Colt

I leave my stomach above me as we fall down a shute. It only takes me a second to realize what's happened. We land on the mossy, damp earth of a dark tunnel. I let out an audible groan, my head resting in my hands. God, it's just our luck to accidentally stumble across an entrance.

"You okay?" Jasper mutters to me, reluctant to break the silence.

"For now," I grumble and before he can ask what I mean a small circle of light makes its way through the tunnel towards us. It resembles a lightning bug, but if you got close enough you could make out its tiny arms and legs.

The bug lets out a chime that sounds like a startled yelp and scurries back down the tunnel away from us. After a few moments of confused silence we hear footsteps and whispered voices making their way towards us.

A soft orange glow fills the tunnel as two full sized pixies come walking around the bend. They look just like humans, spare the insect like wings and the odd glow they give off.

"Welcome," one of them says, a girl. Her hair in dreadlocks hanging around her face. Her clothes are mismatched and dirty; the boy who stands next to her has she same sort of clothes and his pink hair has been shaved down on the sides. Pixies are so weird.

"My name is Johanna, and this is Dunkin," the girl pixie continues, gesturing to herself and her companion with slow careful movements.

"I'm Emerald," Emerald says, stepping up to the two pixies, making it clear she's our leader. "This is Karl, Mollie, Jasper and Colt," she gestures to us each respectfully and the pixies watch her hand closely, memorizing our names.

"Colt?" the boy, Dunkin, looks at me funny. Oh God, he recognizes the name. Johanna follows his gaze and I watch both sets of eyes fall on the wings on my back, even in the dimly lit tunnel they're visible over my shoulders.

"Bird Boy?" Johanna says and I almost flinch at the nick name from the last Pixie Comune I visited.

"Don't fucking call me that," I grumble, glaring at them.

"We heard you died with the rest of your Drove," Johanna ignores my comment.

"Who told you that? The werewolves you didn't warn us about?" I snap and she flinches at my accusation.

"Colt..." Jasper mutters looking up at me worried. I probably shouldn't piss off our hosts.

"Water under the bridge," I said dismissively, "let's not talk about the past."

"I'm sure Jason will be glad to hear that," Johanna says passively and turns to Emerald. "If you come this way we can take you to our leader and talk about your staying here until the vampires clear out."

Emerald nods and we began to follow them down the tunnel.

"Wait, did you say Jason?" I jog a little to catch up to her, "what is he doing in Aroostook county?"

"Family troubles I think, needed to get away from his mom or something," Dunkin shrugs, "You should ask him yourself."

"Yeah, like he'd talk to me," I grumble and fall back to walk next to Jasper at the back of the group.

"... Who's Jason?" he asks me quietly. I don't really talk about my past much to anyone except him and he knows that, but I don't think I want to talk about Jason to him.

"Um, he's a pixie from Somerset I met when my old Drove run into a Pixie Comune like this one. He was super over protective of his half sister who was a human, I gave her some advice about her vampire girlfriend Jason didn't like," I thought it wise to exclude the details of Jason and I's relationship. It was a thing of the past and I had more important things to worry about.

"What did you tell her?" Jasper asks. I look at him a moment, he's looking forward as we walk, not meeting my eyes.

"I told her 'it's hard to have a relationship if you're not on equal footing,' it's not my fault she took that to mean 'become a vampire,'" I explain. I leave out the part about Jason using the same words against me when he broke it off, and the part about how bad it stung that he didn't think we were equal. "Jason didn't like that," is all I say.

"Oh," Jasper says quietly, I'm not sure if he can tell there are holes in my story, I hope not. He doesn't press the matter and our attention is pulled as voices drift down the tunnel ahead of us. Light soon fills the path and the sound of a crowd grows louder as we approach. The tunnel opens up to a large room lit by the twenty or so pixies mingling on the floor or the balconies above. The room grows quiet as we enter, all eyes are on us, for a long moment you could hear a pin drop. And then the room breaks out in laughter and joyous shouts of greeting.

The crowd rushes forward to greet us, handshakes and shouts of "hello" are forced upon us.

"Alright alright, calm down, everybody!" Johanna shouts and some people listen; others, mostly children, keep pestering.

"Hey, you have wings too!" a blonde headed child hovers at my shoulder, his insect wings beating quickly to keep him in the air.

"Can you fly?" an obnoxious red head speaks too loudly in my face.

"Yes," I grumble and immediately regret it.

"Show us! Show us! Come on, please?" they shout in unison, their little wings beating faster as they fly around me excitedly.

"You're popular," Jasper comments, smiling at my pained expression, "is this why you hate pixies so much?"

"Part of the reason," I admit, and pull away as one of the kids reach out to touch my wings.

"Hate's such a strong word," a silky voice purrs and I turn to see the children have cleared away and a fair haired pixie is smiling at me from under heavy eyeliner. "I'm Maryah," she offers me her hand, I think she wants me to kiss it so I just give it a courteous shake.

"Colt," I reply and her eyes light up with recognition.

"They used to call you Bird Boy, right?" she asks, humor in her tone.

"That was a long time ago," I reply in a hard voice.

"I'll say," she purrs, "you hardly look like a 'boy' anymore," she runs a hand down my shoulder and pulls at the collar of my jacket a little. I am acutely aware of Jasper stiffing by my side. This pixie makes us both uncomfortable. "Maybe I could show you around a little, my quarters are just around the corner."

"woah, slow down," I say startled, I hold my hands up in surrender and take a half step back, "we just meet, I'm not jumping in bed with you."

"Come on, live a little," she leans in closer, placing her hands on my chest.

"Um, I'll pass," I push her arms away and she lingers longer than I'd like before making her way past us towards Karl. I let her go without warning Karl, I'm sure he won't be flattered by her either.

"That's the other reason," I turn to Jasper, "they have a huge sex drive."

He laughs but then stops when he realizes I'm not joking, "seriously?"

"Why do you think there are so many children?" I smile a little at his surprised expression.

"Pixies are born?" he asks and I nod, "so, they're like us?"

I frown, "they don't all see it like that."

"What do you mean?" Jasper looks up at me confused. The pixies around us have all turned to their own conversations, no one is paying us any mind anymore, I'm thankful for this.

"Their powers are as a result of blood, ours of mutation. The high amounts of magic in areas like this is what causes mutations in our genetics while we're in utero, but their powers are stronger because they have survived through many generations of natural selection."

"How do you know all this?" Jasper sounds impressed.

"One of the members of my old Drove was 110, he'd been studying magical beings for most of his life. I learned a lot from him..." I trail off remembering the kind faced man, he looked barely forty thanks to the longevity Magical people like us have.

"What was his name?" Jasper asks getting close enough for our shoulders to touch.

"Everitt," I answer, I look down at him and he looks up at me. I hold his gaze for a while, the back of his hand brushes against mine.

"Do you miss him?" he asks, but neither of us are really thinking about the old fart.

"Sometimes," I say, my voice lowering as we draw closer. The sound of the crowd fades into the background but is a present reminder we are not alone. I also remember where I am, it would be inappropriate--to say the least--for us to seek off on such unfamiliar territory. "So, Jasper, about the poem..." I start and his face instantly goes red.

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't--" he stumbles nervously over his words.

"What? No. No!  Of course I do, I just--" it takes me a moment to realize what he's talking about, and before I can explain, our romantic sub plot is interrupted by the main plot--I mean Emerald interrupts me.