
She was supposed to be in school, the little fae child. The violet eyed girl had awoken in the morning, beside her new companion she had found in the freezing snow when she had went on a walk with Beylani. The little albino chipmunk, as white as snow with ruby red eyes that some found creepy, but Maeve found beautiful. She had named him Pip, after Giselle's own chipmunk from the movie Enchanted, Maeve was clearly knowledgeable in Disney movies. She had gotten dressed, wearing her school uniform, a black skirt, black tights, with a white shirt and light purple cardigan over the top. The kids were allowed to wear what they wanted when it comes to shoes, so Maeve, of course had put on her typical violet converse, nearly the same color as those oddly hued eyes of hers. But she had gone to school, leaving Pip behind, already having gotten talked to about bringing pets to school (even if they were "oh so very tiny and cute.") In the morning, everything had been fine, everything progressing as usual. Maeve talked with her friends, played ballerina at morning recess, and ate her snack with all the other fae children she has come to know in Somnia.
It was in math class, after they had been playing outside, Maeve suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe, her head started spinning, and all in a split second Maeve was no longer in her classroom, but a coffee shop, in Sancrosanct. She had been here before, when going to get hot chocolates. She is not alone, but neither is she with any face that Maeve has seen before. A man sits across from here, he is handsome and jovial and Maeve is warmed by his presence. Then there comes that familiar push and Maeve is back in her classroom, a gasp of air wracking her lungs as she pants in her chair, all eyes on her as the teaching seemed to have stopped. "Maeve, are you okay?" Her teacher asks her with curious eyes. Now, this is a land for faes, where fae children are all coming into their powers, so strange behaviors were not something entirely out of the ordinary. She nods, holding her head in her hands. "Do you want me to call your..." she struggles of what to call Maeve's guardians in this particular situation. "I think...I just need to go home," she says and the teacher nods as Maeve slides out of her chair. She goes to her cubby area, grabs her backpack and jacket and begins walking home, unsure of what had just occurred.
Maeve has had visions before, even though it was a relatively new occurrence. But typically, she didn't lose her breath, and she wouldn't grow dizzy, she would become still as she just had been in the classroom, but the visions were usually clearer, longer, and Maeve could get a sense of what was occurring. Too, what Maeve learned, what she saw were things that have already occurred. But this time, it was herself, but she had never met with this man before and certainly not sat with him in a coffee shop.
She arrives home and retreats to her bedroom where Pip sits waiting for her. Holding out her hand, he crawls up her arm and comes to rest on her should, chattering away affectionately. Some how, he had become taken with the fae child when she had rescued him, and now the two were practically inseparable. "Maybe it is my fate to meet this man," she says to her companion. Maeve has been talking an awful lot about fate lately, you can thank Merida and Brave for that one. "Come on, Pip, let's go on an adventure."
She heads out of her bedroom, Pip still riding on her shoulder with practiced balance. Taking that small hand, she grabs on of the objects Andras had shown her and in a single moment she is brought to the familiar streets of Sacrosanct. Now, to get to the coffee shop. Maeve's head is still reeling with the vision she had just experienced, unsure of what it means or where it had come from. She also cannot shake the feeling that when she had been experiencing the vision, the entire time she had felt like she wasn't really supposed to be there. Whenever she had peered into the past, there had been mostly feelings of warmth and ease, but this had been far different. Just as she is walking, another vision hits her, but this time her breath doesn't catch in her lungs and nor does she feel any spinning motion, it is a vision of the past. The same man is standing some where and Maeve just manages to make out someone clearly calling his name: Matteo.
The fae child arrives back in the present, a little weary having seen past, present, and future all within the span of a single early afternoon and she isn't quite sure what to make of it. She is getting strange looks and the last thing Maeve wants is to draw attention to herself. She should have probably changed out of her school uniform, but too late now. And the chipmunk probably wasn't helping in any sort of way. She holds out her buttoned up cardigan and the chipmunk jumps down, she would keep Pip out of sight for now, that would be for the best.
Inner Sanctum. That was the coffee shop from her vision. Boldly, with a mixture of anxious excitement, the child moves to the shop with fae like grace. Hand presses against the door as she opens it and almost immediately those violet eyes begin to peer around the area, scanning quickly for any sign of her no doubt awaiting fate. She misses him the first time, but scanning once more, she spots the familiar form of the man seated at a table with a beverage. Was he waiting just for her to arrive? There is a hesitancy in her movements. Time and time again she has been told not to talk to strangers, and here she was about to approach a strange man. But, in the end, Maeve decides there is no arguing with fate. She approaches the small table and pulls out the chair opposite from him before climbing into it. The chair is tall and her feet do not yet hit the ground and so she swings them back and forth with childlike innocence. The same innocence reflected in her gaze as she looks to the man. "I knew you'd be here Matteo," she says with a small simper upon her mouth, like a child that tells a parent they have hidden a stash of candy but refuse to tell them where. "I'm Maeve."
Maeve Liliwen
image by Wang Xi