Chapter II.i

"It's not much, I don't tend to stay places all that long, so, uh" she coughed awkwardly, "make yourself at home" she gestured to a small chair, that sat outside her large tent. Her father had taught her that everything you value you should be able to fit in a bag on your back and she'd learnt the value of that lesson. Although, it was her mothers' lesson that taught her to be wary of strangers and more importantly - to never allow her heart or emotions bare too much weight in her decision making.

Unfortunately, she'd learnt the value of that lesson also…

Five years prior

The ship was large and the odours seeping from every corner made Brianna's stomach churn to the point she had to swallow deeply. She held tightly to her small bag, carrying all she could bare.

Her eyes roamed around the deck, searching for a familiar face, most of these people would die from disease or sickness before they'd even reach the shores of Prythian. She politely shoved through the masses, all holding onto one another before some would get off the ship and watch as their loved ones sailed away into the fog. Brianna felt sick, utterly and completely sick to her stomach, her desperation reaching a point where she had to use her free hand to clutch her chest as if trying to stop her heart from battering her ribs from within.

The scent of the salty sea filled her nostrils along with the crashing of the waves and the slight movement of the vessel underneath her unsteady feet normally brought her some comfort. It seemed to enforce the fact that she was about to leave everything she had ever known and loved to go to a land she did not know – with people she did not care for and nor cared for her. She closed her eyes for a moment, tightly as she could, trying to block out the teary goodbyes, of parents fussing with bags, lovers clutching to one another, pregnant women sobbing uncontrollably as the fathers of their unborn child turns to leave them.

"Brie!" she whipped her head around and as her ears tried desperately to locate the voice she almost dropped her bag as she saw her.

"Elle!" Brianna surged forward and allowed her oldest friend to wrap her long arms around her, savouring the smell of pine and honey and home.

"Thank the mother! I thought you'd never make it" she exclaimed, clinging too tightly to her childhood friend.

"Let me look at you Bee" Brianna felt warmth surge through her whole body at the mention of the nickname. Her friend pushed her away slightly, surveying her from the roots of her red hair to the tips of her toes, checking for any damage. "You're okay" it didn't seem like a question. "With a backdrop like this" she gestured to the dank ship "How do you make it seem so…beautiful?" Brie smacked her shoulder awkwardly, at fifteen she had much to learn and taking compliments was not a skill she'd yet mastered.

Elle glanced at her and Brie was momentarily lost in the deep blue hues that contrasted so well with her tanned skin. The corners of her eyes had a slight slant; her dark brown hair coupled with her slender figure made her friend simply, stunning. Brie always felt inadequate next to her obvious beauty though Elle never seemed to accept the praise she dared to give her.

"We should probably find a room or something, they said we'd be leaving soon and Mother warned me not to…linger" she stopped when Elle dropped her hand, which swiftly felt like a stone had been tied to it. "Elle?" she searched her friend's grave face…

"I – I'm so sorry Bee" Elle cupped the side of her face with the lightest of touches, it wasn't until she felt the water slither down her neck that she realised the tears had silently started to fall.

"I don't understand" Elle let out a small strangled noise that tore at Brianna's heart.

"I came to say goodbye, I – can't come with you"

"Why? We agreed, we got you passage and you - you" her tears were falling freely and she realised with grim clarity that they looked no different to the sad strangers' surrounding her, except Brianna had thought she'd said her final farewells. This moment was not supposed to happen. "You promised" she felt pathetic and the sickness in her stomach grew to the point she had bend down in pain, sucking in air in big gulps. Elle reached for her and Brianna snapped upright, glaring coldly at her. "You're staying?" Elle nodded slowly, searching her eyes.

"I have to, I can't explain Br…"

"Then I'm not going either" Brianna turned to leave when a hand gripped around her wrist, pinning her down. She heard a large crash some miles from them and smoke suddenly appearing in the grey sky. She watched as those around her seemed to grow more desperate, the tears fell harder, hands clinging to loved ones as the Captain warned that they were about to depart.

"Yes, you are, you have to, Bee" Brianna glared at her.

"Don't you dare call me that, you promised, you're the only reason I even agreed to this nonsense!"

"I'm sorry" hurt lined her features, and for the first time in her life, Brianna hated her. Hated her. So much so that the tightness in her stomach seized and was replaced with gut wrenching fury.

"I don't have to do anything, I'll go home…" Elle's face paled and she made a small nod. Brianna didn't notice the large arms encircling her until they were already around her. She felt like all the air inside her was being sucked out and her fury became unrelenting dread and fear.

"Please, take care of her" she heard, she frantically looked for Elle but all she could see was the darkening sky and those sad deep blue eyes. Brianna felt a soft caress on the side of her face and saw her friend quickly wipe at her eyes before abruptly turning.

Brianna watched helplessly as her friends' shadow get smaller and smaller until her own screams and the crashing roar of the sea against the rocks were the only sounds she heard as the darkness kindly engulfed her. Welcoming her in its slithering, open arms.

Present Day

Mor stood still, surveying the tall trees, smelling the musty forest and listening for any unwanted noises, so Brie took her own cloak off and rolling her eyes, threw it on the back of another chair. She began to make a small fire, and placed her pot over the rising heat, warming up her supper. She tried not to notice Mor had abandoned her surveillance and instead seemed to be watching her nightly ritual. Closely.

"You brought me to your…home?" Still, the woman stood.

"One of them, yes" she threw a bit of dry wood onto the splintering fire, willing it to grow "There's nowhere else I would be able to bring you, not without risking enquiring ears and eyes" She shook her head. "I don't tend to stay in one place too long" Mor nodded curtly, as if understanding.

"That sounds…lonely" Mor sat in the chair opposite, but didn't quite feel ready to stop surveying the location. "I apologise, that was too forward" she crossed one long leg over the other "I have a big family myself," she added "they can be a little…insufferable".

"It's not for everyone" Brie shrugged "but it's safe and I'm not always alone, I am human and I recognise I have, well, needs…" Mor smiled, eyes shining. "Socially, of course, for company" shut up Brianna, Mother save her - were her cheeks on fire? She prodded the embers to allow her hands something to focus on rather than meet the blondes' gaze.

Mor shook off her cloak and placed it on top of her leg. Her skin looked smooth, and she wore strange leathers, not unlike armour, which seemed perfectly fitted to her body, a body that bore visible strength, her long strands of blonde hair cascaded around her shoulders and down past her round breasts. She looked quite, rather honestly, gorgeous. Brie couldn't see clearly but she could swear she could smell the woman, cinnamon and something else, something beautifully feminine.

Of course, Brianna had to remind somewhere inside herself that this woman was also Fae, which explained her strange stillness, her lean and tall frame, and those unusual golden eyes. This strangeness also made Brie's knees quake, and damn her, damn her body for reacting this way, to a stranger, to a faerie. It wasn't so much the shock that her traitorous body was reacting to a woman, she had long known she could lay with both men and women, but this was something else. Something almost awakening, that voice inside her seemed to be screaming in delight, shouting 'almost, almost, almost'.

It terrified her to her very core.

"Are you okay?" Mor asked, an odd look of concern and confusion traced her delicate features. She uncrossed her leg, then crossed it again the other way.

"What? Yes, yes I am just perfect" she mumbled, dropping the long piece of wood she'd been using to prod the fire, groaning at her own awkwardness.

"Confident are you?" The woman actually smirked!

"I never meant that I was perfect, or that you were perfect, oh…I'm not saying that you aren't…" Brianna cursed as she knocked some of the boiling water from the small pot. What was wrong with her? Mor stood abruptly, so quickly that Brianna jumped a little nudging the pot the other way and spilling some on her wrist, to which she swore. Loudly.

Mor was in front of her before she could blink, straightening the boiling pot and glaring at Brianna's throbbing wrist. Brianna swallowed and winced as she raised it observing the angry welts that had already began to grace the surface of the red skin.

"Here, let me" Mor smiled as Brianna raised her wrist toward the woman, under any other circumstance Brie would stubbornly handle her own ailments. However, she simply felt frozen, staring at the woman who held her wrist carefully and began pouring cold water over it. Brie swore again and Mor winced. "Sorry"

"What? No, I'm sorry, I can be so..." Brie stopped when she felt Mor's worried eyes on her wound and the small, soft touch as she turned it to pour more water over it. The movement felt so raw, so unnatural to Brianna to have someone care for her, even for a small wound. It felt wrong and yet, warmth spread within her, crawling to her heart. "Really, it's fine, I've certainly had worse" she shrugged and Mor nodded, softly dropping her hand from the wounded limb and biting her lower lip.

"Why are you here Mor?" Brie asked as she tore some cloth and wrapped it around her wrist.

"I apologise if I overstepped, you're just…unexpected" she smiled warmly, so genuinely it made Brie squirm. "Most humans, no matter how friendly, are usually nervous when they meet someone like me"

"A beautiful woman? I can't say I particularly blame them..." Brie smiled and sat down, assessing her pot over the fire – anything to avoid Mor's curious smile and reddened cheeks - She looks almost human, Brie thought. She noticed that the moonlight beginning to rise from its source above the tall hills behind Mor, casting a slight white glow at the woman's back, and Brie thought, perhaps, Mor was one of the most gorgeous creatures she'd ever met.

"Not quite," The faerie would not meet her gaze and Brianna decided she liked this side of the woman. "more so a faerie" she said a little bashfully. Brie scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"We are taught not to trust you it's true" Mor leaned closer towards her and straigtened her back. "Mother we're even shown how to hurt you, how to protect ourselves from you and while I recognise that you're stronger, faster, presumably smarter…" Brie smiled softly, a slight glint in her eyes "I don't suppose all of you can be that bad". She took a small bowl from a bag and dished it up, nodding to the other bowl to her guest, to which Mor simply shook her head. "Besides," she went on "I know some humans who are less than…kind" she finally brought her eyes to the woman across from her, a certain look crossed her pretty features that Brie couldn't quite decipher.

"You aren't afraid of us?" Mor asked, stone faced, bracing herself.

"My parents taught me to defend myself, but they did not discriminate from teaching me how to defend from human cruelty or desire" she shrugged. "A wolf is not always as recognizable as we might think." Something like understanding crossed Mor's pretty face but it was gone before Brianna could study what it could mean, instead she continued, "Some wear masks, some have strange ears, foreign tongues, bizarre behaviours. And some, perhaps the most dangerous of all…they can look just like you, behave just like you, share your music, wear the same clothing and speak the same tongues…they are not any less dangerous" Mor nodded, and stared so deeply into her eyes that Brie stopped sipping at her broth.

She'd have loved to hear the woman's thoughts because her guest looked so thoughtful, with her head tilted ever so slightly, the moonlight caressing her hair giving her a slight glow on her back. She wondered if the woman always looked so pretty when she was trying to compress her thoughts into words. Instead, she sighed.

"I need your help," the blonde said.