Chapter Five

 

 

Talli took a deep breath, letting it out again. He had a feeling that Laith’s broken relationship with his brother was directly tied to the land. If Talli was going to help repair one, he’d have to start with the other. Talli contemplated the dilemma as he walked over to a window overlooking the cornfield outside.

The patch of corn he had inadvertently fixed stood a foot taller than the rest of it and it looked lush and green. He could fix the rest of it if the humans wanted him too.

There was a small plant with waxy, dark green leaves and a pretty pink flower in the center sitting on the ledge. The pot had purple and white stripes. Talli touched it and watched it wilt absently. He touched it again and it was healthy as it had been.

He played with the plant absently, thinking about what it would mean if they were stuck here. If they didn’t go back home by the time the sun melted beneath the earth they’d be stuck here, in a place so foreign to them. It didn’t escape Talli’s notice that they looked different from humans. Well, they’re ears looked different but they were hard to hide. They’d be stuck on the farm, with humans who may not want them around. Being soul-mated wasn’t enough, at least not to the humans.

Already the bottom of the sun nearly touched the ground. It cast orange and purple shadows across the clouds. While it was a beautiful sight, it didn’t give them much time to decide what to do.

Talli turned to address Wyatt and found everyone staring at him with their eyes wide and mouths open. Well, all but Kele, who had a small grin on his face.

“Oh my God,” Sly said, voicing what the others thought.

Talli ignored him when he started coughing again. He looked at Kele, silently asking him if he wanted to stay. Kele nodded and that was all it took.

“Is corn the only crop that’s failing on the farm?” Talli asked Wyatt.

“Everything is.”

Talli shook his head. “Everything? I don’t understand. Aren’t you familiar with the practice of farming?”

Wyatt sighed in frustration. “Yes, Laith and I both grew up on one. We know what we’re doing.” Wyatt ran his hand through his hair, much the same way Laith did when he was upset. That one simple gesture brought home the fact that Laith and Wyatt were very similar, which was probably why they argued. “The crops will grow for a while and then nothing. It’s been like that for two fucking years now. We’ll be lucky to own the farm for another year. That’s if we sell off some of the horses.”

Talli remembered the horse in the barn and wondered if he would be sold. Laith and the horse had bonded. Separating them now would be heartbreaking for both of them.

Talli watched Kele place his hand in Wyatt’s, lacing their fingers together. “Talli can help, anam cara,” Kele whispered to him.

Talli held up a hand. “I might be able too.” The bite of cold in the air would kill the plants quickly. The humans would have to move fast if they wanted the crops at all. “How fast can you harvest your crops?”

“You really can help?” Wyatt asked him.

Talli nodded. “If you can bring in the crops on time. Doing all that work in just a day or so will be a challenge.” Talli felt some niggle in the back of his brain, annoying him with its presence. “If all goes well, I can restore your crops easily enough.”

“The hay isn’t doable. It’s too wet and the grass won’t dry out in time even if we could get it in before the first snowfall. The weatherman says that’s going to happen next week sometime,” Wyatt said almost to himself.

“The corn would work. We’d be able to trade some of it for hay. I know a guy who would trade for hay and probably buy the rest,” Sly said from the lounger and then promptly coughed.

“Do you have a kitchen garden that’s went to hell?” Kele asked Wyatt.

“Yeah. Side of the house.”

“Do that first, Talli. I’ll preserve the harvest on my own. That will take care of the food,” Kele said, letting go of Wyatt’s hand and heading back into the kitchen.

Wyatt watched him go. He opened his mouth and Talli thought it might just be to thank Kele, so Talli promptly put a stop to that. “Don’t thank him or you’ll make him angry. We don’t have time to deal with him when he gets like that.”

“But it’s a nice thing for him to do,” Wyatt said, half-turning to follow Kele.

“He’s just tied himself to this dwelling. He doesn’t consider it nice and he doesn’t want to be thanked. He doesn’t need praise. Brownies take care of the dwelling. It’s just what they do, so let him.”

Wyatt opened his mouth and then closed it again. He ran his finger through his hair. “I feel like I’m in a movie.”

Colton started humming a tone that reminded Talli of the forest at night.

Wyatt smirked at him. “Exactly. It’s the fucking twilight zone.” Wyatt looked at Talli once again. “So what do we do?”

“It won’t take long for the corn to turn. The plant will continue to grow and turn green within seconds. It’ll turn brown and be ready to harvest by the next day. Ready your harvesting equipment.”

Kele took that moment to enter the room. His long ears dropped down in that way they sometimes did when he was about ready to get bossy. He pointed at Sly. “You, get in touch with this human you know and make arrangements for the corn.” He pointed to Colton. “You start gathering the equipment.” He pointed to Talli, but stopped talking when Talli raised his eyebrows. Talli wouldn’t let Kele boss him around without making it a joking matter.

“You think your Oberon of this dwelling now, is that it?” Talli teased him.

Kele grinned. “I am the bossiest one here. Might as well put it to good use.”

Talli chuckled. “Dasan would be so proud.”

Kele’s face fell. “Dasan and Awan will be missed.”

Talli walked over to Kele and pulled him into a hug. “We’ll find a way to open the door during Imbolc. We’ll go back to visit then.”

Kele shook his head. “I don’t think there’s a way to open it from this side. I heard Awan say that there was no magic left in the Upperworld.”

“We both found our anam cara’s, Kele. That’s magic all by itself.”

Kele pulled back and then said, “Talli, go get started on the kitchen garden.” He narrowed his eyes at Wyatt. “You’ll need to apologize to Laith.”

Wyatt folded his arms at his chest. “I don’t take orders from you.”

Kele let Talli go, amusement in his eyes. He waved his hand, dismissing Wyatt’s comment as he left the room. “You’ll learn just who runs this dwelling from now on and it isn’t you, human.”

Wyatt followed him out of the room, yelling as he went.

Talli looked at Colton and then at Sly, gauging their reactions to Kele’s bossy nature. Sly just shook his head and reached for the phone on the small table behind him.

Colton said, “I’ll show you the garden.” They both started out the door together, walking through the kitchen to get to the front door.

Talli looked over to see Kele shaking his finger in Wyatt’s face. “Talli and I are saving you, so just remember, human.”

“I’ll remember that when you remember just who owns this farm, woodland creature.”

Kele sucked in a breath. “I am not a woodland creature, sir. I am a brownie and a Faery, and you will do well to get that through your thick head.”

Talli shook his head and sighed. He stood next to Colton watching them argue. Talli couldn’t seem to look away as each one threw insults at the other.

Talli looked at Colton, wanting to see his reaction. He looked as caught up in the moment as Talli felt. Neither said anything for several minutes.

“I’ve just about had it with your mouth,” Wyatt said and took a step closer to Kele.

“And just what are you going to do about shutting me up.” Kele was brave but stupid. He barely came up to Wyatt’s shoulder. Wyatt could really hurt him if he had a mind to.

Talli took a step in their direction, getting ready to defend his friend when Wyatt lifted Kele off his feet. “I’m gonna do this,” Wyatt said and kissed Kele. It looked like a good kiss too, if the fact that Kele wrapped his arms and legs around Wyatt’s waist was any indication.

Talli breathed a sigh of relief and looked over at Colton with a smile.

Colton sighed. “Well, life on the farm sure got a lot less boring. Come on, pretty, let’s go do our jobs while these two suck each other’s faces off.”

 

 

Talli wasn’t outside very long when he started shivering. The air had a bite to it that worked itself deep in his bones. Still, he moved inside the cornfield steadily. He had to finish before the sun fell so the humans could harvest tomorrow.

He felt something warm cover his shoulders and jumped in surprise. He turned to see Laith and held a hand to his chest in relief. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.” Laith put a hand to the center of Talli’s back, holding the coat in place. His hand fell away when Talli turned to face him. “It’ll keep you warm.”

The green corn stood as tall as Laith, concealing them effectively. It gave Talli the illusion of being alone with his anam cara.

“Thank you.” Talli smiled at him and put his arms in the sleeves of the coat. The sleeves hung well past his arms, which made Laith chuckle.

“Let me just roll them up for you.” Laith took a step closer, reaching for the coat sleeve. They stood there in silence until Laith finished the job. Talli watched as his hand was exposed, one roll at a time.

“How did you find me in here?” Talli asked. He needed something to talk about or the silence between them would grow uncomfortable. Even now, there was a tension in the air around them. He wasn’t sure where it was coming from but he definitely felt it.

Laith smiled at him. “I followed the green trail.”

Talli grinned and shook his head. “Of course.”

“Do you do this sort of thing in your world? Bring plants back to life?” Laith held out a hand, silently telling Talli to continue if he wanted.

Talli turned and started walking again. “Not at all. At home, I take care of Dasan’s library.”

“A librarian.” Laith followed behind him.

“Did you come find me just to bring me a coat?” Talli needed the answer to that question more than anything. He still had some misgivings about staying and finding out that his anam cara did in fact care about him would put some of them to rest.

“Yeah. You weren’t in the barn with one earlier, so I didn’t figure any of the idiots I live with would think to offer you warmer clothes.”

Talli smiled and some of the stress lifted from him. “It’s not cold in the Otherworld. It never is.” Talli thought about that for a moment. “Well, down in the dungeons can get cold but even then it’s not like it is here.”

“What’s it like there?”

“Our forests don’t look so drab.”

Laith chuckled. “It’s fall. The leaves will come back in the spring.”

“Spring? Our trees stay green forever. We have mountains as well and a special kind of faery lives there.” Talli held out his hand to touch the brown leaves, watching as each stalk turned green. He sighed. “In my realm we have a forest elf for a leader. We call him Oberon. And his second is a sluagh. It’s almost unheard off for a sluagh to gain an Oberon’s favor but somehow Awan did.”

Laith made a sound from behind him, low in his throat, which sounded like a growl. “This Awan is the same one that touched you.”

Talli smiled. “You’re jealous.”

“Yeah. And it’s fucking weird that I would be, considering we just met earlier today. Although, I feel like I’ve known you for most of my life.”

“Your soul knows mine. It’s what I was trying to explain to you…before you kissed me.”

“I recall you kissing me first.”

Talli shook his head. “Your recall is broken.”

“My recall is…I’ll show you something that isn’t broken,” Laith growled out, which made Talli chuckle.

When he felt a gentle swat on his ass, he let out a surprised squeal. Turning just enough to look at Laith, he saw the amused sparkle in his eyes. His eyebrows waggle. “You look cute in my coat, by the way.”

Talli turned back around and started walking again. “Thank you for say that.”

Silence stretched between them after that and as it went on it brought back the tension he had felt earlier. Talli stopped walking, letting the tension wash over him. He turned and looked at Laith.

“What is it?” Laith asked.

“I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?”

Talli shook his head. “At first I thought it was us. The strain of so much change all at once for both of us. But that’s not it. It feels like a…a…sickness.” Talli moved in closer to Laith and waited to see how he felt doing it. No, it wasn’t Laith that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing straight up.

“You’re not sure about staying here?”

“Kele and I will miss Dasan and Awan terribly, but we’re both committed to staying.”

“If you’ll miss your friends, why stay?”

Talli looked at Laith sharply, narrowing his eyes. “Do you expect me to just leave you, as if you don’t mean anything to me?”

“I don’t expect anything from you. How could I. We just met, so if you want to go back to your boyfriend, then go.”

Talli couldn’t keep the surprise off his face. “Do you mean Awan?”

“Yes.”

“Awan is hardly a boy, Laith.” Talli watched Laith closely, everything else forgotten as he figured out how to put Laith’s worries to rest. Finally he asked, “Have you never drank too much ale and had an inappropriate moment with Sly or Colton?”

Laith’s cheeks turned red, which made Talli smiled.

“That is all it was. While I love Awan very much, there is nothing romantic between us.”

Laith’s gaze met his. “Okay.”