Aliens

With a start Cailin woke up from a nightmare to find the other side of his luxurious queen sized bed empty, and the other pillow missing from the bed.  He got up and walked down to the fair sized colonial style kitchen with wooden cabinets that had small glass windows in them to find Kat in her running shorts and under armor eating a breakfast of toast and cereal at their small kitchen table looking out the window into the fresh morning.  Cailin grabbed a cup of juice from the fridge (he rarely ate breakfast, on weekends he wasn’t even awake for it) and sat down across the table in one of the unfinished wooden chairs.

“Morning.”  Cailin said emotionlessly as he tried to find what Katheranne was looking at.

“Another nightmare?”  She asked, looking at Cailin.

“Mhm.”  Cailin grunted in response.

“Same one?” Another grunt answered her.

Katheranne decided to give up trying to talk right now, Cailin wasn’t a morning person and these nightmares he had been having hadn’t been helping anything.  She figured he would talk when he was ready.  The kitchen phone on the wall by the refrigerator started to ring,  Quicker then a human could Cailin picked up the phone and started talking.  When he hung up Kat was looking at him again trying to hide the laughter for she could hear the phone conversation he was having.

“That was Gabe he doesn’t seem to understand that we don’t investigate Alien abductions.”  Cailin replied, answering her look.

“Well your door does say Witch on it so who else should he go to when his cattle start disappearing?  The police don’t deal with this kind of thing, sure they will take a report but thats just about all they will do.”  Kat asked.

“We’ll go back over there, but no matter how many times we tell him it isn’t aliens he won’t listen.”

Cailin got up from the table and went to get what he would need for Gabe’s farm from their storage room.  He grabbed a black backpack that jostled as he carried it.  Kat went upstairs to their bedroom and changed into a pair of blue jeans and black stretch fit t-shirt.  They meant again at the front door and left together holding hands.

Cailin’s big, black Ford Super Duty pulled to a stop on a dirt road in front of a small brown farm house with a run down wood fence.  As soon as the dust cleared from the dirt road the door to the house opened and a short, balding guy, what hair he had left was white, in his late 60’s.  Cailin went and joined Gabe on the porch of his house while Katheranne grabbed a back pack out of the bed of the truck and walked away into the forest at the edge of one side of the road.

“Where is she going?”  Gabe asked, curious.

“She’s going for a hike, don’t worry about her.  She loves walking it’s crazy.  Now how many times do we have to tell you?  Aliens aren’t abducting your cows, its probably just some animal from the forest looking for an easy meal.”  Cailin answered.

“I don’t know why I listen to you Cailin.” Gabe tested.

“Maybe its because overtime we come over here your little cattle problem stops for at least a little while?  Or it could be that we do this for free?”

“Mmm…Follow me, it happened over here.”

Gabe lead Cailin around the house to a big white barn.  On the other side of the barn was a pasture with cows eating crass and just standing around.  As soon as he was closer to the field he could smell it, something a normal wizard couldn’t do from this distance without considerable training, the smell of a faerie’s magick, it was very distinct.  More specifically one he had dealt with before, the kind that our cattle and eat them, this particular one was named Kulscar.

To keep Gabe thinking he was the one doing something Cailin walked around for a bit mumbled some gibberish and acted like he was casting some spell.  It was better if Gabe didn’t know about Kulscar or other faeries, if he did he might hunt them or try to capture one.  They couldn’t help being what they are.  Humans are weird about magical things, most don’t like them and don’t trust them.   After fifteen minutes Cailin told Gabe he was done and went back to the truck to wait.

Meanwhile Kat went off into the forest, as an elf she was slightly better suited for working out in nature.  Cailin could have done it perfectly fine but not as easily or quickly.  Kat could just blend into the bushes plus Kulscar (the faerie) would appreciate something that was born in the wild coming to deal with her.  Stopping at a clearing that was surrounded by bushes, Kat stood around waiting for what was going to happen.  Just above the trees she could make out a blue essence, a glow, that right to her and stopped at her ear.  

“Kulscar.” Said the glow in Cailin’s voice just before it dispersed into the air.

Clearing off a small spot in the center of the clearing Kat set a peace of cheese down and drew a circle around it, Kulscar had an abnormal craving for cheese.  Circles are a magickally significant, they might not always keep something in but they will make magick that is being worked in them slightly stronger.  Sometimes all it does is improve your concentration on the spell but if you have the time to do it, its worth it.

“Kulscar.”  Kat whispered into the wind and stepped back into the bushes as if she was a ghost.

A bright light came from the bushes, it was bright enough to see clearly even with the during the day with the sun out.  The light stopped just on the other side of the clearing the bushes obscuring it.  With a quick flash the light moved to the cheese and solidified into the shape of a miniature elf.  Kulscar was light skinned with green hair and a brown dress that seemed to cling to her yet give nothing away.  Not that she was big enough to notice too much about her body, at the most she was 12 inches tall.

“Lefon,” Katheranne said in an even voice that be heard in the clearing.  As she spoke Kat pictured a wind holding the faerie in place, the moment the word was out she mentally push power out, closing the spell.

“Not again Katheranne.”  Kulscar cried in a squeaky voice.

“Yes and I will return as long as you keep taking the local cattle.  Hunt something in the wild.”  Kat said as she stepped out of the clearing.

“I swear this time it wasn’t my fault.  No one in the forest can get food.”

“Why?”

“Because something has been making the wild animals scared of anything that caries magick with it.”

“What is making them so scared?”  Cailin prodded.

“I can’t tell you, it would kill me.”  Kulscar’s faint glow went out and she dropped to the ground.  She picked herself up and started to walk away.

“Fine.  I can’t have you dyeing because I wouldn’t let you fly away.  Kat waved her hand ending the connection to her power.

Kat left the clearing and ran towards the farm.  As soon as she had hit the tree line earlier she had kept running until she had been a far distance from the farms and metal where both Kulscar and her would be stronger.  Both Faeries and elves are quite similar and they both work and feel better in a natural environment.  That was part of the reason Kat and Cailin had picked the island to live on.  Kat felt better away from cities.  More at home, Kat was born in a forest in Scotland 124 years ago.  She was one of the only twelve wood elves born a year.  Some magickal force controlled the elvish population.

When she got back Cailin was leaning on his truck.  His eyes were closed and a baseball cap lay titled so it covered his face  The two hopped in Cailin’s truck and they drove away.

“What did that little guy who makes me do work in the morning say?”  Cailin asked sounding irritated.

“Someone’s obviously not a morning person.  He said something about something scaring the animals in the forest and anything with magick in it not being able to get close.”  Kat added, “He was really scared.”

“Hmm... Interesting.  Its worth taking a look into later but Kulscar does have a tendency to lie.”

“Yea, plus I have some work I need to get done at the office.”