The Seven Realms

A duo to a trio.

"You know what they say about crows, they never forget a face, friend or foe." Alistair and Keira stood, with the dazzling fire fae, "That's true yes, but a dragon remembers everything." "Dragons also ramble continuously." Alistair smirked, "Fae never know when to shut up." "Dragons smell like Ash." "Wow way to state the obvious, seriously, is that best you got?" The dragon boy smirked.
"she's small for a human." He smiled, "The names Lupin, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance sweetheart" he pulled what he must have thought was a dashing smoulder, Keira did not agree.
"It's nice to, ah meet you to." She managed to get out, he looked at his collection of rings, took one off and handed it to her, "here, now we've friends, Zeph has one, and now so do you-" "you're giving me your ring?" "Keira is it? Strange name for a Fae, anyhow, a dragon only ever gives one gift to those he deems worthy, Zephyr and yourself are the only two I've ever given a gift, never lose it, I won't be generous again." Keira saw in that moment great kindness in his strange eyes, a kindness she felt like she knew, the kindness of a very old and distant friend.

Alistair looked puzzled, he'd never seen Lupin give a gift to anyone but himself before, and that itself had been many years before, he in that moment knew there was something special about Keira that even dragons could sense. "So why'd you bring me here?" Lupin asked, eying the finger now with one less ring, Alistair remained stiff, not meeting direct eye contact, "Zephyr, what's happened?" "The Fae scouts were slaughtered, they had their wings ripped for their backs." Lupin's expression fell stern, "We both know who's behind this." "We can't be certain, buts it a running theory, yes." "We must speak with Aeden, if it is him, he needs to be stopped." "Yes, Lupin, I agree, but that means war, I don't know if we've prepared or have strength or numbers, to even come close to beating him and his army." "Who are we talking about right now?" Lupin sighed.

"My father, the high emperor of the Dragons, he's a despicable being." Keira stared, instead of kindness behind Lupin's eyes, now all she saw was pain, and sadness. "We should start off now, the sooner we get to the court the better, we can't afford to be out here at nightfall, especially while on foot." Lupin raised his brow, "don't you have guards, or protection, why are we hiding when you have armoured guards at your beck and call?" "I was hoping to pass through without bringing attention to myself, Keira or you, son of the high emperor." "Noted."

The three walked through the mushroom forest and came out to a beautiful wooded area, light poured in through the leaf filled branches, flowers, moss and mushrooms were covering the ground, strange little nymphs, pixies that looked as though they had clothing made from flower petals, dryads that looked made of the trees that surrounded them and an old moss man, he must be a type of dryad, tending to his crops by a small little mushroom house, he looked, old, tired and sad, but the song of the near by singing birds seemed to bring him joy, he smiled at Keira, noticing her staring his way, "That's bramble, he doesn't talk, just tends his crops and goes about living, I used to come out and spend time with him in the bristling woods, it was nice, peaceful." She heard in Alistair's voice, that he missed spending time with bramble, that he missed simpler times.

"Where's the rest of his kind? Why's he alone?" Keira asked, "I asked him that, he said he didn't know why he was alone, just that he'd never seen anyone else like him, but he knew there were others, otherwise he wouldn't exist" some small Sprites buzzed around Keira, leaving behind a flower in her hair, whispering about the beautiful blue colour of her wings, they'd been walking for a while, Alistair conversed with Lupin, Keira was left to take in everything she was seeing, Keira was caught off guard hearing what she believed to be a distant whinny of a horse, she looked where light poured in through the leaves, to a rock, far away, she saw something she never thought possible, something she'd only read in fantasy novels, a beautiful, pure white unicorn.

The unicorn stood, watching her, it was such a beautiful creature, so special, and alluring. Keira broke off from the group, slowly walking toward it, it seemed to sense her presence, looking directly at her, she stopped only a small distance away, again it whinnied at her, kicking its hoof, it lowered its head, she reached toward it, so enchanted by its ethereal beauty, unaware of that the other two were silently watching her, for unicorns had not been seen in thousands of years, yet for some inexplicable reason, one had chosen to reveal itself to her, and although transformation magic had been lost and the unicorns stuck in their horse bodies, they were thought extinct.

Keira's hand softly touched her new friends soft fur, the unicorn seemed to look into her, it's eyes baring into her soul, it's horn suddenly lit up, beautiful light danced from it, the gold ring on her finger, a gift from Lupin, was joined by a fine silver ring, with strange Runic symbols on it, "why did you give me this?" Keira asked staring at the unicorn, it didn't answer her instead looked beyond her, seeming to focus in on the two boys behind her, it whinnied, Keira moved back, as she did, almost as soon as the unicorn had been with them, it was gone.

The three walked in silence, unsure what to say, no one had seen a unicorn in thousands of years, what happened was highly unprecedented, "Keira looked at the rings on her fingers, Lupin's was a golden ring, it had several small rubies encrusted on the top side, the unicorn ring, was fine and silver, the pale blue stones danced in the sunlight, the Runic symbols were not anything she could understand, but she could feel their importance.

"It gave you a gift of worth, so did I, that's pretty impressive." "I don't understand these "gifts of worth" what makes me worthy? How do you decide?" "It's not something I can explain, only feel, it's such a strong feeling it can't be ignored, I knew when I met you, you were worthy, I don't know why, you just are" Keira nodded, she tried moving the unicorns ring, it didn't budge, it was stuck to her finger, almost now part of her finger. She saw on Alistair's hand he had several rings, a golden ring with several small rubies like her own, obviously from Lupin, a small silver band, with green stones, most likely emeralds, with elvish runes, she couldn't explain how she knew, she just did, then a ring that looked made of an abalone shell, it had several pearls adorning it, he wore several others, Keira found herself wondering how he got them all.

The Faerie court, glistened in the sun, a protective barrier, a dome of magic shone like a crystal ball. The three made their way towards it, a Fae boy with elongated pointed ears, stood, blowing into what looked like a pan flute, he stood in front of some flowers that seemed to sing along to his tune, opening a passage for them to cross through.

A faerie girl with long vibrant red hair, and light green wings, walked past the wingless boy, carrying two baskets, full of mushrooms, acorns and walnuts.
Keira saw another faerie sewing a dress made from rose petals, the beautiful pale pink and white kind, another faerie pulled out some freshly baked cakes and buns, placing them on the counter, they smelled delicious. A young faerie man sat with a large pile of acorns, he had a squirrel sitting on his shoulder, another squirrel sat on the table, he seemed to be helping the faerie take the caps of the acorns, Keira and other two were stared at as they walked through, whispers of the prince, the son of the dragon emperor and the faerie girl travelling with them was spreading through the lower town.

The high towns folk did the same, they all stopped what they were going, several faerie girls giggled and smiled at Alistair, some watched Lupin with disgust, he was oblivious or good at ignoring it, "My lord" "Lancelot!" Alistair embraced the Faerie knight, "oh it is good to see you your majesty, Sir Lupin, lady Keira, it is a honour" Keira reddened, Sir Lancelot had brilliant sky blue wings, like that of a dragon fly, she liked the difference in shape from the more common butterfly wing she'd seen most fae have.