Same old dreamer on the other side Who: Eilidh and Flicker (NPC) When: Morning Where: Her tent along the river
Diaries were a thing that Eilidh had witnessed many young girls, and some boys, in Fiona's family keeping. It was a record of thoughts and happenings and she'd decided that, while she could never keep committed to one back home and had at least three dozen beginnings scattered about the house, she was going to try. It was a new realm and there wasn't anything that said she'd be unsuccessful this time. So far she'd been able to make an entry every morning when she first woke to talk about the previous day and what she'd dreamed. Her dreams seemed to be more vivid here then they'd been at home and she wondered why that was. Was it something in the water? Water that she needed to drink from the river or those bottles that the mortals kept the good stuff in, because their regular water was like promising death. She'd seen things that said they put things into their water so maybe it was that... well, whatever the reason she thought that she liked it. Except for when the nightmares came and then she'd just do her best to forget about them and not give them words. When one didn't want to remember something it was better to not describe it.
She wasn't really sure that the woman she'd met yesterday deserved words either, but she'd given them to her simply because she'd been so strange. And unpleasant. And not a mortal. Oh no, she had been a demon! Eilidh hadn't thought that she'd actually have the chance to ever meet one of those and then she had. It'd been the oddest thing though; she'd imagined that demons always had horns or scales or tails or something that made them obviously not human and she hadn't seen any of those in Persephone. Unless she'd somehow managed to hide all of them under her clothes? Yes, that could be it. Like how she'd suggested that Eilidh should hide her ears with her hat. Frowning, the fae reached up to run her fingers along the pointed tip of each ear before giving them a little flick. Her ears had always been like that and they'd always be. What was the point in hiding them? With a hat or with a glamour it'd still be like lying about herself and she felt like she did enough of that by walking around with this appearance. But that was just good common sense that even she had -- mortals wouldn't know what to do with a fae who wasn't in their seaming. Eilidh imagined that they simply wouldn't be able to handle how beautiful a sight it would be. She loved her natural form and if there was a thing that she missed from home then it was that.
And her home with all of the rooms and the things that she'd started and not finished. Sighing, Eilidh closed the small book she used as a diary and tucked it underneath the pillow. The tent was pleasant enough and bigger than some that she'd seen, but it wasn't a home, it was just a place for her to stay because she didn't quite understand how mortals went about owning their land yet. It did do something that a roof didn't; it let in the sound of rain perfectly and Eilidh had always loved the rain. Smiling she rolled onto her knees and shuffled to the front of the tent so that she could unzip the door and slide out of the tent into the drizzly morning. There was a chill hanging in the air again and she shivered, rubbing her hands against her already damp skin as she rose to her full height and stretched out.
The question now was what she should do with her day. Staying in the tent wasn't an option unless she wished to bore herself to tears, which she didn't. Tapping a finger against her lips, Eilidh shrugged and moved out of the dense growth of trees so that she could catch rain in her cupped hands for a drink. She didn't even know why she was spending time wondering what she was going to do today because, no matter what else she did, she always ended up doing the very same thing as she had that first day she arrived: finding and watching Layla King. Why shouldn't she? It wasn't so very different from what she'd done when she had been back at her home, only then it had been through a reflective surface and now she could actually be close to her. Somewhat close. If she'd been able to decide just how she was going to say 'hello' then she'd have been able to go much closer, but she hadn't. All of the different options her mind had tossed up -- simply saying it, surprising her, never saying it at all and just watching forever like she'd done with all of Fiona's other descendants because she had no choice -- didn't seem quite right to her. Eilidh knew, truly she did, that Layla wasn't Fiona. She was a person in her own right with some very noteworthy differences. But every time that she caught sight of her from the side she found herself jerked back three centuries to when she'd last seen the other fae, her heart would ache and she'd will the woman to turn so she could show herself that 'see? It's not her' or she'd turn herself away and wait until everything had stopped aching. She's not Fiona, Eilidh reminded herself again as she leaned back against the tree and ignoring the dampness that trailed down her back because of it. She'd gotten used to being wet these past few days.
It was easier to think about the rain and being wet and wondering what would happen if she called down lightning here than thinking about how Layla might react to her. What if she decided that she hated her on some strange principle Eilidh didn't understand? What if she thought her weird as Persephone had? Eilidh had gotten used to these things and accepted them from the majority of any world, but she thought that it might upset her if the only descendant of Fiona's who was left in this place since the others were traveling and her mother had moved to some place Eilidh couldn't quite recall the name of didn't like her. She'd been watching them for years and knew probably too much of Layla's life -- though she didn't see what might be wrong with that, they watched the lives of others on their television sets -- and she didn't think that she'd dislike her.
I didn't think that Fiona would leave me for this world either.
Eilidh needed to stop thinking, but that never worked. Her thoughts would just be swept away and eventually they'd come back. 'I think it's a funny thing, how your mind works.'
The fae's eyes snapped open and she whirled, looking around for someone she hadn't heard. Only there was no one. Just her, the trees, the rain, the river and her tent. A few birds were chirping from under the thicker trees but she hadn't heard a single person approach. And yet she had very clearly heard a voice that wasn't hers, nor the voice of Air himself, and it'd been speaking to her. "Hello?"
'Hello!' This time the voice was accompanied by the quiet beat of wings and then a little feathered body had landed on the hand Eilidh had just used to hold back branches to help her see the area better. The fae was a little startled, but she settled easily and peered curiously at the small, very blue bird that had just settled himself on her hand. She was guessing that it was a him because the voice in her head that didn't belong there sounded male. And also because she knew that it was usually the males who had all of the color, which just wasn't fair, but that wasn't the point. The point was that the bird was speaking to her. And yes it was perfectly reasonable to think it was the bird. Eilidh had seen people who had familiars in this world and she desperately wanted one. Or just to talk with one. This must be one if it could talk. Unless regular birds could talk here too? 'No, we really can't. I couldn't talk before. Not to things that weren't birds.'
"Oh." Eilidh's eyes widened in surprise. "Did I say any of that out-loud?" It was a bad habit of hers that centuries hadn't managed to cure; speaking her thoughts without realizing it.
'No.' The bird chirped and ruffled his feathers, spraying bits of water on her arm before he started to hop up it, crooking his head to the side. 'But you don't have to! I can hear all of your thoughts just whirling away in there. It's like a really fast wind that gets faster when you think about certain things. I've been listening for a day now, trying to decide how to say hello. It's amazing that you never get lost in your head. I think I would.'
"Ah, yes of course. People have said that before." And those were just the people who listened to her talk when she had a new idea. Eilidh couldn't imagine what they'd say if they could actually hear her thoughts. Maybe what the little blue bird had?
'Cerulean.'
"Hmm?"
'I'm cerulean, not blue. A cerulean warbler. And it took me days to get up here to you with all of this rain. Why couldn't you have come sooner?'
Eilidh wasn't very often at a loss for words or thoughts. Things didn't happen that could startle her that much, but this was. Usually her thoughts would change because she wanted them to or something caught her attention, not because something literally flew in and demanded it. "I had to think if I wanted to. It wasn't the easiest decision. The last time that someone I know came to the Mortal Realm-"
'She died. Fiona?'
"Oh. Yes. Her name was Fiona. How did you...?"
The small bird fluttered a wing in her direction. 'I can hear your thoughts and I've been here for a day. You think of her when you look at the woman in the jewelry shop. Layla? That's the one in the shop. And of course right just now. I thought I'd interrupt before you got all carried away.'
"Thank you. I think. My name's Eilidh but you-"
'Can call you Alice. My name's Flicker!' Then he bobbed his little head like he was trying to bow and a bright smile broke out on Eilidh's face. Confused or not she couldn't help but be completely fascinated by a little bird that was trying to pick up on human mannerisms.
Still. "I didn't know that fae could have familiars." She'd always assumed that if they were meant to then they'd have gotten them in the Fair Realm, not here. "I thought we were too magical." It wasn't hard for her to say that, really it wasn't, even though she didn't think that it should apply to her. She surely wasn't too magical by the standards of anyone who knew what real magic was like.
Flicker cheeped and hopped a little further up Eilidh's arm, making it harder for her to see him without craning her neck in a way that was painful. So she satisfied herself by turning and walking back to the tent to duck inside. If she was going to go out and do something today then she needed to put on some of the clothes that she had. For awhile she'd thought that maybe she could get away with just glamouring herself everywhere she went, but after a few days she'd realized that people came to close and she didn't feel -- 'How can you ignore a voice that's in your own head?!' And that was when she realized that she'd zoned off a little bit, trying to decided between the blue and white shirts. Flicker was hopping around on her blankets and his voice had gotten louder in her head.
"Oh... were you saying something?"
'Yes!'
"I didn't hear you."
'But my voice is in your head!' Eilidh just tilted her head down at the warbler and blinked. '...you really didn't hear me.' The fae shrugged her shoulders slightly. Since the bird claimed to be able to hear all of her thoughts she'd think that he knew how much they scattered when she wasn't doing her best to follow what was being said. Or thought, as it were. 'I was saying that I think you're getting me because you're an elemental fae so you're not as magical as the others.'
Eilidh nodded slowly. "That would make sense... how long have you been my familiar?" She wished that someone had told her she'd get him when she first came. She'd have likely tried to come sooner because having a talking bird of her very own was really that exciting a thing. "Forever? No, you can't have been, birds don't live that long and I'm old by this realm's standards." She found that to be funny too. Her old? Oh no, there were so many older than her that she couldn't believe anyone might think her old. It was just that everyone here was so very young she was amazed that they hadn't ended up killing themselves by sheer happenstance during one of their so-called World Wars.
Flicker cheeped and shoved his head under the corner of a shirt that'd been tossed in a corner. A moment later he emerged with what appeared to be a crumb in his beak. 'Messy creature. I've been your familiar since you came. If you hadn't then I think I'd have just stayed another bird, but I don't really know. I've not many familiars and definitely not the familiar of another fae. I don't think there are many like you here.'
"Oh." Eilidh's shoulders slumped slightly at the revelation that the bird hadn't seen other elemental fae either. Were they really such an oddity? Eilidh could recall times when people had wanted to do something because it was different, but she'd never been one of them. She wanted to try things because she hadn't ever done them, but not because they were different, she was different enough by sheer virtue of who she was. An elemental fae who now had a little blue -- 'cerulean!' -- bird to add to those differences. "Well, it doesn't matter, I'm glad to have you. Will you come out with me or do you want to hide in the trees like all the other birds?"
'Where are you going?'
This time it was Eilidh who shrugged her shoulders, tugging on the blue shirt instead of the white before rising to locate a skirt that wouldn't look too bad with it. Mortals could stare so hard if they didn't like what you were wearing and Eilidh didn't care, but since she made a habit of following the same sort of path at some point during the day she didn't think that they needed to notice her. "Where I always go every day. Eventually." Usually she'd end up taking a different way and get distracted by this or that -- the library was her favorite discovery even if she didn't understand why they ever needed to close -- but she'd always find her way to L'Attique. Or, if the store had closed for the night, then she'd wander around until she found herself on North Cliff Road, hands fluttering as she tried to decide for the hundredth time whether or not she should go and say hello. She'd wonder for so long that the lights would turn off and she'd be left making her way back to her tent. Again, eventually, because even at night there were so many different things for her to see.
'It's going to be very hard to keep up with you.'
"I don't walk that fast."
'No, I mean your thoughts...' If birds could sigh then Flicker would've, but instead he fluttered up and made his way underneath Eilidh's hair. 'There, now I won't get wet and if you don't pay attention to me then I can just peck at your ear to get your attention.'
Eilidh tugged on the skirt she'd chosen and pouted slightly. "I don't mean to ignore you."
Flicker cheeped and rubbed the top of his feathery head against her neck. 'I know. Now come on, let's go stalking.'
"Stalking?" Confusion replace Eilidh's pout as she stepped out into the rain and rezipped the tent. "I'm not a cat, I don't stalk."
'No it's... when you follow someone?'
"But I don't follow anyone. And I definitely don't follow with the intent to attack or cause harm." Eilidh had seen animals stalk their prey and she didn't do anything like that.
Flicker sighed inside her head. 'Nevermind.'
"No, now I want to know what you meant."
'Oh hey look! A turtle!' It hadn't taken Flicker long to learn that distracting Eilidh wasn't a difficult thing at all.
Eilidh had already knelt down, mindless of the stains the wet grass would leave on her skirt, to look at the turtle. She even tipped her head upside down to get a better look and Flicker had to scramble to keep from being dislodged from his perch in her hair. Eilidh ignored his little grumblings in favor of conversing with the turtle who could not speak back and seemed interested only in going around her. Ah well, once it had done that she would simply stand, try to brush off the stains that'd bother her for all of thirty seconds and continue on her way until the next thing caught her eye. Flicker wished that he had someone to bet with on how long that would take.