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Moth
Ari sounded like he didn’t care about making friends, or at least, didn’t want to. But as he absently looked around the room, he didn’t look half as abrasive as before.
Moth got up and started unpacking the few boxes next to his sleeping bag. He found more packaged food. “You like archery? Are you any good?”
He broke bread in half, poured honey over each piece, sat back next to Ari, and handed him one.
…
Ari
Breaf and honey. His mouth curved up despite himself. He took the food.
“I don’t think so, or at least…”
At least, not compared to the legends of his dead cousins.
“… Not yet.”
His fingers burned at the remembered thrum of wood, sinew, and feather singing from shot and shot. He shoved a bite of bread into his mouth to distract himself.
“This is good. Thank you.”
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
Moth
Moth gave Ari a slow, bright-eyed smile. Then his brows knitted together and he melted back into his normal, dead serious expression. He sucked the honey from his fingers. “I’m sure you’ll be a great archer. What else do you intend to get good at?”
…
Ari
This fairie King liked asking questions.
“Well, I…” He paused. What was left? His half-brothers were good at everything that mattered–warriors, diplomats, judges– “Haven’t really thought about it. What do you like to do?”
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
Moth
Most of the things Moth liked to do were difficult to explain. They were so specific to his own life, that some of his pastimes didn’t have names.
He stuffed the last bit of bread crust in his mouth. “I like going on adventures and telling stories.”
…
Ellis
“Oh, that’s a bit difficult to answer.” Ellis leaned back and looked up at the sky as he thought. When he finally spoke again, his voice was distant, lost in the memory of a dream. “I remember… flying. Or falling; I couldn’t tell. A wall of stone bricks was about a foot away from my face, speeding past me in a grey blur. I looked down… or up, and there was a large cloud of smoke or dust pluming out, and in its center was a deep red glow. I heard a girl scream something in pure rage and… that was it.” He smiled crookedly, his eyes focusing back in on reality. “Our interpreters couldn’t make heads or tails of that one.”
Any paint can be finger paint if you don't care enough
Ahhhhh it atenmy reply.
Ari
Adventures…in his world those usually included being tied up or locked in a closet. Or that’s what his brother’s called it. He had a feeling that wasn’t the type Moth was thinking about.
He licked the honey off his fingers, considering. Not much light filtered through the small square in the roof. Not even a glimpse of the night sky was visible. Just fog.
He should break curfew more often and more for the sight of the stars than the amusement of annoying the staff.
“What sort of stories?”
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
Adventures…in his world those usually included being tied up or locked in a closet.
Ari… Are you ok?
Moth
“That’s what my adventures are for. To make the stories. But a lot of the stories are those I collect from the earth, and from my subjects.”
That gave him an idea. He gazed up at the open, foggy skylight, as tendrils of mist drifted in. “Would you like to help me collect a story?”
…
Ari… Are you ok?
Eh….XD I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
Ari
Collecting stories. He followed Moth’s gaze up to the hole in the roof. Here he was, sitting on another boy’s floor, talking about stories like they were something you could gather up in a box.
Maybe they were. Maybe you could.
“I suppose I wouldn’t mind. How do you collect stories?”
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
Eh….XD I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
I’m worried for this boy. Clearly being a prince has caused him much turmoil.
Moth
“I’ll show you.” Moth got up, dusting off his legs, which only brushed off some scales and made more dust.
He pulled a wooden stob and rod out of a box. The stob was full of lumps and grooves, and he expertly twisted it around in his hand like a baton. “Meet me outside. Behind the academy. But… Well. If you don’t want to risk staying out past curfew, best not to come.”
He put a hand on the wall and crawled back up to the window. When he was halfway through it, he paused, and tilted his head to look down at Ari. “Are you… particularly squeamish?”
…
If it helps, he does eventually figure things out and have a relatively happy life.
Ari
Squeamish? He hesitated a moment, considering what that was supposed to mean. He’d hunted and cleaned deer, helped in the stables, and patched up uncountable injuries of his own. He’d even helped burry a few of his father’s political enemies, as unappealing as that had been.
But he had nearly lost his stomach when his little brother broke an arm. Surely one occasion of weakness didn’t count against him. The kid had been five years old and himself only sixteen.
He stood up, already plotting his way out of his bedroom window.
“Not typically. And nobody’s enforcing my curfew with magic lines around the door.”
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
If it helps, he does eventually figure things out and have a relatively happy life.
Ok, good. I’m glad he gets a balance of good and bad experiences.
Moth
“Good.” Moth was outside the window now, and he faced Ari through it, a cool wind flicking its ghostly fingers through his hair.
He gave the human boy a last nod before he stood up on the roof, and walked away from the skylight.
The window was too easy to leave through. The school would realize, and they would send the servant to draw another spell on the ceiling. Moth was sure of that. He might as well abuse the loophole while he could.
Clouds swirled in the sky. Dark spires rose out of the rooftop, built out of the many towers in the giant structure. Moth skirted around them, traveling over hills and slopes with ease. It was funny to imagine all the people underneath his feet, through the roof, talking or walking or sleeping, unaware of the unexplored lands above them.
When Moth reached the back of the academy, and the edge of the roof, he took hold of the edge and dropped off. Hand under hand, using window ledges and the beautifully detailed architecture, he easily climbed down to the ground. He sat down to wait for his new friend.
The earth was moist, softened in the evening mist. Perfect.
…
XD
Ari
Moth disappeared through the roof in a last swirl of gold and dust. Silence settled in the shadows.
He hadn’t realized how much the bright younger boy had chased those shadows away. At least for a little while. Ari turned his back on the darkened room.
Time to break curfew. Again. The stairs creaked under his feet as he wound his way back to the fairy’s room. He paused with a hand on the door latch, listening to the sounds from the hall. There weren’t many.
The door gave surprisingly little protest as he slid past. A dim lamp glittered at the end of the hall. Murmers drifted from behind closed doors. Ari slipped across the hall and into his own room.
Evening cast the place in a dim echo of dark wood floors and furniture. A light burned in another room leaving an outline of the doorway. He ignored it in favor of a curtain smothered window.
He had always loved climbing. Most boys do. This was a particularly thrilling sort of climbing: the forbidden. Hands gripping the sill, he swung out the window.
There were security guards who watched the grounds, but Ari was already well familiar with their routes. Just the same, he took a moment hanging from the window to find the nearest beat.
Then it was a matter of swapping footholds and handholds while hoping not to fall.
Physician visits were dreadfully embarrassing.
Almost there.
His feet landed on solid ground. Specifically the dry mulch behind a row of hedges. He crouched a bit behind the cover as he walked. No reason to get caught right now.
A few lights still flickered in windows–especially bedrooms–and their glow cast enough shadows to hide his movement. Ari felt his heartbeat calm. He looked up at the thin wisps of fog drifting over the roof. Glimmers of moonlight lit them up. Ari straightened unconsciously.
By the time he’d rounded the last corner and spotted Moth, he was practically strolling.
A cup of tea is cheaper than therapy.
Moth
Not much time passed before a familiar, dark-headed boy appeared around the corner.
“Ari! I don’t know if we’re meant to be this far outside at night.” Moth pointed towards the greater expanse of land, hedges and small trees making up most of it. “We have to go farther.”
They walked casually through the dark, grassy grounds. Ari had longer legs, while Moth had energy enviable in anyone’s eyes, and the two of them traveled at the same pace.
The mist laid a silvery sheen ahead of them, sloping with the land. Dewdrops glistened under their feet and left footprints behind them.
After a somewhat long time – ten minutes or so – they stopped and turned around.
The academy was a black silhouette in the distance, far enough away that it didn’t look so giant anymore. Bugs chirped, and the wind carried nothing but gentle night sounds.
Moth turned on Ari. His eyes, normally dark, had an unnatural glimmer, like that of a ghost light in an abandoned cave. He grinned. “Humans will always choose to follow the faerie into the woods. They really never learn, do they?”
…
Callum
“Huh.” Callum felt just as confused as Ellis had to feel. “It sounds like a crazy dream. I hope it’s not perfectly replicating what’s going to happen.”
He stumbled over the last couple words and lapsed into silence. The gold rings in his hair clinked together as he bowed his head. He stared at his hands, then at the ground to the left of his feet. It took a moment to realize that was where Euphemia normally was.
The silence grew too long.
The idea of saying something – anything – was like a burning prong in Callum’s head. It had to happen, but what was there to say? Ellis probably thought this was the worst way to spend his time on the first day. Sitting outside with the nervous, fainting kid who needed someone to look out for him.
If first impressions were important, then Callum was going to be in this same situation the entire year. If he was lucky. He might not even have someone to watch over him next time.
Finally, Callum spoke, his voice calm but breaking just a little. “I’m sorry, I… don’t talk much. I don’t know what to say to people.”
…
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