The Queens of Fur and Amber

None had heard the call but them. They had made a pack years before in the still untainted lands, hands fastened in silk and crimson drips and they swore. They had been savior and jailers both.

 

But now the blood was screaming, across miles of time and seas of space, its shattering screams bought them both to their knees.

 

The thousand years of sleep had passed. And the King was wrestles.

 

xxx

 

The wind whipped around the new stone buildings slower than she remembered, not carrying the same bite and savageness it once had. Coming off the sea and its salt, carrying other oceans cold. It almost seemed-

 

"Tame."

 

the woman sneered, cigarette dropping under her foot as she crimson colour lips hissed out the words.

 

"But you aren't are you?" She whispered now, reverent and slow, "How could these apes tame a wild like you, my dear."

 

The wind soothed across her skin, biting at her shoulders and knees, finally painful. She smirked. Capricious as it had ever been, then.

 

"There we go."

 

Slowly, lithe like a stalking cat, the woman stood from her chair at the cafe and strolled away without a look back at her untouched coffee and scone. Human food was always a bad choice in hindsight. 

 

She moved through the crowd slowly, heavy fur coat sitting high on her shoulders as people rushed past her without seeing. Oh they knew she was there, she was the itch in their throat and the electricity in their fingertips. They just didn't want to see her, didn't want to believe.

 

The city around her had changed greatly since her last visit. No longer was their marsh, and mud and tangled hovels. Everything was grey stone and sickening iron. The people were just as abrasive, but not the warriors and rebels their ancestors had been. They were a muted image of their past selves. But some still had the gifts of the Court, they just had yet to be told they were not in fact mentally deranged.

 

She might tell them while she was in town. Might.

 

Rounding past the throng of people the woman stepped soundlessly in her jet black pumps over the rough stone, to stand in front of the column of cascading water. She turned her back to it, dark surface highlighting her blood red tresses and translucent green eyes. 

 

"Good thing I wore black," she spoke out loud to the empty space, hands running down her dark mini dress, "Colour seems to be a taboo in this town."

 

She waited then, not moving and silent and unseen ever by the most observant of people. She was apart from them. She was apart from all things. The only sign she lived was the occasional pink bubble that would appear from her lips, before snapping too loud and scaring the unwitting pigeon. And all pigeons are unwitting, truly. 

 

The hours ticked by like seconds, at least for her, the sun setting and rising anew in brilliant gold and red hues. She hatted the sunrise. It was not her domain to preside over. But these were dark and troubling times, it was not to be avoided. 

 

The night and the winter were her domain, and here she was in the morning on a midwinter's day, unprotected and outflanked. Some would think she was suicidal, to be meeting one of her own on such terms. But this ground was wild and seeped with her kin's blood and mischief. The land of Wales would tolerate no betrayal, no misconduct or lore breaking. Even after all this time, the Wild Lands where still equal ground.

 

The Woman switched hips, mouth twisting in a well practiced grin. The air warmed around her as the swishing sound of skirts and clink of trinkets filled her ears.

 

"Well, it is about time you show up," she bubbled out as she turned to face the newcomer, "I was beginning to think you had forgotten about our little oath ... Sister."

 

The woman standing before her could have just stepped out of her mirror, reflecting back the same porcelain skin, translucent emerald eyes and crimson hair. Only she stood in a long white gown embezzled in amber beads and patterned cut outs, and golden flowers held her floor length hair away from her face and shoulders. 

 

But where The Woman's eyes and smile were full or mirth and mischief, her sisters face was passive and forever regal. It was sickening. 

 

"Sister," She droned back.

 

The Woman stepped closer, the furred tails of her coat dragging on the ground with a trail of thick black ore following them in clumped trails. She stood close to her sister, eyes searching into the other woman's while her head tipped lightly to the side with her signature smirk.

 

"Name me," He sister spoke, voice deep and crackling like ancient oaks.

 

She make be oak but I am Ash.

 

"Well then ... Titania."

 

Titania rolled her eyes.

 

"Must you be partial to that insufferable writers inventions?"

 

She popped her bubblegum in response, snapping only a breath from her sisters face.

 

"In that case ..." She tipped her head to the side, " ...dear sister, I proclaim you ... Mab."

 

Even the deafest of mortals heard he cackle as it shot above them and opened the heavens. They heard it and shivered. God would she make them shiver.