poemtry and prose

He was thinking about Cassie.

She had always left him captivated. From the moment he met her, even till now. He wasn't sure what it was about her. But he thanked the Gods for that day when he first met her. He had been wandering through the east woods and found himself lost. Somehow he had wandered through a portal and in the forest where she was playing. Back then there were a lot of portals, doorways that connected his world and hers. So it was very easy for someone from his world to walk through one of them and into hers if they were not careful enough or paying attention to where they were going. He rarely watched where he was going, preferring to focus on the trees and the land. It was much more interesting than staring at his feet.

But somehow, he found himself in a very different forest than he originated in. Unfortunately, the same portal that lead him into her world, did not offer a way back so he had to wander around in order to find another way back to his own world. Hazel was young and the elders of his clan had not taught him the necessary spells to transport him to and from the worlds yet.

The fur and pine trees and aspens intrigued him. They were static and green, holding themselves to a single shape and color. When he spoke to them they did not return many thoughts back, which he thought was incredibly rude. He was in the process of asking one pine when instead of receiving an answer from the tree itself he heard a voice speaking.

"We will travel the world," it said. The voice was high pitched and had a accent that was different than anything he had heard of in his world. "All aboard! Toot, toot. Fare thee well, little boat. Bye bye."

He followed the sounds, creeping silently across the forest ground. He avoided all the dry stick and leaves decomposing on the soil. Finally after a few minutes he heard water accompanying the voice. He was near a stream. Hazel climbed a nearby tree, keeping himself hidden. The last thing he wanted to do was to be spotted and captured. The clan elders warned them not to be captured. The stories of the tiny fae being trapped in school-girl books between pages or having their wings pulled off by boys or adult scientists looking for proof of their existence. He shuddered at the thought of loosing his beautiful wings.

Through the leaves of the trees, Hazel looked around. Cassie was hunched over at the water's edge. She was tiny and could have very easily passed for a faerie if she had wings on her back. But she was not. Her hair was long and red, and had been braided into a single braid. Two beads hooked together holding the braid in place. She wore a green t-shirt with strange markings on it and a pair of blue jean shorts. She was barefoot, her shoes having been tossed off sitting next to a tree. A good sized pile of pinecones piled up besides the girl.

Hazel perched in the tree. He knew that where one human was, there would be more. And he did not want any trouble. Nor did he want to be spotted. So he sat still and waited, figuring the girl would move on or leave when called for. Minutes turned into hours and no one came or called. The girl continued to stay at the river bed, occasionally leaving to gather more pinecones. Sometimes she hummed strange songs to herself. Something inside Hazel stirred and he felt compelled to step forward and met her. He felt sadness, for someone so young to be left alone for so long. If she had any friends they would have been gathered at her side.

A small part of him told him to leave, to slowly back away and get out of there before he was caught. He shook that feeling off as he climbed out of the tree. He then crept around behind her. And continued to watch, until she turned around.

"Hello. I'm Cassie," she said smiling. And those words forever changed Hazel's life. The few hours that he spent that first day, floating pinecones down the stream, listening to her tell him stories from her head, made him aware of the wonder and life that humans carried. It was true he had not been given a name yet and even after Hazel returned to his own world, he kept that name, accepting nothing else.

It took him only two hours to find another portal back to his own world. When he got back to his town, he refused to tell the elders where he had gone. He was afraid they would banish him from ever returning. And he did promise Cassie that he would be back the next day.

Hazel taught her many things when they got together. When she told him how easily it was to see colors and the hidden, Hazel knew she had been born with the gift of sight. Not many humans ever learned how to use that talent. It usually disappeared as they grew older. Therefore, Hazel took it upon himself to teach her how to develop it so she could use it to benefit her life and her world. First he taught her what the colors meant. And then he showed her how to change her own colors at will. Hazel was shocked at how fast Cassie learned each lesson and adapted to the new ways of seeing the world.

He also showed her how to see the colors from music as he played his pipes for her. Once she got the hang of seeing the colors, she would ask him to play for her hours at a time. And he would oblige. He loved playing music and watching her trance out. He would play long after his fingers and lungs and mouth tired.

He also taught her about the trees. He pointed out the differences between sick trees, those that had parasites on them, or copper illnesses growing in them and on their leaves, and healthy, happy trees that got enough sunlight and nutrients from the soil. He taught her how to respect them, by sitting under them and thanking them for all the gifts they gave her. Every time she picked a leaf, or a pinecone off them she would bow her head down in reverence and mutter a few words of thanks under her breath. Finally, Hazel taught Cassie how to speak to them.

It was the hardest thing he had to teach her, taking almost an entire year to get her to get used to their voice appearing inside her head and of their accent. Finally there came a day, when she started speaking to a pine, Cassie turned to him and said, "How rude. Did you hear what he just demanded from me?"

There was nothing Hazel could do but to laugh and hug her. Of all the trees, she liked talking to aspens and the droopy weeping willows the best. She tended to shy away from the pines and furs, "because they are gruff and do not like me at all" she said.

She also taught him about her world and her people. He learned about cars, and planes, weird machines that carried people from one place to another. Seeing those big metallic birds in the sky saddened Hazel. Humans were no different than his people. It was like they were apart of his race long ago but lost their ability to carry wings on their backs. And when that happened they also lost their belief in magic and all things fanciful. He tried to think about what it would be like to live without magic, without seeing unicorns run freely in the fields. But he could not. He could not survive without those things.

Their friendship grew and when she started attending "school" during the days, it was hard for Hazel to focus. He had grown close to her, when they were together he protected her. If anything came to harm her, he would have done anything to stop them from doing any physical or psychological damage to her. He hugged her tightly on the days she would rush out to the forest, tears streaming down her cheeks telling him how the others her age laughed and teased her. She refused to tell him who they were, because she did not want to cause any trouble or have him get caught. Anger swelled inside him. He hated how her world treated her gifts and talents, she was touched and they should have honored her talents.

As the years past, the brotherly feeling of protection gave way to something closer. Underneath that tough but soft boyish exterior, his heart warmed him. It beat fast when he and Stick would sing their portals open, to enter her world. She would throw her arms around them, her whole body smiling when they materialized from their own world. She had a smile that could melt even the coldest heart. And when they left her standing, he longed to bring her with him, take her away from her world and into his. Her world was a cold and mechanical world. A world that did not allow for the childlike wonder that she had within her. It was a world that did not even appreciate her gifts, her talent. At least in his world she would be respected for her gift. But it was against the rules. As it was, he was breaking the vow his race took so long ago. He thought nothing of it at the time, but his clan elders allowed the friendship to grow. While he wanted to question that decision he let it go, least they take it away from him.

The day she did not show up, Hazel panicked. Rage and fear pumped through his body. He and Stick searched for hours looking for Cassie. Images of her body laying broken somewhere or impaled on a tree branch filled him mind. They searched until sundown that evening, when it started getting to dark to call out or see her. Stick was tired, but Hazel refused to leave.

"Hazel, let's go. I am getting cold and I do not think she is coming. Did you hear me? She's not coming today?"

He refused to admit it, but Stick was right. There was nothing else he could do but to wait until the next day, and hope that she would be there waiting. Days grew to weeks and each day they would return to "Their" spot. And each day, Cassie did not return. Hazel waited. And waited. And waited. Stick grew tired and after five days of not seeing their friend, she stopped going with Hazel.

"I have too many things to do here," she would say, excusing herself. "Besides, I know you will tell me when she returns." Stick had always been more of a carefree fae than he was. She was prone to going off on her own and finding things to keep herself amused.

Two weeks passed before Hazel finally gave into the idea that Cassie no longer was coming. Either she grew up, and had no more time for him or Stick or their childish games or something happened to her and she had to leave before giving them any message or sign. Hazel hoped it was the later but tried hard not to dwell on it. The plague came two days later, the message requesting human assistance followed shortly. In a way he had the plague to thank for bringing them together again. For if the Elders of the world had not sent out the message, then he would not have received permission or help to locate his lost friend. It gave him hope.

The seers saw Cassie locked inside bars. Her colors were muted and faint, but they did see her. They also saw Cassie constantly watched, surrounded by other humans. In order to get at her, he was going to have to use magic so he would not be spotted. The seers taught him how to slow time so he could slip in and get her out. It took him two days to master the spell and perform it just right. It also took the seers that long to be able to coordinate just the right moment to teleport him into her location.

He was not afraid of going back to her world with so many people. Hazel just wanted to help her, to get her out of there and back to where she could be normal. When the seers showed him what she looked like to them, it chilled his bones. It was like they had ripped her gift out of her body, like her soul had been separated from her prescience. It made him retch. He vowed to free her and bring her back to the Elders.

When he appeared in the Commons, everything was silent. The spell he carefully rehearsed two days before worked like a charm. A small smile crept over his face as he walked into the Control Room and waved his hands in front of the nurses sitting in their chairs. No one moved. Not even one flinch. Hazel contemplated repositioning one of the frozen bodies so that their coffee cup, frozen in hand, would spill into their lap. But he did not have the time to do so, and quickly went from room to room searching for Cassie.

The moment he saw her, felt her arms around him, was when he realized he cared more for her than just friendship. He never wanted to lose her again. He relaxed under her arms, spellbound. If they were not in such a dangerous place he would have spent all night with her arms wrapped around him. Unfortunately the spell did not last long. And then, here she was. In his world. Finally. Hazel silently vowed to the gods that he would never allow anything to happen to her again, the things she told him about that place she was in were worse than having his wings torn off.

He looked at Cassie sitting in the gown the Elders had made for her. She looked stunning. The time spent at Blackwell may have caused her to grow up a bit but Hazel still saw the child in her brown eyes. But yet, he was afraid to tell her what he was thinking. They came from two different places, two different worlds. She would grow up and be forced to live a mechanical life, away from her stories and play. They would mold her into something cold, and she would forget him. But he could never forget her. He reached out with his hand and touched her cheek. She was real, still sitting there. His skin felt the fire of her gift inside her face. She was touched. And so was he for knowing her.

Hazel had fallen in love with Cassie.