In the Land of Fae 2: Return to Ice ♔ (gxg)

1. autumnal breath

Spring and summer had treated them kindly.

That warm hand of nature goaded hope and lifted spirits, denoting of better times in years' past that could be revived once again. The flowers that glittered the grass reflected the glitter in the eyes of those who had, for once in eighteen years, felt that spark of joy inside them once more. Most had been reluctant to believe that the respite could be long-term.

For no one had found Eira's body, and as the snow melted away, so did the trail of blood she left behind when she fled the battleground. It was with no surprise that Alastair had many fae going out there in the forest and searching over and over again all the way until late August when she had finally decided that it was no use. If Eira hadn't returned by then, she could rest assured that she could put herself and her people at ease, and simply let it be. If Eira was alive, she was alone and forever injured. Catori told her how bad the ice fae's leg looked when Erlin, in dragon form, had stomped on it. She gandered that the fae would probably never be able to walk again, if she didn't bleed out during her escape. Not to mention that Al had managed to deeply scratch her eye that night on the battlefield, probably impairing her vision.

Besides, there were many more things for Al to focus on. At present, the reconstruction of the Fae people was a much more hefty duty than a bounty hunt. They had spent the rest of the winter months reconstructing the castle. The earth fae worked diligently for many months on turning those stone spikes, pinnacles of murder and violence, back into the castle from which they had been birthed. It took many weeks for them to accomplish this task, as it took very delicate focus to morph stone into specific shapes.

Once spring rolled around like an old friend, the castle was complete, and then it was time to make room for everyone else. The Fae population had quadrupled with the integration of the ice fae, which was another difficult duty on its own. While Al's people were mostly welcoming, no one had expected everything to go smoothly. Tensions were still thick all the way until summer, and even then, some of the older ice fae who had been Eira's council still looked at non-ice fae with slight disgust. Catori had been tasked with uniting the Fae, holding dinners and encouraging friendships.

Alastair tasked the earth fae, who turned out to be diligent builders, with constructing a village around the castle for everyone else to live. She did not want anyone to be separated anymore, not even the ice fae. To everyone's surprise, Alastair was the most enthusiastic about the integration. Perhaps she had felt the heaviest blow of ethnocentrism, or perhaps she really did want Nikolaus' Kingdom restored in every aspect.

Summer proved productive. Dozens of cottages were constructed around the castle, and more of the forest was cleared out to make room for the lodgings. They had even managed to create cobblestone roads interlinking the village, which seemed to perfect what they were envisioning.

Of course, all the figureheads had their own quarters inside the castle. Although Alastair was the Queen, she was no monarch. She made sure everything was a democracy—majority's ruling. One may have wondered what there even was for the Fae to make decisions about, but Reconstruction proved to change the way of living for the entire species.

The earth fae, who easily were the most helpful kind of fae, had built a blacksmith shop in the center of town where they molded objects from stone or metals using their hands. They also had plowed huge gardens outside of the village and made daily hunts out in the woods for food. While anyone could garden and hunt, the earth fae were responsible for most of the Fae's food sources, as they had been at the camp. They kept all their produce and meat in a food store in the center of town and parceled it out accordingly. Ice fae helped to create refrigeration during the summer to keep the food from rotting.