The Chronicles of Faerie
Book 1
The Hunter's Moon
By - FearlessDranzer
Original Story by - O.R. Melling
Chapter Two
Suddenly Kai Hiwatari felt shy as he stood in Tala's doorway. He hadn't seen his beloved and slightly psychotic cousin for over three years. And to top that off they lived on different sides of the continent. Tala was in Ireland with his parents and Kai in Russia with their Grandfather. He peered into the bedroom wearily; it had changed a lot since he had last been there. Unlike Kai's plain navy blue room Tala's room was silver with a wolf painted on one wall. There was a messy computer desk with a black laptop and silver iPod resting next to a beat up CD player, which was also black. And in the black bed with red pillows was Tala, tucked somewhere underneath a mountain of blankets and black.
Kai's eyebrows furrowed in concentration, his cousins favorite color had always been red, now it looked like red and black were at war in the room trying to be the color of everything Tala owned. The rest of the room's walls were covered in posters of random singers and bands everything from Led Zeppelin to Seether had a place in the room. Kai knew though that if there was one type of music that Tala couldn't stand, it had to be punk. For some reason the red-headed boy had always held a deep loathing for Alternative & Punk music.
Other than the computer desk Tala's room was some what clean if you didn't count all the drawing papers thrown around. Kai knew that one of Tala's dreams was to actually find a faerie and to draw them. He had always thought that faeries were the most beautiful things on the earth and Kai had to agree.
"Yuri? I mean, Tala?" Kai called softly. It was kind of silly really; Tala had always been a deep sleeper. He could sleep through a thunderstorm. "It's me, Kai." He said in a normal voice.
There was a groan from underneath the blanket mountain and it shifted a little causing some pillows to fall off.
"Hey wake up!" Kai went over to the bed a little bit annoyed at the boy in it and yanked some of the blankets off trying to find his older cousin. "Wake up Tala. Do I look like your mother?" Suddenly Kai found a body wrapped in the blankets and he didn't hesitate to pull it out and drop it hard on the wood floor.
"Oh fuck that's cold!" Tala yelped as his bare back hit the cold floor. Tala opened an eye a little, revealing a bleary blue eye that squinted up at Kai. "Jesus Christ!"
"Not quite but that's OK. We'll work on it."
"Don't be an ass." Tala laughed shaking his head and rubbing his eyes as he sat up. "What are you doing here anyway? You were supposed to come later this morning, in like the afternoon."
"It is the afternoon."
"No! You're kidding me! I have no clue why I'm sleeping so late these days." Tala ran a hand over his face and moaned. Than he hugged Kai's knees and started screamed to his parents.
"Mom, Dad! Kai's here! He's finally here. It's only taken him what? Three years!" Tala screamed.
Kai laughed and tried to pry Tala from the vice like grip he had on his legs.
"I just can't believe they didn't wake me up! To make up for it I'll help you unpack!"
"I already did." Kai replied and Tala looked a little ashamed but his expression cleared almost immediately and Kai was struck on how similar he and his cousin were. They both had pale skin and eyes hailing from the Russian fathers. They were both thin and graceful like their mothers but Tala was much taller. Kai's gray-blue hair came from his Russian mother and Tala's red hair came from his Irish mother. Other than the tattoos on Kai's face and their hair colors they could have appeared for siblings or maybe twins. Kai lacked his cousin's confidence though and tended to slouch and hid in corners.
"You're so tall."
"Well you're not exactly short either are you Kai?"
"I'm shorter than you and my father."
"You take after your mother."
Kai was silent for a second and stared at the ceiling. "Please don't mention her to me."
Tala was ashamed and he hung his head to hide it. He had been so thoughtless and careless to mention his cousin's dead mother in front of him. Tala thought quickly and changed the subject. "Oho what have we here?" Tala said in a false high voice as he licked a forefinger and attempted to wipe off Kai's tattoos with his spit. "Tattoos? Young man!"
"Don't be daft, you know what they mean." Kai stated as he knocked his cousin's hand out of the way.
"No I don't. Enlighten me!"
"Well according to Grandfather the pain I faced for them has prepared me to take over the company. You know I think he just likes to see me bleed."
"Ah, an old man with blood lust, creepy!" Tala laughed and wagged an eyebrow at him. "You've seriously changed though Kai. And you have grown taller. Don't let Grandfather's nagging that you'll never be the size of your father get to you. Our fathers were like freaks of nature when it came to height."
Kai smiled numbly. "And what may I ask are the bright colored spots near your eyebrows doing?"
Tala laughed. "You're stuck in the dark in Russia 'eh? These my dim cousin are eyebrow piercing's."
Kai lifted a gray eyebrow in surprise. "Well… that's defiantly new. Along with your fashion and decorating sense. I could have sworn red was your favorite color."
"I got another one. But I'm not gothic or anything so don't get that idea. I'm not about to run off and join some cult. Not that all Goths join cults, I just feel like dressing this way." Kai nodded a little wearily. "But what about you, Kai? You still only wear grays and blues. I mean seriously even I wear different colored clothing."
"Wearing them helps me stay unnoticed."
Tala shook his head and sighed, he knew his cousin had low levels of self-esteem and would rather disappear off the face of the earth than hold a conversation with a stranger. "I like to stick out."
"You don't hang out at malls and bars trying to get a date off some girls do you?"
"No I go to malls and bars to try and get a date off a hot guy." Kai winced a little at his cousin's ability to be crude. "Oh stop, admit it you know that you like men too."
"You don't see me announcing it to everyone's faces!" Kai said hotly.
"I promised my mother we wouldn't fight Kai. So come here and give me a hug!" Kai stared at his cousin's outstretched arms and promptly walked away.
Tala laughed and pulled Kai down onto his messy bed and for a few minutes they just stared at the changing sky visible through a skylight overhead.
"Do… you… I mean do you… still…um-" Kai stuttered.
"Like faeries? Yes I do. I want to see the Faraway Land. I want to be in Faerie. I hope you're not planning to back out on our trip around Ireland to try to find them."
"No." Kai said with a smile. "I wouldn't change that for the world." Kai looked around again and realized that it wasn't just musicians on the posters around the room. "Lord of the Rings?"
"I love those movies. I think the books were better. The fight scenes though… they were amazing to watch."
Kai smiled and laughed. "I wish there had been less talking though, half the time you couldn't understand what they were saying."
"I know what you mean. The story though was written by a very smart man who I guess thought and spoke in unique ways." Tala mused to himself and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Or maybe he actually experienced it?"
"Than there wouldn't be anything I wouldn't give to go back in time and talk to J.R.R. Tolken." Tala said with a laugh and he sat up.
Kai shuffled around in one of his baggy pockets and pulled out and unopened CD case. "Here it's AFI. I figured you might like to listen to them." Kai said with a smirk and he tossed the CD at Tala who caught it easily.
"Eww… You know I hate Punk music! How could you?" Tala said feigning a faint. "My poor heart can't take it."
"It's not really punk you retard." Kai retorted.
The two friends chatted for what seemed like hours until the situation about traveling across Ireland came up again. Tala felt now he had to tell his cousin that they would be making a detour.
"In order to see the Land Not Seen we need to travel the road less traveled. So I think we should go to Tara." Tala said and he pointed east towards the Irish Sea.
Kai was confused. "We're supposed to be starting at Newgrange. We agreed to leave Tara to the end. To save the best for last?"
"Hey I know what's best; I've lived here all my life. Everything leads to Tara, the royal center of Ireland. Something tells me the sooner we get there the better." Tala spoke slowly, but he looked sure of himself. He knew Kai would agree with him. After all, when had he ever argued with his older cousin?
"No." Kai stated and slammed his fist into the map. "This trip isn't just about what you want. No one said you were leader."
Tala was surprised at the outburst, apparently his cousin had become very good at defending himself. Tala raised an eyebrow like his cousin had done earlier and nodded his head. He understood his cousin didn't want someone to boss him around. He didn't want another person like their Grandfather ruling his life. Deep down, Tala was confused; there was something he needed to tell Kai about something important. But he couldn't remember. Maybe remembering it would change their course! But it fell out of Tala's mind as he saw his cousin rub his hand quietly. "I'm sorry. We'll leave Tara to last just like we agreed. But we're not going all touristy OK?"
Kai smiled faintly. "OK."
"Remind me though not to get on your bad side. You have one helluva punch there."
Kai's eyes looked up at the skylight again. "Grandfather had me learn how to use a variety of weapons and self defense tactics so that I wouldn't have to waste money hiring body guards."
Tala smiled sadly and decided to leave his cousin's home life alone. "Newgrange it is." Tala said as his fingers danced over the map to rest on the ancient site. "The Brugh na Bóinne."
"The fairy palace of Aengus Óg." Kai said absentmindedly.
"The young god of love." Tala laughed. He looked at Kai who in turn also laughed. "What a gay fag that guy must have been!" He yelled in between cries of laughter.
Kai sighed as his hand banged against the window as the old bus they were in hit a pot hole. Tala yelped as he was thrown upwards without warning. "Would it kill the old bastard to watch out for pot holes?" The red head muttered under his breath.
Kai liked the change of scenery in Ireland. In Russia everything was white or a dirty brown, because it was almost all the time winter there. Here in Ireland everything was all shades of green and the mist hung everywhere adding a certain grandeur to the country. Kai unfolded the map that had rested in his lap for most of the bus ride. His thin fingers traced over the path that he knew his cousin and he would take. Right now they were crossing the Plain of Meath.
Tala let out another noise of surprise before returning to cursing out the bus driver whom he felt intentionally hit the bumps and potholes to annoy him and the tourists, also on the bus who jabbered away in their native languages. The only ones Tala could understand were a few Americans whose accent was weak enough to sound like English and the Irish and Russian tourists with them. But Tala wasn't so annoyed because the old ladies in front of them kept giving the cousins chocolate. Chocolate, Tala's one and true love. The enemy of obese humans. One of the ladies wearing a large hand-knit sweater handed Tala a few more chocolate bars with a smile.
Happily Tala returned the smile and offered half of his loot to Kai who merely shook his head and looked a little green. He sighed, "You need to eat something Kai, we can't have you fainting later on from hunger." Kai still shook his head and Tala shrugged. "You're loss." Suddenly the driver started singing an Irish tune over a small microphone and after a few versus invited the riders to join in.
A gypsy rover came o'er the hill,
And down a valley so shady,
He whistled and he sang,
Till the green woods rang,
And he won the heart of a la-a-a-dy.
Tala moaned. "Crap! Not this song again! Well at least it isn't punk music. I can stand folk music over punk music."
Kai laughed. "But your mother used to sing this song to us to get us to fall asleep."
"Doesn't mean I like the song."
Suddenly the bus swerved and Tala dropped his chocolate and swore. Far in the front someone started screaming out in a foreign language and Kai could hear Tala letting loss a string of curses to make a sailor jealous. The bus swerved again and Kai twisted around in his seat in time to see a car hit the back of the bus and to be knocked against the window as the driver turned and almost hit a tree. The bus lurched to a stop and Tala bent down to pick up one of his candy bars. "Well I thought that was fine and dandy what about you?" The red head said with an accent. Kai just nodded numbly, he wanted to puke.
At once everyone started babbling in their own languages Kai was certain each one was thanking their gods that they were still alive. "Quiet! May I please have order!" The bus driver yelled into his microphone. A hushed and awkward silence fell over the bus and the driver began to give orders. "Is everyone alright?" There was a collective nod from everyone on the bus. "Alright than, please everyone exit the bus, starting with the first rows." The passengers in the front collected their belongings and exited the bus while Kai picked up his backpack and map and Tala searched for his remaining piece of chocolate.
Tala slung his backpack over his should and grabbed Kai's hand pulling him out of his seat. "Wait shouldn't we wait our turn and for the police to come? That guy was ramming us!" Kai nervously asked as his cousin dragged him to the front of the bus. He didn't want to seem like a baby in front of his cousin.
"Fuck the police! They only screw up anyway and I don't want to stick around with these damn tourists! I'll walk to Newgrange if I have to!"
"But-"
"No buts! We've got places to go and people to see! That is if you don't mind me quoting a certain rabbit." Kai sighed there was no arguing with Tala when he got like this. They walked on past the meadow and towards a patch of trees that successfully covered them from the view of the everyone near the bus. Tala stuck out his thumb as a car appeared in the distance.
"What are you doing!" Kai hissed at him.
"What does it look like Kai? Come on, it's daylight, there are no axe-murderers here. If anything we'll just trade your virginity for our freedom."
"Hey! We can't do that!"
"Trade your virginity?"
"No hitch hike! It's dangerous."
Tala rubbed his eyes. "This isn't America, stuff like that doesn't happen here in Ireland. Besides we're two eighteen year olds, we can handle ourselves. Now end of discussion." Kai was about to open his mouth but he stopped. What were the odds of someone even picking them up? It wasn't like they were hot women or something.
The car came closer to them and slowed down. "You need a lift?" A high voice called out with a heavy accent. Kai's eyes opened a fraction larger, the car and the man clashed terribly together but somehow Kai couldn't see how it could have worked better. The little man was in a purple olds mobile with a middle seat in the front and he was dressed in a green jacket with reddish-brown hair. The color of the vehicle made Kai want to puke. Tala laughed good naturedly and shook his head.
"Were be yah going lads?" The man spoke and he tipped his head towards them, Kai almost expected him to say, 'Top of the morning' to yah!' like a leprechaun. He shook the weird image from his head and almost had a heart attack when he saw Tala lean on the rolled down window. Not only was he hitch hiking but he was talking to the person too! Kai was afraid he would manage to lose his virginity on the trip.
"We want ta go ta Newgrange sir." Tala answered the small man with a smirk, for some reason his accent seemed thicker.
"Well hop in me boys! I'm headin' that way meself!" The man pressed a button and the ancient car gave a dull thud and the doors unlocked. Tala held the door open for Kai and motioned for him to go in first.
Kai stood staring warily at the seat and the man next to it. He glared a little at the man as he examined him. He seemed nice enough and was too small to put up much of a fight against the two teens. Tala nudged him impatiently. "Come on get in already."
"Why can't you sit there?"
"Because you're smaller than I am and there's less room over there. Now please just get in so we can get to Newgrange." Tala looked slightly annoyed, but Kai knew his cousin didn't mean it. He was mad because so far things had been getting worse in their trip around Ireland to find the Wee Folk. Kai got in the car against his better judgment; he swore if Tala traded his virginity for their lives there would be hell to pay.
Tala jumped into the car behind him and the car swayed a little under the weight of the three men. Pushing Kai over towards the driver he slammed the door shut behind him and the man took off.
"By the way me name is Kenny. What may yours be?"
"I'm Tala and this is my cousin Kai. We're going on a trip around Ireland. So we're starting at Newgrange." Tala answered confidently and Kai shifted nervously.
After a few seconds the man turned to look at Tala and squinted. "What would yah want with that old place? It's just a tourist trap."
Tala stared out the window and than looked at Kenny. "We're look for The Land Not Seen."
"Are yah now? So I take it you believe in Fearies, Elves and the like? What about leprechauns do yah believe in them too?" The man asked his questions seriously even though it sound like he was mocking them.
"We believe in Faeries and of course Elves, but leprechauns are just lies told in the old days to make children appreciate nature. There are no such things." Tala snorted and shook his head he was so sure of himself.
Kai looked around the car and saw shoe buckles and shoes everywhere. In fact in between Kenny and him was a card that said 'shoe fixer'. Kai looked up astonished. Didn't leprechauns wear these types of shoes? And didn't they fix shoes or was Kai getting his Fairy Tales mixed up? Kai's breath caught in his throat as he saw the four leaf clover sitting on the dashboard in front of him. He reached out to touch and new instantly that it was real. But what was even more surprising was the fact that lying next to the mutated clover was five others exactly like it! Kai had never seen a four leaf clover let alone five of them. Kai looked back at the man sitting next to him and realization dawned in his eyes. He was sitting next to a real live leprechaun.
"I believe anything is possible." Kai spoke in a breathy whisper still looking at the leprechaun.
The mans eyes crinkled and Kai knew right away his assumptions were true. Kai was too amazed to even smile back he hadn't even been there a day and already he was seeing a creature of storybooks. Tala still looked unconvinced but remained quiet. It had been a stroke of luck that the first person to drive by picked them up he wasn't going to press his luck again.
The man pulled the car to a stop and unlocked the doors that seemed to have locked themselves. "Here you go, Tara ." Kai gaped at the man, they were supposed to be going to Newgrange and Tala sat quietly calculating whether or not they could have truly gotten to Tara this quickly.
Kai didn't believe what the man was telling them but as he looked out the car window he knew it had to be true there was a sign that read: Teamhair Tara. Kai blinked owlishly and gaped open mouthed looking back and forth between the man and the sign.
"You're screwing with us right? There's no way we could have gotten to Tara within five minutes." Tala looked confused and his blue eyes were smaller than they usually were. Tala was afraid. The man chuckled tipped his hat and drove off. Tala looked amused and than angry, he gave the man the finger as he disappeared over a hill.
Kai was astonished. "How could you do that?"
Tala closed his eyes and than opened one to look at Kai with. "Why the hell does it matter? That bastard deserved it. He was supposed to take us to Newgrange!"
"He wasn't obligated by anything. He could have murdered us and left us in a desert!"
"There are no deserts in Ireland." Tala answered his smug look back in place.
"Shut up." Kai mumbled back, he was blushing slightly but it was hard to tell whether it was from anger or embarrassment. Tala laughed quietly and walked towards a group of tourist milling around a map.
Kai sat quietly and swirled around the straw in his chocolate milkshake. He loathed chocolate! He despised it with his very being. Tala liked punk rock more than Kai liked chocolate. And that was saying a lot as Tala would give up his life just to not hear five seconds of punk rock. Kai had no clue why his weird cousin was so against that type of music. It was one of Kai's favorite genres. He sighed and pushed the shake away from him towards his cousin who was sucking down his second glass. Feeling the vomit rising up his throat Kai mumbled an excuse before rushing off to the bathroom to be sick.
Tala looked concerned about his cousin. The fact that his cousin had a food-eating disorder had caused most of the family to look upon him ether in disgust or pity. Knowing the pains of wanting to be perfect Tala sighed and hoped his cousin would be alright. Knowledge was not something Tala had a lot of but he loved puzzles and his cousin was a gigantic one. Tala had almost finished it but it seemed each time he reached for the last piece another one appeared below that one. Kai was different but he respected that. Even though 'lack of self-confidence' would be the phrase Tala would use to describe him. Sticking out and speaking his mind was something Kai wasn't know for doing. Standing in corners with dark colored clothing was more along Kai's persona.
Shake forgotten Tala leaned back in his chair and stared out at the setting sun. It was low in the sky and it was getting late. Tomorrow they would have to get on another bus bright and early to get to their next destination. Sleep was something they would both desperately need.
Kai wandered out of the bathroom looking only a little pale and queasy. A waitress stopped to ask if he was alright but he just waved her away. There was Tala sitting quietly at the table staring out a window with a straw hanging out of his mouth dripping milkshake all over the place. Looking up Tala caught Kai's eye and gave him a reassuring smile.
It was a little after ten o'clock and Kai was ready to call it quits, he had had enough. Through all the hitch hiking, crashing and puking he had gone through he had remained optimistic but now he was annoyed and tired.
"Come on!" Tala hissed and waved for him to follow and he climbed over the fence and picked up his backpack which he had thrown over. Kai was a little afraid. He had never broken the law like this before. Biting his lip he threw his own backpack over into Tala's waiting arms. Earlier his cousin had told him what to do in case they got caught. They could either claim they never saw the sign, Kai could tell them they were foreigners (the accent would win them over he said) or they could start jabbering in Russian like lunatics. Kai secretly hoped it wouldn't come to that. He was a terrible liar.
Hooking his feet into the fence he climbed up and jumped off to the other side, landing on the tips of his toes silently. Smirking Tala threw the back pack at him, which he managed to drop, and follow Tala quietly.
They were going to sleep under the Sidhe-mound, a magical hill that Faeries were thought to live under and Tala's gut was telling him he needed to go there. One phrase kept revolving around his mind;
Come to the Sidhe-mound under the hill
It was supposed to be dangerous to sleep under a Sidhe-mound. In some myths the Faeries were said to be an evil group of beings that feasted on human blood and will kill those at night near their homes. Others were said to be ethereal characters whose beauty was incomprehensible and would make even the most beautiful human seem ugly. The danger of sleeping in a Sidhe-mound was the threat of 'what-ifs'.
The cousins were ready for the challenge though, they were both nervous (Kai to the point of almost turning back) and excited. God only knew what was in store for them during their first adventure and Tala dearly hoped he would get to meet the Fair Folk.
Leaning against a giant angel statue Tala whispered into it. "Tell me your secrets O Fair One of the Sidhe-mound . I've come to the land ruled by your will. Now where are you to hold up your part of the bargain?" Tala wondered. There was a chill around the statue and Tala mumbled parts of the poem that he had forgotten. Kai walked up behind him and stood quietly looking at his cousin.
End Chapter 2
Arty - Ok, now I'm starting to stray a little from the original storyline. The differences between the book and this fan fiction will start to grow more obvious. Thank you for all the reviews, I wish I could reply personally but ff doesn't like that…. Anyway I realize how OOC Kai is but on the outside he's cold, on the inside his nervous and a little cowardly. LOL Please review!
Vocab
Tara - A city in Ireland famous for fairies.
Newgrange - A city in Ireland.
Brugh na Bóinne - Ancient name for Newgrange
Aengus Óg - A young god of love.