Misunderstanding

Behind her, Abbi heard the door click shut. She took a few moments to watch the human lying on the bed. He was asleep, facing the wall, despite the room’s lights having been restored to full brightness for some time that morning.

Quietly approaching the side of the bed and careful not to make a sound, she looked at his face, smiling at how peaceful he seemed. Reaching for his shoulder, she refrained from touching him, not wanting to disturb his slumber. She was relieved to know that he could rest in such foreign surroundings, and it was obvious that he was not ready to wake.

Moving carefully, Abbi stepped away from the bedside, looking around the room. As she did, she caught sight of the table in the small nook along the far wall. Her body went cold as she realized what it was she was seeing. Her heart raced within her chest as she tried to catch her breath.

From where she stood, she could see the tray with the plate of food on it. Moving as quietly as she could, she approached, scanning the tray’s contents carefully, before leaning heavily with both hands on the back of the small chair and exhaling a sigh of relief.

She touched the edge of the plate. As far as she could tell, nothing had been touched. Closing her eyes, she smiled and then withdrew her hand. Leaning again on the chair back, she lowered her head, her eyes closed tightly, giving another sigh, while silently reprimanding herself for not thinking to bring Eddus food earlier.

Returning to his bedside, she again watched him sleeping. She fought the urge to sit down on the edge of the bed, or to lay down behind him and put her arm over him.

Standing for a moment longer before turning away, she walked to the chair in the corner of the room. Perhaps she’d sit and wait for him to stir, as she did not want to leave.

After her departure the day before, she’d been up all night and had something she had to tell him. There was so much that he needed to know. There was so much he was not aware of.

She sank into the soft, cushioned chair, the long night catching up with her. Gazing again at the sleeping human on the other side of the room, she allowed herself to lean back, closing her eyes as her head met with the softness of the chair’s back.

“I do hope that you were not too uncomfortable.”

Abbi’s eyes sprang open, and she gasped aloud, sitting up quickly. The sound of conversation had coaxed her awake, and as she came to, she remembered where she was. Wincing at the stiffness of her body from having slept in the chair, she looked around.

At the other side of the room, she saw Eddus, standing near the door. About a pace away from him was someone else. He was fae, but she didn’t recognize him. He stood about a head shorter than Eddus. And he wore a guard’s uniform.

Both men were looking at her, an expression of concern on Eddus’ face and a surprised and curious look on the guard’s.

Eddus then smiled, taking a step in her direction.

Looking from the two men standing by the door to the table at the other end of the room, then back at them, Abbi remembered what she’d seen before she’d fallen asleep. Alarmed, she jumped to her feet. Looking again at the table, she took a step toward it.

Quickly taking inventory of its contents, she exhaled the breath she held. On the table was the same tray she’d seen earlier. Nothing had been touched, as far as she could tell. She turned toward the two, who still watched her questioningly

Quickly, she crossed the small room in the men’s direction.

“Abbi, are you alright?” Eddus asked.

The pixie did not answer, but stepped past him.

“It’s Dain, right?”

The guard straightened himself as Abbi approached and then nodded in response.

Closing the distance between them, Abbi came to a stop just in front of him. They spoke quietly, their voices hushed, but Eddus was able to make out their conversation from where he stood.

“Is there something the matter, something I can do for you?” Looking apprehensive as well as uncomfortable with how close to him she stood, Dain took a small step away from the young lady in front of him.

“I’m worried about something,” Abbi said curtly, leaning forward as he stepped back.

The expression of uneasiness on the guard’s face immediately changed to concern, and he nodded, inclining his head.

“What’s troubling you, Abbi?” As a member of the guard, it was his job to help anyone with a concern.

Shifting herself out of the way, she tilted her head in the direction of the tray with food on it, sitting on the table. She looked at Dain, who shook his head, not grasping what she was trying to get at.

“The food, Dain,” Abbi said to him, again inclining her head slightly in the direction of the table.

“I brought that in last night. I thought perhaps Ed may need some refreshment.” Dain spoke plainly, casting a glance in the direction she’d indicated, and then to Eddus. “Was there something wrong with what I brought to you?”

Eddus shook his head, unaware of what the contents on the plate had to do with anything.

“Was it not to your liking?” Dain asked.

“The food is from this world, Dain,” Abbi interjected, her brows raised slightly.

“Oh.” A look of realization came over the guard’s face, and he inhaled sharply, looking at the tray in the corner, wide-eyed. “Oh...”

“Yes.”

“Abbi, you know, it may not even be a problem. It could just be the stories. It may not even affect humans. We don’t know for sure...” Dain spoke quickly, a look of uncertainty on his face.

“Well, can we please not test that out on this human?” Abbi said, looking towards Eddus.

Dain nodded and quickly went to the table, collecting the tray. He turned to Eddus.

“You didn’t eat, did you?” he asked, a look of concern on his face.

“I was a bit upset.” Shaking his head, Eddus glanced at Abbi, then watched a look of relief come over Dain, who crossed the room quickly and tapped on the closed door with his elbow.

As the door opened, Dain nodded thoughtfully.

“I’ll get this out of here,” he told them.

“Abbi, what the hell is going on?” Eddus sat down on the bed as the door clicked shut.

“How long did I sleep?” Abbi turned to look at Eddus, who shook his head. “How long did you let me sleep?”

“You must have been still sleeping when I woke up. I didn’t even know you were here,” Eddus said, shaking his head. “What’s that all about?”

He looked past her at the door, still bewildered.

“What time is it?”

Again, Eddus could only shake his head. He had no idea what time it was.

He’d only awoken just a little while before, feeling groggy and still facing the wall. His mind had raced as the events of the previous day came back to him. Thinking back on everything that had happened was more like remembering a fantastic dream than recalling actual events. If it weren’t for the fact that he awoke in the same room... He’d closed his eyes again and tried not to think about it.

A knock at the door startled him, and he rolled over, sitting up on the edge of the bed in time to see the door open slightly. The visitor was Dain, who entered upon Eddus’ invitation. They’d only spoken for roughly a minute before Abbi awoke.

Abbi turned her head to look at the door.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, and sat next to Eddus on the bed, taking his hand in hers.

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?”

Abbi looked at him blankly for a moment. Her questioning eyes went wide with surprise.

“The time, Eddie... it doesn’t matter.” Abbi shook her head. “There’s something I have to tell you!”

“What just happened, Abbi?”

The faerie opened her mouth as if to say something, then slowly closed it, pursing her lips.

“I should have brought you food last night,” she said, lowering her gaze, her brows knitted. “I didn’t even think about it. I rushed out and didn’t even think about what could have happened.”

‘You’re not one of us...’

The blank expression on Abbi’s face as she’d left the room the night before flashed into the forefront of Eddus’s memory, her words echoing in his mind. He said nothing. After their encounter the previous evening, he had no idea what was going on.

Raising her head, Abbi’s eyes met his. She looked deflated.

“I should have thought to bring you something to eat,” she said in a regretful tone. Her grasp on Eddus’ hand firmed for a moment.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “Does it matter who brought the food? I couldn’t eat anything anyway.”

“Yes, but, if you had...”

Abbi’s expression was a mix of seriousness and worry. Eddus could not even guess what it was she was thinking.

“You can’t eat anything here, Eddie,” Abbi spoke after a few moments of silence. She then shook her head, clearly searching for what it was she was trying to say. “No, I mean, of course you can eat, but only if I bring you the food. Please, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“What is it that could happen, Abbi? What did Dain mean when he talked about stories and not being sure? What are you unsure of?”

“Well, there is a chance that- there’s a chance that you could die.”

Abbi began to look lost and uncomfortable.

“Die?” Eddus felt a cold alarm grip his insides. There was a buzzing in his ears that seemed to throb inside his head, and he had to struggle to catch his breath. He couldn’t imagine that the guard who’d helped him from the moment he’d arrived could possibly try and kill him. “Do you mean it could be poisoned?”

“Eddus, no!” Abbi looked up at him with a horrified expression. The look in her eyes made him instantly regret his question. She shook her head. “Nobody in this realm would try and poison you. That’s not our way.”

The look in her eyes made him instantly regret his question.

Eddus glanced at the door for a moment, his mind racing. While he did feel a slight relief at hearing this, it still didn’t give him the answer he wanted. If it wasn’t poison, he still needed to know what he was in danger of.

“You’re the first human to have come here uninvited and stay for any period of time in hundreds of years. The few humans who have crossed the barrier between our worlds were never here long enough to require anything to eat.”

Abbi paused, having been speaking rather quickly. She took a deep breath before continuing.

“There are stories about how our food affects humans. It’s been said that for a human to eat anything from this world, he would starve himself if he were to go back to yours. It is not known why, but it’s been suggested that the realm itself affects our food. Perhaps it was a protection placed on the food in this realm after man tried to come here by force. It would make them want only the food here, so that, should they go back to your world, they would starve and perish. What Dain was referring to was the fact that we don’t know for sure, because we’ve only ever heard the stories.”

“But why? How can you not be sure? How can you not know?”

“As I said, nobody really knows. No one even knows how old those stories are. It would have been for the protection of the realm. I mean, I’m sure that someone, somewhere knows. It could just be legend, but when I saw that he’d brought something for you to eat...”

Eddus sat in stunned silence, not knowing what to think. At another time, he might have dismissed what Abbi was saying as fantasy, but he couldn’t. Not after everything he’d experienced since stepping through the pixie ring.

The young woman telling him these things was the same woman who had stayed with him for two and a half weeks. She’d fallen asleep next to him every night. She now sat opposite him on the bed in a world that was not his own. And she had wings. He couldn’t believe any of this, but he couldn’t dismiss anything either.

He was relieved that nobody was trying to kill him, and in light of what he’d just been told, he was also relieved that he’d been in too much of a state to eat anything before falling asleep.

“I was afraid that-” Abbi’s voice faltered. She squeezed Eddus’ hand, looking at him pleadingly and placing her free hand on his leg. “I will bring you food, Eddus. But please, promise me that you won’t eat anything given to you by anyone else.”

“I promise.” Eddus nodded, gazing at her absently.

He still felt cold and numb. Tilting his head slightly, he looked from her face to her hand still holding his, and then again met her gaze.

“Eddus.” Abbi’s expression was somber. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Did I say too much?” Eddus asked quietly.

Abbi’s brows creased as she shook her head. Her eyes searched his.

“When we were last together, I told you that... well, what I said...” Eddus said, studying her face and inhaling deeply.

“I don’t understand,” Abbi said, lowering her gaze, a slight look of worry on her face.

“Well, I think that perhaps I may have said more than I should have.”

Abbi again shook her head, her expression becoming one of uncertainty. Releasing his hand, she stood up, taking a step away from the bed.

“Did you not mean what you said?”

Eddus blinked at her in surprise, watching her blink back the tears in her welling eyes. He quickly stood up and took a step toward her, but Abbi took another step back as he approached and raised her hand just in front of her, palm facing him.

“Abbi, I think you’ve misunderstood me.”

“Did you not mean what you said?” she asked again, her bottom lip quivering slightly.

If ever there was a time he truly felt like he should make an apology, it was now.

“I meant every word of what I told you,” he said. He was now more confused than when he’d watched her leave the room the day before.

“You did? You mean... you do...?” Relief flooded Abbi’s face. Dropping her hand, she stepped toward Eddus, tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked up at him.

“Yes,” Eddus said, gingerly wiping her cheek with his thumb. Cautiously, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Yes, I do love you.”

For a few moments, they stood in silence. Eddus rested a hand on Abbi’s shoulder, who leaned her head forward against his chest. Eddus watched her shoulders rise and fall as she took several very deep breaths.

In light of her emotional reaction to things, he began to wonder if it was not he that had misunderstood something, although he still could not at all understand what had happened the day before, nor what had just happened.

“Why would you say that, Eddus Brandt?”

Eddus closed his eyes. While he felt the familiar urge to answer her question, he felt unsure.

“Because I do... I love you.”

Opening his eyes, he found himself looking into the face of the pixie in front of him. Her brows still creased, she shook her head, peering up at him with a curious and pleading look.

“Wait- What did I say?”

“You said that you’d said too much. What did I misunderstand, if you meant what you said to me?”

A feeling of relief washed over Eddus, and he smiled, kissing Abbi’s forehead again.

“Abbi, I did, and I still do, mean what I said. Every word,” Eddus said. “I do love you. I do. But, when you left so quickly after we talked, I thought that maybe I shouldn’t have said it.”

“How was it too much then, if you meant it?”

“I don’t know, Abbi. The way you looked at me. What you said before you left. Did I say something wrong?”

“No, Eddie. Not at all,” Abbi said, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have left like that. I know what I said. But that was why I had to leave you, Eddie.”

“What?”

“I had to go and find out a few things. I think I’ve found a way to save you.”