Jigano, white haired and in his usual clothing, paced at the edge of the woods. The barrier was gone, but its scar remained on the earth and the fox-souled man walked it like a beast still caged as he stared intently over the line into the lusher, greener, and far more hostile world beyond. Thrice he'd entered those woods. Once at the call of a spirit of fire and water. Once in blissful ignorance, finding his way to Ludo's shrine. And once in company of others, friends and allies... people who had trusted him to lead them and keep them safe.
He had let them down. He had lost them.
Restless energy filled him, reminiscent of when Ludo had held his dreams. He hadn't been able to sleep then, either. He had pushed himself until he passed out, stolen a few hours of rest, and as soon as his body had let him he had thrown himself back into his research.
He was like that now, too. His dreams were filled with friends who disappeared, with nightmares of deaths they might have already suffered. Sleep was a thing to be suffered through when he had no more choice and his body dragged him down into it. He wanted to be out there, searching for his friends, saving them from what he had done.
But the Woods mocked him with its mysteries. It had devoured his friends and it would devour him too, if he went in unprepared again. Once he might have thrown himself at it regardless of his own safety but that was before...
Before he had found his life no longer his own.
There was no one here to see him, to judge him, and he found a smooth-barked beech tree to lean back against, sliding down to sit on the soft moss beneath. He tilted his head up, looking towards the sky, bits of blue still visible between the greening Flowerbirth branches, and wished fiercely that he had the answers to what came next.
Eliza
The Hollowed Grounds, while not as lush and beautiful as her home in the Greatwoods was full of new experiences; new things to do, new places to go, new people to...watch. Yes, she had interacted with a few of those from the Hollowed Grounds, but not all of it was pleasant.
The cobbler with a memory issue popped into her mind, and she hid a scowl. The alchemist who burned the lichen then brushed the other memory away, and with it came a small smile. She liked Remi. He was funny and sweet, and for the most part, seemed pretty harmless. Hells, she had even told him a Fae secret willingly. Not something she thought she would ever do.
Eliza realized that she was beginning to make a habit of partaking in things she would never do; leading a non-Fae through the woods and teaching him secrets, venturing into a festival in the Hollowed Grounds, approaching a grouchy man who had been planting. So many things that just a year ago would have been absolutely preposterous to suggest to her.
However, now, she sat in the woods of the Hollowed Grounds - woods that were rather pathetic compared to what she was accustomed to - and lounged easily in the branches against the trunk of a tree. She reached into her satchel every so often to pull out a few berries as she listened to the woods, but something new came into view!
The Fae girl lifted a brow, inquiring as to who this white-haired newcomer was. He seemed upset or nervous or agitated or something along those lines, but that was nothing she really concerned herself with. Eliza smiled a mischievous grin, leaning forward and crouching on the branch with perfect balance. She took a small handful of berries and, one by one, started tossing them at the man. Whether or not she actually intended for the berries to hit wasn’t clear, but she giggled lightly and bit her lip while doing it.
The first plop of something soft and quiet nearby went nearly unnoticed, brushed away as a fallen leaf or nut from the trees.
The second bounced off the tree next to his head, and he jerked forward, looking around in alarm for whatever was taking aim at him.
Because of that, the third hit him right between the eyes, a firm blueberry that caused him to flinch back even as he instinctively raised a quick hand to catch it as it dropped--
And proceeded to accidentally smash it between his nimble fingers. Glancing down in consternation at the purplish juice he wiped his fingers on the moss and looked around cautiously, seeking some sign of his... attacker? Had a speaking squirrel gotten lost and decided to pester him in revenge for his escape in Deepfrost?
Eliza's giggle drew his attention up into the trees above and he narrowed his eyes at the sight of what appeared to be a child - short, slender, mischievous - crouched like a wild thing and with a handful of sweet, juicy ammunition.
Children... were not his strong suit at the best of times. With a sigh he stood and stepped around the tree he had been leaning against. As he slipped out of her sight his form shifted and shrunk, sprouting feathers as his hair receded. He took wing into some thicker underbrush, initially intending to hide his flight but...
There had been something strange about the child. Something about her clothes that seemed out of place... Jigano huffed a resigned sigh at the curiosity that prickled at him even through his ennui, and tilted his wings to circle wide around, coming to rest on a large branch at her height in a neighboring tree before transforming back. From this angle he could see that her short cloak was actually... shimmering wings?
"Hello," he said softly, trying to ignore the way his pulse was trying to speed up. "Were you trying to get my attention?"
She watched the white-haired male’s confusion at the fruity attack with something just short of glee, and her hand clapped over her mouth with delight when one berry hit him in the face. It wasn’t painful - she could have just as easily been throwing rocks - so she wasn’t particularly worried about him getting hurt, but seeing his reaction to her little game was more than entertaining.
Then, he squished the berry he caught! Messy boy... tsk tsk. But she realized that he saw her, and her glee faded slightly. It wasn’t like he was going to climb the tree, though. That would be ridiculous to think a man would climb a tree to chase after a girl who could fly.
Apparently, though, this person had a few tricks up his sleeve. He disappeared behind a tree, making the Fae’s brows draw together when she couldn’t locate him. If there was one thing Eliza got annoyed at, it was her prey evading her. Not that he was pray… but it was the same concept, at least in her mind.
She removed her bow from around her torso and her hand carefully lowered towards the filled quiver, her golden-hued eyes searching for a sign of him down below. Then…
As quickly as she whirled around in shock, an arrow was drawn in her bow, aiming directly at the man - how in the hells did he get there?? - in the neighboring tree. Her eyes were wide, chest heaving, and wings out with a tense vibration.
Eliza lowered the arrow relatively quickly, getting over her initial shock and calming her heart. “No,” she said. “I was bored, and you were there.” She gave a slight shrug, her eyes locked on the man sitting in the branches. “Seems you did a better job of getting my attention, though.” She looked him up and down, tilting her head. “How did you get up here so fast? Do you have an animal shift?”
Ah. An arrow. Delightful.
But the child was no child when he was this close to her. Or at least, she was young but not as young as he would have expected from a human youth. And then there were the wings, which he was absolutely certain human youth generally lacked.
But Safrin's book had mentioned a race of winged people who lived in the enchanted forest north of the Hollowed Grounds. And Ianto had said those woods were owned by a certain race...
He tilted his head at her as she lowered her weapon, hiding the relief he felt at not needing to dodge an arrow while this high up in the branches. He had no fear of heights, but that seemed like an excellent way to develop one. "Would you have preferred I threw things at you instead of speaking up?" he asked, tucking his fear and weariness and aching heart behind the pleasantly curious face of a wandering bard, whose life and livelihood depended on his ability to lock away his unhappiness for the sake of others.
He let her examine him as he did much the same to her, but her frank question had him blinking in surprise. "I'm not usually asked that quite so bluntly," he acknowledged with a wry grin, tipping his head to the side in a sort of nod. "But you have nicer wings than I do. I don't suppose you're one of the Fae?" He brought a knee up to his chest, wrapping his arms around it as he watched her cautiously. "I'm Jigano, by the way."
A grin spread over her lips when he commented on her way of introducing herself. Via berry wasn’t the worst way she had done it, so he should have been grateful. Regardless, she partially guessed that it was a rhetorical question, so she didn’t answer him, merely pressing her lips into a thin line to try and hide the grin his curiosity was drawing from her.
Eliza put the arrow back in her quiver, but she still held her bow, thumbing the wood gently and squinting at the man. Jigano, as he introduced himself. She didn’t hide her grin at his release of his name.
“If boldness is unfamiliar in your usual questions, you must not often associate with those who play word games.” An advantage for her, she hoped. Her people had a certain inability that these new folks were able to use against them; lying. She couldn’t, they could. It was a little unfair, but years of word play had taught her well. Made her a little petty, but taught her well.
There was a pause of silence when he mentioned her wings, followed by the question about her race. She gave a short nod with a sideways grin. “I’m Eliza,” she said.
Another pause, as she continued to observe him. Over fifty years of life had given her some insight into the mind and how it manifested, but she didn’t really like using that knowledge often. Mostly because she generally preferred the solitude of the woods.
“I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.” Wings, of course. Her wings spread their full length, the design remarkably close to that of a dragonfly, catching and reflecting the sunlight with small glimmers on the wings intricately unique designs. “What do you know of the Fae?”
She was an expressive creature, he decided as he watched her face, and especially her eyes. As far away as he was they were a little hard to see, but they were large and bright and full of mischief. And though she had been forthright and prankish so far, she hadn't been hostile or cruel. Overall, she was not what he had expected after the ambush that had stolen his friends and family from him, and as he came to that tentative assessment it was easier to be curious about her, and let that curiosity soften the edges of his guilt and the fresh wounds done to his heart.
Her question even pulled a grin from his lips, and a curious tilt of his head to the side. "Word games?" he asked, a shadow of his old sly delight coloring the question. "What kind of word games?" She was absolutely correct in that had had found few indeed within the Hollowed Grounds who would engage in verbal fencing with him - Edy being a notable exception, but the fire mage's preferences tended towards the lascivious rather than the elegantly clever. Still refreshing, but somehow he doubted the young faerie lass would appreciate those carnal conversational constructions quite so much.
"A pleasure to meet you, Eliza," he murmured with a bow of his head, though he kept his eyes on her, watching through his lashes. She still had her bow in hand, after all, though the berries had vanished before he had arrived on the branch. He met her challenge with a raised brow, but she surprised a chuckle from him when she showed off her wings - and indeed, they were more beautiful than his. He considered her question as he made sure he was well balanced before he spread his own arms in a trick he had seen Amalia do, and Remi before her, to a lesser extent. He exhaled carefully and concentrated, and white feathers sprouted from his arms as his sleeves seemed to subside into his arms and the wings that they became. "I know what gods and men have told me," he said, giving a good stretch and then letting his arms return to normal so a strong gust of wind didn't catch his increased surface area and knock him off his perch. "What Safrin shared, and what Ianto confessed. I don't suppose the fox is a friend of yours?" he asked casually.
What kind of word games? Gods, there were so many! Such infinite choices to select from for an answer that could suit him, but hmmm...
“All kinds,” she answered with an almost avian tilt to her head.
His acknowledgement of meeting her being a pleasure was fascinating. To other Fae folk, sure, she could see such words being used to describe meeting her, but to another? To a non-Fae? Well, she certainly hadn’t expected such compliments. Or was it simply the way these people spoke? While Fae couldn’t lie, these people could. Was he lying to her, perhaps? Her eyes narrowed at him ever so slightly.
However, her expression was quickly wiped away when the man exposed his wings to her. Pure white feathers appeared from his arms, then just as quickly disappear. It was magical, and she didn’t remember the Fae being able to do anything like that. Some were able to shift into animals, but none that she knew of could magically shift partially into an animal.
As he went on, though, the slight wariness overtook her again. Ianto? “I know of him,” she answered. Eliza hadn’t personally associated with the fox, for reasons that she now felt validated on - she didn’t trust him - but she knew that he knew his way through the Greatwoods. “I wouldn’t say we’re friends.”
Part of her enjoyed his answer. He was vague, verbally gifted in evasion it would seem, similar to a Fae. She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to challenge that at the moment, but if the opportunity presented itself, she wouldn’t decline. “And what exactly was shared and confessed?” How much did this outsider know?
"Even riddles?"he asked slyly, appreciating her verbal dance around his questions, though he knew his appreciation might not last as long as it usually would. He was near the edge of the former barrier for a reason, after all, and though he hid the tension deep, still it sang and twisted through his blood.
She was tense as well, he thought, and with good reason. Though she held her bow and could do more to him with her weapons than he could from his distance, it seemed she was as wary - and curious - of him as he was of her.
He didn't miss her tension at Ianto's name, and he grimaced wryly in sympathy. "Just as well. I wouldn't call him the most trustworthy sort. We'd only barely met and he led my friends into an ambush," he said off-handedly, as if the information was well-known and not worthy of a secret.
He tilted his head in a gesture that held more than a bit of mischief as he grinned at her direct question. "What happened to 'I'll show you mine if you show more yours?' Shall we trade in questions and answers, then? I'll answer yours, if you answer mine. Deal?"
“Even riddles,” she replied with a smirk. “Though, that depends on the person you talk to. Riddles are a little different than word games!”
Eliza put her bow on her back finally, settling on the branch with both hands gripping the bark, as her legs swung freely below. Ianto had led people into an ambush? Her previous smirk quickly disappeared, replaced with something that could have been interpreted as worry - or perhaps simple wariness. Was Ianto leading people through the Greatwood? What other ambush could he have brought them into besides her own people?
She suddenly felt herself become more guarded, unsure if this was a friendly interaction or simply information gathering about her people. While Jigano was clearly intelligent and curious, which could be a dangerous combination, Eliza wouldn’t reveal information about her people that she deemed too sensitive, regardless of his intentions.
“Very well,” the girl said with a huffed breath through her nose, her ankles crossing as her legs swung. “You answer mine first.” Of course he was talking about what the hells he had learned from his sources.
When she put her bow away he finally allowed himself to relax a little as well. He didn't enjoy having a weapon pointed at him at the best of times, and this was definitely not the best of times. Not by a longshot. He noted how her expression shifted at the mention of the ambush - so, she hadn't known about it? That could mean a great many things, and he knew far too little to make any assumptions just yet.
The young woman wasn't exactly gracious about taking his deal, but at least she did so, and he hid a soft sigh of relief as she demanded her answer. Of course, she could be planning on taking his information and leaving, or lying to him... but it was a chance he had to take. She was the first Fae he had met, and he dared not squander her willingness to talk.
"As you wish," he acquiesced with a bow of his head, shifting a little closer to the trunk of his tree so he could position himself more comfortably - and more securely. "Ianto told us that the woods beyond the barrier's limits belonged to the Fae. Safrin gave us access to ancient histories that spoke of the people of the woods as having wings. There was no mention of them being enemies of the humans of the Settlement in the past, however, and we had no reason to think we'd be viewed as such now." He gave a little shrug, giving Eliza a sad smile.
"Now for my questions. You asked for both what was 'shared' as well as what was 'confessed' so I shall ask two as well. Why were my friends taken without warning? And are there people other than Fae who live in the woods, who might have done so? I don't want to accuse your people unfairly out of ignorance," he admitted, though so far the Fae seemed the likeliest culprits.
That didn't mean there weren't multiple groups of Fae, however. Perhaps if one group had taken his friends, another group might be convinced to help get them back?
Enemies of the humans? No… At least that wasn’t what Eliza thought they were. Jigano’s sad smile brought a small frown to her, as she wasn’t sure why anyone would think they were enemies.
“I think you misjudge us,” she said quietly, giving him a flickered grin. “Making enemies is not what the Fae would like.” She didn’t think so… Of course, like any people, there were some who were just generally more hostile, but she assumed that came with all people. Personalities varied, but as a whole, the Fae weren’t known to be a violent race.
She scrunched her nose at his reasoning for asking two questions. Unfortunately, it was fair, as she had asked two questions within one. Naturally, Eliza could easily argue that point, but she decided to let it go, as she was getting as much information from him as he was her.
Listening to his questions had her bite the tip of her thumb for a second. “The Greatwood belongs to the Fae,” she said with a small grin. “Rae allows the forest to protect us. As far as I’m aware, no one else shares our woods.”
As much as she wanted to, and as much as she absolutely was capable of it, Eliza decided to not to be condescending about his first question. She simply raised a brow at him. “How would you feel if a group of total strangers invaded your home?” She had a feeling Delah was the one behind it, the woman not typically one for tiptoeing, but she wasn’t going to say anything. That was a name Jigano wasn’t going to get. “My people don’t know yours, and suddenly a group goes into our home… The reason doesn’t matter, only that happened, and my people acted to defend our home.
“What were you and your friends seeking in the Greatwood?” Maybe if she knew that, she could understand their intentions a little better. Hopefully.
She was a wary creature, but seemed friendly enough, and he appreciated that she was willing to give as well as take. Part of him wished, badly, that he had met her before things had gone so sideways within the Woods, that this conversation could be light-hearted and an equal exchange of curiosity. Instead the fear for what had happened to his friends continued to coil in his belly, keeping him from being able to relax as he weighed her words and tried to decide whether he could trust her, and how far.
"I hope not," he agreed with her quietly. "I would very much like to be wrong about it. But I know so little, and with lives possibly at stake it is hard not to rush to assumptions." Lives that he had put at risk by leading them into the forest. Lives that had trusted him, and that he had let down. Lives that would be safe and sound in their homes right now if not for him...
He tilted his head at her confirmation of Ianto's words, but his expression fell a little at hearing that there were no other people in the Woods. No humans, then, and it did narrow down their ambushers to being Fae after all. Though that still didn't rule out different groups of Fae acting independently.
His lips quirked a little at her rhetorical question, and he tilted his head in acknowledgment. "Something that happened recently, in fact," he told her, offering information freely since she had been kind enough to do so for him. "A group of outsiders - Outlanders, they were called - appeared without warning back in Leafchange. Soon after others began to arrive, one or two at a time, but in a fairly steady stream. The native-born met them with a combination of open arms and tolerance... at worst, indifference. And as the Outlanders made their homes alongside those who had lived here originally, they worked together to help and welcome others who came later. I won't pretend that no problems arose, but early on, at least, the newcomers were met with peaceful integration." He gave a slight shrug, offering Eliza a wry smile. "Not that you don't have an excellent point, but we haven't seen a Fae or the world beyond the barrier in three hundred years. We had no idea if things had changed, or how to contact your people without going looking for you."
Her question was a fair one, and he nodded in acknowledgment of it. "Ianto asked the same thing," he admitted wryly. "And the answer is simply: we didn't know what we were seeking. Freedom, mostly. The barrier fell, Frey and Ludo and Safrin were freed... and Rae, Vi, and Mort were no longer lost to us. We had some records of what the world beyond was like before the barrier fell, but no idea how things had changed since then. We were curious, and reaching out the only way we could. We were peaceful explorers - or at least, we were trying to explore, though the Woods kept spitting us back where we started. As it likely would have continued to do, if Ianto hadn't arrived and offered to lead us deeper in... and shortly after that my companions were taken, one by one." He had no idea why he had been spared, only a devouring wyrm of guilt nesting in his guts and raking strips from his heart every time he thought about what his lost friends might be going through.
"Eliza...if it were Fae who took my friends, what would happen to them?" he asked quietly, letting some of his worry seep out in his voice and the bleak blue of his eyes as he watched her.
She listened to Jigano’s story about the Outlanders and remained attentive through it. She suspected that he wouldn’t give such free information commonly, so she wouldn’t waste it by brushing it aside.
It was an interesting thought… If the Naturals and Outlanders could learn to coexist within the bubble, would it be at all possible for them to mingle and coexist with the Fae? Was that a real possibility, or was it some kind of pie in the sky dream a child would believe? It was at least worth thinking about…
He mentioned that the people had been trapped for three hundred years and made a fair point about contact. There really was no way to contact her people, but it was like that for a reason: the Fae don’t like being contacted! That didn’t mean the new people had any right to invade their home, though. However, it seemed all they were seeking was a way to make sense of the brand new world that was opened to them. Though, she supposed with the forest constantly turning them around, it wasn’t very open to them at all.
Eliza felt the sorrow within the man, the concern for the safety of his friends, and when he asked his question, she couldn’t help the way she fell silent. Her eyes were cast downward for a moment, but slowly, she moved so she was crouching on the branch, then jumped up and flew to the branch that he was sitting on. The limb hardly moved as she landed on it with an airy way about her.
Once again, she lowered herself to sit on the branch, facing him where he was. “They would be taken to the Fae village,” she said quietly, “and be thrown into the thirty-foot pit. Of those that go in, there are few who come out of the pit.” Her voice was solemn, hinting that there really wasn’t a high chance that they would return to him. “The war chief is one of the less understanding of us. If they do not anger her, perhaps they have a chance of survival.”
She tucked her hair behind her ears and looked up at him, letting him process her words and hoping to see just how he would process it. “Who are you really?” Eliza finally asked, her fingers tapping her temple followed by her heart, and her tone conveying something much deeper than what his name and profession are. She wanted to know him, wanted to know if she could trust what he was saying, what he was feeling - or at least showing her that he’s feeling. These people could lie, and the Fae could not. She couldn’t help but ask.
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