6.


"No."

The word left her without even thinking too much about it. The fae's eyes widened and his ears twitched as he pouted at her. She forgot about her wet dress and that the supper was going to start soon. Her world narrowed to this one magnificently painted room and the man that looked at her.

"No? But I asked nicely!" he objected. "And I played for you!"

He sounded so disappointed and a part of Kagome wanted to hurriedly erase the source of the sad look in his eyes. Was it because of his droopy ears or some kind of spell he was weaving?

"I am not unsealing a intentionally dangerous entity," she declared, trying to keep firm to her word and pushing away that annoying bit of herself who wanted to oblige to his wish. "Someone of my ancestors sealed you here for a reason."

"Sure, I can be dangerous, but I can promise not to harm anyone when you release me," the fae said. At least he wasn't lying that he was harmless, she could see the long nails that adorned his fingers and was pretty sure he could do serious damage with them.

"Everyone knows not to trust the word of a random fae," she said and crossed her arms in front of herself, to keep her fingers from twitching.

"What?" he looked at her, miffed. "Lass, you have your facts wrong! It's the word of a human you can't trust!"

Kagome glared at him, but as she was about to say something unpleasant about his obvious lie, the fae's eyelids suddenly fell shut and his head leaned backwards, a soft snore tearing out of his throat.

Well, it clearly meant that he was not going to hear whatever she had to say, so she just shut her mouth and went back to her room to change.

.

It was hard to forget there was a stranger, a fae, sleeping in the other room. She did her best not to think about it when she was changing or washing her face in the bowl standing on the table in the corner of the room. Her eyes seemed to be drawn by the door to the other room, the mysterious atmosphere of that place seemed to seep into her room, teasing her senses like a tantalizing scent of a freshly baked cake.

It was also hard to not think about the fae man. The image of his serene, slumbering face was permanently etched in her memory, so did the peculiar glow of his eyes and the adorable twitch of his ears. Sometimes, as she went about her daily chores the next day, Kagome would freeze suddenly, listening intently, because she imagined she heard a soft snore coming from the room no one else in the family seemed to realize existed.

She wanted to see him again, talk to him again. She wasn't sure about what and she was a bit afraid to approach him, but at the same time, at the mere thought of talking to him, learning more about him, her heart started to beat faster. She couldn't wait till she had some way to ensure his honesty and her safety in their dealings.

Kagome didn't expect Souta to have answers to her questions right away, the boy had to find a way to steer the lecture of their grandfather the right way without making the old man surprised that his pupil expressed interest in something that was not directly connected to their lesson.

So, when the next day the siblings went for a walk, she was quite shocked when Souta grabbed her hand and grinned widely. The afternoon sun shone at his youthful face, filtered through the branches of the trees on the edge of the forest, where their path led them.

"You're so giving me all the sweets for the rest of your life!" he said. When Kagome blinked, the boy grinned even wider. "Grandpa told me the story of the fae lady sealed in Mr. Mushin's shrine. She was sealed away by a priest, but she was first caught by a regular farmer."

"Oh, my," Kagome looked at him expectantly, excited that her wait was not going to be long. "Tell me the tale!"

"So, yeah," Souta was no storyteller, but he tried to talk in the same tone their mother used when she told them stories. "There was this farmer, Kuro, he was a simple man living a simple life. One evening, as he was returning from his field, he saw a fae lady beautiful like the moon itself. She was bathing in a spring and when he saw her, he fell in love with her. So, he wanted her to stay with him. He sneaked to the edge of the spring and took the silver robe left by the fae."

Kagome frowned, thinking how mortified she'd be if someone not only peeped at her, but also stole her clothing.

"The fae lady." Souta continued, the siblings walking slowly down the path that ran along the border of the forest, where shadows grew darker as the day was coming closer to the end. "She was angry at him and wanted to fight him, but he lifted her robe, which turned out to be like a shield, deflecting all her attacks. Kuro offered to bargain for the robe. He said that if she promised to be his wife for a year, he would give her robe back to her. To make sure she wouldn't go back on her word, she gave him her true name."

"A true name..." Kagome repeated and caught Souta's attention.

"Yeah, grandpa said that, if you get a fae's true name, they have to obey your every order, even to kill themselves. He called it a kotodama. That's why you should not give a fae your name too, since they can use names in magic and enchant you easier when they know your name,"

"Oh, it's like in the story of the Snake Lady, who stole the heir of a noble house by calling him out of the forest," Kagome remembered. Souta nodded.

"Anyway, during that year, the fae lady fell in love with Kuro and decided to spend the rest of his life with him. They had two children together and lived happily for seven years. But one day a wandering priest came to their village. He found out she was a fae and assumed that the farmer was enchanted, so he went to fight her. The fae wanted to flee, but her unsuspecting husband called her by her name and she fell from the sky, her wings not working to lift her back to the heavens. She fell into the mirror the priest had prepared and was sealed there, asleep forever. The farmer pleaded with the priest to release her, but sadly, five legendary objects are needed to undo the seal. Grandpa says that the farmer went away to find the objects, but never came back. And he says that this story is two hundred years old, so there's no happy ending. He also added that it's a good tale to remind everyone that, albeit fair and full of wonder, dealing with fae will always lead to misery."

"I can't help but feel sad for the family." Kagome confessed. They were slowly making their way back home=.

"Me too," Souta nodded. "But I bet the farmer had lots of great adventures when he went on his journey."

"Well, maybe, but he was never reunited with his family," Kagome sighed.

""True," the boy looked to their feet and was quiet for a moment. "But he was pretty brave, maybe he became a hero later. I mean... He went and stole a fae's robe and then bargained with her. Only that in the long run he lost her."

Kagome hummed as she walked. It was a sad story, one that could have so easily been a happy one. If not for the misunderstanding and prejudice that in this case was misplaced, the story could have had a lovely ending.

Even more reason to tread carefully when talking to the golden-eyed fae and to keep him a secret.

She looked at the house they were nearing. The sun was shining on the wall and Kagome could see her window reflecting the light, just like her mother's. There was a blank wall where the third window was.

She looked back to see the sun almost touching the horizon. The sunset was upon them.

Feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline, Kagome turned to her brother.

"I need to go and... Uh, I need to check something out, see you at the supper!" she said and ran towards the house like a little girl. She was sure Souta was staring after her as she ran. She hated lying and was never good at it, but she told herself that she didn't actually lie. She was going to check something.

She opened the door to the hidden room just in time to see the fae yawning, his tongue curling like dog's, his arms stretching above his head. As soon as she opened the door, the fae looked at her, blinking drowsily.

"Oh, you came back to remove the arrow? Go ahead, wench," he said with a wide, hopeful smile.

"I'm not here to do that!" Kagome objected and froze. Why was she here anyway? She ran back here as if there was something very important to do, but now she couldn't remember what thought triggered that action.

"No?" the man frowned. "Really, I don't know what you have against me, I did nothing wrong."

She blinked at the fae a few times, then shook herself out of her daze, rested her fists on her hips and took a few steps in the room, the leaves crumbling under her feet. His ears twitched when she approached the foot of the bed he was resting upon.

"What, hm... What do you want me to give you in return for removing the arrow?" he asked. Kagome pointed a finger at him..

"Your true name."

A/N; Oh, my! Kagome, what are you doing?