Sprite

“Ugh,” Leane pushed her way through a prickly bush which caught and held her long hair captive. She sniffed in irritation. Whatever Nesitah found so fascinating about this world completely baffled her. He had promised he would be back before summer’s end. Promised.

It had been easy enough to find a passageway to the mortal world. Leane had watched and followed Valin as he pierced his palm with a rose thorn and waited for the red flower to sprout, marking the entry. She lost sight of him soon after crossing through the shimmering veil to the other side, which was probably just as well. Leane had been careful to shield her thoughts from Valin, but he would have been angry had he seen her. No one was supposed to cross over into the mortal world any more. It was too dangerous. Then why did Neistah continue to go there, and why did his father open new gateways and do the same?

Leane was determined to find out just what so attracted those two males to the human world. She glanced at the red and gold leaves which crunched underneath her feet, and shivered. This world was dying, would be dead and cold and changed before the year was out. Leane understood that it would be reborn again come spring, but it was hard to believe when the trees around her slowly lost their vitality. How did mortals stand it? Each turn of the seasons slowly sapped the life out of them just as surely as it sapped it from the forest. What was there here to love?

-Ah, but are the colors not beautiful?-

Leane gasped. She whirled, to find Valin scant inches behind her. He must have known she was following him the entire time.

A small smile crossed Valin’s lips. -Go home, Leane,- he spoke mind-to-mind. -Neistah will find you when he is done playing. He will not appreciate your meddling in his affairs here.-

-No!- She drew herself up. -I want to see for myself what holds him here. Is it a human woman? Are human women more beautiful than I? More compelling?-’

Valin gave a short laugh and tossed her a small package. -Cover yourself if you will remain here,- he told her, waiting while she donned the clothing inside the package. Leane realized he was similarly covered. She wrinkled her nose at the musty smell. The clothes chafed, too.

-I must wear these things to fit in?- she asked, and Valin shook his head.

“You must wear human clothes because I say so. Your blood will cause problems, otherwise.”

Leane’s eyes widened. She lifted the shirt that covered her breasts to find them criss-crossed with tiny scratches. The prickly bush that had tried to capture her hair had marked her. -Oh,-’ she said. -Now I understand. Lead onward, brave Valin. Take me to Neistah.-

“In time,” Valin agreed, speaking aloud in answer to Leane’s thoughts. “Neistah seldom remains in one place for long. I will take you to where he once was. Whether he is there still, I cannot say. He will not be happy when he sees you. Or me, for that matter. Are you certain you would not rather go home and wait for him there? Neistah will return, once he has had his fill of the mortal world for a time.”

Leane stamped her bare foot. -Neistah thinks me nothing more than a distraction to while away the hours until he can return to his humans. I would see Neistah wearing green instead of gold.-

Valin’s eyes glinted. “Oho,” he remarked, giving Leane a mocking smile, “so you would tame our wayward Neistah, would you?”

-It’s time he settled down,- Leane maintained stubbornly.

-And what would his lady mother think of that? Or the patient Lara?- Valin laughed voicelessy, and strode off into the mortal forest, leaving Leane to struggle along behind him. Her delicate bare feet stumbled on the leaf-covered paths, and soon she was longing for a cool stream so she could soak them, and the rest of her, which was becoming ripe with odor underneath the chafing clothes.

“Why do you follow him?” Leane asked wearily at the end of their first hour. She had never walked as much as this, never been away from the water this long. Bright sun lit the trees on fire every so often, and she began to see why Valin found it beautiful. Nothing in their green and watery world held such colors. It was a pity they precursed decay, as the leaves already fallen so clearly showed.

“I don’t.” Valin spoke shortly. “I never wanted Neistah to meddle in the human world. He has no idea what he is stirring up. I am here to prevent a disaster.”

“Can’t you simply forbid Neistah to return?” Leane asked. She sat down rather suddenly on the ground and braided her light green hair for the third or fourth time. Without something to hold it together, the hair kept coming undone.

“I tried that,” Valin admitted. Vocal speech lent itself well to this world, where not all of what was said needed to be heard. “He found his way back anyway. And now, it’s too late.”

“Because he knows how to open gates with his own blood?” Leane asked shrewdly. She had watched Valin do it; she realized that was why he had bade her don human clothing, so that she would not inadvertently drip blood on the earth.

Valin raised his eyebrows. “Yes, but that is not why. Neistah is drawn to this world, as are we all at times, but he has made it his playground. If only that were so, matters would not be so dire. Neistah says he plays, but he does not. Not always. He is becoming too involved with these creatures, and that way leads only to disaster.” He cocked his head to one side and regarded Leane. “Perhaps it is good that you have come. Perhaps, if Neistah were to see you side by side with his humans, he would not be so enamored of them after all. Come!” He held out a hand and helped her up.

-Valin!- Leane pleaded with her eyes. -I can’t walk anymore!-

Laughing, Valin picked her up and ran lightly over the crunchy leaves. He knew a spot. Leane would like it—and so would he.

“What about Anais?” Leane whispered, not daring to mention the Lady’s name sub-vocally. She gladly shed her human clothing so she could slide noiselessly into the water. This small lake was cool and dark, not at all like her own sparkling waters, but it drew her nevertheless.

-She would tell me to enjoy myself, and I shall,- Valin sent, joining Leane in the water.

Leane smiled, showing dimples, and flashed away. Her hair unraveled behind her, a light green beacon in the dark water. She didn’t keep Valin waiting long before she let him catch her, and she wound herself around him, arms and legs and silken strands of green. -With you I will while away an hour or two, then,- she sent, while at the same time her mouth captured his.

It was their way. Neistah would not begrudge them, nor would the Lady Anais. Valin was already the Lady’s, beyond a doubt. Anything else was pure indulgence, and why not?

Refreshed, and relaxed at last, Leane slept on the banks of the mortal lake amidst the crackling leaves of fall. Valin put his stolen hunter’s clothing back on, and jumped into a tree. With his sharp eyes, he could keep watch even though dark had fallen. Autumn cast its bite into the air, but it was not enough to hurt either him or Leane. The cold of winter might harm them, or it might not. It had been too many years since he had felt winter’s harsh bite, and in those days, he dressed as a human, hiding his golden trunks, the mark of Anais’ favor, far from human eyes. He shuddered. Now, he wore the human clothes out of expediency, and wore his golden trunks beneath, but the memory of those early days still ate at him. Never again would he put himself in that position. It wasn’t all terrible. But enough of it was that these times gave him cause to worry. Neistah had better be careful.

Valin cast about with his mind, sensing Leane content in sleep below. He tried to sense Neistah somewhere in this empty forest, and just before dawn, he thought he caught a hint of his son’s signature. North of here. It was faint, and he might have been mistaken, but who else would it have been? Their kind were expressly forbidden from traveling to the mortal realm, on Valin’s advice. -Neistah!’ he sent, not expecting any kind of reply. Ah, well, he would see how long Leane managed to endure the mortal world.

This lake, these woods, were well known to Valin. Of course, there was no trace of the ancient village where he had once lived, human for all intents and purposes, in the days before humanity became ascendant. But the land remembered him. Closing his eyes, Valin recalled a pretty dark-haired human girl, Ree, who had saved his life and his sanity all those years ago. He gave a short laugh. When he had finally escaped, he had left her behind and never thought of her again. When he had found his way home again, he’d vowed never to return to this place. Anais took him back, his exile having been but a short blink in their very long lives. However, Valin had returned maimed. That had been how the villagers who had captured him and then come to harbor him as one of their own, had been destroyed. There had been a feast, and a misunderstanding. The one who wielded the iron sword had been his best friend. But humans and fae could never truly be friends. The cut had come as a surprise to Valin, as had the sprouting of red blossoms and the sudden appearance of a gateway into the faerie realm. Valin leapt at the chance to escape, and half the village men followed him with their iron weapons, out for his blood. Their iron corrupted the part of faerie they touched, making it eternally unusable, yet it also killed them. Humankind could not survive in faerie. So Valin had lived, at great cost to faerie itself, and the humans he had dwelled among for three generations died.

Anais’ and Valin’s young son, Neistah, was grown by the time Valin returned, damaged, to faerie. Neistah had never forgiven him his desertion. Valin sighed, and tried to sleep. All that was long ago. The human world had risen and fallen, and was inexorably rising once again. Neistah was too much his son. He trusted the humans too much.

The next morning Valin and Leane headed north, following the elusive track of Neistah’s mind. They could hear the humans’ thoughts long before they encountered them, and so were able to avoid hunters and mutants alike, although Valin focused on one group of mutants he picked up on. These mutants were little more than children, as were so many, according to Neistah. Their thoughts were filled with images of Neistah. They knew him by more than just his reputation.

Valin shed his human clothes. He wanted these children to see that he and Neistah were the same. He never even considered Leane. Jumping down from a tree branch, as was his wont, Valin towered over the group of three strange-looking human boys. Two of them had scraggly hair streaked brown or yellow, and wore nothing but human trousers, cut off at the knees. One had hair on his body, one had no hair at all. The last had fingers fused together in a crude imitation of webbing. “Neistah?” Valin asked slowly, not wanting to frighten these creatures, who must be the changelings Neistah spoke of. Poor changelings, indeed, out of place in any world. “You know Neistah.” He made it a statement.

The boy with no hair spoke first. “Who are you?” he asked bravely. Valin was very tall, and thin, and there was little human about him. “Are you a sprite, too?”

Valin inclined his head. “We seek Neistah,” he said, feeling Leane come up beside him. Her thoughts were filled with curiosity about these strange small humans. She had shed her clothing when Valin did. Unfortunately, female sprites wore only their long hair—in Leane’s case, long green hair—as a garment. The boys goggled as she walked closer, and Leane stopped in dismay.

“Do you know where he is?” Leane’s soft voice drew out the boys, who nodded. “Can you take us to him? We’re his—family.” Leane glanced quickly at Valin, who was chuckling inwardly although he kept his face impassive.

The blonder boy, face red, looked anywhere but at Leane. “He finds us when we need him. You can come with us. Then he’ll find you, too. It shouldn’t take long.”

“Then we will travel with you,” Valin said, stooping to gather up the human clothes both sprites had shed. He threw Leane her bundle, following it with a quick mental command to don them, and spare the human boys who, he sent, were overwhelmed by her otherworldly beauty. Leane frowned, not quite believing what Valin told her, but she put on the human clothes anyway and threw the three boys a dazzling smile.

Strangely enough, the boys headed east, not north, as Valin had thought they would.