So I forgot to thank my Beta, Katherine, for all the wonderful things she told me to do. I hope you all enjoy the story and comment and like all you want, I'm always happy to see people enjoying what I write.
10 years later
The forest was dark, dreary and damp so Stiles felt absolutely miserable. His stomach hadn't stopped complaining and this meant that, much to Scott's chagrin, Stiles wouldn't stop complaining either.
"I haven't eaten in three days, Scott, three days! My stomach is going to eat itself. I'm going to be the first person who died of a self eating stomach. If newspapers still existed the headline would be something along the lines of 'First ever death through self eating stomach'. Owner of the Stomach is called Stiles, read all about it in today's newspaper, only $1.50!"
Scott merely replied by rolling his eyes.
"I'm starving!" Stiles whined
"Stiles I haven't eaten in three days either, remember? Plus my mum once told me that a person can survive three weeks without food, so cheer up, you still have tonnes of time." Scott finished that statement with his brightest smile.
"You're a werewolf, Scott, you have that whole thing where you don't need to eat for days, also my body weight is made up of sarcasm, I need food to keep it up."
"Bro, I'm not disagreeing with the second point but do I need to remind you that you're the one that's fond of telling me that it's actual wolves that can do that not werewolves."
Stiles answer was to sputter until he ended up scowling.
"No point in pouting, you know I'm right."
After the little talk they stood in companionable silence until Stiles' stomach rumbled loudly. Scott looked at Stiles, smiling and then burst out laughing.
"It's not funny"
"It kind of is though"
"No it's not, and the reason for that…"
Before Stiles could finish, he was interrupted by Scott who suddenly froze. The bigger boy started to raise his head, nose up, and took in a deep breath.
"Stiles I can smell something, something strange"
"You mean food?"
Scott simply glared at Stiles.
"I want to get out of this forest, something's not right."
"You think Fae?"
Scott hesitated before answering.
"I don't think so but I'm almost certain we're not alone. Come on, lets get out of here."
Stiles nodded and the both of them turned around, retracing their steps.
For a couple of hours they didn't talk, both too worried about what Scott may have smelt. When the sky became dark and the moon started to rise the boys stopped for camp. Scott started to speak when he noticed that Stiles was stacking dry pieces of wood.
"I don't think which should light a fire tonight."
"The smell still bothering you?"
Stiles was starting to get really worried, if Scott was right that meant that not only did they have an unknown enemy but they didn't have the energy nor the resources to fight it off.
"No, I can't smell it anymore it's just my instinct is telling me that something is still out there."
"Should we carry on then?"
Scott wavered before shaking his head.
"Neither one of us has the energy to go on..."
Stiles, agreeing with his friend, finished Scott's thoughts for him
"...so we should sleep in turns tonight, sure we can do that. I'll go first, it's better if you're in good shape if we get attacked. I'll wake you up in five hours."
As Scott was getting ready to sleep, Stiles studied the forest surrounding them carefully, and mumbled something under his breath. Satisfied that nothing jumped at them, Stiles found a comfortable place to sit.
Four hours after having fallen asleep Scott heard a noise. He stood up quickly and took out his father's old iron knife. He had the added benefit of fangs and claws, but those remained useless in the fight against the Fae so he didn't want to take any chances against an enemy he hadn't yet seen. Scott was able to take a couple of steps forward before he heard someone preparing to attack him from behind. He quickly turned to face his unknown assailant, completely wolfed out as Stiles was fond of saying. Scott heard a quick "Shit, a werewolf" before he charged towards a man wearing a mask, and caught the his enemy's throat in his free hand. He growled showing his fangs, but before he could start questioning the man a powerful female voice shouted for him to stop.
"You will let go of Jackson right now if you don't want your friend to get his throat slit open"
Scott let go of the man instantly and turned around to face the person threatening his brother. He saw a sight that made his blood run cold, Stiles was looking at Scott with his hands raised in the air and a woman who was also wearing a mask held a knife under his chin.
"Sorry man, they caught me by complete surprise." Stiles said.
Scott shifted back to his human form and dropped the knife that was still in his hand before raising his hands in the air like Stiles.
The woman asked her partner if he was okay, getting a grumble in response. She then turned her attention to the prisoners, and took out her own iron knife
"I'm now going to make sure that neither one of you is a Fae. Don't do anything rash, you'll regret it"
Stiles paled visibly and flailed a little bit before asking
" What are you going to do with the knife?"
The woman replied quickly and impatiently,
"Cut you"
Stiles said, a touch hysterically,
"Cut us, you mean make us bleed with blood flowing. Are you crazy?"
The masked archer answered by asking
" Why? Have something to hide?"
"Not really I'm just not a big fan of sharp things making me bleed."
The woman ignored him and grabbed his arm, she made a shallow cut and studied his injury making sure that none of the skin started to burn. Faes, being magical creatures were intolerant to iron and the slightest touch of the metal burnt them. Once she was sure that Stiles wasn't a Fae using glamour* she walked towards Scott and waited for him to give her his arm. She made the same cut on Scott, and once the cut had healed she pressed the knife to her own arm to prove that she was human as well.
Once everyone was certain that none of them were Fae in hiding, both attackers unmasked themselves. This gave the boys a clear look of their assailants and after several seconds of study they realised that Jackson and the girl weren't actually adults but were the same age as them. The girl was a pretty brunette with brown eyes and visible inner strength. The boy was handsome in a conventional way with his muscled body and blue eyes with blonde hair. The girl was the one that broke the silence,
"I'm sorry about that, but I'm afraid it was necessary. My name is Allison and this is Jackson, and you are?"
Scott and Stiles shared a look before the werewolf replied to her question
"I'm Scott and this is Stiles. Why are the both of you here?"
Allison seemed surprised by the question
"Aren't you here because of the Community?"
Both boys shook their heads in confusion. This time Stiles was the one that spoke,
"What's the Community?"
At the question Jackson burst out laughing.
"Oh brilliant Argent, you attacked two random guys for no reason at all."
The girl simply ignored him and went back to asking questions to the other two.
"If you're not here for it, what are you doing in our forest?"
Rather than reply to the question directed at both him and Scott, Stiles decided to antagonize Allison. He was sick of being treated as a prisoner when all they had done was try to sleep in the forest, but before he could open his mouth Scott shook his head, warning Stiles to not open his mouth. The werewolf knew perfectly well the his brother in arms never knew when to shut up and so took it upon himself to stop him before he got them killed.
"We hadn't realised that we weren't allowed here, we just needed to get resources and rest in a place that was covered enough that we wouldn't get easily found by the Enemy."
Allison and Jackson nodded in understanding, both knowing the essential need for cover to survive in this world. Stiles once again asked what the Community was, and this time he got his answer.
"The Community is, as its name suggests, a group of people that found each other and banded together. It's basically a village, but everyone, man and woman, boy and girl, is taught to fight, hunt and heal. We're raised to be able to survive in a group or alone." Allison paused for a breath but before she was able to continue she was interrupted by Scott
"Does this place… Does it accept people like me? You know, werewolves?"
Allison smiled softly at Scott and replied
"Yes we do, there's a pack and its alpha is one of the three leaders. We also have emissaries, or druids as we call them. As long as they're not Fae, we're pretty accepting, we don't have the manpower or supplies to be judgemental over whom we accept to be perfectly honest."
Scott was thrilled with the news and asked if it was possible for him and Stiles to go to the Community but before either Allison or Jackson were able to answer Stiles snapped
"Are you crazy Scott? Do you honestly want to go with some crazy people that attacked us in the middle of the night for no reason at all? For all we know they could be setting up a trap by tempting us with their gingerbread house!"
After Stiles finished his tirade Jackson intercepted by sneering and saying
"Yeah thats a great plan, defeat the two losers and then convince them to go to the Community where they'll be killed. Absolute genius. Allison, I personally think that we don't need two idiots in our midst, they'll probably end up killing the lot of us by accident, just leave them here and let's go."
Allison merely glared at Jackson, making it clear that his 'suggestion' was going to ignored. She then looked wearily at Stiles and began to speak.
"Your worries are logical and I'm sure that out there, there are people that do such things, but we don't. You can only take our word for it, but I promise on my life that the Community is a safe haven for any living human as long as they follow the rules"
Stiles studied her before quietly saying
"You shouldn't make such important promises so easily. You never know who'll use it against you."
Allison swallowed and took a step back before she realised what she was doing. She then carefully looked at Stiles, trying to see what she had missed in the boy she had clearly underestimated. When she had first seen Stiles she'd thought he was the weak type, the kind of person that hid behind a stronger individual and whose only defence was his sharp tongue. Seeing the relationship he shared with Scott only reinforced that idea. The werewolf seemed to be the leader of the little duo not only because of his superior physical capabilities but also because he was the one that seemed to be the most rational. But she'd missed something, a certain strength, or maybe darkness, that the pale boy had that would make it impossible for someone to lead. Allison made sure to remember to watch Stiles carefully if he accepted to come with them to her home.
Scott was surprised by the darkness in Stiles voice, but neither did he find it completely unexpected, his friend had always had a firm belief that promises should only be made as a way of proving loyalty and truth, they are not to be easily used. Still, he thought that Allison's reaction to what his brother had said was a little bit extreme, Stiles could be frightening but he'd been perfectly normal just then. Once the werewolf saw that the pretty girl had recovered from her momentary lapse, he turned towards Stiles and begged him for the both of them to go see the Community. The thinner boy was vulnerable to his friend's puppy dog eyes and so grudgingly accepted to go with them to this safe place.
"Fine, but just to see the place, and if an old lady tries to eat us I'm going to leave you behind and never look back."
Hearing this Scott whooped in joy and smiled shyly at Allison who in return tilted her head flirtatiously.
As they went to gather their things Allison saw that Stiles' arm was bothering him, she approached him and asked
"Do you want me to take a look at the cut? I may have gone deeper than I thought."
Stiles, seeing the honest regret that lay in Allison's eyes, smiled softly at her and told her not to worry
"I bruise easily and I bleed easily, cuts always hurt more than they should. Don't worry about it, I'll be fine in a while."
Allison nodded and went back to help her partner in getting some of the things they left behind in their makeshift camp not 200m away from where Stiles and Scott had set up theirs. Scott on the other hand knew about his friends easy bruising but still wanted to see the injury.
"No, Scott I'm fine, it's nothing I'm perfectly alright really. Let go of my arm!"
The werewolf ignored Stiles's request and pushed away the fabric covering the injury. When Scott was finally able to see the cut he gasped. The skin surrounding the cut was bright red. Stiles sighed with exasperation, pulled his arm away and said
"You know how I get, my injuries always look worse than they truly are. Relax, I'm not dying."
"Stiles it looks infected!"
The thinner boy merely raised his eyebrow and told his brother
"I'll be fine in a couple of hours, it just my body going under shock for having been cut or something. If you want I'll show it to you later"
Scott nodded his consent although still obviously worried. When the four of them got moving and a couple of hours passed, the werewolf asked Stiles to show him the injury again just to be sure he was fine. The boy did so with annoyance, but Scott saw that the cut was much better, only slightly red now and not bleeding any longer. He smiled, content and when he turned his back to Stiles he missed his friend's exhale of relief.
(A/N Glamour is the capability to look like something you're not. For example the glamour hides a Fae's wings and other physical differences they have. The glamour is only a mask, beneath the magic they are still the same.)