This is the beginning of an Arc I'm starting about Sidhe (pronounced Shee). The next story is Bean-Sidhe, but I'm still working on it.
Title: Lliannan-she
Author: SidhePrincessAislinn (aka XiXi)
Summary: Heero tells a story near Halloween. Sometimes the original Samhain is more interesting than the American made Halloween.
Pairings: None
It was autumn, the trees were covered in fiery reds, vivid oranges, and warm yellows. Pumpkins lined the porches of all the old colonial style homes while witches, bats, and black cats all allotted the front yards. Halloween was near, and everyone was feeling the cold, crisp air that was filled with the scent of pumpkin and apple pies. The town green was alive with children wearing many different costumes, celebrating Halloween early since it fell on a school night this year. The Halloween spirit could be found in every house, as all of the townsfolk eagerly awaited its arrival.
"No, Halloween comes from the old Celtic New Year called Samhain. The Irish and English believed that on Samhain, the spirits of the people to die in the oncoming year could be seen walking through the graveyards. These spirits were considered malevolent, so the townspeople would leave food at the edge of town and carve jack o'lanterns to keep the spirits at bay. Jack o'lanterns were originally carved from turnips." Wu-Fei finished with his history lesson and started to sip his cider. Finally, after a minute or so, Duo asked him a question. Duo always asked a question.
"Why didn't the ancient Celts use pumpkins?" Duo couldn't help but to wonder why, especially since pumpkins seemed more practice than turnips.Wu-Fei sighed. "Duo didn't you pay attention at all in History? Pumpkins come from the Americas, they did not exist in Europe until after Christopher Columbus.""What about Leif Erickson?"
"The Celts did not have pumpkins!"
"So aren't the Anglo-Saxons really Norsemen?"
"The Anglo-Saxons aren't Celts!"
"What?! Since when?"
"Since always!""Damare-yo!" Heero shouted at them, knowing the argument would continue all night, with Duo's theories getting more elaborate with his assumed basis that the Anglo-Saxons had given the Celts pumpkins. Quatre decide it was his turn to intervene."What don't we all take turns telling Halloween stories? They can be ghost stories, or just stories that take place on Halloween. Since Wu-Fei already started, Heero, why don't you tell us one?" Quatre asked innocently, opting for Heero, because the Japanese boy had been quiet all evening. Heero nodded at Quatre, then got up to retrieve something in the next room. When he came back he had an orange candle and some matches. Heero place the candle in the center of the table then lit it as through it use the most common occurrence. Duo, Quatre, Wu-Fei, and Trowa watched him gingerly, hoping to gather some clue as to what the normally emotionless boy was doing. Once the flame stopped blowing as if it was going out, Heero sat back down in his seat. Satisfied that he had everyone's attention, Heero started with his story."Once, when I was on a mission in Ireland, I was told a story about a boy and his sidhe," Heero paused, waiting for either Quatre or Duo to ask him about a sidhe. He was betting on the latter, and he did not have to pause long."What in the fuck is a sidhe?" Duo asked."It is Gaelic for Fey or Faerie, if that helps you to understand." Heero explained tersely, continuing with his story."On the Isle of Man it is believed that sometimes a beautiful sidhe will wait to encounter a man, and if one speaks to her, she will follow him always, but remain invisible to everyone else. So when I was in a pub gathering information one day, the bartender proceeded to tell me a story about this kind of sidhe. Yes, Duo, there are more then one kind of sidhe." Heero added, seeing Duo rise up one finger and open his mouth, which promptly shut again at his remark. "Once there was this soldier who had come to the Isle of Man. According to the bartender, no one knew why he was there. The soldier seemed a little lost; it was evident that he was not from the isle. After walking aimlessly around the Town Square he decided to approach a local for directions to a house he was trying to find. He spotted a woman with long espresso hair and big evergreen eyes. He noticed she was just standing there, while everyone hurried by her. He decided that she would probably help him, so he walked up to her. The soldier proceeded to ask the woman were the house was. She smiled at him and said that she could take him there." Heero paused in his story; he was obviously thinking or remembering something. Duo waited in anticipation for Heero to continue. Heero looked at the burning candle, watching as the orange wax dribbled down a side. He looked back at the others, then continued the story, smirking at Duo's eagerness for him to continue. "The girl did take him to the house, actually she continued to show him all around the isle, which was very useful. Then the time came for the soldier to leave his mission was over. He told the girl that he was leaving and thanked her for all her help, then proceeded to ask what she would like in return. The girl smiled and answered that she needed nothing in return. The soldier left watching the smiling girl wave good bye.The soldier arrived in on a colony in the L1 cluster; he could not stop thinking about the girl back in Ireland. Not a day later after his arrival he saw the girl again. She was waiting at a table in a coffee shop. The soldier walked up to the girl that had helped him and asked her why see was there. L1 was not her home, the Isle of Man was. The girl smiled at him, that same beautiful smile from before. The soldier was confused, why did the girl follow him. He asked her what she was doing there, but her only answer was 'you.' The soldier was completely bemused at the whole situation. After only a day he received another mission and left to go on it. When he got there not to long after he saw the girl again. He continued to see the girl everywhere he went and every time he ask her why she was there, she would answer 'you.' After awhile the boy just start to accept the girl being there. Finally after nearly a year of being followed by the girl, the soldier asked her, why she followed. The girl looked at him confused for a moment, then quickly recovered. 'I am a Lliannan-she, I must follow and protect the man who encountered me and that would be you.' She paused in declaration. 'You never heard of Lliannan-she before? Do you know nothing of Sidhe or Fey as some call us? You never noticed that you were the only one able to see me?' The soldier was dumbfounded at her questions. He never heard of Lliannan-she before or of anything called a fey, nor had he noticed that no one ever saw her. The soldier did not know what to make of her after she made that declaration, but he wanted to prove her wrong. So he grabbed the girl and took her outside, and proceeded to ask people if they could see her. None of them could. The girl was indeed invisible to everyone but the soldier. The soldier became angry with the girl after he was proven wrong, so he told her that he never wanted to see her again. The girl stopped smiling and looked him in the eyes, asking him if that was really what he wanted. He repeated what he said and the girl simply disappeared." Heero took a pause in his story to sip his lukewarm cider.Duo misinterpreted the pause as the end of the story and started to complain. "What?! There is no way in hell that that is the end of the fucking story! It was just getting good! I want to know what happened to the faerie." Duo pouted at Heero.
Heero finished his cider, then answered Duo questions. "It is not the end of the story, I'm just merely taking a break." He looked at the candle again, then continued with his story, causing Duo to brighten up.
"The soldier did not the see the girl after that. When he went on a mission no one was waiting in a near by shop or his hotel room for him. No one was there to show him around. No one was there for him at all. The soldier was happy with this fact at first, but after two months of loneliness he began to regret his choice. It was nice having someone there to talk to or to be with. It was not until almost a year after he told her to leave him that he did see the girl again. This time it was the most unexpected place, during a battle. The girl appeared before him, she had sad eyes and looked at him. The soldier did not have too much time to see what the girl wanted, for he was fighting, and everything was at stake. The girl started to speak to him, but he hushed her, then went on fighting. The girl chased after him, knowing something the soldier did not. As the soldier fought the girl was there watching him, trying to call out to him. He paid her no mind, until he was sure that he had the enemy retreating. It was then he moved to speak to her, moving just out of the way of stray bullet fire by one of the retreating forces. The soldier looked to where he had been standing then to the hole in a tree the bullet had caused, looked back over at the girl, but she was no longer there. She had come to warn him, to save his life. After that the soldier be came determined to find her again. The soldier decided that the best place to look would be the Isle of Man. The soldier returned there and started to look around, but he found no sign of the girl. After a long day of searching the soldier went into a pub to get something to eat. As he was eating his meal he overheard a conversation being spoken by two of the patron.'I heard you saw a bean-sidhe a couple nights ago Sean.''Aye I did Liam, she was washing the clothes of someone about to die in a battle when she stopped and turned to what I could only guess was a Lliannan-she.'
'How did you know it was a Lliannan-she?'
'I couldn't see her, but the bean-sidhe talked with her in the old language and I watched as something moved toward the old lighthouse on the north shore.'
'Humm…How is it only these types of things happen to you Sean?'
The soldier after hearing the conversation deduced that the Lliannan-she was the girl he was looking for and took off toward the north shore lighthouse. It was there he that he found her. She was sitting in the sand by the lighthouse watching the water. The soldier apologized and asks for her forgiveness. The girl smiled at him, then told all was forgiven." Heero finished his story as the last of the candle wax dipped onto the table and the candle went out. Duo, Quatre, Wu-Fei, and Trowa all looked at Heero expectantly. Heero stifled a yawn and got up to put his cup into the sink. Duo looked dumbfounded, Quatre was wide-eyed and Trowa and Wu-Fei just waited patiently for him.
"Aren't you going to finish?" Quatre asked him, he had become engrossed in the story."Yeah, what happens to the soldier and the girl, do they fall in love, get married, why? I want to know." Duo continued to berate Heero."That's all of the story I know. It is late anyway, I'm going to bed." With that Heero took off towards his room. The rest of the boys just sat there. Finally Trowa got up and pick up everyone's mugs placing them in the sink to be washed in the morning. Quatre followed Trowa into the bedroom they shared, while Wu-Fei bade everyone a good night. Duo was the last to leave; he stretched his arms behind his head and yawned, his arms bumping into something while he did so. Duo turned around to see if he accidentally hit one of the others, but no one was there. Frowning, Duo headed off to his bedroom next to Heero's.Heero laid in his bed, waiting patiently for someone to come to him. His door opened soundlessly as a figure crept into the room, Heero moved aside in the bed to give the figure some room. The figure pulled the black cloak it was wearing off, revealing a girl with espresso brown hair, evergreen eyes and pale Irish skin. She laid next to Heero resting her head on his shoulder. Heero turned to face her."How come you didn't finish the story?" The girl's singsong voice asked the need for sleep filtering in."Because I already know the ending, what does it matter if they know the ending, Niceven?" Heero asked his female companion."Hum…" She mumbled tiredly, "I was just wondering, oh I bumped into Duo on the way up. He probably thinks the house is haunt." The girl closed her eyes. Heero smiled at the comment."Maybe I should tell him at 11:11 you can see ghost." When the girl did not respond Heero smiled even more and kissed her forehead. Lying his head on a pillow Heero joined his Lliannan-she in the dream world where her people lived.