Six fae came around the corner, four males and two females. Each one of them was wearing traditional fae armour of bark and silk fabric harvested from vines. Silk she knew was almost indestructible.
The armour consisted of deep green silk shirts and trousers. A thick slab of bark shielded their chests and shoulders, another wedge strapped to their forearms and shins. Each fae, regardless of gender, had mandatory training making them all deadly skilled with weapons, especially a bow and arrow. Each fae also made their own protective masks, each one individual to their creator. Although they varied in size and colour all were the length of their creators face with cutouts for the eyes and mouth.
Aislyn remembered Nikolas telling her about the masks and how they one had one for the entirety of their lives, a traditional ritual sealing a protective element to them. To have an honourable funeral, a fae should be laid to rest wearing their mask.
Aislyn didn't know where Nikolas' mask was. Or his body.
Snapping back to focus, Aislyn focused in on the fact that all the fae a bow and arrow aimed in their direction.
"Go on then, spit it out," she snapped at them.
"Queen Minerva is no longer fit to rule," hissed another voice from behind them.
Aislyn whirled around to behold another eight fae emerging from their hiding spots amongst the foliage.
"Shit on a stick," mumbled Aislyn, whipping her head side to side trying to keep both groups in eyesight.
"Why, my child, do you find me no longer capable to be your queen?"
"You couldn't even keep your own son alive- he was killed by her kind," said one female, pointing towards Aislyn, "by her and yet you still treat her like she is going to be next to the throne."
"She will never be our queen!" shouted one of the males, drawing his bow even tighter.
"Calm down," ordered Aislyn, "I don't want to be the queen of anything!"
"You would be so lucky to have her ruling our people," reasoned Minerva, looking out from behind Aislyn's shoulder.
"Not helping," muttered Aislyn, now beginning to push Minerva towards one of the walls so she could better watch the two groups,
"Look, Queen Minerva wasn't responsible for her son's death, the man who I am tracking down is. You don't have t-"
"Are you saying that it wasn't your fault that Prince Nikolas is dead?"
"No, but-"
"Then, you're guilty," shouted the male from earlier.
He released the arrow and sent it soaring towards Aislyn.
With one hand, Aislyn reached behind her and shoved Minerva to the ground and with the other, she raised it into the air and flicked two fingers.
The arrow changed its course and instead, went flying towards another male from the other group, going straight through his eye.
The two groups shouted and raised their bows but before another arrow could be fired, Aislyn flung out her two arms sending out a tsunami of wind barrelling into the fae, sending them flying backwards.
As they busied themselves getting back to onto their feet, Aislyn bent down and pulled a small knife from one of her boots and handed it to Minerva.
"Stay down, don't move," she told her and then encased her into a cage of lighting.
She had to think quick. She had never killed a fae before. What was it Nikolas had told her about killing his kind, she thought to herself.
Aislyn woke from her fainting spell to see Nikolas' face leaning over her.
She yelped and pushed him away, scooting back. It took her a few seconds to gather her bearings, took her a few seconds to look at the scared faces and remember what had happened.
Looking around, she saw nothing but forest.
"Where are we?"
"In the forest," grinned Nikolas.
"Yeah, no shit," she muttered, "How long was I out?"
"About an hour."
Aislyn jumped at hearing the deep voice from behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, Aislyn saw Galen sitting not too far behind her, his massive arms crossed over his chest.
"Only? Shit. We have to go. We're not far enough away."
She lifted herself to her feet and stooped over to pull Kaighen to her feet, grasping her little hand tightly. She then turned to Galen and gestured to the fish-creature.
"Do you think you can carry him... Galen, isnt it?"
"Yeah."
Aislyn turned to look at Nikolas for a moment nad then gestured with her head, "Lets go. Quickly."
Aislyn figured that she should be the one to take charge, she had been the one to set everyone else free, so she felt responsible.
On a whole, none of them seemed to be in too bad of a state. Kaighen, she found out, had a healing power and it was because of her, Aislyn was back on her feet in such a short time. Galen was a little shaken up but physically he wasn't in bad shape. The fish-man, who couldn't speak, she guessed he hadn't been trapped for long, he didn't have the haunted look in his eyes that only came from time locked away.
Nikolas was something different though.
When she first met him, she was shocked at his appearance, although looking around at their little group now, she figured that she looked the most normal.
She felt oddly connected to her little entourage. She had hardly exchanged more than a few words with any of them, yet she felt comfortable in their presence.
She led the group aimlessly through the forest where spent the remainder of the day hiking through the woods, stopping only to drink from streams or to relieve themselves.
Finally, once Aislyn could see it was starting to get dark did Aislyn call the group to halt.
"I think we should cam here for the night."
The had stopped next to a river so the fish-man, or Finn, as Aislyn referred to him in her head, could spend the night in water. With help from Galen, they made a small bonfire, warm enough to take the chill away from the night air.
One fire and one uncomfortably quiet conversation later and the others had drifted off to sleep, trusting Aislyn when she said she would keep watch.
Amidst the gentle snoring of her travel companions, Aislyn was watching Nikolas. From the information she had gathered, he had been trapped almost as long as she had. Yet there was a lightness on his shoulder where there was a heaviness on hers. There was a... feeling she got from him, one she couldn't identify.
All day she had watched him from the corner of her eye. Seen how he had joked with Kaighen, carried her when she got tired, how he had made attempts at communication with Finn, how he even prised a laugh from Galen. She listened to his strange accent and strange way he talked.
She had only met him that day but she felt drawn to him in a way she didn't understand. Yet she was so tired, so fed-up, that she couldn't even muster the energy to reply to him when he talked to her.
Now she was watching him as he was lying on his back, looking up at the sky.
"What are you?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
Nikolas turned to look at her and propped himself up on one elbow. Aislyn watched as his 'wings' moved and rustled in the gentle breeze.
"I'm a fae."
"'Fae'?"
"Yes."
"That's it?" She laughed, "That's all you've got to say about it?"
Nikolas grinned and once again Aislyn was taken aback at his sharp teeth. She thought he should look menacing but... he didn't."
"We fae are the opposite of your kind. You are meat and we are plants."
"You can't be a plant," retorted Aislyn drawing her knees to her chest, "I mean you're living and breathing like me."
Nikolas got to his feet and walked around the bonfire, throwing himself onto the ground next to Aislyn.
Strange. Aislyn thought to herself. When he sat down next to her, she got a whiff of something. For some reason, he smelt of fresh rain.
"I'm not lying," he chuckled. Very softly, he reached for her hand and pulled the tattered rags of his shirt up. He guided her hand to his chest and held it there.
"See? I don't have a beating heart like you do."
True enough, Aislyn felt no movement beneath his skin. Green skin that was soft and cold to the touch.
She slowly drew her hand away.
"So you don't have any blood?"
In response, Nikolas brought his hand up to his face and bit down. A light green liquid oozed out.
"Taste it," he said pushing his hand towards her.
"What? No!" She said, laughing.
"Trust me."
Sceptically, Aislyn leaned forward, trepidation evident. Nikolas lifted his hand and Aislyn stared at it for a moment before quickly licking away the liquid.
Immediately, she recoiled and even pulled a face before registering the taste in her mouth.
"Wha-What is that?"
"Sap," he replied, tearing a little strip from his shirt and tying it around the puncture wounds.
"This cut won't heal until the sun comes out."
"How comes?"
"Fae heal in the sun. It gives us energy. That, and sugar water but we don't seem to have any sugar lying around."
"No... So as long as you have sunlight you're immortal?"
"I'm not sure what that means..."
"Um, that you never die."
"In theory, if life was perfect with no complications. But illness in my people is not uncommon and we can be killed."
"How?"
Nikolas fell back onto his elbows and chuckled, looking up at the sky.
"I've just met you and you already want to know the different ways I can be killed."
"I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me."
Nikolas waved off her apology and said, "Well there are a couple of ways I suppose. Think of me as a flower."
"A flower?"
"Yes. Although we don't have any lungs, we can still drown, just as you can over-water a flower. We can be burned. Cut a vein and we lose a lot of sap. Snap our stems-"
"'Stems'?"
"The things we have throughout our bodies, they can be broken. You have similar things," he replied smacking his arm.
"Do you mean 'bones'?"
"I suppose, if that's what you call them. Also, we can't live without our roots," he said tapping his head.
Aislyn gathered that he was referring to his brain.
"Without our roots, just like a flower, we cease to exist."
"Fascinating."
Aislyn rocked back on her heels and pondered over all the new information she had received.
She had never considered the possibility of another species but in hindsight, she found that to be a naïve notion. And, even though Nikolas had said they were opposites, she figured they were more alike than he knew. They both were corporeal, after all.
"And the wings?"
"Pardon?"
"Your wings," she repeated, gesturing to his back.
"Oh," he said, turning to look over his shoulder, "They do look like wings, I guess. Well, actually, they're just petals."
"Ahh, I was wondering why you hadn't just flown away."
"I could have if I wanted to... not fly but I have another means of travel."
"What?"
"Fae, being plants ourselves, can travel through the trees."
"Bullshit."
"What does that me-"
"Nevermind that. How can you travel through them?"
"I don't know the specifics, I doubt anyone does, but when I place my hand on the bark, the tree sucks me in and when I open my eyes, I'm standing inside a tunnel- except it doesn't really look like one. It has its own flora growing inside, with its own sun and moon. Don't," he began, raising his hand to cut of her open mouth, "Don't ask me how. I don't know. Just think of it as magic."
Hearing a branch snapping behind her, Aislyn's head whipped to the source of the sound. Squinting, she focused on a owl that had just landed. When she registered what she was seeing, she blinked a few times. For some reason, she could see twenty feet off into pitch darkness. Shaking the bizarre feeling from her head, she turned back to Nikolas, who was, in turn, staring at her.
"So why havent you left? Why havent you travelled through the trees?"
"Because of you."
"Me?"
"Yes. You're different. I can feel it. There's something different about you."
"There's something different about all of us," she retorted, gesturing to her strange little group.
"Yes," began Nikolas, getting to his knees in front of her, "but you're special. I fear you will laugh if I am truthful, but in all honesty I feel inexplicably drawn to you."
Aislyn knew what he was talking about. She felt it too. But she didn't return the sentiment aloud to him.
"Plus, you're beautiful."
Aislyn rolled her eyes and raised an eyebrow at him.
"You fascinate me," he whispered, reaching out to twirl a strand of her hair between his fingers.
"Stealing my word there."
Nikolas grinned and replied, "I suppose that make you my flower then, doesn't it?"
Drowning, burning, stabbing, decapitation.
Aislyn listed off all her possible options, taking a moment to assess her next action.
By the time Aislyn had got to her feet and turned to face her assailants, one of the females had already gotten to her feet and sent another arrow hurtling towards her.
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