Fae Intervention

     Haetia spent more time resting between his travels than he did actually traveling. So much so in fact that it was already night time and with that came a dense wintery fog that was almost as obstructing to his vision as the previous night’s blizzard was.

Along the way he collected as much food as possible which only consisted of berries, berries, and more berries.

Where he was headed to? He hadn’t the slightest clue himself. All he knew was that he wanted to find water since the berries could only fulfill his thirst so much.

And in time, he came across a lake which he didn’t realize until he was right at its perimeter.

Ecstatic and overjoyed, Haetia ran to the shore and palmed it into his mouth in droves, cleanliness not even crossing his mind.

Once satisfied, he sat back and stared across its waters. From the fog he couldn’t make out how large it was, and for all he knew it could take a full day or more just to go around it.

“Ughhh…” The prince groaned, deliberating his choices. “I really don’t want to backtrack but…I’ll see if the fog lets up by tomorrow first. Now, what else do people use water for?” He eyed himself down. “A bath, definitely.”

The first thing to go was his cardigan, then he fiddled with his harnesses. It took him exponentially longer than he’d ever admit to figure out how to remove them and with a ghastly aggravated wail he finally threw them down. “How the fuck did I ever-!? Right…Linias would do it.”

Somehow both more and less frustrated, he took off the remainder of his clothes and still struggled here and there in the process.

Luckily again he was immune to the cold or else bathing in an ice cold lake would’ve been asking to die in a matter of hours or even less, let alone the fact that it was thankfully not frozen to the point of having a sheet of ice on top.

He guided the water to the best of his ability over any streaks of dirt or otherwise he sustained, unenthusiastically cleaning himself off. Normally he loved to take baths. Anything below complete cleanliness was abhorrent to him. Yet, for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to put in the full effort of a thorough bath. Somehow he didn’t realize how exhausting bathing was, let alone with his extensively long hair.

And once again, he was reminded of him.

Linias. Who always bathed him.

Haetia dunked his head into the lake then arose with an exhale harsh enough to tread into groaning territory.
“Nope, nope. Not thinking about him.” In the midst of his half-assed bath he caught sight of movement in the water. “Fish! Oh please just get caught and make my life easy..!”

The prince lunged forward and missed.

“Come oooon!!”

He tried again. And again, and again, and again before finally giving up. Each time the fish would evade him with no effort at all, as if foreseeing his leaps long in advance.

Stepping out of the lake with a defeated sigh, he searched for something to dry off with before remembering that he was in the middle of a tundra. So, he tried to get dressed again, struggling just as much to put back on his clothing as he did to take it off and vehemently shaking his head every time a fleeting thought attempted to sway him into believing that he needed his retainer.

A little ass backwards, he eventually managed to get his clothing on correctly for the most part – although the harnesses around his torso and thighs still didn’t feel like they were situated quite right.

And now, all he had to do was wait for the weather to hopefully clear.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

     Even after a full day the fog remained, and so against all of his desires Haetia retreated from whence he came. Sighting that beast again did cross his mind, but if those gut wrenching noises were a sign then he felt sure that he had nothing to worry about.

Something must’ve heard him begging for anything to eat OTHER than berries, especially after his failed attempt at catching dinner. An apple tree – somehow still standing amongst this ghastly weather.

Haetia stared at the high dangling fruit from below, giving the trunk a few shakes in the hopes that it would drop its plunder. As much as he was reluctant to do so, he picked one of the many discolored apples off from the snow, wiping it off before plopping it into his mouth.

And whatever it was that heard him begging spat in his face.

Spoiled.

Just as fast as he bit into it he spit it out, slamming it softly into the snow.

“Fucking–Of course! Hah! Can’t have anything my way right!!?”

Then those thoughts again–

Linias and Linias cutting up his apples for him and Linias serving his food back in Gwyneira and Linias–

The ivory royal disheveled his long white hair and screamed, “UGHH GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!!! If you were such a good servant I wouldn’t be in this situation right now!”

Then, out of the void of the dense mist replied a voice he knew all too well.

“If I was so terrible you would’ve died a long time ago.”

He wasn’t sure whether he felt overwhelming dread, anger, or joy, yet it all amounted to the same motion in the end. Apprehensive and anxiousness at its peak, Haetia’s head inched towards the direction of the voice.

…There he was. Linias.

But…something felt off. Linias felt more…sinister. He never felt sinister before.

Was… he hallucinating? And if so, why would he conjure up this kind of Linias?

Gritting his teeth mostly in fear, Haetia slowly and cautiously followed his instincts to turn in the opposite direction and flee, but he only managed to get a few half-jog steps in before the figure of Linias appeared directly in front of him, shocking him enough to cause him to fall backwards.

“Are you scared, Master?”

“You’re not–You’re not Linias. I know you aren’t. I just–made you up in my head or something because I’ve been eating like shit–Y-Yeah that’s it…!”

“I’m as real as I’ll ever be.”  The figure of Linias continued.

At least in regards to appearance–Yes, he looked real. Not transparent or anything of the like. As if he was there in the flesh.

“If I wasn’t, that manticore would’ve killed you. Twice now. Do you remember the first time? I do. Clear as day. I wouldn’t be surprised if you forgot. I’m sure it felt like a normal weekday for you, but it wasn’t for me. Do you remember?”

Haetia scrambled to his feet, clenching his quivering hands together and marching on in a different direction with averted eyes until the figure appeared behind him, seizing his body still.

“Let go of me–!!”

“You’re not running this time. Look.”

It forced his chin and thus eyes forward.

Before them the fog churned and contorted, gradually forming two figures.

Those were…him. And Linias. When they were younger.

Then, they too spoke.

“Ew. What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to take you home. You’re too far away from the town, it isn’t safe.”

“Awww boohoo whatever. I can never have fun without it’s not safe this and what if you get hurt that.”

“Haetia.”

“How dare you say my name! You should only be addressing me as My Lord, Sire, Your Majesty, or Master!”

“...Sire, please come home.”

“Hmmmm. No!”

The apparitions were seemingly walking on.

He wanted to yell at them–yell and scream at them to turn back. He knew where they were going. He knew they were headed straight into danger. But all he could do was watch, and listen.

Did he…always sound so…appalling?

Hearing his own voice–speech–made his ears sting and repulse.

“I-I never said that.” Haetia denied with rapid head shakes and shivers. “I didn’t–I wouldn’t–”

“Are you sure? What about this?”

The echoes of their younger selves continued on and the spectating Haetia writhed in the figure’s arms, as if he could reach out and stop them. He watched helplessly as the events replayed, as their past selves approached the disguised manticore.

“Hey you! Shut up will you?! I’m trying to enjoy an afternoon play and you and my big oaf of a brooder are completely ruining it!!”

“NO!” He reflexively shouted, and futilely.

The events played out the same as he remembered it.

While he was shielded by Linias’s roots, his retainer fought the enraged monster head on in an attempt to fix the mess he himself had made. Haetia tried and tried to look away but the figure of Linias would only force his eyes back once more.

Even down to the moment he had agitated the manticore and it lunged at him instead…and when Linias had stood between them in an instant.

“You almost got us both killed. More so me than anything else. I lost an eye for you – because of you and your recklessness. Did I ever tell you that? Of course not. Because you never cared and never will.”

“I–....”

Before he could even try to say anything in contradiction to the image, the echoes spoke for him.

“Ugh. I can’t even bear to look at you with how disgusting you are right now, blood and-Ugh! Just you wait until my father hears about this! Better yet your teacher who seems to be doing a bad job if you can’t protect me all that good!”

“Master, you put your life in jeopardy by coming out here alone and antagonizing a wild–”

“Are you telling me what I can and can’t do?!”

Every word that left his younger self’s lips made his skin curl within itself. If only he could close his ears so he couldn’t hear any of it. If he could erase the memory like he once had–

“It’s my job to protect you so please–”

“Protect me then! If I throw myself into danger it’s your job to protect me so protect me! Hmph! I’m going back home! And you better stay away from me because if I have to look at your bloodied up face for another second I’ll lose my appetite for dinner!”

“I can’t do that. My first order is to do whatever it is that prioritizes your safety, even if it means disobeying you.”

“Then if you walk next to me I’m going to gouge my eyes out how about that?”

That couldn’t–....That couldn’t be him…To sound so…reprehensible–to the point that it was nauseating.

“Do you see now? And you wonder why I left you on your own.”

“H-He–...” Wouldn’t. Is what he wanted to say. But even he doubted his own words. If this is what Linias saw–what Linias heard–he could only imagine the enmity he must’ve felt. He wanted to believe that no matter what Linias’s loyalty to him would remain true and firm, but if he’d been so..so inhumane to him before, what cause would he have to be loyal and caring of him?

The figure of Linias had finally released his hold but Haetia hadn’t the strength nor will left in him to run, eyes too fixated on the repeated memory.

Linias chases after him. He leads them into danger. Linias sacrifices himself for him. He doesn’t do so much as even thank him.

If this was him when he was younger, did he…Did he do the same things now?

A weight gradually inched off his shoulders but he knew for sure it wasn’t from him coming to terms with anything. It felt more physical. …He patted his collarbone.

The necklace was missing.

Haetia frantically patted himself down and bleated, “His locket-!”

Whipping around in a thousand directions he came to find that the figure of Linias had disappeared and instead all he saw in the steadily increasing distance was a handful of pixies that would’ve been lost in the mist had it not been for their faint glow. They were carrying something…the necklace!

His heeled feet carried him as fast as they could, uncaring about his stuttering balance along the way from the thick snow and ill suited shoes. Haetia clutched onto the necklace and jerked it against their likewise pull, trying to pry it from their grasp.

“Give it back!!”

“You don’t” “deserve it!” They shrieked back in a mixture of voices.

He lunged all his weight into a full force tug, finally detaching it from their hands. The pixies scattered about him, pestering him and flying into his face like gnats would manure.

“You don’t deserve it!” “You don’t deserve it!”

“Shut up! SHUT UP!!”

Desperately Haetia tried to swat them away but kept his grip on the locket firm enough for it to leave a stripe across his palms.

“I bet you don’t even know what it is!” “I bet you didn’t even TRY to ask it where he was!”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” In all of his swatting he managed to hit one clean and with such a force hitting such a small body it flew several feet back, making the others retreat with it. “I don’t–I don’t care about him!-I don’t…”

Haetia grit his teeth, holding the locket tight against his chest.

Eyes low to the ground and locket in his hands, he rushed through the fog, through the trees, through the snow.

He didn’t know where he was going.

He just knew he couldn’t go back to him.

He couldn’t.

Not like this.