Night's Song

Chapter 8- Nightmare

*****

I came to the last box and unpacked its contents. I furled over the books within this box. Some of my childhood favourites were amongst them and I realised growing up in a mortal world was not without its benefits.

As I stomped on the last box I felt a cool gentle breeze on my neck as something of a familiar feeling fell over me. Someone was there.

On guard with my mother in the next room and feeling though I might be in danger I looked down at my emerald green bracelet and wondered what it could possibly do to help me. It just glowed brighter as my anxiety increased and this filled me with frustration.

"Who's there?" I spoke with a slight shake in my voice.

I got to my feet spinning around looking in every corner. Faeries were known to play tricks but this one felt particularly powerful and familiar. I started to worry that the faerie from the reflective realm might be back and I felt the hairs raise on my neck. Perhaps it was him, perhaps he was back to try and kidnap me again.

Still no one appeared and I continued with the last few books, placing them in alphabetical order on the shelf.

I jumped startled only by my mother's reply from the next room "Are you alright!?". She came in with a rush and almost ran into me, fumbling with candles and boxes.

I caught something as it fell and handed it to me "Yeah, just the breeze." I said and didn't tell her much more. I couldn't tell my mortal mother about the faerie world. It was strictly forbidden and I wasn't about to break the first elven rule!

She left the room fussing over the arrangement of furniture. I could see the stress and worry in her face. She didn't know dad's heritage or his race or about the other world. In her mind he worked for a secret agency and he was in some sort of trouble in the human world. There were organisations set up in the human world to mask any Faerie that dare live here and so that is quite often a usual cover.

And yet still I worried for her not knowing but perhaps that was best as she isn't being stalked by all sorts of creatures of the day, dreams, light and night.

Just as I was about to grab a glass of water I jumped again. Twice in one day was not making me pleased. I span around to see a familiar face. Jameith.

I summed up the courage to question him. Best not to let him have the upper hand in the conversation this time.

"What are you doing here!? You're not taking me again!" I said sternly in the most entitled voice I could muster. And it was true you could not take another Faerie to your realm against their will unless upon strict instructions from the courts or the council themselves. And in any case that usually wasn't a good ordeal.

"I've been watching you for quite a while now, you ought to be more observant" he smirked with a sense of pride in his ability to sneak between shadows.

"I didn't really like the removalist.. a little too keen on you. And in any instance you should probably just stick to our kind. We're much smarter" the tone in his voice suggested some overtones of jealousy but I wasn't sure.

"Well that doesn't exactly answer my question now does it?" I let my guard down slightly with the realisation that if he had come to take me by force he wouldn't be idly squatting in my window seal talking to me.

A sense of urgency seemed apparent in him in that very second as though he finally was cued to state his purpose but then he pauses as he begins to speak.

"Well what is it?" I asked impatiently as I saw him thinking. Clearly it was important or why would he be thinking so long.

"You need to come with me, you need to take your fathers...place" he sounded weary saying the last word and it triggered great concern in me.