Coven

Chapter Ten (The Present)

The Fae

You find yourself in a secluded field; an unrecognizable territory, off in the middle nowhere and surrounded by white. It was cold last you remember. In the thirties, you think, but still too warm for the snow to stick. Here, wherever here is, it's the opposite. The plains around you are nothing like where you were before, with little trees and a temperature well into the single digits. Ice lays upon the grass in thin sheets, with a dusting of snow on top. Wind slams into you from all directions, forcing a bitter chill down your lungs and into your eyes. Your flimsy jacket isn't good enough for these conditions.

You're shivering as you push your torso off the ground, brushing off the white that coats your shoulders and popping your aching joints. It doesn't help much. Everything is too stiff, too rigged, so you know a few simple stretches won't fix the problem instantaneously. Which is why moving is a slow process. It's like waking up from a long slumber too quickly or coming out of a coma. When you eventually push yourself to your feet, all the blood rushes from your head. You see dots of black and bright spots of white, before falling down in a confused dizzy spell.

You make an attempt a few more times, but there's always something to stop you. The drowsiness makes you unsteady on your feet, and every attempt to stand has your knees buckling under your weight. With nothing to lean on, you only have yourself and a body that fails to react correctly to support you. It's frustrating, and the struggle threatens to bring angry tears to the surface.

After a good hour and a half of fumbles, pain stabs at your head when you finally make it upright. The world spins, splitting off into multiple visions as the back of your skull pounds in protest. If you were smarter, you would have sat down knowing that this obviously wasn't a good sign, but a voice catches your attention.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get further," You hear from behind, breaking you from your daze. Their voice is lighter than air, chiming like soft bells amongst the frigid chaos that surrounds you. It can only be described as other-worldly, yet something about their expression is strikingly familiar, "But this is as far as we could go without alerting some unsavory individuals."

It takes you a moment to think, but once the mental fog clears and you recall what happened before you found yourself here, the answer dawns upon you.

Turning around, your eyes reveal that the voice no longer belongs to the young girl you've come to associate it with. This woman is a bit older, with sharply defined features and an intense presence. She doesn't look human anymore. Her skin has transformed from a soft gold to a dark ember that glows in tandem with her breath. Her hair is a red so deep, it blends in with the night sky, and her eyes match the color. Even with all these abnormal changes, the thing that stands out the most is the wings on her back. The switch is shocking, and takes you aback.

"Kiara?"

She blinks, then smiles, as if shocked out of a sleepy state. Ashes fall from her lips in small flakes as she speaks, "Ah, yes! Sorry! I know this is a bit shocking," She said, gesturing towards herself with a large stack of kindling in her arms. Every word she speaks is a bit weary and rushed, "Amon said he thought he was drunk when he saw me like this the first time, and I bet it's even weirder for you, but I hope it's okay! Due to my energy levels, I can't exactly glamour myself at the moment," She drops the branches to the ground, sending dirt and snow flying, "I was actually waiting to do so, for when you woke up, but it seems you beat me to it. "

You find yourself a bit confused at her words. It's pretty clear Kiara is, at the very least, fae in origin. That's not too hard to understand by the looks of her. However, her actions are. From what you understand, the fae are a secretive type. They stick to their world and rarely dabble in human affairs anymore. It's too dangerous with all the pesticides and metals. They would never allow one of their own to enter this realm for no reason, let alone expose themselves to humankind.