“You had a celebration last night?” Dylan asked. “Tell us about that.”
Aurin knew Dylan was asking Aurin to focus on the positive, a trick Aurin had used with him many times when Dylan was feeling overwhelmed. Aurin took a deep breath in and shook off his emotions, giving Dyl a smile of thanks. “Well, I’m not entirely sure what we can say, given the treaty and all, but Cern never said we couldn’t say, so...”
“I think it will be fine,” Salem said gently. “As long as it doesn’t get repeated.” He glanced at each of the faces looking back at them. “For Cern’s protection as well as our own.”
“No one will repeat a word,” Ciaran said with authority. “If it falls under the treaty, as I assume this will, then we are forbidden to tell anyone.”
Aurin nodded. “Okay, well, first of all, you need to remember my memories get a little hazy after my second cup of honey mead, so...”
Salem chuckled and rubbed Aurin’s back. “I told you it was potent.”
“Yes, yes, you did.” Aurin grimaced. “Anyway, so first, it might help if I explain a few things. The men that came with Cern to pick us up, they are Faun.”
“Faun?” Ciaran asked.
Kellan’s mouth fell open. “As in... as in half man, half goat?”
“Yes,” Aurin said. “A bit like Pan fromPan’s Labyrinth. They, like us, have a human form, as you saw.”
Everyone was stunned, eyes wide.
“You saw them in their faun state?” Ciaran asked.
“Yes,” Aurin replied. “Only once. Last night. It was a celebration. A festival to welcome winter...” He looked up at Salem to clarify.
“The winter solstice,” he explained. “The change of seasons and fertility for months ahead.”
Aurin nodded. “There was a huge bonfire, and the faun danced and played their flutes, and then...”
“And then...,” Kellan prompted.
“This is where things get hazy for me,” Aurin said, and Salem snorted. “Other forest creatures came and joined in.”
Eyes got wider. Mouths fell open.
“Other forest creatures?” Sawyer asked.
“Yes.” The corner of Aurin’s mouth pulled down. “See, the faun we’d met were all male, as faun are. Well, as folklore leads us to believe. But the female faun are smaller, daintier, kinda pretty, almost. Their hooves were much smaller?—”
“Hooves,” Hendrix asked, his eyes comically wide.
Aurin chuckled. “Yes. And their music was much higher; their flutes were different. But the sound of them played together was incredible. And the way they danced around the fire made a beat. I could feel it in my chest. It was incredible.”
Salem nodded. “It was beautiful.”
“You said creatures, as in plural,” Ciaran pressed. “There were more?”
Aurin sighed. “Yes.” He looked up at Salem for some kind of reassurance but only found humour in his expression. “Now, I know I was drunk by then, but I swear, what I saw...”
Everyone held their breaths.
“Forest sprites,” Aurin said. “They looked kind of human but ethereal, almost. And made of moss and starlight. And then there were the bird creatures. They stayed in the trees, but they danced, too, and their eyes shone really weird.”
“Was the honey mead laced with LSD?” Fray asked. “Because what—and I mean this with all my hearts—the fuck.”
Aurin snorted out a laugh. “I know. It’s weird. But I saw them. I danced with them. I drank with them.”
“I knew it,” Sawyer said. “When I went out into the forest, I knew I was being watched. And there were no other sounds of any critters or insects. I knew something was out there.”
