A Date With Faet

=::= Willow's PoV =::=

Another car drove by from west to east as I sat and watched. That was the nineteenth since I'd started watching around noon today. It was red, and had three people in it. I didn't know what the make or model was, but it looked shiny and new. I wondered where the people were going, where they'd been, who they were.

It was late Saturday afternoon, today was the third of July. Summer had just begun, and the weather was perfect. And for what felt like the ten-thousandth day in a row, I was bored.

We rarely got visitors here at the estate, and when someone did come it was almost always some human official here for official business. Or it was a courier dropping off something for the fae ambassador. Or picking something up. Whatever, the point was if anyone came here, they never wanted to hang around and get to know the unimportant people. They definitely didn't want to meet a pixie like me.

I sighed to myself as I sat on top of the fence post and stared off in the direction the red car went. I knew that road led to a highway, and the highway led south to the big city. I'd seen pictures, I'd studied maps on the computer. I wasn't actually that interested in seeing the city, or any human city. I just wanted to see something different.

I'd lived my entire life here on this estate. After Ma and Ba came to Earth, a few hundred more pixies from all over Otherworld came and joined them. In the fifty-four years since then, there've been four big migrations where part of our troop set off to start a new troop somewhere else on this world.

I was twenty-seven when the last one happened, and I'd have gone with them if not for the fact that I was too young. And I wasn't invited, of course. They didn't want me around, any more than the local troop did.

Ma and Ba always treated me well, they always made sure I knew they loved me and I was welcome here. Nobody else did though. Not even my brothers and sisters.

I suppressed another sigh, and self-consciously double-checked my wings were fully tucked behind me. Not that there was anyone here with me, and not that anyone could see me even if they were here and looking. I was alone, and I was invisible. My normal state of being, really.

Fortunately the sound of another car approaching distracted me before I got too deep in the self-pity again.

This one came from the east, from the direction of the highway. It was a silver one, and unlike the first nineteen cars, number twenty slowed as it approached. It turned onto the driveway, and I was startled up off the fence-post as the automatic gate began to move.

The car stopped and waited as the gate slid open, and while it was there I flitted down and hovered in front of the window to take a closer look at the occupants. My eyes widened as I recognized both of them.

On the drivers side was Lady Tegan herself, her short violet-coloured hair was unmistakable. And sitting next to her was her daughter Elise. I flew up out of the way as the car started moving again, down the drive-way towards the buildings. The gate began closing automatically behind them.

After hovering there in the air for a few moments, I decided to follow. Lady Tegan came and went often enough, but it was rare to see Elise here nowadays.

My wings tucked back slightly as my magic took over and I sailed along after the car, quickly catching them up. The car came to a halt out front of the mansion, and I slowed back to a hover again. I kept myself invisible and just watched for now.

The seneschal was there along with the guard captain. The two of them started talking to Lady Tegan, while Elise walked towards the front door. There was something about her expression that caught my eye. She wasn't her usual happy self this afternoon, and I was curious what was wrong.

I followed along, careful to keep myself close enough to accompany her through doors but not so close as to accidentally bump into her if she were to stop or turn suddenly.

A servant opened the door for Elise and we both entered the mansion together. She walked up the stairs to the second level then down the hall of the east wing, and into her bedroom. I stayed with her, and noted her slumped shoulders and the distant thoughtful expression on her face. I followed her into her bedroom then hovered and watched as she sat on the large bed.

She let out a long deep sigh, then flopped over backwards and stared at the ceiling.

I flitted a little closer to her and watched. She wasn't crying, and she didn't look too sad. She just seemed thoughtful and melancholy as she stared at the ceiling.

Then after a moment her eyes focused on me and she commented quietly, "I can see you there. Why'd you follow me into my room?"

A shock went through my system. I was still invisible, but she was definitely staring at me. Fae weren't supposed to be able to do that. We pixies could see each other when we were invisible of course, or at least, we saw each other's auras. But I'd never heard of a fae having that ability.

I flitted over to her bed-side table and landed there as I became visible.

"How?" I asked her. "Fae aren't supposed to be able to see us like that."

The purple-haired teen shrugged and replied quietly, "I can see auras. I think I inherited that from my mom, I know she can see them too. Except I think she turns it off most of the time, she says it's distracting."

"Huh," I frowned. "I don't suppose you and your mom are part-pixie are you?"

She shrugged again, "Dunno."

She was still laying on her bed, but her head turned to keep me in view when I landed on the little table. She added, "My name's Elise by the way. Elise Brádaigh."

"I know," I replied. "Everyone knows your mom, and I've seen you around now and then."

I frowned as I added, "I haven't seen you here much lately though."

Elise finally pulled herself upright and sat on the edge of her bed as she watched me. She shrugged again and said in that same slightly dull quiet voice, "I mostly stay at grams' castle in Otherworld nowadays. Saoirse is there, she's my best friend. Technically she's my aunt but we're more like sisters, since we're almost the same age."

I couldn't help myself, I let out a wistful longing sigh. "I've always wanted to go to Otherworld. Ma and Ba talk about it sometimes, so do some of the other older pixies. They talk like it's a backwards place because there's no internet or TV, but I don't care about that stuff."

"Your ma and ba," she asked me, "Are they Queen Petunia and Monarch Merryweather? Are you a pixie princess?"

That brought a blush to my cheeks, and a bit of a scowl to my expression. Now it was my turn to shrug, "Yeah, I guess. It doesn't mean anything though. I'm like, twenty-sixth in line of succession or something? Far enough away that I'll never ever be in charge of anything, but close enough that people treat me differently."

My scowl deepened as I added, "As if people didn't already have a reason for that."

Elise watched me for a few moments, then said "I'm sorry. You seem unhappy about something but I don't know what. Is there anything I can do to help?"

I sighed, "Not really. Thank you for asking though. And I could say the same? Other times I've seen you around, you've looked much happier. Today you seemed a little melancholy. What happened, if you don't mind my asking?"

The girl frowned and looked down at the floor for a few moments. Then she sighed, "Nothing, I guess? Mom took me to see... We met some humans. It's complicated though and I don't want to talk about it. Thinking about it makes me feel bad."

"I'm sorry Elise," I apologized.

"Not your fault," she replied. Then she repeated my own words, "Thank you for asking though."

We were both quiet for a few moments, and I realized she was staring at me. I immediately felt self-conscious and did my best to tuck my wings behind me as usual, but it was too late. She'd already noticed, and I knew what was coming.

She commented, "I've never seen wings like that on a pixie before. They look beautiful."

I blinked at her. That wasn't what I was expecting. I was blushing again, and scowling as I said quietly "They're not beautiful, they're ugly and wrong."

My wings were my biggest shame. Three of them were dark translucent blue, like ma's wings. But the lower left one was dark translucent red, like ba's. Having mismatched wings was bad luck. It was a bad omen. It meant nobody wanted me around. If my parents weren't the monarch and queen, I'd probably have been cast out of the troop when I was born.

"They're not wrong and they're not ugly," Elise stated. "I think they look beautiful. I like the contrast, it's really cool. And your hair's sort of like mine you know? You could practically be a Brádaigh."

I blushed brighter, "Purple hair's pretty common among pixies. Mine's nothing special. I'm definitely not a Brádaigh, any more than you're part pixie."

My hair was dark purple, with a metallic sheen to it. My eyes were pretty common too, they were a light sky-blue colour. And my skin was alabaster, like Ba's. I was short for my age at only eighty millimetres tall, or three and one-eighth inches in the old measurements. At thirty-seven I was nearly full-grown, almost of age. To human eyes I'd look only sixteen or seventeen. And I definitely wasn't anything special, just a lonely runt with ugly mismatched wings.

The young fae continued looking at me as she asked, "What's your name?"

I blushed even more as I realized I never introduced myself. I bowed slightly, "Forgive my lack of manners miss Elise. My name is Tempest Willow."

She grimaced, "You don't have to bow to me, and don't worry about that formal stuff. I'm just Elise. And it's nice to meet you Willow, that's a really pretty name."

I continued blushing for now as I stood there on the table. I started fidgeting slightly as I fought the urge to turn invisible again. I wasn't used to having anyone pay this much attention to me.

"So you want to see Otherworld?" she asked

"Yeah," I sighed. "I've wanted to go there for years."

She frowned, "So why haven't you? Why not just go?"

I rolled my eyes slightly, "We can't all just come and go as we please. Only pixie mages can cross worlds, and I'm not one of those. There's a couple in our troop but none of them would take me anywhere."

"Why not?" Elise asked. "Because you're a princess?"

I sighed deeply, "Because I'm weird. Because of my stupid wings."

She frowned again as she asked "What? What's that got to do with anything?"

I really didn't want to talk about it, I didn't want to have to explain why my mismatched wings were the bane of my existence. It was too upsetting to talk about, especially to a stranger. And fortunately I didn't have to. She must have noticed how the subject bothered me, and changed her mind.

"Never mind Willow," Elise said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

Before I could respond she asked, "Hey, do you want to come with me? Mom's taking me home tonight at dusk. We could ask her if she'd bring you too? Or if you don't want to ask, I could smuggle you to Otherworld. I don't have a bag or anything, but you could hide in my hair maybe? Like at the back of my neck? It's long enough nobody would see you back there, and you could sort of tie yourself up in it so there's no chance of getting lost."

I blinked at her in surprise and my emotions churned. She was offering to take me away from all this, offering to give me what I'd wanted for years. Was I really ready to do it though? Leave my home and parents behind, and go to a completely different world?

Elise added, "I don't think there's any pixie troops around grams' castle, you'd be the only one there. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing? I don't want you to be lonely. But you could stay with me, I have a great big bedroom and stuff? And you could meet Saoirse, she's really nice. Um, you don't want to meet grams though. She's nice, but she's kind of stuffy about pixies? She probably wouldn't be happy if she knew I brought one into the castle with me."

I frowned, "Then why would you do that? Why would you go against your grandmother's wishes? I thought fae were a lot more um, respectful of their elders and betters?"

She shrugged, "You look sad, you want to go to Otherworld. Maybe we could be friends? Maybe I can help you out. And maybe it'll be fun! And yeah, boring fae act all respectful and stuff. I'm not boring."

My heart was racing as I stared at her a few more moments. Finally I started to smile, "I need to pack ok? It won't take long, then I'll come back here?"

My new friend smiled back at me, "Sure. We aren't leaving till dusk so its a couple hours away. I'll wait for you here."

"Thanks!" I replied as my smile grew wider.

Rather than opening all the doors to get out, Elise just opened her bedroom window a few inches for me. I became invisible again as I dashed out. My magic propelled me as I zipped down and around to the back of the mansion, past the pixie guards and through the gap in the bricks that led to our 'burrow' in the mansion's cellar.

In under two minutes I was in the room I shared with a dozen sisters. My sister Holly was in there, but I ignored her for now.

First I got changed into my favourite pair of jeans and a loose pink top. The jeans weren't real denim of course, that was way too thick and heavy for pixies. All our clothes were made from fine silk, but they were patterned after human clothes. So my 'jeans' were blue with pockets and belt loops. Shirts all had open backs for our wings, my favourite pink shirt did up at the side with a couple little white buttons.

After getting changed I bundled up the rest of my clothes into a small sack, not that I had that much. And finally I put on my belt and tucked my sword into place at my left hip.

My katana was my most prized possession. It was fifty millimetres long overall, with a thirty-six millimetre blade. Slightly curved, the single edge was sharper than any razor. And I was an expert swordswoman. Without any friends to distract me, I'd spent most of my early years focused on my training and studies. My skills with magic and fighting also came in handy when others were picking on me because of my stupid wings. The bullying all but stopped when they figured out I could kick every one of their asses.

"Hey Weirdo," Holly finally asked. "Whatcha up to?"

Normally I wouldn't respond when people called me that, but right then I was too excited to keep the news to myself.

I grinned at her and announced, "I'm leaving! I'm going on a big adventure of my own. Goodbye Holly, I'll probably never see you again."

She just rolled her eyes and responded with a very sarcastic "Yay."

Before leaving the burrow I flew over to my parents' court. They had some anime show on the big TV and half the court was lounging around watching as usual. Ma and Ba sat on their little thrones surrounded by some of my older brothers and sisters and a dozen other pixie courtiers.

I hesitated, but decided not to tell them. I knew from their stories, neither of them bothered with long goodbyes when they left home on their own adventures. And I really didn't want to deal with the taunts of my older siblings.

After a few seconds I turned my back and flew away and out of the burrow. A few minutes later I slipped through the open window, and I was back in the bedroom with Elise again.

We had a few hours yet before dusk, and the two of us spent that time sitting on her bed and talking about anything and everything. We got to know each other better, and the more we talked the happier I felt.

It was hard at times to stay calm, I almost couldn't believe it. I couldn't stop smiling, and Elise seemed to be feeling better too. She was smiling as much as I was.

We were already friends, and soon she'd be taking me on the biggest adventure ever!