Hello lovelies! Thanks for reading, rating, and commenting. It makes my romantic little heart happy. Now let's see what these two are up to...
******
Feldspar wiped sweat from his brow and pushed his hair back. He was grateful the morning was brisk. A refreshing breeze rushed through the aspen trees bordering the wildflower-strewn meadow, cooling his fatigued body. Gneiss was making him work hard. One of her knives whizzed through the air, barely missing Feldspar's cheek as he dodged.
"Fuck, Gneiss, that nearly took my eye," he shouted, even as he whirled to throw his own knife. The blunt-tipped sparring knife hit her square in the chest, making the small woman grunt in pain. Gneiss caught the knife as it fell and flicked it right back at Feldspar's face. He cursed and dodged again, too slow this time.
"If you don't want to lose an eye, move faster," Gneiss called out, as Feldspar rubbed his cheekbone where the knife had glanced off him. He huffed in response, but the trace of a smile lit his face. Sparring with Gneiss was always guaranteed to put him in a good mood. He'd never had a better fighting partner. Gneiss was tiny, weaker than him by far. She also knew him inside and out, including his weaknesses. When he wanted a real challenge, she was it.
"Again?" Gneiss called out. Feldspar considered it. His muscles were singing with the pleasure of exertion. Any more and he'd be pushing himself to the brink of collapse, and he didn't need that level of distraction anymore. He stretched and checked the angle of the sun.
"You're still throwing a bit low from your left. Perhaps you should rest," he said. Gneiss shook out her left hand. She'd strained a muscle in her arm and it was skewing her aim. She looked surprised at his offer to take break and nodded immediately with obvious relief. An unexpected wave of gratitude hit Feldspar as he realized that Gneiss would have pushed herself to keep going if he needed her to. If he needed to work his body to the brink of collapse to keep his depression at bay, she would be there beside him.
"Lucky for you my aim is atrocious today," Gneiss said dryly. "You are slow as honey this morning. We wouldn't want to upset your beau by marring your pretty face. Especially since I'd wager your slow reflexes may be connected to a lack of sleep." Feldspar blushed and shook his head at her.
"We sleep," Feldspar said, chuckling at how unconvincing he sounded even to his own ears. "Truly, we do sleep."
"The bags under your eyes say otherwise." Gneiss smirked at him. She had been happy-bordering-on-smug about his relationship with Silver. It was mildly annoying, but Feldspar was grateful that she was supportive. Most faeries thought she was coldblooded. They never saw what Feldspar did. For all her gruffness, Gneiss cared deeply about him and his happiness. She didn't always get it right, but he could see her trying to be what he needed as a friend.
Feldspar shook his head and began gathering discarded sparring knives from ground. He turned away from Gneiss as a yawn overtook him. "I saw that," she called out.
Feldspar grinned and waved a hand dismissively at her. Gneiss was right about the source of his exhaustion, of course. Silver had slipped from his bed while it was still dark, half waking Feldspar for a goodbye kiss before making his way to the communal kitchen where he worked. Every day they promised each other they'd go to sleep earlier, and every day they got caught up in each other instead. Feldspar couldn't find it in himself to regret it.
"I'll take a nap later," Feldspar said.
"Alone?"
Feldspar cracked a smile at Gneiss' teasing tone. "If you must know, I was planning to go see if Silver is finished in the kitchen after we report to Mal."
"You know you won't get any sleep, right?"
"That, my dear, is just your opinion. Silver is quite the gentleman."
Gneiss laughed heartily. "Oh, I have no doubt he is. But don't forget that I know the size of your... appetite. If I had to place a wager, I'd say that you are the one who keeps the two of you from getting enough rest."
*****
Feldspar found Mal poring over maps with Daniella in their residence at the top of the Meeting Tree. Dozens of maps and books were spread over their enormous dining table, most of which Feldspar assumed she must have retrieved from the human realm. They kept moving the maps around and Feldspar saw that beneath the maps they had laid out an enormous piece of paper that Daniella was drawing on.
"This is pointless, Dani," Mal grumbled. "One cannot map the Wood. It is a living thing. It moves."
Daniella continued unperturbed. Feldspar stepped into the room and both of them looked up. He offered greetings and walked over to take a closer look. Daniella had cut out and overlaid human maps with her own sketches of familiar landmarks: the creek, orchards, various faeries' trees including his own, the Meeting Tree, creating a gigantic collage of a map. "It's not pointless," she said. "We need to know which land sits at all our borders before you engage with the human government."
Mal sighed. "The border is rather fluid, but here there should be a mountain just within the Wood," he pointed to a section of the hand-drawn map. Daniella frowned at the printed map of the area that had been placed closest and angled it so that the mountain poked into the border she'd drawn.
The Lord looked up and nodded to Feldspar. "Any trouble this morning?"
Feldspar shook his head. "All is well, my Lord."
