Young Writers Society

This is a story that i just finished checking over and fixing. A note for those who don't read Mercedes Lacky: The elves are based off of hers, though this particular elf isn't, just some of the general things, like the effects of caffeen, and the fact that they refere to themselves as "Sidhe" which is prounounced like "she".

On with the story!

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Alicia was sitting outside drawing one sunny afternoon. All the kids were playing outside, watched by their parents who were all talking to each other. She had just finished coloring it when she actually noticed what it was. It was a picture of an elf in a hammock, looking at a butterfly. There’s that elf again…Drid…

"Hi," someone said, startling Alicia. She looked up and saw a girl that she had never seen before. I could have sworn we didn’t have any Japanese nearby…But there was no mistaking it. She was Japanese. No, it wasn’t because she had anime hair… She had long black hair pulled into a braid. (It appeared that what she had done was braided it into a lot of little braids, each of which had been braided into one of three braids, which had then been braided together into the braid that now hung down her back.) It wasn’t what she was wearing - Gundam Wing was popular in America. Alicia just knew she was Japanese, and she knew it for a fact.

"Hi! are you new here?" Alicia asked holding out a hand. The girl nodded and shook her hand. "My name is Alicia. It’s kinda quiet here, but it’s fun."

"My name is Kairi," the girl said, bowing. "Pleased to meet you." The conversation went on, Kairi telling Alicia about Japan, and Alicia telling Kairi about California. After half an hour it was getting to be time to start dinner and Alicia had to go.

Kairi said goodbye and headed home. On her way home she met up with a tall man. He had long, blond hair, and his ears swept up gracefully. He melted out of the shadows when Kairi walked by. "Hi Adri," she said cheerfully. "Guess what?"

"Hum… I dunno, what?" the elf (or Sidhe, as they prefer to call themselves) asked playfully.

She knew perfectly well that he knew that she knew that he knew what had happened. He had one of his ravens up there. She spotted him and smiled, giving the sign for ‘bugger of, ya stupid Sidhe,’ only less polite. That obviously came as a shock, because he Sent her ‘:*swoons* How dare you talk like that to your elders: And then she Sent an image of a dead raven, and he sent an image of a dead Kairi laying next to the dead raven. She Sent amusement back at him. :all right… you can stay… but you hafta kenn me some Pocky.:

Kairi grabbed her Pocky box from her "father" (she had been raised by Sidhe) and munched happily, relaying only her suspicions. "And so in short, I’m sure that she’s the one. And she’s looking for you, Adri, but she doesn’t know it yet."

"Why do you say me?" Adrid asked. "Just because I’m the ONLY Sidhe that would ever kenn a shirt like that?"

"No, silly, because your the only one who would wear it. Plus your bike was in the background, and the butterfly. Only you can make that butterfly land on your nose, and also look at it with only one eye. And also… I got an A on my math test today, Adrian." Kairi made a quick cover up as they passed somebody. The streets were getting more populated and Kairi said her mom asked her to pick up the carrots, so they went separate ways, Adrid heading ‘home’ :Anyway, she said that that picture was what her subconscious drew and she had given it a name.: Kairi continued, while getting carrots.

:And let me guess. This elf is Adri.:

:Not quite. She calls him Drid.:

:Ok, so she’s the one we’re looking for. She has parents, I take it:

:Yup. You won’t be able to adopt her like you did me.:

:Can we just take her Underhill? No… bad idea… she’ll freak and won’t cooperate, huh Kairi?:

:Just in, Adrid has brains!: Kairi teased. Adrid glowered at a passer-by, who edged away.

Ok, so what do we do? Adrid wondered to himself. :I don’t suppose that you could invite her over sometime, and let her meet me?:

:Umm… Invite her where? To the hotel room? Just in, Adrid, it turns out, doesn’t have brains after all.:

:Well, We will think of something.:

*************

Alicia woke up in the middle of the night. Something felt wrong. She checked in her parents room. No, that’s not where this fear is coming from… For a couple of years Alicia had been able to sense fear. She ran back into her room and got dressed. Then she left a note on the refrigerator saying that she was going out to investigate a noise. She did this regularly, and her parents didn’t worry about her.

She traced the fear to a hotel, and through a back door into a room. It felt like bad-dream fear, but she had never felt it this bad…

She walked to the door, and saw Kairi, asleep, obviously the source of the fear, and… an elf?… trying to comfort her. She sighed then walked in, and started to help. "Kairi… shhhh… its okay Kairi…. Its only a dream…"

Eventually Kairi woke up and buried her head into the elf’s shoulder. NOT an elf! Alicia thought to herself. But it looks just like Drid… "Umm… hello…" Alicia said to the elf-not-elf.

"Oh… are you Alicia? Kairi… had a bad dream…" said the elf-not-elf

"Well, there’s an understatement…"

Kairi giggled. "Just in, Adrid is the first Sidhe to win the Understatement of the Year award!" Adrid simply glowered.

"She?" Alicia asked confused… and then she remembered about in some of the books she had read, the eleven kind called themselves the Sidhe. "Umm… Adrid…are you a… well… Umm… a Sidhe?" she asked the elf-not-elf-but-maybe-an-elf, who simply nodded. "Well… that makes some sense…"

Adrid looked slightly confused until he looked at what he was wearing. Kairi and Alicia started laughing, and then explained between laughs that no human would wear that shirt in the twenty-first century.

*************

The next day Alicia was home and curled into a ball on her bed. A very tight ball. She tried to relax and to tell her mom she had a stomach ache, but she didn’t get out of the ball. /Fear… blood…dead Sidhe… dead humans… and there she was… dead…laying dead next to Kairi and Drid who were also dead…/ The vision stopped, but the fear that flooded her mind didn’t. When her mom came in to tell her that she had to go to work, Alicia managed a nod. After her mom left she whimpered. It didn’t feel safe here… She wished Drid were here… He could make it better… at least he had in better dreams. And now that the Sidhe of her imagination existed, she had hope on days like this… Hopes that a Sidhe would come and take her into his magical lair, where she would never have these visions again.

*************

Adrid was sipping his milk. He would have preferred wine, but Kairi hated the smell. If it hadn’t been for that then he would be drinking wine in the morning. I mean it doesn’t have any effect on me… coffee, soda or chocolate… that’s what effects me. He got up to rinse out his cup, a pretty, glass cup, when he was overwhelmed by fear, He dropped his cup, and scribbled a note to Kairi and ran. He ran towards the center of the fear, and he knew who it was. Good thing I linked her to me. Kairi and I were sure she was an empath, but a foreshadower too? This is not good…

*************

Kairi woke up when she heard the glass break, but didn’t exactly leap out of bed. She groggily rolled out of bed and tried to Send Adri an message. It didn’t work. He must have put up his shields. Which means… No. She can’t be. Not both… this is not good.

*************

Kairi soon caught up with Adrid and kept up with him for the rest of the way, showing every short cut available. He didn’t thank her, he didn’t even acknowledge she was there, but she knew that he was trying not to go into lock down. She herself connected with Alicia and sent calm feelings down the link, which didn’t help much, but she did what she could.

When they got there they had to climb in the window, because the door was locked and neither of them could unlock it. If they had had warning, Adrid could have kenned one, but they didn’t have the time. So instead he kenned them a rope ladder that was hooked to the roof. When they got inside, Kairi ran over to Alicia, soothing her as well as she could. "Shhhh… Its ok. Adrid is here. We’re going to take you to his magical home…" Kairi said over and over, as Adrid build a Gate to Underhill. Kairi picked up Alicia and walked through the Gate, into the magical kingdom, known as Adrid’s pig-sty.