Marked By The Unseelie

Chapter 4 Nightmare

    "I'm sorry, Liv. It's for your own good. You just put yourself at too much risk. I can't help but worry about you all the time. I mean, just look at you now. You-"

    "I understand." I grabbed her hand as I told her this. "I'll head home tomorrow morning."

    My mother was shocked when she heard me agreeing without so much as a fight. She was speechless for a bit as her mouth hung open. "I-It's nice that you understand, Liv. I...guess that you must have experienced something scary, but not that you have to talk about it!" She quickly adds when she sees how I grimaced at the topic. "I'll leave you for a while so you can arrange your things. If you need me, just give me a call, alright? Your phone is at the table by the kitchen."

    "Got it!" I tried giving her a thumbs up, but my hand started to hurt from my wounds that were now wrapped with a bandage. 

    My mother chuckled. The keys on her belt clanged together when she got to her feet. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

    I nodded. "I promise not to go anywhere this time."

    "You better, or I will personally drive you back home myself." She jokingly gives me a warning look before finally leaving the trailer.

    I relaxed on my foldable bed while trying to remember my dream. Somehow, I feel like it wasn't just a normal dream. I feel like it's a memory.

    "What a strange creature that was..." I mumbled to myself, allowing the memory to sink in.

    "What kind of strange creature are you talking about?"

    I coughed when I choked on my saliva. Who wouldn't after seeing the same fairy that tried to kill you earlier?

    Zhier.

    I pressed myself against the wall and covered my body with my blanket as if it was going to keep me protected from the fairy in the trailer with me.

    Of all the times that I don't have my phone with me, it had to be now.

    "Relax, human." Zhier's voice was calm when he pulled the chair that my mother had previously occupied and pulled it so he could sit closer to me. "I am not going to hurt you. Believe me when I say it because, unlike your race, we are not capable of lying."
    "D-doesn't seem that way earlier."

    "I admit. I was not in my very best mood, as you people would call it." He brushed back his long blue hair before looking back at me. "I was under a lot of stress looking for the unseelie prince."

    I was observing him carefully. By his tone and actions, it seems like he was more calmer now compared to when he was at the forest. Maybe he really means it when he says that he is not here to harm me.

    "What do you even need the...unseelie prince for?"
    Zhier scoffs. "It's for mortals like you to know because you won't even understand."

    "You can try to tell me and I'll try to understand." Zhier shot me a dirty look after that, making me raise my hand in surrender. "If you're going to get me involved in this, the least you can do is to tell me what's going on...?"

    He sneers at me but decides to tell me anyway. "My name is Zhier Khievs. I am the seelie prince of the fairy realm. Right now, our world is at war with the unseelie kingdom because that asshole Klovis decided to disappear. The unseelie think that we have their prince and won't stop attacking until we hand him over! As the seelie prince, I left my kingdom in order to search for him."

"In the human realm?" I questioned him. "Why did you think about looking for the unseelie prince here?"

"I heard that the unseelie prince likes to lurk in the human realm, which is why I am here. I sensed his magic closeby during the fire and that's how I found you and this mark." He grabbed my uninjured hand and showed me the inverted triangle scar at the back of my hand. "This is his mark right here and I can sense his magic. Human, if you know something about him, you have to tell me." He meets my gaze with unfaltering determination.        I drew my hand back and clutch it to my chest. "If I could, I would tell you, but I can't even remember how I got this mark! I was in an accident when I got this, making my memory a little...fuzzy. I was in a comma for months!"

    Zhier was studying me closely. He leans back against the chair and meets my gaze like he was weighing my words.

    "It doesn't seem like you're lying." He concludes. "But that does not mean that I am going to fully trust your words." He gets up and hands me a blue leaf. Without even thinking, I accepted it. "I have to go soon. If you remember something about the unseelie prince, just blow on the leaf to call me."

    I glanced at the leaf before turning to face him. "I don't really know how to whistle using a leaf. And even if I managed to, how do I know that you can hear it?"

    "That leaf is coated with my magic. It does not matter how low you whistle, I will still hear it. I am expecting some news from you in the future, human. Have a merry pleasant sleep - or whatever it is that you humans say to have a good sleep."

    "It's goodnight."

    "Ah, yes. That." He waves away my correction as if he does not even care about it. "Goodnight."

    Then, in just a blink of an eye, the seelie prince before me disappeared and was replaced by a massive blue creature that had the body of a cat and the wings and head of a falcon. It stared at me for a brief moment before exiting the trailer through an open window by the kitchen.