The blue boy, Jessus, took her back to his village where she was invited to stay by his mother, Mage, the medicine woman. But Fae wasn't apart of the Scottish people, so she had to make her own way to be accepted.
Jessus teaches Fae the ways of the forest and she becomes a great hunter. Her new skill prepares her for the black men's return, and when Jessus gets taken to the enemy's camp, Fae is the only one who is brave enough to get him back.
--------------------
Read and Excerpt
Chapter One
Normally a day like today would be sunny and pleasant. For Jessus, it was neither of those things. He dunked his hand into the river again, fishing out another piece of wood and clay. Cleaning out the river was a necessity since it was their only source of clean water. Now it needed to be cleaned of debris so the village would have drinking water again.
“Jessus?”
Jessus turned around slightly and saw his older brother, Higme, walking slowly toward him. Jessus put his mind back on the river and the images plaguing his young mind.
The village fighting the black men with their sharp axes and tomahawks. His father leading the fight for their people, attempting to drive the black men from their homes. Jessus had taken his focus off his father for one second to shoot an arrow at a black man, and when he looked back, his father was on the ground, a black man kneeling on top of him.
Jessus had screamed for his father, even ran to him, but it didn’t matter. The black man had him and there was nothing he could do.
“Jessus.”
Jessus shook his head a looked back at his brother.
“What are you doing?” Higme asked.
Jessus looked at him, opened his mouth, and closed it again.
“Mother is looking for you. Come on.” Higme extended a hand to his younger brother and slowly pulled him off the ground.
The two boys walked back to their hut and stepped inside. Higme went to the table and sat on the floor next to it as he continued dissecting part of a deer.
There was a woman at the back of the hut hanging herbs from the ceiling. When Jessus shuffled his feet, she glanced back at him and smiled.
“Jessus, would you like to help me?” the woman asked.
“I was trying to clean up the river, Mother,” Jessus answered.
“There is still much debris?” she questioned.
Jessus nodded.
“Why don’t you take a break? Higme, why don’t you take Jessus foraging for a while? I’ll have dinner ready when you come back,” she said.
Higme stabbed his knife into the table and got to his feet. Jessus began to protest but Higme thrust the basket into his arms before he could say anything.
----------------------------------------------
Along the tree line behind their house, sometimes she saw white eyes peering out at her. It scared her, especially when her mother and father sent her out into those woods to collect herbs and berries. It didn’t happen a lot, but at least twice a week and she was there for hours, if not all day.
It was on one of those particular days that she had to go into the woods again. She didn’t want to because of the previous night’s terrible dreams involving those eyes. They followed her around wherever she went. It was especially creepy when they peered through the walls of her house. They watched her as she ate, as she bathed, and as she laid down to sleep. The worst thing about the dream was that her mother and father weren’t there and she didn’t know if they were coming back. All she knew was that those white eyes could see her all the time.
Now she had to go where the white eyes were. Her bravery wasn’t much on a normal day, but it definitely was nothing on this day after that awful dream.
“Mother, will you go with me today? To the woods?” she asked after breakfast.
Her mother was tidying up the stove area so that she could begin to prepare the evening meal. The family’s meals usually took all day to make as she interspersed cooking with the other housework.
“Sepheira, you can do this yourself. You do it all the time,” she answered. “Besides, we only have one basket.”
“We can share!” Sepheira squealed. Immediately her hand jerked up to clamp her mouth shut. Normally she wasn’t so childlike, but ever since moving to Scotland, she couldn’t help but be afraid of everything.
Scotland was nothing like Egypt.
Sepheira tried to counter with a good argument. “And then it wouldn’t take as long if you helped me. Then I could help you with dinner.”
“Other things need to be done, Sepheira. You can collect herbs and berries on your own,” her mother answered. “But if you hurry and don’t doddle, you can still help me with supper.”
Sepheira never doddled. Not really. Sometimes she was gone for the entire day, but that was because every sound in those woods frightened her. All she could think about were those white eyes.
It was no use arguing. Sepheira’s mother was completely set in her ways and Sepheira knew she wouldn’t win, so she gathered the basket and her lunch and drug her feet out the front door of the house.
Her father had already started his day in the front of the house. She waved to him when she passed.
“Where are you going?” he yelled over from one of the smaller gardens.
“Mother needs herbs and berries,” she called back, doing her best not to drag her feet.
“Okay, see you at supper,” he called, putting his head back into his work. “Don’t stay out past sunset. Those Scots will get you.”
She looked back at him as her eyes went wide. “What Scots?” she croaked.
“The blue ones that live on the other side of the forest. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed them?” he questioned.
“I’ve seen the eyes…” she said softly.
“What, Sepheira?”
“Nothing,” she whispered.
He scraped some dirt to cover plant roots. “Well, just watch out for them. They hunt in those woods. I don’t want you to get caught on the wrong end of their spears.”
She looked at him again, nodded, and then drug her feet several yards away to the edge of the forest.
When Sepheira finally forced herself to enter the tree line, the air seemed to still and the leaves stopped rustling.There were no noises, not even the sound of bugs or small rodents.
She gripped her basket tighter and took one, two, three steps into the forest, and paused. Still nothing. Maybe her father was wrong about the spears.
Slowly, she made her way through the trees until the foliage became dense. That was where the good plants were. Her mother liked the best herbs and the best berries, so Sepheira had to go deeper into the forest than she wanted to. The soil seemed to be richer the further in she went so that was what she was stuck with. Find the right soil, and she’d find the right plants.
The light from the morning sun got less and less as the trees grew closer together over her head. It wasn’t a really tall forest, but it wasn’t short either. Sepheira could barely see the tops of the trees, but was claustrophobic somehow. It would be better if she were out in the open grass under the sun, where nothing could sneak up on her.
She walked for a good distance before coming to the first familiar gathering area. It was beneath a huge, carved out tree that was very welcoming, despite the fact that it had a hollow trunk. Inside the trunk was always the most fresh herbs.
As she walked up to the tree, voices emitted from within. As quickly as she could, she scrambled backward and tried to be quiet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a big success. Before she could jump behind a clump of bushes, the voices from the tree stopped abruptly.
Thorns from the bushes pulled at her clothing and scraped her skin. She cried out before clamping a hand over her mouth while trying to get on the ground. Not even two seconds later, a boy walked out of the hollow tree and peered around the trunk.
He searched the area with sharp eyes, ears narrowed to any noise. Sepheira tried to keep as still as possible. No way she wanted to be found, especially by this blue skinned Scot.
Her father was right. They did have blue skin.
The boy had dark hair, almost as black as the soil beneath his blue feet. His body was blue, but it wasn’t his skin. It looked like some sort of body paint. His feet were bare and his toenails were extremely dirty, as were his knees and hands. He wore a blue cloth around his waist, with no shirt. The boy’s shoulders were hunched forward and his black eyes were piercing in the daylight. He looked anxious and drew a knife from behind his back, slowly as ever, waiting to see what was lurking in the bushes.
Unfortunately, it was Sepheira lurking and she didn’t want him to hurt her with that knife, so she managed to keep real still. Everything in her said to run, but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t make it five feet before that knife was in her back.
“Jessus,” the boy called, his face looking back over his shoulder. “Collect our things. We’re leaving.”
“But I’m not done!” called a voice from within the tree.
“Yes, you are. Let’s go,” the first boy called.
After a few minutes, a younger boy, who looked about my age, emerged from the trunk and looked at the older boy. “Higme, what’s the matter? Why is your weapon drawn?”
“I heard something. That’s why we’re leaving,” the first boy, Higme, answered.
“But Mother will be angry. I haven’t collected everything she needs,” Jessus countered.
“Mother will not be angry. If she is, you send her to me, okay?” Higme said. “Now, let’s go.”
“Okay,” Jessus pouted. “But can we come back tomorrow?”
“Sure, I don’t see why not, but let’s go now.” Higme walked away from his brother in the opposite direction I had come. Jessus looked around himself a few times and eventually followed his brother.
Soon they were gone, the trees covering their path. No footsteps sounded their departure. It was like they were never there.
