The wind was hissing against the figures that sprinted through the night. One of them was a ten-year old boy with light hair, wearing a silver coat. He sat on top of a horse made of iron with flames coming out of its nostrils. The second figure was a young man, dressed all in black that suited his horse which had pointed ears and seemed a little bit more normal than the one of his competitor.
"Come on, this time we have to win!", the blond boy whooped to his robotic horse which reacted in speeding up with a unantural roar. The ground under its heavy body shook slightly and soon the pair was head to head with the black team.
The man gave the boy a little smile, then he made a clicking sound with his tongue and the stallion he sat on overtook again. Muttering a curse the lighter figure tried to encourage his iron horse even more, but only got exhausted panting as an answer when he put his weight the same way as his rival did.
With a whine, the black horse signalled that the finish line was near and both riders tensed their muscles on the last metres, the black ones silent as the night was before their race had begun, the other one calling and bagging his animal to get faster.
Way ahead of the blond boy, the black-haired man finished first, chuckling.
"You have to be calmer. If you only shout and demand, your horse will be under too much pressure.", he teached the loser while jumping off his horse.
The response was given with a frustrated sigh:" Yeah, but he is so lazy! How else can I make him go faster? I don't know my horse as long as you do yours, Dad."
With an offended sniff, the metallic creature complained under the boy and stumped one hoof hard on the ground.
"You know, you'll never be more successful by offending your allies. What you say is right, Keirran, I even made a deal with Mab to get Zaptir into the wyldwood's iron faerie camp, but if you try to learn to understand Xaxeen more, he might become as important to you."
Eventually the dark man took a bright red fruit out of his saddle pocket and offered it to the faerie horse, then he brushed off leafs and sand from his fancy coat that had a white willow as a brooch. In the meanwhile Keirran attempted to get off Xaxeed too, the next moment he landed on his bottom because the annoyed animal had made a little jump and now spouted a loud, weird laugh-like noise. The boy gave him the evil eye, then looked around curiously, because his father never rode this far away with him.
"Why did you bring me here? I know you want me to improve as a rider and you never miss a chance to go into the wyldwood-", Keirran gave his father, Ash, a questioning look ,"-but we never had such a long trip. Mom doesn't usually allow any "dangerous" journeys, as she says, also because you're so important in our court. Why did she approve of this?"
The prince consort looked at his son in a mystifying way, something in his silver eyes showed Keirran that this was important.
"This is a place I connect with a very significant story. A story that will hopefully teach you a lot. Your mother thought that too."
After giving Zaptir a pat, Ash slowly walked to the entrance of a cave and his son followed him silently, looking back to the horses one more time before he entered the darkness.
In the first moment his partly human, partly faerie eyes couldn't recognize anything but blackness. His father seemed to have melted into the scenery, something that happened at dark places annoyingly often. Keirran wished to be that cool too one day. A few seconds later he could see Ash moving and then they didn't speak at all for a while.
The blond wondered what story was so very important for him to hear and to cause this journey. It was exiting but also surprising because it wasn't allowed for Keirran at all to leave the court yet and still he managed to sneak out from time to time, a boy gotta see the world. Eventually they had very uncomfortable conversations with him and grounded him plus making clear that he wouldn't see any of the wyldwood for some time.
"When will you and mom allow me to make trips on my own? The iron court alone is too boring for me, why do we never visit mom's family?", Keirran mumbled lost in his thoughts and suddenly he felt the place getting cold. Ash always brought this effect with him, if something was really wrong, but why did he get so tense by the question?
"Don't ask about them again, okay? It is against Meghan's and my will for you to get involved with them.", his father explained sternly and the blue eyes of the boy widened by the chill that went down his spine.
"So they are not worth to be known? Did they do something terrible?", he demanded to know, but by the simple way Ash gestured him off, the iron prince fell silent again.
Just when he thought the quietness was getting boring, a light in front of them caught their attention. Through a hole in the wall a little lightbeam fell into a wide, high room. A huge skeleton, which was covered in ice blue flowers, was lying in the middle. It were the leftovers of a wyvern. Keirran had learned about those dragons that were purely deadly with their poison tails. His father always talked about them in a hateful manner. Now it seemed like he would find out about the reason.
"What has happened here, father?"
His voice showed his fascination of the giant bones and the thought of how this creature might had looked like alive.
The voice of Ash sounded far away and was so silent that Keirran had to give his full attention to his father to not miss something.
"Well,Puck, me and...a girl were having a race once and ended up here. The wyvern surprised us and on that very day something happened that would decide the fate of the whole Nevernever."
"You killed this?" That's pretty cool! It surely was hard, but how did this fight decide the fate of whole faerie?"
Pain showed itself in Ash's eyes and he touched one of the flowers softly, then he slowly went on:" The girl, Ariella was her name, was poisoned by the wyvern. We thought she died and I blamed Puck for leading us here. I made an oath to Ariella while she became weaker and weaker, that I would kill Puck for what he had done. She was my first love before I met your mom. Puck and I fought each other for years, centuries. Whenever I had the chance to actually fulfill my oath I let him get away. I just couldn't do it, not even when I was numb. A part of me still saw my best friend in him and one day I chased him and Meghan through the wyldwood, not knowing who I was having in front of me when it came to her. She met me again at the Elysium and awoke a part of my I thought was dead. I helped her going on a quest and had to fight side by side with Puck again. We were rivals, because we both fancied her, but at the same time we were getting closer. When your mom became the iron queen she was out of my reach."
Prosessing all this information, Keirran observed his father who was always so unbreakable, but these memories made him look vulnerable. He always heard little pieces of his parents story, but this was the first time he ever heard it fully with the fact in the background that it had an impact on all fey life.
"What did you do to be with her? How could you turn immune to iron exactly?", he asked with excitement and taken away by the story. This was the best trip ever!
Amused by his son's interest and enthusiasm, the prince consort went on:" I know that becoming mortal would be a way, so I searched for a way to be turned human. Puck joined me on the quest, partly because he really wanted to know if I could succeed, partly because he had nothing to do since he had no chance in being with Meghan too. For a short time he had my life in his hands and could have easily taken advantage of it. He could have gotten his love and me killed, but he didn't. This journey changed us. Later we found out together that Ariella was actually alive."
He paused, giving his son time to swallow all the things he just heard. Deep in thought, Keirran realized that he always had the impression that Puck looked at his mother the way his father did too. It was strange for him, imagining his mom with the man he saw as kind of uncle. If Puck would have succeeded in being with Meghan, Keirran wouldn't exist. On the other hand this girl named Ariella could have changed the mind of his father too.
"How was Ariella still alive? And why didn't she tell you and Puck all these years?"
"She was a seer and the Nevernever chose her to stop a prophecy from happening. She couldn't see us, because that would have taken away the chance of us meeting Meghan who had to save the Nevernever from the iron impact and if I would have been with Ari – her nickname- I would have turned into a merciless unseelie king, the worst ruler the Nevernever would have ever known. I would have become numb again, because Meghan is the one I truly love, not Ari. In the end I would have killed Puck and out of her sadness, Meghan would have taken my life in exchange. Ari would have been the victim of her own envy. So when we met her she was too afraid of the possible future. We went together to the end of the world and had to stand against our own demons. In the end Ariella Tularyn gave her life to give me a soul. Puck and I were at good terms again and I could return to your mother."
The silence in the cave held on for a long time, Ash having a broody look on his face and Keirran thinking about the powerful story of his parents. Their love conquered everything, they were ready to give all they had and in the end they made it. Keirran guessed that was the lesson he had to learn: Never give up on your love.