Installment 50

I found Harry playing with a pack of cards; her dextrous hands shuffling and flicking the cards quickly. I had once tried to learn to do similar tricks, but given up after the tenth time of having to pick an entire deck of cards off the floor.

“Hey,” I said.
She turned her head and smiled, still playing with the cards, “Hi, Fi. How are you?”
“I'm ok... Hungry.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, putting the cards down. She rifled through her bag and presented me with a handful of cherries.
I smiled, “Thanks,” I wolfed them down, then sighed.
“What's wrong, Fi?”
“This is lovely. You're lovely for getting them for me, but it's not enough. It's not a meal. You don't eat at all?”
She shrugged, “Sometimes.”
“But you don't need to.”
She shook her head, “Only so we don't stand out; y'know, look odd to the mortals.”
“You know when you do? You know how there's all different kinds of food?”
“Yeah. I like the last bit best.”
“The last bit?”
“Yeah, the one made of chocolate or fruit or something.”
“Dessert, yeah, right. Me too, actually. I'm a big fan of ice-cream, but you can't just eat dessert.”
“I know. Nan says it looks odd if I do.”
“I mean, I can't just eat dessert. I need different foods, like bread, cheese, eggs, vegetables.”
“Rabbits?”
“No, I don't eat meat.”
She looked confused.
“No animals. Nothing with blood.”
She nodded, though her face was twisted into a confused grimmace, “I'll see what I can do.”


*

I left her with her cards and wandered out into the gardens. I walked along the path leading to the big front gate, sauntering slowly in an effort to hide any desire I had to just walk through them. If I could walk right up to them without anyone stopping me, then perhaps tomorrow I would try to walk through them. Apart from everything else, I was rather bored of the castle now. It seemed time for a change of scenery.

I sighed, “I just want to go home,” I muttered under my breath.
“Go on then.”
I started and turned to see Bryn standing beside me.
“Are you following me?”
“Yep,” he said without so much as a vague look of embarrassment.
“Why?”
He shrugged, “Figure if something's going to happen, it's going to happen around you.”
It made sense in a strange way, but did nothing to comfort me.
“So, you think I could just walk through these doors and hop on a bus back to London?”
He put his hand to his face and rubbed his chin, considering what I had asked, “Doubt it. No buses in Ogmore that I'm aware of.”
My head dropped into my hand and I rubbed my eyes, “Will you help me?”
“Help you? Why would I do that?”
“Well... to piss off Arianwen, apart from anything else.”
He laughed, a big gruff laugh that made his entire body shake momentarily, “Good a reason as any, I suppose. Alright then, what do you need?”
I sighed; I hadn't gotten that far.
“I need a plan,” I told him, “and help carrying it out.”
He nodded in a slightly incredulous fashion, “So you want a saviour rather than a sidekick?” and turned to walk away.
“Ok... ok... Look, I'm possibly prisoner here, not sure. If I'm not, I still don't really have much in the way of transport. Is it walkable to Cardiff from here? Or to any form of public transport? I don't really fancy my chances at hitching. Maybe I could head into the village and beg a lift from one of the locals. Shit, maybe I could beg a meal from one of the locals. I don't even have any money.”
“Money, I can do,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a variety of notes and coins. He quickly flicked through them with the same ease that Harry shuffled the cards and singled out the UK currency, “Four hundred enough?”
“You... you just carry that around with you?”
He rolled his eyes, “I'm a friggin' faerie, love.”
I smiled, then started to laugh, “This is just too, too weird.”