Chapter 2
The pain was amazing and I truly believed that it was going to end right there and then but somehow I made it through past unconscious and moved myself so that I was leaning against a massive tree base.
I examined myself. I was wearing my black, sturdy armour, which was almost completely covered with mud; I peered at the wound on my chest, grabbing hold of the branch that was stuck inside me. I tried to move but my body but it refused. Every part of me burned. I could taste the foul flavour of blood in my mouth and the overwhelming stench of iron. I gripped my sword, and got ready to fight. My brain started wheeling it all seemed to unrealistic, flashes appeared before my eyes the smile what I had been trying to forget flashed and stayed before my eyes. Slowly the whole dream came back and before I knew it I was searching for her I knew she was coming I could feel it in my stomach.
I must have fallen asleep or passed out because the next thing I knew I could hear the squelching of shoes and mud. I looked towards her she was more beautiful than words could describe; her Asian completion was complemented with flowing blond hair that must have been fake but the roots were as blond as the rest of it. She stopped and looked around.
"Stay where you are" she visibly jumped at the sound of my voice. She turned and stared at me now that I could see her face I just wanted to get up and kiss her but I wouldn't she was a human and I was a fae, stronger, faster, better in every way. "Was it you girl?" the look on her face was of pure surprise, I knew it wasn't her but I knew she would have to reply and then force us to speak. "So you haven't come to finish me off?" she shook her head, staring at me. I liked the blood that lay on my lips, "Pity" I wondered what she was thinking, did she know what I was, I highly doubted she didn't. Just then she took a step towards me, I twisted out of her grasp and landed in a crouch, it hurt but it was safer. I glared at her my hair falling across my forehead.
"You're a faerie, aren't you?" her first words to me, felt like warm honey, she raised her hands in front her in the sign of peace. Again I wondered what she thought did she find me as beautiful as I found her. I hadn't moved when she held a hand out towards, "Let me help you." I shivered it took so much energy to hold this stance. My sword that I had pulled out when I first heard her was gripped in whitened hands. She hadn't taken another step but kept going on her speech. "You're going to bleed to death." I didn't reply I just stayed like that staring at her until I couldn't hold it anymore and slumped down onto one knee and fell forward, clutching the arrow my eyelids drooping.
I didn't hear her come closer, but now I could see her she was almost touching me. "I cannot draw the arrow myself." I whispered, "They are waiting for me to bleed a little more before they come against my blade." And whoever it is going to pay. "Who is waiting?" She said she didn't seem to believe that someone had shot me. "If you would help me, draw this arrow." Shaking my head, "If not, then push it in as deep as you can and hope it kills me." She sounded shocked "It will bleed more." I tried to laugh but it was choked off, "Either way, no doubt." I knew this was the end she would be the one to kill me. I gave up there and then and sild so I lay against the oak, waiting to see how she would kill me. Her fingers flinched, she was going to do it, "I can't do it." She whispered, why she most people, fae or mortal would relish in killing me. "What do they call you?" maybe she wasn't going to kill me maybe I could convince her to help me, she really did seem harmless. "Kaye" she said, the name suited her, "I'm Robien" I hope she understood that we fae didn't give their names out, as they could be used to control us. "Give me your hand." Holding out my hands. "Just close you're hand on it and let me pull." I said trying to make it easier for her, "you don't even have to look. As long as I'm not touching it, I might be able to draw it out." The look on her face was one of concern I wondered what I did to cause that look. "I'll do it," she said. So whatever I said or did was the right thing to do because now she was helping me.
I let go of her hand as she gave the branch a tug, the pain was outstanding, and I looked down and found that the arrow had only come out a tiny bit. "Again, Kaye" I said as she moved herself, and pushed herself up onto one knee, than she yanked again. I cried out in pain as the branch slid from my chest. I placed my hands on the wound, and when I raised them again I found them covered in blood. "Very brave," I said to Kaye, she throw the stick away. "We have to stop the bleeding. How does your armour come off?" what was she on about, did she want to fix me completely? "Straps" I said with a groan as I leant forward. She moved around behind me, her hands running over my back looking for the buckles. Once she found the buckles she removed my breast plate and unclipped it from my shoulder and leg-plates. "Let the rain clean it."
I didn't even hear her rip her top and only felt her place them on my chest. "I didn't even hear you rip the cloth." "You have to try to stay awake." She said, "Is there somewhere you can go" I shook my head; I wasn't going to let the girl into the kingdom. I pick up a leaf that was sitting next to me, and I wiped it against my breast-plate that lay next to me filling with water. The leaf was covered with my blood. "Drop this in the stream. I – there is a kelpie there – it is no sure thing that I will be able to control her in this weather, but it is something." She nodded, and reached to take the leaf. I didn't let go quite yet. "I am in your debt. I mislike not knowing how I must repay it." "I have questions…." I let go of the leaf. "I will answer three, as full and well as is within my power." She nodded. "When you drop the leaf in the water, say Roiben of the Unseelie Court asks for your aid." "Say to what?" she asked "Just say it aloud." She nodded and walked off.
She came back with a black horse following her. "Were in you, in would stay clear of the Folk, in the future. We are capricious people, with little regard for mortals." Her eyes flickered over him. Then asked "Did something happen?" "Don't waste your questions." Then the horse moved underneath me, and I was off, I was going back to the Unseelie court. With an unrepaid debt.
Kaye knelt and picked up the branch with its iron tip. Her finger ran up the rough bark and touched the too-warm metal. A shudder went through her, and she dropped it back in the mud. The woods were suddenly menacing, and she walked as quickly as she could back toward the road. If Kaye started running, she didn't think she'd be able to stop. Kaye crept into the living room. She caught her own reflection in the hallway mirror, mascara and glitter eye shadow smeared across her cheeks and under her eyes, running in crusted and glittering streaks that looked like they were made by tears. Her lipstick was smudged and dull, arching across her left cheek where she must have wiped it. And went up to her bedroom and went to sleep, she allowed herself to think of him, to think of the solemn, formal way he had spoken to her, so unlike anyone else. She let herself think of his flashing eyes and crooked smile.
