Dance of Moonlight

"What is this place?" Brett breathed. She'd never seen a place as beautiful as this. They stood in a huge clearing in the middle of a forest. Placed behind the forest were mountains, mountains that surrounded everything. Even the sky was beautiful. It wasn't just blue, it was cerulean blue. The prettiest blue that Brett had ever laid her eyes on. This shade of blue had always been her favorite. The sun was shining down on them warmly. It wasn't overly hot, it was... perfect.

Everyone stood transfixed at what they saw. And yet, it all seemed familiar to them. Kristian, who was still in his panther form, sniffed at the grass. He pawed at it gently before raising his head up. He stared up into the sky for a few moments before he took off running.

"Kristian! Now isn't the time to play games!." Brett called after him. He stopped running and looked over his shoulder. He jerked his head at her, telling her to follow him. With a sigh, she started to run after him. Kristian slowed down so she could catch up with him. Brett couldn't run very fast. All the injuries she had received before they entered the door was starting to catch up to her. The pain in her ankle and stomach was exruciating. Kristian looked up at her and could see the pain on her face. He stopped running. Blood was seeping out of the claw marks on her stomach. They hadn't been bleeding earlier, why were they bleeding now? Brett felt something hot trickle down the side of her mouth. She wiped it off and came away with blood on her hand. Heilyn and Jacob suddenly appeared next to her. She was really beginning to hate the fact they could run so fast.

"Why is she bleeding?" Jacob asked Heilyn.

"In this place everything means more. Simple things have greater outcomes. In your home, her injuries wouldn't have bled this much because of what she is. Pain and wounds wouldn't have effected her. But here, everything is effected. We need to get her to my home or she'll bleed to death." He looked at Brett for a moment. "You'll have to carry her, we'll have to run again." Jacob stood there.

"I don't think that's a good idea. For me to carry her, I shouldn't touch her yet." Jacob told him. Heilyn nodded.

"Then you take Faye, I'll get Brett." He handed Faye over into Jacob's arms. "Come here, Brett." Heilyn said.

"No, I don't need to be carried. I'm fine." Heilyn crossed his arms.

"Fine, if you're alright then I want to see how fast you can run." Brett stared at him. "Go on, run." Brett was able to run about twenty feet before her ankle gave out and she fell on her face. When she looked up Heilyn was beside her. "Now, stop being so stubborn." He grabbed her arm and lifted her into his arms. "We need to hurry. For both their sakes." He said looking from Brett to Faye.

A few minutes later Heilyn came to a stop outside of a beautiful three story house. "Spiffy," Brett said half heartidly.

"What? Were you expecting a castle?" Heilyn asked with a small laugh. Brett just shrugged. Heilyn kicked the door once with his foot and within seconds a young woman opened the door. Brett gasped. Not only was this woman un-godly gorgeous, but she was also a light shade of green. Her hair was a deep, rich green that hung to her ankles and matched the grass outside. Her eyes were lime green, shaped like cat eyes. Her face was in a bright smile.

"Why didn't you tell me you were bringing guest, Heilyn? Especially from Erindel!" The woman was almost exploding with happiness. It made Brett want to throw up.

"Not now, Mailynn." Heilyn pushed passed her with Kristian at his feet and Jacob following. "Mailynn, I'm going to need bandages. Lots of them, and a bowl of hot water." She didn't argue, just turned to get the things that he wanted. Heilyn guided them into the living room. The very big, overly done living room. It was huge. He laid Brett down and told her not to sit up. Jacob put Faye down on a couch opposite Brett.

Mailyn came back with an armful. She sat everything down on the table in front of Brett. "You do have a bra on right?" Heilyn asked Brett. Brett looked at him.

"Of course. Who do you think I am?" Heilyn raised his hands in defeat.

"Hey, I didn't know." He reached down towards her shirt. "I'm sorry about this." He grabbed one of the tears in the shirt and ripped it into two pieces. He tossed her shirt down onto the floor. Jacob's breath caught in his throat. Seeing all that flesh exposed... Kristian moved in front of Jacob. He would prevent Jacob from moving towards her. Heilyn threw a blanket over Kristian. "You can shift back now." So he did.

Heilyn dipped a cloth rag into the water and rung it out. He pressed it to the slashes on Brett's stomach. She winced but didn't move. It took a few minutes before he was able to wash all the blood off. The wounds kept bleeding. The good thing was that once they had entered Heilyn's home, they had stopped bleeding as much. "Mailynn, help me sit her up straight." She moved behind Brett and put her hands on her shoulders. "This is going to hurt, but I need you to sit up and not slouch. Alright?" Heilyn said. Brett nodded. He started to lift her up with Mailynn raising her up. Brett shut her eyes and bit her lip to keep from making small sounds of pain. Behind her, Mailynn gasped and let her go. Heilyn had to tighten his grip on Brett to keep her from falling back on the couch.

"Heilyn... she's a, she's..." Mailynn said, not being able to spit her words out.

"What, what is it?" Kristian asked securing the blanket around his waist.

"Her back. She's marked." Mailynn whispered.

"What do you mean she's marked?" Heilyn asked. He put a hand on the back of her neck and held it tight enough so she wouldn't fall. He leaned around her body to look at her back. His eyes grew and he looked to Mailynn. Brett had a full back tattoo. It was the most intricate design that he had ever seen. It was a pair of wings. Done in purple's, blues, red's and black. It reached from the tops of her shoulders down to the end of her lower back. Well this was new. She hadn't had this before he left. He moved back and sat in front of Brett, his hand still on her neck. "Brett, where did you get your tattoo?" He asked carefully.

"I don't know. One day it was just there. I had a dream that something was after me and when it caught me it laid it's hands on my back. The pain was terrible. I woke up screaming and my back burned. And the wings were there." Kristian didn't know what to say. He'd never heard of anyone waking up with tattoo's. Jacob knew that it was there but hadn't thought anything about it. He didn't even mention it to her. Heilyn was silent. Everyone could tell that he was thinking and it was some deep thinking.

"Mailynn, hold her up so I can get these bandages on her." Mailynn took over and Heilyn started to wrap the bandages around her waist. By the time he was finished she looked like a white mummy just around her stomach. "Go to my library and get me my book on enchanted beings." Mailynn didn't make one movement to say that she acknowledged him. She just stared at Brett's back for a moment before turning and practically running from the room.

"Will somebody explain what's going on?" Kristian said. He looked at Jacob. "And get her a blanket before this one tries to eat her." He added pointing at Jacob. Heilyn took off his coat and put it around Brett's shoulders.

"Yes, please tell me what's with this thing on my back." Brett asked leaning back on the couch.

"Before I tell you, we need to get Faye looked over. She may be dying." Heilyn told them.

"What!" The other three said at the same time.

"To help me save the three of you, she gave me almost all of her power. Doing something like that is very risky. It could wind up killing you. But I think that since she didn't give me all of it that she'll live. She just hasn't woken up yet."

"Will she really be alright? She did speak without talking." Kristian said. Heilyn nodded.

"Yes she did. I'm not sure what that means exactly. Don't worry, we'll find out what's going on with everyone." Heilyn told them, looking at each of them in turn. Mailynn came back into the room and placed a thick book on the table in front of Heilyn. "Mailynn, could you check and make sure that Faye is going to be alright?" He asked. She smiled nervously and moved to Faye. "My sister always could do a few more things than I could." He told them.

"You have a sister?" Brett asked puzzled. Heilyn grinned.

"Can't you see the resembelance? We're both so well colored." Brett laughed, something that finally broke the tension in the room. "That's my girl." Mailynn knelt on the floor beside Faye. She placed her hands on either side of Faye's face and closed her eyes. A smile began to form on Mailynn's face.

"She'll be fine. She has a lot of recovering to do. Her power has been almost completely drained, that takes time to fix." She explained coming to her feet. Mailynn still wasn't able to look Brett in the eyes. The tension flooded the room again.

"Heilyn, what's wrong with me?" Brett asked.

"Ma beauté, there is nothing wrong with you. There's just something different about you."

"Oh, Heilyn, stop dancing around it and just tell her!" Mailynn yelled. Everyone jumped. Jacob didn't even know she could raise her voice, she seemed like such a quiet person.

"You're half human."

"What's the rest of me?" She asked, afraid to know the answer.

"Faerie." He said quietly.

"I thought faeries were only a myth. That they weren't real." Kristian said, sounding so sure of himself. He looked a little panicked.

"They're a myth to your realm. Not to mine. They're living, breathing being here."

"And where is here exaclty?" Jacob asked.

"Muridia, the land of light. Or more the land of fading light." Mailynn said sitting down in a chair. Kristian and Jacob followed suit, this seemed like it was going to be a long conversation. "Heilyn, do you want to explain it to them?"

"Yes, I brought them here, I should do it." He said. Heilyn took a deep breath and sank back into the couch. This could take awhile. "I'll try to make this as short and to the point as I can."

"We've got all the time in the world." Jacob said.

"Alright, so this is what you need to know." Heilyn began.