N. R. Tucker

Spoiler Alert. This flash fiction takes place before the Freed Fae War in the second half of Deceived, Book 1 in the Farseen Chronicles.

*****

“You were so brave to go to the Farseen. And you saw unicorns,” Cinnamon said as they walked down the street.

As soon as they were away from their human friends, Cinnamon and her brothers demanded an account of Willow’s trip to the Farseen. They had rushed to finish setting up their Science Fair projects after school but still missed the bus; so they headed to Bryce’s office for a ride home, as they had been instructed. The new rules aggravated the young shape shifters but even they knew they weren’t equal to fighting adult fae on the hunt.

Willow rolled her eyes, surprised they thought it was a grand adventure, although in retrospect she shouldn’t have been. Her friends saw her trip to the Farseen as an adventure. Yes, she rode a dragon. Yes, she saw the three moons of the fae dimension, as well as an assortment of fairy tale creatures; but she also saw the stuff of nightmares. And watching Tempest fight the fae witch had been scary, even inside the relative safety of Raven’s shield.

“Unicorns,” Lucas scoffed, unaware of Willow’s mood. “Who cares? She saw gnomes, trolls and even werewolves.”

A lady walking her dog overheard and looked over in confusion.

“Hello, Mrs. Powell.” Willow patted Lucas on the head and said brightly, “Don’t worry. One day you too will get to that level of the game… if you are worthy.”

“Afternoon children. Sounds like an exciting game. Come along Buttercup.”  Mrs. Powell and Buttercup continued down the street.

“Watch it,” Cinnamon hissed.

“Sorry, but she bought the game cover,” Lucas grinned.  “And even you have to admit it would be great to see.”

Cinnamon wasn’t so sure. She much preferred the safety of her prif’s home. Eli had a very safe house and she felt protected there. Of course, it would be lovely to see a unicorn. Maybe one would come to the Seen one day, leaving the less desirable fae in the Farseen.

“So, why is it called the Farseen and why do they call earth, the Seen?” Logan asked.

“You don’t know?” Ryan walked over and placed a casual arm around Cinnamon.

Cinnamon blushed, pleased with his show of affection, and leaned into him. Ryan also made her feel safe.

“We weren’t raised in the alpha clan, and no one tells us anything.” Logan groused. There was so much about the preternatural world to learn and the adults didn’t explain things of real interest. Shape shifters went to human schools where they learned the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, but there were no classes or books on the various preternaturals or the other dimensions. Why couldn’t there be classes on ruling and lesser fae?  That would be a class worth sitting through. It would be nice to learn about wizards, witches and vampires, too.

“It’s simple enough. The fae word for their dimension translates from fae to English as earth. We call our dimension earth. Because of the humans we can’t drop the name and the fae refused to concede the name to our sole use. Guess they thought they would lose face or something.” Ryan shrugged his shoulders and added, “Anyway, they came up with the Farseen for their dimension, and the Seen for our dimension. Not sure how they settled on those designations.”

Willow tilted her head in confusion. “Why didn’t the fae simply keep the word for their world in their language?”

“It’s from their old language and difficult to pronounce. I’ve tried, and while I know the word when I hear it, I can’t form the sounds properly. It’s the reason all fae speak a human language when they’re here.

“Cool. I’d still like to go there.” Lucas grinned.

“Me too, but after we shift and have a power to call.” Logan, always practical, added.

“Good plan,” Ryan grinned and herded the kids toward Bryce’s SUV. He could shift and had a power to call, and he still hadn’t been to the Farseen. His mother might be an alpha, the clan that ruled and protected all shifter clans, but he was as sheltered as any other teenager. All he had was a little more book learning. Maybe one day he would see the Farseen, but it wouldn’t be any time soon, especially since the fae had returned to their old ways.