Eight
The forest around the fairy party grounds was dark, but enchanting and comforting in a way. It was nothing like what Dean had imagined though. It was as though it took on a new life at night. The trees were dormant and their whispers were silenced by slumber. The moon shone brightly through the treetops that covered the ground below like a canopy over a bed. There was a new energy that was more relaxed than that back at the dance floor and Dean felt instantly at peace. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath in. His exhale was the loudest sound around and Dean felt like a wolf creeping through a silent meadow of sleeping sheep. He was afraid to wake any creatures that lie around him. He worried a little less when he heard a stick crack under Lily's foot.
"I take it you haven't taken it upon yourself to explore yet," Lily ducked under a limb with hanging leaves surrounding it. She lifted it up so that Dean could follow and he caught a waft of some exotic and beautiful smell that seemed to permeate from Lily. He could easily get drunk on a smell like that. "You're going to like this I think."
"I think I'll like anything here," Dean replied and followed her past the tree and further down the path. "It's nothing like my world."
"I'm sure yours is better." Lily sighed almost in defeat and she slowed down. Dean sensed they were reaching their desired location.
"Are you kidding me," Dean laughed. "You've got to be kidding me right? I mean my world is so fricken boring compared to this one."
"To you," Lily turned to look at him when she spoke. Her eyes were filled with this wanderlust that Dean couldn't even describe in words. "But to me. It's my biggest dream."
"What do you mean?" Dean asked, genuinely curious.
"I imagine you don't have your parents telling you what to do all the time," Lily touched the edge of a tree trunk and made her way around it. Dean eyed her carefully. He didn't need to get in trouble if the princess tripped and hurt herself. "Do you?"
"Well no," Dean debated telling her his parents' cruel fate, but he decided against it. "I don't actually."
"Exactly," Lily let out an exasperated sigh. "You're free. You're not tied to something you don't want to be."
If only she knew Dean thought.
"You know besides being fulfiller of a century old prophecy of your people and defeating an evil wench living in the "hundred acre wood" yeah I've got it made," Dean chuckled with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Not to mention my obligations back home."
"Figures," Lily gave him a playful smile. "And here I thought you could stay forever?"
"Well I'm here now aren't I?" Dean said. "That should count for something."
"Yes it does," Lily was about to say something else when she realized they were. She smiled. "We're here."
Dean looked around. Where she'd led him was an open area of the trees away from the edge of the forest where her people lived. All was calm and quiet. It wasn't an uneasy quiet though it was the perfect kind of quiet. Lily walked into the center of the grounds and stood as though she was waiting. She motioned for Dean to follow her and he reluctantly did. Once he walked over he realized she was surrounded by flowers, glowing flowers. They were all different colors like the drinks at the party and they were as fluorescent as the mushrooms that had guided his journey to Somewhere.
Dean felt a sudden rush of wind and he noticed that the flowers around Lily had begun to fly around them in a vortex that had begun as fast as a crescendo. Lily held out her arms and her hair flew in the breeze. She laughed loudly and it was full of pure happiness. Dean found that he too was laughing and uncovering his face. The flowers flapped their pedals like wings and if Dean could compare them to anything else he'd have called them the most unique little angels he'd ever laid eyes on.
"That was awesome," Lily giggled. "That was what I wanted you to see!"
"Well," Dean replied, laughing a little himself. "That was quite the experience that, may I repeat, you don't get back in my world."
"That was the five hundredth time I've seen that in my young life," Lily blew air out of her mouth and it moved her bangs away from her forehead. "It went from the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my entire life to awesome in a few short years."
"No kidding," Dean looked up at where the flowers had gone. They'd disappeared into the night sky and blended with the stars that he could see. When he looked back down he saw Lily had sat on a fallen log near a small lake and was staring down aimlessly at her reflection. Dean cocked his head slightly like Castiel did, imitating when his friend was confused and he joined her. "Whatcha thinking about?"
"Everything," she let out another deep sigh.
"That's vague." Dean sarcastically replied.
"I'm just worried is all," she stated. "I'm worried about the future and my people and I'm worried I'm going to lead the most mundane and boring existence known to mankind or fae. Don't you ever worry about that? Living an ordinary life."
"Never." Dean could honestly say that.
"I do," Lily stared at both of their reflections now. "Never leaving here, never meeting the one, and never sharing that first beautiful kiss."
Dean laughed.
"Well don't you ever think about it?" she asked him and Dean found that for the first time he couldn't answer her truthfully.
"I swear if you push me one more time I'm going to rip your wings out," two figures were crouched in the bushes. Puck and his friend. They were whispered and hissing in one another's ears to shut up and stay still. "Now be quiet."
"Well then quit pushing me back," his friend complained and rolled his eyes as Puck turned his focus back to his sister and Dean.
Dean tried to answer her, but he couldn't find the words. He hadn't thought much about it honestly. His line of work wasn't really made for forever with anyone. He'd had those apple pie life dreams as Sam always called them, but he'd never acted on them. Nor did he ever think he'd get the chance to. Lily lifted her head up and their faces were so close again. Her hair was cupping her face in a dreamy way and Dean looked at her in a different light for a moment. He felt her hand brush over his on the log and she was gazing at him like he was the most interesting thing in the world. Her eyes were blown and she had a haze about her. Their eyes were beginning to shut and they could almost feel each other's breath. Lily leaned ever closer and she was almost kissing Dean before she felt the log beneath them roll seemingly on its own plunging them both into the water before them. Lily screamed and Dean made a noise similar to a grunt and they both fell into the depths before swimming back up and sputtering water out from between their lips. All while Puck snickered in the bushes.
"You ok?" Dean asked. "Here c'mon let's get back to solid ground."
"Yeah," Lily coughed a bit of water up. "I'm fine."
The annoyance in her voice was evident and Puck heard it loud and clear. His mission was accomplished thus far. But if he knew his sister he knew that she also wasn't one to give up so easily.
"Son of a bitch," Dean typically would refrain from using profanity in front of royalty, but in that moment it seemed appropriate. "That's cold! Who or what did that? At this point I'm thoroughly convinced that the log could've thrown us off itself."
"I'm sure it was a fluke," Lily was determined to confront her brother later. She knew this was his doing. "Let's just get out of here before something else happens."
Dean nodded in agreement and the pair begun to trek back to the dance floor leaving Puck smirking in satisfaction in the bushes.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Lily undressed when she got to her room and into warmer nightclothes. She cursed her brother under her breath and wore a look of general annoyance and anger on her face. She snatched up a towel from her dresser and slammed the drawer shut. She trudged over to the doorway and through it before accidentally running into the subject of her frustration.
"It had to be done." Puck stated.
"Why can't you just stay in your own business and I'll stay in mine," she glared at her brother looking up at him with disdain. "Is that so hard for you?"
"He's no good for you," Puck said as Lily begun to stomp off. It made her stop in place and her shoulders stiffen. "I hope you know he's going to break your precious heart with his pretty boy charm. He's no prince charming."
"Neither are you," Lily shot back. "And you've gotten this far. Dean is the hero our father proclaims him to be. He's told me he is here to defeat our worst nightmare and quite frankly I trust his word. I just wish you had the sense to."
"The sense," Puck scoffed and let out a bout a sarcastic laughter. "Oh sister dear you are blindsided! Emotions are terrible things; they mess with you so badly. Take heed in the human's real intentions I don't think any of them have you in the long term picture."
"We shall see," Lily said as though she was giving Puck a deadly warning. "He has yet to fight or train. You'll see then that he is everything we could've hoped for."
Lily abruptly walked off leaving Puck alone in the corridor of their parent's palace inside the tree. Puck's makeup had worn off quite a bit and his belt hung lopsided on his hips after dancing. Puck watched his sister depart into the nearby bathroom most likely to soak for awhile into the night and he turned away.
"Very well," he said to a no longer listening Lily. "Tomorrow we shall see if your pretty boy can truly dance."
He disappeared into the darkness that engulfed the hallway.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Dean nearly screamed when he felt the hands grabbing him and lifting him fast out of his bed at an ungodly hour in the morning. The sheets were still tangled around him and his limbs were flailing in attempt to assault his assailants. It was still dark in his room so he could not clearly make out who they were. Dean struggled against their grips and he arched his back in an attempt to get whoever they were to drop him but to no avail. Dean kicked and punched and wiggled until the blinding sun hit him and he hit the dirt face first. His assailants dispersed and Dean looked up to see the last face he wanted to.
"Rise and shine pretty boy," Puck stood before Dean with a sword strung through his belt and he tossed one by Dean's side. The blade shimmered into Dean's eyes and he groaned. "Time to see what you're really made of."
Reviews are appreciated!
This chapter was typed sober! Yay me! Not that any of you care or probably needed to know that.