Our tale begins here; https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/17lbslv/the_woods_are_old_dark_and_deep/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
As an avid gardener, I knew that once a seed developed roots, it was no longer in between being alive and being dormant. I could feel this seed taking root, becoming deeply intertwined within my veins. Being pregnant wasn’t hard. Not at all. When Rowan left and after I’d had his “gift”, I called my friend Reed and asked them to come over. Reed had been through the ringer with me, and was a doctor to boot. Their ability to detach and observe things dispassionately had kept me grounded so many times prior. And they were the one person I knew I could be honest with to a fault, and as I’d say “ they’re contractually obligated to not judge me.”
When Reed arrived at my place, they hugged me and looked at me curiously “ so, what’s up?” Reed was someone I knew I could fully rely on to keep this confidential. We had met in a Muay Thai class, and after my declaration that we were going to be friends, they’d slowly warmed to me. They were usually quiet until you got to know them, and then they’d come out in such a warm, effervescent manner. They were also unlikely to overreact, and logical to a fault, and I frequently asked them to be my Spock and put my feet back on the ground. The obstacle I had was getting them to believe me when I tell them about the Harvest Moon.
“I have to tell you about what happened in the woods.” Whatever it was that Reed saw on my face, they nodded solemnly to continue. And so I did. Reed sat patiently with me while I did my best to tell them what happened that harvest moon. I left no details out. While I knew it sounded unhinged, I showed them Rowan’s ring, and the three pregnancy tests. They held my hand, and nodded the entire time.
“So my grandmere knows about these things. She’s been talking about having gofer bags and not messing with spirits my whole life I think. If you’re really knocked up with a fae baby, she’ll know what to do.”
My jaw dropped at the pragmatic answer Reed had given me, and how they didn’t think I was crazy.
“you believe me???”
“Well, yeah. It makes sense, David being KIA is far more likely than him just leaving you there.”
I leaned over and hugged my ever so reluctant to hug friend, tearing up. Reed patted my back awkwardly, and I remembered how little they actually liked being touched, and pulled back. I felt this weight finally lift off of me for once, and as though I could breathe again for the first time since I had been back from the forest in the first place.
Reed and I got into my car and drove over to their Grandmere’s place. Reed’s family was from New Orleans primarily, with deep creole roots going back to the 1800s. They’d moved after Katrina, when Adelaide, Reed’s grandmere decided their family needed a new home and moved everyone.
Adelaide Freeman was the type of woman who immediately made you feel at ease, and safe in her deeply rooted and family centered house. She was an amateur genealogist and retired lawyer who had “ made her bones” in civil rights litigation, primarily in the representation of Henrietta Lacks’ estate. Her house is covered in photos, some sepia toned, some digital and full of color. All of them are family oriented and have a vibrant history of so many lives. When Adelaide invited us inside, she invited us to her table where there were perennially arranged tea biscuits and she put a kettle on.
When Adelaide set a cup of tea in front of me, I tried to keep my grimace to myself. This is one thing that being pregnant had stolen from me— drinking any other liquids and enjoying them. I could drink the tea, and did so. But it did nothing to slake my thirst or the itching hunger that was rooted deep inside me. It was like I could feel that my baby wanted, or needed this nutrient and I was *starving* them. While one can buy animal blood from a local butcher shop with ease if one asks, and despite consuming copious amounts of it, it did little else than take the edge off. Adelaide watched me carefully, with a neat, new yellow legal pad, and beautifully written cursive across the top.
I recounted the shorter version, watching Adelaide take note of certain things, before holding my hand through the end of the story. She asked specifics about the agreements I had made, and was startled when I told her about Puck and Tippi kissing me.I think—- you were married to Rowan that night.”“I’m sorry?”“The offering from two witnesses, the sharing of the drink and food, that’s a wedding ritual in plenty of cultures.”“I wasn’t asked about marriage, I was asked for ONE night.”“ True, but he did ask you to dance with him, let him braid your hair, and accepted his gifts. He slipped his ring on your finger. The folk are notoriously misleading, and you couldn’t have known. This works for you though. Wives have rights with the Folk.”I looked perplexed at how she could know this and Reed shrugged, explaining it as “ she’s got access to the internet and she’s dangerous with google. Too crafty for her own good.”Adelaide scoffed at that, saying “ no such thing as being too smart, just being too arrogant to use that knowledge. Fear does strange things to humans and makes us stupid. Or compliant.”Adelaide places a phone call then. “ There are people out there who will be able to help you. There’s a network that I’ve run into once or twice that seeks to help smooth relations between the folk and humans.”“Wait, are you sure we should be telling anyone else?” I couldn’t help the alarm that laced through my voice then.“hm.” Adelaide looks at me evenly,fixing me a plate of cucumber sandwiches and earl gray tea macarons. She sets it in front of me and waits for me to eat a sandwich before she continues. “ You aren’t telling them, I’m telling them we may have a fae marriage to dissolve, and a pregnancy to manage. That’s not too much. Now, was this during the harvest moon? ““Yes. I didn’t know, or else— “It’s not your fault baby, no one knows when they get chosen. You’re not the first, you won’t be the last. And now, you have some cravings, don’t you?”“Adelaide, it’s gotten so bad.”
“What are the cravings for?”“Primarily, it’s been blood. For now. Rowan said it may become “ solids” soon.”Reed shudders at this,giggling nervously in discomfort.“That will happen. The Folk develop differently Now comes the better question– what do you want to do about it?”“He said that this is the first fae babe for them for a long time, and that it would be all mine- for a time. I don’t want my baby to be taken from me. But I do want this baby…. So how do I keep this baby away from the fae? Can I, even???”“You’ll never be able to fully cut your child off from the Folk. they’ll be just as tied to the forest as their father is. You’ll never be able to teach them how to control it, and they will resent you for it, and leave you eventually. What you \*can\* do, is to bargain with the father for more control and time. They may have chosen you, but you don’t have to be their pawn in this. The folk are bound by some rules too. The first being, they can never lie. Seelie, Unseelie, both are bound by an inability to lie. They may stretch that truth, but the more direct your questions, the more information you get.”For the first time since this all began, I felt like I was on a level playing ground, for once. I had knowledge, and the ability to wield it. Adelaide had that skill . She had begun walking around her house at this time, gathering bits and bobs and putting them into soft velvetine bag, humming to herself before she brought them back over to the table.Before she had a chance to explain the meaning of these bags, the day took a turn. Three loud bangs came at her front door, followed by three bangs at her back door. We all sat around the table wide eyed, when I looked out the window behind us to see that the sky and surrounding area had become very, very dark. Adelaide lived in a residential neighborhood, with nothing that would hint to a wild forest being around. However, there seemed to be trees that sprouted out of nowhere, tall and haunting around her house.Rowan was there, I knew it. I don’t know how, but I did. I stood up slowly from the table, and looked at the front door, walking over to it slowly. I heard three more loud bangs, followed by a voice saying “ Magpie, it looks like you haven’t hoarded your treasures as you should, because you’re telling secrets that aren’t yours to give” in a sing-song manner.The voice behind the door is what gave me pause; when I heard it, I turned back to Reed, the blood draining from my face as my fear rose in my throat. The voice behind the door was David’s. Dead David, the David that had been eaten in front of me weeks ago. It couldn’t be real, but it was his voice, I was certain of it.Adelaide had a ring doorbell, and I stepped over and asked her to pull up the view there. Adelaide and Reed shot me curious glances before she deftly brought up the ring app and showed us what the camera saw.
“Oh my dear sweet holy lord” Adelaide whispered before she clutched her necklace and grabbed ahold of me.
In front of that ring camera was David. A dead David, drained of blood, his head ghastly and almost detached from his body, with Rowan’s initial bite marks littering his face, and his intestines draped over his shoulder like a shawl. The facsimile of David leant down to the ring camera, and smiled a terrible smile, waving at the camera before banging again at both the front, and the back door. The windows started rattling, the air in the house began to feel heavy, and oppressive. David, or whatever it was, scraped their long deathly fingers along the windows and doors, tapping out a tune while calling out my name over and over.
It was then that a window broke, and an inhuman wail came through, bleeding into the house and sounding full of pain and fear. I started feeling something like anger pooling in my stomach at this moment. I felt rooted to the oak floorboards, and grounded in that anger. At this inhuman wail, Reed began crying from fear, Adelaide began praying, and I got mad. How dare Rowan try to scare me like this. How dare he try and isolate me. I knew this was some childlike temper tantrum, and he was being cruel. I didn’t have any proof that it *was* Rowan, just a gut feeling. I grabbed the iron poker from Adelaide’s fireplace, and walked to the front door.
I was going to call his bluff. Poor Adelaide’s dog was barking its fool head off at the front door,clearly upset that something, or someone was upsetting Adelaide. I shooed the dog back to the kitchen and gripped the door handle, swinging it open with gusto.
“Just what the FUCK do you think you’re doing?”
It was at my exclamation the forest became deathly quiet. Almost as though it was embarrassed for how it behaved.
“I’m going to count to five, Rowan. I dare you to come out again as David. How dare you try and scare me when I’m pregnant, to boot.” I stomp my foot in indignation, working myself into a state no one would soon want to see.
Before I could call out again, Rowan came out with his hands up, trying to appear non threatening and human. His angular chin jutting down to his chest, looking at me wide eyed and with renewed interest.
Before he had a chance to speak at all, I got started.
“NO, Let me tell you this first. You have put me through the ringer. First, you play with me like food until you decide I’ve impressed you, and you decide I’m going to be your “ date” for the night. You made me eat bits of my boyfriend, drink blood, got me knocked up, and married me, and now that I’m talking to TWO people to make sure I’ll survive having this baby, you’re going to SCARE the mother of your child that the forest chose for you, with the ghost of her dead boyfriend???? Were you raised by wolves??? Do you have ANY manners?”
At this outburst, I felt a turn from the forest, as if now they were turning their angry eyes towards Rowan. I felt the ground move under my feet and saw a stump slowly raising me up, giving me some height over Rowan.
The trees whined and creaked, shuttering as they crowded around Rowan and me. I could feel… something inside of me that was enjoying scaring Rowan, but that feeling came and went quickly. I began to feel drained far quicker than I expected. That was when I started crying, and Rowan truly began to look nervous.
“Magpie please don’t cry, the trees will be so upset if you shed water like that, and I’ll be in trouble. “
“I’m not stopping until you come inside and apologize for scaring us, AND sit down and talk to me about what the hell is happening. Is this some sort of changeling baby? Is it going to kill me when it pops out? Why did you do this to me?”
Rowan groaned audibly, to which the forest hissed in response. Sap began oozing from the faces and trunks of trees, their carved mouths twisting in anger. Rowan took notice of this and straightened up, wiping tears from my face before he sheepishly followed behind me to come into Adelaide’s house.
If I hadn’t been so tired and rattled, it would have almost been funny. Reed had calmed down, and they and Adelaide turned twin expressions of scorn towards Rowan, who was fiddling with a proffered teacup at Adelaide’s kitchen table. He had brought out a thermos of blood again and pushed it towards me, worried when I began to look pale. But I’d only drink when I understood what was happening. “When you tap into the baby’s powers like that, it’s going to exhaust you. You should be careful about that. You too will begin to change, and for a short time have access to some of the ebb and flow of the forest. Our child will be special. Mortals are so fleeting and difficult to understand, that we decided eons ago we would have an emissary of sorts every few generations to help us understand humans. They would be born of a human, and live a mortal life until their powers flourished, and they’d rejoin the Folk.
“Since you discovered coal and combustion, we’ve had to have these emissaries far more often than we originally did. It used to be that we could go centuries without the need to bring a new child; but we understand you humans less now than we ever did. And it’s becoming increasingly difficult to actually find a human mother, because they must respect the land before the land would allow them to waltz into them. As you know, David had brought us 32 women before you. All of whom failed to meet the forests’ standards. It has been 4 or five generations since the trees have had an emissary to care for them, and it’s beginning to show. They’ve become cantankerous, and hostile towards any entrance into their areas. You’ve seen this with the increase of missing people in your world. People walking off trail and disappearing, or begin swallowed whole by caves. Simply put, we need an Emissary again. Or the forests won’t be safe, or kind to humans anymore.”
“You won’t ever be in danger from the trees. There are others who will try to hurt you, and keep you. There are mortals who want what magic we have, and seek to dissect and understand it. There are other Courts who don’t want an emissary to be born again. Those who want a war between us and the mortals.” Rowan said this with a flourish of his hand and a lazy eyeroll.
“So nowhere is safe is what you’re saying.” I leaned back in my chair, my heart pounding and I rubbed my hand slowly up and down my stomach, taking deep breaths to try and calm down. Rowan blinked at me owlishly. “ No, that’s not at all what I’m saying. Just that it’ll be a bit more exciting from now until then!”
Adelaide scoffed then, glancing over at Reed who sucked their teeth at Rowan’s statement. Rowan sipped from his tea cup gingerly, looking at the porcelain item with interest. “ Rowan, are we married now?”
Rowan arched a brow at that. “ Well, yes. Of course. You ate my offering, didn’t you?”
“Don’t you say yes of course like you asked me that night, you know I was overwhelmed. What’s that even mean to you?”
“That we are bound together, and we will be bringing into the world the new Emissary, who will be the steward of the Trees and Seelie Court. It’s an honor you’ve been chosen for. We had almost given up before David brought you to us. Which also brings us to this little tea party. You and this baby will be in geometrically more danger with every person you tell about the existence of the Emissary. You’re a potent source of power for now, with no ability of your own to use the power.”
“What did you mean when you said other humans would also want me? What could they even do?”
“They’ve captured some of our Emissaries before. It seems they want to tap into our power and use us like one of your disposable batteries. The forests will no longer allow humans to exist as malignantly as you have. You are the apex species, but only at the Trees’ allowance. If you, or the child is hurt, it will cause irreversible strife.”
“Oh, so no pressure, or anything. But why marry me?”
“It would be novel being married and raising a child. I haven’t done it before, but I imagine I would be quite good at it, as with most things.” Rowan grins at saying this, dodging the biscuit I threw at his head.
I could feel Adelaide’s eyes boring into me, so I cleared my throat and turned to her and Reed.
“I need people to confide in, Rowan. Not just you, or Tippi or Puck. I have to have someone to support me. Reed is discreet, and has been here since the beginning. Adelaide I give my full trust to. I need them to survive this and keep our baby safe. You must let me have them.” I said this, indiscreetly rubbing my stomach back and forth, which Rowan would snap his eyes to every few seconds. The rattling in his chest sounded harsh and angry, and I watched him breathe deeply and control his anger. He had to visibly revert his eyes back from his dark black sclera, to his more human seeming ones before he spoke again.
“ Fine. I will allow them to be your confidants.”
“And you’ll guarantee their safety throughout the pregnancy, and after it as well? No harm may come to them by fae means.” Rowan wrinkled his nose in disgust, before sighing dramatically and slumping his shoulders. “Fine. On my honor, no fae, Seelie or Unseelie harm will ever come to Adelaide Freeman, or her descendant Reed Freeman. By the Oak and Holly tree, may I lose my life if I cannot keep my word to thee.”
At this statement, the pointed magic seemed to drain out of the room, and while I didn’t see “ auras” it was clear that something was now different about Adelaide and Reed. Rowan sat there quite impatiently, drumming their fingers against the tabletop, looking quite put out.
When Rowan did finally relax, the forests began receding back to their original spaces. The windows are becoming lighter, and the urban sidewalks and gardens are returning. The outside remained incredibly quiet though, the animal life not returning despite the pregnant air receding.
“So, was the forest mad at you just now?” I asked impulsively, thinking of the actions the forest had taken.
“Mad is such a strong word. “In a wax” would fit. Maybe just a bit livid. Again, the Emissary is meant to be a blend of the human and fae. The forest will nourish and react protectively towards the Emissary, so long as you don’t try to cause harm to the Emissary.”
I swallowed dryly, thinking of how threatening the forests were when I was last in them. The idea that they’d be nourishing me wasn’t really the most exciting thing. That was when I thought of the blood Rowan had been dropping off for me.
“Rowan what’s with these cravings? What am I supposed to do?”
“Well I’ve seen that you’ve tried taking care of your hunger yourself with animal blood, and I’m guessing it doesn’t quite do it.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Well that’s because only the best for our little Emissary! Don’t worry. I’ll have more than enough lost little campers I can harvest for you.” I grimace at this, Rowan smiling broadly, his shark-like teeth prominent.
“ I’m not feeding the baby innocent human blood.” The audible scoff from Rowan almost had me laugh, if the topic wasn’t so grisly.
“None of you mortals are innocent when it comes to the Forests and the lands. They deserve no Parley.”
“ Campers going missing in or around her would only make people suspicious, wouldn’t it? This isn’t the 1800s, people notice when there’s a pattern of missing persons.” Adelaide adds in dryly, having calmed down and back to her snappy self. “ If you’re married, what rights does she have as your wife in the fae world?”
Rowan swallowed, eyes narrowing a bit at Adelaide. “ Some of your mortals are still too clever by half. Magpie has rights, yes. Circles are binding, and as she has my crest and my circlet upon her, she is bound to my life as I’m bound to hers. She can call for me and I must appear. Glamours won’t work on her, but she should still not accept any gifts or offerings from other Fae.” I arched a brow at this– “ This morning sickness sucks. And if I’m going through this pregnancy, I demand that you go through it too. You need to be staying with me to keep me and this baby safe. I’ve heard all about fae babies being unruly and mischievous, I will not be trying to discipline our child on my own. “
Rowan groaned loudly, his voice gaining a whinging quality as his head lolled from side to side. “Oh UGH Magpie, that just sounds like so much work and staying in one place for unknown amounts of time, you can’t really expect me to do that, right?”
“I can, and I do. If you aren’t going to be present for this birth, I’ll disappear. I’ll use the trees or some shit and make it so very difficult for you to ever find me, or the baby, ever again. It’s you, me, and Betty White the dog until this baby pops out. Adelaide and Reed will help me when the time comes for the birth, and up to then. And don’t you ever scare me ever again, that wasn’t funny and I don’t like it. Ever!” I declare this, glaring at him reproachfully for his earlier role and act in terrifying me. I could feel that pull again taking place in my stomach, my face flushed, remembering how powerful I felt a few minutes earlier. Rowan put his hands up in a cooing gesture, trying to de-escalate.
I stood up from the table then, exhausted from the day. “ it’s time to go home now, I think.” I turn to Adelaide and Reed, hugging both of them tightly, with Adelaide pressing a maternal kiss to the top of my forehead, before allowing me to leave her house. I walked out to my car, feeling the breeze and rustle of the leaves under my skin, and I felt changed. Something’s coming, and I don’t know what. I smell petrichor in the air, with an undertone of fetid meat, and catch a glimpse of arms slipping back behind a tree across from where I had parked.
This was only the beginning, I realized. Far worse was coming for me and this baby.