Him liking Peter and Peter being nice to him was what he had, and he was going to enjoy that.He wasn’t going to risk it by trying to get more.The contract, a reasonable framework for their relationship, suddenly felt like a guiding light in a midnight sea.
A jolt pulled Theo out of his thoughts, and he stumbled.Around them, the garden had disappeared, vanishing in a blur of movement and color.Peter’s arm came around Theo, and Peter soon had him pressed against him, holding him steady.
The colors washed out, turning into pastels, and as the swirling maelstrom around them began to spark, it also grew noisy.At first, it was the sound of wind chimes in a breeze, but those high notes dropped until all Theo could hear was the echo of a giant gong.
With a pop, it all stopped.The whirlwind died down, and their surroundings came back into focus.They were no longer in Laurette’s garden.
Where the garden had been, there was now a forest, or at least trees as far as Theo could see.Some of those trees even had your average green foliage, but most were a soft pastel pink.
A gust of wind blew through them, and Theo realized his mistake—it wasn’t foliage, but petals.The trees around them were in brilliant bloom as if spring was in full swing.It was still September though, and this made no sense.
Theo narrowed his eyes.“Are we on the Southern Hemisphere?Are those cherry blossoms?”
Peter ran his hands over Theo’s front.“No.It’s Faerie.”
Cloudtree sighed and stepped toward the trees.“The Elvish Woods?It is close.My stepbrothers would sometimes hunt here, but they always said there was no good game.”
Laurette snorted and placed one hand on the pommel of the sword he’d picked.It was curved and sort of short.Theo had no idea whether it was going to be any good for fighting.
“That’s because they are theElvishWoods, and we don’t like you lot coming in here and killing things.”He turned to Theo.“Elvenland borders on Faerie, you see, and our two countries have historically had…tensions, you could say.”
Theo made a surprised sound.“That’s why you don’t like Fae?”
Laurette huffed.“No one likes Fae because they are pretentious, present company mostly excluded.Now, let’s grab some deer and go do the rescuing.We don’t want to keep Theo and Peter’s friends waiting.”
Carl made a questioning dog noise, and Laurette looked at him.
“You’ll be running alongside.I assume you have the stamina?”
Carl sniffed indignantly.
“Excellent.To the deer, then.”
Peter’s hands were still on Theo’s belly and chest, moving up and down, while he kept Theo’s back pressed to his front.It was an absentminded gesture.When Theo turned his head, he could see the focus in Peter’s eyes, and it wasn’t directed at him.
“You’re going to make us ride deer.”
“Aren’t they too small though?”Theo asked.“Also, I can’t ride.It’s really bright here, isn’t it?”
The more he looked around, the more he noticed it.And it wasn’t the kind of brightness you got on a very sunny day, either.It was almost like there was an innate brightness to everything around them, like a glow coming from the flowering trees, from the ground, from the few green leaves.
“Welcome to Faerie,” Laurette said.“And yes; no cars here.Although there’s this Fae that stole one a couple of years back.No idea what she did with it after the fact.Anyway, short walk.Follow my lead.Gertrude!Rear, please.Make sure we don’t have any stragglers and such.Cloudtree, with me.”
They fell into line.Peter kept holding on to Theo, which wasn’t at all uncomfortable.Faerie was like a bucolic landscape painting with lots of pastels, right down to a flurry of hand-sized butterflies that shimmered like gemstones.It shouldn’t have been scary, but something about it creeped Theo out, a lot, and Theo had been mostly fine with Peter showing him the decapitated head of Bernard, so he had a certain tolerance.Faerie was testing it.
Peter let out a long exhale.“You’re all right.Just stay close to me.”
“I can take care of myself,” Theo mumbled.It was a reflex, and he could hear the lack of conviction behind the words.
“Everyone is going to be all right.”Laurette’s voice was bright, like bells almost.Theo was pretty sure it hadn’t always been like that.“Stay by the trees.”
As he said it, they broke through the foliage and underbrush and arrived at the edge of a field.Low tufts of grass stretched out here, though Theo could see the trees continued on and curled forward on their right.Without the branches all around them, it was even brighter, and Theo sheltered his face with a hand when he looked up and around.
“Where are we?”
“The moors.”Cloudtree came closer, which in turn had Peter stepping up and slightly in front of Theo.Cloudtree reached out a hand and pointed toward the grassy landscape.“They stretch on for a while.My stepfather and stepbrothers reside in my mother’s old house, right on the border of the moors and the waterlands.They often come to hunt here, but it is treacherous.”He shook his head as if banishing a painful memory.“There are stories of hunters perishing because the moors took them.”
“Or more likely, they crossed into the forest, either went to the human plane or to Elven lands, and found consequences.”Laurette sounded…pleased about that.“Bet there aren’t any stories about that.”
