where people are being assholes, where stiles think about getting cast on the next disney movie, where thing gets painful

IV - IN THE SHADOW

Welcome home, she said.

As if the forest was his home, as if he had already moved there with all these creatures, each one stranger than the next. Stiles could have sworn he saw a little something malicious in the fawn eyes of the dryad - Eurydice, she'd said - as if once again she knew something he did not. And if there was one thing that annoyed Stiles, it was the fact that he was being ignorant. So he just stood there, looking her straight in the eye with the look of some guy trying to probe her mind.

Severus Snape would have been proud of him if he hadn't been a fictional character, thought Stiles with irony.

Eurydice smiled before reaching out to him to encourage him to move a little further into the clearing. The little wind creatures had stopped smearing his hair with flowers, returning to their occupations probably - although he could still see a head or two here and there. He hadn't even tried to get rid of his flower crown. Seen as he was currently being spied upon, he had little doubt that the little wind creatures would come back as soon as he regained his usual physique. So Stiles wisely kept his hands along his body as he finally made his way into clearing.

"You don't have to be afraid," resounded the voice of the dryad in the human head.

He rolled his eyes.

"I'm not," he growled.

Then, Stiles jerked and frowned.

"Can you stop doing that tho? I mean. Talking to me without moving your lips. I haven't really felt sane lately, so hearing voices like that in my head all day long isn't really something I appreciate much and..."

Eurydice burst out with a crystalline laugh - exactly the kind of laugh Stiles had imagined for her, flawless, incredibly beautiful - cutting off the high school student's speech, which did not seem to take any notice of it. The sight of a Dryad laughing out loud must have been incredible enough to make him deign to forget his own words.

"You really are an interesting human being," she said between laughs.

Just enough to make Stiles' face appear red. She pursued, however, as if she hadn't noticed anything:

"Usually, humans get scared, run away, threaten us or try to take our powers..."

Stiles interrupted her, disturbed:

"Well.. That's a bit what happened, right? I mean. I asked Gaia to lend me her strength. It looks pretty much the same to me, doesn't it?"

"That's where you're wrong, Mieczysław," she explained in the tone of a secret, an argument immediately dismissed with a wave of the hand on behalf of the said Mieczysław.

"Nope. No. Nein. I won't work. Stiles. My name is Stiles. You can try if you want. It's: Ssssssstaaaaaaillllseuh. Seriously, no one's called me that since, like. More than ten years? It's so weird now! It's like I'm calling you Ikhaterina. It's super annoying. And long and nobody's probably ever called you that. You know what I mean? Just like me. Except for my parents, but they weren't really sane now that i'm starting to think about it. I had a point to all this... Uh... yeah. Stiles. That's my name. Well, it's my first name, 'cause my last name is Stilinski. My name's not stiles stiles or stilinski stilinski. Or even Stilinski Stiles or Bilinski - really. Just Stiles. Stiles Stilinski. Like Bond. James Bond. But without the 'James Bond' because I'm not James Bond but Stiles Stilinski."

Stiles took a deep breath, his cheeks red from talking too much and almost dying of asphyxiation. Then there was a moment of hesitation. A long one. A fairy passed by, accompanied by a doe and one of the many wind spirits - then fire, like fireflies in the night - and Eurydice kept her gaze fixed on the human face, as if hesitating between laughing and crying.

"Right," she said, a smile still stretching her mouth.

Her eyes hadn't stopped glowing with that mischievous glow. Stiles shrugged before looking away. Damn it. He had come with a very specific idea in mind and now what? She had managed to mislead him with just three words. He shook his head, his fingers slipped into his hair, which was beginning to get really long, and flowers fell down as he started rubbing his fingers in his hair.

"Home?" he finally asked, referring to the Dryad's own words earlier.

The Dryad nodded.

"Your present status makes the kingdom of the Earth your home until Our Mother decides otherwise," she told him softly, as if she was talking to a doe that she was afraid to rush.

Stiles frowned even more.

"Don't wanna sound rude or anything but I already have a house, don't you know?"

"You'll soon realize that the two have nothing in common Mieczyslaw."

He rolled his eyes again.

"How that?"

"That's for you to find out, I'm afraid."

Without realizing it, they had started walking through the forest. The clearing was now behind them but not out of reach. They ended up being silent. Not really an uncomfortable one, but not peaceful either. Stiles had a lot of questions, he wanted to know everything, from the smallest creature to why and how it was happening. Why the magic, why the Dryads, why the talking plants, the lichen carpet, the smell of home, why the fairies, why the little creatures made of earth, why all this.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do now," the boy suddenly admitted.

He was realizing it, little by little. It was nice to have had the support of the Gods. But now? What was he supposed to do? It was the same old story, over and over again. Was he supposed to wait for the next moon? Continue to act like a normal high school kid? Like nothing ever happened? Or prepare for his fight-to-come with the Alpha pack? A smooth sensation, as if someone had started pouring milk or cotton on his skin, made him lift his head. Eurydice was standing in front of him, smiling as always and, in the palm of her hands, she cupped his face.

"There is such pureness in you," she breathed in awe. "Your desire to protect your peers is strong. Stronger than I've ever seen in any human. No ulterior motives, no final goal. You don't seek to do good for glory, not for laurels. You act out of love, out of compassion, out of grief, out of sorrow. You sacrifice yourself without even question, so that others may live. Do you have any idea what that makes you?"

The emotion in the voice of the dryad made him shudder. She sounded like she was in pain, uncertain and desolate. Stiles gently shook his head, with the impression that if he opened his mouth, she would start to cry. It was so strange. How could she go from laughter to tears in a matter of seconds ? he wondered. Fingers made of foam and flowers ran across his face as Eurydice finally found her smile.

"That makes you the purest creature in Creation. And Mother knows how many things were said about them, about their gifts and what they were capable of. You have a bright future ahead of you, Mieczyslaw. Do not ever doubt yourself or your abilities. Decisions you make or will make. Deep down, you already know what to do, deep down, we already know how it will end."

Stiles got the message. He hadn't added anything, he hadn't shouted, he hadn't blown. He had nodded off a little and they had turned around. The clearing appeared to them again under the bright sun that marked the zenit. It was like rain never had pourred in the morning.

With an engaging smile, Eurydice had beckoned him to come and sit there on the wet grass and, not without grumbling just for the sake of it, the teenager had obeyed, curious.

Immediately, a bird had come to perch on his shoulder and then a second one, chirping happily, even a small fox had shown up at the edge, without ever coming near. It had been like a parade after that. Rabbits, butterflies, mice.. He had the impression that all the small fauna of Beacon Hills had come to see him. It was just unbelievable.

"They recognize their Protector," said Eurydice as she laid down against the grass.

Her hair made of all colors of flowers and other twigs had spread out over her head like a halo, and a few birds had soon abandoned the human in favor of this new niche. Stiles almost had pout.

"I don't really understand what that means," he confessed again, pensively pawing one of the downy ears of a rabbit that had finally fallen asleep, lying against his side.

"I might frighten you if I say that they think of you as a mother figure."

Stiles' face immediately decomposed and the Dryad burst out laughing.

"Don't worry, that's not it... At least not really."

Silence fell again. Stiles looks hesitant, squinting softly at the small creatures that had taken up residence at his side. Eurydice, however, did not wait too long before enlightening him.

As she smile she said :

"Think of it as Winter. Everything is cold and hard sometimes, especially for food, more chance to fall asleep without ever waking up..."

Stiles shivered. Or maybe it was the rabbit that had raised its little snout towards him?

"Well, you're like the sun. A Big and Warm Sun in the middle of Winter. Like a desert, like cotton, like home. That's what the Protector represents. Peace, security, comfort."

"This is insane..! I'm already struggling to take care of myself. How can the..Nature, for God's sake, could believe that I could have anything comforting?"

"Aren't you the boy who sacrificed himself to make sure his loved ones could live in peace?"

"Yes, but..."

"So is it."

So it is. This is one of the ways Dryad had of ending conversations. With a sigh, Stiles also let himself fall on his back, in the grass still wet by the morning rains. Far from caring, however, he put his arms behind her head, his eyelids half closed, observing both the sky speckled with clouds while remaining lost in his thoughts. The ball of hair nestled against his flanks wiggled for a moment, before coming up towards him to settle in the hollow of his neck. Stiles pondered how strange it all was. He was lying in the forest, surrounded by animals, like... Snow White. He was a damn Snow White. Was he going to start singing soon?

Human. thinking too. much, whispered a voice into his head, or against his ear, he didn't know much anymore.

"I'm sorry," he said.

And he was.

A muzzle rubbed against his cheek and soon the animal was asleep. And with no idea why or how, Stiles suddenly felt like crying. He did not know why. Happiness? Or melancholy? Or sadness? Maybe weariness. It was a sudden overflow of emotions, which his body evacuated as best it could. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had come looking for answers and found himself with all the more questions.

At the edge of the forest, a fox stood up, its clever look on the teenager's silhouette. The human had understood Eurydice's half-words. It remained to be seen how he would evolve, right?

"Hey Stilinski. Oh. Hey!" growled something - or someone, rather. An unidentified thing violently hit his shoulder, enough to awaken the human suddenly, a scream on the tip of his tongue.

"Wh-outch... Dude!" he shouted back, rubbing the painful area with the flat of his hand.

In front of him, Isaac Lahey raised his eyebrows, a mocking look on his cherubic face.

"Why in hell are you sleeping in the middle of the forest?"

"I don't..."

Stiles lost his words as he let his eyes roam around the clearing, convinced that the wolves would start to freak out severely when they saw all the little creatures of nature swarming around. He was surprised to find that all of them, as much as they had been, had now disappeared. The same thing happened to the rabbit who had fallen asleep against him.

"How long has it been..." he asked Isaac, realizing that the sun seemed much less bright - non-existent in fact - than at noon, he lifted his head from the smartphone he was playing on, turning the screen towards the human at the same time.

3:19 p.m., the device indicated.

"Shit."

"You damn right. Do you have any fucking idea how long it took us to find you, you moron?"

"l... What?"

Stiles blinked, his head blank. What was that again ? He didn't have time to ask for more, nor Isaac had time to answer. Rushing footsteps were heard and the teenager immediately turned his head towards the source of the noise, without even realizing that he should not have been able to hear them - not as a human.

"Stilinski!" growled one more voice.

Derek. Derek was there and walked towards him at a fast pace. He looked more than pissed off.

"Stiles!" Echoed the voice of his best friend. Soon, he saw the whole pack coming ashore, little by little, running towards him. "Are you alright? God, did Deucalion do something to you? Damn it Stiles, say something!" Said Scott.

Lost. Stiles was lost. How the hell could he have ended up in a forest in the middle of the night? Derek's hand crashed on the back of his neck and he squeaked like a trapped mouse. The Alpha immediately started sniffing him, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Where the hell have you been? We've been looking for you for hours!" he grunted.

Scott, who was now convinced that he had been tortured, mistreated and even more.

"He didn't say a fucking word. Derek, why doesn't he say anything! Did they hurt him? Did they hurt him? Why the hell doesn't he say anything! Oh my god, say something ?!

"Something?"

There was a sudden silence and then a cry of pain, mixed with loud protests. Stiles rubbed his shoulder, annoyed, not without thinking that the whole "let's hit Stiles" was becoming far too recurrent. The wolves - the banshee and the huntress included - kept talking over each other.

"Oh my god, just shut up!" Shouted Stiles after a while. "What the hell is wrong with y'all ? Coming out of nowhere, all you do is shouting and yelling all at the same time. It's weird. You guys are weird. It creeps me out. Why would you go out in the middle of the night anyway?"

Silence, again. Then Isaac proceeds to lose his shit.

"Okay, nevermind, I'm just gonna kill this motherfucker," he said harshly.

Scott growled like a dog at whom you stole a bone.

"Shut up, Lahey,", he said before turning to Stiles. He stared at him, confused too. "Stiles, man. You disappeared suddenly this noon. No one was able to find you until now... And, well... And, uh.."

"Boyd and Erica have been abducted by Deucalion," hissed Isaac.

That had the merit of calming Stiles down. He fluttered again.

"What?" He croaked weakly.

He felt Derek and his hand on his neck. He felt a pressure against his skin. Then it was gone as was Derek and his hand.

"He does not smell like them."

There were relieved sighs, released in perfect sync.

"Then what happened to him ? Stilinski ?"

Boyd and Erica. Stiles closed his eyes for a while, thinking, thinking. They had disappeared, abducted by Deucalion. If he had been stronger... Things happen because they have to happen, child, he heard Eurydice' say back in his own head. From the corner of his eye, he saw a face appearing withing a tree further away, a face that disappeared as quickly as it had shown itself. The void he felt in his heart did not soften at all. What was that supposed to mean ? He didn't like it. Neither did the way Isaac came to molest him.

"It's because we cared about the human of the band that they were taken away!" He shouted, voice sounding like someone who just lost a part of himself. "Why does everything always fucking happen around him?"

Derek growled. "Isaac !" in a severe tone before grabbing his beta by the neck. He pushed the teenager away from Stiles, keeping him close, nearly hugging him. But it was Derek, remembered Stiles. Hugs weren't his thing.

"I didn't..," he managed to say before being cut out.

"No you didn't. That's my point. You're not a wolf, Stilinki. You're unable to fight nor to keep yourself safe. How are we supposed to look after the pack, the wolves for God's sake, if as soon as a psycho comes in town, these same wolves all have their eyes glued on the human?!"

"That's enough, Isaac," said his Alpha..

Stiles took it all like a champ. Alas, Isaac didn't seem like he was done. His eyes shone with a lupine glow, as much as with held back tears. Stiles always knew that Isaac was the kind of guy to act like a rock without even having a part of villainy inside him. Thing is, stone crumbles. Stiles wished he'd never seen it. The fragile boy laying underneath all that suffering, all that pain.

"... and what were you doing, huh? While everyone was moving heaven and earth ? What the hell were you doing ?"

"I was.."

He suddenly fell silent.

You can't say anything, said the voice he knew well now. Whether it was Eurydice or the Nature itself- or even Gaia, it didn't matter. Stiles did not understand. You have to protect the Magic of Gaia. Bear it. Not share it.

It's not fair, he heard himself think. They're my friends... Why shouldn't they know? Knowing that you're helping me master all this, preparing me for the next moon?"

You said it yourself, Child. You want to protect them. If you wanted them to know, you never would have called Gaia that night. Because that's what you want to protect them from. From death, from sadness, from loss. And you know they would never have let you.

So what...?!

Be a good Guardian. A good Protector. Too many people already know what happened that night. Leave the wolves out of it. If you want them to live, all of them, they'll have to stay out of that.

It was his turn to cry now. Eyes full of tears, Stiles lowered his head to the ground. What was he supposed to tell them now? That he'd just skipped school all day to pay for a day off? When he had spent that same day finding out what his so-called powers could be made of? Scott's hand came to nestle on his shoulder, which he gently squeezed.

"Stiles," he said softly.

Stiles looked at him, finally noticing that everyone was staring at him strangely. Did he have something on his face?

"... When was the last time you.. ?"

He squinted his eyes. The last time he what ? He noticed that understanding was gradually marking faces, all but his own.

"Your treatment, Stiles. Did you take your medication?"

Few seconds passed before Stiles connected the dot. Then he pushed himself away from Scott, eyes wide.

"I don't need it, what the heck Scott ? I'm fine."

"Stiles. You disappeared for a whole afternoon that night and you can't tell us what you did or what you were up to! "

"For what we know, he might have just skipped classes," mumbled Isaad.

Stiles shook his head, giving a cold dead stare at the werewolf.

"I did not !"

"What is it then ?"

"I just... I don't remember, okay? I went out for some air at lunch and that was it."

"Stiles, you.."

"What ? You'd rather think your best friend went crazy? Looney-Stiles? How does that sound? How do you think it sounds? I've got a better idea, Freak-Stiles.. !"

"That's not what he meant, Stiles...," Lydia mumbled softly as he stepped forward.

Allison nodded behind her. She had been silent the whole time. And Stiles knew it. He knew Scott didn't think he was crazy, probably just a little lost without his was right. Or at least she had made that clear. Neither of them should know. So even if it meant looking like a madman... He finally straightened up, made sure his car keys were nice and tucked away in his jeans pocket, and started walking away.

"Where do you think you're going?" Growled the Alpha as he grabbed him by the arm.

Stiles got away easily, to the wolf's surprise.

"Home," he said. "You know, the sheriff's house, which you're not allowed to enter, let alone through my damn window?"

He ignored the astonished noises of the rest of the pack, and ran away, not without ignoring Scott.

Thirty minutes later, after reassuring his father that, not his "argument" - an excuse he had found to be able to get home with no question asked - with Scott didn't involve anyone naked and cucked (where did he get that from, seriously?), he finally took a long breath. Tears also slid down his cheeks, but he ignored them. In his hoodie's pocket, he took out a little something gray, no bigger than a fingernail, which he kept for a long time in the palm of his hand. With closed eyes, he remained standing and alone in his room for quite a while. Then he opened his eyes again before staring at his own hands and on the flower which had just grown there, in the palm of his hand, from this small seed that Eurydice had given him, earlier and what he had fallen asleep on.

I can see that homeworks are going well, was the only comforting words he got for this catastrophic evening.