Chapter One: Maeve
"I release you…"
King Irial had finally spoken the words she had longed to hear for thousands of years. Her freedom was no longer a longing but a fact. Maeve L'Eraenn was now a Solitary Faery to do things of her own accord. No longer did she have to fight for her survival in the Court of the Dark King as he watched just for amusement.
She had been human once. A Druid Priestess just finished with her training at the young age of eighteen. That was when she was stolen from her home and forced to be the dog of Irial a Dark Faery of the harshest kind. He would beat her, torture her, do anything in his power to hurt her in any way he could just for the fun of it. She had not aged since. At first she had felt out of place but with nowhere else to go and with Irial's magick binds so strong she had learned to call his Court home. As the times changed she had found ways to lose herself in the things that most comforted her. In Ancient times it was the taming of wild woodland creatures, when the Dark Ages came it had been the healing of the sick, in the Medieval Times it was singing, in the Victorian Era it had been horseback riding, but now in what was considered the Modern Age she had often lost herself in the works of Tolkien. When the Epic had been first published she was uncertain but once she read the first line she had been hooked. When times got to be their worst Maeve would fancy herself to be one of the Fellowhship. Pretend she was living with the Mirkwood Elves or the Rohirrim.
But, now she had nowhere to go and she loved it. Meave wanted to go back to the forests with her few but very personal belongings. To make a home for herself and once again live as those in the Mirkwood did. It took sometime but finally she could get far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Twenty First Century life.
She stood before a pond looking down at her reflection. She had flawless pale skin with just the barest hint of silver freckles across her high set cheek bones and bridge of her nose. Her auburn colored hair was awash with golden highlights that if let down from its bun ran down her back just until it reached her tail bone and framed a pretty face with large eyes, she had the condition now called Heterochromia, her right eye being the deepest shade of midnight blue and her left being the color of sunlight filtering through the tops of tree leaves. She was slender of frame and not that tall being less than five feet (under 152 cm), her ears once rounded like normal humans were now elegantly pointed like any other Fae and deep red lips that were not too thin and just full enough for her features. On what exposed skin she had she could see her faded red tribal knot like tattoos that symbolized her gift of magick and Priesthood. They started at her shoulders and ran down her collar bones to the tops of her breasts, down her arms stopping at her wrists and down her back where the wings of a butterfly had been tattooed on the backs of her shoulders stopping just a little past her tail bone. She actually had working wings which were rare among turned Fae and they matched the tattoos on her back. The butterfly like wings were translucent and glimmered like a rare jewel with the base color being red and the trimmings and swirling inner pattern being gold.
Though, as she gave herself this look over she saw something under that water that intrigued her. She had down her small bag of things and leaned in for a closer look. Something glittered there just beneath the surface. Suddenly curious she kneeled before the water and reached her hand in. The water was cold but it did not bother her in the least. The thing was just out of Meave's reach and as she tried to grab at it by lurching forward again she felt something strong grip her wrist and drag her in submerging her in the icy cold water.
At first she was drowning but then she was falling!? Screaming, frightened and soaked from head to toe in ice cold water as she landed hard in the middle of a small stone court yard in a very different place, surrounded by strangers dressed in the clothing of fantasy. Now more than ever did she regret her choice of clothing of a modern day teal colored tank top and dark blue jeans with her high top Converse sneakers as she realize just exactly where she landed…