6: Darken Flower

7: beast folk

The following morning i woke to Tyr drooling on me. "What the hell Tyr." i sat up and looked around, everyone else was still asleep. "whats going on?"

people approaching. he warned me, three of them, with weapons.

"just what we need," i grabbed my sword and nudged the others awake. "how far out?"

over the hill. he answered. 

"what is going on?" Robin asked, looking worried. 

"we have company," i answered, pointing to the hill a few yards away. 

he jumped to his feet, grabbing his own sword, and giving Lunar one last kick to get him up. 

"ouch." Lunar got up, and grabbed his sword. 

"he knows kicking him means theres trouble?" i asked in a hush voice.

"he does." Robin smiled.

"and it is rather rude." Lunar butted in. 

"i think we should just act like normal fairy travelers." i said. "with my hair color i can pass as one, and if we need to lie i can do it."

Robin sheathed his sword, Lunar following suit. "we will follow your lead then. but what about the wolf?" 

"your fairies. everyone knows you are friends with nature." i sheathed my own sword. "just be ready to defend if this goes wrong. lets just build a fire and act like they are not coming." 

"got it." Carlisle started to gather wood. 

soon enough we saw the three appear over the hill. 

i pulled out a frying pan and stuck it in some of the coals from the night before. 

"any idea what to cook?" Robin asked. 

i looked to Tyr. "can you catch us some rabbits or something for now? just stick close."

the wolf gave a nod of his head and took off with two of the other wolves, the rest remained, laying nearby. 

"that solves that." i shrugged, pulling a jar of bear fat from my bag.

"hello there." spoke one of the strangers, he had a long, cat-like tail, much like aunt Lilliana. another one of them had a wolf tail and the other was short with a beaver tail.

"hi there friend." i smiled at them.

"what brings four fairies all the way out  to Lunistar?" the wolf tail asked, looking at the wolves around us. "with a bunch of wolves."

"we are just traveling around." i said to them. "looking for a new place to call home."

"Lunistar is friendly to all types of people." the beaver tail spoke in a cracking voice, while he pushed some of his orange hair out of his face. he looked nervously at Robin, "however, he, is not welcome here." 

"hes just here to make sure we get to our new home safely." i said. "then he will return home right away."

"do you have any idea who your friend here is?" The cat tailed one asked. "he is Oberon Darkfire, the dark fairy king."

"i am not here to cause problems." Robin spoke. "i am simply here to guide him to where he needs to go."

"i dont know Peregrine, you know he cant lie." the wolf one looked to the beaver tailed one, though i believe he is actually a platypus, looking at him better.

"Wulfred, we were told to warn the king if he retuned." the cat one spoke next.

"i dont know Martin." Wulfred said. "that was only supposed to be if he was causing problems."

"you arnt causing problems are you?" Peregrine asked Robin.

"i can promise you, i am not here to cause any problems." he answered. "i only wish to guide my friend here."

"and what about those two?" Wulfred pointed to Carlisle and Lunar. 

"they are our servants." Robin answered. "they are simply here to assist."

"very well." Peregrine nodded. "safe travels to you all."

and with that the three left as the wolves returned with rabbits in their mouths. 

-------------

after breakfast we continued on our way. 

"any idea where this everlasting pool is located?" i asked Robin as we walked. 

"we need to go see the beast king." Robin sounded unhappy about that. "he does not like me very much."

"who does?" i laughed and got glared at. "just joking. so lets go see the beast king."

"it is best if i do not go with you there." Robin said. 

"why?" i asked. "what did you do?"

"the two of them are not on best terms." Lunar cut in.

"but what not?" i demanded to know. 

"the beast king and i had a relationship of sorts." Robin pretended to look at a butterfly in the sky. 

"your married to my sister and swing that way?" i raised an eyebrow.

"i am not like Lunar and Carlisle." He said. "i do not care about ones gender or race, to me it is the person i fall for. but i never loved him, our relationship was purely, a contract."

"contract?" Carlisle became interested now. 

"he did a favor for me, and in return he hand me..." he trailed off. "i would rather not talk about that."

"does he hate you?" i asked. 

"the opposite." he answered. "i fear he would try to keep me there even though our contract has ended. he may want to barter for the location of the pool in exchange for me."

"we wont let that happen." i placed a hand on his shoulder. "not when your already married to my sister."

Robin nodded. "lets do this."

he led the way and the three of us followed.