~A Wild Heart~
Chapter Twenty-One
~~~ooooo~~~
"I was thinking about what you said the other day."
His voice was mild, amiable even, but Tifa knew better.
"What did I say?" she tried to ask conversationally, scrubbing at the grease in the pan with more vigor.
"You said something about where one goes, another one follows."
"I thought you didn't catch that."
Zack shrugged.
She waited patiently.
He didn't disappoint her. "It gave me an idea."
"I don't think I like where this is going."
"Tifa, why should we catch someone else to undo this mess?"
"Zack." She sucked in her breath. "What are you saying? What have you done?"
"Nothing."
"Yet." Her stomach twisted, turning into knots. The brush fell into the bucket with a splash as she set the pot aside, rose from her stool. She dried her hands on her apron and slowly approached him where he sat at his mother's old dining table that had been relocated into the kitchen when the girls had first arrived on the farm and she decided a bigger table would be necessary. "Tell me what you're thinking."
Zack's eyes were fixed on the table top as if it was a deeply complex puzzle he was trying to solve. "I have a plan."
"Dear gods. Aeris—"
"We won't hurt him, Tifa. I've given it a lot of thought and it's the safest way for all of us. The only way. And Aeris..." He looked up, met her gaze head on. "Well, she'll never have to know."
Her eyes passed over his face, taking in the pale, withdrawn features, the desperation in the deep blue eyes. Tifa felt her heart squeeze.
"All right," she said with a sigh of resignation. "What is your plan?"
His eyes turned wary. "Maybe...it's better if you don't know the details either."
"Zack!"
"I don't want you to worry or make things worse at home."
"You not telling me what you're up to makes me worry more."
"Just trust me. We won't hurt him, I promise."
"Oh, Zack."
She had a very bad feeling about this.
~~~ooooo~~~
"I tried to warn you."
"You!" Aeris shot to her feet so fast, she nearly stumbled and had to use her staff to keep from losing her balance. She glanced wildly around her but other than the sheep and the dogs, she and the young fairy were alone.
"Yes, me," the girl answered. "He's not here. I made sure he left."
She took an instinctive step back, but forced herself to stop and stand her ground when she saw the fairy's eyes gleam with triumph. "What do you want?" she asked, bracing herself for an attack or a temper tantrum from the hellion.
"Not much." Black lashes lowered, concealing any mischief that might be lurking in the dark eyes. "Just two dozen lambs, three scores of laying hens, both your mules, the cows, a pair of oxen, your farm, two men to work the farm... Oh, and your firstborn child."
Aeris gaped at her. Why, the little thief... "You—" she sputtered.
"Isn't that what you were expecting me to say?" The impertinent girl chirped. "Do you not value my cousin enough to trade all your possessions for him?"
She could only shake her head in disbelief. "None of what you want is mine to give." She didn't even know where or how she would acquire half the things on the list.
"And if they were?" She leaned forward. "Would you?"
Aeris' brows furrowed. "Does Cloud know you're here?" she asked warily.
The fairy ignored her question. "My aunt is not happy with you. The other fairies are not happy with you."
Unlike the younger girl, Aeris could not brush aside her words or pretend they had no effect on her. Completely stricken, she dropped her gaze and hung her head. "I am sorry," she whispered.
"You could change that."
Her eyes flew up to the brown ones watching her from under a pair of ink black brows.
"No," she stated. "I can't. I won't."
"I thought you'd say that." The scorn on the girl's face was plain to see. "My cousin says you're different. But you're not. You're just like every other human out there."
"Yes," Aeris replied. "I suppose I am. I can love. And I love him."
"You think you know all about love, don't you? You think you are wiser than fairies who have lived for over a thousand years. You think you are better than us!"
"I do not think I am more wise than a fairy." Nervous at the fairy's small outburst, she moistened her lips and said somberly, "I do not believe I am better than a fairy at anything at all. I may not get to live for centuries like fairies do but what time I have been given on this earth, I will spend it loving him. It is not because I think I know what love is that I say this but because I know my heart. He is in my heart. He is my heart." A small, bittersweet smile curved her lips. "That will never change."
The girl tilted her head. "Even if you could live hundreds of years?"
Aeris' chuckle was rueful. "Even if."
"Even if you could live as long as the queen?" she persisted. "You would love him like she does?" Her eyebrows rose in challenge. "She loved him long before he was born."
"Longer."
"Do you even know how old she is?"
"It makes no matter. I would love him still."
"I could fix that." The words were uttered softly, but cold fear gripped Aeris' heart like a fist as she suddenly found herself immobilized, every muscle in her body having locked into place.
She stared into the unflinching dark eyes in anguish. "Cloud..."
"He's not here to help you."
"He will never forgive you." It was beyond her ken that someone so young could be so ruthless. "I will never forgive you."
"Your feelings are of no consequence to me." The girl shrugged her narrow shoulders. "But...you are fortunate I was only testing you, to see how you would react. But know this, if you should ever give me any reason to doubt you, I will do what I have to. Cloud wouldn't like it but he'd understand. He's not the kind that really gets angry but even if he does, we're cousins. He can't stay mad at me for long."
"That's where you're wrong," a voice said sternly.
Aeris' entire body went limp with relief as a golden blond figure revealed himself behind the fairy, who gave a yelp and swung around, eyes widening with shock.
"Not only do you overstep your boundaries, you underestimate what she is to me."
"You can't really care about this hu—" She cringed as he turned his icy gaze upon her.
He strode toward Aeris and sweeping an arm around her waist, tugged her against him. It wasn't until she felt his hands moving up and down her back reassuringly and she collapsed against him that she realized she was shaking like a leaf.
"C...Cloud," she moaned weakly into his chest. "You came back."
His jaw was set and his eyes cold but she took comfort in knowing she was not the object of his displeasure.
"When I saw she wasn't following me, I came back. I knew she was up to something."
"You...you were watching us?" His cousin sounded outraged. "How could... How did you hide from me?"
"There are a lot of things you have yet to learn," he said tersely. "And as for you, that's enough mischief from you for today."
"I wasn't going to do anything," she protested. "I just wanted to see what she would do."
"Believe me, that is the only reason why I haven't taken you to task for your meddling. Be glad I was listening or you would know firsthand how truly angry I can get." The younger girl opened her mouth but she must have seen something in his face that made her think twice about it as she immediately snapped it shut again. "Go home. Your mother will be looking for you. I will deal with you later."
She nodded meekly and spun on her heels.
"Wait!" Aeris' voice quavered but she could not let the fairy leave without getting some answers. "You came to stop me," she said to her back. "But... You changed your mind. Why?"
She didn't turn around. "I came to protect my cousin."
"From me?" she asked in bewilderment. "I would never hurt him."
"See that you don't."
And with that, she was gone.
"Are you all right?"
Aeris gave Cloud a tremulous smile and nodded. "Now that you're here."
The feel of his hands stroking her hair helped to calm her fears. "She gave you a scare." She averted her eyes, but he slipped his fingers under her chin and nudged it upward, giving her little choice but to look at him. Blue eyes darkened as they roved over her face. "For that, I am sorry."
"No." She smiled more brightly at him. "You have no reason to be sorry. I am more embarrassed than anything that a mere child got the better of me so easily. I will have to be on my guard with her next time."
"With time, you will learn. You will not only know all of her tricks but the tricks of every fairy and will be able to anticipate and fend them off in your sleep."
"And how much time will I have to learn everything I need to know?" Aeris asked lightly, trying to inject some levity into the conversation.
His face remained solemn, his voice grave. "For you," he said. "I can give you all the centuries I have left. Will that be enough time, do you think?"
Her chest tightened but the pain was different from what she had felt earlier. Throat aching, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.
~~~ooooo~~~
"Chin up, lad." The gruff voice jolted Zack from of his thoughts. "Why the fierce scowl? The workday is done and we get to go home to dinner with our families. This is the time of day that a man looks forward to most!"
He offered Ivan a weak smile. "Right."
"What were you boys talking about?"
"Work." A fine layer of sweat coated his skin despite the slight chill in the air. Zack deliberately wet his hands with water from his canteen and ran his fingers through his already damp hair, enjoying the feel of the cool water dripping down his neck and shoulders. "Tomorrow."
"Huddled about, talking in whispers, I was sure you were all sayin' I was driving you into an early grave."
Zack managed a chuckle. "That, too." He took one last swig from the canteen.
"How are Aeris and Tifa?"
He coughed, nearly choking as water went down the wrong pipe.
The barrel-chested farmer laughed heartily. "Don't be so surprised. You stay married to a woman long enough and her habits will rub off on you sooner or later. Letty likes to stick her nose into everybody's business but she's not just being nosy. She is genuinely concerned." The look on his face was almost sheepish. "Like she says, there ain't a whole lot of us out here so we have to look out for one another. We're all we've got." He slapped Zack on the back. "I know there's nothing to worry about with you taking care of them, but it don't hurt nothing to ask every now and then, right?"
It was high praise indeed, coming from someone whose idea of a compliment was to bestow more work upon his fellow man. But Zack couldn't help feeling ill at ease. "No, of course not," he said. "Have you... Is there something—?"
Ivan held up his hand, silencing Zack before he could make up his mind as to whether or not to tell the other farmer anything. "Lad, if you would care to hear the counsel of a foolish old man who might not have gotten to go to one of those fancy schools in the big towns, but has lived long enough to know when to indulge his wife's whims and when to heed the planet: If you have even a shadow of a doubt, I'd say go with your gut. Don't do something that you think could compromise your honor or who you are." He paused, lifted his face to the pinkening sky. "We wouldn't want to have a man-hunt in these parts. Or would it be a fairy-hunt, eh?"
"A...a what?" Zack was certain the farmer must have caught wind of something or other to have him talking about fairies of all things, a subject he had always made clear he thought was nonsense.
"Make no mistake." Ivan slid a glance at him out of the corner of his eye. "That's what it would be."
"But you said before… Letty..."
"Oh, that," Ivan said dismissively. "Don't listen to the grumblings of a man trying to get on his wife's good side. I reckon the land will never forgive us if we were to spill the blood of one of the fair folk. And out here of all places."
Zack surveyed the hills, troubled. To the north, the tops of the trees formed a dark mass that loomed over the nearby farms and dominated the skyline, visible even from this distance. The land wouldn't be the only one that would never forgive them, he thought, remembering Tifa's words from the previous morning.
"Makes you wonder, don't it, how they get that tall and what holds them up?"
Zack didn't have to wonder. He knew how the trees grew so tall and what kept them standing, just as the other man did. Something else Ivan had said had Zack swiveling his head back around to stare at him.
"What do you mean, out here of all places?" he asked abruptly, his voice more forceful than he had intended.
Ivan seemed unperturbed. "The woods are not the only place where the fey have been. Do you not see their markings on the land? The evidence they've left behind in the hills?" His voice was filled with awe as his eyes swept back over the fields as though he was seeing something altogether different from what Zack saw. "A long time ago, eons ago perhaps, they were here. They lived here."
Zack had little doubt that the farmer had been bewitched just as his housemate was. "What evidence?"
Russet eyebrows almost receded into the farmer's hairline. He nodded toward the hills and Zack followed his gaze back to the familiar features of the land. "They're everywhere."