The Fox’s Tale

I came out of the bathroom still tying the belt on my robe. “What did the Suite give us for breakfast?” I asked as my stomach rumbled.

“I waited for you to lift the covers.” Ellery was standing next to a table for two that was elegantly laid with white table linens, two place settings and beverages. Behind her was a serving cart with three gold dome covered trays.

“Whatever it is smells almost as good as you do.” I kissed her neck and she laughed.

“Just what every woman wants to hear; that she smells only marginally better than breakfast.”

“Trust me, it’s a massive compliment.” I lifted the lid off of one of the trays. “Oh, yes. I was hoping I’d get to have these turnover things again. It’s the best thing I have ever eaten.” I snagged one off the pile and tore into it. “What’s under the others?” I asked with my mouth full.

“Your manners are atrocious.” Ellery looked both amused and unimpressed.

“Sorry.” I swallowed before continuing. “I just realized how hungry I am.” I took another bite and finished it. “I was under the impression that you made me that breakfast, not some magical faerie chef.”

“For your information, I did make you that breakfast. I wasn’t sleeping, remember? I had to do something.”

I pulled her to me and kissed her cheek. “Thank you. I felt so much better after I ate it.”

“You’re welcome.” She kissed my cheek in return. “I’ll be happy to make them for you again in the future, hopefully not because you’re restless, but just to please you.” She pulled the lid off the second tray. “Mmm….potatoes fried in duck fat. Have you ever had them done that way?”

“No I have not. Pile them on my plate please.” She did and added two more turnovers to my plate as well. “What’s in the little one?”

“Something special for me I expect.” She lifted the lid and made a noise that had me gripping the table to keep from throwing her onto the table and burying myself in her.

“What do I have to do to get you to make that noise for me?”

“Be Eggs Benedict with crab cakes.” She moved the plate from the cart to her spot at the table and forked a bite into her mouth. The noise she made was similar to the one she’d made before and I almost came standing there.

“I would like to eat too,” I said, my voice tight with repressed desire, “and I cannot do that if you keep making those kinds of noises.

“Sorry,” she said as she licked her fork. “It’s just that it’s my favorite meal.” She put some of the potatoes onto her plate and sat down. “Come on, join me. I promise to behave.”

“I’m not sure I believe you,” I said as I sat down, eyeing her. She licked her fork again and I had to look away.

“Damn it, Ellery.”

“What?” she asked, blinking her eyes innocently.

“Do you have to give the fork head?” I grumbled.

“I am merely savoring my food. I can’t help it if you find me using my tongue for one of its intended purposes erotic. I’m not being deliberately provocative.”

“Oh really? You’re honestly going to sit there and tell me that you are one hundred percent unaware of the effect that has on guys? I’ve heard the lollipop story.”

Ellery smiled and took another bite of her breakfast, treating the fork as she had before. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Alexander.”

“Oh yes you do! “ I ate some of my potatoes and groaned. They were amazing. Almost good enough to distract me from the story I’d brought up, but not quite. “I’ve heard the story from five different people.”

“And just what did you hear?”

“You’re the reason they no longer sell lollipops at the school concession stand.”

“That’s absurd. What could I have done to merit a candy ban?” She took another mouthful of food and drew her fork out in slow motion all while staring me in the eyes. I dropped my fork.

“Would you stop that?”

She licked her lips after she’d finished her food and grinned. “Tell me how I got lollipops banned.”

I ate another bite of potatoes and some of my turnover before I answered. “You’re teasing me.”

“A little. The lollipop story is blown out of proportion.”

“Did two guys from Cumberland High School run into each other so hard that they got concussions because you were licking a lollipop at the scorer’s table?”

“Maybe. That is, I was enjoying a lollipop at the scorer’s table as a freshman and two of the players from that high school did run into each other during warm-ups, but was it because of the lollipop?” She shrugged and ate more of her breakfast. “No one could say for certain.”

“Did the other coach insist on watching the team’s game footage to see what happened?”

“Yes.”

“And did the coach have a heart attack when he watched?”

“No, but he did almost pass out. He coached the game that night after all.”

“Did he try to get you thrown out of the gym?”

“He did.”

“Did he end up with a pre-game technical for cursing you out?”

“I was fifteen years old and enjoying a lollipop and he wanted me to be thrown out of the gym. The refs, Billy, and Coach Hendrix were all on my side, but he was adamant that I was a distracting presence and needed to be removed. I had had enough so I told him it wasn’t my fault he had pedophilic tendencies.

“That’s when he called me a little whore and when I replied with ‘and yet I still won’t sleep with you’ he called me a fucking bitch. The refs hit him with a technical, the players and Coach Hendrix had to hold Billy back, the athletic director got involved, and the game was delayed for a half an hour.

“It was a huge mess. We beat them by thirty points. Fitz told me that he didn’t know if I deserved a medal or to be punished.”

“Who the hell is Fitz?”

“He’s the youngest of the Sinclair boys. His first name is Ellis, but the family has always called him Fitz. It’s short for Fitzgerald which is his middle name.”

“Your entire family has names that start with E?”

“Yes, but only three of us use them. Papa and Mumsy go by Trey and Liz. Jones goes by Jones of course, since there really isn’t a good nickname for someone who is the fourth, although I call him Jojo. Ellis is Fitz and we’ve always called Elliott Bobby, but his wife Mary calls him Elliott and we’ve started calling him that too since it’s less confusing.”

“Right, that’s less confusing.” I shook my head before asking “are you all empaths?”

“Oh, hell no! Only Ethan and I are, and we experience things in very different ways.”

“How so?”

“Well….we both can feel what others are feeling, but Ethan experiences it more like a thought. This person is angry or that person is scared. For me, my body tends to experience their feelings as if they are my own to an extent. The closer I am to the person the stronger the response.”

“Closer meaning proximity or emotionally?”

“Both. If I touch someone I can feel everything and it can make me overload. And the more people, the more emotions and that can get overwhelming as well. If I’m outside a great deal of it is mitigated which is why I can go to outdoor weddings and festivals.”

“How can you do cheerleading and go to basketball games or practice?”

“Well, with cheerleading we’re outside, and the pads and helmets mute the players’ emotions. We’re not right up next to the crowd and the other cheerleaders are generally experiencing happy, positive emotions so it’s okay. You'll notice I only cheer for football.

“With basketball…..I’m stubborn. I wanted to play and I couldn’t do that. The one time I tried to play in middle school I vomited on the court from all the adrenaline. This was the next best thing.

“If I have something to keep my mind occupied I can tune out most of the junk emotions floating around, which isn’t much different from being in school. I have techniques that I use to manage the other emotions and Jones taught me how to control or at least regulate emotions in others so that I can function.”

“Is that what you did at the game on Friday? Regulated the crowds’ emotions?”

Her face took on a faraway expression and her beautiful eyes clouded. “I don’t want to talk about that game, Alexander. It was awful….they weren’t just hyped up, they wanted blood. Can we talk about something else?”

“Of course we can. I just have so many questions. I’ve never known a Fae before.”

“We are rarer than we used to be, especially the full blooded ones.”

“You’re full blooded Fae?”

“Yes.”

“Wow….that’s amazing! I thought that the only full blooded Fae lived in Ireland or Wales.”

“No, there are communities all around, but especially along the Appalachian Mountains which Ireland and Great Britain are a part of. Alexander….”

“Yes, Princess?”

“Funny you should say that, since that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She winced and looked away.

I instantly went into damage control mode. “I won’t call you that if you don’t like it,” I blurted out. “It just seemed to fit.”

“No, it’s fine, and you’re right, it does fit because,” she took a deep breath, “I am one.”

I put the turnover I was about to bite into down. “Could you say that again?”

“The Sinclairs are the royal family of the Seelie Court. I’m a princess.”