Jenn

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Sorry for the delayed response; school is getting a little crazy as it draws to a close.

If my post ruins any plot piece you had planned, just let me know and I'll change it.

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Hazel had the stranger pegged as a knight before he had even parted his lips to utter his first word. Perhaps it was in the way he carried himself, perhaps in the way he moved, but there was something about the fey knights that was immediately distinguishable. They were haughty, too at ease in their world. This one, she thought, was even more so than usual. He was plainly attractive as all fey were, but his features were distinctly sharp and precise. She watched him send his creature into the brush and become suddenly uneasy. It was unusual for her to feel anything but warmth in the presence of a faerie, but something about the hollow way he smiled at her cautioned her to be wary. Of course he would not harm her; that was not the way of the Seelie, but that understanding did nothing to ease her discomfort.

While he took it upon himself to tour the confines of her garden and scrutinize her home, Sinis leaped from her porch and sprinted to her. His tiny dagger-claws pierced through her clothing as he scurried up her leg, across her torso, and settled on her shoulder. He chittered in her ear, his face so close that his cold nose bumped almost rhythmically into her jaw. The low chatter became so loud that Hazel had a hard time hearing what the fay was saying when he finally returned to them. She set a hand on Sinis’ silky head to still him, and he reluctantly quieted. The strange fay began to revolve around her, but Hazel did not attempt to keep up with his peculiar rotations. She stayed quite still and listened to him. He cheerily seemed to be trying to gouge out her shame and remorse, and though they stirred on the surface, she only frowned.

“It seems that time has caused the fay to forget exactly what the duties of a Guardian entail.” She sighed when he finished his spiel. “We were never created to protect you from immediate threats, but rather to mediate between the human world and ensure that your existence remains concealed from the majority, as well as try to stave off activity from the hunters. The fay yesterday was a terrible blunder that rests partially on my shoulders, but it is not my duty to put myself in the line of fire to protect a fay, especially one from the Unseelie court. The necessary steps are being taken to ensure that it will not happen again. Would your queen have preferred me to jump in front of Hale’s bullet?” Hazel’s voice was as light and clear as always, but apprehension whispered in her chest. “I suppose that she would.”

“I think your queen knows her request violates our own private pact, and I would venture to guess that is why she sent you instead of coming herself.” Hazel was being edgier than usual, but time had taught her that mildness did not always work with those from the court. She wiped her soil-stained hands on her pants and plucked the paper he had produced from his pocket. She took a moment to look it over before glancing back up at him. “Tell your queen that I do not appreciate her prettily disguised threats, and that if she needed help dealing with the Unseelie, all she had to do was ask; I know just the solution the court’s little problem.”

Smiling sweetly at the knight she said, “Can I help you with anything else? Perhaps you’d like some tea before your journey back to the court?”

Posturing, that was all the queen was doing. It was the same song and dance Hazel had been dealing with for years, though this move was particularly bold. The Everwood’s had been Guardians for years; stripping her of her guardianship would take a lot more than a hasty discussion made by the court. She was not concerned for her title; rather, she was concerned that the queen was taking such sly measures to try and rip it from her.

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

All right, sounds good.

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Alden was beginning to feel a bit like the line of a heart monitor—shooting up and then plunging desperately back down. He was flat lining now. It was in her face, the nervous flash of her eyes, the subtle pitch in her voice: she resented his company; it made her uncomfortable and wary. He suppressed a melancholic sigh, and tuned out from his second internal crises that night to focus in on what she was saying to him. She was asking where he lived, suspecting the woods. A flicker of panic licked his heart, but he set it aside. “On the other side of the docks; there are a few old fishing houses down there.” In his attempt to be truthful, he had only corned himself into a lie anyway.

I thought only the herbal lady lived out there? It took him a moment to grasp that the ‘herbal lady’ she spoke of was their guardian, Hazel. Is that what they called her here: herbal lady? As if her knowledge of the earth’s ins and outs was something unusual enough to grant her a moniker. Humans were strange in the way they rejected what the world had to offer. Herbal lady Hazel’s knowledge of remedies and afflictions had been privileged to her from the Fay, as it had been to her mother and her mother before her, and before her, and so the list went on. Or so Alden had heard. He had not known the guardian’s family, barely knew the guardian herself. The queen did not like the courts to acknowledge her existence in their forest. Other creatures knew her, though, and would occasionally have a story or two to tell about her. Her hair was like wheat, eyes like pale jade; she liked to sing and to garden; she was kind, and to break her smile was a true accomplishment; a daemon in the form of a stoat had chosen her when she was just six. Pointless bits of information about her were all he knew. The Fay did not regard her, and it sounded like her own kind did much of the same. Alden felt a pang. He felt sorry for himself because he could not find acceptance in a world he did not belong—how would he feel if is his own kind rejected him?

When Carla pointed out the pessimism in her remarks, Alden crooked a small sort of grin. There seemed no easy way for him to reply, so he opted not to. Instead, he shifted, stretching his legs straight out in front of him. It was not the admission that she did not see the fair as he did that ‘bummed’ him out, it was her. It was her fortified walls that blocked his every approach; it was the gloominess that clung to her like a shadow. It seemed to bleed onto him, stinging him with a hollow sort of sadness that tried to choke his own happiness. Suddenly, he was homesick for the comfort of family. In his mind’s eye, he could see his sisters and brothers, like little hummingbirds, peacefully asleep. It was late, he was long due for sleep, and it weighed down upon him like a thick fog.

Carla went on to tell the reason behind her predicament. Quiet fell on them for no more than a few seconds, but again, she was bothered by it. He wondered why silence rattled her. With a tenuous laugh, she revealed what had crossed his mind a time or two since meeting her. Pondering the merit of her statement, he cocked his head to gaze at the few people milling about the sidewalk opposite of them. A girl only a few years younger than him picked at cotton candy with a friend. Her eyes were wide and bright; her teeth were bared in a wide smile as she spoke eagerly about something he could not hear. Would he have been better off if he had introduced himself to her instead? Would he be the reason she smiled so big?

After a time, he spoke, “Perhaps, but I didn’t choose someone else, I chose you; maybe you don’t have to believe in fate to believe that means something.” His eyes turned back to her; he smiled sweetly. Despite their tumultuous interaction and his resulting inner turmoil, Alden was glad that he met her. She was special. Dark and distant, but his first friend in this strange land all the same.

A car’s bright headlights illuminated his eyes suddenly. He squinted against them. By the way the vehicle slowly roamed the road, Alden knew that it belonged to the brother who was picking her up. “Looks like that’s my cue to leave; I don’t want to inspire any protective-big-brother-wrath.” He laughed softly and picked himself up off the ground. “It truly was a pleasure meeting you tonight, Carla. I’ll wish you goodbye, but hopefully only for now.” Dusting off the seat of his pants, he waited just a moment for her response before dipping back into the shadows of the boardwalk. “Oh, and don’t forget to charge your phone next time; you never know what crazy stranger you’ll meet around here!” He chuckled at his own joke and walked until he could no longer see her or the car.

When the boardwalk stilled of human life, Alden shrunk himself down and buzzed carefully home. After a night of questionable success, he was eager to get back to the comfort of home and sleep until a new day began.


~*~Next Morning~*~

Pretty rays of light tinted pink by thin curtains danced across Hazel’s closed eyelids. She murmured and turned away, eyes flashing open to see Sinis curled in a rock-like slumber next to her on the pillow. Smiling, she rubbed her eyes and slipped from the cozy grasp of blankets that wrapped around her like a hug. The new day brought with it tremendous healing. Listlessness and despair no longer pecked at her skin. So long as she strayed from thoughts of the tragedy of the fallen fay, or of Hale’s betrayal, her mind was at peace again. Horrible mistakes had been made, as was the curse of being human, but she would not let herself fester over them—that would accomplish nothing.

Every step she took to the kitchen was marked by the groans and creeks of her aged wood floor. The noise eventually pried open the sleeping eyes of her stoat; he stumbled into the room as she filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove, looking like he hadn’t slept a wink in days. He hopped up next to her on the counter and displayed his dagger-teeth in a massive yawn. While she waited for the water to boil, she picked some berries from a bowl and offered one to him. He took it from her with his mouth and chewed slowly, eyes snapping shut every second or so as if he were actively fighting sleep. By the time the kettle keened, his energy had made a miraculous recovery. He skittered to and fro around the house; the teeny scratching of his nails across floor was a familiar melody as she sat at the table and drank her tea.

Midmorning found them both on her porch. He dozing in the sun while she worked. Humming an old forgotten lullaby that had suddenly surfaced in her brain, she swept away a layer of dust that had settled on the steps. The grime would only return by the time she was back from work, but it was the effort that counted. She pulled errant weeds from her germinating flowerbeds, and then watered the plants she wished to grow there. It wasn’t until Sinis, ever the watchdog, shot up from his perch on the banister and gazed stonily behind her that she became aware of an approaching presence.

Her surprise was not because the person near her property was a faerie, but because of who it was, or rather, was not. She had expected the queen to pay her a visit, as she always did when an error was made on Hazel’s part. A radiant, maternal-looking woman, the queen was kind but a master at hiding insults in her compliments. She did not approve of Hazel as guardian, and never visited without subtly implying once or twice that she should forfeit the position.

The particular fay that approached was unfamiliar to her, as most of them were. He sat atop a splendid creature she had only had the pleasure of viewing once before in her life. It was unusual for an official member of the court to visit her; unusual indeed, and she found her head spinning with the implications behind this man’s visit. Morphing the surprise on her face into a friendly smile, she finally made her approach.

“Hello,” She greeted. Her head craned back just to make eye contact with the stranger. “Can I help you with something?”

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Oh, riding in style ha. All right. I should have a reply up by tomorrow. Oh, have you by chance chosen what court Luca is from?

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Sounds good. Are one of your new boys going to come to Hazel? If so, I may have her notice them, just to get that moving along.

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Hmm, I'll probably have Hale pull up in my post, and then open up with Hazel the next day as well--as long as that doesn't interfere with any of your plans.

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Ah, ok, that makes sense. Sounds good then!

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

That sounds good to me. Won't Hale be able to tell that Alden is a faerie though?

Anything But Ordinary (Blazed&&Jenn)

Yep, that's along the same track that I was thinking.