a concerning tightness in his chest that innately made him want to order her to stay simply because for the entirety of their time together, that was how things had worked.

But he couldn't even bring himself to ask her to stay. Ianthe deserved her freedom, and the whole point of it was to do whatever she wanted with it.

"You know..." Saang began quietly before looking at her again, "you're always welcome at my home," he managed a wane smile for her as he tried not to think of how empty the manor was going to be once he moved forward with his plans to relocate his family, "any time, for any reason. Even if you just want to raid my stores or ... talk. I'm always happy to have you there."



It took a day for the first of the clan leaders to arrive, and three days for the last of those who would bother to heed to call. Four in total had come with small retinues of warriors. There was feasting and celebration, though in truth the tenseness of it all was nearly palpable. Seemed the clans did not meet up often, and when it happened it was normally for marital arrangements or battle. Saang could tell that the leaders did not seem inherently optimistic about it.

But, through some stroke of luck, three of the leaders agreed to allow him to take their trials. The fourth left in a sour blaze of anger. The agreements did not come lightly - the matriarchs petitioned for marital exchanges with Sorelia's clan after seeing the stock of her strong and healthy warrior stallions. Saang kept his mouth shut and let Sorelia work out the details as was her obligation. After a total of five days, the meeting adjourned and the clan leaders took their leave.

Saang, Sevir, and a small host of Sorelia's younger but proven stallions set out for the first clan and the road of trials that lay ahead.

Weeks, months, an entire year passed by.

12 clans had acquiesced to Saang's petitions. The Kelpie Commander now held countless trials to his name and stood decorated by the various marks of each tribe: new tattoos, special braids and talismans, armbands, a trident, various weapons of fine hand crafting, curious trinkets and amulets attached across his wardrobe, brands... the fae could no longer move silently when representing them all. There were still some outliers that were not convinced of his intentions - mostly smaller clans that simply wished to be left alone and one larger clan that had proclaimed to be historical rivals to Sorelia with whom they refused to be associated.

At the end of it all, once Sevir could account for no other norther sea clans, Saang bid the warrior farewell to return to his own home and quietly secure the safety of his family. It took many moons to get it done, but the girls were finally moved to a safe house in the Winter Court and Saang now stood owing the Winter Queen quite a hefty boon. He returned to the Night Court to update the Prince on his work, stayed for a month to visit with his father, and then sent a missive to his favorite free kelpie to join him at the Autumn Court's gala event.

It had not gone at all according to plan.



He'd moved the manor. It now resided in secret along the ice-capped ridges above the sea of a large island situated between Eretejva and the southern Blightlands. Aside from the new locale, nothing else had changed - such was the power of magic and all its many remedies for life.

Deposited onto her bed the night prior, Ianthe would awake in her dress from the event to the smell of breakfast wafting through the manor. Saang bid his aides to leave a large pitcher of salt water, but he did not come to wake her himself. He wasn't about to tempt fate with a hungover sea-squall.

Instead, he sat soaking in his bath tub with a furrow firmly etched into his brow.

 

[Ianthe]

Nobody in the entirety of existence had ever suffered so much as Ianthe was now.

She had been laying sprawled on her stomach, the buttons of her dress half undone where the drunken kelpie had half attempted to get the layers of tule off her in the middle of the night then decidedly given up. She might have continued to lay in such a state, drooling onto the silk pillow case, if the sun hadn't finally reached a point where it slanted directly onto the bed.

"Fuck off," she groaned, first assuming it was Wrongtoe pulling back the curtains in an effort to get her up and on the path to bloodshed. But then memories returned in drips and drabs. Of Wrongtoe being dragged off for a bath and Ianthe...

She groaned and rolled over trying to drag the covers over her head. Motion was a terrible idea. Bolting to her feet she made it to the washroom a second before it was too late.

It was in the deepest pit of feeling sorry for herself that she managed to finally peel herself out of her shambles of a dress and pull on some loose shirt she found in one of the draws. It smelled of roaring fires and summer evenings. Saang. Another memory rose from the fogs of her alcohol riddled mind and she grimaced. Had he carried her .....? She had been about to say home when she realised this was not in fact her home.

Had he taken her to his home?

Oh Dark Goddess help me.

With great care she peeked out of the door and was greeted by the smell of frying bacon. Humiliation briefly forgotten she followed the smell.

 

[Saang Lusce]

It would be the quietest and stillest Ianthe had ever experienced the manor's state of affairs. Where the sounds of Saang's many sisters normally filled the halls, sometimes excruciatingly loud, there was only silence. Where frenetic movement and jubilance bounced from room to room, all was empty.

Saang hated it here now. Every single thing reminded him of his family that he could not see lest he put their secret new life in peril for the spies within and without the Night Court. That no one had caught on they no longer resided at the manor was a miracle in itself. Luckily, most people cared rather little for the women of the Lusce family. Luckier still, most people also included his father.

He languished in the tub. The water remained hot (as it ever would with him in it) but the bubbles had long since vanished over the twilight hours. He was vaguely aware of the pruney nature of his fingers and toes, but two empty bottles of wine and no food since before he'd dressed and left for the gala rendered him careless of such things.


Down the halls and near the smaller solar, the sound of light humming Ianthe would know belonging to one of the Lusce estate's many Hands could be heard. Dewla had served the Lusce family for as long as she could remember and had never bothered to find another life for the very reason that those considered to be lesser were treated so well here. Even if Saang had bid them all free to leave, she among a small few others, had remained to serve.

When Ianthe arrived to the scene of a healthy breakfast set out on the solar table, Dewla turned with a small startle, "Oh! Miss Ianthe, forgive me I did not know you had awaken. I was going to come find you but... well," the little fae offered a smile, "I see that's not necessary. Please help yourself! Lord Saang has not yet waken."

 

[Ianthe]

It took one careful peak out of the windows to confirm the suspicion Saang had brought her all the way back to the Night Court. Winter perpetually held the icy tundras where the Court held its seat, but true winter was something different. Thick banks of snow turned the Lusce gardens into a featureless landscape. Only the odd bulge here or there told her where the bushes or fountains were hidden. She shivered despite the warmth of the manor and hurried on.

Ianthe hesitated in the doorway of the grand solar. She remembered distantly this was actually one of the smaller solars where the family chose to eat when they were not having company, but for the kelpie it was grand and she, woefully underdressed. She regretted not at least hunting for breeches. Stupid bacon. Stupid kelpie, she cursed herself and eyed up the other fae.

"It's just Ianthe, Dewla. You've known me for two hundred years," she grunted and finally let her stomach win out the internal debate over whether or not to go back to the room she had woken in. Plopping herself down in one of the plush chairs she crossed her legs and set about heaping up a plate of eggs, bacon and bread. "I won't disturb him, I'll be gone before he wakes," and not cause him another headache. "Don't suppose you have some more practical clothing? My stash was at the... other... place," she eyed the servant up, unsure if she knew where the Lusce women were.

 

[Saang Lusce]

Dewla smiled meekly despite her protests but this little fae would not be giving up the formalities so easily. This was still the house of her Lord and Ianthe was her Lord's honored guest.

"I believe there should be an assortment of clothing for you in your room's wardrobe," she replied, trying at a touch of humor, "more to your taste. There's not much left here aside from his Lord's belongings and what he's kept for you."



He really should get out of the bath. Though he'd lost track of the hour, it had to be morning by now and he didn't want for Ianthe to go scurrying away without a word. A grunt bubbled up under his nose as his eyes slivered open like two pinpricks of candle flames withering at the bottom of their wicks. With great effort and rather less grace than was usual, Saang lifted himself steaming from the water and pulled on a plush black bathrobe.

Bacon. His stomach growled and his feet followed his nose.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe scrunched up her nose at the thought of wearing more of Saangs clothing. Maybe he had kept some of the kelpie uniforms she had once worn under the Old King, though the thought of putting on the garb made something inside of her shrivel. To distract herself from analysing that when her head pounded she shovelled a overflowing forkful of eggs and bacon into her mouth.

"I 'idnf fee anfin' in therf," not that she had looked very hard. She had been more concerned with remembering how to stand upright when the room spun. Swallowing she picked up the steaming mug of coffee and began to gulp that down too.

 

[Saang Lusce]

"No?" Dewla pressed a tiny hand to her lips in confusion, "How odd. I wonder if perhaps they were mistakenly shifted to another room during the move. I will find them for you, dear."

With a flutter of her wings, she zipped out of the room before popping her head back in, "If you need anything just ring the bell!"

Ianthe was left to her feasting in silence for several minutes longer. Even still, when he arrived to the open entrance of the room, Saang stopped himself at the sight of her. Hunched over the table, stuffing her face as though she'd just returned from war, wearing one of his lounge shirts. Odd, where had she found that thing? No matter, he wasn't going to complain - no, the duannan was simply going to stand there and enjoy the view for a bit longer.

Tired as he was. Hungry. With so many words needing to be said.

Nope, this half-naked ravenous sea storm at his breakfast table was about the closest thing to a dream he could imagine without being asleep. A warm, doleful smile slowly sank into his expression.