Layered Realms

[the-realms-master]

Layered Realms, Original Story

I’ll definitely come back and edit this later— for now this is just a place to put all my Layered Realms chapters without all the other posts and reblogs in between. As it develops it may become a full sideblog for LR, but for now it’s just a little archive. And don’t worry, all the chapters will also still be going up on my main blog, @mar-the-magician!

[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! 😅

[mar-the-magician]

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!

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

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]

Tsundere Fae Healer Talks About Home

OHMYFUCK IT’S BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE I POSTED A CHAPTER

Erm, apologies— hello all! I’m not gonna lie, this chapter was kind of difficult to write (for a lot of reasons) but I wanna thank everyone who’s shown so much support and love for this creative endeavor of mine, and especially @morgansplace, @thesunandmoons-blog, and @shinebrite97 for giving me the motivation to finish this with their kind words, fan content, and all other contributions!! Thank you all and I hope you enjoy!! Cw/Tw: this has one or two very mild sexual references somewhere in there— not sure if it’d be enough to trigger anyone, but better safe than sorry! Also death and the afterlife are mentioned in here, just in case that’s a problem for anyone.

Tsundere Fae Healer Talks About Home 

Vmm-vmm

I glanced down at my phone.

One new message from Amir Amator✨ 

I went in and changed his contact

Amir Amator✨(aka Sex on Toast)

Then I had a look at his message. He had sent me an image attachment of a small yellow flower with spiky petals and a whitish center.

‘Eris thought you would like this flower and asked me to send you a picture of it’

I smiled and started typing.

‘Tell him I love it and it’s very pretty

i want to see Hedera, can we meet at the parking lot?’

‘See you there, Traveler 😃✨’

‘that emoji is threatening 

It gives bad vibes’

‘Wdym?? 🤔🤭’

‘Bruh

i hate you’

‘Love you too, Traveler’

‘*really hate you’

‘Really love you too. See you!’

‘Smh’ 

I rushed to the bathroom and checked my hair, changed into a nicer shirt, grabbed my keys, and was out the door.

All the drive there, half of my brain was coming up with questions to figure out if there really was some sort of obstacle to humans and fae having romantic relationships with each other, trying to convince me that it would be for the best. The other half was coming up with all possible answers that would prove that there was no obstacle and hoping, hoping, hoping. 

“Ugh. Stop it! It’s just a stupid crush! Get over yourself!” I screamed into the rearview mirror. 

When I arrived in the parking lot, Amir was already there, leaning against the most expensive-looking car in the parking lot.

“Took you long enough. What was the hold-up? Oh wait… right! You can’t teleport!” He snapped his fingers and gave me a smug grin. I just stared at him for a full three or so seconds and then asked

“Whose car is that?” His curls shook as he laughed.

“Some random person who decided to park here, I suppose. You ready to get going? There’s wards in place so Hedera and I will both be alerted if anything hostile comes near you while you’re in these woods. Do you know your own way this time?” I squinted a little, trying to remember the way that we had gone our last visit.

“I think so, yeah.” His eyes glinted deviously.

“Good! Then that means you two will get some… alone time~”

My stomach flipped over at what he had just implied.

“Oh don’t even go there, incubus.” 

“I didn’t say anything, so who really has the dirty mind here?” He smirked and turned to the forest, holding up his arms and snapping his fingers. Just as it had last time, an opening appeared in the trees where there had been nothing but impenetrable walls of branches and thorns only moments before. He turned to go.

“Well, there you are. Enjoy yourself, Traveler~”

“Why d’you have to go right this second?” I cocked my head curiously. He muttered something that sounded vaguely like

“Can’t talk right now, I’m doin’ hot girl shit,” and I turned an incredulous stare on him.

“What??”

“I must depart, unfortunately!” He blinked out of existence. I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Turning back to the path ahead of me, I shook out my shoulders and took a deep breath.

“Whatever. Here we go.”

I was careful about my turns. Judging from how the others had acted before, I did not want to get lost in these woods, no matter how many wards were around.

Once I saw the piles of rocks ahead of me, I began breathing easy again. As I rounded a large pile of boulders, I saw Hedera, draped in a floaty silver dress that was practically see-through (think holy thoughts, me, think holy thoughts) with a daisy crown on her head, half-leaning and half-sitting against a rock. She looked at me and let out a breath.

“Hello again, Traveler.” Gah, how was her voice always so musical?? 

“Hello, Hedera.” I coughed awkwardly. She rolled her eyes and patted the boulder beside her.

“Sit.” It was more of a command than an invitation. 

“Why are you here?” I squirmed a little as I situated myself next to her on the boulder. It was surprisingly comfortable.

“Because… I missed you?”

“Oh really.” She scoffed. I held open my hands.

“Yes? Is that not allowed now? I like you, I think you’re cool, I want to talk to you and spend time with you. Is that so unbelievable?” She rolled her eyes and turned her head away. I had just imagined that hint of pink on her cheeks, right? Right?

“Well. You’re doing that now. Yay-hoo-fucking-ray.” Yup, definitely imagined it.

“I mean— I can leave, if you’d prefer…”

“No.” I smiled crookedly.

“Getting kinda mixed messages here, girl.”

“You already came all this way, it’d be a waste not to spend at least some time here now,” she rolled her eyes. I poked her arm.

“You just don’t want to admit that you wanna talk to me as well!” She shoved my shoulder with a sardonic snort that just barely wasn’t enough to distract me from how warm her hand was.

“Believe whatever keeps you sane, you loon.” For a few moments, we just kicked our feet and stared down at all the beautiful flowers below. Honestly, she was justified in getting mad that I had squished some of them. They were art. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I came here, yes partially because I wanted to see Hedera, but also because I wanted answers to my questions.

“Hey, so… I wanted to ask you some questions about… well, everything, if you’re okay with it.”

“I’m not sure I can answer questions about everything, Traveler.” I made a face at her.

“You know what I meant.” She sighed and gestured into the air.

“Ask away. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

I took a deep breath in through my nose.

“So uh… how long do fae… live for?” If they were immortal or lived for ages and ages on end, that would make a romantic relationship hard on the fae. 

“Ooh wow, that’s a heavy one to lead with.” She laced he fingers through her hair.

“I mean— you don’t have to answer if you don’t want—“

“No, no, it’s— it’s fine. So… essentially, fae cannot die of old age.” My chest tightened up. ‘This is a good thing, this is a good thing, this is a good thing. Destroy that stupid crush of yours.’ My brain tried to convince me. 

“We can be killed, with enough force or magic, and we… we have to choose to die.”

“What?” 

“Hold your fucking horses, let me finish, you eternal question and objection dispenser. Once a fae entity gets old enough, they have the option to simply… leave. Their spirit leaves their body and goes to the afterlife. It’s not painful or anything, you just… stop. That’s our equivalent of ‘old age.’” My brain took a moment to adjust to this information.

“Oh. Okay… that’s… hm.” ‘Someone could just choose to die after their partner died. They wouldn’t have to deal with an eternity of grief.’ She raised her eyebrows at me. 

“Well, that’s a very reactive response.” I coughed and cleared my throat.

“Sorry, just, uh… thinking.”

“Wait.” She turned to stare at me.

“You do that?”

“Oh fuck off,” I laughed. 

“And okay, uh… next question.” Fuck, how to phrase this without her catching on…

“Do… do fae… experience… emotions, the same way humans do, or is there any sort of… fundamental difference?” ‘Real smooth.’ I mentally facepalmed. She looked at me sideways.

“You’re full of all kinds of interesting questions today, aren’t you?” I squirmed underneath her icy stare. She rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue.

“Relax Traveler, I’m not going to eat you or something. No, there’s no real fundamental difference in how we experience emotions or connections. Some of the oldest, oldest fae get attached less easily or quickly, and feel a bit more… numb, I suppose, because they’ve been around for so long and experienced so much that things just matter to them less, but in general humans and fae are fairly close in that department, at least as far as I can surmise.”

“I see. That’s… cool. Yeah, that’s cool.” Her eyebrows turned upwards in a concerned expression.

“You are acting fucking weird today Traveler. Are you— feeling all right?”

“Yeah, no, totally, I’m good!” I gave her two awkward thumbs up. 

‘Sprinkle some normal questions in there, hopefully throw her off the scent…’

“So, um, what’s your favorite part about the fae realm?” I asked.

She flinched slightly. I held up my hands quickly in a disarming gesture.

“You don’t have to talk about it—“

“Stop saying that every time. If I want to keep something private, or it makes me uncomfortable or I’m just not willing to share it at this juncture, I’ll just tell you to fuck right off. Unlike you, maybe, I actually have a spine.” I let out a surprised laugh.

“Okay then…”

“So… my favorite part. It would probably be the… the beat. The pulse. I— I don’t really know what else to call it, but you still look confused.”

“I don’t think I understand. The fae realm has a pulse? Like a heartbeat?” She sighed and stretched out her long, pale, freckle-dusted arms, laying them across her knees.

“There is always dancing, in that realm. It is one of the few things about which my race is willing to swallow their pride and admit that your race has a mastery of. Someone is always dancing, or being taught a new dance, or dancing for a specific reason or ceremony or some such. And part of that is, that realm has a constant beat. A pulsating, bass-like thing that permeates the whole realm.”

“Oh.” I tried to imagine this.

“That sounds really beautiful… but also kind of overwhelming?”

“You could use that to describe the whole realm, from a human point of view.” She tossed her head, and the daisy crown fell over one eye.

“Shit, crud, forgot I had this on—“ she scrabbled with it. I held out my hands in a “come here” motion.

“Let me?” She paused.

“My hair tangles really easily…”

“I promise I’ll be gentle and it won’t hurt.” Plus, if she said yes, I would get to touch that gorgeous, silky, wavy mane… She cautiously inclined her head towards me.

“Very well then…” 

“Where’d you get the daisy crown?” I gently disentangled one daisy after another from her locks with careful fingers. Wow her hair was soft. 

“Eris made it for me. He likes to do that a lot— and it’s good practice for me to keep plants alive for as long as I can.” 

“It still kinda fucks with my mind that people can do that. Just like, going about my day as normal, and then suddenly I remember— oh yeah! Magic exists!” She graced me with an almost-smile as I slowly pulled the crown away from her head. 

“There we go.” 

“Thank you. Yes, well, if you follow through with your applications and are consistent with your studies, you may be able to do things like that as well someday.”

“Hey, why are you glaring?! You don’t know anything about my study habits, I could be the most diligent student in the world for all you know!”

“I’m sure you could be— y’know what, no actually. From what I have seen of you, you would not be the type to do well in the school system. At least from what Amir has told me of it.”

“You— yeah okay fair.” I deflated. She snorted.

“That’s what I thought.”

There was another pause, and I couldn’t decide if the silence was awkward or companionable. She blew air out through her nose.

“Anyhow— the fae realm is… beautiful. I love it, and I miss it. But humans can’t generally go there.”

“What? Why not?”

“It’s overwhelming, like you said. Everything there is— constant color and light and rhythm and noise and warmth and cold at the same time— every one of your senses gets pushed to the max. Same with the demon realm. With proper training and conditioning humans can enter the other realms, but that usually takes years. An untrained human has a pretty high chance of just straight-up dropping dead from sensory overload the moment they enter an access point.”

“Oh— wow.” She pursed her lips.

“Exactly.” 

“So… is the ‘beat’ what you miss the most about your realm?” She let out a bitter laugh.

“I miss a lot of things about it. The smells— flowers and nectar and ambrosia and honey and musk, earth and water, air and hot dust, grass and fruit and charcoal and stones, green tea and crushed roots, merging into something indescribable. The warmth. The tactile sensations. The way you can find new shapes and colors in everything. The swirling power constantly surrounding you. I miss the energy from that place. Here it’s… different. In order to feed off of the energy of this realm, it has to be channeled through a human. To feed there, all I had to do was take it in.”

“I see.” I fiddled with the daisy crown in my hand.

“I’m a little confused about something…” she sighed.

“When are you not?” I started laughing.

“Now you’re just being mean,” I pouted. “But I did genuinely have a question…”

“What?”

“Why… if you miss it so much, why stay here? Why not go home?” She stiffened. Slowly turned her head away from me and held her hand out for the daisy crown. I tentatively handed it to her.

“Fuck. Right off.” She said, running the half-wilted crown through her hands like a rosary. 

“Gotcha.” ‘Well that’s… interesting…’ 

“Besides, it’s not like I completely, totally, without exception, hate it here in this realm. I’ve made it very bearable for myself, at least in this little corner of it. I have flowers, Eris, good smells, fruit, clean water, and plenty of room and privacy to practice magic. Most of the time, anyway.” She turned a stern stare on me.

“I get it, I get it, I’m a nuisance!” I laughed. Why did her harshness make me feel more at ease than her kindness?

“One last question, and then I’ll let you go. It’s getting pretty late, anyway.”

“I assure you, I’m all ears.”

“Does anyone know what happens after fae… die? Like, has anyone ever come back from the dead or anything? Do we know if there’s an afterlife?” Hedera held her hands up to the sky like she was praying.

“You come here into my meadow and expect me to know all the mysteries that your people have been trying to solve for centuries?”

“I’m sorry, I—“

“Oh, hush.” She let her arms drop. 

“No-one has ever come back from the dead. It’s not possible, as far as anyone knows. Necromancy magic is nothing but a bad children’s story. But…” she began twisting the daisies again,

“Human souls can be reincarnated. Fae and demons aren’t ever, as far as we know, but a human soul can be reincarnated into the body of a fae entity or a demon.”

“Oh that’s insane— how does anyone know that?”

“When a fae entity or a demon gets old enough, sometimes they start regaining memories from one or more of their past lives. Humans can actually do it too, with some training— and maybe some magical aid, for some of them.”

“That’s— woah! That is incredible! We actually know something about the afterlife! Like, for certain!” That almost-smile lifted her cheeks and brow again.

“Amir has told me that such revelations often have that kind of effect on humans.” I grinned at her.

“You rely on Amir for a lot of your info about us, don’t you? But you don’t have to anymore— you have me!”

“Yes, well, very nice.” She rolled her eyes. Surely, surely I didn’t imagine the twinkle in them this time, did I?

“Speaking of Amir, though, I promised him I’d give my opinion on some designs he’s been working on today, and he doesn’t like anyone but me and sometimes Eris to see his sketches before he’s done with them, so you might have to withdraw for the day.”

“Amir designs things? What are they?” 

“Clothes, what else?” She pushed herself up from the rock with one arm, looking graceful and easy. ‘For fuck’s sake, focus for one second, would you??’

“O-okay, cool. I will. It was… it was nice talking to you, Hedera.”

“…You’re. An interesting conversationalist, Traveler. I’ll give you that.” Why did just that make me feel warm and wriggly inside?

“I’ll walk you out to your car.” Her tone booked no argument, despite the fact that I was thinking 

‘But what about those wards??’

“Okay! Thank you!” I fiddled awkwardly with my fingers, and she shoved the daisy crown back into my hands.

“You can keep that. It’s not like it’ll last much longer anyway.”

“Ah… thank you.” That was definitely not a thing I should be blushing about.

As we walked along the path that I was coming to know rather well, Hedera seemed rather restless. Finally, as we were nearing the parking lot, she turned to me and asked 

“Traveler. I— I have a meeting, with my tribe, soon. It’s going to be held in the human realm. It would help you to learn more about us. Eris isn’t going to be there, but he said he’d like you to go and meet the other people from our tribe. And— and I want you to come. If you want to, that is, I know it could be an overwhelming thing to fling on you right off the bat and you certainly don’t have to but—“

“Yes!” I all-but shouted. Getting ahold of myself, I coughed into my hand and said

“Yes. Absolutely. I would love to meet more people like you. And I want to learn as much as I can. And I…” I leaned against my car and fiddled with the daisies. 

“I want to spend more time… with you.” 

“I see.” I looked up to see her clearing her throat with a face that was definitely pink. There was no way I was imagining it.

“I’ll… I’ll have Amir send you the date and time. Be safe, Traveler.” She turned and power-walked away, leaving me staring after her trailing silver dress with a lot— a whole lot— on my mind.

Thank you for reading! I hope you all enjoyed!! I might be a bit before my next chapter upload, because I’m going to try to write two chapters so that I always have a chapter’s worth of buffer between me and the gaping hole of taking so long to update should such extraneous circumstances beset me again. However, if the common theme of my writing holds true, the next two chapters are gonna be pretty easy to write, so hopefully I won’t be too long! :D Thank you all again for reading!

Again outdated notes, it’s been over two months since I posted a chapter, but one is coming soon! And with that, we are up to date! And from now on every chapter will be posted here and on my main blog at the same time, so we should be all good.

[the-realms-master]

Framework And Fascinations With A Flirty Incubus

The answer to ‘Which Chapter Next?’ was a very emphatic “AMIR!!” which honestly, I’m so glad y’all picked this!! Because I’ve had Talent Is Relative brainrot ever since I established the dynamics of it in my mind. It’s probably the storyline with the most potential chapters in my mind so far 😅 

Cw/tw: this chapter contains mild sexual references throughout! If that’s not your thing or makes you uncomfy, then just scroll right along, friendo~

Also, small side note, the reader character here is heavily implied to be demisexual or on the grey-ace spectrum. 

With all that out of the way, here we are! Chapter four, Layered Realms part four, Talent Is Relative part one.

Framework And Fascinations With A Flirty Incubus

Third person POV, focused on Amir.

Amir kicked his foot out and leaned against the wall. He was loitering in the Demworth’s Institute of Command Education (D.I.C.E.) office, hoping to grab a quick snack. An educational institution’s student help office might seem like an odd place for an incubus to look for a meal, at least at first glance. But the help desk attendant here was hot, and almost every student who came in saw him and let off a wave of energy that Amir could and would gladly and quickly consume. 

Ting!

The bell on the door rang, and someone carrying a massive pile of paperwork stumbled into the office and dumped it on the desk. Not even sparing a second glance for the attendant, they started sorting through it while rambling to him.

“—and I filled out the form for the History Of Manufactured Command class as well, but it wouldn’t scan into my computer. Everything’s been acting weird recently and so finally I just decided to bring all of the physical copies in, just to make sure. I’m so sorry, I know it’s a lot of extra work—“ the attendant sighed. He pointed over to the other side of the room.

“You’re all good. The whole system is kind of fucked right now, they just tried to update it. Go over to that table to sort through it. Make copies of the ones you need. Take your time, if you have to. Just remember the deadline is Monday, so don’t push it out any further than that.” They sighed, and Amir could feel the wave of relief crashing over them. 

“Thank you so much— I think I can get it all done today.” They gathered up their things again and plopped it all over onto the side table. Amir continued to look them over. Their massive wave of relieved energy had drawn his attention to their magical signature. It was oddly… sparky. They must be electricity affiliated. But beyond that they were— tangled, somehow, like a dark shadow had been cast over all their energy. He pressed against the wall with his foot to push himself forward, and approached them. 

“It’s late in the summer to be doing this much paperwork,” he murmured. They glanced up.

“I had all this shit done at the start of this summer, but now I’ve decided to change a bunch of stuff. So yeah,” they said absently, immediately turning their head back down to their forms. They had looked at him. Full in the face. In all his glory. And not even a single spark of attraction had flitted through their signature. Interest? Yes. Mild curiosity? Yes. But attraction? No. Maybe they just weren’t into boys?

“What has you so down? Your signature is practically exuding dark feelings right now.” He cocked his head at them curiously. They shrugged bitterly.

“Boyfriend just dumped me.” Abrupt and to the point— and they did like boys. Hm. Curious. 

“I could take your mind off that, if you’d like…” his tone was sultry as he traced a finger down their arm. They laughed. Good-naturedly, but still! 

“No thanks, pretty boy— I’ve got a lot to get done, and plus I don’t do the whole ‘fucking random people I just met’ thing. Shocking, I know. How will society ever get over the scandal?” They joked, but he could see the flicker of defensiveness in their signature. Hm… some knowledge to tuck away for later.

“I could change that~” They wrinkled their nose.

“Hmm. No.” Amir raised his eyebrows at them.

“You don’t think I could?” Did they know nothing about demons?

“Oh I know you could. I just don’t think you would.” He stared at them.

“What makes you think that?” They shrugged.

“Eh, just a hunch of mine.”

“And do you judge all demons by your little… hunches? Because if so, let me know how that works out for you, Goody-goody.” He sighed and placed his hands on their shoulders. “Okay if I smush you?”

“If by that you mean rest your entire upper body weight on my shoulders then… sure.” He sank down onto them and plopped his chin on the top of their head.

“What are you working on?” A burst of excitement flashed through their signature.

“Laying out the framework for my future.”

***

Goody-goody’s POV.

The demon lifted his chin from it’s place digging into my scalp and cocked his head at me. He did that a lot. It was kind of cute, like a puppy.

“Now you’ve got me interested, Goody-goody. What’s this future that’s got you so excited?” I smiled.

“Well I— hm. Let’s just say that while I may have natural command, and I may be electricity affiliated, neither of those are really… my strong point? And something came up that’s made it so I can switch my classes to manufactured command ones, which means I’ll be doing a whole lot better, and learning a whole lot more.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, what changed?” He said, settling back onto my shoulders and head. I squirmed slightly. I wasn’t exactly willing to share just yet that I had wanted to take manufactured command classes since the beginning, but had changed my mind for my boyfriend, Brook. Since we could both take natural command classes, he had convinced me that we should sign up for the same classes so that we could spend more of our time in the day around each other. And he certainly wasn’t interested in taking manufactured command classes. He was a powerful nature affiliate, with tons of potential, all-but nationally ranked on his plant and earth magic— unlike my puny sparks. But after he broke up with me, saying that he wasn’t emotionally ready for a relationship where he was doing the brunt of the work and compromise, I had no reason to stay in those classes. The incubus gripped my shoulders gently, pulling me back from my thoughts and into the real world again.

“Never mind, Goody-goody,” he whispered. That was odd— oh, fuck, right, demon. Could sense my emotions. 

“S-sorry about that—“

“Don’t apologize for feeling things strongly. ‘Those who have felt the deepest grief are best able to experience supreme happiness.’ That’s an Alexandre Dumas quote.” 

“Why do you know that?” I laughed a little incredulously. He snorted.

“I’ve regularly visited the human realm for decades, little Good-goody. I know my way around.” 

“Would you stop calling me that?” I laughed. 

“Maybe when you prove to me it’s not true, Goody-Two-Shoes,” he sing-songed. Oh I liked this guy. 

“Pffft— maybe buy me dinner first. Or, y’know, just buy me dinner— no fucking required. That’d be awesome too. College fees are a bitch, after all.” I rolled my eyes and went back to my paperwork. His weight on my shoulders was… comforting. Grounding. I liked it. I hoped he didn’t stop— because I was going to need some grounding to get through this load of shit. Especially in my current emotional state. Oh, he was so warm. I scooted back into him a little bit. 

“‘Earliest Origins of Manufactured Command’? That would take you back to the history of fae and demon orthography, wouldn’t it?”

“Speak English,” I grumbled. He chuckled into my hair. 

“Orthography is the study of words— letters and alphabets.” 

“Ohh— I remember now,” I shuffled through to the next page. How many fucking times were they gonna make me sign my name? 

“Well, now I have the advantage on you,” he murmured. 

“What?”

“I know your name but you don’t know mine,” he pointed to my paper.

“You can remedy that. Oh, also, that class will in fact be including studying ancient fae and demon runes and alphabet and such, and how they changed over time. So yeah, that’s gonna be fascinating,” I murmured. I could feel him smile against my hair, and he started pressing gently into my shoulders again.

“My name,” he said as I practically melted into the massage (good grief, was I really that touch starved?) 

“Is Amator. Amir Amator.” 

“It’s a pretty name,” I breathed. My shoulders were sore. 

“You know, you have enough knots in these shoulders of yours to very securely tie someone to a bed.” He murmured in my ear. I rushed a hand up over my mouth to hide my surprised laugh. 

“Dude, we’re supposed to be at least somewhat quiet in here, especially when there’s people working on stuff. Don’t make me laugh!” He smirked.

“Not the usual way I have people begging me not to make them make noise, but I’ll take it.”

“Oh good grief—“ I turned back to my papers. Well. This was shaping up to be less boring and stressful than expected. I had already made faster progress than I had thought I would.

“Maybe I’ll actually manage to make it out of here before— oh, shit.” I said as it started to pour rain outside.

“You’re fucking early!” I whisper-shouted at the rain. Amir stifled a laugh. 

“This is gonna be a nightmare to drive in!” 

“I love the rain,” he mused. “Also, the technically correct way to phrase that would be ‘this is going to be a nightmare in which to drive’ or ‘driving in this is going to be a nightmare’. Don’t end a sentence with a preposition.”

“Mm, go fuck yourself. ‘Sides, you don’t have to travel home in this, you can just teleport.” I muttered. He let out a sultry chuckle. Very different from the way he’d laughed before. I didn’t like that one as much, it sounded fake.

“Only if you watch m—“ 

“Hush,” I snorted. “Not the time.” 

“Fine,” he huffed. “Also— why can’t you teleport?” I scoffed.

“Teleportation magic is hard, even for commanders with actual talent. I’m nowhere near that level and I never will be. I can barely make static. Maybe if I actually make it to my fourth year in manufactured studies I’ll learn it that way.” After several beats of silence and two more forms filled out I asked

“Why do you love the rain?” He shrugged.

“It doesn’t rain in the demon realm. When I first got arrived in your realm, an old best friend of mine was leading me, and it was raining. I was… awestruck. And my friend explained to me what it was, and why it happened, but I was still just… so entranced. So they humored me. And we ran around and shouted and danced in the rain. I suppose some part of my brain still associates rain with all those good feelings.” Oh dear that was adorable. My heart was melting. 

“And speaking of good feelings—“ 

“No-ho-ho-hope!” I leaned my head back and looked into his eyes.

“Stahp.” I bundled up my papers and stood to go to the copy machine, then dropped my forms off at the desk and traipsed back over to where Amir was still standing. He smirked at me.

“I’m an incubus. How am I, in good faith, supposed to ‘stahp’ as you say?” I frowned at him as we walked outside, standing under the shelter of the awning.

“Stop that.”

“Stop being a devilishly handsome, incredibly charming, master of flirting, tease? I’m sorry, Goody-goody, but no can d—“

“Stop objectifying yourself.” He stared at me with confused eyes.

“You’re not… just an incubus. I mean, that’s a part of your identity, and it’s a good thing that it’s a part of you that makes you happy and that you’re not ashamed of, but you’re also just… a person. A person who gives good cuddles, and has his ears pierced, and also looks like he had a failed piercing when he was younger, and quotes Alexandre Dumas, and corrects peoples’ grammar, and likes Helluva Boss—“ I pointed to his pendant, which had the book that the Helluva Boss characters used to travel from one world to another hanging from the end of it, “and loves the rain and dances with his best friend and smells like strawberries and lavender.” He was looking at me like I’d grown a second head. I coughed and turned away.

“S- um. Sorry about that. I guess that got… too personal.” Did I just mention how he had smelled? What was wrong with me? I should go. As I started to walk away, he grabbed my wrist. I raised my eyebrows at him.

“It wasn’t… too personal. You— I’ve known you for half an hour and you just pointed out things that people I’ve known for months never cared to notice.”

“Oh. Uh. Okay.” I looked him over for a second. Well, after all… why not?

“Can I get your number?” An involuntary, incredulous smile began spreading over his face.

“You may.” It became a shit-eating grin.

“Oh fuck you,” I laughed.

“You may do that, too!”

“Eat shit!”

“I wouldn’t recommend it.” I was gasping with laughter at this point.

“Oh just give me your phone, you weirdo.” I panted between involuntarily giggles and snorts. He handed it over. I grinned at the elaborately decorated Verosika Mayday case.

“Nice phone case. How exactly has no-one noticed you like Helluva Boss??” He laughed.

“It’s a mystery, Goody-goody.” I typed my number in and named myself ‘Frustrated Paperwork Person’. Under companies I put ‘Helluva Boss Fandom.’ 

“I’m hilarious, I know. Ooh! The rain stopped for a bit! Catch you later, alligator!!” I dashed out towards my car as fast as I could to make the most of the lull.

***

If they had looked back, they wouldn’t have seen much. Just an incubus looking so lovestruck that Cupid himself would have bodied them out of jealousy. Who was so out of it that his glamour spell had fallen away, revealing his horns and his tail, which was suspiciously curling and uncurling like a contented cat’s.

I. FUCKING. LOVED. WRITING. THIS!!!!!

Amir and Goody-goody’s dynamic is just food for my soul, and it makes me so incredibly happy. This is definitely my favorite chapter I’ve written so far, and I’m honestly so proud of it! So I hope you all enjoyed as much as I did!

Also, I have a TON going on this upcoming week, so it’s unlikely that any new chapters of Layered Realms or any new fics are gonna go up over that time period. I’ll probably still be hangin out, making silly little shitposts and reblogging stuff and so on and so forth, but likely don’t expect anything too coherent.

Outdated notes! Also, almost there— just one more chapter to find, copy, paste, and post and I’ll be caught up to the current timeline at the time of the creation of this sideblog!

[the-realms-master]

Hashing Out Options With Fae Friends And A Flirty Demon

So, this chapter features a character that would not have existed were it not for my inability to make these into actual ASMR videos because… he has a deep voice. And I do not 😂 So uh, if y'all like him, I guess thank my lack of equipment for that! Also he was SO FUCKING HARD TO WRITE, SO SOME OF Y'ALL BETTER ENJOY HIM—

Also I edited the shit out of this but… it’s still info-dumpy— so apologies to @kimerousel for this 😣

Cw/tw, this chapter contains mild sexual references throughout! If that's not your thing or makes you uncomfy, then just scroll right along, friendo~ Now that all that's out of the way, here we go! Chapter three, part three of A Traveler's Tale.

Hashing Out Options With Fae Friends And A Flirty Demon

I shut the door of my car quietly, for some reason. It felt weird being too loud here, like I knew someone was watching. Which, to be fair? Someone probably was. I turned in a circle, looking for the trail that I had hiked on last time I’d come here. It had been in plain view before, but now I saw nothing at all.

It had been a week and a half since I had last come to these woods, looking for paranormal activity and expecting to find no more than maybe some suspicious noises. Instead, I had discovered there was a whole magical world, with fauns and fae and humans who could do magic who were called ‘commanders’ and well— it had taken me a bit to adjust. This was all so much more… concrete than I had ever expected it to be. I had always thought that the supernatural existed, but I hadn’t expected it to have rules, and structure, and interesting, beautiful healers who might be more than they seemed…

‘Nope. No. Not going there.” I mentally swatted back with a broom those kinds of thoughts about Hedera, the fae healer who had helped me last time I was here. Sure, she was gorgeous, and intelligent, and cool, but she had also acted like I was the biggest nuisance since mosquitoes were invented. ‘Except for right there at the end…’

She was fae. There. That was an obstacle that my brain would have a harder time arguing with. Surely there was something fundamentally different and incompatible about fae and humans, right?

“I’m dying to know what has that expression on your face, little one,” a deep, sultry voice said behind me. I started and turned. In front of me stood a tall, leanly muscular man with a lithe frame and auburn curly locks just barely falling in front of his eyes. He wore a loose white button-up tucked into dark purplish-red slacks, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a practically indecent amount of buttons undone, revealing perfectly marked lines of muscle all up and down his torso. His face was wound into a lascivious smirk. Hm. Okay. Definitely not feeling safe currently. However, if he was here, there was a good chance that he was involved in the magical world. I decided to risk it. If he didn’t know what I was was talking about, he didn’t know what I was talking about. And if he did, well, I might just be able to find that trail again. 

“I’m looking for two people named Hedera and Eris. Do you know them?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Oh? You’re… hm. You don’t seem like the kind of person that would be out here looking for them.” 

“Yeah, I know, I don’t smell like magic and I don’t give off a magical signature.”

“Well, even if you did smell like magic I wouldn’t be able to tell, though I’m sure either way you smell amazing,” he hummed. I scrunched up my face. 

“Being very attractive shouldn’t give you the right to make weird comments like that to strangers.” I muttered under my breath. “So you’re a commander then?” 

“Guess again, my curious little friend,” he chuckled. I drew my brows together.

“Guess I’ll have to lose this game. Tell me.” 

“Oh, is it really that hard to tell?” He simpered. “I’m hurt.” He moved closer, making me wish I was in a better position to inconspicuously get my keys between my fingers. 

“I’m an incubus, little one.” My eyes widened. “That’s right,” he lowered his voice to a sensual whisper. “A sex demon.” I shook my head. There were demons now? 

“Good for you! Can you help me get into these woods?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Not the usual reaction to a sex demon seemingly making moves on you, human.”

“Maybe I’m not a very usual human?” He shrugged.

“Fair enough. I mean…” he smirked. “What’s the point if they aren’t begging for it?”

“I’m not much for begging.” I said. He winked at me.

“Maybe not yet,” He said, whirling around dramatically. The fabric around his shoulders swirled beautifully. He held up his hands and waved them dramatically, humming lightly under his breath. It felt like something… shifted, slightly. Like the whole parking lot had moved an inch to the left or something. And suddenly, right in front of me, was the trail I had gone on last time. I blew out a breath.

“Thanks!” I started out onto the trail, but his voice arrested me.

“You shouldn’t walk the woods alone. I’d be happy to walk with you… if you’re okay with that, that is.” I turned to stare at him.

“You’re asking?”

“Consent is an important part of my day-to-day, human.”

“Aaand there's the sexual reference. That’s more natural,” oh. That was sassier than I intended to be. Oh well. I looked him over. Was he really serious? We could test that out, I supposed.

“No thanks,” I said. He shrugged.

“Your loss,” he said, leaping with a speed that was definitely not human onto the nearest tree.

“I changed my mind,” I shouted after him. He turned and dashed up to me, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. His forehead almost touching mine, he grinned gleefully.

“Testing me, were you, human?” 

“Something like that,” I conceded.

“But also, I don’t… exactly remember the way to Hedera's clearing.” He cackled like a hyena, very different from the sultry chuckles that he had been affecting this entire time. 

“Were you just hoping you’d run into Eris and he’d guide you there again?”

“How— how did you—“ 

“Shh… ah-ah-ah… all in good time, human,” he waggled a finger at me.

“Ooookay then…” he started sauntering down the path, motioning me to follow. Wow, he was graceful. I guessed that made sense. 

“So, what's your name, my lovely little human?” I introduced myself.

“Aw, a pretty name for a pretty face, and a pretty body…” I looked him up and down and finally said—

“Being attractive does not give you the right to chat me up when I’ve shown no interest in reciprocating.”

“Fair enough, fair enough. My name's Amir, by the way. Amir Amator.” He said it like the words were honey on his tongue.

“Nice name.” I shrugged. He grinned.

“Why thank you! I picked out half of it all by myself!” I laughed.

“Which half?”

“Amator,” he rolled it around on his tongue. “It's Latin for ‘lover’, and later adapted into the English word amateur. Although, mind you, I’m anything but an amateur when it comes to my… occupation.” He smirked at me, and I frowned.

“Sorry, sorry, I know. So, why are you looking for them? Hedera and Eris, I mean?” Leaping up onto a shard of boulder sticking out from the cliffside in order to avoid some poison ivy, I panted out my response.

“Wanted to— see them— again— why else?” He laughed a hyena laugh again.

“As always, humans are audacious. It’s no wonder I love your race.”

“So,” I huffed, “if you’re comfortable with it,” leapt back down onto the path again, “could you tell me about demons?” He quirked a surprised eyebrow at me.

“You just want to know about… my race? In general?”

“I’m kinda trying to catch up on a whole world I’ve been missing out on for most of my life, here— shouldn’t be that surprising,” I retorted.

“No, no… it’s not a shock that you would want to know about those things. I just… wasn’t expecting that, I guess. Okay then, why don’t we start with the basics?” He pointed at my feet.

“Don’t put your foot there, it’s not steady,” he demonstrated, shoving the rock with his foot a little. “Now, to start off with— demons feed off of human emotions. Or more accurately, off of the magical energy that those feelings create.”

“Emotions create magical energy?”

“Well, not create it exactly. More like, they create a distortion in the flow of energy, which makes it so we can tap into that energy. I’m assuming you don’t know what affiliates are?” I shook my head.

“For fae, demons, and humans, they’re all different things. I’ll try to keep this brief, since we’re not too far away. For humans, your affiliation is something you’re born with. You can perform one type of magic far, far more proficiently than any other. For some, you can only perform that type of magic. There’s hundreds of different kinds of affiliations— elements, telepathy, stealth or espionage, the list could go on. For fae, it’s similar, but they get to choose what their affiliation will be. And some— many, even, choose to remain unaffiliated. Keep their options open. For demons, on the other hand, affiliation is what type of emotional energy distorts the flow so that you can feed the most effectively. Some demons can only feed through that type of energy, and some just feel most full then. I am in the former category. I can only feed on sexual energy.” 

“I see. That’s something to chew on…” I looked around. “I feel like I recognize this area.” I commented. He nodded, lifting his head and sniffing the air like he was drinking it in. 

“We’re very close to the clearing.” I pointed.

“Yup, yup! I recognize that rock pile!” I started dashing, though still careful not to twist anything on the rough ground— slowly growing less rough as I neared the clearing. Something insanely fast whizzed past me— 

“Too slow, human!” Amir cackled. 

“Oh you—“ I shouted after him. At the far end of the clearing, I saw Hedera. She was draped in something long, filmy, and sage green in color, and she was reaching up to some tree, picking something from its branches. Amir looked down at me curiously, dropping with superhuman grace and lightness from the boulder he had leapt up onto. Wait— if he ate emotions, did that mean he could sense emotions? He was staring at me with something I did not like in his eyes.

“Oh~ I see how it is… why waste your time with a sex demon when there’s far more… enchanting options around, am I right~?” He leaned in. “Not to mention hard to get— you've gotta be a masochist if you’re developing a crush on Hedera. That’s always fun.” I sucked air in through my teeth.

“Say anything to her and I’ll tell her that I didn’t even have to convince you to let me in here,” I warned. It was a weak bargaining chip, I knew, but just maybe—

He laughed.

“I probably would have told her that anyway just to get a rise out of her! Fire away!” he teased.

“But don’t worry, little human, your secret is safe with me,” he murmured. “I’m just going to enjoy watching this,” was his parting blow as Hedera walked up to us, a basket of pears balanced against her hip.

“Is he bothering you?” She asked. I laughed nervously.

“No more than warranted,” I assured her. She raised her eyebrows at us.

“I feel like I’m missing something here, but whatever. Welcome back, Traveler.” She set the basket down and held out her hand.

“I’m going to be honest, I’m a little disappointed that you came back.” Nothing less than I expected, but that didn’t mean my stomach didn’t sink a little.

“How come?” 

“Because you’re not… prepared, properly, to live in this new world. I guess I should have thought more before telling you everything that I did— but now you could be a target.” I shook my head.

“No-one knows that I know anything about this. How could I be a target?” 

“Magic, Traveler. There’s so many ways people could try to take advantage of you at this point.” Amir cocked his head.

“Are they a Traveler?” Hedera shrugged.

“It seemed like it, from how they acted.” I looked from Amir to Hedera, then back again. 

“I'm missing something. What do you two mean by ‘Traveler’?” 

“Traveler is a term we use for… someone who wants to learn. Specifically about one or both of our races, fae and demon. Travelers are interested in things that humans normally ignore, whether that be the paranormal itself, or, in the case of Travelers that are already in the know about our world, the parts of demon and fae culture that other humans ignore because they’re fairly irrelevant to their day-to-day,” Hedera explained. I chewed my lip, then smiled.

“Yeah, then. I guess I am a Traveler.” Hedera squinted her eyes and scrunched her cheeks in a way that almost looked like a smile. Amir side-eyed her.

“Going soft on us, healer?” The almost-smile turned into a glower in a moment.

“Not even close, incubus,” she retorted. If we’re being completely honest, I could have decked Amir for taking that pretty expression off of her face— except I couldn’t have, really, since he was a demon and I, y'know, still wanted to live. 

“Well if you're not soft, that must mean you're hard, right?”

“What is wrong with you.” Hedera deadpanned, picking up the basket again. “I don’t even have the necessary parts for that innuendo to apply to me.” 

“Oh come now. Admit you set yourself up for that one.” He weedled. 

“You’re one to talk,” I muttered under my breath.

“What makes you say that, Traveler?” 

“‘Oh come now’ could have multiple meanings.” 

“Not you too,” Hedera groaned at me. Amir cackled his hyena laugh again.

“I’m just giving him a dose of his own medicine, Hedera!” I sniggered.

“And oh does it taste good,” he smirked. “Oops— there I go again!” He waved his hand dramatically in the air and rolled his eyes.

“It seems I just can’t help myself—“ Hedera reached up and hit him on the top of his head with the side of her fist.

“Stop it, you salacious prick,” she commanded, picking through the pears seemingly searching for bad ones. He smiled lasciviously.

“You ask me to do the impossible, Hedera! Although the sight of you on your knees is certainly some amount of compensation…” 

“I will scream.” She droned. He just smirked.

“What are the pears for?” I asked. So it seemed that Amir flirted with everyone excessively, not just me. I guessed that made sense.

“They’re a lovely shape, by the way,” Amir practically giggled. Hedera turned her head slowly and looked him in the eyes with a ‘you need help’ look for a full three seconds.

“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m gonna pass out,” he mock-swooned. She snorted.

“Good, then maybe you’d stop the never ending stream of innuendos at least.” She turned her head to look at me.

“To answer your question, Eris is going to be here today, and he loves pears.” ‘Aww…’ I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

“I thought fae just… ate magic?”

“We do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy human food as well.”

“Oh! That’s… kinda cool, actually!”

“How so?” She asked, turning back to her basket.

“Well, you can eat food, but you don’t need it. So it’s enjoyable, but not necessary, like… dessert, for humans!” Amir allowed himself to fall gracefully into a cross-legged position next to Hedera and motioned for me to do the same.

“Technically, an argument could be made that humans actually do need desserts to survive, because they need the hormones that sweets produce,” he offered. I shook my head.

“They’re not ‘the hormones that sweets produce’, they’re just hormones— serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin. There’s other things that make your brain produce those hormones aside from desserts.”

“Oh there’s plenty of other things,” he raised his eyebrows. Hedera sighed.

“There he goes again— are you just trying to see how many dirty words you can fit in one mouthfu— oh great Titan Monarchs—“ 

“Dirty words aren’t the only thing I can fit in my m—“

“Finish that sentence, I fucking dare you.” As threatening as Hedera’s voice sounded, I thought I detected a glimmer of humor in her eyes.

Seizing the slight pause in the conversation, I asked Hedera

“If I wanted to actually be properly prepared to ‘live in this new world’ as you put it, what would I have to do?” She promptly, abruptly, replied—

“Take classes on manufactured command.”

“I'm assuming that’s the counterpart to the ‘natural command’ you mentioned last time we saw each other?”

“Yes. Manufactured command is what the magical community calls it when people who aren’t commanders use magic. Their name for the technique of using reagents and diagrams and sigils and activation words and so on, and so forth.” 

“Where would I take such classes?” 

Amir laughed.

“Where to start? You have a lot of options, Traveler. How many colleges do you think there are in the world?”

“Oh— thousands,” 

“Same with magical colleges. There’s one fairly nearby here, actually.” I blew air out through my lips.

“Guess we can add that to the list of options that I technically have, but can’t actually pursue.” I griped. 

“Why?” Amir squinted at me. Shrugging, I started ripping grass up from the ground, then thought better of it.

“I don’t have enough money, recently got laid off from my job, and can’t find a new one.” 

“Huh,” Amir murmured. Hedera threw him a sharp glance.

“Amir, don’t even think about it—“

“—I have more than enough, just sitting around, not doing anyone any good—“

“—You can’t just throw money at people—“

“—I'm just saying, I don’t even need to eat, it’s just sitting around in offshore bank accounts, and my only real expenses are clothes and the occasional… work expense or something, it'd be—“

“So I am very confused.” 

“Well—“ Amir huffed “I was thinking of offering you some of my sorely underused cash, to handle that difficulty for you. Hedera seemed to catch my drift before I actually said anything, and did not like the idea.”

“Dude.” I scoffed. “I can’t just take your money. Besides, why do you have so much anyway?”

“Well then why don’t you repay me for it somehow? And to answer your question, let’s just say that in some places, my particular talents are… very much in demand.” I snorted.

“Also off the table.”

“Aw c'mon, don’t be like that. Not everything I say has to be an innuendo. Besides, you've already made it more than clear that your interests lie elsewhere,” he smirked at me, and I shot him a warning glare. Hedera started to say something, then stiffened and turned to the forest. 

“Hello Eris.” And for the first time, I saw her face light up in a full smile. ‘Ohhh shit. I think I’m gonna go blind.’ Both Hedera and Amir stood and turned, so I followed suit. And there he was, the little faun boy who had helped me when I was injured last time I came here!

“Hey Hedera! And Amir! I didn’t know you were gonna visit!” Amir reached down to wrap his arms around Eris and twirled him around in the hug.

“Hey there kiddo! How’s my favorite apprentice healer doing?”

“I'm doin' good! I'm doin' really good!” He turned to me.

“Traveler! I didn’t know if you were gonna come back! Is it okay if I give you a hug?” I laughed delightedly at his crazed cheerfulness.

“Yeah, of course, little man!” He dashed across the six or so feet between us and nearly tackled me to the ground. He was stronger than he looked. 

“Your foot's all better! And you’re wearing the ‘pendant’ I gave you!”

“Yeah, I’ve barely taken it off since you gave it to me! I was too afraid I’d lose it,” I told him, affectionately ruffling his curls. Hedera was still smiling, though not on full blast anymore and— gah I still needed sunglasses. Amir was smirking at me again.

“I have pears for you, buddy,” Hedera said softly. Eris' face lit up even more, if that was even possible.

“Aw, Hedera! You didn’t have to do that— oh! I have something for you too, though!” He said, digging in his seemingly ever-present leather bag. He came up with something small and wooden and held it out in his palm. Hedera took it and inspected it for a moment. 

“This is so sweet, Eris. And you did a very good job, you wouldn’t have been able to make this a month or two ago.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a tiny music spell,” Hedera explained, smiling. Eris flashed his sunshine smile at me again.

“It plays a lullaby, too!” He plopped happily down on the ground, digging into the basket of pears with gusto. Amir turned to me suddenly.

“Traveler, how about this? I will pay for your college costs, whatever that may be, if you'll be a human mentor to Eris. Teach him the things that I can’t about… the way humans work.” I raised my eyebrows at him.

“You seem to know enough— if you’re performing tax evasion.” He rolled his eyes.

“You’d be surprised. I know the things that are relevant to me. I don’t know the things that aren’t. As a human, more of the human realm will be known to you simply by virtue of you having lived here your whole entire life. And Eris wants to be a healer and a forager. He’s going to have to know as much about the human realm as he can possibly learn.” I squinted at him.

“That seems like a bit too sweet of a deal.” He sighed.

“You're not very perceptive, are you?” Eris looked up.

“Hedera, what does perceptive mean?” She ran her fingers through his curls.

“It means that someone shows a lot of sensitivity towards what other people are thinking or meaning, and they can understand things by looking at them, that people who aren’t perceptive wouldn’t be able to.” She explained. Eris frowned a little.

“Oh. That wasn’t very nice of you, Amir,” he said, biting into another juicy pear. Amir chuckled half-heartedly.

“Sorry, Eris.” He pulled me aside and whispered in my ear

“That kid means everything to me. Money means nothing. And you're interesting. In my eyes, this is a completely fair deal, on both our ends. You’re giving me a service that I value highly, and I’m getting you an experience that you want or even need, fairly badly.” I pondered this for a moment.

“If Eris wants me to, I will.” I said finally. I tried not to get my hopes up. Eris was already apprenticed to multiple different people, maybe he wouldn’t want this. And the prospect of magical college that I wouldn’t have to pay for except by spending time with a fun kid and teaching him about things that I knew like the back of my hand was too exciting and amazing of a hope to grasp at only to have dashed again. Eris looked up, pear juice dripping down his chin.

“Did on’ ohf ‘oo say my name?” He slurred, mouth full. Hedera gently pushed his mouth closed, scolding 

“Say it, don’t spray it, Eris.” He chewed quickly and swallowed the big mouthful. 

“What?” He asked us. Amir came and sat down next to him.

“Buddy, would you like to be this Traveler's apprentice? They could teach you all about the human realm,” he said, snuggling Eris up against his side. Eris grinned, and it stretched across half of his face.

“I’d love that! But— oh, ah, only if you want to, Traveler.” He hastily assured me.

“I’d love to,” I smiled. Amir clapped his hands.

“Excellent! Now that that’s settled, Traveler, do you have your phone on you right now?”

“Ye-es, why?” I asked, digging it out of my pocket. He held out his hand in the ‘give’ motion.

“I’m going to get you into the files you need to apply for that nearby college. Among a few other resources.”

“Don’t search anything fuc— freaking weird,” I said.

“Pfft— I don’t need to,” Amir chortled.

“That doesn’t mean you won't,” I retorted. Hedera shook her head and gave her almost-smile again.

“Only just met and you already know him so well, Traveler. Oh, Eris, look! There’s a baby rabbit!” She pointed. Eris gasped and half-stood.

“Oh it’s so cute! I wanna go see if I can talk to it, is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course, little one.” He raced off. Amir handed my phone back to me.

“There. Oh, and my number's in there now, too. If you want to see your friends, text me. Don’t just show up and hope some other devastatingly handsome incubus will happen to show up and take you to them,” he admonished. I rolled my eyes and snorted.

“I guess I can live with that, as long as you’re not sending me dick pics.” Amir cackled.

“Trust me, human, if you’re going to see that portion of my anatomy then it’ll be because you asked.” Hedera leapt up from her sitting position on the grass.

“Nope. All right, nope, that’s it, no. I'm walking Traveler back to their car, you can stay and keep Eris company until I get back.” 

“I don’t think our Traveler will be complaining~” he whispered smugly. I death-glared at him, then sighed.

“Thanks, Hedera. I might have a hernia if he keeps this up.” He stuck out his tongue at me and went chasing after Eris.

“Stay safe, you two!” He shouted over his shoulder. Hedera rolled her eyes.

“Well. Now you’ve met the biggest menace in my life.” I laughed.

”Yup, I can understand why you’re so grumpy,” I teased. She spluttered.

“I am not grumpy I— ugh, you're almost as bad as him!” She grabbed my arm by the wrist and led me back out into the forest.

This turned out fumkin looooonnng, I am sorry my friends 😖

Now I'm gonna make a separate post about this, so if you read all the way to the end, go check out my page! But the next chapter Imma need y'all's help deciding on: would you like the next chapter of A Traveler's Tale, or a new storyline (that also features Amir)? Let me know on that other post! VOTE!!

Again, inaccurate/irrelevant note there, that’s already been decided on! Thank you for reading!

[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!