Run, Sam! Run!

  “The fucking tent’s on fire!”

  FUCK. They know. I don’t have much time! I need to get as much distance as possible! Run, I need to, run!

  “Oy, where’d the Princess go!?”

  Please don’t see me, please don’t see me.

  “Ouch,” I trip over a root and fall to the ground.

  Fuck, I can’t see what’s in front of me with these blankets on me. I prop myself back up, my ankles on fire due to the blankets not covering them after my fall. Endure, Sam, endure.

  “Oy! I think I see something down that path!”

  No. No, no, no, no, no. Run. Just run, Sam. Run straight and hope that– “Ouch,” I bump into a tree. Doesn’t matter, keep running.

  “It’s the Princess! Go get er, she’s getting away!” I keep running straight, bumping into different things on the way. With every fall over roots and bumps in the woods, or getting stuck on brambles, I hear them getting closer until, THUMP.

  “Aaaaaaah!!” An arrow pierces my shoulder. My blood dripping to the ground.

  It doesn’t matter. Keep walking whatever happens Sam. If they catch you, it’s over. I won’t end up like them. If… If they catch me. I’ll choose death by burning.

  “I hit her! She’s over there! Release the hounds!”

  I might be able to outrun the bandits but… But how will I escape the dogs??? Fuck! Why is nothing going my way G– DAMN IT!

  I keep running. Hearing the barking come closer as, BAM, I run into another tree.

  “It’s over,” I say, getting ready to lift my blankets and greet the sun for the last time in my life.

  Maybe my next life will be better. Ok, Sam… Three, two…

  “Do you need help?” A female voice says next to me.

  “YES! I’m about to be killed!”

  “Hmm, that doesn't sound like, fun. Wanna like, come with us instead? We can like, totally hang out.”

  “Yeah, sure, whatever! I just need to get away from them!”

  “Oh, in that case just go like, straight. The trees will lead the way.”

  I don’t have the time to question what is going on, so I get back on my feet and start running as I’ve been instructed. The dog’s barking is coming nearer. Yet, it seems this time, I’m not being tripped by any roots, and soft branches push me in the direction I need to go without me bumping into anything. Out of concern for whoever has helped me out, I also scream to her, “Be careful, they’re armed and dangerous!”

  “I mean, yeah… Duh,” is what I hear from her as I keep running away. There is a sound of dogs whimpering, and then after a while, the yells of the bandits grow quieter as I get further away. After what seems like five minutes of running, the sound has stopped. But I’m not going to stop running. I will get as far away as I can, even if my feet start bleeding and my lungs give out, I will continue.

  Tired, in pain, and bleeding, I keep running. After what must have been at least twenty minutes of running without knowing or seeing where I’m going, I hear the same voice again, “Ok, you can stop now. By the way, I have to say, your outfit. It’s like, kinda crappy. Like, what are you going for? Poor Banshee? Safety Blanket? Like, none of it ties together at all.”

  “I… What?”

  “Yeah, and like, the arrow is kinda cool. I like the dangerous element it gives you, but it’s kind of overkill, don’t you think? But hey, who am I to say what someone’s allowed to wear.”

  Did I just die and hit valley girl hell on my way? What is she on about? “I’m not wearing this blanket as a fashion choice, it’s because my body starts burning in sunlight.”

  “Oh, same girl. Like, once in summer, I had this big tan because I laid in the sun all day. But I forgot I was wearing my flower necklace, so I had like, weird tan lines for a WEEK. My cousin still teases me to this day about it, but like, when I bring up that one time where she slept with MY man, she is all like, ‘You’re such a bitch for bringing that up’. Like, she’s the bitch that stole ma man. Like, she’s such a bitch but I like, still love her and we hang out together you know?”

  “I… I… Not really. You see what I mean is, I LITERALLY burn in the sunlight. Look what happens if I expose my skin to the sun,” I pull on my blanket a little exposing my ankle to the sunlight, lighting it ablaze in the process.

  “Ooooh, damn girl. That's a nasty ass sunburn if I ever saw one.”

  “Yup. That’s why I’m wearing these blankets, to protect me from the sun.”

  “So why are you out there in the first place fucking around with the monkeys?”

  “Monkeys? You mean the bandits?”

  “Yeah, the monkeys. Waving around their metal sticks. The naked Oonga Boonga boys. Girl, you should know that they get dangerous in large numbers like this. Like, you young, or just stupid?”

  “At least mentally speaking, I’m basically an adult.”

  “Pfft na, bitch. You ain’t. You think you might be, but you ain’t. Like, tell me. What are you? Like two-three thousand years or something?”

  I sigh before answering, “Mentally, I’m basically twenty-one years old, but my body is somewhere around fourteen years old.”

  There is a bit of a pause before she asks, “Like fourteen hundred?”

  “No, like fourteen winters. Single years. But mentally I’m basically an adult,”

  There is another small pause before I hear a loud gasp and feel the sudden sensation of being hugged and picked up, “By the Green Man’s beard, you’s a baby!? Sisters! Come out! I found myself an injured baby!”

  Why does everyone think I’m a baby? I know they’re probably way older than me but I am not at the same level as a baby! “Hey, lady! I’m NOT a baby!”

  “Of course you aren’t~ you’re a big girl aren’t chu!”

  “Yeah! No, wait… Not what I–”

  It’s at this point that two new voices appear. One of them yawns and says, “Man, Birch. Like, we let chu out of our sight for a midday nap, and you bring us a kid wearing a blanket?”

  Then the other says in an excited voice and a slight southern drawl, “Don’t be such a downer, Willow. It’s not like we have anyone to play with anyways. My last toy stopped working a few months ago.”

  Birch, the woman that led me here says, “Well Holly, I have dealt with that problem too! Here I brought you a new toy.”

  “Oh my, he’s gorgeous! A lil’ dirty, but we can clean him up all right,” Holly answers.

  “But girls, I have something here that you like, totally won’t believe! I found this baby here being attacked by the apes down west. And wait for it, she's only fourteen winters old.”

  “But mentally I’m twenty-one,” I interject, before getting drowned out by what I can only describe as the same screeching you’d hear at a boy band concert.

  “Don’t chu tell me you stole a baby, Birch? Because, by the Green Man’s eyebrows, I swear that I’ll report you to the Court of Four.”

  “Like, what’s that supposed to mean? Do you, like, really think I’m the sorta girl that’d go around stealing babies!?”

  To which in unison both Holly and Willow answer, “Yes.”

  “Wow, so you, like, really think nothing of me, huh? Sniff, I see how it is. You like, totally don’t trust me! For your disloyal ass’ information, this baby here is only fourteen winters old and I found her after she got hurt by the monkeys!”

  “Again, mentally I’m twenty-one years old, I’m an adult!”

  There is another audible gasp heard by the other two before I get picked up again by someone else and hugged, “Aw, you poor baby. Here, let mama push the arrow out of you.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Wait what? No! Let me at least get mentally prep- OUCH! OW! OW! That hurts!”

  “And, it’s out. There you go, little missy. And look, you’ve already got such a great regeneration factor at that age! See, it’s all gone now! You’ll get a treat later! You’re such a brave little girl!” Holly says as I feel her petting my head through the blankets.

  “So can we take a look at her Birch, or why’s she all covered up?” Holly asks Birch while poking me through the blankets.

  “Oh yeah. So the thing with her is that she like, has super sensitive skin that burns in the sunlight. So Willow, can you like, do her a favor and close the clearing down a little?”

  “Oh, yeah sure. I got chu sis.” As she says this, I can hear the sound of wood cracking, branches shifting, and leaves rustling. “All right, it should be dark enough now for the baby. Go put her down Holly and slowly take the blankets off to see if she’s fine.”

  She puts me down and they slowly lift the blanket around my ankles. I can feel the sunlight, it’s a little uncomfortable, but I’m not igniting so I should be fine. I take it upon myself to slowly, just in case, take off the first blanket. I seem to be fine, so I go for the second. I wonder what my saviors look like. They seem to be nice ladies after al–

  ”Aaaaah!” I scream out of shock, crawling away from them on the ground until stopping when my back collides with a tree. Two pitch-black wasp-like eyes stare right at me without blinking. It takes me a second to compose myself and look at their entire bodies.

  “I wonder what’s got her in a tizzy,” Holly asks, who seems to be about five foot, eight-inch tall naked woman, with brown, bark-like skin and upright cone-like leaves with red berries for hair.

  “Thas to be expected, Holly. You can’t just stare down a baby like that. Like, you ain’t her momma, so of course, she’s scared at first,” Birch replies, her body being around seven feet tall. She’s a curvy, but not overweight, naked lady with long, green hanging vine-like leaves obscuring most of her dark bark-like skin and almost her entire face.

  “Or… And I’m just throwing it out there. Maybe you’re just like, not good with kids. Which is kinda weird if you think about it, seeing as you still act like you’re like three thousand years old.” Birch says, who is around six-foot, five inches tall, and a spindly naked woman, with black and white striped bark and an orange leaf afro for hair. Her eyes are the same sort of bug-like black as Holly’s.

  The way their bodies move is unnerving. It’s very alien. Almost insect-like. They don’t breathe, and their bodies seem to be able to stay completely still at one point and then they move suddenly, in fast jittery motions.

  “Shut up you two. If anything, my child-like sense of wonder makes it easier to connect to the baby! She probably just needs a good ol’ hug from big sis Holly!” She says before becoming completely motionless and falling over backward on the ground. Her human-like features fade and turn into a normal-looking tree.

  “Is… Is she ok?” I ask before I’m being grabbed from behind, from the tree I was leaning on, by barky arms that enclose me, prompting me to panic. Trying to escape their grasp, I kick and struggle to no avail. Surprisingly though, the arms don’t try to hurt me. Instead, they pat my hair and cheek. They’re surprisingly soft. The tree behind me also suddenly becomes warm, soft and… Human-like. I think I get what’s going on. Somehow, Holly must have traded places with the tree behind me. I have no idea how, but it seems the most logical explanation.

  “See, she calmed down now! She’s a good baby! Yes, you’re a good girl aren’t you!”

  I don’t think I’ve ever felt as humiliated as I have today. I mean, I’m still grateful for them saving me, and they’re nice and all, but still. Not only are they weird, but they're also kinda creepy… No, you know what Sam. Your pride has gotten you into this mess, so maybe it’s time to show some humility.

  “I just wanted to say thank you. Sincerely, for saving me. I’m truly in your d–” I try to say, before my mouth is being covered by Holly.

  “Shh, don’t say that. That’s bad! You can’t just go around putting yourself at risk like that!” The others seem shocked as well, at least as far as I can tell.

  It is then that Willow kneels to the ground at my level, and slides over the grass toward me, leaving flowers blooming in a trail behind her. “Don’t chu ever say thank you to anyone! Especially not others of your kind. That’s a humie concept! For us, if we thank someone, that means we owe them. And if you say you’re in someone’s debt, then you offer yourself up to a slave pact. So, we’re gonna pretend we didn’t hear nuffin, ok?”

  I nod, and Holly lets go of my mouth. “Ok tha— Ehm what am I supposed to say besides the gratitude word?”

  “Just say like, you’re the best! Or I’m, like, glad I have you around or something,” Birch says.

  “Well, I’m glad I have you guys around, helping me out then! I’m sorry fo–” A hand stops my mouth from speaking again.

  “Nu-uh. We don’t do that either. No apologizing. You leave yourself open for debts that way. Just try not to do any of that, ok? Try to say instead things like, ‘I shall try to avoid that in the future’, or, ‘I was unaware it made you feel like that.’ Because…?”

  She takes her hand off my mouth again, “Ehm… Because I don’t want to put myself in debt?”

  “Exactly! You’re such a quick learner!” She says while patting my head.

  “So, you mentioned a pact, right? What’s that?”

  “Oh, wow. We got to start there? Well, a pact is a magical contract we Fey form with others. Any promises you make are pacts. If you swear to do something, that is also a pact. And when someone promises something to you, that can be made into a pact by you. Us Fey must always fulfill our end of the bargain. If we do not, or we break the pact, the Courts will intervene, and great punishment will befall you. It is the greatest crime one can commit. And if a human you make a pact with breaks their pact, or does not fulfill it, you will be able to take and shape their soul to your liking. Didn’t your parents teach you anythin?” Willow chimes in.

  “No, I… I’m not even sure if this body has any parents. I was raised by humans, and then I just woke up here cold, naked, and afraid.”

  “Oh, so she’s probably like a Changeling or a Troll. That explains the regenerative abilities as well,” Birch suggests.

  “Well, we can test the Changeling part but if she were a troll, she wouldn’t look like that. Also, her blood is red, not green so that rules out trolls.”

  “So, there are different categories of Fey Folk?” I ask.

  “Yeah, if you wanna put it like that. We call them tribes and races,” Willow says. “There is the humanoid tribe, which is races like Elves and Quicklings. Ogrin, like Ogres and Trolls. Gnomelings, so Gnomes, Kobolds… Even Red Caps and some would argue Dwarfs, but that is a highly political debate. Fairykind, which includes races like Sprites, Pixies, and Fairies. Faunites, which is a broad category of Fey representing animals. So like, Piglings, Mothmen and Rabbitfolk. Then there are Florans, which are races like us. Treants, Pumpkinians, and Demidryads, which is what we are, mostly, but I’ll get to that at the end. There are also Elementals, so fire, water, earth, and air nymphs, for example.

  That’s all the normal categories, but there are also Purebloods, which are royal lines that never interbred with any other race. They are the peak of strength and abilities for their race. But a good chunk of Fey are mixed-blood like us. For example, our grandmother is a Wasp Faunite, which is where we get our eyes from. We also have probably a lot more different blood in us, but that’s what came to me from the top of my head.

  And then there is the rarest type, the Mythicals. They encompass any race that you can’t link to any of the other tribes like the royal blood of the Four Courts that lord over spring, summer, autumn, and winter, those who represent day, night or time, weather, or some even represent emotions. But there are also outliers, like Unicorns, that are technically Eqinians of the Faunite tribe but have many different abilities that Faunites don’t have. Or Dragons, that don’t fit into any other category. Almost extinct races like Mammothians also belong in that group, even though they are Faunites. Then lastly, some mix-breeds go into this category, like Mermaids or Satyrs, that show signs of two or more different tribes but are bred so strongly together that they form a whole new race. One thing that’s important for you to know though is just because you’re a pureblood doesn’t make you better. You might have the strongest bloodline of your race, but that also means that you lack the abilities that come from other races. So, I’d say it’s a give and take. I hope I didn’t overload you with that info, honey.”

  “Oh… No. It’s just a LOT to take in. But it makes sense.”

  “Yeah, Willow is like the master explainer. She is like, totally more educated than us.” Birch interjects.

  “Yeah, but to be fair… She’s also the oldest,” Holly adds.

  “So, what about Seelie and Unseelie then? Also, what do the courts mean?” I ask the group and Holly answers,

  “Eh, that’s politics. That goes a little over your head. But to try and keep it short, there are the spring, summer, autumn, and winter courts. They’re like, countries ruled by different royal bloodlines. As for Seelie and Unseelie, it’s… A political thing. Seelie, like us, think that humans are fun, and we can play with em. We also value politeness, hygiene, appearances, and order. As for the Unseelie, they dislike humans. They’re violent towards them. They don’t care much about appearances and they are awfully direct with people. They’re usually content locking themselves away from society and living on their terms. Recently, sometime around ten thousand years ago, the Unseelie have created their nation, leading to much turmoil in the courts. Also, ever since King Almenor and the Unseelie Princess Elleyn’s child was stolen, there have been talks of war. The winter court points their fingers at the spring and summer court, whom they have historic grievances with, while they say it must have been an Unseelie or Winter court saboteur that didn’t want the Pureblood line to be ruined by an Unseelie. So, a LOT is going on right now that you shouldn’t need to worry about yet.”

  “Hmm, ok. I think I somewhat understand,” I say to her. “So, what sort of Fey do you think I am?”

  “Hmm. You don’t look like you’d be a Faunite, Floran, or Gnomeling. I’d rule out Ogrin too… Do you have any abilities that you know of?”

  “I… I’m not sure. I seem to be able to make things cold, but I don’t know how. And I need to drink blood for food, but I can also eat honey, butter, and bread. When I do drink blood though, I go into this frenzy where I gain a lot of physical strength, but I also have a hard time thinking and controlling myself. Then, just last night, I manifested some sort of black goo on my arm that fell off when I saw it. And as you already know, I burn in the sunlight. Oh also! When some rats bit me and I sucked them dry, they rose from the dead and attacked other rats. They also gained the same sunlight problem I did. Oh, and I also think it’s related to this symbol. I found it on dead druids in the mountains. Do you know what I am? Or how to help me?”

  There is a solid minute of silence with the sisters looking at each other worried. “That’s a symbol of ownership,” Holly says. “It marks you as someone we’re not legally allowed to associate with… You have to leave.”

  “What?? What do you mean, ‘symbol of ownership’? Why do I have to leave?”

  Birch speaks up, “It’s just, if we help you out, that goes against the accords we have with the humans. Perhaps your parents sold their firstborn to the druids… If they did and it turns out you’re legally bought, we could get into a lot of trouble helping you out… We might even end up going to prison or being enslaved ourselves! But… If we turn you in, you’ll just go back to servitude, and that isn’t right either. So it saddens me, but you have to leave for your and our sake.”

  “But I need someone to help me!” I scream in desperation.

  A bit of time passes before Holly speaks up again, “We could send her to you know who.”

  “No. If we do that, she might get killed. That woman is a monster!” Willow answers, prompting Holly to plead,

  “But if we don’t do anything she’ll die out in the wilderness anyway. She is just a baby after all…”

  A bit of time passes as they talk in private to each other until they turn around again, “You’re going to have to go in this direction. You will find an Unseelie woman there. Try not to anger her or she will attack you. The Unseelie don’t care about the law, so she is the only one that can help you…”

  They then proceed to give me a suit made of their hair to protect me from the sun, even if it makes me look like a walking bush. And just like that, they're gone. Leaving me alone, stunned and confused on my way to find this woman that even the Fey call a monster…