Exiled to the streets

Watching reservedly as Jon put on the Collar he just beckoned when it was time for them to follow him through, he’d picked the portal that would take them as close to home as possible “When we get home I’ll show you through the house, Lilli can have the kids bedroom, You’ll have seths room and Con will have my old room” evidently he’d spent some time organizing it all in his head, he had a hunch that Atrel would be waiting for him to make sure he’d learned his lesson so he added  “I’ll just need to unlock the house and organize a couple of things” the half an hour walk went by quite quickly, the sun had started to set by then and once he walked back onto his land the faerie sighed with relief so thankful to be back home where he belonged. Watching as Tor took off barking, the faerie rolled his eyes listening to the angry hens scolding the dog, “The kitchens that way” Hrolf commented after he unlocked the house and threw open the doors, the lack of dust made him a little suspicious but there was nothing worth bringing up right now. So he walked into the house, turning around when he heard a familiar voice, greeting the king formally he was about to ask if there was anything he wanted when Connor barged in all of a sudden “Hrolf, Jon wants to know what…. You want for dinner?” halfway through his sentence Connor realized that there was another faerie in the room. “Sorry I’ll come back later” with that he resisted the urge to run and jump out the window, instead he back peddled quickly managing not to fall over his own feet as he did so. [/color]

Shivering when the stranger spoke, Connor found he couldn’t look away as there was something vaguely familiar about the faerie, a strange sense of déjà vu, he obediently stepped forward to stand next to Hrolf openly staring at the stranger. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was, but after Hrolf elbowed him he remembered some of what he’d been taught and studied the rug he was standing on as if it were a five star movie he’d been waiting forever to watch. His hands felt a little sweaty, so he tucked them behind his back out of sight, the easiest way to rationalise this was that it was all in his head, starting to settle and relax he flicked his gaze up once more to watch the silver eyed man from underneath his lashes. Swallowing hard as blurred out of focus faded memories briefly took center stage in his mind, Connor dug his fingernails into his hands trying to sort through what was going on in his head, he needed to get a hold of himself and do what he did best, mask. Inhaling deeply he stepped into the façade he’d practiced for most of his life, the boys body relaxed as if he was completely comfortable there and his expression changed to a very polite smile all the while on the inside he was carefully setting everything to the side where he could go through it better later that night in bed. One thing for sure, was that the sense of familiarity about the stranger made him want to know him more, to find out why he was so familiar, he was tempting that made him dangerous so he needed to be careful, not throw caution to the wind and just go with it like part of him wanted to.

Disliking feeling like a five-year-old that had done something wrong but hiding it, Hrolf just nodded “You won't find me a problem in the future your majesty” puzzled as to why the king appeared to be so interested in Connor, “Two pets and a child who is to become my heir” speaking respectfully enough privately he was looking forward to when the king would leave and he could go back to settling in and figuring out what needed to be done around the place. The man somehow felt that the focus of the silver-eyed faerie was almost completely on the boy and wasn’t sure how he felt about that, the boy had been through enough bullshit in his life that he and Jon had been able to weasel out of him so he was rather hesitant about the rather capricious king taking such an interest in the boy. Narrowing his eyes slightly when he caught Connor watching the prince from under his lashes he couldn’t quite help but feel like he was missing something rather obvious. Whatever it was there seemed to be a connection between the two and he wasn’t quite sure how to handle it, rather unsure if Atrel had the power or not to demand he hand Connor, Hrolf decided that he was too tired for this but knew better than to say anything that could be regarded as smart. He just had to wait and tough it out until the king lost interest and left them all in peace, if it’d been anyone else he would have dismissed Connor but one didn’t argue with kings, ugh a headache was starting, all he wanted was some food and then to go to sleep in his own bed. In contrast, Connor felt like he couldn’t look away still, although now he was doing so more demurely through his lashes, now that he had his mask on he felt a lot more secure and less nervous, most people didn’t want to know what was going on in your head, they wanted you to fake it until you made it and he could do that, all the while determinedly ignoring the goosebumps he could feel going up his arms.

Breathing a sigh of relief when the king left, Hrolf looked over towards the footsteps and caught the little girl easily, lifting her up to settle her on his hip he listened to her announcement “Is that so? We had better go do that then” briefly nuzzling his nose into her beautiful red hair he headed back to the kitchen with her “After dinner, we’ll sort out your room as well as your dads and cons rooms” entering the kitchen he set her back down on her feet “Reporting for food” getting a hearty helping of the honey cake he sat down digging in. Connor had trailed behind them not understanding the conflicted feelings, in the end, he decided that he couldn’t do anything about them so he would just ignore them instead, they were so irritating, vague and flitting about in his head, sitting down at the table with his helping he didn’t say much just staring out the windows while absently eating like his mind was on another planet. Once Jon had sat down and joined them Hrolf spoke once more “I’ll get you to give me a rundown on things you can do so I know what you’ll be comfortable with doing on the farm, I’ll also need to teach you about expected behavior in front of other faeries as well” god there was so much he needed to do it made his headache worse, resisting the urge to groan and just face plant into his plate, Hrolf lifted a hand to his head to massage his temples with a sigh. His concern about Connor and Atrel wasn’t helping, still, at least the king hadn’t demanded him outright, setting his fork down about halfway through his dinner, the man sighed unable to stop himself from going through everything that needed doing, after dinner once he’d sorted out beds he needed to go out to the sheds and do a stock take. Feeling a little sick at the huge weight and responsibility sitting on his shoulders he seemed to realize that he wasn’t alone, sitting up straight he forced himself to keep eating so as not to worry anybody.

Finally finishing his dinner and after setting his plate in the sink he’d been on his way outside when he’d found himself cornered by Jon, it seemed his newer pet was settling into his role already. Unaware that his brother had spent the year on his farm keeping everything up to date, Hrolf continued to assume that it was a years’ worth of jobs he was behind on and wanted to get started right away, he also needed to contact Tori to let him know that he was home. Feeling the invisible weight of all of the responsibility and jobs pressing him down, Hrolf studied Jon silently as if assessing whether or not it was worth arguing with him “Fine, tomorrow you need to list what you can do farm wise and I need to give you at least a briefing on being a pet” he didn’t know how much Jon had paid attention to the short lessons he’d been giving Connor when they’d been on the streets. Heading up the stairs he had a quick shower before tumbling into bed, exhausted the faerie was out to it for a couple of days before finally showing up again in some old clothes and mussed blond hair one afternoon. Poking about in the fridge and helping himself to the left overs there he sat and devoured food until he couldn’t fit anything else in, feeling a bit queasy from eating too quickly he forced himself up and headed outside slipping his feet into his boots.


He needed to get onto Connor’s training so that he could head into court to visit Sofia and Sarah, with two pets belonging to him it would be expected that he’d bring at least one of them and from what he’d seen of Connors ability to blend in and manipulate people he’d do well at court. After all Connor had earnt them all a good handful of cash or two on the street by begging, he’d wrapped several women around his fingers with his good looks and silver tongue. Hrolf had only needed to see him work his magic once before deciding that the boy was definitely destined to be his court pet, it shouldn’t take too long to train him up although he also had to put on some weight himself so he didn’t look like a walking skeleton. First things first was getting in contact with his cousin, so he headed to the phone and carefully dialled the number, after a year in the human world the old fashioned phone no longer impressed him, “Hey Cousin” Tori still didn’t know of how close their blood was and he wasn’t about the blow the whistle and end up with a very angry Nessa turning into a dragon and burning his house down. “I’m back in business, I’d be keen if you wanted to come around in the next couple of days with young Devin. I’ve solved your playmate problem” listening and finding out that he had about three days, Hrolf ended the call and headed out searching for his two pets aware that they now needed to learn things now so they didn’t fuck up infront of another faerie even if it was his official cousin secret brother, eh well it was a complicated business.

Snorting Hrolf grumbled “I’m full, there are more pressing matters anyway” gesturing for Jon to come with him, they ended up out with the dogs, sitting down and letting the biggest dog sprawl over his lap he took a deep breath ordering his thoughts. “Alright, pet crash course. Around other faeries you must be polite and respectful, do not make prolonged eye contact or make any sort of remarks that aren’t asked for. How you behave impacts on how I’m seen, I won't be taking you to court at least but I do have faeries that visit and so in front of them your behaviour must be perfect. Essentially around other fae you are like a very polite well-trained servant” he’d already had this conversation with Connor back in the human world when Jon had been at work, remembering something he continued “In private when other faeries aren’t around, I’d prefer to keep things the same as when we were on the streets. Any questions?” it was indeed a bit of a crash course but with Tori coming around sometime in the next few days it was important to at least get the basics down, once that was sorted then he’d ask again for what kind of work Jon was used to doing when it came to farms. From some delighted squeals he could hear not too far away he assumed Connor was on Lilli-sitting duty which made him smile, the boy had seemed quite taken with the little girl for some reason and in all honesty, he’d encouraged it, of the opinion that the closer they were to a family unit the better.

Nodding Hrolf mused a moment “This place hasn’t been untouched for a year, the dogs are too well trained, the house has no dust. Somebody stayed here and kept the whole place running” he had a pretty good hunch on who as well, pushing that out of his brain instead he moved to his next topic “Alright, now fill me in on what you can do, your specialties and the like” watching the dogs that interacted with him quietly it was pleasant to note that the dogs seemed to really like him just like Tor had which gave him some ideas on possible jobs for him. Leaning back on his hands he tilted his head back enjoying the feel of the sun on his face now that they were home somewhere with clean air, happy plants and away from the incessant noise of the city. This was where he belonged, at home and he could hardly believe that he had finally managed to make it back here, his delicate wings flared enjoying the sun as well, the food in the pantry and fridge was by nature faerie food so he expected that both Connor and Jon would be able to see the wings of the faeries around them.

The faerie shrugged “nobody can help the exile who is in exile, nothing is explicitly said about the land of said exile, I know somebody who would have taken great pleasure in exploiting that loophole and kept the place going”clarifying for the human, Hrolf listened as Jon explained that he’d grown up on a farm and could do pretty much everything. The fact that he knew how to train dogs and had trained dogs for the police explained why he was so interested in the dogs, musing over it “Alright, I’ll go over what jobs need doing and figure out a list of them to keep you busy. I’ll ask that you continue cooking for us and keeping everyone in good health” by that he meant making sure they ate and took care of themselves, since he had already settled into doing so while they’d been on the streets it was more of an officially making it part of the humans jobs. Grunting when the dog on his lap moved to splay over him better, Hrolf ended up being pinned beneath the shaggy dog's body, not that bothered he just hugged the large beast roughly running his fingers through the fur. Wincing when dog breath was breathed into his face, Hrolf pushed the dog off of himself and sat back up absently brushing some of the grass out of his hair and off of his wings, “Oh, since the kids are growing up on the farm they could probably do with some riding lessons” he’d never been that great at teaching people, likely because his own father had never been good at it. The male had always expected Hrolf to somehow know what he was thinking, pushing those negative memories away as they wouldn’t help, the faerie yawned picking up on the absent fiddling with the soft rather plain grass collar around his neck that was still rather loose, as time went on he’d tighten it up nicely but for now while he got used to it loose it was.


Why the hell had he agreed to go on the stupid boat, next time he was taking a plane, feeling miserably seasick, Seth stood leaning on a railing staring down at the water that the ship was moving through. Martin had been driving him nuts as apparently the other man wasn’t bothered in the slightest by being on a ship and was practicing all kinds of theatrical moves on the stacks of containers that were being carried by the ship. It’d been exactly two days, three hours and forty-seven minutes since the blasted thing had started moving, everyone else's high spirits was just enough to sour his mood more, having taken himself away from everyone else if he had less self-control he would have hovered to get some reprieve from the movement of the ship under his feet. However he hadn’t survived this long in the human world by flaunting his wings, Lori appeared to have settled in well as they completed the last leg of their American tour, martin had taken a shine to her and had been working her hard although she wasn’t good enough for performing yet in his own words. He’d continued to act innocent like he didn’t know she’d been faerie trained and placed, she had been quite a pleasant companion on his little camper van as well although he was quite careful to not let himself get too fond of the girl, she was reporting to Sofia and at any moment if Sofia thought they were too fond of each other she’d potentially remove the girl. Lori seemed so happy here that he’d kept himself a little distant for her sake as well, he could imagine how disappointed she’d be if Sofia removed her from the circus.

The questions were welcomed “Usually fairly tropical, usually you get more rain if you have more plants so most of the farm is fairly wooded. We specialize in food production since Faeries don’t eat meat, I have a herd of cows and sheep, the cows produce milk and the sheep produce an edible type of wool. We don’t use petrol or mechanical things here so everything is done with horses, I have a couple of different breeds for different purposes, the farm provides plenty of jobs for commoner faeries” quite happy to explain how the large farm worked he picked up on the cheeky twinkle in his friends eyes and rolled his own “I only have horses, Cerns do carriage work or ridden work they don’t tolerate being put to work in fields or rounding up stock. Most of the commoner faeries work in the fields harvesting things, I save the ridden work for myself and others I know I can trust along with the other work the horses do around here. Since you’ve grown up on a farm you’ll probably do a lot with the horses, Connor will learn to help and Lilli, when she’s old enough, will help out as well. This place only survives when we all pull our weight” realizing he’d just said a mini-speech he looked a little sheepish and looked towards where he could hear lilli talking to Connor the wind bringing their voices over to him  “You’ll need to give me your name of your own accord, full name” it was part of being a pet unfortunately, the wind brought all kinds of scents on it letting him know what was going on around him. He’d take Jon for a ride around the entire property as soon as he could, which was a good four-hour ride but well worth it, before he’d gone into exile it’d started to get too much for him to the point where he had started considering selling off the parts of it that produced food and focusing more on animals and animal products.


Listening to the voice quietly the man replied  “Five days, two hours, fifteen minutes” he was counting down the seconds until he could get off of this stupid ship, he’d had to go through his honey supply a fair amount quicker than he’d anticipated with his being sick. Every time he was sick he lost precious sugar that was needed to keep him going, looking down at the empty honey pot in his fingers, he decided not to dwell on how much longer he had to stay on this ship  “Martins pleased with you, he reckons you’ve got potential” well aware that the curly-haired man would never tell Lori what he actually thought, Seth purposely made the effort to let her know so she at least knew she’d been doing well. He had gone around the various animals that were part of the circus and had been making sure that they were doing alright, sure they had their own staff, but his particular family was rather gifted with animals and being around them made him feel a little less miserable. Most of them were doing really well, so that was a relief, fighting down nausea as the ship went over a particularly big wave, Sethain seriously contemplated jumping off the side of this hell ship.

More questions followed which relieved Hrolf, it meant that the human was still comfortable enough around him to be himself “I have two main purposes for the dogs, they are used for around stock and if one bonds with a faerie they go with them and are used as companions. As you may have noticed with Tor they pick their person and are strong, reliable and loyal.” One would likely end up picking Jon as their person and he was rather interested to see what one it would be “Yes she will, as for your name a full human name has power. That is why you must never tell another faerie your name or they can use it to control you” falling silent for a little while he seemed to drift through various thoughts “My cousin will be visiting in a couple of days, he’ll likely bring his son who’s about the same age as Lilli now, I thought she might enjoy a friend her age” the boy was rather reserved so he had a hunch that Lilli’s bright and sunny attitude towards life might help him through some of his own issues. Hungry again he got up onto his feet and shoved his hands into his pockets turning his direction towards the mountains where he’d left his sheep before leaving knowing he’d have to go bring them in soon, but for now he needed to eat, since he was home his body seemed to realize just how starved it was for sugar. Although it wasn’t near dinner time yet he was fairly certain there was enough time for a snack, in his own world again mentally figuring out what jobs needed to be done next he wandered back towards the house to rifle through the fridge, finding the cake Jon had promised there were left overs where the tall faerie nearly inhaled the food.


Ignoring the urge to push her overboard when she was obnoxiously cheerful, Seth shrugged “I’ve known him for a long time and I’ve a gift for reading people, we’re starting in England then through Europe, we’ve a show in nearly every City it’s going to be very full-on.” At that he managed a smirk “you’ve had your baptism now is your trial by fire, if you keep going like you are you’ll end up being allowed to start performing before we leave Europe behind us and go into Asia” his gaze returned to the horizon “Thankfully you can drive from England to France so that’s what I’ll be doing while the rest of you suffer by boat” there was no way he was going on another boat for as long as he lived unless there was literally no other choice other than die. Hearing Martins practicing he glanced back towards him and scowled “Look at that asshole he thrives in adversity” fairly certain that his long-time friend was showing off, Seth called out his name and when Martin looked over Seth flipped him off with an expletive to which the darker-skinned man just burst into laughter and kept going positively giddy that he was pissing Seth off for once.

The next few days were spent with Hrolf consuming a high amount of sugar in an effort to gain weight and gaining very little, expecting Tori to show up he was purposely doing jobs that were close to the house. At the sound of a carriage he turned and wandered towards where he knew the cerns would be stopping “Hello Cousin” he had a general idea of where Jon, Con and Lilli were, he’d watched Jon sort out a horse riding lesson for the pair of them, and Jon knew that Hrolf was expecting visitors and was bright enough to keep the two kids close by. Watching Tori step out of the carriage, Hrolf was pleased to see that his half brother was looking good and healthy, Devin whom he’d last seen as an infant carefully copied his father holding onto his fathers pants with a thumb in his mouth. He had dark black hair and nearly black brown eyes, not entirely sure where he’d picked up those genetics, Hrolf started wandering towards the house with the pair of them “How’ve things been?” it’d been a very long year after all and they had much to catch up on.

Sethain smiled a little at the mention of France “Yes, it is, there is a small village we usually visit to get new costumes made, the seamstress there is very well known and her work respected. She made Martins favourite performance clothes” when she leaned out over the rail he snorted “If you fall I’m not jumping in after you, Lori” he had never really been a fan of swimming disliking the feel of wet wings that were useless when it came to flying. “Paris is wonderful as is Rome, I prefer Europe over America a thousand times over”

Holding tightly onto his dad when he was picked up, Devin looked at Tori quietly before speaking softly “Hullo” the firstborn son of Tia and Tori had always been rather quiet unless speaking about his specific interests. He hadn’t really wanted to come but had been bribed with dogs, leaning his head on his father's shoulder as they headed inside he withdrew into his shell more when a teenager with blue eyes and black hair showed up a little mussed from his ride but armed with tea and some honey cake. Connor was well aware this was a test and despite not having had enough time to tidy up properly he welcomed the guests with a warm smile and carefully set out some teacups and the teapot before finding a place for the cake that he’d briefly rewarmed in the oven for a few minutes. He wasn’t entirely sure where Lilli was but that wasn’t really his department so he kept himself busy serving the faeries quietly. “I’ll have some sent out to her first thing tomorrow morning with gratitude” he was very thankful that Lady Vanessa was still going to buy form him, well aware that with him out of royal favour for how brief it had been was still enough for several faeries to think twice before buying from him.


Plenty of questions were fired his way next as if she was trying to keep him busy, turning his gaze from the horizon to her he quirked a brow briefly before answering “It’d be easier to show you rather than answer” pushing off from the barrier he stood up and started walking beckoning her “It depends on the theme of the performance and the movements, depending on how good you are you get some say over what your costume looks like” finding the correct container he opened it and lead her inside pulling out some costumes that the seamstress had created “These are some of his, as for my clothes no she’s not my biggest fan so I go elsewhere” mostly because he was a faerie and Folly wasn’t that impressed with them so he usually kept away so as not to strain the circus’s relationship with her. She did make wonderful clothes though, once Lori had had a good gander he put the clothes away and headed out of the container closing the door behind him. Inhaling the brisk sea breeze that was heavy with salt he sighed “Any other questions to distract me from my seasickness Miss Lori?” it was his turn to look at her cheekily while he wandered back towards the railing of the ship.