Another journal

The sylph rummaged in his fallen captor’s pockets while Ian explained. Emily and Tanis stood by the troll’s fire, Tanis warming her hands. Their shadows cast long, not quite touching the dead bodies.

“Air spirits. Stealthy and quick—”

“And therefore, the best way to employ our time is as servants and assassins.” The sylph looked up from where he crouched, holding a small bag. “Could one of you humans check what’s inside this for me? I can’t touch it.”

“Why, ’cause you’re ethereal?” Emily stomped a little as she walked over.

“No, because I think this is iron.”

“Oh.” Emily hesitated, but took the bag.

“I’m not ethereal anyway, obviously.”

“You couldn’t have killed those guys without some substance.” Tanis turned to warm her back, still keeping an eye on the sylph. “Why’d you kill them all, anyway?”

“Same reason you fools all decided it would be wise to free an unknown from trolls that could have easily killed you. It’s my nature.”

Emily spilled the contents of the bag into her hand. “Huh, nails.” With a frown, she quickly dumped them back and held out the bag to Tanis. “You could use these, make a spiky club or something.”

“A mace.” Tanis shrugged, “sure, but so could you.”

“Yeah, but you’re human.”

At this, the sylph looked over from where he sat, sorting what he’d stolen from the trolls.

Ian reached down and grabbed Emily’s arm. “Let me see.” His hand engulfed hers, but he was careful with his long, thick nails. Turning her palm up exposed swollen criss-crossed white lines that burned red on the edges. “Dammit, Emily, you should know better.”

“Yeah, but what if they hadn’t left a mark?”

“Then you’d still be an idiot.”

Tanis took Emily’s hand in her own, dangling the bag of nails. “Iron did this?”

“Yeah, it’s bad for fairies.” Emily jerked her hand free and folded her arms.

“Does it hurt other Folk more?”

“Probably.” Emily shrugged. “We should go back to the hare. You could do with a few more hours of sleep, I bet.”

The sylph started to follow them as they left the circle of firelight.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Ian scowled, turning back.

The sylph gave him a hint of a smile. “Coming along.”

“Um, no. We’re good on our own.” Emily had her arm around Tanis and looked over her shoulder. “You’re a stranger and you kill people.”

“What, them?” The sylph flipped his hand at the bodies. “They’re not truly dead. By morning they’ll have been absorbed back into the earth and in a couple of days they’ll pop back out, good as new.”

Tanis scrunched her nose. “Ew.”

“Huh, like mushrooms, but not really.” Emily frowned. “Still, why should we let you join us?”

“No reason, really. But I’m bored and you lot seem interesting.” He shrugged a sharp, broad shoulder disdainfully. “And you saved me. It’d be strange for you not to follow through on your offer of hospitality.”

Emily exchanged glances with Tanis and Ian, then shrugged. “Fine, but put the fire out, be responsible.”

They left the sylph and walked back to their camp. Emily figured he could find them when he was done.

***

They built a small fire and Tanis methodically unwrapped her hands, dropping something shiny into the front pocket of her backpack.

“You brought your brass knuckles?” Emily laughed.

“Yes,” Tanis was very matter of fact. “I figured, since I was bringing my hand wraps, I’d toss them in too.”

“That you even brought those—” Emily shook her head, trailing off. she looked at Tanis in the firelight, searching her face for damage or worry. Feeling eyes on her, Tanis looked up, meeting Emily’s gaze. She smiled, gave Emily a kiss and stretched out for a few more hours of sleep before dawn.

“You still look like you, even as an ogre.” Tanis’ voice was soft as she smiled up at Ian. “Good job, buddy.” Her breathing settled and the others moved to the opposite side of the fire, the hare pressing Emily and Ian for details. They quietly filled him in, Emily wincing more from embarrassment than pain when she showed him her hand.

“You really—”

“Should have known better, I know. But I use cast iron pans at home and it’s no big.” She bit her lip, thinking. “It really didn’t start to hurt until I wondered why it didn’t.”

The hare looked up at her through his lashes, but didn’t say anything. They finished telling him what happened, coming to the sylph’s decision to join them right as he walked into their circle of firelight, trailing a small gust of wind with him as a train. Emily was certain he’d been standing in the shadows, waiting for the perfect dramatic moment.

Before the sylph could say anything, the hare was rooting around Tanis’ backpack for his camera.

“Young man, you will be a perfect addition to my studies. Your kind do not often visit the Institute, so you’ve been severely under-represented.”

“Hare, dammit.” Emily hissed as she batted his paws away and pulled the camera out. “You’re going to fall in. Also, get out of her things.” She loaded the camera with fresh film.

The hare was not too excited to be annoyed. “She’s carrying my things.”

“Yeah, and she can stop doing that at any time.” Emily gave the hare his camera and he padded up to the sylph, who hadn’t moved from the spot he’d theatrically stepped into. He looked uncomfortable.

“Please don’t make faces.” The hare brusquely chided before taking a shot. “One more please, hold your pose—there.” The flash went off and the sylph reflexively took a step back. The hare grumbled as he examined the developing prints. “If you ruined my picture, we’ll just have to do it again, only without you acting like a baby.”

The sylph started to apologise, but looked up to see Emily and Ian quietly laughing, even half-asleep Tanis snorted before snuggling deeper under the covers. Stirring a dust devil, the Sylph spun on his heel and strode back into the forest.

“You were bored, you said! You wanted to join us, you said!” Emily called after him. “Well, buddy, this is who we are.”

Tanis looked up at Emily, who stooped over her for a kiss.

“You feeling okay?” Emily’s eyes held all the concern her voice didn’t.

“Yeah, we’re a good team.” Tanis’ smiling face sobered with sleep. “I didn’t really do anything, or hurt anybody much. We’ll see how I do next time.”

“There won’t be a next time.” Emily gave her another kiss.

“Lies. Tell Ian he looks great as an ogre.” She shut her eyes with determination.

Emily smiled at Tanis’ face relaxing into sleep. Brushing dirt from her knees, she wandered around the fire. The hare was nearby, muttering to himself as he compared Polaroids in the flickering light. Squatting on her heels by Ian, Emily stared over the flames at Tanis.

“She said you make a good ogre.”

“I make a pretty decent ogre, for somebody who wasn’t born doing it.”

“Don’t get down on yourself, man. Why do that?”

Ian waved a blocky hand. “It’s true. And I should have made a better stand against the trolls, instead of lucking out and letting that sylph do it.”

“Shut up.” Emily shook her head. “We’re all learning here.”

“Except me.” The hare interjected before turning back to his photographs.

“Fuck off, hare.” Emily kicked dirt at him. “You’re learning about that aura shit. Ian’s learning his place as an ogre in the Sidhe, I’m learning how to be open and communicative with my girlfriend, who is learning about my weird-ass past.” She tilted her head, watching the fire. “I mean, we’re all learning a bunch more stuff too, but that’s life, Ian. Always room for improvement. You stagnate; you die.”

“Okay,” Ian snorted.

“My advice is good and consoling, appreciate it. Maybe like, just stay in ogre form. Really take a chance to live in it.”

“That is actually pretty good advice. But the hare’s carrier wasn’t built to be adjustable, so I can’t wear it in ogre form.”

Emily wrinkled her nose. “And Tanis and I already are carrying bags, plus neither of us want to carry the hare.”

Ian and Emily both guiltily looked towards the hare, but he was busy scratching notes into a beat-up leather book and didn’t seem to have noticed.

“You could wait to change back until morning.”

“I prefer to do it at night.”

“Like a werewolf?”
“Or like somebody with a sense of modesty. I’m not cool with being naked in front of you guys. Or you watching me change. It probably looks gross. I’ve read Animorphs.” Ian dug his claw-nailed toes into the dirt. “I mean, I’ve naturally got less fingers than a human does right now. I know my hands look deeply upsetting when I shift.”

“Ha, ogres must have a base eight system.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Emily shrugged. “Neither do I.”

Ian got up and wandered outside the ring of firelight, into the black wall of night. Emily watched the fire and Tanis, worrying about Ian’s vulnerability as he changed back into human form. She tried not to look too relieved when he came back, still folding his kilt, which Emily was now certain was the fabric she’d bought for curtains last spring and thought she’d misplaced.

He pulled a pack of playing cards out of a cargo pocket and played solitaire while Emily rolled more cigarettes. Eventually, he dealt hands and they rotated through different games with the casualness of people who’d been bullshitting each other at cards for years. The hare tried to join in a round of four-of-a-kind, but he couldn’t hold the cards and kept accusing the others of looking.

“It’s difficult not to when you just lay them out on the ground like that, but I’m not trying to cheat.” Emily kept her eyes on her hand. “Believe me or stop playing.”

The hare stopped playing.

Dawn broke through the canopy, spilling cold morning light across the ground. They let the fire settle into coals and Emily woke Tanis when the dim edges of dawn had cleared.

The hare reassured them that the jump was close by and they started off after both Tanis and Emily separately checked that the fire was dead and ashes scattered.

The jump was actually closer than the hare had thought. Emily was only a couple of drags into her cigarette before they reached it. Two paper birches, peeling delicately, stood as a stark white door frame in a clearing just off the path.

“So, we could have gone through last night.” Emily rolled her eyes.

“It’s probably better that we didn’t, I was getting pretty tired.” Tanis shifted the backpack straps. “And we had an encounter.”

“Yes, it was a real teaching moment.”

Tanis stuck her tongue out at Emily and they walked through the jump.

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This post is part of The Consoling Divide – Serialised. See the archive and overall content warnings here, and find more of my writing here. I’m over on both Comradery and Patreon, if you feel like supporting my creative endeavours. If you’d like to subscribe to this story, here’s a handy email box for you: