Folk of the Air One-Shots

Let's Kill Tonight

"May your feet serve you well, 

And the rest be sent to hell

Where they always have belonged.

Cold hearts grow colder songs. 

Fate will play us out

With a song of pure romance.

Stomp your feet and clap your hands.

Let's kill tonight, show them all you're not the ordinary type."

It wasn't the Jude enjoyed killing. In fact, the courtesy rules surrounding all actions in Elfhame prevented her from seeking it as a first, second, or even third option. But as ashamed as the High Queen was to admit it, she enjoyed riding into battle with the King at her side, Nightfell slung at her hip. She felt powerful, and that was a feeling she had always sought. 

Though Cardan was in many ways a figurehead of the High Royals, Jude had begun to carve a name for herself in battles between settlements. This fact had gone unaware to her for quite a while, until one day when she heard someone cry as her horse beat its hooves along the sand, leading to a battle between a rebelling Undersea militia and an Unseelie territory bordering the ocean. 

"The Warrior Queen has arrived!" she heard a high voice declared, followed by grateful cheers and whoops from the Unseelie Folk. Now facing her direction, Jude got a true sense of how badly ravaged the settlement had been, with bodies strewn about with water and seaweed still blocking their noses and mouths. 

With only a passing thought for the expectation the new title would bring her, Jude charged through the clearest line of division and used Nightfell to knock down the blue and green warriors to her right. Having cleared the other side, the Queen jumped off her steed and ran into the thick of the Undersea group. If her father had taught her anything, it was that nothing was more effective than a surprise. 

Surrounded on all sides by every type of merfolk imaginable, Jude circled and diverted the militia's attention from the settlement. She jabbed at middles, scraped gashes like gills into necks, and kicked at unsteady legs as quickly as she possibly could. 

The circle around her, though thinning, was beginning to tighten into a claustrophobic ring of enemies. 

Jude tried not to let panic over take her as she ignored the mumbles of the Folk around her. "How much I've always wanted to kill a queen," a ghastly white creature with exposed nostrils snarled before taking a slash of the sword to the face. 

"Mortal blood tastes the best," said a creature like kelp personified before meeting a similar fate.

Jude felt her breath quicken as weapons and fingernails began to tear at her hair, clothes, and skin. She felt as if the Undersea fighters could smell her fear, and relished in the mouse-like gasp she gave as she felt something cool and sharp slash at the back of her neck. 

Immediately Jude's vision went blurry, but she pushed through a faltering in the circle to regroup and recover. Much to her dismay, the Unseelie fighters were still vastly outnumbered, though the casualties strewn about were beginning to appear more equal.

 She steeled herself and charged forward, but the weight of Nightfell suddenly grew too heavy. The High Queen of Elfhame, daughter of Madoc the Redcap, Warrior Queen, fell disgracefully to the ground. 

---

When Jude woke again, it was against a white canvas lain over something knobby and rough. She blinked her sticky eyes open and gazed between leafless branches of tree to the purple sky above, and attempted to sit up before being pushed roughly back to the ground. 

"Remain still, my Queen," a voice said from beside Jude, much closer than she had expected. She attempted to turn her head towards the sound, but the action sent a dull throb of pain through the back of her neck and into her school. 

A bony, thin hand stroked Jude's hair as she groaned and shut her eyes again. "The castle has been alerted and is sending someone back to retrieve you," the voice said again, in a rough voice not unlike a fairytale witch's. 

"No..." Jude tried to get out. "Not...not the castle. They didn't--." She was cut short by a hacking cough that was laced with whimpers as her head moved with the effort. The creature to her left seemed unconcerned, and only laughed. 

"Was the Warrior Queen not meant to be out?" it asked tauntingly. "Is the Warrior Queen so fragile?"

The voice and its supposed owner had shown Jude kindness so far, but the words had a bite to them that made her feel threatened. With minimal movement, she tensed up like a frightened animal. "I'm not--" she began before swallowing a repeating slightly more comfortably. "I'm not a lap dog. They don't control me." The declaration was meant to sound fierce and regal, but really came out sounding more like a defensive child. 

The voice chuckled and began stroking Jude's hair again. "Is--is the town okay?" she asked after a few moments, already feeling her eyes getting heavier. She didn't hear the answer as she drifted off again. 

---

When Jude awoke again, she was lain in a cot in the dark chambers of the infirmary. Through a series of tall windows on side of the room she could tell it was bright outside, almost midday. This time, there was a glass of water on the tray to her left, which she gladly picked up. In trying to raise it to her lips, however, she felt a great throb of pain from her neck and spilled the water over her blood stained bodice. 

"Jude? Are you awake?" came a familiar tenor voice from the other side. Jude slowly turned her head to the direction, but hissed at the migraine forming with the effort. The voice chuckled and Cardan reached his hands to her waist, helping hoist her body up by the hips to sit up straight. 

"I need to change the bandages on your neck, but the cut wasn't too deep. Just poorly placed," he explained before ripping a damp fabric from the nap of her neck. Jude saw the red soaked bandage thrown into a bin to the side before feeling a much cleaner one placed in the same spot. "It has a soothing oil on it, so you should feel better in a minute." 

Jude began the same sentence a few times before giving up and gesturing towards the now empty water cup on her lap. Cardan laughed again--a chuckle that sounded menacing but she knew reflected the King's worry. He picked up the glassware and filled it from a vase behind him before lifting the drink to Jude's lips. 

"Are they okay?" she asked once the liquid was down her throat, swallowing the remnants of her deep sleep with it.

"Yes. The healer who handed you over to me--a hag of a woman, if you were curious--said you were quite valiant. I believe that heard 'reckless', though. Maybe it was 'idiotic'."

"They needed help, and I heard the call," Jude tried to explain, but it didn't matter. The Queen wasn't supposed to get herself injured, no matter how noble the reason. 

"I know, Jude. But we've talked about this before. Send some soldiers. But you can't send yourself." 

"Why not?" she asked, a note of anger rising into her voice. "They call me the Warrior Queen, Cardan. They cheered for me. They wanted me." 

A beat of silence passed before Cardan answered, this time softly. "They'll want you no matter what, Jude. You don't need to prove yourself by putting yourself in danger."

Both of them quieted in the uncomfortable silence of a true statement. 

Cardan stood off his stool and scooted himself next to Jude on the too small cot, careful to move gently. She laid back again, hinging at the hips, and he turned and wrapped an arm around her as she closed her eyes. "You don't need to prove yourself," he whispered, kissing her shoulder and settling in as she drifted into another round of dreams.