Just Friends

Peter

"Then let's go," I said decisively, turning in the air. I forced my hands forward towards the starlighter, trying to blast it away from us with a burst of wind. I'd hold it off if I had to for as long as I could.

Danae

I watched as the thing got blown backwards a bit, making higher pitched hissing noises as its intelligent eyes seemed to study us.

Shuddering I felt a bit of fear sink into my mind when its eyes found mine. I couldn't move, frozen to the spot by fear. My wings, quit moving, and I started to-do

"GET YOU NEWBIE A$$ MOVING." The girl snapped, shoving me forward and jerking my eyes away from the starlighter. Suddenly JI could move again, and quickly flew after her, even more unsteadily than before.

"If we hurry we could make it to the gates in a short time, that's assuming we can lose the starlighter." The Fay whispered after a moment, glancing back as I did.

Peter

I flew after them as swiftly as my wings would carry me, constantly looking back to see if the starlighter was following. Would the city be safe enough? It had to be, right? And how did you kill one of those things anyway? The fire barely seemed to do anything... This Fay girl really wasn't helpful in the slightest, either. I just had to trust that I'd finally get answers to my questions when we reached the city.

Danae

The Fay stayed silent for a long time, glancing back every now and then with uneasy eyes as we flew. I myself was simply focused just on the flying. It seemed to me that instead of getting better as I flew I was getting worse, fatigue starting to over take me. Eventually though the girl seemed to relax slightly, gesturing to a fuzzy shape in the distance, lit by hundreds of lamps.

"We've almost made it." She whispered, as if anything louder would call the starlighter to us. "Just abbot further."

Peter

Ah...thank goodness. My wings were getting really tired. I wondered how many other new Fay had to last through a race against a starlighter and time itself on their first days. But at least I had the experience now... I certainly wasn't a complete novice on my wings anymore. In fact, I was already starting to feel pretty used to having them. The concept of having them itself still had a slightly mystifying quality, but that was another story.

Danae

The closer we got to the city the more tired I seemed to become. There are now words to describe my relief when the girl finally started to go down, having reached the gates.

They stood about three times my height, but that's not saying much. What made us have to stop though is the fact that the gates went straight up to combine with the top of the entrance to a stone cave. The bars weren't exactly metal though, I could tell this from about twenty feet away. Each one was white, and hung tightly. They were coated with grime, almost as if they were sticky.

Without saying a word to us the fay walked up to the gate, tossing her long hair away from her eyes, which I now saw were silver.

"Open up, its Devika moron. Not some freaking starlighter."

Everything was quiet for a moment, then the gates slowly crept open.

"It's about time." A male voice grumbled form inside. We had orders to wait thi-," The guy cut off as he stepped out, his eyes locking on me and Peter.

"What in the name of the lady....?"

Peter

Those gates...were they made of spider silk? Actually, that kind of made sense. Spider silk had incredible strength, especially to people our size. If you made a rope out of it, it would be stronger than a steel cable. That is to say, no one was getting through those gates.

Then some Fay guy stepped through. Almost right away, his eyes went straight to Danae and me.

"Er, is...something wrong?" I asked.

Danae

Deciding to keep quiet I just nodded my agreement to Peter's question, curiosity burning away at me.

The guy stared at us for a moment, shock registering on the fay's face. His dark green, almost black wings spread out behind him as he stared at us, not saying a word. Finally the girl, who's name was Devika I guess, going on what she said, let out a low growl and smacked the guy's shoulder.

"Are you just going to stare at them like a buffoon or are you going to answer the freaking newbies question?"

The guy shook his head, staring at us for a moment more before finding his voice. "You're....new."

Peter

"Er, yeah..." I started. "We, um, just got here earlier today... Is...that a problem?"

What was with this guy? Maybe he hadn't seen a lot of new people. Maybe there weren't too many new people to be seen. I had no idea. Of course, I would have known stuff like this if a certain Fay girl had bothered to explain any of it...

Devika

I rolled my eyes, glaring at all of them with unmet annoyance.

"Okay, here's the deal. I'm going to say all of this only one time, so you better get it now, all of you."

Taking a deep breath I gathered my thoughts, crossing my arms as I did.

"Okay, you die and are reborn as a Fay. You two found me on my way back to the city cause as you saw, you don't want to get caught outside the gates in the dark. Logan here is surprised because next to you, there is only one other fat that is new enough that her light still glows. And she stay away from the city with her soulmate. Now that you're here, I'm going to let Logan take you to the council while I, get some well deserved rest. It ain't my job to be watching over newbies all day, and I honestly hate it. So, welcome to our world, blah blah blah, hope to see you all when you are such newbs."

And with that, I walked though the gates, planning on never seeing another newbie again. Of course, I would be okay if it were Astrina, her I can deal with.

Danae


Wow...just..wow.

"She's pretty rude.." I muttered after a moment, staring at where Devika had disappeared.

"Yeah," Logan grumbled, still looking at Peter and I with a bit of shock. "She..hasn't had the best times around people. Pretty jaded that one."

He finally looked away from us and at the gate, furrowing his eyes in annoyance.

"I can't take you to the council, I have to stand watch...Wait, I got it. Rhiannon!"

At his call a small girl appeared in the gate way, only looking at us for a second before turning her adoring eyes to Logan. "Yes?"

"Take these two to the council will ya?" He asked, holding out his hand with a smile.

Rhiannon took it, glancing at us once more and giving a small nod as her skin took on a violet light, or maybe it was just the markings on her skin. "Of course."

Peter

I made a mental note to avoid Devika as much as humanly possible. Or...Fay-ly possible. She really wasn't a pleasant person. But this Rhiannon girl seemed nice already. I saw that when she touched Logan's hand, her markings glowed. Pretty much confirmed the idea that Fay glowed when they made contact with each other.

Danae

Rhiannon smiled at us for a moment before looking at her and Logan's intertwined hands with a bit of wistfulness.

"I'll take them now, when's you're shift over?" She murmured, and I couldn't help but wonder if I was spose to hear her.

"In an hour, I'll stop and buy what we need before coming home. Shouldn't take long at all." Logan replied, slowly letting go of her hand.

Rhiannon nodded, stepping away from him and looking to us, increasing her already radiant smile even more. "Follow me please, and try to keep together, we wouldn't want you getting separated."

She turned, taking a few steps before glancing back at us, smile still in place. "Best hurry, too many people out here could attract a zemma, or a bugger. Wouldn't want that one bit."

With those words said she started inside. Taking a deep breath, I offered a smile to Peter and followed her.

Peter

I gave a sort of half-smile back and headed inside. Rhiannon mentioned something about zemmas and buggers...

"Er, what are those, exactly?" I asked. "Um, if you wouldn't mind explaining... Devika didn't really get into detail about much of anything."

Danae

She nodded, glancing over her shoulder at us as if to make sure we were keeping up as she led us through a dark tunnel, stone on all sides.

"Buggers are mixes of human bugs in a way. Only most of them have some kind of mutation, such as the Spider-Fire Ant one, or as we call it, A spire. It has the features of a spider, and an ant, but it can't be set on fire and neither can its web. They are surprisingly smart, most spider buggers are. Alot of the buggers you'll find though are incredibly stupid. "

She paused, as if giving us a moment to take that all in. Honestly, I had no idea what to think of that. I mean.. it wasn't totally unbelievable considering that starlighter thing we'd seen .. but still....

After a moment Rhiannon shot back another smile, tucking her red pony tail over hers shoulder before continuing. The tunnel seemed to be getting lighter, perhaps we were nearing the end.

"Zemma's are the first form of the starlighters. You could compare them to a caterpillar, the starlighters to a butterfly. Not much to say about them, except the starlighters only come out at night. In daytime they look just like you an' me, except their wings are completely black with the faint outlines of stars," She paused for a moment, as if thinking. "Their eyes are black also.

"No need to worry about zemmas, they may be kinda smart, but they're grounded. All a smart Fay has to do is take to the sky, getting out of the range of the zemma. Just make sure you're not surprised and most likely you wont' have an issue with them. The most trouble comes with the dark, when they cry, the starlighters will come. Starlighters are deadly."

With those enlightening words she smiled, pausing at a dark screen. Underneath it I could see light seeping in, like doorway almost. Rhiannon grabbed the edge of it and tugged, slowly pulling the door away from the stone.

"Here ya go, welcome to the city."

Dozens of lanterns lit up the scene before me, which consisted of an almost deserted street lined with what might have been houses or little shops. A few Fay stood here and there, chatting among themselves and casting uneasy looks at the doorway we were in.

"The gate is secure," Rhiannon muttered. "But not many trust that anymore."

Ignoring the stares of the few who were here to notice us, she started down the street.

"Come on, the council is probably almost done with their meeting."

Peter

Ah...knowledge. Wonderful information. I felt like I was finally getting out of this confused darkness... I never liked to be confused.

The council... I wondered what they were like. How would we be received? And what would they do afterwards? I figured that the only thing I could do was to follow Rhiannon and see.

Danae

Rhiannon led us through the streets, never once seeming to notice the stares as she kept up a light chatter, explain what the stores where, and who owned them.

Eventually we came to a building that stood taller than the others, it's exact color was hard to make out in the lighting but I guessed it to be white and gold, maybe some black in there too. Rhiannon did stop for long, just enough to tell us that was the council building then to walk up to the door.

"I can only tell them about you, most likely they'll send me away afterwards. So I'd like to wish you good luck." As she finishes talking she paused, looking ay both of us before leaning forward quickly and pulling us into a hug.

Really not wanting to hurt the her feelsings I just kinda stiffened, but didn't pull away.

Her light didn't light up.......

Peter

I stiffened in surprise at the hug...which is generally what I do when pretty much anyone hugs me. Like a knee-jerk reaction. Both Danae's light and mine lit up with the contact, as expected.

Rhiannon's...didn't.

"Your light..." I started. "Don't Fay's markings light up when they touch?"

Danae

Rhiannon opened her mouth to say something, grinning at us like she had some secret to tell us, when a shout came from down the road.

"Rhia! " Sh turned quickly and grinned instead at Logan who was waiting down the road. "Got an invitation to Owen's house, do you want to come with me?"

Releasing us suddenly she stepped back, her wings fluttering like made. "I'd love to! Wait a second." She called put before turning back to us. "Sorry, have to go. Talk to you later hopefully. "

Not waiting a second she hurried off, hrabbing Logan's hand and starting down the road, her light bright once again.

"That was...interesting. "I grumbled, glancing at Peter."Now what..."

Peter

"I guess we go in," I answered. "...You saw that, right? Her light wasn't glowing, and then it was. ...What do you think that means?"

Maybe it only worked for two at a time...? No, that sounded dumb. Why would it be that? ...But then, what was it?

Danae

I shookbmy head, examining the door before us with interest. "I have no clue, maybe..friendship or somthin'? " That sounded so stupid but..yeah.

Putting out my hand I grabbed the door handle and bit my lip before pulling it open. Inside there sat a dark hall, lit by the same lanturns as the streets were.

"Well, here goes nothing." I muttered, walking in and heading towards the voice"

Peter

"Yeah..." I walked in after her.

Friendship? I supposed that made sense... After all, Danae and I were great friends. And Rhiannon and Logan seemed to be more than friends. So maybe it really was a sign of a strong relationship?

Danae

I paused in front of a large wooden door, the door in the hallway as far as I could tell. A low rumble of voices drifted from inside the room and I hesitated, glancing at Peter then grabbing the door knob.

"Let's hope the council isn't a group of messed up homicidal maniacs." I grumbled, pulling it open and wincing at the sudden amount of light that flooded into the hall.

The doorway was framed by two large walls, that I could tell doubled as staircases. Down the small entry was what seemed to be a large arena. In the center sat three chairs, two of which held a fay. The center one was larger than the others, and empty.

Taking a deep breath I started forwards, a hush coming over all the Fay as the ones in the center spotted us. They were quiet for a long time, eyes trained on Peter and I, and out lights. Then finally, one of them spoke.

"Who are you?"

Peter

"Erm...I'm Peter, and this is Danae," I said. "...We're new..."

The council was pretty intimidating...which was sort of what I expected from a Fay council. Why were councils always so intimidating? There were never any pleasant people who sat in a well-lit room and smiled at you when you entered. What was the reason for that? Was there just some sort of unspoken law I'd never caught?

Danae

One of the Fay, an older man, stood, gesturing for the man on the other of the big chair to follow suit. Studying us, they started forwards with intelligent, but unreadable expressions.

"New?" Muttered the first, his dark, smokey gray eyes starting to make me uncomfortable. "Interesting indeed."

"That's twice in a year Lawson. Perhaps it is ending." Offered the other, his eyes a normal shade of brown.

Lawson shook his head, stopping a few feet before us. "No, this isn't the end, you can bet on that. I believe it is only the beginning of a new plan."

"They must be from the White Lady."

"Or the dark lady."

At that they both were silent, staring at us once again. Several moments passed, without a word being spoken.

"...Look," I finally said, breaking the quiet. "We're tired, and hungry, and really just want to relax. We don't have any freaking answers to these stupid questions, how about just telling us where to go. After that you can chat all freaking night if you want to."

They Fay just stared at me.

Well. Perhaps that hadn't been the best approach.

Peter

"Danae..." I said quietly, surprised by her rude forwardness. Then I turned to the council members. "It's true that we're weary, and lacking of answers. If we knew what to tell you, we would."

Should I tell them that we weren't friends of the Dark Lady? That would raise suspicion on how we knew her...