#eris (original character)

[mar-the-magician]

Me 🤝 Eris

Running off without telling people

(Well I don't anymore, but I was a kid, definitely)

You and Eris are soul-siblings 😝

[the-realms-master]

Studying For Entry Exams With A Sweet Fae Friend

I’m alive, I swear I’m alive!!!!! It has been… like, two months since I posted a chapter of Layered Realms. Apologies for that— life decided to kick my ass in every possible way around mid July and things are only just recently settling into place more. But!!!!!!! Now I can actually guarantee at least somewhat regular uploads, because I have a chapter’s worth of buffer! And yes, heheheheh, that does mean I am sitting on an entire chapter that none of you have seen yet 😏

Also, I’m aware that I gained about thirty-odd followers during the period of time that I didn’t post anything about LR, so if you’re reading this thinking “What the fuck is Layered Realms?” Then here’s your explanation! It’s an original story of mine, and here’s where you can get more info about it!

My Original Story— What’s Going On?!

Hi, I’m Mar! Nice to meet you all! If you’re reading this, it’s probably because of my recent Layered Realms post. You’re here for an explan

TUMBLR

Cw/Tw: Character is depicted kind of spiraling, not really having a panic attack but something along those lines. Other than that, I think we’re good!

Now that all of that is out of the way, I’ll stop talking your ear off and let you get reading! Chapter six, part six of Layered Realms, part five of A Traveler’s Tale.

Studying For Entry Exams With A Sweet Fae Friend 

I shoved the books, pamphlets, and articles farther away from me on the table and collapsed my head into my arms. None of this was sticking in my head, and it didn’t make any sense. I was exhausted, my brain was foggy, and I’d been working at this for hours now. These materials all seemed custom-made for people who had grown up knowing about magic, and all they really needed was a light refresher on the basics and to then delve deeper into the more obscure things that would be on the entry exams. I needed much more than a refresher on the basics, I needed an entire mastercourse. There was no way I was going to pass those tests. And then what would happen? I might not get to see Eris or Amir or Hedera ever again, and I would just have this knowledge and these books and materials that I spent way too much money on and time on, and it would all be—

I heard clomping nearby. It sounded like it was right outside my kitchen door. 

“What the…” I approached the door and peeked out.

“Eris?!” I swung open the door immediately. Unlike when I’d last seen him in the forest, he had that illusion spell or whatever it was over his legs. Granted, not as bad as a kid with goat or deer or whatever legs standing right out in broad daylight, but they still looked wonky. 

“Eris, what are you doing here?” I hissed, dragging him inside. He flashed a silly grin at me.

“I heard Amir and Hedera talking and Hedera was asking him to send you something, but he said you’d probably be stressed with studying so he’d wait. I didn’t want you to be stressed! So I came to find you!”

“How did you even—“ I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Never mind. Does anyone even know where you are??” His face fell.

“Ooh… I should have thought of that, shouldn’t I…” ‘Oh no you made the child sad, you made the child sad you idiot—‘

“I hope I didn’t worry anybody, I don’t want them to be scared for me—“

“It’s okay, buddy, I can text Amir, remember? And he can tell Hedera and anyone else who needs to know. It’s gonna be fine.” I reassured him, ruffling his curls. I walked back into my main living room, motioning him to follow. His eyes widened at the pile of printed materials on my table and I laughed a little.

“Amir was right about that, I am stressed.” I snatched my phone from on top of a book about how commanders influenced history without being found out as magic users (one of the only ones that had made some semblance of sense), went to messages, and scrolled.

‘Just in case no one knows, Eris is with me. he came to cheer me up lol’

‘Ah, excellent. Thank you for telling me Traveler— I had a pretty good guess, but it’s good to know for sure. Now Hedera won’t bite my head off. 😂’

‘😂

does he need to be back by a certain time?’

‘Just don’t keep him too long. I’ll let you know if Hedera says otherwise, though. I can come pick him up and just teleport home with him when you’re done.’

‘sounds like a plan!’

I turned back to Eris.

“Amir knows where you are now, and he says you can stay for a little bit!”

“Yay!” He scrunched up his cheeks till they nearly closed his eyes, and pulled his shoulders right up next to his ears. 

“Amir’ll come get you when it’s time to go. Until then, what do you want to do? I can put off studying for a few hours to destress, I suppose…”

Eris widened his eyes almost comically.

“Oh no Traveler! You still gotta study! You have exams in a couple days! I was just hoping I could make the studying itself less stressful…” I sighed.

“Okay then, buddy. How do you plan on doing that?” I sat back down and patted the seat next to me. He scrambled over to be next to me and had a quick look over the books. 

“The way Hedera always tells it to me is like this: when you have an overwhelming project or problem, the first thing you gotta do is break it down to ‘manageable chunks.’ Then you just take the chunks one at a time, and you’re done before you know it! It’s like cutting up your food before you eat it!”

“I guess that makes sense…” I sighed. Eris smiled at me.

“And… this is my wisdom, so don’t take it quite as seriously, but if I can make it pretty and fun, I think it makes it feel better even when you’re doing hard things.”

“How would you suggest we do that?”

“First off, Traveler, you should drink water and get yourself a lil’ snack.” He commanded firmly. “Amir always says he can’t focus with an empty stomach.” I rolled my eyes and barely contained a sigh. ‘Does Eris even know what Amir eats?’

“Okay, little man.” He followed me around the kitchen as I assembled a bowl of fruit and yoghurt, ate it, and filled a canteen with ice and water.

“Yay!” He said as we settled back in at the table.

“Now. Do you have cute stickers and writing pads?” He asked with big, shiny eyes.

“Mm— somewhere…” I remembered one of my friends had given me a bunch of cute office and study supplies back when we thought I was actually going to have enough money to go college right away.

“Hang on.” I got up and began rummaging in one of my drawers. Somewhere in here, maybe at the very bottom—

“Here we go!”  I tossed the pack of notecards and stickers onto the table in front of us.

“Yay!” Eris clapped his hands and and eagerly attacked the plastic shrink-wrap. 

“These are cute! Okay, now try breaking this problem into chunks?” He looked over the whole stack of materials and singled out the example problems sheets.

“This seems like it’d be important. Is it actually the way that the tests are gonna be?”

“As far as I can tell.” I shrugged. He nodded.

“Okay. Maybe make a list of what’s asked in these questions?” My eyes widened.

“Oh my word, how did I not think of that?” He giggled.

“Sometimes a fresh mind and a fresh pair of eyes are all you need!”

“I’ll say!” I grabbed a gel pen and a lined notepad with rainbow bubbles on it to start making that list. Eris laid a gentle hand on my arm.

“I… I think you should read through all the problems first, then go back to the beginning and start writing things down.” I gave him a grateful smile.

“You’re a lifesaver, in more ways than one.”

“It’s no problem, really! I like to help!” He smiled so big that his eyes closed.

The problems were just as confusing before, but I carefully read through every word, taking note of repeated concepts. I made it to about problem seven before I started breathing heavier, thinking once again of just how out of my depth I was, and how hard it would be to pass those exams, and there might be intimidating people there, and I only had a few days left to prepare and—

Eris gently head-butted me, nuzzling into my shoulder.

“Take a drink of water?” His words were muffled in my sleeve. I stared down at him.

“Why?”

“You’re getting all caught up in your fears. Amir says water distracts you from your thoughts and makes you focus on the action of drinking. Maybe it’ll pull you out of your head. Take a drink of water. For me?” My hand shook a little as I reached for the canteen and brought it up to my mouth. I focused on the cold water moving across my tongue, then into my throat, and how the muscles in my neck and throat felt while I swallowed. It was so cold that I could feel as it went down my esophagus and into my stomach. I slowly set the canteen back down. As soon as I did, Eris locked his arms around my opposite shoulder, going under one arm and over the other. 

“You can do it,” he whispered. I felt my heart squeeze.

“Thank you, kiddo.”

I managed to make it to problem nineteen before Eris butted me again and motioned toward the canteen. I huffed at my own sensitivity. 

“Don’t feel bad about it! I don’t even understand half of these words! It’s definitely hard, and that makes sense. I’m just tryna help with that.”

“I know, but I wish could just— deal with my problems like a normal person.” Eris turned his head up to me with upturned eyebrows and wide eyes. They were hazel at this angle. 

“I don’t think there’s any… normal people. Hedera always tells me there’s no wrong way to deal with your problems as long as you’re not hurting anyone.” I made a helpless face.

“I guess— ugh, I guess you’re right.” He just held me tighter.

“You got this.” 

Every so many problems, Eris had to remind me to drink or take some breaths. By the fifth correction, I was getting used to it, and the next time I felt overwhelmed, I did it without him asking me. He smiled and nuzzled further into my shoulder. 

“How many are there?”

“Forty-five.” I said, a miserable undertone in my voice.

“Hey, you’re gonna be good! Don’t worry! I’m here to be your friend, and you can start on the list as soon you get there. You just wanna read it twice so that you makes sure you don’t miss anything important.”

“I know, little guy. Thank you.” It took us a while, but we finally, finally made it to question forty-five. I already had about five themes and concepts that had stuck out to me because of how often they were repeated, so I put those first at the top of the list.

“1. All human magic users are classified as one race, “commanders”, regardless of  affiliation.

2. Humans without natural command who practice manufactured command are called “practitioners” (and that’s what I am)

3. Since I’m gunning for the practitioners’ classes, I’ll mainly need to know about their methods. The main methods are; specific, complex hand movements; drawing diagrams, sigils, transmutation circles, glyphs, and runes; combining reagents as components, sort of like a potion; and the spoken word.

4. All the other types of visual magic are made up of runes, which originate from the demon and fae written languages, as well as drawing from draconic, aquatic (which is apparently mermaid language), and the ‘evocative languages’ of other magical races. The spoken word magic also draws on these resources.

5. Commanders, fae, demons, and other beings with a natural command over a magical force, all draw magic from their own realm. No matter where they currently are, their energy is intertwined with the magic of their own realm, and they channel it through themselves by directing their energy. Practitioners use outside methods of channeling the energy around them. That means whatever realm they’re in, that is what they are drawing magic from.”

I looked down at my handiwork with at least some measure of satisfaction.

“I’d say that covers the most important bits. Now I can try to work on some nuances…” Eris shook his head vigorously.

“You should find where these facts are talked about in your books and articles and stuff and go back over those parts. Highlight them with something pretty! Copy them off onto your notes! Make sure you know all those parts really well! Then you can try to work on some— smaller thingies.” I sighed.

“I guess so…”

“Take a drink of water now— in fact, maybe you should have some sweet drink to celebrate!” I smiled.

“That sounds nice.” He grinned big and pretty at me. 

“Hang on, I can make you some tea! Meantimes, maybe work on your five facts. You could give yourself a sticker you like for each one you feel like you really learn!”

“Will do, captain!” I flashed him a grin. The hopeless, emotionally dead feeling in my chest and the pit of my stomach was conspicuously lacking. 

“Just don’t burn the kitchen down,” I remembered to caution as I turned back to the books.

“I’m not gonna!” He protested. 

“I know how to make tea, Hedera and I pretty much live off it.”

“But do you know how to work a stove?” He fumbled for a second.

“We-ell, no, n-not exactly… but Amir has told me how they work before!”

“I do not trust you not to hurt yourself, my friend—“ I got up and dragged the book I was working on with me to the kitchen, supervising Eris as he very exaggeratedly and slowly, to prove that he knew exactly what he was doing, set my little heat-proof glass kettle on the stove, filled it with water, and started it. Then he pulled from his brown leather satchel at his waist, which I hadn’t even noticed he still had on him, a little pouch of dried leaves.

“Hedera and I grow these as magic practice, so some of them are a little funny sometimes, but these are the nice ones.” He informed me as he got down two mugs for us. He swiveled his head around the kitchen and then asked

“Do you have any cloths that you don’t mind getting a lil’ bit stained?”

“Sure,” I motioned to the cupboard where I kept my rags. “Just pick the most beat-up looking ones.”

He lined the mugs with two raggedy cloths and crushed the leaves into the bottoms of them. 

“There we go! Now we can drain the tea leaves out when they’re done steeping.”

“Mmm.” I smiled at him.

“Thank you.” He grinned, silly and sideways. 

“You don’t have to thank me, Traveler! I wanted to do it!”

“I know but—“ the water for the tea started boiling. Eris placed a finger over my lips, effectively shutting me up.

“Shhh! Okay, now I gotta take care of this.”

Careful not to touch the hot parts, he took the kettle by the handle and poured the hot water into the mugs. 

Once the tea leaf fragments were drained, Eris had somehow managed to turn the bitter leaf water into something delectable with sweetener and cream, and we sat at the table sipping our little “health potions” as I began thinking of them. (Though to be honest, I thought it might actually be a health potion at first— it made me feel that much better.) After he finished his warm drink, Eris got even more cuddly than before, squishing his cheek against me and closing his eyes. Soon enough, I heard his breathing grow more and more slow and even until he was almost snoring softly. He’d fallen asleep with his arms locked around me. I looked down at his calm, peaceful face and smiled, pressing a small kiss to the top of his head. It helped to have him close, breathing a slow, calming rhythm against my side, his warmth almost like a constant reminder to slow down and take it a little easier. Take a breath and a step back if need be. For the first time that day, I actually got into the zone. Time didn’t seem real as I lost myself in the materials, taking pages after pages of notes, marking down and tabling for later the things that didn’t make sense at first so as not to lose my rhythm. 

It was quite the shock when I finally set down my pen and looked at the time. And looking out the window I saw that it was already getting dark. Careful not to wake Eris, I reached over half the table with my ink-covered dominant hand and grabbed my phone. 

‘Eris is asleep— think it’s about time to come get him?’ 

It took a few minutes to get a response. As I waited I gently stroked Eris’ hair and stared pensively out the window, and then a notification with Amir’s nickname popped up on my locked screen again.

‘I think so

Hedera would probably prefer him back before the sun goes down completely’ 

‘Seems reasonable’

‘I’ll just teleport to you, if that’s alright— address?’

I sent him my address.

I gently shook Eris’ shoulder to wake him.

“Amir’s gonna be here soon to take you home, buddy…” he blinked hazily and continued clinging to my arm as I stood up.

“Mm, okay…” I grabbed my phone and half-led, half-dragged Eris through my kitchen.  Whipping out the phone, I texted

‘I’ll just come out to the front with him’ to Amir and opened the door to find him standing there. Despite the recent less-than-autumnal weather, he was wearing a pair of black leggings and a warm maroon sweater that had glittery strands woven into the rest of the fabric, a heart cutout, and sleeves that billowed out before being sharply cut off by a wrist cuff of fabric. He tapped his ankle-length boot.

“Well, aren’t you going to come out to the front?” I rolled my eyes.

“Front, I’m gay.” I said in a monotone. He golf-clapped at me. Smug bastard.

“Very good, very good.” He held out his arms for the still half-asleep Eris, and his whole snarky demeanor changed. He leaned down and cocked his head.

“Hey buddy… you ready to go home? Did you have a nice time with our Traveler?” Eris nodded drowsily.

“They did so good… I think I helped a lil’ bit…”

“You helped bunches, kiddo.” I reassured him, awkwardly snaking my arm out from his grip and allowing Amir to wrap his arms around him and hold him close. He looked so peaceful, cheek squished and hands nestled against Amir’s side. 

“You’re a lifesaver.” I whispered to him.

“Get much done?” Amir smiled at us both. I laughed softly.

“I think I absorbed more actual knowledge in the time he was here than I did in the whole day and half I tried to study before.” 

“He took a looooong nap, huh?” He said, looking at how out-of-it Eris was. I nodded, smiling at him.

“Almost three hours.”

“He’s really taken a liking to you,” he slid an arm under Eris’ legs, which looked significantly less human than they had when he arrived. I waved.

“Bye, little friend!” 

“Eris, oh Eris… your glamour could use some work,” he clicked his tongue. 

“So that’s what his illusion spell is called!” 

“Mhm,” Amir nodded, seeming distracted. He drew a circle in the ground with his toe, like he was planning something out— then he nodded and a low, nasal hum emanated from him. It felt like a solid something passed through me, and I cocked my head at Amir.

“What was that?” Amir winked at me.

“Demons are oft purported to be uncannily good at warding. I just warded this whole area— after all, if you’re going to be learning magic, you may have a mishap or two, and it would be awful if a neighbor were to hear of it or see it.”

“I haven’t even gotten in yet…” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my neck.

“Oh, but you will~!” He and Eris disappeared, the dim light revealing a small spark left in their wake. I watched as it dissipated with the last of the day’s sun. The sunsets were coming earlier and earlier these days. Finally, I went back inside and closed my door. I still had work to do.

…Apologies for the lore dump… anyway…

I’m not gonna lie, I had some trouble with this one! Big shoutout to BFF for helping me figure out what felt so wrong about the writing at first and thus leading me to fix it! Also she wants me to remind all of you that she has laid a claim on all of the LR characters and they are all hers! 😂

Thank you very much for reading! Next upload will be exactly one week from now! And I can actually guarantee that this time! 😅

[the-realms-master]

Healing And Explanations With a Sarcastic Tsundere Fae Healer

Seriously, a big, massive thank you to @glassbearclock because

FUCKING SHIT 100 NOTES???? THAT'S THE MOST I'VE EVER GOTTEN!!!!

So, ahem, anyway, here is the much anticipated second chapter! Part two of A Traveler's Tale.

Healing And Explanations With a Sarcastic Tsundere Fae Healer

“Hey. You. Up. Now.” I cracked an eyelid open. Ow— it was bright. Where was I? I definitely did not normally sleep in the middle of the day on a bed of grass, flowers and other plants. The same sarcastic, biting voice said

“Up. Off my flowers. Now.” I sat up, looking around for the source of the voice, remembering as I did— rumors, hiking, ankle got hurt. Eris. I reached up around my neck and felt the the pendant was still there. Well that was something. I turned my head and finally caught sight of the person who had been talking. I just barely contained a “holy shit” at the sight of her. She looked like something out of a painting. Pale skin, rosy cheeks, massive almond shaped eyes framed by long lashes, perfectly defined freckles— and she had long, pointy ears. The only thing not very picturesque about her was her expression, which seemed distinctly murderous. 

“What are you doing here, human?” She almost sneered. “You shouldn’t have even been able to get in these woods, let alone my clearing.” I stood up, (ankle— ouch) partially to be squashing as few of her flowers as possible, but also partially to be more on level with her. Wow she was tall.

“I don’t know what you mean about getting into the woods, there was a trail and I walked right in. As for the clearing, I didn’t find my way here. Some… apprentice guided me here.” Her eyes widened.

“Eris? Oh fuck, did he let you in the pathway?” I bristled.

“Hey, don’t blame Eris for this! He was just as surprised to find me here as you are. I got my ankle caught and hurt in some dead branches in a dried up creek bed, and he found me and helped the pain go away for a little while, and then said he would take me somewhere that I could get proper healing from somebody.” Realization dawned on me.

“Was that supposed to be you?” She smirked.

“Well don’t sound so surprised, human. Yes, I’m a healer. Eris is my apprentice, though I guess he probably already told you that.” I nodded.

“In not so many words, but I could’ve guessed.” ‘Though not because of any similarities in personality, that’s for sure,’ I thought. She sighed. 

“Well. Okay then. That explains what you’re doing in my clearing, though not in these woods.” I shrugged.

“I heard rumors about paranormal activity around here and wanted to check it out. Specifically I heard something about a ‘fae trickster’.” She scoffed.

“Oh don’t pull that on me, Eris and I are the only fae that frequent these woods and neither of us are tricksters.” I glared at her.

“I don’t know, I heard what I heard! Stop glaring bloody murder at me like you think I'm the one spreading the rumors or something,” I grumbled.

“Bloody mur—“ she sputtered, then took a deep breath.

“Okay. Whatever. Your ankle's pretty badly hurt, do you want me to heal it or not?” She muttered something under her breath that sounded like “you piece of shit” but I decided to let it pass.

“If you’re willing to do that, then yeah. That would be helpful.” She sighed and waved her hand, humming quietly under her breath. 

“What are you doing?” She frowned at me and didn’t answer, continuing to hum until the flowers, weeds, and grass parted like the Red Sea into a space big enough for me to lie down on.

“I’m not going to try to heal your foot while you’re standing up, I’m not going to let you do any more damage to my meadow than you already have, hence, magic. Now lie down. Or sit. I don’t really give a fuck, just get your foot off the ground so I can have a look.” I gladly obliged, sitting down with my legs stretched out in front of me. She knelt beside my ankle and blew out a breath.

“Yes, that’s pretty bad…” she looked up at me.

“Okay if I touch?” I nodded. She took a gentle hold on my ankle and slowly twisted it to the side. 

“Does that hurt?” I winced.

“A little bit,” I nodded. She carefully replaced it in it's original position and then gently turned it another way.

“Ow— ow, ow, ow—“ 

“Okay, okay, I get it. Shh, you’re… you’re gonna be okay, I can fix it.” I blinked back tears and mentally cursed myself. ‘Acting like a complete baby about a little pain in front of the prettiest girl you've ever seen. Great job, me!’

“I'm gonna start the healing magic now, and it might feel a little… different, but it won’t hurt. Okay?” 

“'Kay…” 

Humming again. Suddenly a rush of warm, heady pleasure shot up my leg from my ankle and I gasped. She looked up. 

“All good? I can slow down, if you need me to,” I shook my head.

“No— you don’t have to— slow down—“ the closest thing I can liken the feeling of being healed to is a massage, but an extremely intense one. And at the same time, it was too strange to be quite like a massage. Warm and cool at the same time, tingling, and similar to the way I had felt when Eris had “healed” me as well. I tried to breath deeply, counting slowly in my head.

“There. You should let it rest and set for an hour, maybe, but then you can head back to wherever you came from.”

“Are you gonna want me to wait somewhere else and get out of your meadow?”

“Of course not!” She glowered at me. “You shouldn’t move or put any weight on it at all!” I held up my hands.

“Okay, okay! You know, your bedside manner could use some work,” I joked. She sputtered. “Usually gentle magical beings aren’t supposed to cuss, either,”

“Oh, racially stereotyping the fae! We love that!” 

“I'm just kidding!” I laughed. Her face actually got red when she got angry.

“You and Eris are the only fae I’ve ever met, it would be a bit hard for me to start stereotyping y’all just yet.”

“Oh trust me, I can tell we're the only fae you’ve ever met.” She sighed and shifted. “I still don’t understand how you got in these woods in the first place. There’s a distraction spell, a fucking good one, too. You don’t smell like magic, and you certainly aren’t a commander.” 

“First off, you can smell magic? Secondly, what is a commander?” She groaned. 

“Not exactly how I wanted to spend my afternoon, but whatever.” She held out her hand to me. “Before I explain a bunch of things that you probably shouldn’t know, let’s introduce ourselves, shall we? Oversharing is always better when it’s with someone that you know. My name is Hedera.” I introduced myself and took her hand. Soft fingers. Oh wow.

“Hm. Not a bad name. Now, to answer your questions, yes of course I can smell magic, I eat magic.”

“You eat magic??” 

“Yes! And you eat dead animal carcasses! Instead of arguing over who has the weirder way of consuming energy, do you want more answers? Good. That’s what I thought. A ‘commander’ is a human who can do magic without any aid. Some humans wouldn’t be able to do, say, what I just did for you, unless they had a diagram, or some magical reagents, or—“ 

“Reagents?”

“Do you ever run out of questions? Ugh. A reagent is a… a component for magic. Say, herbs, or a jewel, or a specific type of sugar or salt, or paper that’s intentionally made of rice, or whatever. Commanders don’t need those things, they just do magic like the fae do.”

“Well, I’ve never shown any ability in that area, but how would you know I’m not a commander?”

“They give off a magical signature. Every being that can directly connect to magical force does. But even if you weren’t a commander and were just using something other than natural command to reveal the distraction spell, you would still smell like magic. Which you don’t. Which is why I still think someone must have let you in.”

“Okay… makes sense… wait, y'all eat magic—“

“We’ve established this—“

“— So that’s what Eris must have meant when he talked about foraging!” She pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Honestly, I love the child, and I know it’s not true, but sometimes it feels like he couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. Yes, a foragers job is to seek out volunteers of legal age and capacity to consent to donate some of their magic for the consumption of fae who, for whatever reason, cannot currently feed from the fae realm.” She droned like she was reciting from something. “It grows back, as long as we don’t take too much, but that’s part of the reason why we always need foragers, to constantly be looking for new volunteers. So we don’t ever even risk taking just a little bit too much.” I nodded.

“I see. Why are you so mean to Eris?” She spluttered angrily.

“I'm not mean, he's my apprentice. I have to be a little tough on him sometimes.” 

“Hmm. Okay… next question, what are access points?” 

“You know, you’re taking this remarkably well for someone who clearly has no prior knowledge of the magical world.” She said suspiciously. I shrugged.

“I’ve always known there was something else out there, you know? I guess I went through a brief phase as like, a twelve-year-old, where I wanted to be a skeptic and a cynic and all that good shit, but by the time I was around thirteen I realized that that just wasn’t going to cut it when it was as obvious as could be that… we weren’t alone in this world. I mean, I’ve read and researched enough paranormal, cryptid shit that this is really just confirming what I’ve suspected for years.”

“Huh. Okay then. To answer your question, access points are… like gateways, I suppose, between your realm and the realm that Eris and I hail from. In order to get from one realm to another, you have to find an access point and enter it with intention. No-one just accidentally slips from one realm to another, that way. It’s a whole lot safer.” 

“Don’t tell the fantasy authors that,” I joked. She snorted.

“Sure. Not sure I quite get the reference, but whatever.” 

“How do you find an access point, then? What do they look like?”

“Well, access points are created when the energy from one realm, or one layer of a realm, touches the energy from another realm, or another layer of that realm. That’s really the only qualification. They can look like anything. So most people find them using finding spells, though Eris has taken to trying to detect the difference in the energy of an area instead. Which I think is very admirable of him, honestly. That’s nowhere near as easy.”

“Then why is he doing that?” I queried. She chuckled. Oh. Pretty laugh.

“Because he doesn’t know when to let well enough alone, the little shrimp.” That was the most affectionate I had heard her sound the entire conversation. 

As we continued talking she softened somewhat, though she was never what you’d call amicable. Eventually she looked up at the sky and raised her eyebrows.

“It’s uh. It’s been enough time, now.” She coughed. I looked at my watch.

“Oh, shit, it’s been three hours! …I guess we were both enjoying ourselves,” I tried, awkwardly. She scoffed. Did her cheeks get a little pinker or did I imagine it? 

“E-Enjoyed is a strong word, but… sure,” she waved her hand. “Whatever floats your boat.” she stood and held out her hand to help me up. My ankle was still sensitive, tender-feeling, but no immediate pain when I stood up. She nodded, looking at my ankle.

“No tangled pain, and your stance is balanced. That’s good. Go easy on it for a couple days. You shouldn’t be here after dark, so let’s hurry back.” 

“Why shouldn’t I be here after dark? I thought you and Eris were the only ones who frequented these woods?”

“The only fae. Now less talking, more walking.” So I stayed silent for the rest of the hike to the driveway. When we reached my car, she turned awkwardly. 

“Get— ah, get home safe, Traveler,”

“Both you and Eris called me that. Why?” 

“Maybe I’ll tell you some other time.” ‘Some other time?’

“Does that mean I’ll be seeing you again?” She started walking away.

“Maybe.”

And that concludes chapter two! Eris will pop up again in the next one, so I'm sure some of y'all are looking forward to that. Except for getting hit with writer's block for a while at the end there, this was really fun to write, and I'm going to enjoy exploring Hedera's character more! I hope you all enjoyed!!

[the-realms-master]

Sweet Fae Creature Helps With Injuries And Guidance

Part one of a currently unnamed storyline. Alrighty. Everyone give a big thank you to @glassbearclock cause they’re the reason this is public. Enjoy!

Sweet Fae Creature Helps With Injuries And Guidance

"Oh well this is just fucking amazing." I tugged at my leg again. Nope. It was firmly caught underneath about six willow branches, and I had no ideas on how to get it out. Plus, this stream bed might have been "dry", but it was still muddy. And work pants, however sturdy, could only stand so much.

“Come-on-now-little-fuckers—“ 

“M- ah, maybe don’t pull on it anymore,” a soft voice said. I looked up to face possibly the prettiest pre-teen boy I had ever seen. He had an adorable little swoop of a nose, that turned up at the end and was peppered with freckles, as was his whole face. I really couldn’t decide if his eyes were green, hazel, brown, or the color of honey— they seemed to shift with every minor turn of his head. His hair was a curly thatch on top of his head and his skin was tanned and smooth. He was walking a little oddly, like his legs were having trouble bending the right way. He gave me a small reassuring smile.

"If you pull on it too hard, you could hurt your ankle. May I try to help?” 

"Sure, I guess. S'not like you're gonna be much more likely to get it out than I am, but thank you for… caring…" I watched in mild confusion as he crouched beside me and placed his hands on the dead willow branches, humming quietly. 

"What are you doing?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm prepping them!" He said, like that explained everything. I decided not to ask. And then to my shock, in another second he was… detangling? That might be the word— the branches and extracting my leg from them with such ease that I thought I might be going insane.

"There we go!" He trilled, drawing out the ‘there’. As I tried to stand he grabbed my arm at the last minute crying—

“I wouldn’t do tha—“ I rested my full weight on the ankle and cried out, suddenly gripping his arm much harder. He winced.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you… you've got pain all tangled up in there. I can… try to help with that, if you’d like,” I eased myself into a sitting position on the creek bank. Less mud here anyway.

"How are you gonna do that?" He snapped his fingers on both hands, and I noticed that his fingernails were a little darker and longer than might be expected. Odd. He grinned at me and said

"Liiiiiike this!” He placed his hands on my ankles and I felt… something. Some strange burst of energy, somewhat similar to when you pour warm water on your skin, somewhat similar to how a burst of adrenaline feels. I let out a soft noise of surprise and stared down at him. His legs really were odd… so lumpy and hunched and muscly for a kid his size and age… were— were his pants changing color? They had been black before, now they looked almost… brown…

"What the fu— I mean, on earth?!" Something about this kid made me not want to cuss. His head jerked up.

"What? What’s wrong?" 

"Uhm…" I stared down at his legs, which were now brown and soft and hairy looking, and it seemed like there were hooves at the bottom of them, digging into the soft mud of the stream-bed. He jerked his hands off of my ankle.

"Oh dear, oh no, oh no…" he snapped his fingers again and they were back to looking like slightly odd, but definitely human legs. I vehemently shook my head.

"Nope. No. Uh-uh. I know what I saw. What… what are you?" 

He hung his head.

"Oh boy, you weren’t supposed to see that… well, I guess it doesn’t really matter all that much… I'm what you humans would call a faun? I think? I'm fae. And I'm a messenger, healer, forager, apprentice. That’s why I’m not very good at healing yet, ahehe— Your ankle's not really gonna be much better. But it won’t hurt as much!” I lifted my ankle, testing it on the ground a couple times.

"Well I didn’t expect it to be any better at all— I expected to have to walk back to my car with it like that, which would not have been fun. So thank you,” I said. He frowned.

"Right. Car. Uhm, from which way did you come?” I pointed in the direction of the trail I had hiked up and down before deciding it was a good idea to try to avoid getting my shoes muddy by walking over flimsy dead willow branches.

"Do you know what a car is? Sorry, I guess I should have asked that—“

He laughed.

“No, no, of course I know what a car is!! Pffft, silly, I'm living in the human realm, of course I have to know some of the things about it!” His face got a little more serious. 

"Still I guess it makes sense that you don’t know much about us… you really shouldn’t be wandering in these woods alone, I don’t know how you even got in when you clearly aren’t… well… ah, moving on, it wouldn’t be a good idea to walk back to your car right now. Your ankle feels better, but I wasn’t able to really mend that much of the damage. If you do that massive long hike all the way back to your car, you’ll just end up hurting it more, and then it’ll be harder to heal in the long run!”

I snorted.

“Well what am I supposed to do??” 

"Ah, well, there’s a meadow not far from here where you could rest and we could get someone to help you…” Right now the idea of being able to lie down on something soft like grass that wasn't muddy sounded like just about the best thing ever, and I mean… he was a kid. Granted a strange, seemingly magical kid with hairy brown goat… or… deer? Legs, and nubby little horns protruding off the top of his head, but he seemed generally harmless.

"Okay then, I can live with that.” I said cautiously. He smiled a sunshine smile and grabbed my hand.

"Great! Okay, stay close to me and step where I step.”

I stared at his hooves and followed. They really didn’t look like goat hooves or deer hooves. Some weird mixture. I cleared my throat.

"So, uh, how do you like being an… apprentice? What does that entail?” 

"Hm? What does entail mean?” I almost laughed.

"Uh, like, what does being an apprentice mean? What do you do?”

"Oh! I learn a lot! Since I’m an apprentice healer, among other things, I have to spend a lot of time in the human realm to learn about how humans work. I travel back and forth a lot since I’m a messenger, so I've gotten pretty good at spotting access points, too! I'm apprenticed to a couple different people for healing, one here in the human realm and one at home. I’m basically a full-fledged messenger at this point, too!” He said proudly. I smiled. Wow, this kid was enthusiastic.

"That’s great! What kind of messages do you carry?” He narrowed his eyes at me. 

"You really do know nothing about us, do you?” I squirmed a little. He sounded rather suspicious.

"Not… really, no…” 

“Oookay, well— I’m not supposed to talk about what kinds of messages I carry. That’s private, between whoever I’m carrying for and the person I’m carrying it to.” 

“I'm sorry,” I said hurriedly. He smiled again. 

“It’s okay! You didn’t know, and now you do! Watch out for that root,” he pointed.

“So… is it okay to ask about foraging?” He giggled.

“You are curious! Yes, it’s okay, and thank you for asking! Foraging is looking for safe and humane ways for my friends who live in the human realm to feed! We don’t want to hurt people after all,” Well. That wasn’t concerning at all. I decided to skip past that for the sake of my own sanity. 

“What’s your favorite part about being an apprentice?” He hummed.

“Probably that everyone is always ready to explain things to me when I ask if they know I'm an apprentice. I can just ask a question and get an answer, no fuss, no muss, and no-one acts like I’m stupid. What about you? What do you do?” Oh no. Not this again, even with a weird little faun boy that I met in the forest. I coughed.

“I, uh, I’m currently in between doing things,” I said. 

“Oh! That’s nice! Now you have a bit of time to think about what you might want to do when you start doing things again!” And that was that. Wow. Okay. I loved this child now.

“So why were you here?” He asked, looking at me curiously. Honey-then-green eyes. 

“I heard about some weird shi— things. Stuff. Weird things, happening in these woods and I wanted to check it out. I’ve always been interested in things like that. Things… other people don’t understand or believe in, I guess…” He gave me the sweetest smile I’d ever seen.

“That’s really lovely. A lot of people don’t take time to understand things. I love that you think about things like that and want to learn about them,” I coughed self-consciously. He gently guided me to the side, avoiding a pile of rocks as he lead me by the hand into an increasingly grassy strip of land that then led into a meadow, filled with flowers and surrounded by stacks of boulders. 

“Okay, now we just gotta wait until—“ he suddenly put a hand to his forehead.

“Oh shoot. Someone’s— someone’s calling me. Ugh, oh dear. I— I can’t ignore this, but I don’t want to leave you all alone in a strange place—“ 

“I'll be okay.” I insisted. He cocked his head at me.

“Huh. Okay… oh! I have an idea.” He scrambled in the leather satchel tied around his waist and came up with a smooth little grey stone. 

“This is an adjoinment stone. I have one to match! If one of us is in danger, the stone of the other one will vibrate. Not that yours will probably ever vibrate. You don’t have to take it… if you don’t want to, but it might be nice… like… insurance? I think is a term you would connect with?” I laughed.

“Sure. I’ll take the insurance. Thanks,” I held out my hand. He started to hand it to me, but then drew his hand back. 

“Wait, here’s something to make it easier to keep track of!” He reached down and pulled up some ground weed. He started humming again, weaving it in and out through his fingers. Then he held up, and the vine looked… tougher, somehow, and was also inseparably fused to the rock. He grinned goofily at me.

“Humans like to wear ‘pendants’, don’t they?” I laughed.

“Yeah, we do!” I grabbed it and put it around my neck. If nothing else, I got a sick new piece of jewelry out of all this. Plus, if this was gone when I got back home then I would know that this was all a hallucination.

“Awesome! Now you should lie down, Traveler!” He trotted away, leaping with his nimble little hooves up on the rock piles. Then he turned and shouted back to me

“My name’s Eris, by the way!” And then he was gone. I checked the area around me for bees (not that there seemed to be any in the whole meadow, which wasn’t weird at all) and then lay down. It was shockingly extremely comfortable. And I was exhausted. Before I could help myself, my eyes were closing.

Deal gently with me my dear friends, this is the first time I've ever posted anything original.

Quick little note here, I’m just copying and pasting from the old posts, so some of the notes on here will seem odd out of context/will be inaccurate. The storyline has a name, it’s called A Traveler’s Tale!

[mar-the-magician]

Friendly reminder from BFF that Eris is her son but you are allowed to borrow him as long as you’re sweet! 😚

Also they’re hanging out, picking berries, playing tag and checkers, and watching movies on her phone 💕

[mar-the-magician]

This is feeling real relevant currently

[mar-the-magician]

Where's that meme template that's like ”I've only had [blank] for a day and a half, but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself”?

That’s y'all with Eris