Faerie revels were celebration held on nights when the moon was full and bright, and anyone raised in Gravity Falls knew to listen to the warnings and stay inside on these nights, no matter what. Otherwise there was little telling what fate may befall you. People who wandered out on full moon nights rarely came back alive, and some just weren't ever found.
Dipper knew there had been no warnings when he had first gotten it into his mind to go into the woods. There always were warnings around full moons, scrawled by his uncle or parents in red pen on the calender, or coming in scratchily on the TV. In fact, Dipper was fairly certain that the nearest full moon had been several days away when he had gotten caught.
His suspicions, while half proved by his caved in stomach, still hurt being confirmed by the creatures words. Who knew how long he had been stuck here?
"Aren't you excited, little lamb? Your first revel. You'll have the attention of all the big kids in the park." The Faerie crooned, unknowing of his down spiralling thoughts, and nuzzled against him like a particularly demanding cat that just happened to have one razor sharp claw held against Dipper's frozen heart. "I'll make sure that all eyes will be on you." It whispered, and slowly dragged its hand away.
Dipper jerked away the moment he felt himself freed, gagging and growing dizzy with shock and disgust and terror at the creatures words, and when his knees weakened he dropped like a rock, hitting the dirt with a sickening thud. He immediately leaned forward to vomit, however there was no food in his stomach for him to throw up. So instead he simply crouched there on the ground at the Faerie's feet, gagging up bile and coughing so hard that he could have sworn he felt his lungs trying to crawl up his dry throat.
"Not a party person, then?" Bill wondered in understatement, watching with his eyebrow raised at the boy, watching dispassionately as he... did something. Bill wasn't really sure what was happening. However the boy didn't seem to be enjoying it much, so he assumed that it wasn't a sign of excitement.
Which was absurd, because who wouldn't be excited about a revel?
Revels were magical! They were one of the oldest traditions of an even older race! Filled with laughter and wonder and lust, and twisting turns and thousands of possibilities. There was music of every kind imaginable, played on instruments that weren't, by the best musicians in the Court. Food, only the best and most delicious, spilling in decadent falls off of tables. Drinks more plentiful and sweet then the fruit they came from, making the mind fuzzy with pleasure and liquid cheer. Flower bouquets and magical lights and bright shades of glittery pixie dust scattered everywhere, creating a stunningly beautiful assault of colour to the eyes. Dancing, riotous and uncontrollable and free, in front of the Queen and on top of the overflowing tables.
There was the hunt that sometimes followed after, chasing fear scented bodies through the underbrush on horseback or on foot, and deciding what to do with them once caught.
oh yes, Bill positively loved revels.
He was brought back from his musings by the boy starting to choke for lack of air, and he huffed as he rushed to the rescue. He carried the little shaking body to the bed, where he crooned sweet sounding nonsense and false promises and twisted himself around the boy until he fell asleep, wet eyes slipping slowly shut and sweat dampening the fluffy brown hair that covered his forehead.
Bill smiled as he reached up and very carefully moved that hair back, fingers spidery soft over the boy's skin. His magic would keep him from waking, but there was no sense in tempting trouble.
Stretched across the boy's forehead was a spattering of marks, in a form so perfect and flawless it looked as though someone had painted them on. In fact, when Bill has first noticed it, a night or two after he had brought the boy home, he had thought it was painted on, and tried rubbing it off.
When it didn't erase, or even leave smudges on his finger, he realized what it was.
There was a constellation on the boy's pale, perfect skin, engrained so well into it that it had actually become something permanent, a birthmark. Whether he had truly had it since birth or not, Bill was not sure, but the important thing was that he had it.
Faeries liked the exotic. The new, the interesting, the bright and mysterious. It was why the Seelie court kidnapped the most beautiful and unique of human children, and the Unseelie held regular hunts for the tourists that flocked to Gravity Falls from places far away. It was to get a glimpse of something new and unusual and charming, to find something in between "has been here" and "hasn't been here" and take it for themselves. Anything to fascinate their age old minds, even for a little while.
The fact that the stars were emblazoned on this human child's forehead did just that for Bill. It made him wonder if this skinny, tearful, full of fight little boy might be able to hold his interest for a bit longer then a sparkly trinket or a game.
Bill traced the markings carefully with his fingers, shivering with anticipation for a moment when the boy whimpered in his sleep, before the tiny body shuffled a little bit more deeply into him, as if seeking comfort.
Bill's smile turned into a grin, sharp and beautiful enough to be deadly.
Honestly. The kid had better play nice tonight, otherwise he wouldn't be worth the trouble Bill went to for him.
xXx
So recently, I decided that if I was going to bother with complaining about how few books there are out there with non-Disney-ish Faeries, I might as well read all the ones I could get my hands on before I whined too much. So I grabbed a few suitably sized book bags, deigned to leave my safe, comfortable hole in the ground for a while, and sashayed off to one of my favourite places on earth: the local public library! Wherein I actually found more then I had expected I would, at least once I had bothered to lower myself to checking those devilish computer catalogues. (Just kidding, I need those things to survive.) Safe to say, I checked out the max amount of books allowed and fully intend to return for more as soon as these are finished! After all, I practically feed off of this adventure type stuff, in addition to a healthy amount of tragedy and emotional turmoil, of course. And the occasional mystery snack can never go amiss.
Anyhow, my ramblings aside, thank you so much for reading! Please tell me in the reviews if you have any favourite Faerie/not-Disney-fairy books for me to read, and have a luverly day. Byeeeee!