The Broken Words pt. 2

Author's note: THIS IS THE SECOND CHAPTER. A LINK TO THE FIRST CHAPTER IS IN MY COMMENTS

Talking to humans was forbidden for many reasons, the only exceptions were if you had authorization or you cloaked your true form, but even then it was discouraged. That rule made sense to me: I had enforced it for years and shunned those who pushed the boundaries. Yet I had broken it with one glance at Veera Flamesword. Her beauty in the moonlight was extraordinary and enchanted me more than any nymph or siren ever managed to. She somehow had a deeper understanding of the forest, and it called her to it. Our Leshys' enchantments should have pushed her away, yet she walked deeper than any human had walked. She with her cherry red hair, like one of my kind, yet so curiously human made me wonder about her blood line. If that were true, it would explain how she got so far into our land. Her thin form adorned with clothes of a Lady, yet she did not act like the usual higher class snob. She respected the ground she walked on and smiled as she did so; our forest was almost a playing ground for her. Her skin was much fairer than any human's I had seen in my 300 years. Her eyes the deepest moss green imaginable, and the way she first looked at me… I shivered remembering her gentle gaze, so curious.

Touching humans was thought to be an even greater offence to my people: it was one thing to look at filth; it was an entirely different crime to touch it. Humans cut down our forests, burned them, and ruined all that was beautiful and pure in their path. Yet I had to touch her, feel the way her dress fit to her form as I flew her to the edge of the wood. She was frightened as I flew: it amused and angered me. Did she really think I would drop her? Or was she so repulsed by my proud linage that she could not stand touching me? I broke our rule once more as I not only bowed in respect, but kissed her hand delicately. Her taste matched nothing else I knew: sweeter than honey yet salty with the tang of her attitude. Her fear held her still as I took my leave. I flew a deep into the forest, landing where I had encountered her first. The cape she wore still on the flat stone she had placed it on. I touched the fabric gently; it was still warm in the center and smelled of the human… Veera… I shook my head. No, I told myself, she was a human. Calling her by name would cause attachment to her. I sighed as I held the cloak in my arms, taking secret, small whiffs of her scent as I walked through the forest to my tree. The knot in the wood glowed as I touched it and it allowed entry into my home. Once inside I sighed with relief: Home was the one place I could think freely without worrying about others intruding on my thoughts. My body yearned for sleep, but instead I paced. I pondered about telling Sheyn of this human who caused me such grief. He would want to know. I sighed, promising myself that in the morning I would tell him as I crawled into bed with Veera's smell on me. But the way I thought of her kept sleep at bay. What would it be like to touch her again, but this time without her shuttering at me? What would it be like to welcome her into the forest as a long lost fey?

Holding tightly to the cloak I headed for Sheyn's: Sheyn lived deeper in the forest for my liking, but since he ran his pub from within it was only practical that he lived in our city's limits. Our city was nothing like the humans'; it had no cobblestone streets or animals that we enslaved. Moss covered paths where our roads, trees formed our buildings in agreement that we would protect them. Sheyn's pub had been in the forest longer than anything else: his great-grandmother had made treaty with the trees and since then the fey have lived around it. I walked down the grey moss ground; the blue, moon-like glow came from every business and every home, flooding the moss with never ending light. Except one establishment, there found the soft amber glow leaking from the entrance. Sheyn's pub was lit by fire, never light energy like other fey would have preferred, but then again the other fey didn't understand tradition the way Sheyn did. I stepped into the pub and paused like I always did to take a whiff. To me, the rough wood and ashy ale smelled like home. I remembered many years of living in his pub instead of my own home; drinking until I was sober again, and then drinking more. The pub was empty as I entered despite the time. Sheyn looked at me from the bar as he washed a large stein.
"You seem merry." Sheyn arched his elegant brow. His chiseled features stared at me for a moment, the rest of the room blurred into an aura of gold around him. "You should tell me why." He said, his voice like wind chimes: light and simple. I could have sworn the air glittered as he breathed.
"You seem like an elf waiting to get a beating." I replied sternly, "Stop trying to work your seduction crap with me when you know it doesn't work." He laughed a little as the room returned to normal. I sat at the bar, placing the cloak on the bar as I began telling Sheyn about my encounter.

"She looked at the forest like-." I paused as a Leshy walked in his hooves clicked on the floor. I recognized him by his scar though I had only seen him once before; he was our forest's protector: Lord Bartl.
"Jerkum." The Lord muttered through his beard of vines and grass. Sheyn gave him a nod and walked to the back to retrieve the wine.
"How are you, my good Lord?" I asked him. He looked at me with his old, tired eyes and glowered at me. I contemplated what he would do if he found out my 'mishap' with the human: probably what they always did to misbehaving fey –torture. I sat silently, trying to memorize the folds of Veera's cloak as he stood still scowling at me.
"There you are my Lord." Sheyn said placing the bottle on the bar as he reached for a glass. Lord Bartl grabbed the wine bottle from the bar eagerly and sat in the corner, taking large swigs of it at a time. I imagined he was drinking out of grief of letting a human so far into his forest. I couldn't help but smirk as I thought of Veera and how extraordinary she was. Sheyn stared at me with shock.
"Smiling is actually possible for you." He whispered in false awe. I rolled my eyes, silently praying that one day he would learn he was not as funny as he thought.
"We will talk more, later." I promised him as I stood.
"Where are you going, lover boy?" Sheyn asked, teasing me. I shot Sheyn a glare that could have killed.
"Out." I said simply as I grabbed Veera's cloak.

To talk to a human, to bow to a human, to touch a human… And now to stand in that human's bedroom and watch her sleep. What was wrong with me?