Based on the prompt: “My sweet, gullible girl. You were always the end goal.”
Maisie is ten when she has finally worn down her parents enough to go traipsing into the woods behind their village alone. She promises not to go too far but as ten year olds are wont to do, she does anyway. She ventures deep enough that the fluffed pine trees look nearly indistinguishable from each other. It’s within these walls of pointed green barbed wire she meets the boy.
He’s taller than the other boys she knows – all gangly limbs and uneven proportions. But what stands out to Maisie are his ears which taper off into fine elegant points. He looks as shocked to see her as she is to see him.
“What are you?” they blurt at the same time.
Maisie giggles nervously. “I’m human, silly.”
The boy’s green eyes widen. “Human? That’s impossible.”
Maisie is only a few minutes into meeting this strange humanoid creature and already she grows tired of him. “Well then what are you?”
The boy puffs up his chest. “I’m Finn Dradalios Ethos the Second, Crown Prince of the Fae Southern Kingdoms and future Vanquisher of Evil!”
“That sounds like a lot.”
“It is,” the boy says. “You should go back home now. Fae Princes are required to slay humans.”
Except Maisie doesn’t know how to get home. She doesn’t know how she ended up this far in the forest in the first place. She was just following the pretty birdsong down the trail. At the thought of never seeing her parents again, her eyes well up with tears. “I don’t know where home is,” she whispers, clutching the ragged skirts of her dress tight.
She looks up as something thin and round and cold brushes her hands. In Finn’s now outstretched hand is a silver compass with a sparkling black arrow dancing inside the glass. “Take this. All you have to do is think of a place, and it’ll take you there.”
Maisie gently wraps her fingers around the device. “Even human places?”
Finn nods. “Even human places.”
“You know,” Maisie regards him, “you’re not so bad for a Vanquisher of Evil.”
Finn blushes. “That’s because it’s rude to slay girls.”
“That’s it? You aren’t slaying me because it’s rude?”
The pink of Finn’s pale skin deepens to a shade of purple – like the berries Maisie’s aunt picks in the springtime. “Of course not… I would slay you… I just haven’t gotten my sword and armour yet… “
“Mhmmm,” Maisie nods, her previous panic already fading in her mind. Then she remembers the compass in her hands. The compass that is decidedly not hers. “Wait. How will I give this back to you?” she asks.
Finn shrugs. “Come back here a year from now.”
“Why a year from now?”
“The Veil between Worlds will be thin again. It’s the only way a human like you can find us.”
It’s only on returning home that Maisie realizes she never gave him her name.
Finn is waiting for Maisie when she traipses into the circle of pine trees a year from their first meeting. This pleases her enormously, although she can’t quite put her finger on why.
“You came back!” he notes, jumping up from his place on the dirt.
Maisie presents him with the compass. “I won’t be needing this anymore.” She really won’t. She spent the past year familiarizing herself with the trees, learning as much of the forest’s idiosyncrasies as she could.
Finn takes it and tucks it into his breast pocket. “Thanks….uhm…I don’t think I caught your..?”
“Maisie.” Maisie says. She waits for his reaction. He seems to be waiting for something, something more so she adds, “Maisie Rue Fields the Seventh, Only Child and Vanquisher of Weeds and Bugs.”
There’s a sparkle of mischief in Finn’s forest green eyes when he speaks next. “Well Maisie. You wanna play a game?”
He chooses to teach her some popular Fae game withdrawn from a small leather satchel at his side. Finn, she thinks when she sees the device, has no concept of what a game is because that device is a puzzle. And while Maisie doesn’t quite understand how Finn solves the puzzle so quickly, she keeps at it, twisting and pulling the colorful cubes as the sun rises then sets. When it’s time to go, she tries to give it back but Finn just shakes his head.
“Keep it for now,” he says. “You can give it back to me next time.”
“Next time, I’m going to teach you what a game actually is,” Maisie declares.
When next time rolls around, Maisie holds to her promise. Together, they take turns hiding and seeking, skipping stones across the pond a little ways from the clearing, and scratching grids of X’s and O’s into the dirt with sticks. Once they grow bored of that, Maisie teaches Finn some classic human rough-housing. They get so covered in dirt it’s impossible to tell where the ground ends and they begin.
“We look like mud monsters!” Maisie laughs.
When Maisie is thirteen, Finn brings his brand new sword. “I finally earned my sword!” he crows with delight, slipping it out of its scabbard to show Maisie. She gently runs a hand along the swirling patterns engraved in the wooden hilt, careful to avoid the blade itself. She knows Finn would let her touch the metal too, but it looks so sharp she doesn’t want to risk getting a cut.
“What is its name?” she asks. In her books, all good swords have a name.
Finn considers it. “Rue,” he decides.
Maisie can’t help but hide her blush. “Why ‘Rue’?”
“Because all my enemies will rue the day I pull out this sword to slay them!” He holds the sword up dramatically in the air one final time before placing it back into its scabbard. “You can get one too one day! If you learn how to use one. Here! I’ll teach you.”
He teaches her a few forms using a sword sized branch he pulls from the ground. Whenever she takes up the proper stance, Finn beams with pride. “See? If you keep this up, you’ll be a soldier in no time.”
When Maisie is fourteen, she prepares herself for more swordfighting and rough housing. Only to find Finn doesn’t want to do either. He wants to talk.
“We spend all day together once a year but I realized I don’t know,” he laments. “At least not really.”
Maisie drops the stick she was surveying. “Talk?” she says doubtfully.
“I brought some pastries from the kitchens?” Finn lifts his satchel and shakes it. Sure enough, Maisie can smell the inviting aroma of flaked bread and fruit.
She caves quickly. In her book, food always trumps play. “Alright.”
When Maisie is fifteen, they share their first kiss. She wanted to know if he tasted sweet like tree sap. He does.
She doesn’t see Finn the next year.
At nineteen, she’s all but given up hope, playing halfheartedly with a smooth piece of rock she found when he finally appears. His face is more gaunt and there’s a scar running down the length of his throat, but it’s undeniably Finn. Maisie doesn’t need to hug him to know, but she does anyway because he looks like he could use one. “What happened to you?” she breathes.
“The kingdom needed their Vanquisher of Evil! There was only one man for the job,” he smiles at his attempt at a joke. It doesn’t quite reach his eyes though, which are staring at Maisie with the kind of tortured expression only war can cause. Finn sighs. “Okay fine so I lied a bit. The war didn’t just need me. It needed everyone who could fight, and it was awful. Every time the Veil thinned and I was out on the battlefield I could only think about how I was failing everyone. My battalion for being a terrible fighter, my parents for not being the Vanquisher they had hoped for…and you. You especially for not being there on the one day we have together. Wow this is getting to be really long, I’m sorry.”
Maisie smiles encouragingly. “It’s okay. I’m listening.”
“The point I’m trying to make is I missed you. Our time together was one of the few bright spots I could look to when I needed one. And I love being with you. So much so that I wondered…” he breathes nervously, his chest visibly collapsing and expanding. Maisie almost wonders if he’s having a panic attack when he pulls it together, features calming. To her shock, he gets down on one knee and extends a glittering diamond ring to her. “I wondered if Maisie Rue Fields the Seventh, Only Child and Vanquisher of Weeds and Bugs, if you would do the honor of spending time with me every day of the year and marry me?”
Maisie’s mouth drops open. She had imagined a lot of things happening (some scenarios more risque than others) when she finally saw him again but not this. “You want to marry me?”
“But I’m a human! And a commoner!” she exclaims. “Surely your parents have different goals in mind for their crown prince.”
His laugh is as warm as a ray of sunshine. “My sweet gullible girl. You were always the end goal.”
“Is that a yes?” Finn tilts his head hopefully.
Maisie rolls her eyes. “Finn Dradalios Ethos the Second, Crown Prince of the Fae Southern Kingdoms and future Vanquisher of Evil, yes I will marry you. Now answer my question.”
Finn’s hands are sure as he guides the ring onto her finger. “From the moment we met, it’s always been you.”
