And It Starts Sometime Around Midnight [Gracelin/Gareth]

Essex had to be one of the most depressing lands throughout the entirety of Great Kingdoms, that besides the ever-gloomy Luminiege. Traveling there had proven to be a challenge amongst the most, but it wasn't that it couldn't be done. It took strength and effort, proven to be a hardship once you passed the Commonlands boundaries. Swamps upon bogs cornered ever inch of the deadlands, the creatures there were mystical and dangerous, for an unknown evil lurked there. But not all were bad. Some only seemed lost, unable to leave its misty tresses for more that a few hours at a time; it was hard enough trying to find somewhere to belong when you were frightful to everyone you had ever met. Gracelin Briar knew true beauty, and venturing out to Essex made her miss the Veil of the Faeries way more than she had originally intended. Breena was beautiful compared to Essex, but she had decided that it had been too long since Decemberance had last wrote, asking for a friendly appearance to catch up from old times. It was an offer Gracelin couldn't refuse.

Their friendship had started out simple. Decemberance was of banshee blood, Gracelin of the Fae. Gracelin had been wandering the darker side of the Unseelie Court, just as her parents had asked her not to, but had done anyway. A little girl of white hair, gleaming like moonlight, with a dreary air about her sat against a tree crying. She couldn't be any older than Gracelin had been, so in a friendly gesture, she had offered her most favorite of faerie combs, embellished with sparkling jewels that reflected off of the light rays, to the little crying girl. And when the girl raised her head, she revealed eyes that told millions of stories, stark white in hue, seeming like they could reach in and steal a section of her soul. (Another story for another time.) Gracelin had remained friends with her from that very day.

And now, in the throws of the moonlight, Gracelin shivered, tucking her flowing green hair behind her pointed ears, and snuggled her shawl closer around her shoulders. Winter would be coming soon for this part of the Great Kingdoms, and once again she was reminded of Breena's ever summertime weather, longing for it now more than ever. But she knew, that even if she were back home, she would only be wandering the forest she knew like the back of her palm, playing tricks on Queen Angel's warriors as they traveled the forest roads. And Decemberance would never forgive her if she didn't show, for it had been way too long.

The road she had taken was over grown with brambles, unbeknownst to the Royals who ruled impendingly over the Essex Kingdom. It hadn't been used in so long, but then again, not very people wandered into Essex or Luminiege anymore. If they lived there before the Great Suffering, then they remained, but no one new would be dense enough to move to one of them. And maybe it would remain that way. Essex's Princess was still missing, so the land died with her disappearance, Stuart Bennett ascended the thrown, the land turned to a barren wasteland. Things just weren't the same as they used to be. Twenty years ago, Gracelin loved visiting this side of the Great Kingdoms. But one hundred years had changed her life catastrophically.

Crack.

Gracelin's thoughts stopped immediately when the noise of a snapped twig reached her perched ears. Someone was nearby. Her footsteps became quieter, a dagger glinted in the moonlight. The Haunted Wood was a dangerous place in the night, and she wasn't about to have her life ended over the simple visit of a friend. She crouched, slinking forward, oculi narrowing into the night, trying to find the unexpected threat.

"Hey Reese," a young man asked as he and his friend stalked through the woods, "the wolf queen of Ulfur do...do you think she's really a wolf?"

Reese Wynn was use to these sorts of questions. Since childhood, his companion Gareth Browning had always asked such questions. It was something that he was use to. There were many different things that had been asked.

What of the halflings, Reese?

Where is the veil to the fae world?

That was the newest question. Since he had been telling stories that were based on his life, Gareth had wanted to find the veil that linked the world of the fae and the human world. He knew that the stories were going to be even more fantastical if he could do something along those lines.

"Do I think that a beautiful queen who is know for her beauty is a wolf?" Reese asked as they walked together now in an abandoned forest in Essex. Well, they didn't hope it was abandoned. Reese and Gareth were both looking for things such as banshee and fae. "No, Gareth, I'm pretty sure she's human."

"Oh...cuz it would be pretty nice if she were a wolf. I could tell lots of stories about that," Gareth smiled as he looked around. There was a beauty to the world as he saw it at the moment. From a childhood of desperation and little food, he had matured slightly into a young man who wanted the best for everything in the world. That included the lands around him.

The crack of a snapped twig underneath his foot alerted him to the quietness around him but as he came face to face with a dagger, he was more than shocked, "Pl...please don't hurt me!"

Reese quickly pulled his own dagger, putting distance between his innocent best friend and the woman holding a dagger to his neck, "Lady, either you put down the knife or I slit your wrist!"

Gracelin completely halted; examining the two once over and realized they were probably less harmless than a mouse. Snorting, the Faerie shifted her weight from both feet to only her right foot, the left swinging forward to kick a small dagger from the hands of a….Halfling? Her eyes wandered briefly to the clumsy one who had made all the noise, a Human. In actuality, for a moment, she wondered if the Human was even intelligent enough to understand that he had been making so much noise, in fact, that the trees hummed with their presence. It was a question as to why they were not already eaten.

“If only you could reach that high, Half-pint.” She mused slightly, by the flick of the tip of her tongue to the edge of one side of her lips. A nasty habit, but one she tried and failed to kick. “And what business does a Human and a Halfling have in the Essex Haunted Wood? Of course, cluttering around as big oafs, creating such racket that even the dead can hear you.”

She simultaneously kept her attention on both of the males at once, straightening from her position, and sheathing that beautiful dagger. After tucking her bright green hair behind her slightly pointed ears, she placed tiny hands upon her hips haughtily. “And Miss Queen Reyna is not a wolf, you dense irritating Human. Humans…” She scoffed. “Always asking questions, and sticking their noses in places they ought not belong.” She rolled her eyes, the moon coming back out from behind the ever gloomy clouds, causing her skin to actually glow; Moon Fae.

The Moon Fae is perhaps one of the most ethereal of nature beings, or at least that is what is told by most of the Veil, and is why Gracelin was so important to the Seelie Court. She was the last remaining Moon Fae. Legend tells that she only appeared at night, but obviously this was not the case. She was not the type to be tied down. So in a nutshell, she went where she wanted, when she wanted. But when the moonlight is just right and even during certain seasonal and lunar cycles, her skin would glow. Just as the moon is a lovely light in the night sky, Gracelin could always match its celestial beauty. Gliding in and out of soft moon shadows was how she kept her presence a secret, yet now she didn’t bother.

Finding or even catching a glimpse of a Moon Fae could bring you good fortune.

Those words truly didn’t mean much to her. She spent most of her days exploring and playing tricks on passersby. Why would she care to be seen? She was a Faerie. It wasn’t as uncommon as Humans thought. Humans lived in denial, really. They didn’t know how dangerous it could be just by walking out your doorstep.

There were a few things in the world that Reese actually liked. A nice pint of beer, the company of Gareth, and his art work. The one thing he had never tolerated, not from Gareth and not from any of their sisters, was being called out for his smallness. He knew that most people towered over him and he also knew that very few people were half as big as he was in heart, Gareth being the only one he could recall at the moment.

He growled and kept his eyes on her, looking more like an irritating lapdog than an actual guard dog. Crossing his arms over his chest, he muttered, "Half-pint? Why do people always have to assume just because I'm small I'm not big. I'm telling you Gareth, this is exactly why I can't be a warrior in anyone's court. No one thinks I'm big enough."

Gareth couldn't breath. Well he could, saying that a human couldn't breath was saying that they were dead and he was certainly not dead. However, he felt like he was in his own private heaven. This wasn't a human that they had disrupted, of course not. Judging by the way she condensendingly said human, she despised them. No, no, judging by the ears she was a fae. She was either fae or elf but she was so colorful, so vibrant. She was definitly not an elf. "I meant no disrespect ma'am," Gareth polietly said. Even in the face of danger he was afraid that he would offend, "I just...I'm a story teller you see and we were travelling from our home and we thought that this was the best route but obviously it isn't so we were making the most of it and-"

"Tell the fae our life story don'tcha?" Reese asked, rolling his eyes at his friend. Though he found the fae pretty, he knew the troubles that they often caused. Obviously Gareth was smitten with the girl. Reese was going to need a little more convincing.

When her skin glowed as the moon rolled back from the cloudlike sheath it had been hiding behind, he was more than impressed, "A moon fae? No one's seen one in a hundred or more years!"

"Moon fae?" Gareth asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Your skin is really pretty miss!"

By the looks of it, the Halfling had known more about the Fae than the Human did. Honestly, it didn’t make sense either way. And though she would never admit it to anyone, she had never truly seen a Human up close before, but had seen Halflings aplenty. Most men she seen wore thick bands of armor that hid what they truly looked like underneath, such a pity, for she did fancy them some of the times. And then other men were always of Fae. It was a relief to her eyes to finally see something new. Of course, she found the Halfling slightly irritating, but then again she had insulted him.

Shrugging she spoke clearly, though softly as not to make too much noise in the dead silence of the forest. “Yes, a Moon Fae. Gracelin Briar, Princess to the Seelie Court. Pleased, yet unpleased to make your acquaintances.” She curtsied neatly, before straightening back to her original position, then stepping forward towards the Human.

Curiously, she stood not inches from his person, sniffing along his shoulder and neck. Humans smelt like musk, thick and heady, whereas Fae smelt of the summer flowers and water. It was a strange difference. She picked at his clothes tenderly, lifting his arm by the tiniest grasp of cloth, and then swooshing under his arm to his backside, giggling gingerly as she fed the hunger to her curiosity. It would seem strange to a passerby if they were somewhere where Humans tended to linger about, but amidst the forest it was common for the Fae. This Gareth, as so named by the Halfling was adoringly attractive enough to be mistaken for Fae, and would confuse the ones at court. She left his hair for last. It was a placid brown and seemed to have no life to it, where hers seemed like a life all its own, vibrant and pulsating.

To cut a Fae’s hair could truly hurt them, and was just as if you were taking their life force from them. Gracelin picked at his hair conspicuously.

“Why do you smell funny, Gareth Story-teller?” She asked, piercing him with a crystallized gaze.

Reese was curious by the way she regarded him. Most had never seen a halfling before. After all, he was supposed to be the last of his kind. It was what Gareth's mother and father, the woman and man who had taken him in and made him feel like family as well, told him when he asked. If they were all that rare, then wouldn't she be more surprised to see one? Using his power of deduction, he decided that he would ask her about it later, knowing that something was out there that he didn't know about.

"A princess, just what we bloody need," Reese muttered to himself. He would have stopped there had Gareth not shot him a look that spoke of his irritation. "It's nice to meet you, Gracelin Briar of the Seelie."

Gareth smiled until Gracelin leaned in to sniff him. It was something that he wasn't use to. No woman ever wanted to stand close to him before, saying that he was far to immature for there liking. Not that he minded, he would rather spend days on adventures than worrying if he had an illegitamate child out there in the world. While he was sure that she didn't mind, he took in her scent. It was something that he had never smelled before, something that he supposed he would never smell again. It was every flower in the forest and the water that flowed free from the creeks and oceans. He knew that she was inspecting him but he did not know why. For a weapon? Maybe she was just as curious about a human as he was about a fae?

"My last name isn't Storyteller," he corrected her, "My name is Gareth Browning, Princess Gracelin. I don't smell funny. All humans smell like this...I think. I know each man has his own unique musk at least."