The Fox’s Tale

I launched myself at the wall, desperate to get back to her. “Ellery! Open the fucking portal, Lucas! Open it right now!”

Hands grabbed at me, voices called out, but I shook them all off. I pummeled the wall we’d come through. “Take me back to her. Take me back!” Another set of hands seized me and spun me around.

“Damn it! Get a hold of yourself!” Lucas snarled. I hauled off and punched him square in the face. He retaliated by grabbing my face and biting my neck. The blinding pain was enough to shock me out of my rage.

“What the fuck, Lucas?” I demanded as I shoved him off of me. I clamped a hand onto the spot where he’d bitten me. Lucas just stood with his arms folded across his bare chest. He was dressed only in black silk pajama bottoms. Somewhere a record player was playing Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.

“You need to keep your shit together.” He nodded at the team who were all standing in open mouthed shock. “If the Crown Princess has sent you into the Unseelie realm for your safety then what you’ve fled is truly horrific.”

He moved to the side and stopped the music. It wasn’t a record player, but a gramophone.

His comment set me off again. “And she’s facing it all alone! Open the portal, Lucas!”

He whipped around and bared his fangs at me. I stopped mid rant. “More dangerous than the Unseelie realm, Sir.” He glared at me and the stark realization of where we were and what it meant hit me like a truck.

“The Unseelie Realm?” I asked.

“Yes. You, five more Shifters, three humans, two Elflings,” Lucas paused and inhaled. He turned, bewildered, to gape at Andy.

“Don’t say it,” Andy muttered.

“And a god damned partial giant.”

Andy sighed.

“You’re a giant?” I couldn’t help asking. Andy was certainly tall, roughly 6’7”, but the shortest guy on the team was an even six feet so it wasn’t like he was that huge.

“My great-grandfather was half giant. I don’t like talking about it,” Andy muttered.

I was about to ask something else when Lucas continued. “It doesn’t matter. My point is that you and your friends are going to draw a great deal of unwanted attention. Even if you were sent here under the Crown Princess’s orders this is a precarious situation.”

“What the hell is happening?” Ryan demanded. “The fuck are you talking about? Shifters, elves, giants?”

Lucas turned toward him, exasperated. “Blondie, you need to get a grip, right now.”

Ryan blinked. “Hey, you’re in my English class with Ellery. Do you know where we are? How did we get here?”

Lucas gestured wildly at Ryan and then groused, “elves. They have trouble transversing realms. It makes them addled.”

Sam leaned towards Scott. “What’s a Shifter?” he whispered.

Scott rolled his eyes and ignored him. “Are we really in the dark faerie realm?”

Lucas shrugged. “Technically you are in my home, which is a place that is neither here nor there, but yes, the minute you cross the threshold you’ll be in the world of the Unseelie.” He began pacing. “How am I going to get you to the portal without losing one or more of you?”

He stopped in front of my three human teammates. “You are all suspiciously calm.” He grabbed the one closest to him, a junior by the name of Chris, by the jaw and turned his head from left to right.

“Ah, the Crown Princess must have charmed them. At least we don’t have to worry about panic attacks from them, just the blasted elves.”

Ryan was counting the team and he looked up alarmed. “Am I an elf?”

Matt smacked him in the back of the head. “Yes, dumbass. Now shut it.”

Somewhere in the house a door opened and then closed with a bang.

“Oi, Lucas! Where the hell are you man? The market had a special two for the price of one for roast rabbit.” Quinn stopped short as he walked in on us. “What are they doing here?” he asked, pointing at us with one of the rabbits that were still on a spit.

The other was clutched in his left hand, a giant bite mark torn from its body. The scent of the rabbits set off a round of growls from our stomachs. Scott and Nick took a step towards him, Lee growled, and Matt licked his lips. Everyone else sniffed the air in anticipation.

“Oh no you don’t!” Quinn admonished, holding the rabbit up in the air. “Get your own.” His brow furrowed as he looked around until his eyes landed on me.

“I can’t believe Elly brought you all here. Where is she?” He took a bite of his rabbit and continued talking. “I mean,” he paused to chew and then spoke around his food, “I know it’s really cool,”

“Quinn,” Lucas called, but Quinn kept on talking.

“and you’d want to show off your future kingdom,”

“Quinn!” Lucas raised his voice, but got nowhere.

“But you know how crazy dangerous it is. I just can’t believe you’d bring the Elflings and humans,”

“Quinn!” I tried to get him to stop, but was also unsuccessful.

“and why isn’t she with you? Oh, is this like a stag party type of thing? Dude, I thought we were tight. I know Lucas can be a drag, but I thought Devon and I would merit an invite.”

“Quinn!” Lucas and I yelled his name together.

He stopped talking. “What?”

“Quinn,” Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose, but then looked up with a grin. “Quinn, you’re a genius.”

“Well yeah, but do you mind illuminating how in this instance?”

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“A drunken stag party is the perfect cover. Real ones are always stumbling into one of the realms and we can let them leave because they’ll chalk up any memories to drunken hallucinations.” He turned back to the team. “Discomport yourselves.”

“Say what?” Nick asked.

“He means strip.” Quinn said around another mouthful of food.