The Faeries Chapter Three

Whoo! I did it *does happy dance* Okay, chapter three is finally up. Took long enough eh? I went over it a hundred times and I hope I eliminated at least most of the grammar errors. I hope. It's a little slow but whatever. Still trying to improve my First Person skills so tell me of any mistakes I make. Enjoy!

~~~~~~

Chapter Three: A History Lesson

“Tell me everything!” she shouted.

I winced as her loud voice echoed in my ear. “Do remember, Gabrielle, that I’m sitting right beside you.” My eyes followed her hands as she wrapped my wrist. My hand had begun to swell. I’m sure it was just one bone in my hand that I had fractured, but it still hurt. She had broken a chopstick in half and used the pieces as a splinter for my middle finger--just the way my mother used to do it.

“Sorry, Antonio. I’m really confused, a touch angry and very scared.” Gabrielle picked the pin off the coffee table and I watched her bring it down to put the finishing touch on the wrap. Her hands were shaking the whole time she had tended to me and now I was a little afraid of that pin.

“Perhaps I should do that Gabrielle,” I suggested, reaching to take the pin from her.

“No! I can do it!”

Pedro was still pacing behind the couch, rubbing his hair. “Everything Gabrielle? Everything?”

“Yes!”

“Ouch!” I jerked my hand away from her as the pin poked me. “I told you I should have done it.”

“Don’t be such a baby, Ant. I didn’t mean to do it.” She finished putting the pin into place and stood up. “Now explain!”

I stretched my arms with a yawn. “But history is so boring. Can’t we do this after I’ve eaten?”

“No! You don’t eat until you tell me everything.” Her green eyes glared at us.

“Where do we begin?” I asked. “How ‘bout you give her your speech Pedro? That thing had everything in it…almost.”

Pedro sighed and propped his elbows on the back of the couch. “I threw it out after the Staff docked me marks.”

“Great! Now we have to rack our brains.”

“Why don’t you explain everything to her? I do recall hearing you say you’ve heard the history a million times in a million different ways,” Pedro snapped.

“Aren’t you the history teacher?” I retorted.

“Please! Somebody just explain this to me! Why do you have horns? Why am I going to die? Why, why, why?” Gabrielle demanded.

“We told you already. We’re Faeries.” I rolled my eyes. “You know. F-a-e-r-i-e-s.”

“Faeries aren’t real! That joke isn’t funny anymore!” Gabrielle screeched. Pedro and I both winced at her words. She gave us a quizzical look. “Did I say something wrong?”

I nodded. “Don’t say that. Every time you say Faeries aren’t real a Faerie actually dies.”

“Have you been watching Peter Pan, Antonio?” Gabrielle teased. That’s one thing I liked about Gabrielle; she could always make a joke, no matter how dire the situation was.

“No. Besides, you’re thinking of those two inch guys with fluttering wings. Like Tinkerbell. We aren’t that kind of…fairy,” I explained.

“Ugh, Ant you’re so useless at explaining things. Okay Gabrielle over a hundred or so years ago there were these creatures banished from the parallel world of Argmar. They were banished to Earth. Those were our ancestors. They were in different forms, but were much easier on the eyes than the morphers who live there--at least that’s what the history books say. They lived in the ‘underworlds’ of Earth’s cities, like the sewers and catacombs. Then, through the years, they slowly adapted to this world and started looking like humans. That is why we appear to you like this.”

“So that explains…what you are,” said Gabrielle in a hushed voice. “You’re descended from things?”

I grinned. “’Exactly! Fascinating isn’t it?”

“Shut-up, Ant! Let me digest this for a sec.” The two of us watched her. I rubbed my hands together and out of the corner of my eye I saw Pedro shift his weight. Were we nervous to what she thought of us? She was staring into space, arms crossed in front of her. She took a moment before exhaling deeply and looking back up at me and Pedro. “Okay. Why am I going to die?”

“I’ll answer that one. Ahem. Any human who finds out about Faeries is sentenced to death. Usually car accidents, gang shootings, sicknesses. We’re very clever. Also, if any Faerie tells a human, they are sentenced to death too. We’ve got to keep our identities hid,” I explained.

“But why?”

“Excuse me!” I pointed to my horns. “What are these? If people found out about us, they’d do like weird scientific experiments on us and-and…I don’t know!”

“He has a tail too,” Pedro pointed out. “And I have magic powers. But Antonio is right. Can you see why we want to stay hidden?”

“You have magic powers? You have a tail?” She looked incredulously at both of us before slumping heavily into the chair beside her. “This is too much to take in. Way too much. My brain is going to explode.” She began to rub her temples.

Pedro hurried to her side and kneeled down in front of her, taking her hand. “I’m sorry Gabrielle. I would have told you everything if the punishment wasn’t death. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Oh come on! Don’t be so sappy and don’t be such a suck mongrel! Gabrielle wouldn’t leave you over a little thing like this,” I snapped. God. I hate how they got so…cheesy. It was gross.

Gabrielle smiled and I rolled my eyes. Yep, they were going to be cheesy. I turned my attention to our apartment. It was messy. The TV and coffee table were dusty, a pillow was on the floor, the coffee table had papers and remotes all over it. The PS2 was scrambled together with the cords for the Wii.

“We need to clean the house Pedro,” I stated. “It’s gross.”

“Antonio, we’ve just been discovered and you’re worried about the house being messy?” Pedro sighed.

“Ya. Look at this mess.” I showed Pedro what I had noticed with a wide sweep of my arm. “And I’m sure you didn’t do the dishes.”

“Just wait! Before you two start bickering again, I have a few more questions.” Gabrielle stood up and strolled to the coffee table. “Is there any way for me…us not to die?” She began to stack the papers into a neat pile.

“Sure! Pedro was thinking about marrying you,” I answered.

“Antonio!” Pedro cried, horrified that I would say such a thing.

Gabrielle dropped the remotes that were in her hands. They clattered onto the wooden surface. “Y-you want to marry me Pedro?” She stared at him.

Great. Now they would probably kiss and fawn over one another. Smooth move Antonio. “Of course he does! Now, do you want me to explain why that works or no?”

She ignored me and had only eyes and ears for my brother. “Oh Pedro! You really want to marry me?”

Pedro stood up and was standing before her in two large strides. “I was going to ask you. But in a very different way.”

I threw my hands into the air. “Please! Get down on your knee, ask her, then kiss and let us finish with this dull history lesson!”

“Shut-up Antonio!” they both shouted.

I rolled my eyes. I knew when I wasn’t wanted so I hastened out of the living room and to the kitchen. There were dirty dishes stacked on the counter and a black banana on the cutting board. “Ugh. Sick. The damn kid was home all evening and he couldn’t even do the dishes.” I opened the fridge and peered in.

“Yes! Yes I will!” Gabrielle’s voice rose above the hum of the refrigerator as she shouted out her answer.

I brought my head up quickly and hit the fridge with it. With a groan, I pulled my head out and glowered at the two as they kissed and hugged. Sometimes I wish the kitchen was it’s own separate room with four walls. Not just a small counter separating one room from another. “Get a room!”

There was a green apple in the bottom right drawer, a few vegetables in the left. A half empty jug of milk on the top rack, along with three bowls of leftovers. The other two racks only had Cool Whip, a pack of unopened bacon and a store bought strawberry rhubarb pie.

I grabbed the bowl with the green lid and peered into it. A nasty smell wafted out and into my face. “Ugh. Rice gone bad. Gross.” I set it onto the counter and withdrew the blue lid bowl.

“What’s for supper Antonio?” Pedro inquired from the other room. He didn’t sound so scared now.

“Mashed potatoes. They’re mine. Now explain to her why marrying you is going to save her life,” I told him. Setting the bowl onto the counter, I pulled a plate out of the cupboard.

They came into the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table. “So, why is marrying Pedro going to save my neck?” Gabrielle asked. They were holding one another’s hands and every few seconds they would cast loving glances at each other. I grimaced at their lovey-doveyness and turned away from the sight.

“Faeries and humans have been marrying each other since the late sixteen hundreds because up until that time Faeries were still adapting to their new world. We came here, to Earth, in the mid fifteen hundreds so it took us awhile,” Pedro explained. I gave him a disgruntled glare as he beat me to the answer.

I scooped the potatoes into a pan and set them on the stove. We didn’t own a microwave. It had the same effect on us that x-rays had.

“Why don’t you just skip to the part where you tell her how marrying you is going to save her ass and leave the whole history thing for later?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at them.

“Shut-up Antonio. You really do talk to much.” Pedro shot me a dirty look before giving his full attention to Gabrielle. I was starting to get really tired of being told to shut-up. “Back to what I was saying. Humans and Faeries marrying each other increase the Faerie population.”

I cleared my throat. “Like animals. Interbreeding.”

Pedro groaned and his head hit the table with a thunk as Gabrielle and I began to laugh. “Ant, please go away,” he begged.

“No. You’re taking to long. Gabrielle, since we’ve been…er…marrying for the past I don’t know how many years--”

“Three hundred years,” interrupted Pedro.

“Whatever. The humans who marry the Faeries sign an oath-ish thing. If they break this oath then they are sentenced to death. Signing this oath and the threat of death makes sure no one is going to tattle on us.”

“You guys are pretty harsh,” she said, staring at the two of us. Her eyes were still fearful but I could see that Pedro’s proposal had really made her happy--despite the fact that she could die any moment.

I shrugged. “We have to be if we don’t want to get poked and prodded and all that scientific stuff.” I gave her arm a poke as I left the kitchen to demonstrate my point.

I went to the front entrance and hung my coat up on a peg. I didn’t want to see Gabrielle’s reaction to my tail. She would probably find it hilarious. All my attempts to keep it hidden had gone to waste. I hesitated only a moment before entering the kitchen.

“Oh!” Gabrielle clamped a hand over her mouth and glanced away. “Ant! Your tail!” She buried her head in her arms. Her whole body began to shake as she laughed.

“Not funny.” My potatoes began to hiss so I hurried to the stove to stir them. They looked done so I turned the stove off and slid them onto a plate. Not all bachelors ate out of the pan.

“Okay.” She sat up, wiping a few tears off her face. I didn’t think my tail was that funny. “Let me summarize this all up. You’re ancestors are banished things from this parallel world called Argmar in the fifteen hundreds. They lived in the underworlds of Earth’s cities until they fully adapted. You’ve been marrying humans for the past three hundred years and the humans have to say or sign an oathish thing. If this oathish thing is broken then they are sentenced to death. Also, any human who finds out about Faeries are put to death because you Faeries want to stay secret because of fear of…pokes and prodding by scientists. Interesting.”

“You forgot one thing,” I said through a mouthful of food. “ By marrying Pedro you don’t die! Isn’t that the most fascinating…est thing you’ve heard all night?”

“Antonio, sometimes you’re a little strange,” Gabrielle said with a roll of her eyes.

I glanced at Pedro. A grin slowly stole over his face. “Sometimes I’m a little strange…” A chuckle escaped my lips. “Hah! That’s like the understatement of the night!”