powerful fae whumper yandere x human
Briar crouched at the edge of the circle of mushrooms, inspecting it with a hard gaze and a cocked brow. She really wanted to put her hand in the circle. Something in her told her to jump in and prove the old bat wrong, but no, she lingered on the edge of caution and glared at the patch of grass. Because that’s all it was.
And sure, if Gran was right, then stepping into the circle could take her to the faerie realm, but what if she just— she stretched her fingers, her heart thumping against her chest as she held her hand just at the cusp of the fairy ring.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Briar startled, falling back onto her arse on the grass, her eyes darting to the stranger to her right, standing slightly behind her and leaning against a tree.
She bristled as she got to her feet, furiously wiping the grass away on her britches. “You scared the life out of me!” She snapped, whirling to face him and froze. All other insults lodged in her throat as she stared at the most beautiful man, she had ever lain her eyes upon.
His skin was flawless, as smooth as a blanket of freshly fallen snow, and pale too, like he had never seen the sun in his life. His hair fell in short, cropped curtains framing his long, elegant features, as dark as coals burning in a fire on a cold night. So different from the hairstyles of the boys in her village, or even the big town over.
He tilted his head at her, his eyes almost as clear as shards of glass reflected on a frozen lake, regarding her without expression. After a long, embarrassing moment, Briar finally found her sense and her voice and refused the blush that wanted to form.
Briar scoffed and folded her arms. “What are you, five?”
“Clearly you’re the child,” he said, his voice like smooth silk, flowing through the wind as if it danced and intertwined itself on the breeze. Even though his words were chastising, she still couldn’t help but be entranced, wanting to hear him say more. “Brazen and bold. Why are you playing by a fairy ring?”
“Why are you watching me play by a fairy ring?” She demanded hotly.
One side of his lips quipped up as he pushed off the tree and stood to his full height, and gods… Briar had to force herself not to take a step back as she watched him stretch his long limbs and walk towards her. She should move, she realised. Back away. But the iron on her wrist that Gran insisted she wear burned cold as she went to step back and she froze, glancing over her shoulder and right below her was the fairy ring.
She pivoted and turned so her body faced the fairy ring and stepped away from the man. The man moved with unnatural grace, as if he were a dancer in a travelling show. Perhaps that’s what he was. Perhaps he was out here to train, and she had jumped to conclusions too quickly after being startled.
“I was merely passing through when I noticed you,” he told her, his voice smooth, amusement dancing in his ice-like eyes. “Have you heard the stories of fairy rings?”
“Yes, as it happens. My Gran made sure to tell me of them. So what? You wanted to see if I would be forced to dance until I passed out?” She asked incredulously, brows drawing over her eyes as she backed up further. He paused by the fairy ring, a good three feet away from her and Briar was thankful for the distance. She could study him properly with the space between them. Nature seemed to move around him, as if he was a force of natural law and not the other way around. Briar should go. She should go, but… she didn’t want to stop looking at him.
“Or be dragged into the fairy realm,” he said with a smile that dazzled her. His eyes gleamed with a dangerous amusement, looking at Briar as if she were his next meal. His words seemed less important than his lips which were redder than berries on a holly bush. “Perhaps you should have listened to your Gran.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed, almost dreamily, before considering his words. She frowned. No, that’s not what she actually thought. “But I just think she’s afraid. They’re nothing but stories to scare children at night.”
“There is always truth in legend.”
“Right. Moral truth,” Briar said with an automatic roll of her eyes as she walked around the circle, given it a wide berth too until she stopped directly across from the man. Her mind her own again, but it hadn’t been someone else’s… had it? “Some cautionary tale,” she ground out, her temple pulsing. “Don’t steal. Respect strangers. Be wary of generous gifts. Blah blah blah.”
“You don’t believe the tales?”
She lifted her gaze to meet his. “I believe they’re false. I don’t believe in the seelie and unseelie courts. I don’t believe in fairy rings. I don’t believe in hags that steal children who stray too close to rivers. I think they’re stories told by people who can’t make sense of the world. Who then must craft a fiction to comfort themselves.”
The man didn’t speak for a while and a silence lapsed between them. “And that is not you?”
Briar took a breath as she stared at the ring of perfect white mushrooms. “No,” she said quietly, “that is not me. Nature is kind and bountiful, and nature is cruel and ravenous. That is life. That is real. I don’t need stories to tell me that.”
“And yet, here you are, investigating a fairy ring,” he mused. Briar couldn’t help the blush that rose on her cheeks at that. Like she was caught lying to herself and he called her out on her poor self-deception. He chuckled as she bit her cheek, trying to stifle a rueful smile.
“Yes,” she conceded with a soft laugh. “But I’m curious. About the things that inspired the stories.”
“And wary enough not to cross the bounds.”
“Perhaps I’m not brave enough yet.”
She met his gaze again and her smile widened. It was her turn to tilt her head at him. “I don’t recognise you from the village,” she told him. “Or the town over.”
“As I told you,” he said, his eyes dancing with intrigue. “I’m just passing through.”
“I don’t see any bags,” Briar said pointedly, her fingers grabbing her chin thoughtfully, running her thumb over her bottom lip. “Or a cloak, and it’s a cold night, so you couldn’t have been travelling for long. And most people would stay at an inn on their travels.”
The man laughed again. Briar had never heard such a beautiful sound before. She wanted to make him laugh again. It was as if the sound could heal all woes, and light a fire inside her that comforted more than any hearths could in winter. He walked around the circle towards her and Briar kept her stance, kept her eyes on him as he approached. His tunic was made of rich fabric, a cobalt blue that matched the colour of winter flowers, with black and silver thread that looked so fine as if it was woven from the metals themselves.
Not a dancer in travelling shows then.
“How shrewd a creature you are,” he purred, lifting his hand to cup her cheek. Briar’s breath hitched as his palm settled on her face, so cold, like marble, and yet alive. His eyes narrowed slightly as he touched her and he chuckled, rubbing his thumb under her eye. “How fortunate a meeting this was, too. Some could call it fate.”
“If you believe in things like that,” Briar said with a breath but not a lot of power, as if the man had stolen it from her with his touch and proximity alone.
He laughed again and her knees turned a little weak as his eyes danced with knowing mischief, as if he knew something she didn’t and delighted in her ignorance. “Of course you wouldn’t believe in fate.”
Briar swallowed, the iron burning cold around her wrist as she blinked up at him. She wanted desperately to stay with him, to never stop looking into his eyes, hearing his voice, speaking with him, but— her temple thumped again as her eyes drifted towards the twilight sky behind him, and she gasped, pulling back, as if doused with cold water.
“Excuse me, it… it is quite late,” she said with a soft blush colouring her cheeks. “And this is… well it was lovely meeting you,” she said, turning and running her hand over her forehead, trying to calm her sudden racing thoughts. She didn’t know what was wrong all of a sudden, she just knew she needed to get home to Gran. “But I must go.”
“You can’t leave without telling me your name,” he said, stepping in front of her as silent as the breeze. Briar startled. How did he move so quickly? She must not have noticed in her daze. Her temple thumped harder and she swallowed a gasp as her heartrate picked up, pounding against her ribs. “Please. I’ll simply go mad without it.”
“I’m—” the iron burned against her wrist and that warm nausea washed over her again. “I’m sorry. I feel ill. I really must go.” She ran around him as she felt her body scream at her to leave, to run, to flee, as if her lungs were closing up and her heart was being frozen and trying to beat through a cold fire, trying to thaw itself with movement. She felt the eyes of the enthralling man on her as she disappeared into the trees, and by the time she got to the village she was tired.
Her body calmed, her mind cleared, and she caught her breath, hunched over grabbing her knees. The pulsing in her temples ebbed as she gradually composed herself again. Gran had told her to stay out of the forest lest she meet a fey who would spirit her away, but Briar knew the other stories. Real stories, about young women like her who walked into the woods and never walked out again. Groups of girls forced to walk the trails together in the light of the sun, always on alert for threats.
About bodies found with their skirts ruffled and their throats slit.
Once her breath returned to her, Briar straightened and started for home. Gran may be worried about unseen and unreal threats, but humans posed more threat to her because they were real, and she had gotten so carried away at the fairy circle that she hadn’t noticed how late it had gotten. How unseemly it was to be in the woods that late with a man, and unmarried at that. It would be scandalous. Even though nothing happened but…
Briar pressed her knuckles to her cheek and felt the heat from the beautiful man’s cold hands still warming her, and she smiled.
Scandalous, perhaps. But also, a little bit… exciting.
Everyone meet Briar Hollows, our heroine/protagonist of our little fae story here, and the mysterious stranger she met while investigating a fairy ring. What a scandal indeed for her to be out in the woods so late unaccompanied with a man... hehehe
Orphans, assemble! (aka the tag-list): @sootheandsavage @zillobeastrevival @sunflower1000 (lmk if you wanna be added or removed <3)
P.S. I ALSO FORGET WHO WAS ON THE GEN-TAG LIST OTHER THAN SUNFLOWER AND I CANNOT FIND ANY RECENT DRABBLES SO SORRY IF YOU WERE ON IT, PLEASE REMIND ME AND I'LL TAKE NOTE OF IT FROM NOW ON
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