=::= Elise's PoV =::=

After listening to Professor Casey drone on about dirt for fifteen dreary minutes, the boredom had finally overcome my shyness and angst about being around strange humans.

So while mom and the tall fae professor went to go stare at shallow holes in the ground and talk more about marvellous dirt, I decided to sneak away and do some exploring.

I knew there had to be something interesting here, they were just keeping it hidden.

The SUVs were my first destination. There was usually cool stuff in peoples' cars, and sometimes even the cars themselves were interesting. Especially if you could take them for a little ride. Technically I didn't know how to drive and I definitely didn't have a license, the humans all thought I looked too young for that, but secretly I really did know how. And even though modern cars were almost impossible to borrow, I knew some tricks with magic that could help there too.

These vehicles were old, practically antiques. They all dated from the twenty-forties, which was before self-driving became mandatory in all new cars. That happened in the fifties, or at least it did in North America. I wasn't sure when it happened in Europe.

I couldn't actually remember where I learned that either. I had a lot of random knowledge like that, stuff I learned before mom adopted me. I remembered odd facts, but all the context was faded. I knew I could usually get more details if I concentrated, but then I'd feel old and sad and strange again so I normally didn't bother.

Unfortunately the vehicles were locked and in full view of the humans working in the field, so I couldn't explore inside them. Which was too bad, if they'd been around since the forties they probably had all sorts of cool stuff hidden away inside.

Instead I went back to the tents, and poked my head into the other big tent. I thought maybe it would be a kitchen or something, but it was actually set up like a storage shed. There were collapsable metal shelving units along either side, and some tall metal cabinets at the back. There was a folding table in the middle, but nothing was on it.

The shelves on the left were full of tools. There were shovels, trowels, brooms, dustpans, buckets, kneepads, and lots of other stuff you'd expect on an archaeological dig site. On the right were a bunch of big blue plastic bins with lids.

I wandered down the right side and pried open a random plastic bin. It was full of shiny silver-coloured rectangular packages, and I pulled one out. There was black writing stamped on the side that identified it as 'Set 1 Meal 3, Corned Beef & Hash.' Next to a red dot in the lower corner were some instructions, 'Click twice, wait 2 minutes to heat contents' and 'Caution when opening - contents will be hot!'

The dot was just printed on the package, but I felt something inside the package like a little disk or something. It felt clicky so I clicked it a few times, then realized the whole package was getting hot. I dropped it back in the bin with the others then moved on.

The next plastic bin I looked in was full of juice boxes. I pulled one out and looked at the label, then scowled and dropped it back in the bin. Only humans would mix bananas and strawberries together then call it 'juice'. Yuck.

On the other hand I smiled to myself as I realized, apparently this tent was their kitchen after all.

When I got to the very back of the tent I tried to look inside those tall metal cabinets, but they were all locked. For now, at least. Last year mom taught Saoirse and me a spell to open locks, and in here I didn't have to worry about being seen like I did with the SUVs.

Thinking about the spell made me wish either Saoirse or Willow could have come here with me. Exploring and getting in trouble was a lot more fun with them than it ever was alone.

But grams wouldn't let Saoirse come to Earth anymore, she said it was too dangerous nowadays. Not that she ever really let my best friend come here before either. Grams was kind of funny about that, she hated for Saoirse to even leave the castle. That time mom took us both to see Áine last year was the longest Saoirse had ever been away from home.

And getting Willow here would have been risky since mom still didn't know she even existed. Not that Will wanted to come anyways. She was born on Earth, she was bored of Earth. She just wanted to stay on Otherworld and sneak around grams' big castle and hang out with Saoirse and me there.

So I was here all by myself, and that meant it was up to me to do all the exploring and stuff for all three of us. Then when mom and I went home again later, I could report back to my friends and tell them about all the cool stuff I found. Maybe I could even bring them some cool souvenirs too. Assuming there was any cool stuff here to be found.

The locked cabinets seemed like the most likely place for the really interesting stuff to be hidden, and I was just about to use that spell to unlock them when I was startled by a voice behind me.

"Your name's Elise?"

I spun around. It was the man we'd seen outside at the dig, Ryan. He was tall and looked strong. He wore work boots and his jeans had mud on them. He also wore an old dark grey sweater, that was fraying at the cuffs. He had an accent but it wasn't Irish. He sounded like he was from the south or west of North America.

"You pronounce it like that? eh-Leeze?" he asked.

He was standing by the entrance, and I was all the way at the back of the tent surrounded by shelves and cabinets.

I nodded and responded quietly, "Yes."

Ryan frowned, "That's not a Gaelic pronunciation. In Gaelic it'd probably be something like Eye-leash."

"It's Scandinavian," I replied softly as I continued watching him.

He frowned, "So why's a fae kid got a Scandinavian name?"

My voice was still quiet as I shrugged, "Mom named me after an old human friend of hers. The friend was named after her grandmother, who was originally from Norway."

That was another random fact from a long time ago, from even before I was mom's cousin. Those memories were even more uncomfortable than the cousin ones, so I almost never thought about that stuff at all.

"So your mom's been hanging around Earth for a long time, huh?" There was an edge to the human's voice. It didn't sound like a question so much as a challenge.

His eyes were still on me as he reached over to his left and grabbed a shovel, then he pulled it off the shelf. He didn't pick it up but he let the blade drag along the shelf so it made a loud scraping sound that set all my nerves on edge.

Suddenly my heart was racing and I wondered if this was one of those humans who hated fae. If I had my sword or bow or even a dagger I'd have felt a lot better. I only knew a couple spells and none of them would be very helpful if an angry human attacked me with a shovel.

On the other hand I did have the most effective defence of all on the tip of my tongue. All I had to do was scream for mom. She didn't like to show off or brag, but I knew she was the most powerful mage ever.

Plus I'd heard the stories, I knew she could tap into the power of the Gods when she was at a Duma Dé. And she was at a Duma right now. At places like this, my mom was basically a Demi-Goddess. I hoped for Ryan's sake he didn't actually try and hurt me.

He was still staring at me as he held the shovel in his hands. His posture was sort of casual, his grip on the shovel was loose. His aura however showed me a very different story. His aura gripped the shovel tightly like it was a weapon.

Nobody but Saoirse and Willow knew I could see auras. I never even told my mom, though I knew she could see them too. Except it was different for her, she told me once that she saw them as blurry colours. For me, they were thin colourless outlines. They usually told me what people were feeling. Like someone could try to hide their feelings, control their expressions, but their aura usually showed me the truth.

And Ryan's aura looked angry, and looked like it was ready for a fight.

I gulped but I tried to sound calm and casual as I asked, "You're not from around here right? Your accent's different."

"Texas," he stated. "Though I don't imagine that means anything to you. What's a little fae girl like you doing in here by herself?"

"Exploring," I replied. I was still trying to sound like I wasn't scared as I added, "I got bored with the archaeology stuff."

Ryan pointed at the cabinets behind me and stated in a hard tone, "That's where we keep the delicate and fragile finds. Don't mess with them, you could screw up months of work."

"Ok," I nodded. "I was just leaving anyways."

He didn't move, he just stood there holding the shovel as he kept his eyes on me. The only way out of the tent was to go past him though, so I took a deep breath and kept up the brave act as I started walking past the shelves with the plastic bins as I made my way closer to him.

I got within a few steps and he still hadn't moved out of the way. My heart was pounding and I wasn't sure what he was going to do. Like he seemed to want me to leave the tent but then I also wasn't sure if he was going to let me go. His aura still looked angry, but neither him or his aura raised the shovel to attack.

After a brief hesitation, I quickly ducked past him and out of the tent. I kept my eyes on him though, incase him or his aura made a move at me. And as soon as I was past him I almost ran to the shallow ditch where my mom was standing next to Professor Casey.

I got to mom's side in time to hear her say, "...don't want to spoil your fun, but I could tell you where to look next. After you found the first one in County Meath a few years ago, I just had to connect with it and it connected me to the rest of them."

The tall fae prof looked torn, but after a few moments she leaned closer and half-whispered "Don't tell me exactly, but give me some hints? How many, roughly where?"

Mom smirked but quietly responded, "Apart from the two you've found, I could only feel two others. One's in Scotland, the other's in the North Sea."

Professor Casey looked surprised, while mom looked down at me and smiled, "I hope you've been staying out of trouble? We've finished the tour here, Siobhan's offered to drive us into the nearby village if you want to get something to eat, or have a look around this part of Earth?"

The idea of food was tempting, we were up early and had to skip breakfast to get here. On the other hand I was still shaken by the experience with that human in the tent and my heart was still beating faster than normal. So I shook my head and asked softly, "Can we just go home please?"

"You want to get back to Otherworld huh?" she grinned.

I nodded quietly and mom said "Ok hon. Thanks to the Duma we can head straight there from here, and we don't have to wait till dusk."

That made me happy. Ryan had followed me out of the tent and he was standing by the edge of the dig, staring at mom and me. He was still holding the shovel too.

Mom put an arm around my shoulders as she told the prof, "It was good to see you again Siobhan. Keep in touch, and stay safe."

I added quietly, "Keep an eye on that Ryan guy. I don't think he likes fae."

"I will," she said to me just as quietly. Then she bid mom and me farewell for now.

The other students moved aside and watched while mom and I went back to the middle of their dig site. I wrapped my arms around mom's waist and closed my eyes. Her arm was around my shoulders again as we held onto each other really tight.

"Here we go hon," she warned me in a gentle voice. She knew how much I hated this part.

I took a deep breath, and all of reality melted away around us.

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