(A/N) All righty, this one needs a bit of backstory. It's from a fairy tale AU idea I'd been toying with a few months before the challenge, so I decided to fiddle with it a little. I'll definitely writng a proper story to go with it at some point, but here's a taste for now. All you really need to know for this scene is that Zeb is part fey while Kallus is human.

Thorns

There's sweetness in an apple tree,

And profit in the corn;

But lady of all beauty

Is a rose upon a thorn.

- Christina Rossetti


"Zeb, stop!"

Garazeb heard his friend's cry, but he didn't heed it. He had his eyes fixed on the ball and he wasn't going to lose it.

The little red ball was bouncing through the forest all on its own. He didn't think he'd thrown it that hard, but it wouldn't be the first time he didn't know his own strength. He wasn't going to let that get the better of him this time. He kept on after the fleeing ball, kept on until it rolled right into the thicket of thorns at the borders of the forest.

He hardly noticed the small call at the back of his mind that was both warning and siren song. This close to the Boundary, he should've heeded it, but all he knew in that moment was that he was about to lose Alex's very favorite toy and he wasn't going to let that happen. So, ignoring every warning in his head and heart, he thrust a hand into the thorny brambles.

"ZEB!"

It was a really strange feeling, both pain and not. As he watched, the wild thorns dug into his dark skin, the briar seeming to pulse as it drank his blood. Transfixed, he felt his head grow light and sleepy as his gaze was drawn deep into the thorn forest. And somewhere, just at the edges of his sight, he thought he could see a figure within the thorns – a creature with haunting red eyes.

Come away, O human child.

"But...I'm not-"

"Zeb! NO!" Alex's shouting was suddenly in his ears and the other boy was crashing into him, tearing him free of the briar's hold. Even though Alex was smaller than him, he seemed to have no trouble pinning him down as they went crashing to the ground.

For several moments, Zeb just lay on the ground, staring up at the faint gray light shining through the dark green leaves overhead, softly singing along with the voice still winding dangerously through his thoughts.

Come away, O human child

To the waters and the wild

With a faerie, hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand

He might've kept on singing...were it not for the feel of Alex's tears on his skin as he clung to him, keeping him pinned to the ground – keeping him from rising and going to the thorns.

"Zeb, don't. Please don't!" the other boy sobbed as if his heart might break. "Don't sing that awful song! If you let them in, they'll take you away. I don't want you to go! Please stay. Wake up!"

As his friend's pleas slowly melted the ice that had flooded his veins, Zeb fell quiet, his arms slowly wrapping around the other boy.

"I'm sorry," he whimpered, tears springing to his own eyes.

A tiny sob of relief escaped the smaller boy as he looked up at him. "You're all right. You came back! You...d-don't you do that again!" he sobbed, a fresh wave of tears pouring down his face. "Don't ever go near those thorns! Not ever!"

"But I- I lost your ball," Zeb whispered meekly. "Your favorite ball."

"So what? You're my favorite friend. I'd care more if I lost you in those thorns than any stupid ball."

"But I didn't-"

"Zeb, you're bleeding," Alex pointed out in worry as he scrambled off of him. When the eight-year-old looked down at his hand, it was to find it bleeding from several tiny punctures – the places where the thorns had fed.

"It's all right," he tried to wave his friend off. "It'll be fine by tonight anyway."

"But what's it going to do in the meantime? Bleed everywhere?" Alex demanded petulantly as he pulled off his nice vest, beginning to tear it into strips.

"Alex, no!" Zeb tried to argue. "Your mum's gonna be angry at you."

"Good," the younger boy snapped right back, clumsily starting to wrap the strips of fine cloth around Zeb's hand and fingers. By the time he was finished, there was a crude but well-meant bandage wrapped around the half-fey's injured hand.

For another long moment, Zeb stared down at his hand, tiny pinpricks of blood already showing through the remnants of his friend's vest. It didn't hurt much. All he was really left with was a warm, tingling feeling in his tummy.

"Thank you," he said quietly as he looked back up at his friend. Alex smiled at him as he offered him a hand up.

"It's nothing. Let's get back. There are other toys we can play with."

"Right," Zeb said, his voice still quiet as he let Alex pull him to his feet and begin to lead him back through the forest.

Even with Alex's worry, even with the warnings his mother had always given him, Zeb couldn't quite help turning to look back at the thicket, the blanket of thorns that separated their world from...from the Other world. There was no sign of the creature he'd glimpsed earlier, but where he had thrust his hand into the barrier, where his blood still clung to the thorns, a single red rose had bloomed. And as he watched, its blood-red petals slowly turned purple. All the while, the faint strains of that same song pulled at his errant, frightened thoughts – a song that was both comfort and curse. He had heard it all his life, only now the words had changed.

Come away, O faerie child

To the waters and the wild

With a faerie, hand in hand...