Summer Garden

Trei

Trei cursed and yanked his hand back as the flames spread to it. It didn't hurt, which was surprising. But he figured that burning yourself was bad, no matter which world you were in, or what species you were.

He looked at his hand and sighed. It was burned. Again. The skin look really dead at this point.

"Oh. Did you hurt yourself?" He heard her musical voice, and he turned, "Yeah, I was -"

His voice cut off with a choked sound as he saw the Fae. She was wearing a simple white dress, plain and smooth. It wasn't something that most would find striking. Yet, as it hung over her it gave way to something from another world. She was beautiful beyond compare. Her lithe figure highlighted by the way the silk clung to her, the strength in her arms just barely showing, and her cool blue eyes staring out like endless lakes that a traveller could drown in.

She frowned, "Are you okay, Trei? Did you swallow your tongue?"

He shook his head wordlessly, internally kicking himself to say something. Anything.

She smiled sheepishly and walked passed him, stoking the fire, before turning, "Well. Time to get my carnivore something to eat."

Trei tried to smile but got the distinct impression that half the muscles in his face were paralysed. "What about you?"

"The garden has enough." She grinned and turned, walking out the door, "Come along, idiot."

The ghoul stumbled after her, emerging into the light slowly. He hadn't seen it yesterday, but it was an amazing garden. The well was the centrepiece, but all around were trees of every kind, wrapped in vines with flowers that shone brightly with colours he couldn't even recognise.

Summer picked a pink petal off a nearby flower and stuck it in her mouth. He shivered involuntarily. She waved a hand around, "There's a few things you could chase down. Birds are probably too quick for you nowadays, but why don't you run something out of the bushes. I'll catch it."

Trei stumbled towards the bushes, still feeling like he was controlling his body like an amateur puppeteer, but something shot out of the undergrowth immediately. A white ball of rage flew at his face, and then as he fell, it shot overhead.

He heard giggling as he rolled over and saw Summer standing there, laughing at him as a small white rabbit was frozen in the air. Trei moved clumsily upright, and smiled at her sheepishly. "Well, I never thought I'd see a rabbit take out a humanoid."

Trei shrugged, too embarrassed to come up with a witty line.