Becoming Fae

Blaine

I used to think Fae was being childish when she ran away to find a Null. I thought she was being stubborn and foolish, but now... Now, I understood why. I still wasn’t sure I agreed with her choices back then, but I understood why she made them, why they were so appealing, and why she felt like there was no other choice.

I was in charge of not just a few hellhounds or a pack, but all hellhounds. Every single one of them bowed to me as their alpha, regardless of if they were bound or not. Even my own father submitted to me when he and Mom came for...

I shook off the sadness and focused on the task at hand.

Hunting.

The woods where we had relocated were on the verge of being overpopulated with prey animals. The foxes were able to hunt the smaller game, like rabbits, but there were so many others that couldn’t hunt, we needed larger game. So, the hounds that weren’t too keen on being underground like the others were tasked with hunting. It allowed them freedom to run and benefitted the rest of the community by providing us with food.

I had decided to join them today because it felt like all I was doing lately was solving problems that were, in my opinion, petty. It was tedious, tiring, annoying work that I was quickly losing my patience with, so I chose to run it off.

I could have had a more active role in this particular hunting party, but they were all seasoned hounds who hardly failed to bring in at least three deer a day. So, I remained in the back, letting them work together and not interrupting the way they worked together. It was fine by me. I was just glad to get the heck out of the tunnels for a few hours.

They were something to watch, too. Hellhounds were, in theory, capable of camouflage while hunting, but I’d never seen it before, and my father never said anything about it. Considering that it was a skill only bound hounds could use, it made since why he didn’t say anything.

The camouflage wasn’t perfect in the daylight, since it was more of a distortion than real camouflage. Kind of like how Predator looked in the movies. You could tell something was there if you looked hard enough and it was more evident when he moved. It also explained why most hounds collected souls for their masters at night, because in the darkness, they would be nearly invisible.

In no time at all, they took down two deer and the rest of the herd scattered, leaving us to shift back to two legs, something many of the newer hounds from Gluttony weren’t fond of doing.

“The herds are getting smaller and farther away,” the group's leader, a man named Orvak said.

“Our presence wasn’t going to go unnoticed to the wildlife for long,” I nodded, taking the pair of shorts that was offered to me. “We were fortunate that the area was overpopulated.”

“We’ll need to source meat elsewhere soon,” he nodded as the others quickly cut down a few saplings and lashed the deer to them to be carried back. “Winter is near enough that the hunting will slow anyhow.”

“The queen has already been looking into a more permanent solution,” I replied. “Many of the demons that came from the Houses were farmers or something of the type.”

“Farming takes time,” Orvak said.

“It does,” I nodded as we all began returning to the camp above the tunnels.

“Time in which we’ll start feeling the pangs of hunger more than we already do,” he said.

“I am aware. The queen is doing what she can with what we have available to us right now,” I said.

“Not entirely,” he snorted. “There are hundreds of hounds here now. More than we know what to do with and many of them are young. Eager to be of help, yet bored to tears at patrol work, hunting parties, or digging tunnels.”

“What are you suggesting?” I looked at him, knowing him well enough to know he was hinting at something.

“You’ve spent a large amount of time on Earth, yes?”

“That’s right,” I nodded.

“Ever heard of dog sledding?”

-----

Ben

Glitter was annoyingly useful.

Because he was favored by the queen, he was basically put in charge of the other imps, by the other imps. He was disgustingly good at it, organizing them into groups that rotated jobs. When Blaine came to me with his insane idea, we immediately went to Glitter to see if such a thing could even be done. Once he assured us that it was possible, we went to Naz and Rollie.

The idea was easy enough. Since the Sidhe was proving to be against us, we could use the imps to teleport us where it would be easier to get what we needed. Hunting, shopping, building materials, anything we needed. Then, the hounds would pull sleds and sleighs to transport it all. The only problem was that hounds weren’t really great in crowds and many of them had lived their whole lives bound to a master, few of which could be called kind. PTSD wasn’t exclusive to humans, after all.

“Foxes would be the least threatening to accompany the hounds,” Blaine said, grabbing the cut of venison off his plate and taking a bite of it.

“But they aren’t the best at fighting,” Rollie said, refilling his cup of water.

“No, but we’re good at diversion and getting out of a sticky situation,” I pointed out. “If they’re met with hostility, the teams would be insanely outnumbered and decimating an entire town will not help us in the future.”

“There is that,” he nodded.

“I think you have a point,” Naz said after a moment. “But it would be smart to have others that can fight go as well, just in case something happens.”

“The imps can always get us back in a flash,” I said.

“But that would risk bringing hostiles right to our door,” Rollie said.

“So, we pick a spot away from the camp to use as landing pad,” Blaine said.

We continued eating in silence for a moment before Rollie spoke up.

“That’s acceptable,” he said slowly. “Naz?”

“We’ll need to take precautions in case someone or something unwanted hitches a ride,” Naz pointed out. “Fae is far too active among the camp to risk having someone coming in to kill her again.”

“The people would get between her and anyone trying to hurt her,” Blaine laughed.

“They are unusually attached to her,” Naz nodded.

“She is their queen. What did you expect?” I snorted.

“Demons aren’t like that,” Rollie explained. “Loyalty only goes so far.”

“They respect her,” Blaine said.

“Something demons are also not well known for,” Rollie chuckled.

“Regardless, if we’re going to be teleporting in and out, we’ll still need to be able to make sure the camp remains protected,” Naz said. “Any ideas?”

-----

Fae

“This is humiliating,” I muttered as I laid under the net that had trapped both me and Mal as we flew towards the elven territory.

“Tell me about it,” Mal muttered. “My face is literally in your butt.”

“I thought you liked my butt,” I teased him.

“I like looking at it and I love grabbing it,” he said, and I yelped when I felt him bite me. “That’s also pretty fun. And remarkably comfortable as a pillow.”

“So why are you complaining?” I snorted. “Your foot is in my throat.”

“It’s a butt, Fae. I love you, but no one wants to be face first with a butt. Any butt,” he replied. “And I’m a fairy. I don’t exactly walk much.”

“It’s still a foot. I’d gladly take face-planting your butt over having a foot anywhere near my face,” I chuckled.

“Are you okay, though?” he asked.

“For the forty sixth time, I’m fine,” I smiled. “My wings broke my fall and they’re pretty sturdy.”

“Lucky they’re fluffy, too,” he muttered.

We sat there for a bit longer before I groaned and blew a raspberry.

“How long do you think they’ll leave us here?” I asked.

“If they were fairies, I’d say they would take as long as possible, but elves are a little different,” he replied. “I haven’t met many that didn’t have a stick up their butts, but that’s kind of expected, considering the circles my father was in. To be fair, I haven’t many to begin with, so there’s that to consider. Just... don’t offend them. Unlike fairies, the elves are more attuned to magic than just their elemental alignment.”

“Melina had it coming, the uppity crow snack,” I muttered.

There was a peal of laughter that had both of us looking for the source.

“Would it be too much to ask for you to come where at least one of us can see you?” I huffed after a moment. “Or perhaps remove the net? It’s a little on the unnecessary side.”

“You have weapons and no invitation. Pardon the caution,” a male said, dropping from a tree to land not far from me. “You come from Fairie.”

“Ugh. This again,” Mal groaned. “Look, I’m a fairy, but I hold no allegiance to them.”

“And where does it lie?” he asked.

“With her,” Mal patted the side of my leg. “My Bonded.”

“Um...I’m not sure which title to give you. Or which name, honestly,” I said after a second to remember the customary greetings of the elves.

“You have more than one name?” he laughed, leaning against a tree trunk.

“It’s a bit of a long story,” I sighed.

“Humor me.”

“You can get the summary,” I said flatly. “I was kidnapped and raised thinking one thing, found out something else, Awakened, and discovered an entirely new thing. Met a... I guess relative and learned something else, and now I’m here.”

The elf stared at me for a long moment before he blinked and shook his head.

“You know what? Whatever. I’ll just give you all of it and let you figure out what to do from there,” I rolled my eyes and Mal chuckled.

“Good, because that was confusing to me, and I was there,” he said.

“Queen Apparent Faella of the Demon Lands, princess of the Sidhe and Lord of the House of Immail. That’s just what I know of, but knowing my family, there could be an entire list I haven’t discovered yet,” I said. “I grew up as Fae, and I think at one point I was Hannah, but that’s silly because I do not look like I’m a ‘Hannah’.”

“I think he gets the point, my love,” Mal patted my leg again.

“Ah. So, you’re the new queen,” the elf smiled and waved his hand, lifting the net off of us.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I groaned as Mal flopped off me.

“We’ve been expecting you,” he said. “My father will be thrilled.”

“You’re being rude, you know,” I glared at him.

“I’m the crown prince. I can be rude if I chose to be so,” he smirked. “You are, after all, trespassing in my kingdom.”

“If you're the crown prince, that means it’s your fathers kingdom,” I pointed out.

“Fae,” Mal warned me.

The prince laughed and put his hand on the tree beside him. Right before my eyes, a door with a rounded top appeared, but it wasn’t a door. This shimmered, like looking at the bottom of a pool, and the image from the other side was not of the inside of the tree. It was a huge, open courtyard with a giant fountain as far as I could tell.

“After you,” the prince waved towards it.

“The heck is that?” I peered around the tree.

“A portal,” Mal said, pulling me up and walking us forward. “More or less.”

“Earthling terms, but simply, put, yes. A portal,” the prince nodded when we stopped right in front of the portal. “If it’s your first time, you’ll want to aim for the bushes.”

“Huh?” I said then gasped as he pushed me forward and through the portal.