The man who might as well be my uncle didn’t disappoint me.

Jedda sighed, “Don’t cry, little one. No one was purposely harmed. We're lucky Winna could help Biren. Gave us a very good scare, though.”

“We’re happy to do whatever we can to help rebuild it. We’re stronger than we look, and can fly as good as he can.” Tark nodded at Lear.

“That’s very kind of you.” the farmer smiled. “I’d be pleased to have as much help as I can get, once we’re ready to rebuild it.”

“There are quite a few of us, so the work will go fast.” Tark buzzed, sounding optimistic.

“Well, that’ll work out just fine.” Jedda smiled. “Why don’t we get into the house and out of the cold?”

“We’re happy to enter your home, but please know you can rescind the offer as well at any time.” Tark said in an informational sort of tone.

“Aye, I know that much about fey folk!” Jedda laughed, “It’s an important thing to know, for us humans! Just as it’s important for fey folk to know which humans will accept them, I’m sure. You and your family are welcome here. Please try not to burn down any other buildings though, if possible.”

“We really would rather not burn anything down!” Tark said, shaking his head. “Pip, run home to your mother and tell her all is well.”

“Yes, papa!” Pip buzzed off.

“We should go look into the sheep.” Lear told me quietly.

But Jedda over heard and interjected, shaking his head a little, “Don’t go just yet, Ena has those recipes for you, Winna.”

“Alright, but then we have to go.” I nodded, and we followed Jedda to the farmhouse.

Jedda and I paused to tie Poppy’s reins to the post before entering, but Tark and Lear lingered at the door. “We do still actually need permission. I prefer direct invitations or welcome when it comes to entering a dwelling.” Lear said.

“I do too!" Tark nodded, then explained, "Fey who aren’t troublemakers typically do.”

“Then come in, both of you.” Jedda motioned for them to enter, then went to look for Ena.

“Thank you!” Tark buzzed, hopping over the threshold.

“I think I said, ‘come in if you’re going to come in’ to you, as a cat. That counts?” I asked Lear as he stepped inside, the door swinging shut behind him.

“Yes.” the tall fey man nodded. “You’d made your invitation to enter clear enough for my standards.” he lowered his voice, “I wanted Jedda to know I’m following the general spirit of the law.”

“But when you came into my cottage, you knew I didn't know you were fey! I thought you were a kitty!” I rolled my eyes at him, “You’re just pretending not to be a troublemaker!”

The fey soldier smirked, then leaned down to murmur in my ear, “I never once said I wasn’t one. Usually I make the worst kind of trouble.”

His words made my face burn scarlet, “U-usually?!” I squeaked.

“But you made me promise to be on my best behavior.” Lear plucked one of my curls, making it spring up into my face before leaning back as he said in a more serious voice, “Besides, you’d have let me in even if you knew I was fey.”

“Y-you’re not wrong.” I mumbled, looking away. A troublemaker indeed, teasing the way he did!

“Winna!” Ena followed her father into the room then stopped short at seeing Lear and Tark. “Oh!”

“We have some other guests.” Her father said, smiling knowingly.

“Ena, this is Lear, and Tark.” I motioned at them respectively.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Tark buzzed.

Lear only bowed his head in acknowledgement of the introduction.

“Well! This is a new experience!” Ena laughed off her surprise, though her face had heated when she’d seen Lear. Something told me a lot of women would have that reaction to him.

“It is!” Jedda agreed. “Tark is going to stay and chat, but Winna and Lear have to go help Paz.”

“Oh yes, I’ve heard he’s been having some strange trouble with the sheep!"

“So he told me.” I nodded.

"The ladies in the market were talking about it yesterday afternoon. Sounds a little scary!"

"Yes, it does! I'm hoping Lear will be able to help him solve the problem."

“Well good! Anyways, here are the recipes!” She handed me a stack of cards.

“Thank you so much, Ena! I’ll have a lot of fun trying them out! I’m teaching Lear to cook, so maybe he’ll help me.”

“As you wish.” Lear murmured, nodding.

“Only if you want to, you don't have to.”

“If you want me to, I will.” he told me. Though he wasn’t purposely doing so, his words made my face flush again, though not as deeply.

“I mean, I want you to do what you want to do.” I muttered.

“Then I want to help.” he shrugged.

“Just say that next time?” I tilted my head to the side. He was truly confusing sometimes. Must be because he was fey.

“Fine, fine.” he waved a languid hand, then reminded me, “We should go.”

“Right.” I shook myself. “Thank you so much, Ena! I appreciate it! Tell Biren I said hi, and remind him to come by sometime next week or the week after for me to check and make sure he’s still healing well. Once I’ve practiced these recipes a little, we’ll have a tea party!”

“You’re very welcome! I will! And I look forward to it!” she said, waving.

“Bye, Jedda! I’ll see you all later! It was nice to meet you, Tark!” I waved my farewells, and Lear and I left the farmhouse.

I untied Poppy, and swung back into the saddle as Lear launched himself up into the air once more, then asked, “How far is our next destination?”

“Not far. Paz’s farm is just over the next hill.” I motioned in the general direction.

“Alright.”

We traveled along in silence for a little while.

Instead of swooping around high above me as he had initially before, Lear stayed relatively close to me.

“The poison really hinders your magic, doesn't it?” I asked him softly.

“Yes.” he murmured.

“Will you be able to deal with the shadow things?”

“There’s more than one way to get rid of them. They don’t all require magic.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. We’re allergic to rowan berries.”

“Should you be telling me that?”

“I should have told you sooner, actually. You should start keeping some on hand at the cottage, just in case, given my presence has already drawn one unruly fey to your home."

“That’s not a bad idea.” I sighed, then asked, “I’ve heard iron can cause damage too. Specifically cold iron, is that true?”

“Nope.” he shook his head. “I don’t even know where that came from. Humans have iron in their blood, and if we had a weakness to iron, we wouldn't be able to enchant you, but we can. So, no iron weakness, no.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“That said, we’re not indestructible. If someone were to stab us with a sword, provided they could get a hit on one of us, it’d do damage. Maybe that’s where it came from, but why assume iron is the problem instead of the actual weapon and the force behind it?” he mused.

“I see. Any other things I should know in order to keep myself safe?”

“Hm. You can rescind welcome, we're allergic to rowan berries…Mm…those are the general ones I can think of. The different races of fey might have other specific ones. Like water on the firebugs. That’s why they like deserts, less rain. Not that it kills them, it just takes away a good deal of their fire power for a bit.”

“I see.” I tilted my head to the side, “I’ve seen fauns, a goblin, firebugs, and I’ve heard of others, of course. Ogres, redcaps, dryads, elves, sprites…even dwarves, though that’s only a technicality. But what are you considered?” He didn’t seem to fit what I pictured for any of those.

“I don’t fit neatly into one category.” he replied, shaking his head slightly. “The higher courts are more blended than the lower courts. Sure, plenty of us are pure redcap, or whatnot, and the selkies tend to stick with other selkies, but plenty of us have all sorts of different blood in us. My height and build come from an elvish ancestor, my wings are from sylph blood, ogre blood gives me the ability to shapeshift into my cat form, I’ve some merfolk somewhere too, thus my scales…and that’s not even everything.”

“Well. I learned something new today.” I paused, “Ogre blood, huh?”

“They present themselves as scary because they can, and they do really enjoy terrifying you lot. Humans forget that ogres are really just shapeshifters, and can take on a very fair appearance too, if they want. Between them and the elves, who are just naturally pretty, I suspect it’s how we got to be so ridiculously good-looking in the high courts, ogres making themselves attractive and passing on those attractive genetics. And I’m not going to complain about that. Nor would anyone else, we like being called the Fair Folk.”

“I’m sure!” I snorted, shaking my head. “Why are the lower courts not so diverse? Do they like one another less? Or do they just prefer to keep to themselves?”

“It’s less a problem of not liking one another, and more that they’re too distantly related. Firebugs lay eggs, like bugs typically do, but hamadryads are the spirit of an ancient tree. They literally couldn't have kids together.”

“Ohh, I see.” That made sense. I thought for a minute, then frowned as a thought occurred to me, “How does it work for mermaids, then?!”

“Do you really want me to get into details about fey reproductive processes?” he snorted.

I grimaced, “No. No. Absolutely not. That was a stupid thing to ask.”

Lear grinned wickedly at me, saying, “I’ll hint, then. Despite how it looks, a merperson's tail isn't just one piece. They keep it twisted up like one tail, but it’s actually two leg-like appendages.”

“Ohhhhh.” I muttered, feeling my face heat. “And you know this how?”

“What about us wearing our promiscuity like a badge didn’t you understand?” he arched an eyebrow at me. “I get around.”

“I shouldn’t have asked.” I muttered, covering my eyes with my hand, my face positively on fire.

“I’ve some mer-blood anyways, like I said.” he shrugged, waving a hand languidly, as if it explained everything.

“Your legs don’t curl up into a tail though, do they?” I’d never seen his legs beneath the simple black pants he wore, so they could be totally strange for all I knew.

“No, don’t be ridiculous....but it is likely why I only have four toes on each foot.”

“What’s the normal number of toes for high fey folk?”

“Depends on what they are, really, but six fingers and toes tends to be about right. That said, it’s not odd to have a different amount, especially if you’re not all one thing, like me.”

“I see.” I muttered. I really had learned a lot about fey in the last few days.

“You’re very curious.” his tone was mild, but I could tell he himself was curious.

I shook myself, “Well, I don’t know much about your people. Given they’re starting to show themselves a little more around here, it might help me to know some stuff. Reproductive practices aside.”

“We’re both adults, you can say sex.” Lear snorted in amusement.

My face heated, “I mean…you’re the one who phrased it that way first.”

“I thought you'd burst into flames from embarrassment if I said sex." he laughed.

“We can stop this conversation now.” I mumbled. Paz’s house was in sight, anyways, and this was not a topic I particularly wanted to be discussing within hearing distance of him, lest the idiot get any ideas.

“If you’re uncomfortable, absolutely. If you’re only ending it because you think it’s not something that should be discussed, I’d disagree, it’s just another part of life.”

“I-I’m uncomfortable.” I admitted, staring hard at the path ahead of Poppy and me, “I-I was curious at first, but now it’s a bit much.”

“That’s fine, then.” he said lightly, pausing, then saying, “If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I’m an open book to you.”

“Thank you.” I said softly.

We fell quiet for a few moments.

“I didn’t offend you or anything, did I?” he asked gently.

I blinked, “What? Oh, no. You were only answering my questions. I should have thought about how the topic might make me uncomfortable. Thank you for dropping it when I asked.”

Lear shrugged, muttering, “I just want you to like me."

My face heated, but I didn't say anything. Coming from him, who couldn't lie, that meant something. Or it did to me, anyways. But maybe I was reading too much into it.

As we approached the house, he dropped to the ground, walking beside me.

Taking his cue, I stopped Poppy, and slid off, only for my foot to hit the ground oddly, which caused me to stumble, gasping, “Oop!”

Immediately, Lear’s hands and arms shot out, steadying me. “Careful.”

“Sorry!” I whimpered. “I landed weird!”

“You’re a hazard to yourself, woman. I should have just flown you.” he muttered, “Did you tweak your ankle?”

“I think so.” I frowned, leaning away from him to put a little bit of weight on my foot, which sent a sharp, shooting pain through it. “Yeah, a tweak. I don’t think it’s really bad though.”

“You can’t heal yourself, can you?”

“No, how silly is that?” I shook my head.

“It’s not. It’s very common for people with healing magic. Your body doesn't recognize the healing magic as being different from the magic already in you, so it doesn't react.”

“Oh. Well, that makes sense.” I frowned.

It was quiet for a few moments, and I realized I’d probably stayed too close to him for too long. “Here, I’ll just sit on the ground for a few minutes, or something.”

“No, it’s alright, you’re not hard to hold up.”

“No, it’s fine.” I hopped away from him, balancing on one foot without his help. He was as strong as I’d have expected, and warmer than I’d have guessed, though that might just have been because it was cold.

“You’ll only hurt it worse, let me hold you up. It’s fine.” he protested, frowning.

“You just want to tease me or something!” I shook my head.

“Stubborn.” he muttered, then flashed his brilliant, fanged smile at me, taking a step forward. His hands came up to my arms as he gently steadied me again. “And of course I want to tease you, I’m good at it, and it’s fun.”

I blinked, having caught the full force of his smile. But instead of being flustered, which let’s be honest, was pretty par for the course, I’d noticed something else about him as he’d spoken, “Your tongue is forked?”

His large green eyes blinked once, “Yes.”

“Huh.”

“Problem?” he tilted his head slightly to the side, curious.

“No, of course not. I just happened to notice it right then.” I shrugged.

“Don’t look but your boyfriend is watching us through the window.” Lear said conversationally, then added, “He’s not happy about it, either.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” I snapped, but didn’t look. “And that’s why you’re being so flirtatious right now, isn't it?! You don’t like him, so you’re teasing me to bother him!”

“It does make it more fun. But you did hurt yourself and I’d help you regardless of if he was watching or not.”

“And I guess you can’t lie.” I sighed.