Heart of Fey and Fire - Chapter 3 - Of Fey and Fire

Brittany

“Good stag?” I pleaded, slowly reaching for my wand. The stag didn’t seem to like that, letting out a small snort and pawing at the ground again. It calmed down when I took my hand away from the wand, though.

“How peculiar,” came a voice from behind us. I spun, reaching for the wand on instinct before realizing my mistake. I could hear hoofbeats behind me as the stag began to charge - only to stop, a moment later, when the figure in front of us raised a hand. “Now, now, Barribus. Calm down. I detect no ill will from these two. Only fright, caution, and a dash of curiosity.”

The curiosity - and I guess the caution - came from Brianna. I mostly just felt terrified. Not that I really had a reason to be - the stag had stopped moving, and the man in front of us hardly seemed threatening. He looked like a perfectly normal dude, with long blonde hair, and ever so slightly pointy ears. He wore festive clothing, his top a flamboyant red and his legging bright green, and he had an affable enough smile on his face as he looked at us.

 Something told me he was dangerous, though. A deeply rooted instinct that told me I was hopelessly outmatched. 

“You’re certainly an oddly shaped changeling,” the man said, tone utterly affable, and not at all terrifying. Which somehow made me feel all the more scared. “Such pointed ears… Were you hidden among the elves? But you should be back in your true form by now…”

“What are you talking about?” Brianna asked, taking the front. I didn’t fight her on it - I was just relieved to be away from that instinctive pressure. Somehow, it didn’t feel nearly as strong now that I wasn’t fronting. “I’m not a changeling.”

“No?” the man asked, tilting his head to the side. “But you used the potion, did you not? The one gifted to all fey changelings, when they inevitably start to dream of their home.”

“That… I thought it was just a teleportation potion!” she protested.

“A teleportation potion?” the man arched an eyebrow. “Well, in a way I suppose it was - though, if you truly aren’t a changeling, then I do wonder what you were so desperate to escape that you’d try it, hmmm?”

“That’s…” Brianna trailed off, obviously unwilling to get into it.

“Oh? Well, keep your secrets, little not-changeling,” the man said, a smile on his lips. “Every fey is entitled to a few - you are fey, are you not?”

“I…” she hesitated. “Maybe?”

“You feel it,” the man declared. “Though not as strongly as you did a second ago - odd, that… did you do something to hide it? You feel more like… like a beast of air and fire, now.”

“A dragon?” Brianna asked, her attention suddenly hooked. “I feel like a dragon to you?”

“Something like it, yes,” the man confirmed. “Yet a moment past, you felt more like one of my own - and even still, I can sense the fey power within you. What a curious child you are…”

“We’re not children!” I protested. Which… oops. That wasn’t meant to be out loud. I was trying to complain in my head, but somehow I’d ended up in the front again.

“No?” the man asked, arching an eyebrow. “To me, you are. To the elves too, I suspect. And the dragons… You’ve got that air of new-found adultness around you. I bet you haven’t even stopped aging yet.”

“That’s…” Probably true? I wasn’t sure about pixies, or dragons, but elves at least usually stopped aging around 25 or so. We still had a few good years of growing left to us - though I somehow doubted we’d get any taller, no matter how much Brianna wanted us to.

‘What’s with the sudden pot-shot?’ my headmate complained. “It’s not like I mind being five foot two… I just. You know. Think a few more inches might help us intimidate people better.’

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered. “At least our bust is up to snuff by both our standards.”

“Both?” the man asked, causing me to jump. Somehow, I’d forgotten he was there for a moment. “Curiouser and curioser… Are there two of you? Or perhaps three - a dragon, a fairy, and an elf?”

“I’m a pixie,” I informed him. “Not a fairy. And there’s no elf.”

“Really now?” The man looked as if he wanted to laugh. “Well, my apologies, little miss pixie. I can’t help but notice that you’re rather tall for one of your kind, though.”

“It’s not my fault I was reborn as an elf,” I complained. “They’re all so stupidly tall I’m considered a runt, and yet I’m still way taller than I should be.”

“Reborn?” the man asked, a glimmer of interest in his eyes. “My, my. You really are full of the most interesting secrets.”

“That’s… Why am I even telling you this?” I demanded, frowning. “I’ve kept this secret for twenty years, and now I’m just babbling it out to a random stranger?”

“Perhaps it’s because I’m a stranger that you feel willing,” the man suggested. “Or perhaps you feel safe, knowing that you’re finally in your proper home?”

“Nothing about you feels safe,” I replied, honestly.

The man blinked at me, then laughed. “Yes, well… I suppose I wouldn’t, would I? But just because I could hurt doesn’t mean I will, and I think you’ll find most things here quite incapable of it. Trust me when I say there’s nothing safer than a fey in her own woods.”

“Then what’s with the threatening stag?” I demanded, glancing over my shoulders. The thing still looked like it wanted to charge at me.

“My loyal guard,” the man explained. “But even he couldn’t hurt you, here. Not without my permission, at least. At most, you’d find yourself kicked out of the fey woods… but then, that’s a fate I’d rather avoid for someone so interesting, so trust me when I say he won’t be doing that.”

“Thanks… I guess?” I muttered, crossing my arms. “Who are you, anyways?”

“Alessendra,” the man stated, giving me a flourishing bow. “Of the Spring Court. And yourself?”

I hesitated. Partially because all the stories warned against ‘giving’ your name to the fey - but then, he hadn’t even asked me to ‘give it,’ had he? Maybe because he saw me as fey, too? Or because all my Earth knowledge was bogus and unhelpful…

Crap. That was a sucky thought. And - unlike Brianna - I didn’t use that word lightly.

‘Hey!’

Either way, I needed to tell him something. If I went with the name of our body - the name our parents picked out for us - it would be ‘Arianna.’ On the other hand, if I wanted to be called my proper name, for the first time, I could use Brianna. But honestly? Just once, I really wanted to be called something that suited both of us, so… “Call me Princess.”

“Princess?” the man - Alessendra - smiled. “My, my. So we have royalty in our midst, do we?”

“She didn’t say that,” Brianna replied, cautiously. “It’s just a name.”

“I’m sure it is,” the man said, letting out a soft chuckle. “But I’m also sure it isn’t. There’s something royal in your presence, once you know what to look for - the way you stand, if not the way you talk. The grace and control with which you move. And, of course, the simple fact that you’d be willing to call yourself ‘Princess’ in front of someone of my standing to begin with.”

“...Maybe we’re just really foolhardy?” I suggested. I could hear the uncertainty in my own voice, though.

“I’m sure,” Alessendra said, laughing again.

“Ugh… Fine, we’re royalty,” I confessed. “Does it matter?”

‘Why are you telling him that!?’ Brianna demanded, but I just sent her an image of me rolling my eyes in response. He already knew, so we might as well try and figure out what benefits we could get out of it.

“Matter?” the man asked, frowning. “What a difficult question… Royalty among mortals hardly matters, as a rule - and yet if the mortals crown a fey amongst themselves, should we not at least proffer respect? True, you may hold no lands, your title little more than words strung together by those of the mortal realm, but all the same - when one of us holds rank, it is generally to be respected… what a curious conundrum. I’ll have to give it some thought. But, for the time being at least, I suppose I’ll at least do you the honor of referring to you by title - Princess Princess.”

“Just Princess, please,” I pleaded. “It’s our system name. Like… the name for the two of us in here? Something you can call us, regardless of who’s fronting.”

“System name? Fronting? Such curious terms… Where, exactly, were you from again? Before you were reborn?”

“We didn’t say,” Brianna replied, seizing control and giving him a firm look. “And we don’t intend to.”

“No?” the man smiled. It looked natural - without a hint of stiffness - but I couldn’t help but worry all the same as he eyed us. “Well, alright then, little dragonling. I don’t care as much about you, but you do share a body with one of our own… So I suppose you’re entitled to a secret or two. Especially when I imagine it's one you share.”

“Hey! Don’t talk about her like she’s some second class citizen!” I complained. “That’s my… my…” Shit. What exactly was my relation to Brianna, these days? We’d never really been the sort to call ourselves siblings, but we’d basically grown up together this time around… Whatever. I’d stick with what I knew to be true, over all else. “My family.”

“Family, hmm?” Alessendra asked. “How quaint… but very well. I’ll treat her with at least as much respect as I’d give a royal mortal, if that will ease your heart.”

“As much respect as you’d give me,” I said, firmly. “Whether she’s royal to you or not.”

The man eyed me for a moment, before letting out another chuckle. “Like you, then, my tall pixie.”

“And don’t call me your anything,” I added. “We’re not into being owned. Especially by men.”

“And who said I’m a man?” Alessendra asked, their body shifting even as they asked. Their face softened, their pointy chin rounding out a little as their eyes widened and their cheek bones shifted. Their waist cinched in, as their hips expanded, and their chest and ass began to push out, causing the fabric of their outfit to tighten. Soon, a woman stood before us. Or at least someone who presented femme.

“Gender is such a mortal concept,” Alessendra declared. “You’ll find I can be whatever best suits my purposes - or, in this case, catches your interest.”

I swallowed. Twice.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Brianna grumbled. “Just because they’re-”

“She,” Alessendra interrupted. “I prefer the pronoun match the presentation.”

“Fine. Just because she’s hot doesn’t… mean… Crap, I’m talking aloud, aren’t I?”

Yup!

“You’d think being able to switch at will would mean being able to, I don’t know, not switch at random?” she grumbled. “But what do I know? I’m just a dragon girl from Earth in an elf body with a pixie headmate who’s talking to some sort of genderfluid fey being. The whole damn world’s gone mad, so why the hell should I expect logic to logic?”

“Earth, you say?” Alessendra asked, her eyes glimmering. “A foreign word for dirt, if my understanding is correct? And yet it means a little more than that, doesn’t it? Another planet? Another world?”

“What’s it matter to you?” Brianna asked, cautiously.

“Nothing,” Alessendra replied. “And everything. It makes you more interesting, to say the least - and yet, at the same time, what interest do I have in mortal realms? I’m much more interested in immortal curiosities, like yourself.”

“Immortal?” I asked, curious. “Do you mean ageless? Because I’m pretty sure we have that as an elf, but-”

“You’re fey, are you not?” Alessendra asked. “Your body may falter, but so long as there is fey magic in you I doubt you’ll ever die… though I suppose there’s no way to know for certain, short of killing your form.”

“Which I’d really rather not do,” I said, hurriedly.

“No? A pity… but very well… For now, come with me.”

“Come with you where?” Brianna asked, cautiously. “We never agreed to go anywhere with you in the first place.”

“No? Then do you intend to walk through the fey woods at random? Get lost, starve, become trapped for a century or two before someone stumbles again upon you?”

Brianna had no response to that. I did, though.

“Soooo, this place you’re taking us to…. Does it have food?”

~~~

Author's Notes Bit early to be using the title as a chapter name, but at the same time it felt rather fitting considering the topic of conversation...

Fun fact: there would be an elf headmate if it wasn't for my own limitations when it comes to writing characters. I tend to just... forget a character exists, sometimes, when I have too many people on screen. Or maybe one of them just won't have anything to say, and it'll feel like they've disappeared from the scene (and my brain) until suddenly they insert themselves... Basically, keeping it to two allows me to introduce more external characters without running into problems.

Double Trouble was actually going to be about triplets when I first started plotting it, but it ran into the same basic problem.