~A Wild Heart~

Chapter Eleven

~~~ooooo~~~

"This way," Aeris said, moving swiftly through the forest underbrush as Zack followed behind, trying to keep up with her.

His footfalls were fast, if not nearly as silent as hers. "I don't know how you're not getting whiplashes from all these things," he muttered, batting a vine out of his face.

He heard her chuckle. "I do this thing called, "I look where I'm going". You should try it. It really works."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "I've heard that one before."

She pushed back a clump of brambles hanging from a branch above them and held it back for him with her staff as he came up beside her. "Wrong way," he thought he heard her murmur. She smiled apologetically at him. "Forgot these were here. But now's a good time as any to start learning how to use your eyes. And," she added dryly, "it might prevent you from getting lost next time, if you would remember to keep the boundaries of the forest in sight."

Zack slid a sidelong glance at her. "All right, Tifa. What did you do with Aeris? 'Fess up!"

She laughed as they pressed forward again. "She does have it right, though. Which reminds me, what on earth were you doing this far in the forest?"

"I thought I saw someone. I figured he or she was lost and needed some help. But…they ran away."

"Maybe it was someone hunting."

"No, it looked like a child."

Aeris drew up short and stared at him. "W-what? Who?"

He shook his head in bewilderment. "I've never seen him or her before, I don't think. Black hair. About this long." He brought his hand up to just below his shoulder then down to his chest. "And this tall maybe."

"Anthony? Megan?" Zack could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she cast about for names among their neighbor's children that would fit that description. "Carrie? One of the Franklin boys?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. They looked…wild."

"Wild?" Her brows knitted in confusion. "You mean, like they were an animal from the wild?"

"I mean, like they weren't wearing much clothing," he clarified.

"They weren't…" she sputtered.

The shock on her face probably mirrored what had been on his. He chuckled as they began moving through the woods once more. "That's why I think I was just seeing things. This place will do that to you. It was strange. Stranger than normal, that is," he amended at the look she gave him. "I called out to whoever it was and I swear, they looked right at me and ran off. I tried to chase them but they were just too fast. When I finally stopped, I realized I was completely lost myself. I didn't know which way I'd come from." A branch suddenly swung back toward him from the shadows all around them, too fast for him to duck in time, and he felt a sharp sting in his jaw. "You agree, don't you, Aeris? I was probably just thinking I saw something, right?"

She seemed startled by the question. "I… Of-of course. What else could it have been?"

Zack shrugged. "A lot of folks would say 'fairies'."

"True." Aeris' face was troubled. "They'd say either that or an illusion," she said with what sounded like forced humor but he tried to tell himself he was imagining that, too. "Real or illusion, it would have to be the work of fairies."

"And that's why I asked you," he said lightly. "You're more level-headed than most everyone we know."

Her eyes slid away from his. "You might be surprised."

It was his turn to force a smile. "I've always liked that about you, Aeris. You have a sensible head on your shoulders."

She became noticeably quieter as they forged on again.

Zack didn't like the disturbing thoughts her reaction had roused inside of him. Catching up to her quickly, he tried to ask casually, "How did you find me? How did you even know I was in here?"

"I didn't. I just heard a great deal of thrashing coming from the forest as we were passing by. You're lucky we came back early today or you would've spent the next week in here."

"All the way out there?" He stole a glance at her out of the corner of his eyes and met her laughing gaze.

"At first I thought it was an elephant," she giggled, leaping gracefully onto a slab of stone hidden amongst the undergrowth and creepers right in the middle of their path that he would've tripped over if she hadn't been there to lead the way. "But we don't have elephants so I knew whoever was in here had to be lost."

He winced. "I was caught in this giant trap of vines and brambles." There really hadn't been that many, but he probably shouldn't have tried to walk straight through them.

"And that is why you should use your eyes," his companion said as they came to the end of a row of bushes that still hung heavy with the last of the season's raspberries. "It would've saved you a lot of trouble."

"Say," he said, eyeing the bushes with interest. "Why don't we pick some of these to take home? Tifa would like that."

"Lucy and Daisy are waiting with the sheep," she reminded him. "And I left my basket out there with them anyway."

He nodded curtly. "Fine."

They pushed through a thicket of branches and suddenly found themselves in a meadow, their ability to see their surroundings greatly improved by the sunlight filtering through the more sparse branches over their heads. The sounds and sight of water surging their way greeted them, splashes of white spilling and gushing forth from between great boulders, relentlessly racing southward into the hills.

Aeris lifted her face to the sky and closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. A grin tugged at the corners of Zack's mouth as he studied the small smile of pleasure playing about her lips, clearly enjoying the feel of the sun's warmth on her face. "Well, here we are!" she announced triumphantly, opening her eyes and moving forward. "Why, we're not far from the edge of the woods at all!"

Zack's face jerked to the noisy water up ahead before turning to stare in dumbfounded amazement at the gurgling stream nearer to the clearing where they were standing. He transferred his stunned gaze to Aeris, who had spun back around to face him when she'd heard no response from him.

"How did you know where the stream was?"

Her entire body went stock still.

"I…"

"Aeris?" He took a step toward her and she shrunk back. "How were you able to find the stream so easily?"

Her eyes were huge and dark in her pale face as she stood in the last rays of sunlight, the look on her face reminiscent of a scared animal caught in a trap.

Zack drew in his breath sharply.

"I…I could hear it," she stammered.

"I didn't hear a thing, not until we were just a few yards away."

"I heard you."

He searched her face, doubtful.

"Zack?" She was watching him, her eyes still wary. "Are you all right?"

He didn't know if he quite believed her. There was no question in his mind she'd known exactly where she was going as she'd led him through the forest. She'd moved with a confidence he'd only ever felt in the comfort of their farm; it had never even occurred to him to do anything other than follow her.

"Zack." He heard the concern in her voice as she came toward him, and saw the worry on her face. "You've been hurt." She touched his jaw gently. "Let's go home. I'm sorry."

He suddenly felt every bit of weariness he'd managed to forget while they'd been traipsing through the woods. "Yeah, let's go home," he said tiredly.

~~~ooooo~~~

For as long as mankind had been telling stories, fairies had featured in them. Aeris figured then that fairies must predate humans by quite some time. At some point deep in the vaults of history, fairies hadn't been as ambivalent toward humans and sightings of the fairer race had not been as rare as they were now. There had been gatherings where interactions between their peoples had happened, and even liaisons and affairs on occasion. And yet, they'd remained a mystery to humans for thousands of years, and the stories were little more than speculations and wild conjectures for the most part. Fantasy. Humans who'd caught a glimpse of the fey and spun fantastical stories about them, and others who'd heard them and were inspired to expound upon them or weave their own tales.

But the reverse was not true. Fairies knew of the ways of humans and were able to speak the languages of the peoples that lived near them. They observed them in their day-to-day life coming and going and a person going about their chores could walk right by one and never know they had just brushed up against a fairy.

"It is forbidden," was all the answer he gave her when she finally put the question to him. "The people don't interact with humans. My mother says that's the way it has to be."

But it hadn't always been so, Aeris knew. Somewhere in both their races' pasts, humans and fairies had been able to come together and take parts in all kinds of festivities and revel in one another's company.

"Why does she say it has to be that way?"

The fairy watching her sheep with her lifted his eyes to hers, but his face was as closed as ever to her. "Because it is for the best."

"But how is it for the best? And why is it forbidden? Who forbids it? Where is it written that we must not see or speak to each other?" she persisted. She'd clearly taken him by surprise as his hand paused in midair with the daisy he'd been about to add to the ones he'd woven meticulously through her hair in an elaborate design that held the thick mass of long brown curls together. Aeris thought it was a shame she would have to undo all his beautiful handiwork again before she went home. "Is it writ in stone, and everything under the sun has to obey it?"

"So many questions," he said with what sounded like amused tolerance. He brought his hand down, gazing at the flower he still held. "It is not our place to ask questions. We just do as we are told."

"But…" She looked at him in confusion. "You're here. With me."

"Yes."

"You don't seem to be the sort that plays tricks on people."

"You've been listening to too many tales."

"So you're not all like that?" she pressed.

"It figures that the stories you've heard are mostly about the fairies who cause mischief—they're the ones humans spot and remember. The rest stay out of sight." Heavy blond lashes lifted, blue eyes meeting hers, but his voice was guarded. "They are but a small segment of the populace."

Aeris' shoulders dropped and her eyes fell to the ground. "And the never-ending festivities," she said, her voice hollow. "The feasting and drinking that go on for days and days…"

"Fairies like our food and wine and we will find every excuse to celebrate, but I think our reputation for drinking and feasting have been slightly exaggerated. Again it is just the few among us who have the fortitude or inclination to indulge in spirits for days on end."

"They are known to toy with human emotions and our affections."

"Not all fairies do." A flower came briefly into her line of vision and she felt his thumb under her chin, tilting her face up gently. "Some of us believe that emotions are the planet's greatest gift and should be handled with the utmost care and respect."

The fear she hadn't wanted to admit to ebbed slightly. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome." She had a sneaking suspicion he was fighting back a grin. But when she searched his face, she saw only what looked like amused tenderness in his eyes. The humor fled from his face as he spoke again, his voice hesitant but sincere. "Aeris…"

"Yes?"

"Even if it is written in stone," he said, tucking the daisy behind her ear. "You and I…" Warm fingers traced the outline of her cheek ever-so-lightly. "We are written in the stars."

She caught his face, pulled him down, and kissed him.

~~~ooooo~~~

"'For the welts on his back that he received in return for two years of back-breaking work he did for you, for the wages you promised him and which you never intended to pay, for breaking your contract with him for such a minor infraction, you too shall be punished. Reneging on your word, lying and cheating him out of the gil he's earned a hundred times over, scheming to let his family starve while you lived off of the labor their son provided, rewarding him thusly rather than with the praise and gratitude he deserves and which you owe him… For all of that and more you will join what you deem to be among the lowest forms of life and this boy will reap the benefits of all the hard work he put into helping you make this farm profitable,' the angry fairy proclaimed, and with a flick of her wrist, the farmer and his wife and their children vanished, and the stable boy leaped back with a start from a family of black insects burrowing through the pile of cow manure at his feet with the flies that was his job to shovel."

"Ew, Tifa." Aeris grimaced, staring at the charred beef on the end of her fork. It was pretty dry although Tifa had done a good job of saving it when the squawking from the yard had sent her running outside only to see the tail end of a turkey disappearing back into the forest. "Did you have to choose that story to read?"

Zack laughed. "I don't see what's wrong with it," he said, forking the last burnt chunk of steak on his plate into his mouth with gusto.

"You wouldn't." Aeris set her fork down with a sigh and pushed her plate aside. "I'm not very hungry tonight."

The other girl lifted her brows. "I thought you said you wanted to hear a story."

"You couldn't have picked another one?"

"I've never read this one before. I didn't know how it was going to be. You have to admit, this one's more entertaining than most."

"It's gross."

Tifa gave a nonchalant shrug. "She is kind of evil, isn't she?"

"I wouldn't say evil exactly," Aeris said, nonplussed. "But she does seem to have an odd sort of fascination for beetles. Or maybe you just like those stories the best and always choose to read them."

"Or maybe she's just evil," Tifa reaffirmed. "She's more like the Queen of the Beetles."

"Tifa," Aeris reproached her gently. "That's not nice."

"Martha dubbed her that, not me. She'd be a wonderful queen if not for her tendency to turn everyone who gets on her wrong side into dung beetles. But don't worry." She gave Aeris a look that said she knew what her friend was thinking. "I'm not going to go around repeating it. You're the only ones I've said anything about it to."

"All right." Aeris was only too happy to move onto another topic. "But here's a question for you then."

Tifa's face was skeptical. "Are you going to lecture me?"

"No, that's your job," Aeris replied, biting back a laugh at the indignation that crossed the other girl's face. "This goes back to something that we've talked about before and I'm just curious what your answer would be considering the story you read tonight. Would you call the fairy queen turning the family into dung beetles an act of mischief or an act of anger?" She grinned. "Or was she merely meting out punishment?"

Tifa scowled.

"All three," Zack piped up. "I know, I know, but acts of anger and punishment could be viewed as various forms of mischief, can't they?"

"Not necessarily," Aeris argued. "Not when it's done purely out of a desire to teach the family a lesson for wrongdoing. Her reasons should be taken into account."

"It's mischief," Tifa said. "Mischief and because she's evil."

"Tifa!" Aeris shot her a look of exasperation. "Please don't say such things out in the open, I beg you."

"Calm down." Tifa rolled her eyes. "We're hardly out in the open. We're inside our own house."

"You should still know to be careful about what you say better than Zack or I do. You read fairy stories all the time. The mischievous fairies would not think twice about punishing a human for something they view as a slight to their queen."

"Who's lecturing now?" Tifa asked dryly. "Listen, I do know better than to say things where I can be overheard. Like I said before, I have no intention of going around repeating anything you've heard me say tonight."

Aeris had her doubts but she knew she could usually trust her friend's claims. "If you say so.'

"I do."

"She's beautiful."

The soft, dreamy voice was so out of place in the kitchen, the two girls forgot what they were arguing about and turned as one to stare at their companion. Zack was gazing at the wall across from his chair with a peculiar expression on his face that called to mind what was oftentimes described on the face of a moonstruck boy in stories.

"Zack?" Aeris asked softly.

Her voice seemed to break him out of the spell holding him as he shook his head and glancing around, saw that both his housemates were looking at him as if he'd taken leave of his senses.

"The fairy queen," he explained when he realized no one had acknowledged his previous statement. "She's beautiful."

Tifa didn't bother to hide her irritation. "She's a witch."

"She's beautiful," he said again. "Beautiful enough to cast her spell over any man and have him willing to do her every bidding with just a glimpse of her face."

She turned her scowl on him. "And just how would you know what she looks like, Zack?"

"All the stories say she is. 'The most beautiful woman who has ever walked the earth,'" he quoted a line that was, as he said, often seen printed in various stories. "They can't all be wrong."

"The stories say that about all fairies. According to them, every fairy surpasses even the most beautiful of humans," Tifa pointed out. "And I thought you don't believe in fairies anyway."

"Some days I don't, some days I do."

Aeris glanced at Zack in surprise. "Just because we don't hear of fairy sightings anymore doesn't mean they're not still around. You can't live in a place like this and not believe in them. I think that's why fairies stories are so prevalent out here."

"As long as the stories about the fairy queen's beauty aren't just tales, I'm fine with that."

"Honestly," Tifa snapped. "Is that really all you care about?"

"Of course. What else matters but that a woman is beautiful?"

"Oh, I don't know. What about having a good, kind heart?"

Black eyebrows drew together as though he was giving some thought to it. He shook his head, apparently oblivious to the daggers a pair of brown eyes were shooting at him. "I'll take a fair damsel over a good, kind one any day."

From her spot safely out of the way of any sharp objects that could possibly misfire, Aeris smothered a laugh as she watched her friends bicker this time around. Zack had a particular knack for getting under Tifa's skin and relished the opportunity to do so every chance he got.

"How like a man," Tifa retorted hotly, planting her hands on the table and leaning forward to glare at him. "Picking looks over kindness."

"Hey, she is a nice fairy."

"I'll eat my hat the day you pick a homely girl over a pretty one."

Zack sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. "Everything else being equal, why wouldn't I choose a pretty girl over a plain one?"

"I think what Tifa meant," Aeris explained with an impish grin, "is that we all know that a girl's character is not her most important attribute to you, Zack."

"And how is that a problem?" he asked with a careless shrug.

"It's stupid, that's how." Tifa's face was red with anger. "If that's all a man cares about, it's no wonder no girl will take him seriously. Right, Aeris?"

No sooner had the words tumbled from her lips then Tifa slapped her hand over her mouth. But it was too late. The room had become so silent, one could hear a pin drop and underneath his golden tan, Zack's face had turned pale.

Aeris stared at the other girl in shock. "Tifa!"

"I didn't mean it," Tifa whispered, dropping her hand. "Zack, I didn't mean it! I'm so sorry."

His face like stone, he gave an almost imperceptible nod and said stiffly, "It's all right. I know you didn't." He pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. "I should go check on the chickens."

Without another word, he strode out of the house.

~~~ooooo~~~

Aeris reached the summit of the hill and stood for a moment at the very top, surveying the countryside in all its summertime splendor around her. One of the things the people who lived there loved most about the land was that it remained relatively the same throughout the seasons. Winters would see a drop in temperature and the nights were frigid but by day, the grass was green and the sun shone brightly out on the hills, looking almost as warm as it did now. The green-brown hills with a lonely tree or shrub here and there and dark shapes scattered across the fields that were really great, big pieces of rock she saw now were not much different than what she would see in the coming weeks when the days would begin to get colder and the leaves started to fall.

A sudden fierce gust of wind whipped by, tossing her hair and dress about her. She swept her hair out of her eyes as she spun around slowly, admiring the verdant beauty of the landscape on almost every side. Below her to her left was a mass huddle of slowly moving white, guarded by the two large figures of brown and red sitting patiently just a short distance from their charges, and a few hills away to her right was the forest that lay far to the north, blocking the land beyond it from view.

Her eyes lingered on the forest, that dark, ancient wood that had always been such a source of great intrigue to the humans who'd chosen to build their homes so close to it but cautioned against. She was beginning to understand why she'd felt an inexplicable affinity for these woods all her life. Unlike everyone else, it was not the hills that had won her absolute devotion. For Aeris, she loved the hills that gave them their livelihood, but the forest had always held that special place in her heart. She'd known somehow that it held something that would be very important to her, something infinitely precious, and she would just have to wait until it finally chose to divulge what that was.

It had revealed a certain fairy, she thought now, a soft smile curving her lips as the image of a blond fey with eyes as blue as the midday sky covering the wide expanse of hills filled her mind.