pentamerone <% /!UseJournal %>
11/05/2007 22:24:00
[info]whos_afraid
Back in the Northern lands. [Sleeping Woods. Open]
Seven-league boots were an incredible invention, Hunter was fast finding. It took just a bit of time to get accustomed to them, and thus he wound up a few different places before he learned how to get to Camlann. He'd even stopped in Estervale, and between the two kingdoms found another beautiful bolt of cloth for Scheherazade, and earrings to match the necklace he'd brought her before. Everything was carefully stowed away in his pack, wrapped by his own hands. His wrappings were heartfelt but clumsy; the pack was lumpy and somewhat unattractive being nothing much but cloth and hide tied in string and sinew.

He had plans, his usual ones: hunting, skinning, selling to keep money in his pockets. He found himself craving red meat of the variety they did not make in Mehrdadstan. Cattle wasn't food in the desert kingdom, something Hunter was slowly growing used too, but the wolf in him, the one that had been kept at bay longer than he could remember, still craved it. He blamed the lack of the wolf's emergence on Scheherazade's company. He was starting to realize what it was that brought it out in him: anger. Jealousy. If he could handle those emotions, maybe he could control his change.

Maybe. The thought had him distracted as he leaned against stone, chewing thoughtfully on his impromptu meal.

Tags: puck, hunter

 
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From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/10/2007 15:52:08  

With the exception of the Blasted Lands, Puck had spent a great deal of travelling all over Pentamerone. He'd met quite a few interesting people - especially that tiny pink sprite named Tink and that strange snow woman - and gotten into his faire share of adventures despite the cloy of the summer months. But summer had given way to autumn and the first whisper of winter was calling, beckoning him back to the Sleeping Woods. Back to Oberon and all the strangeness that troubled him. Puck was fighting the call, the thought of his alst conversation with his king still fresh in his mind and turning his mood sullen more and more often.

However, he'd found himself skirting the border between Camlann and the Sleeping Woods for the last week now, terrorizing travelers with his pranks. In fact, he saw one now, and slipped silently from branch to branch, drawing closer to get a better look at the man.

No, not just a man, he realized. That hunter with the strange curse. Oddly pleased to find a familiar face, Puck dropped from the nearby tree with the grace of a cat. "Good day to you, Hunter."
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/10/2007 16:44:57  

Hunter smelled the intriguing blend of magic and mischief shortly before the fairy jumped down. It had been a long while since he'd last seen Goodfellow, and his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Good day to you as well, Goodfellow. It's been quite some time." He took a bite out of a sizable chunk of bread, eyes fixed on the small fairy. "Been keeping well?"
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/12/2007 08:38:39  

"I have my health," he said easily, which wasn't exactly answering the question. But when did Puck ever give a straight answer?

A niggle of magic, different from what he was used to from the hunter, hit Puck then and he tilted his head to study the other man. "You've got something on you, something special. What is it?" His curiosity was blunt.
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/12/2007 10:52:14  

Hunter wasn't expecting conversation from Goodfellow, but he wasn't at all surprised by his keen senses or his curiosity. He gestured at his feet. "A gift from a magician. They let me travel great distances in short time." They were honestly quite invaluable to him. He could be back in Mehrdadstan tomorrow, rather than next week. He didn't delve into supreme detail with Goodfellow, but he wasn't going to sidestep or avoid his questions either.
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/12/2007 23:29:18  

He crouched down in front of the Hunter, eyeing those boots with a good deal of interest and mild avarice. "You don't say. Since when are you in such a rush?" The hunter had struck him as a man who ran on his own time.

But perhaps he wasn't now. He recalled faintly the girl the hunter had been enamored with. And the thought of the favor the man had requested made Puck smile. "Maybe it's your lady-love. Yes? How did that all turn out anyway? Did you manage to slip her the potion?"
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/13/2007 00:29:32  

"Since I had someone to rush back to," Hunter responded without pause. And then he shook his head at the fairy's next set of questions. "No, it's not the girl. That... turned out not as I thought." He didn't particularly feel like going into those details either. Suffice to say he hadn't expected the outcome he got with Red and the potion; he actually hadn't even thought about her or it for some time now.

"I've met someone I don't need to coerce into affection." His lips curved lightly at the thought of Scheherazade. "Someone who suits me." He shifted the focus of that topic slightly. "I still thank you for your help in that matter though."
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/13/2007 22:50:51  

It gave Puck vicious glee to hear the potion had backfired for the hunter and it was hard to keep the smirk from his mouth and his words when he spoke. "You're welcome, though I'm sorry to hear your first romantic endeavor failed, but you seem to have recovered quickly enough. And they say my kin are fickle."

He snatched up a hunk of unattended bread and tore a chunk out of it with animal-sharp teeth, swallowing before he continued with, "Your new lady sounds like quite the catch, by the way you speak of her." In truth, Puck thought the hunter was positively smitten.
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/13/2007 23:05:40  

Hunter shook his head. "No apologies necessary," he said, though he could tell Puck wasn't sincere about it. "It wasn't a romantic endeavor by any means." And thus Hunter wasn't at all bothered by the potion's effect, nor its unplanned outcome.

He watched the fey steal the bit of bread and his eyes narrowed slightly. Predatory instincts threatened and were immediately squelched. "Fey don't quite have the monopoly on fickle," he commented. "And she is," he added, that little smile coming to his lips again. Rare was it that Hunter thought of Scheherazade and didn't smile.
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/14/2007 12:59:18  

"Lovesick," Puck sneered at the hunter's soft expression, the words far more bitter than he realized and he tossed aside the rest of the bread uneaten.

The bitterness was suddenly hidden behind an air of idle curiosity. "Does she live far away then, this woman who's so charmed you?"
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/14/2007 13:06:49  

Hunter shrugged off the comment; he couldn't really argue it. Instead he shifted, leaning back against a tree, foot propped up on a nearby stone. Arms crossed his chest and he nodded. "Yes. Far to the south, past Lake Raienia," he answered. Hunter quirked an eyebrow. "Are you really actually interested?" He'd sniffed an actual curiosity in Goodfellow's question and it was a bit surprising.
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/14/2007 13:43:59  

He merely shrugged in response to the question and instead asked, "South, you say? You mean that dry, hot land?" Puck had passed through it during his travels, but it hadn't suited his unseelie nature at all and he hadn't lingered. "I saw nothing but sand and nomads when I was there. Is she some tribesman's daughter?"
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/14/2007 13:57:25  

"Yes," Hunter responded. "And there's more than sand and nomads there. Further in the desert is the rather large kingdom of Mehrdadstan, and she lives there." He ignored the question as to whether she was a tribesman's daughter. Hunter didn't lie well, and he had no desire to tell Puck she was in fact the queen. So he just avoiding answering that entirely and merely said, "It's quite different from the Sleeping Woods, no doubt, but I'm growing accustomed to it. Even fond of it."
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/14/2007 19:05:32  

Puck noticed he hadn't quite answered the question, and he knew there was something more to the tale. How interesting.

He kept his interest to himself, however, letting his expression taking on an almost bored air. "The kingdom of Mehrdadstan...I suppose I'll have to go back and have a proper visit then, see what this place really has to offer since you seem so pleased with it."

The young-looking fae let his gaze wander, drifting up to the trees, watching bird flit too and fro, as if he was having a hard time focusing on the conversation. "What's your lady's name? Perhaps I'll stop in and give her your regards."
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/14/2007 23:13:38  

Hunter stood up straight then, arranging his belongings across his back. "Perhaps we'll wind up meeting again there. And believe me Goodfellow, you'll see her, likely without even trying." Hunter knew that the moment the fairy crossed the kingdom's borders, he'd be summoned to the palace as swiftly as Howl had been, so full of magic was he. Goodfellow wouldn't be in Mehrdadstan long before he met the queen.
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/16/2007 21:07:06  

The hunter was being very evasive and it just made Puck all the more curious about this woman whom the mortal was obviously smitten with but refused to talk about.

But Puck just got to his feet, hands tucking in the pockets of his trousers as he rocked on his heels. "Then I guess I'll just have to make a point of visiting now." He nodded at hunter. "You're off, then?"
From: [info]whos_afraid Date: 11/16/2007 21:28:09  

Goodfellow's curiosity was an easily scentable thing and it almost made Hunter smile. "I hope you enjoy your visit. You do seem very curious about her and I fear my evasiveness hasn't really helped that." He cocked his head and looked down at Goodfellow and decided to give him one solid piece of information. "She's no tribesman's daughter, Goodfellow. She's the queen. And yes, on that note I am off. Take care, Goodfellow. I expect I'll be seeing you again." Hunter moved then, starting to walk off in the direction of Camlann. He'd make his sales tomorrow and head back to Mehrdadstan in the afternoon.
From: [info]puckeredup Date: 11/16/2007 21:43:46  

Hunter's sudden candid revelation had Puck blinking in surprise and he was left staring after the man as he walked off back towards Camlann.

So the hunter had snared himself a queen, had he? That was a useful bit of information. Puck would just have to figure out how to make good use of it. Tucking the little mental gem away, Puck started off in his own direction, deeper into the woods.
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