I go over to the uncle and keep my head down thinking about what I’d just found out and he looks down. 

He hands me a stick and I stare at it confused before realizing it’s a key to a room. I look back at the motel and then decide to play along as well to see what exactly happens. 

It’s surprisingly easy to get swept up with how good the illusion is, to the point I can feel the key click and unlock as well as the floor and walls to the point I’m wondering if the woods is the illusion and I’m losing it. I lay on the mattress, soft, springy, but when I cover my eye. I’m laying on the forest floor. I uncover my eye and stare at the ceiling. 

‘You know even if it’s fake I think I’ll enjoy the comfort and warmth for now.’ I roll over on the "mattress" as the man enters with a few bags, he puts the iron bracelet on me, 'I guess he found it'. I mess with it before curling into a ball. Pulling my headphones on but keeping my eyes very much open under the my hoodie. I watch him prepare the safe circle and to my surprise he only puts it on the window sills and door way. I know I warned him this may not be what it seems but I also note that he has his weapons as well. ‘I won’t be sleeping tonight that’s for sure.’ 

I close an eye and check the woods around us, noting that more and more of the trees and bushes seem to have shadows peeking out or around them. I watch as he goes and gets the iron chained pig dragging his stumbling drugged haze to the patch of woods dropping him unceremoniously on the floor beside the bed. He grunts but doesn’t move to get up. I wonder what he can see.

The madman gets the birdcage next and brings it to me. I look up surprised and take it, holding it close to my body. The fairy is looking around and then up at me. 'Did it know this was going to happen?' I remember the vial of nectar and watch as the madman continues acting like this is normal laying down on the “end of the bed” to sleep.

‘He’s been awake for twenty-four hours.’ I look down at the fairy. I realize I could release it now. I feel my hand shake as I reach for the door, why am I regretting this? Am I truly this selfish of a person. The fairy realizes what I’m doing and starts sitting up in disbelief. I close my eyes, the one with fairy vision glows a little behind my eyelids. I open only that eye and realize I’m holding a log of wood. I huff in disgust tempted to throw it at the madman but hesitate in case the realities are reversed. 

I exclaim, “Really?”

He looks up laughing, “So the wretch really did give you the ability to see through magic? That’s rich.” He opens his bag, “Lay down and don’t say or do anything.” 

I narrow my eyes at him, “Is Bird safe?” 

He raises an eyebrow and then rolls his eyes in a, ‘yes.’ “They’re safe and sound locked in the car.” 

I relax a little bit and then placing my back against a tree trunk pull my hoodie a little lower over my head and wonder just how many things I thought were real up until now. I glance at the poor boar who groans in pain as the iron continuously burns him, draining his strength and making it even harder to wake up from the drugs in his system. I can see the damage to him now and it looks red and blistering. My mouth tightens and my heart burns in anger.

But my uncle’s order, ‘lay down and don’t say or do anything.’ Causes me not to move. I glare spitefully at the iron shackles.

As night falls I notice that we’re surrounded. I tense up and look at my sleeping uncle. He's been pretending to sleep for hours and I’m not sure if he’s actually nodded off or is just a really good actor. I did notice that hours before he messed with a bag for a while and then layed near it. 

I let them approach, heart beating faster and faster. Elves I guess. They’re tall wearing cloaks but instead of having pale skin and hair, or being dainty they are a mixture of the woods around them, leaves and bark. I guess I could be wrong and that they’re not elves. It’s quite possible. 

I hear whispering now, like chanting, a feeling like a tingle spreads through my body and I wonder if it’s electricity. The whispering gets louder and the cloaked figures get a little closer. I notice that they have knives and finally I can’t handle it anymore. 

“Uncle!” I exclaim reaching for him and all the cloaked figures look at me at once I can’t help it I stare panicked and obviously terrified at them. One is suddenly behind me, my hand yanked back and my mouth covered. I wince as I see a dagger raised but one of the older one hesitates. 

“He can see what we really are.”

“He’s been gifted it,” the one behind me sneers. Hand now firmly wrapped around my neck squeezing far too tightly. I feel my racing heart panicked as numbness spreads through me and I go limp, compliant. Confusing the one holding me.

“No…he was born with it.” The older one says. “He could be a valuable addition to us.”

“One problem with that,” my uncle says, stringing a bow, “He’s mine.” He snarls as he releases it, killing the elder. The one holding me is in shock until my uncle turns to him. He brings down the dagger and then to all of our shock the boar jumps up shoulder checking the cloaked figure so hard he falls over.

I hold my neck and notice that there are other fae watching, almost…hopefully. There’s a death groan as another arrow is shot. 

“I’m only here because you adopted me!” I yell at him as he throws me two items, my knife and a key. “Really you pickpocketed me?” I exclaim even as I whirl around knowing who the key is for. 

I release the boar teen and he catches his breath. He notices me looking at his burn marks and makes a soft expression. I can practically hear him thinking, ‘Really you’re worried about me right now?’ My mouth allows a small affectionate smile. Only for him to yank me towards him and glare at the next cloaked figure who lunges for me.

“Kill them all.” The order rings out and the cloaks far, far too many, three or four per person descend on us. The last thing I saw was my uncle fighting like a rabid animal and the boar disappearing under five or six of them, getting stabbed over and over by iron if I could judge by the sounds of his screams.

I run as the last two chase me. Silent and faster than I expected. I run straight towards the car, sliding and rolling underneath it. The two cloaked figures stop and circle. I breathe heavily still holding the knife I was returned. The whispering, chanting starts up again and I feel my stomach wrench with dread. I feel the plant life wrap around me and pull me out from underneath the car. 

I scream as a thorn covered vine curls around my whole body and mouth dangling me upside down in front of the witch? Warlock? I jerk a few times feeling a few vines tightening around my throat. 

I take a few deep breaths through my nose and then calming myself consciously whimper. The cloaked one on the right tilts their head and then smacks the arm of the one controlling the vine. 

“The elder wanted to keep this one alive.”

I open my mouth carefully, noticing the vines loosen to allow me to speak, I gasp, “I’ll join you just please don’t kill my friend.”

“Too late for that.”

“The pig?” The nicer one asks, smacking the other one again and I nod wincing as thorns dig deeper into my neck. 

Tears run down my face as I realize from what I could see he doesn't look very alive. A body slumped motionless on the ground. 

The nicer witch turns and once again the air fills with whispering. The cloaked ones look down at the bloody mess that they’d already finished with and stick out their hands, healing him. He gasps in violently and then tries to start fighting again and is thus inconveniently rechained. 

I am slowly lowered to the ground but not released. I stare at the boar teen he's panting looking around and then meeting my eyes, mouths, 'Are you okay?' I struggle to get over the pain of him almost dying, he's fine, he's right in front of me alive. 'Yeah.' I mouth. 

The hundreds of thorns burn but as I look around I realize with a far stronger burn of betrayal that my uncle is missing. I guess I didn’t blame him for running. I also didn’t ask that he be spared so I guess it’s for the better. 

The ones that he did manage to take down were easily healed or revived by the cloak figures. 

I scream as the vines suddenly tighten, and I’m yanked closer to the angry witch, “Where did your uncle go?” 

“I don’t know!” I scream as the vines tighten again and slump against the ground.

“Gentle, he’s still human.” An older sounding cloaked figure approaches lifting my face to see my eyes. I squint through the tears. 

‘Green eyes.’ 

“His uncle seems pretty possessive of him, I’m sure he’ll return and try something again but first let's get back to our camp.” He waves his hand and the thorns on the vine and the ones broken off in me disappear. 

I let out a groan as I’m picked up and thrown over his shoulder.

“Let’s regroup with the others and prepare for that attack.”

I hear chains and turn to see them being less than gentle with the pig who is straining to get back to the car. 

“Wait.” I struggle a little bit. My mouth is covered by a few vines and I go limp exhausted watching as the boar teen panics about his baby sister being left behind. He flinches as a vines wrap around his snout as well holding it shut. 

We hold each other's eyes for a second and then suddenly he realizes he’s alive and that has something to do with me. He looks at the multiple, mostly healed stab wounds. He grunts in pain as the vine around his snout tightens and his head is forced to face forward. 

I wheeze a little as the lithe cloaked witch jumps, landing surprisingly agile despite carrying me through the forest. I wiggle a little and then feel the witch put a hand on my back to stabilize me. I recoil a little. I know I need to just wait until I get to their camp and then they’ll put me down but I keep writhing around. He seems to not care.

“Want me to knock him out?” Another cloaked individual falls back so I can see them. 

“No, the elders will want to ask him some questions about his uncle and how they got here.”

“Still all that moving around and struggling, looks annoying.”

“Let him tire himself out.” The cloaked individual sighs. 

I could drive my knees into him but he’s being chill so far, I groan and finally go limp. 

“See.” He adjusts me and then continues in silence.

With my head limp and dangling I don’t see much going on behind us but I do eventually hear noises above us. I look up as we start ascending stairs wrapping around the truck of a large tree. 

I then look down and stare deep into the eyes of the boar teen. He's looking up at me relieved now that I’ve lifted my head again. I guess all the micro cuts causing blood to run down and dripping from my face wasn’t the most consoling thing for him to see. 

He tenses I guess seeing the weirdness with my eye for the first time now that it’s fully open. I offer a reassuring smile. 

I look around in awe as we end up on a platform connected to multiple trees with multiple levels. I try to adjust to look up and instead, get rolled off his shoulder I hit the ground with the teens leg barely cushioning my head as he hits the ground too. 

I writhe around trying to break free from the vine but they tighten making me yelp and then let out a really concerning gasp for air. I watch as the witch who controls the vines returns looking even more annoyed. 

“He’s already attacked another group.” 

‘My uncle?! Really?’ 

“Chill.” The one that carried me tells him, “I didn’t carry him all this way just for you to take your anger out on him.” The explosive-anger cloaked figure hesitates clenching his fist to give me one more taste of what would have been a not so fun way to go, causing the other cloaked individuals to use their magic to rip the vines off of me. 

“Fuck!” The angry cloaked one turns away holding his arm, “That hurt!”

“I told you to calm down.” The chill cloaked one yanks me to my feet and I wince holding my ribs as the vines now “dead” or no longer animated fall right off of me. I don’t like the way the other one glares at me while still holding his arm, which I now see is leaking green blood. Like a plant.

I’m quite literally brought before the council. I look up gawking at the wizened old witches leaning over judge-like podiums to look at me. I watch as the elder that was killed and revived removes his hood for the first time. He's more tree then human. As he addresses them in a different language I look around the room, we’re inside a tree trunk. 

Some gasoline and my lighter…well I’d need the gasoline but then there's the escaping multiple witches with powers and also they may be able to put out the fire easily I don’t know. I look back and see the angry and the chill cloaked individuals leaning against the entrance. I wonder where the nicer one went. 

“Boy, what is your name?”

I look up and shrug, “I will respond to boy or like my uncle prefers, Nephew.” 

I was expecting something other than the counsel immediately going, “Nephew, it is then. You will stay here and learn magic to-”

“That’s fine as long as my friend can stay and you don’t hurt him.”

The counsel elder looks surprised that I interrupted him. 

“Who is this friend?”

“A boar fae,” The angry cloaked individual huffs. “I say we roast him over a spit.”

I look back slowly, ‘Okay this one I was going to kill myself.’

“Is that what you would do? I would have allowed the boar to stay so we don’t have to imprison the new recruit to get him to stay.” The counsel elder has some sass to him. I smirk a little.

“Though,” He looks at me, “We may still need to imprison you just until you get more comfortable here.” 

I look down and scuff the ground, “If you didn’t imprison me how far would I get, we’re in the middle of nowhere.” I shrug, “Do what you want though.”

I yelp as I’m thrown quite roughly into a cell with straw. I look back as the guards close the door and around to see where the boar teen is. I notice movement in the cell next to me.

He limps over to the corner, “Hey.” He croaks looking a little worse for wear. I lift my hand through the bars to his cheek and he leans his head into it. “I may have,” he coughs, “Tried to escape while they were distracted. Don’t recommend it.” I start to say something but he tears up crying. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but I hope he goes back for her and saves her.” I nod knowing he’s talking about his baby sister. 

“I wish we were in the same cage,” I whisper as I press against the bars trying to comfort him as he keeps crying. She’s still locked in the car. At least we were in the forest and it's cooler. But she’ll need a diaper change and a bottle around now. I’m worried and I can’t imagine how stressed he is.