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To Court the Fèidh

Chapter Three

© Cederwyn Whitefurr

4thOctober, 2021

All Rights Reserved.

Gently, she shook him by the shoulder, gazing down at him. With a strangled croak, he awoke and tried to sit up, but she sighed and pushed him back down again and remained kneeling over him.

"Easy..." She whispered, her paws pressing down on him.

"You...bit_me!" He croaked, then frowned and his eyes widened as realisation spread over his face. "My..._what did you do to me beast?"

With a sigh, she placed her paws either side of him and awkwardly stood, her strong furred leg muscles aching from kneeling for so long. Holding out a paw, she offered to help him, but he stared in fear at her naked form, then scurried backwards away from her.

"No, no, no!" He squealed, as he looked down at his legs - legs that were now covered in a fine tan fur, the feet now black cloven hooves.

Holding his hands, now turned into furred paws, the fingertips ending in black hooflets, he tried to tug and pull at the skin, thinking it was some sort of glove - but it only caused pain.

"You gave yourself to me, remember?" Come her quiet voice, as she squatted down and looked at him. "I confess, you are quite a handsome young buck!"

He rolled over, then grabbed at the loamy soil as he pushed up and stumbled to his knees. Taking a few steps, he stumbled like a newborn fawn and fell heavily, panting and gasping.

"You might have noticed..." Come her quiet voice, as she tried to remain patient with him. "Your muscles don't work how you're used too..."

"Feya, come!" He croaked.

With a snort, his mare looked at him, then after a hesitation, she obeyed and walked over to him. He grabbed her leg and used it to pull himself upright, before grasping at the stirrup and pausing, shaking and trembling.

"You command that mare like she is some mindless beast? How interesting - we Fèidh do not treat animals this way, to us, they are friends and companions not slaves."

He ignored her, as his hooflets fumbled at the saddlebag straps, finally opening one and he reached inside, then suddenly shrieked in agony. Feya whinnied and leapt to the side as he screamed and clutched the wrist of the paw that had entered the bag. His leathery-like palm was black and blistered - like he'd grabbed a red hot piece of iron from the forge. Sickening pain tore through him as he wept and dropped to his knees, clutching the injured paw against his chest.

Shrieking in pain, he twisted about and his hands flashed out, as magick boiled from him, sending lightning flashing towards her, black and ominous, like he'd used against that Therian Doe.

It didn't even come close to her, as the emerald green glow erupted in a circle and his magicks struck like a wall and dissipated. With a sigh, the Doe flattened her ears and stared down her muzzle at him.

"Human is, as human does, you twist and warp magicks for destruction and aggressive ends! Did you really think, here in this place, a sacred grove, your magicks would harm one such as I? You are a petulant, spoilt child! Striking out, because something hurt you!"

He began crying, clutching his paw against his chest as the agonising pain felt like it'd surely melt the fur and flesh off his paw. Ignoring him she walked out of the circle, then over to the frightened, trembling mare.

"Child, may I approach?"

Afraid, Feya snorted and trembled, but made no aggressive move towards the strange Anthropomorphic Doe.

"Be at peace child, I wish only to check something..."

Carefully, the Doe walked over and opened the flap on the saddle bag then looked inside, her ears flattening before she shuddered. Quickly, she undone the saddlebag straps and lifted them off Feya's hips. Taking them a few paces away, she carefully set them down on the ground.

"It hurts so bad..." Come the sob from Alexander.

"I apologise - I should have smelt the silver in your pack and warned you..."

Walking over to him, she knelt on one knee, holding her paws out. "May I, please?"

Tearfully, he held his injured paw out to her and she delicately cupped it in her palm and looked down at it.

"Silver hurts us just as bad as it does a Therian or a Were, forgive me little one, I never thought - even after I knew who you work for... Now, I can help, if you trust me, may I?"

"Anything...please!" Alexander begged.

Gently, she closed his fingers, then placed her other paw over his and closed her eyes. Speaking a language even he couldn't comprehend, he gasped as he saw her paw glowing with a faint emerald light and a strange warmth spread almost up to his elbow.

"What are you..." He stammered.

Ignoring him, she kept that quiet sibilant whispering, before bowing her head and taking her paws away. He looked down at his burned paw, then his eyes widened as he seem the wound was almost completely healed.

"How - even the greatest of our healers..."

"Therein lays your problem - " Smiled the doe gently. "Your_healers - humans bend and warp the weave and weft of magick to their will and desire. Your kind - your _previous kind - know and use magicks completely different to how it is intended. We Fèidh work with the natural world, as such, a lot of our magicks are for protection and healing - of others - or of the word around us."

Standing up, she brushed off her knees and sighed.

"Fèidh magicks do not come from our need to enforce our will upon it. We have much magick, such as you humans have never known existed! Why? Why do you use this precious gift so? Why do you compel it to your whims and will, rather than learn to ask it to join with you? Why do your kind not use it for good and betterment of yourselves?"

"I...don't understand - " Alexander sniffled, as he experimentally flexed his injured paw.

With a disgusted snort, the doe sighed and shook her head.

"Therein lays the root of the problem - you do not comprehend how magick really works, because your kind was never taught!"

Disgusted, she turned away, crossing her arms over her chest and trembling with the anger that filled her. Forcing herself to calmness, she walked over to an oak tree and pressed her paws against it. Resting her head against it, she spent a few moments like that, feeling all the aggression, hatred and negativity sluicing through her and down into the ground, harmlessly dissipating before she turned back around and smoothed her fur down with the palms of her paws.

"You have much to learn Man-child. I will ask you once, will you forsake everything you've known - willingly and freely? I can teach you the ways of the Fèidh magicks, you can feel it already within you, can't you?"

Looking down at his paws, then turning them over and back again, he frowned.

"I feel...something - "

Stepping over to him, she gently placed her hooflets under his chin and forced his Cervid head to look up into her eyes.

"Open yourself to the world around you young Stag, you're clinging to your human self and mind! Release the preconceptions and feelings you had, they are no longer who and what you are. Now, kneel down..."

He felt his knees fold and he stared wide-eyed up at her - his body ignoring his command.

With a weak smile, the Doe caressed his cheek with her fingers, then nodded.

"You have witnessed the iron paw beneath the velvet glove..."

"How did you..."

"Shhh - " She whispered, as she placed her fingers against his muzzle.

Kneeling down, she took his wrists in her paws, gazing deeply into his eyes.

"Take a breath, hold it - clear your mind..."

He found himself transfixed by her gaze, his body obeying without conscious thought.

"I will take you through a guided meditation...now, once again, take a breath, calm yourself both physically and mentally...good..."

Alexander's eyes fluttered closed, as she smiled and nodded, then gripped his wrists in her paws firmly, but gently, as she took a few breaths and closed her own eyes.

"Picture a wood, a crystal clear spring fed brook running through the middle, the soft voice of the wind through the trees. Be at peace in this place, feel yourself connecting too and through, the life around you. The magicks of the natural world, the sky, the earth, the very life that surrounds you..."

As Alexander's mind fell into the almost hypnotic words from this strange Doe, he felt himself becoming something greater than himself...at first his rational human mind rejected it and recoiled, but the doe brushed her thumbs over his wrist and spoke calmly to him.

"Release yourself, give yourself to the natural world, and it will give back three fold that which you give it."

Lost in her words, Alexander brushed up against the magicks that the Fèidh offered. He shied away, scared and nervous.

"Be at peace child," Whispered the Doe. "I know you are afraid, it is new and frightening, I understand that - but that which we give, we receive back threefold, as I have said. Do good, noble and honourable things, then such you shall receive - of course - turn your intent to evil and malice...even I dread to think that which would befall you..."

"I'm...scared - you've turned me, made me...a..."

"A Fèidh, yes, but fear not, for it lies within you now, you are a part of it, it is a part of you. I will teach you how to hide that which you are, so you may pass amongst humanity as one of them - or if you choose - hide in the woods as a stag."

"I'd..." Alexander began, slipping out of the trance and gazing up into her eyes.

Nodding, the doe smiled and leaned forwards, gently placing a lick between his eyes.

"Your new life begins now..."

To Be Continued...