(Warning: Cringey Content, Violent Death and brief description of body. Soft Horror.)

[Previously: I roll my eyes, feeling sparks of irritation as I get ready to defend the boar, “Yes of course.”]

“That’s very interesting.” He muses. “Even though he is a troll/ogre-like species he chooses not to eat meat.” 

“Fae.” I correct. “He says he’s closer to fae than ogres, remember that.” I spit and then recoil a little at my own anger. I watch him looking at me and suddenly wish I could just explain why I 

randomly exploded. 

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to insult.” He soothes and he offers a real smile causing me to relax. I finish my bowl and put it down just like he did. Then cover my head with my hood and self soothe a little as we walk. 

He looks and touches the spot I was rubbing and I startle feeling extra sensitive there. 

“Why would you?” I question.

“It seems like it was comforting?” He presses firmly and I don’t feel anything. I wait until he lets go and makes a ‘huh’ noise. 

“Don’t…do that.” I say hunching a little. “Plenty of people have tried desensitizing me, to get me used to being touched again, I don’t like it.”

“I was hoping my theory was right, please don’t misunderstand I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“What did you think it was?” I ask. 

He gets all excited, “I thought it was a source of where your magic cumulates, it can be soothing when you rub it like that and they can get sore when you use your magic too much, you’ll see people massaging their arms and necks a lot around here.” He realizes himself and then explains quickly, “I would have been able to sense the magic if it was there.” 

I look up, we keep going that direction, “Where are we going?” I ask.

“After the healers, we’re going to watch the sunrise.”

“What about your deity, you said they are a physical being, can I meet them?”

He looks at me eyes wide and a few of the nearby Druids stop, turning towards us.

“I mean if he wants to meet you, he’s a deity and you’re a bit,” He winces, “Disrespectful.” 

I choke and then burst out laughing, “I mean…yeah.” 

We reach the healers and I can tell immediately because of all the plants and herbs hanging from the ceiling, in jars, in bowls, everywhere. 

“Wow.” I cock my head.

The Druids look up from where they are hunched over mixtures and one in particular tilts their head at me. They remove their hood and I step back a little.

I’ve seen cute people before, the boar teen, the nice druid with soft eyes and expressions. But he was hot. He has a regal expression, tall cheekbones and is aggressively coming towards me.

“He doesn’t like physical contact,” the nice Druid says quickly but quietly.

I tense up but he quickly waives his hand and I notice magic as his eyes glow, my body relaxes. I glare up at him and he mutters some spells under his breath, never breaking his aggressive eye contact or how calmly angry he looks. Like I’ve inconvenienced him somehow. Or came in right before close.

He turns and gestures for me to follow. I look back at the nice Druid and he shrugs. I decide to follow before I’m yanked forward by vines.

The other Druids move to the other side of the house as I find soft comfy furs to sit on. He uses thin cloth to tie up his cloak sleeves and then starts gently waving his hands around forming magic. I watch a little suspiciously but then notice as all the thorn marks disappear on my arms I watch him switch from making straight up and down movement to swirling his hands in large circles, reaching for me, close a fist and pull. 

I jerk back with a gasp as something dark, swirling, and almost thunderstorm-like comes out of me shimmering colors of black and gray and then flashes of red. He pulls it closer to him with little gestures as I stammer questions. I watch as he twirls some around his fingers and then sits. Working on unwinding it.

I reach to touch it. “What is this?”

“You have a lot more than most.” He speaks for the first time. Voice clear and something else I’m not sure what yet. I shiver and wince when he pulls at a stubborn knot.

“You will need multiple sessions to start removing these.”

“What-”

“It’s blocking your magic.” He looks at me and then starts wielding more magic, “Try to relax, lay down if you want.” 

“Why do I feel like… talking about it?” I have to actually grit my teeth to stop from trauma dumping on him.

“Don’t resist it.” He tells me, “You can start with something easy.” 

I think about every single thing that’s happened. None of it’s easy. “My parents dying sucked. A lot.”

He pauses, “How did it happen?”

I blink and then he offers a blanket draping it over me. I wrap it around myself and then rub my arm.

“Car accident, they happen all the time.” I look up at his expression. He has more of a focused expression working on the knot then the one of uncomfortable pity I’ve received so many times before. I tilt my head at him and then laugh, “Oh and then the foster home I was put in at first was actually some drug and sex slave ring.” 

He looks up, eyes expressionless but then quirks an eyebrow as he realizes I’m tougher than I look and he can be a bit rougher with the knots.

“How did you escape?” 

I wince. “They got busted. Obviously. You’re…weirdly emotionless.”

“Pity and half-assed apologies don’t work on you.” He says and then twirls the smoke through his fingers. “Gentleness and soft words seem to, though, at the right times.”

“The pig friend of yours.” He pulls at some colorful strings, “He’s mixed up in some of this.”

“I got his entire family killed.”

“No you didn’t.” He tilts his head at me, “Yet you blame yourself. Would it help to know that your “uncle” was always going to slaughter them but you managed to save him.” He spins more magic and then adds, “You have lots of things causing guilt and remorse.”

“Will I ever be able to get over it?”

“Maybe. That’s up to you but that’s not what I’m trying to do, you've mixed in lies. Once I’ve worked out the truth for you it may get better but more importantly you’ll be able to see clearer.”

I look down. “I just want to feel normal again.”

He gets up and reaches for my face, stopping before he touches me. “I can grant that for a brief amount of time.”

I close my eyes and then open them widely while looking around. 'It’s gone. It’s all gone and I only vaguely remember that whatever it was it was bad.' I look at the healer Druid who has a tight lipped expression. “You have to stay here, enjoy it for a while and then take a nap. It’ll be short but when you wake up you’ll remember everything again.”

I lay down watching as he quietly works on the strings floating lazily out of me. He manages to get a few smaller ones untangled and I note a little amused that some immediately reknot. I got to say he’s patient. I feel my eyes starting to close. It's relaxing somehow, even though I can feel his touch as though it’s in my chest. I let out a sharp noise as he pulls a little roughly trying to loosen a big one. He lets out a soothing murmur and goes back to working on the smaller knots.

I jerk awake and look around panting as though someone had violated my deepest thoughts and rooted around in my trauma bringing a lot of it to the surface. The Healer Druid is there and he offers me a hot drink. 

“It’s all probably a bit raw so you can talk about it a little more if you need.”

I feel my shoulders twitch, “You know all I can think of is how disgusted they looked when they rounded us all up. “Rescued” us.” I scoff, “A lot of us ended up in similar shit. They’re pity and,” I sneer, “fake sympathy was almost worse than being treated like trash. At least when we were drugged we didn’t have to remember the pain.”

“You needed sincerity,” He nods and stops looking angry for a moment, “You don’t appreciate someone's sympathy until you trust them.” He sighs, “I suppose that’s why I felt so drawn to healing you. I didn’t ask to be a healer, I don’t like people, I lack a lot of empathy but that seems to be exactly what you and some others here have needed.”

I lean back, “Oh so I needed an asshole to heal me?” 

He smirks for a second. “You’re going to be a handful then huh?”

“Even if your magic is healing powers or whatever, why not just choose not to?”

He grimaces, “I can’t help it, I'm drawn to heal, it’s just how my magic works and yes I’m an asshole about it.” He spreads his hands, “I can’t promise I’ll be able to-”

“Fix me?”

He chuckles, “There’s no fixing you, you aren’t broken.”

I turn my head back to meet his gaze a little in disbelief, “I’ve picked up a habit of sleeping with a knife in my hand and biting people I like.”

“Weird maybe,” He rubs the back of his neck, “And reasonably untrusting but you’ve adapted to the extra stress, not broken under it.”

He gestures to me. “This is not what broken looks like.” 

I narrow my eyes at him and relax a little.

“Your “uncle”” he starts, “He’s made some of the work I have to do harder, you want to believe the worst possible scenario of things. I guess it doesn’t hurt as much later if it’s true.” He waits for me to respond. I just look at him. “His words are like poison, to heal properly I will have to keep you separated for a while.”

“I’m not sure if he’s going to be very agreeable to that.”

He waves his head, “let the guards or warriors or whatever put him in a cell.” 

“I thought they were going to kill him?” I ask.

“He doesn’t seem like the type to just be killed.”

I watch the attractive druid lift his hood covering his features and stand. I had finished my drink I realize. I stand and follow him as he leads me out of the house. How long had I been there, an hour, two? I’m surprised when I see the nice Druid still waiting for me.

After I get close enough he smiles, “How’d it go?” I shrug but he can tell I’m doing a little better. 

“Did you ever get any sort of therapy before?” He asks me. I laugh once bitterly. We move out of the way quickly as some rowdier druids run past play fighting I guess. “Okay okay I’ll stop drilling you, let me show you something cool okay?” 

The madman is exhausted as he wrestles the struggling, kicking druid into the air. The wire he uses to strangle them to death, silently dripping with green blood. Once they go limp he waits a few more seconds before dropping them. Taking the keys from the body he goes to unlock the cage door. 

“Where did they take him?” He demands. 

The boar teen stands up, “For a walk, they’re trying to make him one of them.” 

“Yeah well I have a few things to say to them about that.” He growls and holds his trembling arm still. The druids were no longer underestimating him but they’ve also seemed to have changed tactics. 

“Let’s go.” He breathes. “I’m not taking care of your baby sister by myself, I need to heal and then we will come back for my nephew.” He grabs the chain and unlocks it. “Leave the chains here, I can get more later.” He waits as the teen hesitates. “If you stay here they will use you against him and then kill you, he’ll be fine for a few days.”

The boar follows conflicted but then seeing the carnage left in the madman's wake asks, “What if they punish him for this?”

“They won’t stay dead for long so no harm no foul, they’ll just be angry at me.” He stumbles blood leaking out of places it shouldn’t normally. “Hey piggy…if I die, so does my nephew, know that.” Then he collapses unconscious with all the medicine and magic wearing too heavily on his body. Old injuries reopen, heal, and then reopen again. 

My eyes widen with wonder as we finally reach the top of the druid’s tree. I can see forest stretching down for miles and mountains in the distance. He settles comfortably as the sun starts rising, lighting up the horizon with darker purples and blues slowly turning to strawberry pink and bright orange. I watch silently changing between normal and magic vision but seeing no real difference. 

“This could be your life.” The nice Druid says leaning back to admire it, “You’ll be safe here.”

I curl up feeling a little nostalgic. I want a family again. I don’t want to be anywhere near the madman and if I had to put up with sacrifices and enslaving fae. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the fact I’m already leaning towards yes. They’re using fae just like my uncle is.

 

“Don’t answer me just yet, we have a few more days. I’ll show you the bad stuff too.” He gets more serious. “And then you can choose.”

“I’ve already made up my mind to stay for a little while.” I say messing with my hoodie string. “I still gotta meet your deity.” I smile, he looks a little scared but I’m dead serious. I’m not joining a cult without knowing who I was supposed to be worshiping.

We walk back down from the top of the tree slowly.

“What do you do about money?” I ask, seeing all the gold jewelry here and there even seeming to grow in the trees.

“The gold is from the ground processed and crafted by magic.” He grabs a gold bracelet from off a tree branch, serving as a post, “Believe it or not it helps amplify our magic, that’s why you’ll see a lot of the fae with spells on them wearing gems or jewelry.”

He offers me the bracelet and I look at it as well as the symbols.

“I’m not sure if I should accept this then.” I point out cockily.