Seelie and Unseemly

6. Wounded Dove

A bright flash of lightening illuminated the sky followed by a deafening clap of thunder. Jonas flinched and rubbed his ears. He hoped that this wasn't the beginning of a downpour. He'd only dressed in a light hoodie for his little stroll. Not to mention, he was wearing sneakers with socks. That was a recipe for disaster. Soggy, uncomfy disaster. 

The sky opened and a Jonas felt the light drizzle of raindrops on his face.

Great.

As Jonas reached for his hood and began to turn away from the small waterfall he had come across in his wandering, a bright flash of color caught his eye. He paused and watched as a tiny, blue and orange feathered body was dragged over the waterfall's edge.

With a start, and burning with both concern and curiosity, Jonas leaped forward and caught the creature before it could be battered on the rocks below. He fumbled it once he tried climbing –unsteady without the use of his arms for balance– back to the path, but otherwise successfully carried the small unconscious form back to steady ground.

Once there, Jonas froze as he realized what it was he held cupped in his hands. He peered down at it. A small humanoid faefolk, no larger than bee hummingbird, lay prone and whimpering in his palms. 

His breath caught. They were beautiful.

But before Jonas could be swept up in his examination of the creature, he noticed the mangled state of their wing. He winced. That looked painful. 

The wing lay crooked, clearly broken, and bleeding from several deep holes. He looked closer and his brow knitted. It looked like a bite. But not the bite of any mortal creature, no land animal native to Scotland had teeth sharp enough to leave such a clean bite mark. It was a perfect half-circle of nail-sized holes so deep that they pierced straight through, yet didn't connect at the base. The teeth of this creature fit together like a puzzle, a signature characteristic of a fae creature.

Gently, Jonas maneuvered the tiny fae into his left hand. With his other he carefully folded the fae's uninjured wing, after briefly glancing over it for wounds, to their side. He refrained from touching the injured appendage and moved to attempt to shield the soaked creature from the rain. However, before he could, he noticed something curious. With every drop of rain that landed on the fan's injured wing, the more aligned with their body it became. Jonas watched with awe and fascination as the wing mended itself.

Once the wing looked stable, and the bleeding had stopped, Jonas began the trek back to his shack. His hood laying forgotten over his shoulders as rainwater dripped from his glasses. He paused to wipe them clear once, but otherwise did not stop between the waterfall and home.

Upon arriving back to his little shed, Jonas quickly put together a makeshift bed on the table near the space heater using an old folded blanket. After placing the fae down and his hands were free, Jonas rummaged around for the strips of gauze that he carried just in case he were to injure himself while working with metal or hiking for inspiration.

"Come on!" Grumbled Jonas as he dug through toiletries and clean boxers. "I know I packed them in he– aha!"

Jonas pulled free a gauze pad and a roll of medical tape from his bag. Nabbing a pair of scissors and a chair as he walked back to the table, he sat down beside the fae and got to work fashioning a wrap for the bite– which had healed far less than the break, Jonas had observed. He wrapped the thin strip of gauze he'd cut across from the elbow joint to the edge of the fae's wing,  making sure that none of the medical tape was pressed up against their feathers.

Many minutes of fussing later, Jonas released his tools with a heavy sigh as he leaned back into his wooden chair. He arched his neck back and relished the popping sound that his vertebrae made. He also took the opportunity to remove his glasses and lower them to his lap where he rubbed their lenses absentmindedly with his lightly damp shirt. Having removed his drenched hoodie while searching for the gauze, Jonas was more comfortable than he would have been had he remained in his drenched clothes. He shot a tired look over towards his open suitcase beside which lay the crumpled shape, cold, on the dirty floor. He sighed again. That could be a problem for later. For now he had other priorities.

Namely his footwear, which had unfortunately been waterlogged on the journey back. Jonas glanced down at his shoes with a frown. 

He hated soggy socks.

After carelessly tossing aside his shoes and socks –and returning his glasses to his face– Jonas looked down at the unconscious creature on the blanket. Now that he beheld them under the bright light of the single hanging bulb of the shack, Jonas found his previous assertion to be quite inadequate. 

This fae wasn't just beautiful. They were gorgeous.

Jonas's eyes wandered the fae's resting form with the interest of an artist. Their wings and ears, so far, were the most obvious features that separated them from being a shrunken human –like borrowers. (In his focus on the little creature's wings, Jonas completely missed the fae's feather-tipped tail)

He admired the unusual colors of the fae's feathers. A mix of lovely peach and electric blue. It seemed that the root and pin of each feather was peach while their feather-tips were dipped in striking electric blue. The very edge of each feather, Jonas observed, was outlined by a thin misty blue glow. This mist blue color was also present in the very ends of the fae's hazelnut hair. His gaze migrated from the creature's wings to their head. Jonas admired their delicate ears. He had never seen any quite like theirs before. 

Like elf ears, the fae's ears were pointed and perked out slightly from their head. Unlike those belonging to elves, however, this creatures were elongated along their upper edge and quickly tapered to nothing; curling gracefully back towards their head. Each ear-tip was coated in a thin, brushlike tuft of feathery fur, blue like the ends of their hair. Their earlobes, as well, were uniquely shaped; cutting away into a shallow cup that ended in a pair of tightly curled natural earrings. 

Jonas folded his arms on the table and smiled at the adorable creature. He leaned down to rest his head on his arms, not quite a foot from where the fae lay.

So close. Close enough to stir a tiny lock of hair, an adorable little cowlick, with his breath. 

Jonas paused as a familiar scent tickled his nose.

He chuckled. 

How lovely. They smelled of petrichor.