F'illub'iter followed the 2 boys out of the forest, all the while quizzing them for answers, then noting them down into the book. A lot of things differed from life in The Lands, and the more F'illub'iter knew, the more difficult it became to get a properly sorted list of those differences. They eventually gave up, and left it for either future F'illub'iter, or the library attendants to deal with.
The main things that differed between life back there, and how the boys described life here were, the human family having a structure of usually four or more people: a mother and a father. F'illub'iter could not find a reason for why it was gendered. They tried asking about it, but they only got weird looks back. The rest were two children, usually more. Additionally, the family would usually be helped by the local community, usually a village, because unlike Fae, humans could not handle a child by themselves.
Most people were poor, you wouldn't even own your house most of the time. The rich/wealthy people, nobles, somehow different from merchants and clergy, owned the land. F'illub'iter suggested taking the land for themselves, which prompted the boys to laugh. This then lead the conversation into the topic of the king. As it turned out, there was more than one, and each one thought they were the rightful ruler. F'illub'iter could not understand why the Others were so splintered, and figured that due to their poor status, the two boys wouldn't know either. People, most of the time, could travel freely as long as they fulfilled their duties at home, which often were so burdensome it meant travel only existed in theory.
Eventually they arrived at the woodcutter's house: a dingy thatch hut on the edge of the woods, with a smaller, shoddier building. It was ugly, undecorated, and with one look F'illub'iter understood how poor the average folk were. It was depressing.
"We should go ahead, to tell our parents about the hunt, and your rescue. Just wait here." said Petru.
"Shouldn't I, the brave hero, inform the parents of it?" asked F'illub'iter perplexed.
"No, no, they're tired, and you are different, and older people don't react well to different. Let me handle it."
"I can't wait to tell dad about meeting a pix- Fae !" Ianis chirped in.
"Fine, hurry up, don't make me wait." F'illub'iter flew over to a tree branch, taking a seat.
"See you later Filly!" said Ianis, while being dragged by one hand, with the other waving.
The 2 brothers set off, which left F'illub'iter alone with their own thoughts. He did not name his homunculi yet. Where were they anyways? It was too dark to find them. Hopefully they’d found a nice hole to hide in, and not a wolf. Next morning they were going to set out to find them. hopefully they wouldn't be too mad, or uncooperative. Due to the Wisp bond, they should feel the same aversion to harming F'illub'iter, as they would to harm themselves, but there were cases of homunculi attempting to murder their own master. It would be probably wise to find them quickly, and apologise for abandoning them, before they snap and turned murderous.
True strength comes from many diverse friends. You won't succeed on your quest alone. Seek them out.
The advice rung out in F'illub'iter mind. It was frustrating. On the one one hand, one should not disregard his majesty's advice, on the other hand F'illub'iter did not need any friends. Especially not Other friends. All friends ever did was kill time, and then leave when you needed outside help. Friends made you weak. So why did the king tell F'illub'iter to seek them out? The illogicality of it was driving F'illub'iter up the wall.
They wanted to leave the tree, go somewhere else, and ask new strangers about the area, yet they stayed. The boys seemed nice enough, but they were Others, and F'illub'iter was different. How were they supposed to trust that the humans weren't setting up a trap in the house?
It was really suspicious how they wanted to leave, and Others were rowdy, at least in the books. So why wasn't F'illub'iter leaving, when if they stayed they could be broken over a wheel for just existing? They weren't stupid, they saw the constant hesitation in Petru's eyes, they saw how he kept looking around. Worst of all was Ianis, who pretended the whole time to wholeheartedly trust F'illub'iter inherently. Ianis gave them no signs on what to expect next, no way to tell when to turn tail and leave, before they left.
Friends. Seek them out.
Thoughts of betrayal and conflicting interests and objectives kept flooding into F'illub'iter's head. They felt confused, frustrated, and even if they didn't want to admit it, afraid. For the first time in a long time it dawned upon F'illub'iter how truly isolated and alone they were. In The Lands if you kept to yourself, then others would too, so there wouldn't be any problems, but the boys kept to themselves and the deer, yet they were ambushed by wolves! They were incomprehensibly far away from their guardian or their parent, and worst of all, most beings here, even if F'illub'iter was still protected, would not care or realise the danger they would be put in, if they tried anything against them.
F'illub'iter wanted to crawl into a ball and leave. There were too many dangers to stay. Someone, anyone, could at any moment shoot an arrow, and F'illub'iter wouldn't be able to stop them or avoid it in time. F'illub'iter turned back towards the forest, braced one foot against the branch, and took one last look behind, at the dingy little cottage. But before they got a chance to fly off, a voice stopped them in their tracks.
"Filly! Where are you going Filly!" Ianis was shouting.
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"Quiet! You're going to wake up mom!" Petru shushed him up.
F'illub'iter let themselves slip, and landed gently, with the help of their wings, on the ground. Turned towards the two brothers, the younger smiling brightly, the other deadpan, and breathed in deeply.
"Is it dangerous to stretch one's legs and wings in these parts?" F'illub'iter, accidentally let frustration, and anger seep through that sentence.
"No, not at all." Petru said. "Our parents are sleeping, so we'll just give a tour. A really quiet tour." It was clear as water who the quiet part needed to be emphasized for.
"Lead the way." F'illub'iter said stiffly.
They all proceeded to walk past the fence and through the gate. There was no paved road, just flattened dirt. The whole structure was built around one large dirt road that lead to a gate that was nearly as big as the house.
"Do pi- Fae sleep?" whispered Ianis. "You look tired."
"Of course we do. Only an inferior species would lack the ability for daily bliss." whispered F'illub'iter.
"Let's get this over with, so we can hit the sack." said Petru.
"Hit the sack?"
"Go to bed?" said Petru, confused at Fae’s lack of knowledge.
F'illub'iter nodded.
"Firstly, here's the main gate. It's on the path towards Shepshire, our neighbouring town. When they need to pick up logs, they come with a big horse-pulled cart, and we just load them in."
"What is a horse? Is that like a homunculi? Or one of those constructs I've heard about?"
"Now I have questions. A horse is an animal. It's like a wolf, but rounder, with less hair, and docile."
F'illub'iter noted the information down dutifully.
"And back here, is the coop where our chickens sleep." Petru continued.
F'illub'iter and Ianis peered in, even though one of them knew well what was inside. In the near complete darkness, some movements of the feathered bipeds could be seen. Most were sleeping, but one of them flew across to find another ledge.
"You do know what a chicken is, right?" Petru said.
"A dumb animal you grow for food." F'illub'iter said unimpressed.
One of the chickens at the back stirred, and what faint light there was glistened over one of it's eyeballs, making it clear it was staring at the door.
"I think Ma' heard us. Let's move before she decides to reclaim her honour." Petru chuckled.
"Your mother is a chicken?!"
"No, it's just the name we gave her. She's older and bigger than all the rest, and fiercely protects all the eggs, even those that aren't hers. Like that she's the big-mother of all the farm, so we called her Ma'."
"Strange. We do not name our food as it sits in the pantry."
Petru gave F'illub'iter a strange look, with one eyebrow raised, but disregarded it, and moved forward, to the back of the house, where a small garden rested. The ground looked like it had been disturbed a while ago.
"This is our garden. We grow what vegetables we can here, so we don't need to always buy from the farmer's market. It's mostly roots and lentils."
"I helped!" Ianis chirped in loudly, so Petru gave him a stern look.
"You don't grow any berries whatsoever? Not even tree fruit?"
Petru shook his head. "Those are difficult to grow, and trees need space we don't have."
"You're woodcutters right? Just clear the nearby area, and plant some!"
"Not our land..." Petru shook his head, and F'illub'iter noted it down. "Mom should be fast asleep, so if we're quick and quiet, we can show you the inside. After that, we meet tomorrow in the woods, and you tell us about your lands, like you said. Information for information."
"Yes." F'illub'iter said noncommittally. They could always just leave, and the pair wouldn't be able to follow.
The group walked into the hall of the house. It had an old, decrepit, and discoloured rug, bearing some kind of abstract pattern that F'illub'iter could not identify. There were two windows, both without glass, and covered by two slabs of wood, conjoined with a latch. At the back was a stone chimney that gave way to a hearth with a fire still burning inside, keeping the room pleasantly warm. To the side, was a table, with 2 long benches on either side, and a rug atop it. There were 3 other doors, one of them slightly ajar. Outside the window, the deer’s corpse was hanged, draining its blood onto the ground.
“Get away from it!” shouted a high-pitched voice from behind.