by Apollo Surge
"You fought him because he's the king of the fairies, obviously," Rita said, rolling her eyes.
"No, I fought him because he was dangerous," Sawyer said. "Also he's not the king of the fairies, we went over this."
Rita crossed her arms over her chest, looking sullen.
"Anyway," Sawyer went on. "The hunt was important, because of the war between the Summer and Winter courts. They would take Wild Fae and make them join either side, and generally they were just always trying to get stronger or whatever, but whenever the Erlking went hunting, all the Wild Fae they'd stolen would go to him, and he'd like, run over both courts with a horse or something, and so both Courts stayed equal, balanced, so there was no chance that one of them might win and mess up the world. But then the Council started trying to make magic secret and protect humans from it, and the hunt was a big dangerous thing that they couldn't hide or control. So they decided to make it stop forever. They locked the Erlking up under the mountain and now they make sure the courts stay balanced."
"They can just lock the fairies up?" Rita's jaw dropped. "Why haven't they done that to the rest of them?"
"I don't know," Sawyer shrugged. "It might be bad for the environment, or maybe just too hard. I'm sure they thought it was the best option at the time."
"Is this the part where you fight him yet?" Rita asked. Sawyer sighed.
"Yeah, almost. A few months back, at the beginning of the year, the Erlking got loose and was going to lead the Wild Hunt again and a LOT of people would have died."
"Why?" Mike asked.
"Why what?"
"Why did he get loose?"
"It just happens sometimes, and the Council has to put him back down again."
"Could it happen again?"
"Yeah, but not any time soon. Not for another couple hundred years probably. So don't worry about it. It only caught the Council off guard this time because it had been so long since the last time. So Serena and the Council helped us find the ritual that would seal him in the mountain again. And I, uh, and I fought him, and kept him from hurting anyone else until they could get the ritual to work."
"Did you have a sword?" Rita asked, excited that Sawyer was finally getting to the good part.
"Did you wrestle him?" Mike added. Several other kids also shouted out suggestions for how Sawyer could fight the fairy king. Sawyer rolled his eyes.
"No, it wasn't that kind of fight," he tried to explain. "Like I told Rita and Mike before, you can't fight a fairy head on like that. Even if you're the strongest guy ever-"
"What if you had a black belt?"
"Yeah, even if you had a black belt-"
"Or a rocket launcher?"
"Uhh, I'm not sure anyone has tried that, but it probably wouldn't work."
"But what about-"
"Let's let Mr. Wolf finish his story," Liam interrupted gently, to Sawyer's relief.
"So how did you fight him then?" Rita asked.
"It was a magic fight," Sawyer said, frowning as he tried to figure out the best way to phrase this without mentioning the weird, erotic masochism parts. "Which is more about like, being smart or having a lot of willpower and determination than being strong. Powerful fairies can enchant you just by looking at you. You see them, and all you can think about is making them happy. You'd do anything for them. So part of the fight was just him trying to take control of me that way, and me not letting him. Which… is a lot harder than it sounds. And then, when I couldn't do that anymore, um, this part is kind of hard to explain. I, uh, I turned into a deer. Or he turned me into a deer."
"I thought you were a wolf?" one of the older kids asked.
"I am," Sawyer confirmed with a shrug. "But it's fairies, man. If it all made sense they wouldn't be this f- uh, fricking hard to deal with. So I turned into a deer. The golden deer that the hunt always chases. And I ran, as hard and fast as I'd ever run in my life, and the king had to chase me. And while he was chasing me, everyone else had time to finish the ritual. By then I was… almost gone. Almost all deer."
Sawyer frowned, struggling to explain how it had felt to be losing himself.
"I might have stayed a deer and forgotten who I was completely," he said. "But the Moon spoke to me and reminded me of who I was and all the people who were counting on me. So I turned around and I led the King back to the mountain, back to the secret door that leads to the Hall of the Erlking."
He paused, realizing he was reaching another difficult part. The memory of the hall opening up to swallow him, the King's fiery embrace, and Duncan's pale, exhausted face. He spoke slower when he started again.
"I led him to the door," Sawyer said. "And the deer passed out of me and on into the hall, and left me human again, standing in the doorway. And the hunt rushed past me like a river, chasing the deer. But the King grabbed the door frame and refused to go. The thing is, that the King isn't just a person. He isn't even a he, really, he's a… an idea. He's time and the harvest and everything inevitable. He's Death."
Sawyer saw the kids going quieter, but he was too caught up in the story to really pay attention.
"The hunt can't end without a death," Sawyer tried to explain. "It's been part of the ritual since the first time the Council did it. The King couldn't go back alone. Someone had to go with the Erlking back into the mountain. Someone had to die. And I thought it would be me."
He paused, remembering the fear and the anticipation. He had been afraid to die, to leave Elliot and everyone else, but the memory of the Erlking's kiss had still burned so ferocious in his mind, that it had seemed almost worth it. He shook his head, trying to focus.
"But our old Alpha, Duncan, went instead of me," he explained. "Remember, how I said some people think the hunt is where wolf shifters go when we die? Duncan looked into the Hall under the mountain and he saw the people he loved waiting for him, to run forever in the hunting grounds beyond. He ran through the door and the King had to follow him, and the Council sealed the door and hid it again, so that the King could never return, at least not for a very long time. Duncan saved everyone. Not just me or everyone else on the mountain that night. He might have saved the whole world."
The kids were quiet for a moment, looking suitably impressed.
"I don't know," Rita said at last, breaking the tension. "That doesn't really sound like you kicked his ass to me."
"Shut up, Rita!" another kid shouted, and others joined in. "He beat it! That's what matters!"
"Tell you what," Sawyer said with a small laugh, feeling strangely as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "Next time there's a troll on the mountain I'll go wrestle it properly. Will that satisfy you?"
"Will you let me watch?" Rita asked. "No, wait, you gotta let me help!"
"No promises," Sawyer said with a laugh.
Chapter Ten
By the end of the next day the kids were reenacting Sawyer's 'battle' with the Erlking together in the yard, though highly embellished to include more sword fights. There were almost as many arguments about who got to be Duncan as who got to be Sawyer. Sawyer wasn't sure how to feel about all that.
"Take it as a compliment," Elliot said, chuckling as two of smaller kids ran past, one wearing a fast food crown and shrieking, the other wearing a paper plate mask with a wolf drawn on it and wielding a big stick. "Not everybody gets to be a folk hero in their own life time."
"That one had props!" Sawyer complained, putting down the stack of firewood he was hauling. "When did they have time to make props?"
"You wanted them to feel safer," Elliot pointed out. "Now they have 'the Black Wolf' protecting them."
Sawyer cringed at the name.
"Do you know why they're using that dumb name?" he said. "Rita said it was cooler. She said Sawyer is a lame name for a hero. She called my name lame!"
Elliot laughed, nearly dropping his own firewood.
"It's a good thing," he said when he'd recovered his composure. "Just embrace it. It's cheering up some of the adults too. God knows
they could use it."
Sawyer had to admit that was true, but he didn't have to like it.
"Great, we've improved morale," he said. "Now we can focus on the food situation."
"That is a problem," Elliot admitted, worry lines gathering around his eyes. "We're pretty much broke. We're using inventory from the store to try and stretch our supplies but that won't last long. Alicia's digging into her college funds again. And yesterday I got a call from the city. They think I'm running an illegal campground."
"Well," Sawyer looked out at the field of tents and RVs. "We aren't not doing that."
"It's a refugee camp," Elliot said with a tired sigh. "But I can't tell them that. I'm really hoping the Council will help out, but it isn't the sort of thing they usually intervene in. And right now it's probably more important that they focus on the fairy situation."
"They're fucking wizards," Sawyer said, scowling down at the firewood. "You'd think they could spare a sack of beans or something. Jerks."
Elliot just sighed again and shook his head. They delivered the firewood to the stack at the center of the camp and headed back to the house for dinner.
They found Jacob already at the dining table, dead asleep in front of the same rice and beans he'd been making all day for their guests. Mateo and Paul helped haul him off to bed and returned, sitting down with Elliot, Sawyer and Alicia. Serena was busy at work, having switched to the late shift so she could help out here during the day, and had been for the last several days, nearly a week. It was obvious that Alicia wasn't handling it well.
"We've got to do something about this," Sawyer said, pushing his beans around his plate. He was already sick of them and he knew it would only get worse.
"Anybody have any suggestions?" Elliot asked, leaning on his elbows, looking almost as tired as Jacob. He was answered by a resounding silence. Sawyer scrubbed a hand over his face in frustration.
"Does anyone know of an Asian market in the area?" he tried. "You can get a lot of food pretty cheap there."
"It'd have to be pretty much free with the state of our finances," Alicia said. She'd brought a notebook to the table with her and was scribbling something, though whether it was budget related, or to do with renovating the barn for housing, or planning meals or lessons, was impossible to say. She had a lot on her plate lately. Ironic, considering her actual plate was close to empty and she was picking at it with minimal interest, too tired to get excited about rice and beans. "We were only just starting to get back on our feet after what happened last year. Supporting this many people has drained us dry."
"I couldn't just turn them away," Elliot said, a little defensively.
"I know," Alicia said with an impatient sigh. "But that doesn't change the fact that we can't support them. We should have had a plan going into this for how to keep everyone fed."
"What do you want me to do?" Elliot asked, volume rising. "Tell them all to go get jobs while they're living in tents? Most of them don't even have a work history! A couple of them have been living in the damn swamp spending more than half their time as gators since the forties!"
"You don't need to yell," Alicia snapped. "I wasn't blaming you. I'm just stating the facts. We are out of money."
Mateo cleared his throat.
"Perhaps this is a good time to inform everyone," he said, "that I have found a job with the mechanic in town? It's only part time, but-"
"That's great Mateo," Alicia said. "Really. Every little bit helps."
"Yeah, that's awesome," Sawyer confirmed. "I didn't know you knew anything about cars."
"Just a bit," Mateo said with a modest shrug. "Just enough to keep my own car running, really."
"Maybe I should try to get a job too," Sawyer said, biting his lip.
"You know you can't," Alicia dismissed him immediately. "Between your 'fever' and your Influence, it isn't safe."
"Maybe you could let me make that decision, Alicia?" Elliot said sourly.
"What, were you going to say something different?" Alicia asked, brow furrowing.
"I'm just saying it would be great if you actually let me lead sometimes," Elliot said, with more bitter sarcasm than Sawyer had ever heard from him.
"Maybe I'd be more willing to let you lead if you ever tried!" Alicia snapped, standing up sharply. "Instead of just sitting there waiting to add your tacit approval to everyone else's decisions!"
"I'm not-" Elliot started to defend himself, but Alicia cut him off.
"And when you DO make a decision, it's completely irresponsible and based on nothing but your feelings! Anyone could have looked at our bills and known we didn't have the resources to support twenty more people with no income! So maybe instead of taking potshots at me for trying to get things done, you could try actually making the hard decisions around here!"
She punctuated the statement by hitting the table hard enough to upset her glass, spilling water across the surface and onto her notebook. She snatched it out of the puddle and stormed away without even drying it off. They heard the slam of her bedroom door a moment later.
Dinner was finished in awkward silence. Sawyer helped Mateo with the dishes after, which took longer than expected. The kitchen was fairly wrecked by trying to cook for so many people. Jacob and the couple of Cuvier's people helping him did their best to clean as they went, but there was only so much you could do.
Sawyer felt like he'd been run over by a steamroller by the time he dragged himself up the stairs to bed. His back was killing him and nausea was hovering, temporarily ignored, at the edge of his perception. Alicia was pushing supplements on him hard now that their diet was becoming increasingly terrible, but they were huge horse pills that left a nasty taste in the back of his throat all day and choking them down made the nausea worse.
He was anticipating trying to force another one down before bed when he shouldered his way through the bedroom door.
Elliot was still awake, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking up at the moon shining through the bedroom window. It painted him in silver, gilt like a religious icon. Sawyer thought, not for the first time or the last, that Elliot was beautiful, and that he was so, so lucky.
"Sorry for dinner," Elliot said as Sawyer closed the door behind him and came to sit on the bed next to his mate.
"It's fine," Sawyer said. "We're all just tired and cranky. It's a tough situation. Alicia didn't mean what she said."
"She's right though," Elliot said, still looking at the moon. "I haven't been leading. And when I try, I've been doing it badly."
"That's not true," Sawyer said, rubbing his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm too tired to do this right now. Please just believe me. You're doing fine. This is an impossible situation and you're doing the best you can, all right?"
Elliot didn't seem convinced, but he lay down as Sawyer settled into the bed, curling up close to make the most of the little space they had.
"I'll figure something out," Elliot said, stroking Sawyer's hair thoughtfully. "I can remortgage the house maybe. Or take out a loan."
"Is that smart?" Sawyer asked. "I don't really know shit about finance. I've never even had a bank account."
"Damn, really?" Elliot asked. "What about a credit card? Car payments?"
Sawyer shook his head.
"Damn. We should try and fix that, when things aren't so crazy. Good credit is stupid important. Anyway, yeah. Getting another mortgage would suck. This place has been completely paid off since Antonia was a kid. And a loan is risky. But I'm not sure we have any other option."
Sawyer frowned, worry squeezing at his heart.
"It's like Serena said," Elliot went on. "This is just a storm. It'll be over soon enough. And in the meantime we can use the money to get some real food. I'd kill for a cheeseburger right now. What about you?"
"Peanut butter," Sawyer said immediately. He'd been craving it for days. He'd emptied the jar last week. "Have you ever had a peanut butter and banana sandwich? On like, really good thick white bread with a little honey on it? God,
I'm drooling thinking about it."
Elliot laughed softly and kissed the top of his head.
"You're so weird," he said with unmistakable fondness.
"Says the weirdo who loves me," Sawyer countered, but Elliot just smiled wider.
"I do love you," he said quietly. "So much."
Sawyer's heart caught in his throat. He hid his face in Elliot's shoulder and the other man returned to petting his hair.
"Elliot," Sawyer whispered, twisting the sheet in his hand. "I... I'm..."
He couldn't do it. He couldn't make himself say the words. Not the ones he wanted to say or the ones he needed to. But Elliot didn't push him. They fell asleep with Sawyer's unfinished statement still hanging in the still night air.
Chapter Eleven
He dreamed of the moonless forest again.
He was running at breathless, reckless speed, paws throwing up dirt behind him, but he couldn't shake his pursuers. Their search lights were always sweeping the trees behind him. The leader was always just a step behind him, moving at a patient but untiring pace. He didn't need to hurry. He'd catch up eventually. There was no possibility of escape.
"It must be found," the leader said. "It must be returned. What was stolen must be returned."
He chanted it endlessly, until Sawyer longed to scream and couldn't.
And then, so suddenly that he stumbled, he broke through the trees into a meadow. It was noon on a bright summer day, the grass high and flush with wildflowers. It was so disorienting that for a moment Sawyer just spun in confused circles.
"I knew dogs chased their tails, but I thought you lot were above that."
Sawyer looked up in surprise, ears perking.
Goldenrod was standing among the flowers, golden hair gleaming in the bright light. He was somehow even more beautiful than he had been the first time Sawyer had seen him.
"What are you doing here?" Sawyer growled, hackles raised. "You don't belong here."
"You don't even know where here is you ridiculous mutt," Goldenrod said with a bright, bell like laugh.
Sawyer contemplated that for a moment and realized he was right. He shook it off quickly however, with the certainty of dreams.
