The Goddess's Chosen

The Fae Court

The water was cool, but not cold, and the bottom of the pond didn’t feel like you’d expect, as it was solid. It only took a moment, but as soon as we were submerged completely, we came out on the other side completely dry, my guess is that it wasn’t so much a pond as it was a portal. Our surroundings were similar to what they were before, yet more vibrant, and no sign of human interference anywhere. There were large deer like creatures with huge antlers, and their fur was a bright white color. The birds in the sky were large, and seemed to be whistling melodic songs. The trees were far larger than the ones in the human realm, and the flowers were twice and bright in color. The temperature was perfect, it was dry and sunny and I could have easily lounged on the beach all day in this weather. The magic feeling was slightly less intense here, but not by much. I could tell that this was where I was supposed to go. I looked around and counted, making sure all seven of us were here, once satisfied, we released one another, except for Gabe and Rachelle holding my hands, and began walking. I was still following that feeling and leading the way. I did notice that here, the magic had an almost audible hum that sounded like bells, though I couldn’t tell if I heard it aloud or in my head. We walked a while, following the pull of the magic, I could not help but take in the beauty that was the Fae realm. The colors were more vivid, almost technicolor, and the sky was a gorgeous shade of blue without a single cloud in it. We saw a jackalope, which I was always told were fake, a made-up rabbit with antlers, but here they were hopping all over the place. After walking for a while longer, we could see smoke rising in the distance, and we knew that it meant someone would be there, or we had hoped any ways. Coming out of the trees there was a river separating the forest from a field, with a cobblestone bridge to cross over. We could see the source of the smoke now; it was a large bonfire. We approached it cautiously, watching our surroundings. I had a bad feeling about this, but I had no idea why, or what would happen. As we approached, I swear I could hear flapping wings, and I noticed that what we thought was a bonfire, wasn’t a bonfire, but a home that had been caught on fire. “HELP ME!” I heard a male's voice with a thick Irish accent calling out from under some rubble. I wiggled free from Gabe and Rachelle’s grips, and ran to the pile of rubble and found a man trapped underneath. All I could see was his face, he had a heart shaped face and round, green eyes. His hair was short and a reddish brown and had a similarly colored beard. “I’ll help you!” I told the man, and tried lifting the rubble and debris off him, but even with the werewolf strength I couldn’t do it alone. “GUYS, COME HELP, SOMEONE IS TRAPPED!” I shouted to my companions and everyone rushed over. With six of us lifting, we easily lifted the debris and Rachelle pulled the man free. “Thank you so much, I thought I was a goner for sure.” He said, his accent even thicker than I had previously thought, where his thank came out as tank and thought sounded more like taught. Rachelle and I helped the man to his feet. “We need to go, now.” he said, leading us back towards the forest we had just come from. “What happened?” I asked, trying to keep up with the surprisingly quick fae man. He was shorter than me, but taller than Rachelle by just an inch or so. He was thin, but you could tell he was fit, and not overly muscled, and Rachelle could not take her eyes off him. Oh great, another pairing. I thought to myself, though I am glad Rachelle was showing interest in someone. I had never seen her interested in any man, and I knew some of the adults had questioned whether she was even into men or not. Not that it mattered, I couldn’t care less, she was a loyal friend and I’d be happy to have her by my side no matter what. “We were attacked, my fellow warriors and I. I am the only one that survived, they had left the barracks, but I stayed.” he said as we reached crossed the bridge and entered into the forest. “Name’s Kheelan.” He said, but before anyone could introduce themselves, Rachelle spoke up. “I’m Rachelle, and this is Cassandra, and Gabriel, but we call him Gabe, and Ava and Varwen, and Clara and Camden.” She introduced everyone for us and we all backed off and let her do her thing. She was not overly social so seeing her want to talk to Kheelan made me smile. “Lovely to meet you all.” He said, but he looked as he looked over each of us, his expression changed from thankful to very confused. “Yer not fae...” he said, c*****g his head. “Well, we are witches” Rachelle pointed at herself, me, Gabe, Clara and Ava. “He is a werewolf,” she motioned to Camden, “and an Elf...” she pointed at Varwen. Kheelan’s face had an apprehensive tone to it, but it seemed to relax a little. “So, what attacked you?” Camden asked what was on my mind as well. “Was a Dullahan, a fae demon of sorts.” He explained. “The attacks haven’t happened in thousands of years, but our Goddess, Áine, hasn’t been here to protect us.” he said. “Hecate mentioned her in my vision, before entering the portal.” I said to no one in particular. “You speak to Hecate?” Kheelan questioned, “but I thought no one has spoken to her since ancient times.” he said. “Is this a safe place to talk, will the Dullahan come back?” I asked. “They cannae cross the river.” he told me matter of factly, so I gave him the entire rundown on everything we have been through and what we were doing. I couldn’t help but trust him, something in my gut told me that he was important. As I was speaking, he nodded his head and really seemed to be paying attention. I could also tell that every now and then, he would steal a glance at Rachelle. It was cute. “What happened to your Goddess?” Varwen asked. “She went looking for Hecate in the human realm. She knew that Hecate had started a family, but when no one had heard from her in a thousand years, Áine got nervous, and went to look for her. She had learned that the hunters had captured Hecate, but that was the last we heard. We isolated ourselves ever since she disappeared.” Kheelan said. “But, wait a sec, I thought that humans still wandered into this realm occasionally.” Gabe asked. Kheelan nodded. “Aye. They do. But only if we allow them to. We have had hunters searching for our portal since Áine left us, so we have taken measures. Only allowing in those that could give us something in return for their deepest wishes.” He explained. I guess that made sense, otherwise the hunters could just come in whenever and probably destroy everything, though it got me thinking about what Hecate said. What would they ask from me? “So, what were you doing out here?” Clara asked. “It was our turn to patrol the border at the portal. We take turns. My fellow warriors fell trying to fight the Dullahan.” Kheelan said mournfully. “I told them it was a bad idea, that we should use this,” he held up a busted medallion that he had pulled from a pouch he was wearing on his waist, “to contact the Fae court and ask them how to proceed. They didn’t listen.” He shoved the medallion back into his pocket and stood up straighter. “No time to lollygag now, we best be getting back to the court.” He said, trying to hide that he was tearing up. I knew how he felt, having people that you care about die around you. Rachelle reached out to comfort him, not even hesitating, and he let her. “How do we get to the Fae court?” I asked. “We have to go back out there, it's about a kilometer and a half.” Kheelan said, pointing past the wreckage of the guard's barracks. Great, another mile to go. I thought bitterly. “Wait, these demons, do they fly?” I asked, hoping that they didn’t. Kheelan shook his head. Thank the goddess. I thought again. We crossed the bridge and Kheelan as looking around nervously. I concentrated and called forth Alya and Vodnik. I felt like it took a little more to call them to me here, but it worked and that was all that mattered to me. “Holy s**t, the hell are those?” Kheelan said, taking a step backwards, as the large dragons appeared before me. Vodnik let out a low, grumbling laugh. “They are elemental spirits. They are good. I promise, and, they have agreed to give us a ride across the field.” I said, walking to Alya and bowing my head in respect, and she bowed back. “Thank you, Alya. Vodnik” I said, bowing my head to Vodnik. “You are very welcome.” he said in a low and thick Czech accent. “Gabe, Rachelle and Kheelan will ride Alya, and Ava, Varwen, Clara and Camden, Vodnik said he could give you a ride as well.” I said, already mounting Alya. Everyone else quickly mounted their dragon and we lifted into the air. Vodnik didn’t have wings, like Alya, but he could still fly, and I am sure it made for a more comfortable riding situation, but Alya and I had a connection. We began flying when an ugly troll looking creature came sprinting towards us, blowing flames at us as we flew away. “THATS THE DULLAHAN!” Kheelan shouted from behind me. Vodnik summoned a water spout from the river and doused the demon, angering it, and Alya flapped her wings and caused a strong wind to blow the demon far away from us, nearly into the river, but it rebounded off an invisible force field. Not waiting to see what happened next, Alya and Vodnik took off flying in the direction of the Fae court.  

   It did not take long before we could see another tree line, and then a sprawling, dazzling cityscape. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, though I am not even sure I know what that was. It was more modern meets fairy tale cottages, but it was harder to see from this height. The dragons started to descend right before the tree line as to not cause a scene flying over the city on the other side. Once we landed, I thanked both Alya and Vodnik. “Would you like for us to check the demon situation?” Vodnik asked. I shook my head. “That d another battle for another day.” I said, and he bowed and then he and Alya disappeared, leaving the 8 of us to walk towards the fae city. “The city is called Raven’s Hedge.” Kheelan explained as we came out of the line, and were faced with a magnificent city scape. The buildings were not sky scrapers, but were easily four to five stories tall. The buildings all had that fairytale cottage feel to them, but more modernized. They were made of brick and stone, and most were either ivory or tan in color. The roofs were all designed to look as if they were thatched, but were most likely made of carved wood or clay. There were brightly colored lights hanging everywhere and flowers, trees and bushes were abundant. Things seemed to be a bit more normal here. The animals looked more like animals in the human realm, but each of them slightly different. The cats were brightly colored, and had tiny translucent wings. There were ravens, and they were dark purple, not the normal bluish black like in the human realm. I even saw a bunny that had two long tails, and not the little cotton ball type you’d normally see, and they were brightly colored as well. Everything here was beautiful and full of color and life. As we walked through the streets, we gained a lot of strange looks from the locals. They were all shorter in stature, like Kheelan, but some were blonde and some had radical colors, like pink, blue or green. “The ones that are more colorful, are gnomes. They have no powers, but are excellent gardeners and love bright colors.” Kheelan whispered to us. We walked farther and I noticed that there were unicorns pulling carts, but no vehicles. “There are unicorns?!?” Rachelle squealed, gaining more looks from the locals. Kheelan smiled and grasped her hand and dragged her to a stable, and we all followed. Up close, the Unicorns were far more enchanting than I had thought. “Can I pet them?” Rachelle asked excitedly. Kheelan nodded. “This is my mother's stable. She raised them from tiny calves.” He said, petting one of the four unicorns in the stable. “This is girl is Solstice.” He pointed at the unicorn in the back. She had a yellowish fur that looked like warm moonlight and a white mane. Her horn was a pearlescent white and yellow color, and her eyes were golden yellow. “These two are Mystic, she's a girl, and Chanted, a boy, they’re twins, which is ultra-rare.” Mystic was a shimmering dark blue with dark purple mane. Her horn was a pearlescent blue and purple, and her eyes were a light purple color. Chanted was solid black, except for his silver-colored mane and silver horn. His eyes were also a silver color. “And this beauty, is Sterling. She is Solstice and Chanted’s calf.” He said as he pet the largest mare in the stable. Everything from her fur, to her mane, and her horn were a pure, pearlescent white, and her eyes were a light grey color. She was gorgeous, and more what I would have imagined a unicorn to be. “White mares are rare these days.” he said, more to Rachelle than anyone else. We all pet the unicorns and their fur was softer than anything I had ever touched before. While I was petting the unicorns, I heard a loud ca-caw, that broke me from my reverie. I large, deep purple raven, landed on the fence around the stable, and kept staring at me. I turned to her and slowly approached and held my hand out. “Hey gorgeous.” I said softly, not wanting to scare her away. She only c****d her head. ‘You are Cassandra, are you not?’ a soft chirpy voice with an Irish accent sounded in my head, causing me to stop moving towards the bird. ‘I am Brenna, and I have been looking for you since your arrival in Ireland. I felt your presence.’ Brenna’s chirpy voice sounded in my head again. “I can hear you?” I asked quietly, so none of my companions would hear me talking to a bird and think that I was losing my mind.  ‘And I you, but you needn’t talk aloud for me to hear.’ She said. ‘I am your familiar, and whenever you need me, just think my name and I will be there.’ I walked towards her, and reached my hand out to her. She instantly jumped and perched on my arm. She was sturdier than I would have thought. I turned around with her on my arm, and saw that not only had my friends noticed my interaction with a bird, but they all looked at me like I had grown a second head. “What?” I asked, feeling slightly self-conscious. “Your familiar found you, then, deary?” A womans voice came from the direction of the house, beside the stables. “Mum.” Kheelan said, and went to his mother and placed a kiss on both of her cheeks. She was much shorter than Kheelan and a little heavier set, but had the same eyes, with bright red hair. “These are my friends, they saved me after the Dullahan attacked the barracks. I was on the way to the court when they saw the Unicorns.” his mother nodded as if nothing he said sounded crazy. “And your fellow soldiers?” She asked. Kheelan shook his head. His mother sighed and shook her head. “Áine needs to come home. We need her.” she said sadly, wiping away tears from her face. “Thank you fer savin me boy. He’s all that I got left. That demon killed his father and brothers.” She started crying harder and Kheelan hugged her. After Kheelan had introduced us, she told me about my familiar. “Familiars were a fae’s way of thanking the witches for their help. An extra set of eyes if you will.” She explained. “It seems your girl here found you.” She said reaching towards Brenna and petting the top of her head. Kheelan explained to her that we were on our way to the Fae court, and she nodded. “Be careful, we village folk are kinder than the royal court. We cannae lie, but they will twist words.” She said. “And you, I see how my boy looks at you. Keep him safe, I have a feeling he will want to be wherever you are.” She whispered to Rachelle, quietly enough that I was the only one that could hear their interaction. “I will.” Rachelle said, a red blush creeping onto her face. “Thank you for your hospitality, ma’am.” I said, and she said “Call me Elle, deary.”  as she waved goodbye. And we began walking to the court once again.  

   The walk to the fae court took nearly half an hour and Kheelan told us all about the fae kingdom and how the royal court treated visitors. He said that they will grant you anything you could ever want, but they would want something just as valuable. More information that we already knew, but his telling us this information helped the time go by quicker. When we finally arrived, it looked more like a hedge maze than any royal court, but Kheelan expertly led the way. He told us that as a warrior, and soldier, he had to know the ins and outs. He said that the mazes were so the visitors couldn’t escape without finishing their part of the deal with the fae court, and that it was constantly changing. As we walked, I could see a large gazebo towards the middle of the maze. When we finally arrived, it was far prettier than I could have imagined. It was a large white stone gazebo, with intricate carvings all over. There was wisteria, lilac, lavender and green ivy growing all over the inside of the gazebo. The gazebo was placed over a small pond, and in the center of the pond was a throne and an elegant woman sat upon it. She had light skin and flaming red hair and nearly glowing blue eyes. She had a heart shaped face with high cheek bones and a small nose, and light pink pouty lips. She was wearing a long, light purple gown with a flower crown made of lilac and ivy. She was regal, in every sense of the word. Her throne was made of white stone and had darker purple cushions on the seat and along the high back, and there was a small raven perched on the back of it. She sat in the throne with her head back and one leg crossed over the other. All around us were soldiers in silver armor, standing at attention. As we approached, she looked directly at me and spoke, “Child of Hecate, what do you seek?”