The night was so cold, so very cold as the young girl ran with all her might along the empty roads eager to rest for the night. She had run for so many miles that she had completely lost track of how many she had actually run.
A large building eventually came into view, an abandoned warehouse that looked dilapidated and unloved, which she pushed herself with all her might to reach. Finally she was there. She pushed open the door before following the only path to what seemed like safety. A strong dizzy spell swept over her as she took the last few steps towards a metal door, a faint glow seeping from under its frame. She raised a weak fist up towards the door before banging as loud as she could against the cool metal, hoping to find someone, anyone to help her. Why had she stopped here to find shelter? There had been many other houses that she could have knocked on their doors but for some reason, a sort of primal instinct, she didn't.
Bang, bang, bang. She knocked again, this time she tried to knock harder but it just came out even weaker than before. Bang, bang, bang. She knocked again, before the dizziness grew, leaving her to sway on the spot before crumpling down onto the hard floor, just as the glow of the opening door bathed her in warmth. She didn't see who picked her up as she had lost consciousness. She didn't realize what had happened until she awoke from her fainting spell where two faces hovered over hers, her body lain over a soft but slightly lumpy couch and her head thumping from exertion. At first she wondered, where was she? Though she quickly recalled that she had been searching for somewhere after running for so long, her body was so thankful for the rest. Who were these two female faces looking down at her? Was she safe here? She couldn't really dwell on that thought for too long as they both started to talk to her. Or rather, talk at her.
"She's awake. What's your name?"
"Where you from?"
"You've hurt your head so don't touch, it's a bit bruised."
"Yeah. You look like you've taken a few rounds with an ogre and you really don't want to be doing that."
"Kenz!"
Their voices sort of blended together, the young girl couldn't even make sense of what they were saying as her memories came flooding back, fear radiating throughout her body as she bolted upright on the sofa, her gaze flitting between both women dizzily. "Please help! I'm scared. Please, please help! I've...I've been running...running...no way...no way of help...I don't know what else to do." Her head spun as she tried to grip onto the slim one's outfit but she just flopped back down onto the sofa. "Please...?"
The elder of the two moved herself nearer before sitting down by the side of the young girl and started to stroke her face, a immediate glow was rippling across the young girl's body. "There, there. Calm yourself down. What's your name?"
The young girl closed her eyes, a contented smile had appeared on her lips. This woman had some sort of magic touch and she did not want it to stop. "My name is Eira."
The woman nodded with a soft smile as the other looked over her shoulder towards Eira. "It's nice to meet you Eira. I'm Bo and this is Kenzi. Where have you come from?"
Eira was so deeply relaxed that she didn't answer straight away, instead a long peaceful sigh escaped her lips before she opened her eyes slightly to look at them both. "I've travelled over sea from England looking for help..." she whispered, barely audible. "...looking for you."
What? Bo thought as she moved her hand away from Eira, causing Eira to fall to sleep. Did she just say what she said?
"Wow man. She's been stalking you. Creepy much?" Kenzi commented in a slightly snarky tone as she got herself up from the part of the couch she was sitting on and clip clopped in her killer heels towards the kitchen. She then poured Bo and herself a drink of luke warm red wine from a now empty but freshly bought bottle. "Here, drink this, you look like you need it." She held a glass out in the direction of Bo as Kenzi waited for her to walk on over.
It took Bo a few moments to compose herself from Eira's words before making her way over to Kenzi and grabbed her glass, eager for the liquid swirling in it's holder.
"Drink up." Kenzi happily exclaimed as she downed half of her own before Bo had even had a drop. Bo finally threw it back, letting the faint burn of the alcohol run down her throat. "I wonder why she's been looking for you." Kenzi questioned as she took both their now empty glasses from their hands and headed towards the sink to wash them.
"I don't know." Bo muttered as she turned around to face the couch with Eira laid across it. There's something about her...something off about this girl. Bo thought but lately she hadn't been having the best of reasons to trust people. There was something though about her that Bo just couldn't shake off.
2: Chapter TwoEira tried to keep grip on her calm and peaceful dreams but her usual nightmares were quickly seeping in. It was always the same, every night, every time she fell asleep, the same nightmares began.
She started off in a small Wendy House, a child, tucked into the corner waiting for someone who never came. In her nightmare it was someone she apparently knew, a man was all her conscious mind could remember. A face she never saw and a name she never heard. All she knew was that in her nightmare this man was her father.
Then the whole image would shift effortlessly into another, this time she was a young teenager of perhaps thirteen, walking through a bright forest. Alone. This nightmare had the look of just an ordinary dream, with the brightness and what seemed such vivid colors but there was an edge to it that suggested otherwise. A unseen darkness covering it all. She carried on walking through the forest, along the worn down path of many footsteps, trying to keep on the path, never stepping on the long, wet grass that lined along either side of her.
After a while, her body began to ache from exhaustion; she had walked so far. Why and where she was walking to she did not know but she did know she had to get there as quickly as she could. Her dreams were always the same. She walked towards a tree which lined the path before leaning against it and slid her body down onto the stony ground, ready to get some rest. As she shut her eyes, letting the wave of sleep drift over her, she could just make out a figure standing in the distance at a curve in the path. A definite male figure; tall, dark hair and dark clothes, just standing there and not moving. She could not see his face but there was something familiar about him, like she knew him. She could not look over at him any further as her eyelids were too heavy to keep open and she drifted off to sleep; a dream within a dream and floated off to a world made up by her mind.
That was when Eira always woke, now back in the real world. This time however, she wasn't waking up in a place she felt overly safe, she was in strangers house, sleeping on their couch; a place she was drawn to, for reasons unknown to her for now.
She stretched, letting the clicking of her curled up body free from it's position before sitting up on the couch. She looked around as she yawned, no one seeming to be around. Where were they? Bo and Kenzi. They wouldn't just leave her here on her own surely?
Eira was too hungry to wonder anymore as she headed over to the kitchen and looked through the cupboards, trying to find something to eat. Nothing but a bag of slightly stale crackers, a can of squirty cream and what looked like a green plush toy in the fridge, turned out to be an incredibly moldy piece of cake which she immediately threw away into the bin. She left the squirty cream where it sat but took the crackers back to the couch before filling herself with it's soft, dry goodness.
The bag was finished in under three minutes and her stomach still complained that it wanted more. The was no more edible food left, at least in the kitchen. Maybe there was something in their bedrooms. Eira was about to get back up, leaving the empty cracker bag on the coffee table when the front door quickly opened and a gaggle of voices filled the room. She turned to face the small crowd of three women; two being Bo and Kenzi, the other was a slim blond she didn't know all leading the way for a tall, muscular man who was walking right behind them. Their words all intermingled together so Eira could not make out a word coming from any of their mouths, all she knew for certain was that whatever they were talking about, none of them seemed happy. They all stopped talking when they reached the couch and turned to face Eira, their faces almost moot of expression but not quite, a look of worry flickered across all four of their faces.
"Right. Well, we have to get her to Trick, he'll be able to help." The muscular man said with his arms crossed and his eyes flitting between the group and Eira. His tone of voice was sounding almost strict and definitely serious. He paused his gaze on the blond as he spoke again, the tone of his voice shifting to a level of underlying teasing as he flashed a subtle grin. "Doctor?"
The blond woman started to walk closer, who Eira could now clearly see was wearing normal 'civilian' clothes but was covered by a lab coat which unnerved Eira all the more. She seemed a safe enough person to be in the same room in but Eira still felt she couldn't trust anyone yet, probably the same feeling they had for her.
When the woman reached the other side of the couch as their bodies were behind Eira, she sat herself down on the opposite side of the couch and shifted herself to face Eira. She had a soft, friendly smile on her lips as she started to speak, her voice emitting her professionalism and love of her job with each word that passed her lips. "Hello Eira. I know that you've met Bo and Kenzi, so I'd like to introduce myself as well. I'm Lauren and he's Dyson and we're all here to help you." That same soft smile flittered across the Doctor's lips again.
Eira didn't want to show she was nervous of them so she took a deep breath and moved herself closer to Lauren to show she had opened up to trusting them, though she was starting to a little, she was still not too trusting of them. Eira coughed to clear her throat before she too started to speak. "What are you going to do to me?" She couldn't think of anything else but that question at that moment but a few more questions came flooding into her mind when her words had come out.
Lauren simply laughed, though again softly before shaking her head. "I'm...we're not going to do anything to you, we just want to help. Now, I'm sure you heard us earlier but we have a friend called Trick who is up with helping you." With helping me? Help me with what?
"You can't help me, none of you can help me." Eira angrily rose out of her seat and headed around the couch and over to the edge of the kitchen, her hands pressed to a wooden pillar rising from the floor to the ceiling, her eyes tightly closed. Eira was prone to getting blackouts; holes in her memory like they had been wiped. She was mentally ill, sick with emotion, emotions from the times of her blackouts. She had forgotten what she had said last night when she had arrived here first, all she knew was that she had been feeling very scared, frightened and needed a place to stay. She couldn't even remember how she got here, all she could remember emotionally was that she felt a desire to get somewhere so she guessed that place was here.
Time seemed to have stopped for a brief moment as Eira's mind swam in thought but a gentle hand lifted her out of it all. Lauren's. "We know you're Fae, Dyson can smell you, he just can't pinpoint what."
"You're hard to pin down." Dyson laughed softly at his attempt at making Eira feel a little bit more comfortable.
"Could you tell us what you are?"
Crap! They guessed that she was Fae but wait. Dyson can smell you. That meant they're all Fae, well Dyson at least. No, she couldn't say. She shouldn't but they said they could help her. Contradicting thoughts went backwards and forwards in her mind until she decided what to do. She was going to tell them. Eira took a deep breath before straightening herself up and turned to face them all. Her eyes scanned their faces, but all she saw was their anticipation with what she was going to say. Another deep breath before words began to spill from behind her lips.
"I'm a Bwyta." Eira finally admitted as all let out their inhaled breaths before confusion swept over their faces. They hadn't heard of one before.
"What's that?" Kenzi's words summed up what they were all thinking.
"It says here that a 'Bwyta' or a 'Bwyta Emosiwn', which translates basically as an 'Emotion Eater' has the ability to literally feed off your emotions and get rid of them. They can even make you feel thing, both negative and positive that they want you to feel." Trick skimmed over the inner contents of a very dust and very old book, looking to help them all find out more about Eira. He took a brief pause, looking over some more words before continuing to speak.
"They're a rare type of Fae, not very well documented but as far as documents go, they've been around since the early Middle Ages. Origins in Britain." Trick suddenly slammed the book shut, which seemed a lot louder than it would normally in the empty Dal, before looking up at the whole group.
"Eira's a Celtic Fae." There was something in his tone that hinted a fact he seemed to be concealing but maybe it was more because he hadn't met a Bwyta in a very long time, a fact he wasn't going to mention. Not yet anyway.
The group all nodded apart from Eira, listening to what Trick had to say. None of what he was saying helped Eira one little bit, she knew all this already but if it was all information the group had to hear from Trick, then very well, so be it, she just crossed her arms and waited for his lecture of sorts to be over. Trick mentioned the history of Bwyta's and how Eira must have a Bwyta mother as the old rules state that would be the case.
"If the mother is a Bwyta and the child is female, that child will be considered a Bwyta, the same will be said if the father is a Bwyta and he has a son. That child will be considered a Bwyta." Trick didn't ease off giving information to the group from what he had just read, now leading onto further history which must be simply rattling around in his head, ready to come out. He let out a silent sigh, his expression drawing darker.
"However, to give an example, if you're mother's Bwyta and you are male, then back in the olden days, you were considered 'impure' and would be killed, though only after your abilities mature which wouldn't be until you reached puberty."
"So what...Eira's been running because she's, in the book's words 'impure'?" Bo asked Trick, her brows pulled down into a frown, her assumption to what Trick was telling them and what Eira had said the night before to Bo ...looking for you. Bo's attention shifts to Eira before anyone else can say a word. "Was that why you came looking for me, so I could help you to run?" Her expression changed ever so slightly to something showing sympathy, her gaze fixed to Eira.
Eira simply shook her head as she sat herself up and muttered a soft 'No.', her own gaze now never shifting from Trick. She was going to say more but she could tell that Trick had more to say and she knew he didn't want to be interrupted. Again.
"They can only mate..." Kenzi omitted a louder than she planned shudder at the word 'mate' but Trick just carried on. "...with humans or other Fae but they can't have children with fellow Bwyta's though no one really knows why."
Dyson's phone suddenly breaks the somber atmosphere of the room as he had to quickly walk out into the corridor to take it. Bo, once more quickly jumps in.
"So if you're not running away, then why were you looking for me?" Bo asked in a tone Eira was sure she wasn't wanting to use. It seemed a shade too abrupt for what Bo was trying to use which Eira simply shrugged off and turned to look at Bo, her big brown eyes pinned to Bo's.
"I don't remember what I said to you last night. Well not fully anyway, my memory hasn't been the best for a very long time." Eira admitted, honestly as she turned away to look at the tacky bar, tapping her long, slightly tanned fingers along the wood. "What did I say?"
"That you had been looking for me." Bo answered as she pulled a seat up by Eira, leaning her body to look at her face. "You really don't remember."
"No, I really don't. I remember, vaguely running and looking for a place to stop and then knocking on your door, but then the next thing I remember is waking up this morning and none of you were there." Eira's tone was down and sounded almost exhausted but something in her, a small bit of spark burned within her as she turned her body to look at both Bo and Kenzi who had moved herself sometime between Bo's question and now to a table nearby but everything she said right now was mostly to Bo.
"Hang on. Where were you when I woke up? You left me on my own, I could have been a serial...kleptomaniac!" Her voice increased in volume as her gaze once again fixed on Bo as she waited for an answer. Instead Kenzi spoke, though only to say a funny remark.
"You're not are you? I don't want any competition when it comes to things like that." An amused chuckle escaped her lips as she played with a straggly bit of fingernail on her pinkie.
Eira shook her head, her gaze only breaking to Kenzi for a brief moment before turning back to Bo. "No, I'm not. Where were you two anyway?"
"We went to find Dyson if you really want to know and of course to talk with Trick. We went to try and help you as you seemed to want it." Bo snarkily answered but tapered off a little towards the end.
"Right okay, but you still haven't helped me. I already know everything that has been said and for anyone wondering, my mother IS a Bwyta so I'm not actually running away, I've just been searching... for something." Someone. Eira wouldn't admit that she was looking for someone. Who, she did not know. All these answers still left, well unanswered in her head.
Bo and Eira had both briefly forgotten that Trick was listening to them both, not until he started to talk, though this time he was cleaning beer glasses and also, he too had at least one question to ask.
"Tell me Eira, have you been feeling like you've forgotten something? Or maybe even someone? I know you've told us that you're memory hasn't been great but I'm just interested to know what you think you're looking for."
Eira's heart began to race as she thinks, digging into every crevice of her mind looking for answers. She wondered what he was getting at but finally she nodded when she caught the words she wanted to tell Trick, her lips ready to form those first words.
"I'm looking for someone." Eira admitted, pausing for a moment, her gaze firm on Trick. "I just don't know who."
A broad smile suddenly appeared on Trick's face like some long lost piece of a jigsaw suddenly slotted into place.
"I know what's causing your memory problems."
"You do?" Eira instantly spoke, unsure of whether he really did but he just sounded so adamant that he knew and the others did say they would help her. "Seriously?"
"Seriously." Trick chuckled as he spoke, his eyes bright with his burgeoning news.
"Spit it out." Bo and Kenzi exclaimed at the same time, eager to know too.
Trick to a deep breath, surely just for a dramatic edge to the situation before finally speaking.
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