Unfinished fairytale.:Amber.

[eryk]

Was the being death? It certainly felt like the heart inside that aching chest was death. Each day was another day to fight death, to fight the growing desire to kiss the lips of the eternal night. Each day that kiss was denied. Obstanate as always. Under the cloak the being laughed that hoarse laugh straightening again. "Always the stubborn one. Always threatening death to those who dare to harm your loved ones."

She had killed Xavier? The cloaked figure stood facing her back like the straightest arrow. "You...killed the white wolf? I thought...I thought..." Shaking its head the figure stooped again turning away from her.

"Go ahead. Try and find him, but I warn you he will stay hidden. The second he catches a whiff of your sweet aroma he'll bolt." Or drape everything in lies. Course that was just another way of running away. "If you learned to love him in all those cases then why did he leave? Why did he feel the need to abandon his family? Abandon you? If you indeed loved him so much then why did he rant on how he felt disconnected from you in those last days? Love? You loved him? If you truly loved him then his heart wouldn't be a rotten husk, full of regret and sorrow. True love heals such things!"

By the end of it the man was so hunched over the head almost touched the knees, but the voice was strong and deep and powerful. "What you had was puppy love with no strength to keep it afloat. That love is over girl and you best realize that and move on."

The voice was a harsh growl now as the figure started toward the shadows it had came. "I know him better than you ever did." He laughed jumped and pointed at her. "Aha! Secrets! He gave you everything! He shared with you everything that he was. Every dark piece every star and you kept things hidden. You kept him at bay! Love shall never last when it's only half a**ed!"

Laughing and dancing in a circle the figure was erect again. "The box helps more than you know. Secrets kill the fire you cling to. A man shall come who may help you. I tell not when. I tell not how." Dancing and laughing he pointed at her.

"Decipher nothing! You know not where your love lies. You know not to whom you speak. You know not if your love was true. You know nothing more than before!" Back like a crooked branch the voice a bucket of gravel the gloved hand finally lowered. "An eye that no longer sees, an ear half gone, and a mind broken in twine. Can you love him still oh Fairy Princess?"

[©erridwen Corrigan]

Cerridwen glared at him. "You hurt him...and I will hurt you" She snarled upset. "My job, my life, to protect those you love me, who care about me, it's the least I can do." She growled still unable to figure out who this man was. Why he was doing this, and what his motive was. What was he getting out of it anyways? Cerridwen tossed her inky black hair back over her shoulders and looked at the peaceful scenery around her. This felt wrong. She shouldn't be here. Not alone. not like this. The peace engulfed her, but within her, it was turmoil.

"If he chooses to stay hidden then that's his choice. But I'm going to try. Try to find him, and he may be fast, but the rascal knows I'm faster" She informed nodding. A small smile fought it's way to her lips as she thought about him. His wolf form, how fast he was, how she longed to play with him, wrestle with him at that moment, something...that struck Cerridwen as odd, but something she wanted all the same. Why would...she want this?

Cerridwen looked up sharply. "You know why. if you knew him, you knew why. Xavier. Xavier or that wolf. Take. Your. Pick." She said slowly glaring, her green eyes growing cold. Something that rarely happened. Something that Cerridwen had thought only Minerva could do. Apparently not.

His heart. Why did this man speak of Eryk's heart as if he knew how his heart worked, how his heart felt. Why was this...Cerridwen looked to him.

"Your right" She called after him. "You caught me" Cerridwen nodded. "Our relationship was crap. It was dark. Full of secrets on my part. I...I can tell you my secret. I can't tell him It would only pain him. Make his heartache, make him feel like he wasn't good enough..."Cerridwen started, she knew where she was going with this now. Cerridwen wasn't the smartest flower, but she had a good head on her shoulders, she was bright to say the least.

"I was afraid. To let myself fall in love with him. He was amazing. He was the best thing that's come along, and I was afraid." She nodded slowly. "After what happened to Minerva, I didn't want to be like her, I wanted to be...well free of that pain, that hurt, but you can't avoid that. That is something that comes, and if I could...I want him to know he did nothing wrong, that it was...me. It was my fault, and I would give up everything that I have to take him back...into my arms, to relate all of this to him, but then again the fear would just...come back. I try to let myself, to lo-lo-" She paused and looked down. Love was not a word she could say easily, and yet with Eryk it came so naturally. To this...this stranger it didn't...come.

"Give him this...for me at least..." She murmured kneeling down keeping her eyes on the figure before him, pulling up her sleeves, she kneeled into the snow, her bare pale hands scooping up the frigid snow, working her way down into the snow towards the ground and running her hand along it, to grow a rose, but instead, only their flower came out. Not what she wanted but something she'd take.

"give him these...I wanted them to be a rose, a rose for him, our first flower, but these will do," She murmured looking to her ring. "And you know...I had er..planned to hold these, use these on our wedding day..maybe that will cheer him up, and then again, maybe you should tell him...if he hates me as much as you claim, then he can destroy them." Cerridwen said picking them up and handing them, taking a step closer to the figure letting her hand hold out the twinkling shinning little flowers.

[eryk]

"Such a violent lil' butterfly." The figure grumbled as she threatened him once again. If she only knew what lay under the hood she wouldn't threaten the being pain so easily, or so the figure thought. With her violence could come even to those she loved it seemed.

"You might be faster with your pretty wings but on all fours he is sure to lose you. His nose can finds crooks and caves that your pretty little eyes would never find." Arms held close the being spoke softly making sure to never face her directly now. The boy would hide, forever hide from this flower.

At her mentioning of telling her secret the form turned a bit more toward her the very shadows displaying its curiousness. The longer she spoke the taller the being seemed to get as the hunch disappeared into a strong body. The cloaked being did not step closer nor did it step farther away. It stood still arms at its sides watching her, and listening. Then she bent to make the flowers grow in the dead of winter. A thing only she could do. Stepping forward with those flowers the being cringed back the hunch returning.

"Take those things away. I shall not give weeds to him. It will only cause him pain to remember those flowers." That pain echoed in the voice but it was softer less like gravel and more like someone who hadn't spoken in a long while. "I didn't say he hated you, girl. He bolts, he hides because he can't take hurting you anymore. A relationship full of fights, of secrets, of pain. He couldn't take it anymore. He was too weak to be yours so he ran. To try to grab a piece of strength to show you he was worth your touch."

Turned away from her the being stooped low and scooped up a handful of snow. Formed a ball and just held it in those worn gloved hands. "He can't look in the mirror without seeing your face. He can't face you. For once again he failed. You deserve a knight, Princess. Not a broken dog."

Crushing the snow in a firm grip the form was straight again head bowed. The hand opened letting the snow fall to the earth. "Go find a knight, girl. And forget a broken love that was never meant to be. Surely you felt that the Fates were against it. Now I must leave for the boy needs me."

Still tall and strong the figure marched toward the trees.

[©erridwen Corrigan]

Cerridwen listened to him. "They're not weeds. They're my flowers, my special flowers, our special flowers. Hardly what I'd call weeds" She murmured. As he spoke she looked to the ground. "I know these woods, I've been through them, I've been in the caves, every little nook and cranny, do you not understand? My aspect, nature, it can tell me! I can speak to it!" She laughed slightly. "He can't hide. I will find him. The trees, the ground, the earth, it will tell me, it will listen to me, it will nurture him if he needs help. It will help him." Cerridwen assured the cloak.

Now she knew.

This last thing. This last request would...tell her.

"Wait!" She called reaching out, a hand reaching forward to touch his shoulder, he was to far away, but that didn't mean she couldn't reach for him. "One...one more thing" Cerridwen nodded. He kept avoiding it. He called her things, but...not her name.

"Say my name. Say it once." Cerridwen nodded. She was angry. He hid from her. Lied to her. But why...why do that?

Cerridwen held the flowers with both hands now, much how a bride would. She looked to him, waiting. A breeze picked up, blowing a few pieces of hair back, as she waited for him. To say something. Anything.

[eryk]

The figure laughed full and loud with a hint of rasp to it. "You nature will nurture him. If you're so in touch with you beautiful nature then why haven't you found him yet? Huh, girl? If you know these lands so well then why haven't you found your beloved?"

The form spat out the word as he walked his hooded head shaking. "You're not as in touch as you think if your precious plants won't tell you where he is. Otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me. Wouldn't be asking me where he was. You'd know he lived, or if he lay dead."

At her plea for the being to stop it did the heart hidden behind shadows and riddles ached. "What? You ready to ad-say...your name?"

The form seemed to shrink as the back bent, as if the being was crumbling in on itself. "No. I refuse. Girl. That's his to say. Your family, your Loved ones to say. Not I. I am a mere shadow that passing in the dead of night. Nothing more."

"No...I won't speak your precious name..." Whispering the form lifted a shaking hand to the shadow encased face. "Not your name..." Princess...

[©erridwen Corrigan]

Cerridwen nodded. Yep. That was it. Just the answer she was looking for. "Say my name..." She said her eyes boring into his cloak now. "Say it. I know you know it. Everyone knows my name. Strangers. Family. Loved ones. You" She said.

When he questioned her on her powers, how intune she was, she just looked to him. "I'm not mother Gaia. I'm good but not that good." She murmured. "Now you think, I didn't try? To find him? To hope he wasn't dead. My fear, my agony, my depression, everything, all emotions, emotions are not something I can control easily. These emotions I speak of, they play a crucial part. In my growing, in my learning...in my aspect." Cerridwen nodded.

"Eryk...please say my name" She whispered.

That was it. That. Cerridwen had said it. What she had longed to say. All night. He was wrong. When he said her nature, her fall back, wasn't there, to help her, support him, to help him, she was there to help him. She was going to try. He was free. Of Xavier, he was free of his father, he was...free to come home. To be with her and Mae, and to be a family. Finally. Once and for all. They were both free.

[eryk]

The form did not react to being called Eryk. The form dropped the shaking hand and stood still. Barely breathing and it could only think of one thing to do. "I'm not your Eryk. I'm not Eryk at all. You're wrong, girl. Guess...again."

The voice like gravel, the back bent like a hunched back, and shadows nothing but shadows. "Find someone else."

Its heart tore at the chest that held it captive reaching through the bars for her. But the shadows kept it in, kept it safe. To speak her name would be foolish and only bring back more pain. For them both.

"He refuses to speak to you, and I shall protect him. Protect him like you never could. He's still too broken. Too weak. You won't-you can't handle him. I can barely handle him." The legs began to move toward the forest, so close now was the shelter of the trees. "Go back to the little girl. Go back to your fairy kingdom where you belong. I shall return to the shadows. I will tend to the boy."

Hand touching a tree it turned face uplifted the moon showing only one eye, an eye that would never see her beauty again. The rest of the face lay hidden in shadows, or covered by a cloth. "Don't look for him, oh Fairy Princess. Neither of you deserve more pain."

Like a fox the cloaked figure slipped into the shadows darting away into the trees. A part of that caged heart hoped she follow the shadows knew better and told it to be quiet. That it was better this way.

[©erridwen Corrigan]

Cerridwen watched, waited. Silence, and then he was gone, and she was after him. He was not getting away this time, not like last time, she wouldn't let him. "Stop! Stop it now!" She called, as her wings fluttered madly, as she darted in and out of trees, her eyes still on the back of his head. He was running, and she was flying, and when he turned to his wolf form, the real test, the challenge would begin.

Cerridwen wasn't going to let him win. Not this time. She was going to keep him, keep him close.

Cerridwen gritted her teeth as she urgered her wings to carry her faster, further, but with all the trees in her way, it was difficult, especially since the trees were getting closer and closer together, causing her to twist and bend, fly up and down, sideways, soon before she knew it, she would be flying backwards just to keep up with him.

"Eryk! Stop running! Make him stop! You are in control." Cerridwen called after him now feeling herself lose distance between him, finally dropping she continued by foot, running after him, there was no way her wings could carry her threw this mess, this bramble of twigs, leaves and branches. Her arms were already littered with scratches, her legs, why do my damage.

If only she knew the damage that was going to happen later on, or know of the damage that she was doing to herself internally.

[eryk]

"I'm not him! Stop following me, girl!" The hoarse voice yelled back easily dodging around the trees on foot. With her so close there was no way that the figure resort to its four pawed travel. It would be indeed faster but it would betray all the secrecy. "Just leave me alone!"

At a low hanging branch the figure dropped low to run awkwardly like a humanoid wolf then erected itself once past it. The cloak protected the skin beneath from the outstretched claws of the trees. Leaping over a log the figure dove behind a great rock it knew so well. Being close to the cabin was a nice overhang that suited nicely as a place to sleep. It blocked the wind and the figure often found itself curled under the rock with its mixture of gnarled roots. The girl would find him of course, but maybe scaring her away might work. Threaten her. Her beloved Eryk would never physically hurt her. That should prove she was wrong.

The den was at least two miles away. A place she could not find. Crouched in wait for her the figure gripped a thick root. It was like they were playing hide and seek. The figure laughed leaning out a bit to see how close she was.

[©erridwen Corrigan]

Cerridwen ran, ran until she felt her legs about to give away, but by then she had lost herself in the forest. No longer was she a girl on the edge of a forest, pretending she was in a fairy tale, pretending she was a princess. She was a princess. A princess lost within, at the heart of the forest, Cerridwen stopped and looked around. Silence. Dead. Silence. How it showed be. He was hiding, away from her. She wasn't going to give up. She would not ever give up again. Certainly not on Eryk. Taking a deep shaky breath, Cerridwen turned, her hair was damp, damp with sweat even though it was winter, and her throat her, and she let out a small cough.

Not only had she lost him, she had lost herself in the forest.

Taking a step, the snow crunching underneath her foot, she was not dressed to stay in the cold, she was a being who fed off the sunlight, who needed warmth, like her flowers, being dressed as she was, being who she was, she certainly would not last. It was like a tulip trying to survive a winter.

Cerridwen took another step forward, looking, where was he. How had he disappeared so suddenly? Cerridwen let her wings pick her up off the ground, it'd be best if there were no tracks, nothing here. For a minute she just hovered, thinking about the forest, the forest held dark things. Dark creatures, and even darker secrets. Remembering that one night when she had been at the academy, the light, blinking, so luring, so...soft and calling to her, and now here she was alone, again just like she had been, Eryk mad at her, Eryk going away from her. Some how this was just...all to familiar.

[eryk]

She was taking too long, either she had indeed given up or-but that couldn't be. She knew these woods, the trees would help her. Or so she said. Was the pretty princess lost? Slipping into the shadows the being darted from tree to tree searching for her. For even though the being wanted her to go home, the heart couldn't stand to not know. The heart needed to see her safely on her way. If she was lost in this darkness, no that would not be allowed. Even if it mean revealing where in this vast forest the figure was the heart would guide her home again.

"Princess? Oh, girl! Lost in your plants? I thought they'd help you?" Why was this cloaked form giving away its position? Because within it chest beat a heart who still loved her more than it had ever loved anything before. It could not let her alone in such a horrid place.

"Just go home! This place is not for princesses." Keeping to the shadows the figure searched for her foot prints in the snow. "Only fellow beasts are welcome in these woods, girl."

The foot prints, so dainty, had simply ended. "Dammit, girl! Do you not know when to and not to fly? Those branches can tear your silk wings to ribbons!"

Eyes to the high branches the moon alighted a milky blind eye, and an eye so blue it made the ocean jealous. An eye full of worry for her safety. Searching frantically for her within the shadows of its home.

[©erridwen Corrigan]

Cerridwen looked down to him, down on his figure. There she was. Just feet above him, over his head, how he had not seen her in the dark, and how he had not even realized she was here, she would never know. That wasn't a question to be answered tonight. There were many answer that would be revealed, but that was not one. It may not ever be revealed.

Cerridwen looked to him. Landing behind him, so soft, not even a crunch of the snow had been made, and quickly she reached, pulling the hood, along with the cloak away.

She was met with something she didn't expect.

There he was. Her own terror gripped her heart. Her beloved Eryk. Her...Eryk. The woods, it had an effect on her, but seeing him, here, the effect it might have had, it was broken just for a moment. There he was before her, she looked, around turning him to face her, his eyes, his hair, Cerridwen just simply looked at him, a flower still in hand, she realized she hadn't dropped it. Not in all of the flying and running she did. She didn't drop it. She had more then likely gripped it harder and hoped it wouldn't fall. The ring, she could feel the ring on her finger now, more clearly then before, she could feel the metal, the gem, she could feel it sparkle in the light of the moon.

Then there it was. That flashing light. All over again. Blinking in the distance, to far out. It was just a faint dot, and if Eryk turned around it would disappear. As quickly as it started, but it was there. Never the less. It was there.

[eryk]

At the sound of snow the figure lowered it head and in a flash its protection was gone. The shadows were gone from the figure. Its armor gone. Nothing left but...

He stood staring at her eyes wide then he turned away hiding the ruined eye. On a human scars would surround the eye to tell the tale, but on a lycan. Where their natural healing was a bit better no scars told the tale. Only a damaged eye that could not see. Not even the lycan healing returned the sight, the nerves too damaged from Xavier's attempt to rip the orb from its socket.

"You've found me. Now...just go." Half blindly Eryk reached out in search of his cloak. Long hair, matted and vile with filth. "Go. The boy does not wish to speak with you. You've gotten what you wanted now go, girl."

Moving around the tree away from her he cursed the heart who wanted to save her from the trees. Like he could save her from anything. "If you continue on this path, girl, you'll only bring you and him more pain. It's best if you leave."

The voice was deep and gravely again. Not her Eryk's voice, more raw, more powerful. Eryk clutched the tree cringing away from her. Why had he gone to her cabin? He should of just stayed away.

[©erridwen Corrigan]

Cerridwen did not listen. She would not listen. For now the forest had her in it's clutches, under it's spell. She stared in the direction. She had seen it. That light. That flash. She had seen it, and now she wasn't afraid. She had control of herself, control what she could do. Cerridwen ignored him as she took a step towards it. She waved her hand his direction telling him she heard him, but she didn't. Cerridwen was far to gone to hear him.

What was it...why did it...call to her. Why was she so curious, and how did it have that effect on her. Make her long to go towards it. Some sort of magic, surely it was magic.

What else could it be after all? Leaving Eryk now, she had seen his eye, his scars, it was not fear that been in her eyes, if she had gotten time, time to look at him, he would see she was not fearful but still loved him. He was still Eryk. Her sweet dear Eryk, but now that was gone, and everything else around her didn't matter. Only that one area she knew she could get too. If she flew...maybe sh could catch it, her wings, they would, as he said be ruined, the delicate material they were made of, how she had cherished them, loved them, but she could also run...she was a fae after all...they were quick either way.

Cerridwen disappeared now into a cluster of trees, and took off in a quick sprint. Whatever it was, she would catch it now. Whatever it was, she would find out. Find out what has been haunting her for so long.

[eryk]

She was leaving? That wasn't toward the cabin. Did he see something? No, it was a trick of the moon through the trees. What was she running for. Things played tricks on the mind in the forest. He'd follow her just to make sure she was safe.

These woods were his play ground for the weeks that had passed without her. Everyday he spent running these woods finding the fastest ways to get to her. To get to the cabin, her house, to get to his den and back. He even checked up on Rae, though she didn't need it.

Without his cloak the twigs ripped at him but he didn't care. Pain was an everyday thing in his life. Again that trick of the light. Having one eye made things a bit difficult but he'd learned to use other senses to guide him. Such as his hearing, or smell.

Ducking under a branch and smacking away a yearling tree he was getting closer to her. All he needed was to stay close to protect her. Though from what he wasn't sure of. Maybe she didn't want him to follow? He would follow anyway, for that is what he did now when he wasn't hunting. Or scouting the land. It was to watch her. He was used to wondering what she was up to as he watched from afar. But he was up close now and the need to know was smothering.