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The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only.
The Dark Fae
Chapter 1
Hunters are Summoned
The sun was rolling along the ridge of the hills. The sky was darkening from fair blue to indigo. Evening had come down on the Land of the Fae and the moon was rising beyond the mountains, just tipping over the edge of the distant horizon. Sharp cold stars poked holes in the sky and below them the dark woods began to come alive.
A Hunter of the Unseelie court, by name Ólafr, rode his beast over the rolling hills. He was alone but was listening carefully to the hunting horns winding over the foothills. He lagged behind a train of Hunters who were following the tracks of a bear. It had come down from the mountains to search for easy prey. This was Hunter's work and so they had assembled.
Ólafr had fallen behind to tend to his mount. The creature had developed a limp. He had solved the problem quickly enough by removing a stone caught in the cloven hoof of his beast but the Hunt had gone on without him. His mount was not a horse but actually a breed of Fae Dragon with the head and the slim legs of a horse. The Hunters rode at the orders of the Unseelie Queen.
He was suspended between Hunt and Home while under the darkening sky the other Fae Hunters rode on in search of their quarry.
The day time animals had scurried to their hides at the setting of the sun and were safely hidden away in burrows and holes. High in the night sky flights of bats flitted below the face of the wispy clouds. The call of the cruising owls alerted the night animals to the dangers gliding above.
Along the edges of the hills and the face of the mountains the Unseelie caverns gaped open. The people who live under the hills emerged in the moonlight. They had been called to gather by their Queen. The Unseelie caverns glittered with the flicker of fireflies and the touch of cold moonlight. The dark clothing of the Fae were decorated with gleaming coins and jewels. These were the secret people, the Dark Fae. Their humor was bitter and cruel. No Trooping Fairies were they. Their souls, if souls they had, thirsted for solitude.
Ólafr was listening to the sounds of the hunting horns far away but he also heard the call of the Queen's horns behind him. Those horns commanded him as well as the Fae from under the hills. He was being summoned to a Queen's gathering in the woods deep in the valley and the sound hooked into his soul. He was trained to obey. The memory of his Fae mother demanded he obey while that of his Elf father stiff necked and proud, resented the hold the Queen had over his son.
But both Elf and Fae had heard the summons. Their Queen was calling for a gathering in the clearing in the wood. A giant fairy ring ruled the clearing, the product of a single organism. The fungus had been feeding and growing for years and was now more than ten meters in circumference. Here they would gather to hear the Queen's decree.
The Dark Fae moved like tendrils of smoke working their way between the trunks of the naked trees; there was only an occasional glint of gold or gems, reflecting the moonlight, to tell that there was truly something there. There was always something watching from the gloom under the trees; the shadow Fae, the Dark Ones.
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The Unseelie court was gathered, standing within the fairy ring that was often used for dancing. There's no dancing tonight. The Queen has yet to appear and every Fae is counting up their sins, looking for a reason for to fear the Queen's judgement. The Unseelie Queen is a feral bitch. She enjoys both real death and the illusion of death. Humans don't last long in her hands. She breaks them like a small child breaks its toys.
The Queen finally appeared, sitting high above her subjects on a boulder just outside the ring. She was pretending to be a teenage girl, dressed in sheer ragged clothes with her hair bound up in silvery ropes. Her bare feet hung down the face of the boulder. Her smiling lips disclosed sharp pointed teeth. Behind her were ranked her closest advisors; stony faced but still fair. The assemblage of Fae sparkled in the moonlight.
"One of my pets has run away." The queen smiled at the crowd. "Someone carelessly left a doorway open and now a Fae Goblin is snacking on humans I fear. " She scanned the crowd, her amethyst eyes pausing on each Fae in turn, searching for the careless one. They all knew the punishment would be swift and perhaps unbearable. The Queen never suffered fools to live. The best the guilty one could hope for would be banishment, something akin to death for a Fae.
"There are few rules imposed on you. One is to make sure that the Kingdom remains secure. If something can get out then something else can get in. We need no lost human children here. The humans will pursue us, the demons will follow, Heaven will remember its lost children and we all will suffer; all of this because of the carelessness of a single fool."
The assemblage shifted uneasily. Each looked askance at their neighbor. It was never easy being a Dark Fae. Beauty lived in the moonlight but fear also lurked in the Fae Caverns.
"I am going to summon our Hunters to go out into the human world to track my pet. If a Hunter can find and return the Goblin to me we will all take the incident as a timely reminder of the responsibilities of each individual. If the Hunters fail, we will need to prepare for incursions from the Human world and possible conflicts with the Light Fae."
She turned and two of her retinue lifted curling silver horns to their lips. The long mournful cry drifted outward. The cry was answered by the sounds of other horns far away.
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The sounds of horns and dogs grew ever closer and with pounding hoof beats a Hunter appeared. His mount was in the form of a horse with a spiky mane, sharply pointed cloven hooves and widely flaring nostrils, wreathed with smoke. The creature was blue-black with a deep black mane and tail. Its eyes were grass green. They were the only spot of color on the beast.
Its rider was just as strange. It was male, undeniably. The fragments of winding cloth he wore did little to hide the fact. He wore gloves to protect his hands from the reins and sat on a saddle made of leather that had been tanned blue. His long legs hung down the sides of the horse like creature with soft, flexible boots tanned blue like the saddle riding up to just under his knees. His bright hair was braided in small and numerous strands, forming a curtain to his shoulders. His eyes matched those of his horse, a brilliant grass green.
The Queen slid down the face of her rocky throne and walked to stand next to the Hunter. She ran a long finger down his naked thigh and scratched a symbol into his skin with her sharply pointed nail. The Hunter bowed his head and dismounted careful to leave his bow and quiver hanging from his mount's saddle. It is forbidden to be in reach of the Queen with a weapon in hand. Kneeling before the Queen he said nothing, keeping his eyes averted and the reins of his mount in a gloved hand. The Queen lifted his face by cupping her hand under his chin.
"Aren't you a pretty one, Hunter?" she whispered. "Perhaps I should keep you and let another go. What do you think of that?" She laughed at the ripple of fear that crossed his face. All the kingdom was aware of the short life span of the Queen's lovers. She was very fair and wildly beautiful but deep in her soul was the iron will that had enabled her to rise above all her siblings and become Queen. Succession in the Fae World was not a peaceful, formal process. More often than not the new ruler rose from the battle covered in the blood of their kin.
Still she held his face in her hand. "I see the Fae in you and also the Elf but there is something more, isn't there; perhaps a touch of the Picts? Maybe you are a good choice for the Hunt. Your people have held a grudge against the Human breed since the Romans drove your people from their homes and hounded them north of the rivers Forth and Clyde." She laughed again and dropped his head. He stayed kneeling waiting for her orders.
There was another arrival out of the East and a second Hunter mounted on a Fae Dragon appeared. This second Hunter was taller than the first and his mount was colored creamy white and gold. His dark hair was brushed up into a barbarian crest which continued down the back of his head to rest against a long, elegant neck. Grasping the situation quickly he also dismounted and knelt beside his beast.
"Good," the Queen laughed lightly. "Now we have two. I don't think I can choose between you." She lightly scraped those long nails over the first Hunter's shoulders. "I do like my men fair but…" She continued over to the second Hunter. "I also like them tall."
She returned to her woodland throne and held up her hand. One of her court still standing on top helped her climb the rock face back to her seat. She leaned back on her elbows and continued to let her eyes roam.
"What is your name, Hunter?" she addressed the second arrival.
"I am Volundr." The tall one replied.
Tiring of her game the Queen waved her hand. "Good. Ólafr and Volundr; good solid Elvish names. You are both to go the East door and enter the Human world. Go and find my wayward Goblin and return him to me."