Emily slouched in the weird sling back chair in the living room and listened to the others argue at the dining table.
“Less chatting, more deciding.” She gave them a cold stare over her book and Tank, who’d been the instigator, hunched his shoulders and sighed.
“Okay,” he relented. “I’ll vote whatever Dawn votes.”
“Oh my god, I am so surprised.” Hannah’s disdain was incredibly well-rounded for someone who’d only just gotten their driver’s licence. “Well, that means we’re exactly split on the decision, thanks.” She pushed herself away from the table, chair legs squeaking against the already battered linoleum. “I’m going to watch makeup vids with Matty, text us when you guys figure your shit out.”
“Ian, do something!” Tank pushed his fingers through too-long, sun bleached hair, exasperated.
Ian laughed and called out at Hannah, through the screen door, “wait, no, stop! We’ll be trapped here forever unless we work as a team.” His sister flipped him off over her shoulder as she jumped down the last two stairs. He shrugged. “Fuck it, let’s flip a coin. I call heads.”
The sound of a quarter clattering as it landed was drowned out by groans from the losing side. Emily closed her book and stood, stretching.
“So, what’s the verdict?” She’d guessed, but tried to keep the hope from her face. She knew that she was incredibly biased, which is why she’d voted but kept out of the discussion after.
Abby matter-of-factly coiled her hair into a bun and jabbed a pencil through it before answering. “The nays have it. We won’t ask the hare to find out what happened to all of our parents, after.”
Emily let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. “Okay, that’s settled then. Of course, you’re all free beings and can inquire on your own time, but if you learn anything about somebody else’s family, you don’t volunteer the info, right?”
A chorus of yeses, some reluctant and whispered, answered. She closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she was older. “Let’s order delivery, okay?”
†
“The pack isn’t bothering you?”
“It’s like it’s empty and my feet are fine, before you ask.” Tanis gave Emily a gentle shove as they walked down the forest path. “Stop mom-ing. Aren’t you the one who says not to think about it?”
“It’s a mixture of curiosity and paranoia.” Emily hitched her bag around and pulled out the tobacco to roll a cigarette.
“Where’s all the worry for me?” Ian teased, reaching out to take the finished cigarette.
Emily sighed and handed it over, rolling herself another. “Ian, you can turn into an ogre. I have no reason to worry about you. Hare, are you comfortable?”
The hare shrugged from the basket on Ian’s back. “Despite the expected roughness of the ride, it is more comfortable than being carried in someone’s arms.”
“With the added bonus that nobody has to carry you in their arms.”
“Or drop me. You’ve dropped me before, Emily.”
“You deserved it.” She moved to the front of the group, calling back, “we just keep following this path, right?”
“Yes, the jump point will be obvious.” Emily could hear the hare sniff, annoyed. “I wish I could see where we’re going.”
“Dude, you already know where we’re going. And I’m not carrying this thing on my front like a baby carrier.” Ian adjusted the straps, jostling the hare, who hunched deeper into the wicker, pouting.
Emily wished she had a better sense of time. Even after stuffing it with a stupid amount of film boxes, Tanis had plenty of room for food in her backpack. The folks at the Institute provided her with basics to supplement the C-rations and energy bars she’d brought with her.
Tanis promised Emily that she would aware of when she needed to eat, but Emily continued to fret. None of them had ever tried to find food in the wilds of the Sidhe and she hoped they wouldn’t have to. As long as there were regular stops at villages and the huts of friendly strangers, they’d be fine. Emily was grateful that most Folk ate once in a while, even if they didn’t need to. The pleasure of food was hard to resist.
It didn’t seem like they were in the same forest Emily had been to before with the hare. There was underbrush and the trees were less dense, letting through beams of sun. They came to a spot where the path widened, creating a sort of natural turnout.
Tanis called them to a stop for lunch and Emily asked the hare something she’d always meant to.
“So, the whole Summer Court and Winter Court thing, is that just in stories or is it real?” She leaned up against a tree, rolling cigarettes.
Ian gently set the hare’s basket on the ground and took one of Emily’s cigarettes, cautioning her— “don’t say anyone’s names.”
“I’m not stupid, Ian.”
The hare wriggled out of his carrier and set to cleaning his whiskers of road dust. “They are quite real, obviously.”
“Okay. So, do they take turns doing their thing? How do seasons work?”
“They don’t. The courts compromise on where their demesnes overlap. How they could decide who goes when and where is beyond comprehension, I think each would rather always rule.”
Emily slid her back down the trunk to sit on her heels while she placed the finished cigarettes into a metal case. “I guess they understand that there has to be a balance.”
“What season is it now?” Tanis asked through her sandwich.
“Now is a pretty flexible thing. Here and now, we are where the courts overlap,” the hare tilted his head, twitching his whiskers. “Maybe closer to winter, though I’d thought it was the other one we were nearer.”
“So, it’s pretty much always spring or fall unless you’re right up in one of their kingdoms?” Tanis stood, brushing crumbs off her lap. “That seems nice.” She looked around. “These trees don’t provide a lot of cover. If you could all look over there for a bit while I tend to my human needs?”
The group politely faced away as Tanis stepped off the path. Emily spoke loudly, trying to cover any noises.
“So, who is it we’re going to see, hare?”
“Some friends of mine.” He nibbled a piece of grass thoughtfully.
Ian rolled his eyes, “yeah, but who are these friends?”
“Dwarves. We’ll take a jump tomorrow that brings us to a cave entrance. Their domain stretches underneath a lot of kingdoms and they love gossip. If anyone knows where Abby’s forest is, they will.”
“It’s so weird that you guys wait to ask where we’re going until after we’ve started going there.” Tanis stepped over a fallen tree and looked down at Ian.
He shrugged. “It’s not like Emily or I have contacts here. We have to go with what the hare’s got.”
“Good enough, I guess.” Tanis made a face and swung on her backpack. “Well, shall we continue? Let’s eat some miles before I have to sleep.”
The forest seemed unoccupied but, as they walked Emily saw traces of animals. From her hikes with Tanis she knew that forests always appeared empty until they very much weren’t—a squirrel fight boiling across a path, shadows in the trees dissolving into deer. Emily smiled.
“What?” Tanis elbowed her. They’d been walking next to each other, with Ian and the hare on point.
“I forgot that you used to make me go on hikes.”
“Make? C’mon, you had fun.”
“Sure, that is why mostly now we only walk far enough off road to find a good place for a picnic.”
“It’s a compromise. Like how we only sort of go on drives.”
“Yeah, you’re not super good at those.”
“What are drives?” The hare peered at them, his bright black eyes just clearing the basket’s edge.
Tanis giggled while Emily tried to explain. Cutting short the hare’s follow-up questions, they traded places with Ian, the hare complaining that he’d be bored with no one to talk to.
This post is part of The Consoling Divide – Serialised. See the archive and overall content warnings here, and find more of my writing here. I’m over on both Comradery and Patreon, if you feel like supporting my creative endeavours. If you’d like to subscribe to this story, here’s a handy email box for you: