Faye looked at little baby basilisk while it sat on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Faye's mother walked into the room; she wore a colorful scarf around her head to keep her curly hair from her face and sandles on her soft feet. She jumped when she saw the snake. She jumped again when she saw a rat sitting on the sofa eating a cracker while watching some reality TV show. Madame looked at her daughter and walked to the coffee table to get a good look at the rat on the couch and the snake on the table. When the rat was done with one cracker, it picked up the other one sitting next to it and begin to eat it. The mother wad clearly unimpressed.
"Non, non, non, ma fille, ki sa coulev é rat ka fé dan salon mwen?" Her mother asked in Ench.
"Sé zanmi mwen so bèt kay. Li alé Faelock épi on lòt zanmi pou gadé zòt la akadèmi." Faye responded back explaining why the snake and rat were present.
"Hm," her mother was unimpressed. "Rat sala bizin méte anlè réjim." She walked away to attend to whatever she was doing. Faye shrugged. The rat was on a diet but Sous would be back soon enough. In the meantime, she'd watch over them like she promised.
"You didn't bring little baby basilisk?" Kara asked. They stepped off the plane and walked down the walkway.
"Of course not. You want it to die out here?" Sous asked back.
Faelock was an interesting country. Because it sat right on the border of Nadia and Conaska, it was sort of apart of two countries at once. And since Faelock was also a country, it was like it was three countries at once. The political aspect of Faelock meant it was to remain neutral on most matters regarding Nadia and Conaska and often had to come to compromises quickly as well.
Monica and Shadow were exhausted. Their shoulders slumped and the upper portion of their faces were a dark blue color. Sous nearly screamed when she saw them exit off the plane.
"Y'all look dead."
A vein popped out of Shadow's head as he pointed at Sous. "THIS TRIP COULD HAVE BEEN LITERALLY A SECOND BUT NOOOOOO, YOU WANTED TO RIDE A PLANE LIKE THE HUMANS!" Speaking of humans, the humans at the airport began to look at them offended. Tiny little sweat drops appeared over Monica as she ushered Shadow and the kids down the terminals to the exit.
"Planes are expensive. One ticket to Faelock was like 600 don." Kara said.
"Yeah, that's the last time we're listening to Sous." Shadow mumbled.
The four of them stepped out of the airport and took in the smell of plants and trees. They looked up and saw Faelock was a place of trees and flight. The only people who were on the ground were visitors and tourist like humans and elves but for the fairies, their lives were in the sky and the trees. The houses were in trees, businesses, and stores, even schools were in trees.
Kara looked at her brochure for the Faelock Primary Magic school. Unlike Hacate that went straight from first to seventh years, Faelock had a primary and a secondary school. Primary consisted of first through fourth and then secondary was fifth through seventh.
"Let's go and check into our tavern. I got us a place right next to the school," Shadow mentioned, pulling at his travel bag. They each brought a carryon because the trip was already expensive as it was.
"How we get there?" Kara looked at her travel companions. Shadow and Sous weren't able to transform into wolves so they wouldn't be able to travel that way. And Monica and Kara didn't know how to tree hop.
They rode in a taxi on the small trails since Faelock didn't have any roads. Their driver was a wolf who lived in one of the wolf communities. He talked about the weather and how its good Sous and them are bundled up. He especially mentioned Sous looking like a red strawberry tick with how many layers of clothing she had on.
"Its odd to see a group of Omegas with no adult Alpha." He said.
"They're my harem."
Slap!
For the rest of the ride, Sous had a pink knot upon her head with a band aid where Shadow had popped her up side the head for making such a lewd comment.
The taxi came to a halt and the wolf pointed at the tree they needed to climb to get to the tavern they were to be staying in. There was a ladder they needed to climb to get to the tree house. One needed to not be afraid of heights if they were to come visit Faelock.
Sous was the first to reach the deck. "Wow..." Being so high up with the birds was majestic. Nothing but greenery yet the sun managed to get through and cast off little beams of light. And though the ground had nothing but snow, it seemed like the tree tops were completely free of snow. As if the snow simply melted off and landed on the ground as snow once more.
Icicles were intact on the trees and the birds that enjoyed such weather knocked the ice down, either as a game or some other reason.
Kara walked to the railing of the tree tavern and looked down. Monica placed her hand on her daughter's shoulder and smiled at her when she looked up. Together they walked to the door where Sous and Shadow waited for them.
The doors were wide and made of wood. Seeing how long a fairy's wings could grow, having such large doors made sense. They were also exceptionally tall especially the males.
Shadow led them into the tavern. In the front was the check in and check out counter that had a couple of young female fairies working. The fairies looked up and smiled at their guest.
"E an elp ou ow?" Asked one of them.
All four of their faces were twisted and dumbfounded. Neither one of them even thought of the language that was spoken in this country.
"Well Kara," Monica started. "It seems you're going to be learning a new language."
"Oh," said the other receptionist. "We speak Atin. What are your names?"
"The rooms are under Shadow Gune," Shadow answered.
"Awe yes, you're going to be touring Faelock primary. Good job on getting accepted." She said to the children.
Sous pointed to Kara. "It was she who got accepted. I go to Hacate."
The fairies were bright when they heard Sous' school. Kara saw the reaction and got a little jealous herself. She looked away from the conversation.
"Wow! You must be amazing. You don't sound like you're from Nadia. You're a sponsored student?" Sous nodded her head, proudly but she changed her tune when she saw the depressed look on Kara's face.
"Faelock is just as good though!" She said in hopes of cheering Kara up but it didn't seem to do the trick, especially since the receptionists disagree with that sentiment.
Kara fell on her bed with a sigh. She kicked off her shoes and cuddled into the pillows. She read somewhere fairies would wrap themselves up in cacoons when sleeping and that most didn't even sleep in beds but from the cielings.
Monica came to the edge of Kara's bed after she sat their belongings down on the ground. She played with her daughter's pinkie toe.
"Kara...Kara...talk to me."
"Me and Sous aren't even together and I feel like I'm in her shadow. Like how Omegas are in their Alphas shadow, always behind them, never in front. That I'm some weak Omega." Her voice was muffled in the pillow, and Monica had to pull her up so she could see her daughter's beautiful face.
"Kara, count your blessings. Sous has been through so much. She lost her father, mother, friends...everyone she ever cared for. Prior to that, she was poor, barely a pot to piss in." She held Kara's chin up. "You have a two parent home, two story home, you don't have to worry where your next meal will come from, you have a community that loves and cherishes you, you can take a bath anytime you desire, and you have the luxury of choosing to interact with human technology or not. Sous gets up every morning and fights. You get up every morning and yawn." Kara hugged into her mother. "My pup, do not compare your lives. Do not compare your strengths. Do not compare your weaknesses. You two come from two different paths that just happened to cross each other one day."
The two of them sat up against the bed frame with Monica playing in her daughter's hair. She whispered to Kara,"I'm happy Doureena is willing to look the other way. She really loves us. This is our secret. Our family's secret." She kissed the top of Kara's head who agreed with her mother. It was there secret.