NOVEL WEB Extras #7 (pt.1)
=::= Elise's PoV =::=
Mom's left arm held tightly around my shoulders while I had both my arms wrapped even tighter around her waist. My eyes were shut and I held my breath. I absolutely hated the sensation and I was almost glad I'd never have magic strong enough to let me cross worlds on my own.
The whole experience terrified me. I even had the occasional nightmare about somehow losing my grip on mom and getting lost in that un-place between worlds.
I felt the lurch when mom cast the spell and for a few seconds my stomach did flip-flops while it felt like we were weightless. Instead of feeling like no way was up it felt like every way was up and my body didn't know how to process the sensations. I kept my eyes closed because it was even worse when I could see reality melt and blur around us.
My arms pulled even tighter around mom's waist and in return I felt her hold me closer as well.
Finally it was over and there was gravity and air and noise again. I felt firm ground under my feet and heard voices talking, but I wasn't paying attention yet. I didn't even open my eyes right away. Those few seconds outside reality left me dizzy and a bit nauseous, and I kept my tight grip on mom for another half minute or so.
Eventually the bad feelings faded and the talking resolved into the voices of my mom and another woman. I didn't recognize her voice, but she had a strong Irish accent.
I finally opened my eyes and looked around, but I didn't let go of mom yet.
The two of us were standing in the middle of an archaeological site. The soil had been turned back all around us and strings were stretched across marking out the ground in one-meter squares. The dig was five meters by three meters, and we were standing exactly in the centre.
And a couple meters away from us were three very startled humans. There were two women and one man, all looked to be in their twenties. I figured the three of them must have been working on the site when mom and I arrived.
It was sunrise back where we were when mom cast the spell but there was a five hour time difference to Ireland so it had to be about eleven o'clock in the morning here.
"Sorry for dropping in on you like that," mom was saying. "Isn't it the weekend? I didn't think anyone would be working today."
One of the women replied, "It's Tuesday."
Mom frowned, "It's not May fourteenth? Beltane was only two weeks ago right?"
"The seventeenth," the woman corrected her.
I looked up at her and added, "Mom, Beltane was two and a half weeks ago."
She sighed, "Right. I should really get a calendar or something, I'm always losing track of the days."
I had to suppress a giggle, then I finally let go of her and took a step to the side so I could get a proper look around.
In addition to the dig site we were standing in, I could see two other areas where the soil was peeled away and the archaeologists had been working. There was one to my left, and the other one was behind mom and me. And to our right were a bunch of tents and a couple SUVs. Two tents were bigger, I figured they were where the people worked and maybe where they ate meals and stuff. Then there were four smaller tents, that looked like what you'd take camping.
The woman who was speaking earlier sounded a little nervous now as she asked mom, "Wait are you two... Are you fae?"
All three humans looked anxious, the man and the other woman took a small step backwards from us and the man was frowning. They were obviously a little wary, even though neither me or mom looked scary at all.
I looked about as harmless as could be, I wasn't even four and a half feet tall and only weighed about seventy-five pounds. And mom wasn't that impressive either, she was only five-foot-two. We weren't even dressed strangely, I had my favourite jeans and some small pink sneakers, and I was wearing a pink t-shirt under a green spring jacket. Mom wore black sneakers and leggings, and she had a tunic top and a black spring jacket.
Mom sighed, "Yeah we are. Please don't panic though, I'm not here to hurt anyone. I was invited? I don't suppose your teacher is around?"
The talkative young woman looked towards the tents and shouted, "Professor Casey? We have some visitors to the site!"
I almost giggled again when I heard that name. Casey was an Anglicized version of Cathasaigh. The professor named herself after the county where our family lived in Otherworld.
Mom and I both turned to the right in time to see a tall slim woman with short strawberry blonde hair emerge from one of the larger tents. She looked like she was in her late thirties, maybe forty at most. She had work boots on her feet, tight blue jeans covered her legs, and wore a jacket with the University of Dublin crest on the left chest.
Her eyes widened and a smile formed on her face as she saw the two of us. She recognized mom of course, but she and I hadn't met yet.
Except that wasn't exactly true. I knew she was fae and her name was Siobhan. I knew she used to be captain of the guard at grams' castle. And I knew I met her a long time ago. It was back when I was mom's cousin, when I was going to a human college on Earth.
I could still remember that stuff but it was faded, it didn't feel real anymore. It almost felt like it didn't really happen to me, like they weren't my memories and I wasn't really in them. And I didn't like to think too hard about those old memories anyways. When I did, it made me feel really old and tired and sad. So I usually let that stuff stay faded.
The professor hurried over to us and I could tell she wanted to give mom a hug. Her aura was almost reaching out, but the professor held back. She probably didn't want to make too big of a scene or something.
Instead she kept her arms at her sides as she exclaimed happily, "Tegan! When I sent you the invitation I thought you'd fly over and make it a formal official visit! I didn't think you'd just jump over unannounced like this!"
She had an Irish accent like the human woman. I figured it was because she'd been here for so long, she started talking like them. I knew when mom and I spoke English we sounded like we came from Canada.
"Sorry Siobhan," mom replied with a sheepish smile. "You know me, I hate formalities."
Then mom put her hand on my shoulder and introduced us. "Siobhan, this is my daughter Elise. And Elise, this is Doctor Siobhan Casey, she's a professor of archaeology at the University of Dublin."
The tall fae woman looked surprised. She'd have known from my hair and eyes that I was a Brádaigh, but she obviously didn't expect mom to have a daughter already. Definitely not one who was in her teens.
It only took her a few moments to get over her shock though, then she gave me a slight bow and said "Miss Elise Brádaigh, I'm honoured to make your acquaintance."
"Hi," I replied. My voice was quiet and I couldn't hide the fact that I was feeling shy and awkward. I hated all that formal stuff almost as much as mom did, and I was a little leery around strangers. Strange humans were the worst, and there were three of them staring at me.
Mom smirked "Siobhan you can just call her Elise, she doesn't like the formalities any more than I do. Is there somewhere we can go to talk?"
The tall prof nodded, "First let's take care of the introductions shall we?"
She turned to address the three humans who were still staring. "I'll get this out of the way first. Yes, our two unexpected guests are fae. No, they aren't here to cause trouble. I invited them to our dig to give them a tour, and to explain what we've found so far."
She gestured towards mom and me, "This is Lady Tegan Brádaigh, fae noblewoman and former fae ambassador to Earth. And her daughter Elise Brádaigh."
Next the professor introduced her three students, starting with the talkative one, then the other young woman, and ending with the young man. "These are three of my grad students, Grace, Evie, and Ryan."
Mom was polite as she greeted the three humans. I just gave them a shy smile and a little wave.
I could tell they were still wary, from both their expressions and their auras. The one who'd spoken wasn't bad but the other woman and the man were definitely uncomfortable about mom and me.
Finally the professor told her students, "That's enough of a break now I think? I'm going to talk with our guests for a bit, then we'll do a little tour."
She gestured for mom and me to follow, and led us both back towards the tents. The humans slowly got back to what they were doing behind us.
The tent we went into was set up with a couple tables and some folding chairs. There were two laptops on one of the tables, and the other table had a few trays with small objects in little plastic bags.
There were also two more young humans in here, a woman sat by one of the laptops and a man was seated in front of one of the trays. The tall professor went through the introductions again. These were two more students, the guy was Tom and the girl's name was Amelia.
They were surprised about us being fae but didn't seem as uncomfortable as Ryan and Evie did.
After the introductions the professor asked them, "Tom, Amelia, would you two mind giving the others a hand for now? Talk to Grace, she'll tell you where you can help out. I'd like to speak with our guests in private."
The two exited quietly, then the three of us sat down at one of the tables.
Once we were alone, mom asked quietly, "I take it you're staying in stealth?"
The professor nodded and responded just as softly, "I'm keeping an eye on the news and getting a feel for the atmosphere. I can probably fake it for another decade before people notice I'm not aging as expected. If it feels safe by then, I might reveal. Otherwise I'll either move on, or if things get dangerous I may just return to Otherworld."
Mom sighed, "If you ever get into trouble, contact the embassy. Even if I'm not there, they'll have couriers on staff. Someone will be able to come get you and take you to Otherworld."
Her friend smiled, "Don't worry about me Tegan. I may have spent the last five decades as an academic but I haven't forgotten how to fight."
The conversation returned to normal volume as they started discussing the archaeology. This was the part I expected would be super interesting, the reason I came. Normally I wasn't really interested in visiting Earth anymore. This was actually my first time back since last summer when I first met my friend Willow.
And I was expecting this stuff to be really cool today. When mom said she was coming to see a Duma Dé on Earth I imagined a big flat-topped hill like the Duma at home. I thought it would be neat seeing a Duma on Earth, but this was just an empty field. Instead of a big hill, they had to dig underground to find it. The whole thing was a bit of a let-down.
And the stuff the tall thin professor was talking about sounded incredibly boring. She went on about stuff like 'strata' and 'flint flakes' and 'mesolithic era'. Even the little sample bags in the trays were boring. There were little tiny flecks of black stuff, brown stuff, and grey stuff. She talked about them like they were important but it looked like what you'd pick out of your shoes after walking through a field the day after cattle were grazing.
The lecture went on for fifteen boring minutes while the professor talked about dirt and I tried not to let my eyes glaze over. I also tried not to fidget too much, and I had to try extra hard to keep myself from messing around with the little sample baggies or the computers.
Eventually the talk came to an end and we all got up so Professor Casey could take us on a tour. As she led us out of the tent, her and mom walked towards the ditches while I slipped away to the left and escaped around the side of the tent.
Free at last from the boring dirt discussions, I could go do some exploring.
