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"Grandma, this really isn't the time for a camping trip" Claire said watching the woman pack. "This isn't a camping trip. There's something I need to do in the forest and I want you both to come with me" she said looking down at her diminutive daughter and granddaughter. "But Aspen is ready to pop! I can't just go" Claire told her. "We both know her due date isn't for another four days thanks to Lawan. Besides, Rose is staying here to look after her" Lily said shoving snacks and bottled waters into a gym bag. "I want to share with you our culture. This is important to me that you know about your fae heritage" she sighed. "Mom I'm not in the best shape to be traveling either" Rebecca said patting her pregnant belly. "Honey, I birthed four children all by myself with no help. I assure you I can take care of you if you go into labor" Lily said zipping the bag up. The two saw there was no point in arguing the matter any further. For the last two days, Lily's mood had been somber. They thought it was due to stress with the coming showdown.

 

Lily carried the bags and her family down the stairs to the living room. "Ah, thanks" she said as the gardener handed her a shovel. "You need a shovel mom?" Rebecca asked. "Yeah I do for this" she said. Two bags, a rolled-up tent, and a shovel was shrunk down and placed in her pockets. Lily reached down and picked up a small metal box and put that in her pocket as well. "You guys heading off?" Aspen asked coming from the kitchen. "Yeah. You sure you're alright?" Claire asked landing on her shoulder. "I'm pregnant not an invalid. See you tomorrow. Have fun sweetheart" Aspen said kissing her wife. "There. Can we leave now?" Lily asked annoyed. "Mom. Don't be pissy" Rebecca chided. "I have a lot of prep work to do and we're short on time. We really need to go" Lily said looking at a clock. The three left soon after and walked towards Yorkshire Forest. "So what's the crashing hurry?" Claire asked fluttering along. "You know how I gather magic through the soil of the forest right?" Lily asked. Rebecca and Claire nodded. "Well this time I'm going to bleed the forest dry. Before then I have to do some things" Lily said.

 

The walk itself was 15 minutes long. The perimeter of the forest lined right up with the estate and were separated by a chain link fence. Lily unlocked the padlock opening the small gate and went through. "So you're going to power up like me?" Claire asked. "Not exactly.  One moment" she said stopping. Lily paused to take off her hiking boots and socks. She sighed and wriggled her toes as she stood barefoot on the enchanted dirt. "Over the years, I've siphoned off the magic of this place. Slowly bit by bit. Never did I try to just strip mine it dry. Such a thing would empower me greatly but like any energy, it is finite. One day I would be powerless once more and the forest useless to me. Humans have a saying. You can sheer a sheep many times, but you can skin it only once" she said.

 

Lily walked further and further into the forest. Her footprints seemed to shimmer. "Weird. I don't see any chipmunks, squirrels, or any animals" Claire said flying around. "They won't bother us. They know what I am, and this area is sacred" Lily said. Lily made her way around trees until she finally stopped before a pristine clearing. Flowers, magnificent flowers bloomed around the clearing and the trees with the most vibrant green leaves Rebecca or Claire had ever seen. Lily sat down and placed Rebecca on the ground. "Come down here Clare and lose the footwear. This is sacred ground for us" Lily said pulling out the metal box from her pocket. Claire landed and felt something after shucking her sandals. "I've felt this before but never this...pure" Claire said. Rebecca took off her shoes and stood barefoot. "Don't feel anything" she muttered. "Honey you don't have the spark" Lily said.

 

"Have you wondered how a forest becomes magical?" Lily asked. "Didn't Oberon say that magic from Tír na nÓg spill out into the human real making them magical?" Claire asked. "That he did but that only affected that one forest you and your friends found my mother. This forest was never touched by it" Lily said. Rebecca and Claire looked at one another. "Then how did it become magical?" Rebecca asked. "When a fae dies, the magic inside them doesn't just disappear. It oozes out. Leaks from their body slowly, very slowly. Our kind buries the dead like many other cultures and when you bury enough fae in one spot, you get enchanted soil. Look around you, this is what a fae graveyard looks like" Lily said. The two looked around in amazement and awe. "My god mom. How many are buried here?" Rebecca asked. "Hundreds over many centuries. Pureblood fae can live VERY long lives but hybrids cannot. Hybrids like me" Lily replied softly. "What's in the box?" Rebecca asked changing the subject. "Open it and see" Lily said.

 

The box itself was very small. No bigger than a fingernail. Rebecca pried it open and paused. "Go ahead and pick it up" Lily said. Rebecca did and was surprised at the weight. "Fuck it's heavy" Rebecca said. "It's cast from pure silver, so I'd imagine so" Lily said. "Is this a gun?!" Rebecca said looking it over. "A very special gun. The very first of its kind. Years ago, when I formed THORN, I knew my agents would need special weapons. Thankfully, I had a very talented man that knew a thing or two about mage weapons. Over the years he crafted small blades and such. Nothing fancy really. Just things they could use to survive better. As the threat of arcane users grew, I knew that better, more powerful weapons were needed. He designed that. Due to what it's made of and the month he drew up the plans, he called this weapon "Taurus Silver". A gun that could fire spells even if the user had no magical talent. Hold still" Lily said touching her finger on the teeny gun. The tip of her finger glowed slightly before she pulled it back.

 

"Rebecca, aim at a target and pull the trigger" she said. Rebecca shrugged and aimed at a toadstool nearby. She pulled the trigger and a shot of flame blasted out of the barrel incinerating the fungus. It was reduced to ashes in seconds. "HOLY SHIT!" Claire yelled. Rebecca was frozen in shock. "Now turn the barrel clockwise until you feel a click" Lily said. Rebecca did. "Fire again" Lily said. She pulled the trigger once more and a shard of ice shot from the gun and imbedded itself in a tree. "Twist again and fire" Lily said. Rebecca smiled as she did and fired. A massive gust of wind tore a small flower from the ground roots and all. "Mom this is incredible! Why are we just learning about this now?! We could take on her army no sweat if we armed people with these!" Rebecca yelled. "Honey. Where do you think that magic came from?" Lily asked. "From you. That's why you touched it" Rebecca replied. "Yes. These weapons were never put in the field Because of the magic requirements to charge them. However, that changed. I've been having people work around the clock to build hundreds of these" Lily said. "But you said you didn't do it earlier because of the magical requirements. Where would you...oh...oh damn" Claire said looking around. "Yes. Now you understand. I'm going to turn my last source of magic into ammo for these guns" Lily said.  "But I can do that. My magic is..."

 

"Finite. We have no way of knowing how much you have, and I won't gamble it on this. No. This is the only way" Lily said. She began taking her clothes off. "Hard to imagine that I've given birth to 9 kids and pushing almost 50 huh?" Lily said smiling seeing her daughter and granddaughter looking at her nude body. Lily pushed her hand into the dirt and a bright flash of yellow light came forth. "That looked like something Titania did to me" Claire said. "It's a similar spell to leech out the magic here. Ohhh...damn that feels good. Haven't felt that in years" the middle-aged giantess said squirming her bare ass. "9 kids. Mom, can you tell me some about my siblings?" Rebecca asked. Lily looked down at her. "You never speak about them" Rebecca said. "It's painful to lose a child. Hellish after losing seven of them" Lily whispered. "Anything please" Rebecca begged. Lily sighed. "I'll...I'll speak about some"

 

"I had my first child when I was 14. Just weeks after arriving in America. He was a borrower that lived in New York the father was. A young man himself of 16. Strong and fit. An expert at killing rats. You think you've seen a rat until you see a New York rat. Fuckers as big as chihuahuas. He'd pounce on them and ride them like a fucking horse to impress me before killing it. Scared the shit out of me. We lived in a community that was in this long-forgotten storage room right off the closed pneumatic line. The year was 1981 and the country was embracing the excess of the new decade. Food was easy to find. Abundant and nobody starved. Children were happy and played around us. It was a good time to be a tiny and a good place to raise a family. I took Jeremy to be my mate and in a short time gave birth to my first child, Kevin."

 

"He didn't have any magic talent, but I loved him all the same. To have a life grow inside you and nourish it with your own body...a magical thing in of itself. Things were good until winter set in. It was a bitter one. Blizzards crippled the city and the homeless froze to death by the dozens. I took pity on some and began shrinking them down to save their lives. The only condition was they never reveal what I did and for them to live as borrowers. Never speak of their human lives. I saved lives that winter. The homeless kept their word and even began to pair off wanting families of their own. People suspected something was amiss as being a shrunken human, they lacked the advantages a borrower would have. Their eyesight was poor, weak, fragile. Thankfully, nothing bad happened. We were a community. We loved one another enough to overlook the odd stuff. Spring came and with it the end of our happy home there"

 

"The mayor decided to expand the subways into old unused lines when the ground began to thaw. And one day the huge door that separated our community from the outside world was crowbarred open. We froze as their flashlights shined on us. The humans towering over us in yellow dingy coats. "We got us a Borrower nest. What should we do with them?" one asked. "Take em' home I guess. They make good pets. My niece has a female she wants to breed" one replied. "Naw man. You don't want those. They been living down in this dirty shit. No telling what they got" the other said. "Got a point. Could have hepatitis and some other shit. Best we just kill em'" the other said. We didn't comprehend what was happening until the closest one raised his boot and slammed it down on the nearest crowd of borrowers. The sound...the wet sound. And God the screams that followed. I was holding Kevin in my hands when Jeremy scooped me up. He knew I couldn’t run as I was heavy with twins at the time. The footsteps got closer and closer and the screams got fainter."

 

"We all were running for this crack in the wall which we used to go to the surface. It was our only escape. There was a panic as everyone pushed their way in. Parents pushing children in. Mothers handing babies to friends closest to the hole. The bravest trying to buy time by attacking the humans with needles, fishing hooks, and nails. One staggered towards us. His black boots shiny with borrower blood. I was right near the hole when Jeremy put me down. He looked at the human and then me. "Love ya" he said kissing us. He dashed for the human and crawled up him with a speed I didn't even know he had. I screamed his name as he took two fishing hooks with line and dug them into the scalp of the human. "Come on big guy! Let me show ya how we do it south of 110th street!" Jeremy screamed. He yanked hard and the human cried out in pain. It was insane. He was actually steering the human away from us. People pushed me into the crack and the last thing I saw was him leading the human out of the room.     

 

"I could hear the rest though. The human screaming to his friends to get him off him. One said got it. Another said got him with my boot. He was gone. My mate and father of my three kids was crushed to death into the old subway dirt. I don't remember much afterwards. I was in shock. I don't remember us sneaking onto a food truck heading to the Catskills. Barely half of us survived and most were children. When we arrived up there, shelter was paramount. The kids too young to fight and too many to live in a hole in the ground or in some tree. We chose to live in this old house up on this hill. The only resident was an old human man that kept to himself. A good place to live as it wasn't too hot or cold. The old design had plenty of crawl space between floors. We settled in and two weeks later I gave birth to a boy and girl. Rachel and Jace. A somber thing this time as they would never know their father. It didn’t help they looked like him."

 

"At first we only took the barest of things. Crumbs of bread. Crackers. Food from the garbage and only at night. Over and over I thought about using my magic to make us safe. I blamed myself for not doing so earlier. I know now it would've just made things worse but back then...well, I'll just say I tried to find comfort in any man who showed kindness" Lily said. She looked away from Claire and Rebecca with her hand on her mouth. "Mom...we can stop" Rebecca said. Lily placed them both on her knees. "No, you should know. It's not right to keep you in the dark. As I was saying, I found solace in the company of kind men. Not many in our group. The oldest I recall was maybe 28. Like I said, mostly children. One night one of the older teens found a cookie at one of our entrance holes. A cookie with a note "I won't hurt you" it said. Turns out the old man knew we were there.

 

He was exceptionally kind. A retired concert pianist, the only family he had as a 23-year-old granddaughter. One could tell he was very lonely. He would laugh and play with the children. His favorite thing was to watch the young ones jump and down on his piano keys with their tiny bare feet playing three blind mice. Yeah, he taught us music. I remember one night a storm blew through and knocked out the power. The children whimpered as the thunder shook the house. This kindly old giant lit a candle and played Brahms Lullaby to calm them. He truly loved us like family. It wasn't just a shelter for us anymore. It was a home. Christmas Eve 1983, the night it changed. Robert, as he preferred us to call him, was hanging up ornaments on the tree. In his hands were children. The little cuties laughing with him as they hung orbs, lights, and sparkly things. I was nursing my fifth child. Yes, I said fifth when I noticed something wrong. Robert cringed and stumbled. He held the kids in a fist as he collapsed in his sofa. He gripped his chest and wheezed hard. He went still."

 

"We quickly went to his phone and pushed the receiver off the phone. The strongest of us pushing that rotary as fast as he could. We were screaming into the phone for help. By the time help had arrived, Robert was long dead. The EMT was searching and yelling for whomever dialed 911. We hid. No telling what would happen if they knew borrowers were the ones that called. Many of us cried from our hiding places as they covered him with a sheet and wheeled him out. He was like a real grandfather to us. Three days later a young woman appeared. We recognized her from his photos as being her granddaughter. He had left the house to her in his will and apparently was told of us. She seemed nice and since she was his granddaughter, we gave her the benefit of the doubt. The boys loved her, and she was fond of them. She had some do things for her like paint her giant toenails or sleep in her room. Yes, she fucked them. I wouldn't call them abused though. She took care not to be too "playful" when we asked them when they returned."

 

"Months passed and we began to see an erratic behavior from her. Stressed. Moody especially when the mail came. We didn't worry too much as she was still kind to us. Every Friday was pizza night and Saturday’s cookie night and we would watch a movie on a new thing called VHS. One Saturday night she was extremely quiet as she made us cookies. She said nothing as she played the movie and each and every one of us munched on chocolate chip cookies. The giantess sat there and her hands shook. Glancing down at her tiny friends eating away at the sweets. Then one by one of us began to clutch our stomachs and fall over. I was breastfeeding my youngest and she began crying horribly. My stomach felt like it was on fire and my vision got blurry. Instinctively, cast a healing spell on myself as I slumped to the floor dropping my baby. I passed out seconds later"

 

"I awoke probably 10 minutes later. My stomach sore as hell and as my vision returned, I was met with a sight that gives me nightmares to this day. The giantess on her knees sweeping up our bodies with a dustpan and broom. I stumbled to my feet franticly searching from my children. "How the fuck are you still alive?!" There was enough antifreeze in those cookies to kill you ten times over!" she shouted. My theory confirmed. She poisoned us. With almost no thought, I unleashed a shrinking spell shrinking her to my size. Terrified of her new size, she ran from me. I didn't follow. I looked for my kids hoping there was time to heal them. Fae are hard to kill, and poison doesn't work as well on our kind. I hoped they had inherited that ability at least. Pushing people, I had known and loved aside...god...kids...the faces" Lily muttered.

 

"I found them. My oldest has hugged them as if to protect them from what pain they felt. My youngest swept up inches from them. I went to each one and saw to my horror they had succumbed. This human had killed everyone I loved in a single night. Worse yet, I realized I had killed my youngest by passing the poison along through my breastmilk. I tore the living room apart looking for her. My wind spells tossing furniture like dollhouse toys. And there she was whimpering. Hiding in her own fucking shoe.  I reached in and yanked her out of her smelly fucking hiding place by her throat. "Why Janice? WHY?!" I screamed at her tightening my grip. "I can't keep...the house. The taxes. Trying to sell but nobody wants a house infested with borrowers. Too much to...clean" she gasped. "You could've asked us to leave! We would've honored that wish just because we respected your grandfather! We loved you too Janice..." I said crying. "What...what did you do to me?" she asked. "Paradise compared to what is coming next" I hissed.

 

"I could've snapped her neck right then and there but no too easy. I grew myself burning more precious magic until I was human sized. A size I hadn't had in years. I looked down at her and raised my bare foot over her. She shrieked and ran until my sole rested on her back. I was sorely tempted to squash her. Feel her pop under my dirty foot. Her blood and organs squirting between my toes. No, I would give her a death she truly brought on herself. I picked her up and brought her to my left breast. "Open your fucking mouth" I said. At first, she didn't until I squeezed so hard I felt a rib pop. She screamed out and I shoved my nipple into her mouth. Holding her firm, I milked my breast and she drank to avoid drowning. Minutes passed as I watched her sob and swallow. When I felt she drank enough I put her back on the floor and sat down.  She coughed and wheezed. "Please don't kill me. Please..." she begged. I've heard people say the exact same words more than once but this time they didn't move me. Then she began to grip her stomach. "What...did you do..." she gasped."

 

"The poison is still in me. I just passed some to you like I did my youngest daughter, by breastfeeding" I said getting up. I raided her closet and took her own clothes. Stole money from her purse. Slipped on shoes for the first time in a long time and packed a bag of food. She lay on the floor writhing about. "You took everything from me. Everything. My only regret is I can kill you only once. I want you to know one final thing before I leave you to die. Someone will come looking for you and find all these bodies you swept in a pile and then see you. They won't know you're human. Just another dead borrower to toss in a trash can and leave at the curb for pickup. No tombstone. No funeral. Rotting away under a pile of garbage" I told her. I turned to leave and never looked back. Eventually, I made it to the colony you grew up in" Lily said shaking. Rebecca and Claire saw this blank look in her eyes. "To lose so much in one night. Mom, how did you overcome it?" Rebecca asked dumbfounded.

 

"Who said I did?" Lily asked. "I think you understand now why I doted on you so badly. Never let you play outside with your friends" she said. "I feel stupid for hating you for that" her daughter said. "But being a parent opened your eyes" Lily said. "Absolutely. For some time I was terrified her friend would squish or eat her up one day" Rebecca grinned. "I don't recall you grinning back then" Claire said to her. "One day Luke will scare you just like you and your brother scared me. Then come to me rolling your eyes" Rebecca chided. Rebecca groaned slightly fidgeting on her giant mothers’ knee. "Something wrong sweetie?" Lily asked. "Thomas didn't get to um...milking me today. Goddamn feet itch too..." Rebecca said blushing. "Take you clothes off. Don't give me that look. We're all family" Lily said. "Looks like you've been around humans too long huh" Claire said smirking. "You need to stop" Lily said poking her with her finger.

 

Rebecca shed her clothes leaving her naked as Lily picked her up between her fingers. "You look so much like your daddy" she said. Lily took her tiny feet between her fingers and rubbed them. "I know they're sweaty even though I wore sandals" Rebecca whispered. "I used the change your diapers. Your sweaty feet aren't going to gross me out. Look" she said bringing her feet to her nose. Lily breathed in her sweat pheromone scent and sighed.  While she didn't have the senses of a borrower she could still smell them and knew it was the smell of her child. Lily licked and sucked her feet grinning. "MOM! STOP THAT IT TICKLES! CUT IT OUT!" Rebecca shrieked laughing. Lily let go laughing but it became clear that she was crying too. "Sorry. It's just a gift to hear you child laughing" Lily said. "Mom, open your mouth a bit" Rebecca said. Lily did after raising her to it.

 

Rebecca leaned herself using her hands to steady herself and placed her tits between her lips. Lily clamped her lips around her tiny daughter swollen breasts and gently sucked. Rebecca sighed gently and laid on her lips using her bare feet pressing on her chin to steady herself as Lily tilted her head back. Her giant finger rubbed her sore back and aching shoulders. Soon, Rebecca was drifting off to sleep after being massaged and milked. Lily took her off her lips and held her in the cupped palm of her hand. Lily took a shrunken bag out her pocket and enlarged it. Fishing around, she yanked out a sandwich and a bottle water. "Sweetie, it's lunchtime" Lily said handing her a bit of bread and meat.  Rebecca smiled like a kid as she was given food. Lily handed some to Claire. "It's amazing you wanted more kids grandma" Claire said. "I guess you could call it peer pressure. Everyone else was having them. My sixth child I lost through miscarriage. Part of a wall collapsed on our part of the shelter and I was nearly crushed to death. My neighbor’s family didn't make it" Lily said.

 

"And the seventh?" Rebecca asked worried of the answer. Lily drank the entire bottle before answering. "Before I answer. You must know never to think less of yourself. The blame lies squarely with me" Lily warned. Both women looked at the giantess with worry now. "What I didn't know at the time was that antifreeze had damaged my womb. Even though I felt fine, I didn't know what lasting damage it had done. If I knew...she would be alive today" Lily said. "She? My sister?" Rebecca asked. "Twin sister Rebecca" Lily replied. Rebecca dropped her food. "I had a twin sister?" she asked. Lily nodded. "It was two weeks early when it happened. I felt this sharp horrible pain and I began bleeding down there. I knew enough to know that something happened to my womb. Your father was shitting bricks. He and nobody else knew what was wrong with me. Keep in mind, borrowers really don't miscarry. But...I wasn't a borrower. I could feel you both struggling to live inside me and I told your father to cut me open and deliver you even if I died"

 

"His face as he cut into me with that piece of glass. The whimpering he made I still recall. He kept forgetting to breathe as my blood coated his hands. Your father pulled you both out me by the crudest Caesarian you could imagine. "Lily...they're not breathing" he said holding you both. My hand reached out and touched the nearest newborn. My magic poured out forcing her lungs to open. My sheer will forcing life. The baby cried out loudly and I went for the other. Before I could touch her, I passed out from blood loss. I didn't awake for three days. "Where are they?" I asked him. He just looked at me and left my room. He came back with just one of you. "The other...where's the other?" I asked. He shook his head. I held you in my arms sobbing for the loss of yet another child" Lily said very softly. "So I lived because I was closer to your hand" Rebecca said. Lily didn't answer. She didn’t know what to say to that. Rebecca hopped down from her hand and onto the ground. "Mom? Where are you going?" Claire asked watching her walk away from them. "Give...give her a moment" Lily said.

 

Lily wiped her eyes and left her sandwich unfinished. Her appetite gone. The truth was out there now and she could only wait to see how her daughter would accept it. "The truth is a burden. A secret truth is a heartbreaking one. Did I do the right thing?" Lily asked as Rebecca passed from sight. "You did what you thought was best and mom did ask" Claire replied. Claire rested against the soft sole of her grandmother. The giantess herself very quiet with her eyes closed. Underneath her, Claire could feel the magic coursing through the ground and into Lily like a living battery. Lily cracked her eyes open looking down. She wriggled her toes making Claire stumble sideways. The woman chuckled at her. "That funny to you? Me face planting between your toes?" Claire smirked. "I wanted to break the tension. It's been 20 minutes. Go check on your mother" Lily said. Claire stood up and began tracing Rebecca's steps. As Claire walked further away, the forest began to lose its vibrant looks. Old tree stumps broken and rotted. Briar patches growing about like a natural barricade. "Damn she can move for a pregnant woman" Claire thought as she passed 100 ft of walking.

 

Claire heard the sound of crying up ahead. Rounding a moss-covered rock, Claire could see her mother sitting on a pebble and using a ladybug as a footstool. Her footsteps alerted Rebecca she wasn't alone. She went rigid and smelled the air. Smelling the scent of her daughter in the wind, Rebecca wiped her eyes. "She sent you to bring me back?" she asked. "Not exactly. She's worried. We both are" Claire replied sitting next to her. "Didn't you tell me never to put my naked butt on a pebble?" Claire asked. "It leads to a lumpy ass" Rebecca replied. "And here you are doing it and abusing this poor bug with your stinky feet" Claire chided. Rebecca took her feet off the ladybug and it quickly skittered away. "Anything else you want to berate me for?" Rebecca asked softly. "Why did you and daddy choose Aspen’s house to live in?" Claire asked.

 

"You know the reason. Like I told you, I was pregnant with you and a winter storm was settling in. Our tree home wasn't going to cut it" Rebecca replied. "But there are other houses on that road. Why her's?" Claire asked. "Because it was closest. There wasn't time to choose" Rebecca replied. "...you didn't have time to choose" Claire sighed. "I'm not pissed at your grandmother for saving my life. I'm pissed she kept the fact I had a twin sister from me" Rebecca said. "Didn't sound like it. Sounded like all the above. If me and Ritchie were drowning in say...a pot of water and you could only save one, who would you save?" Claire asked. The small woman's eyes went wide. "How could you ask that of me?!" Rebecca yelled hurt. "You have the luxury of being asked. Grandma didn't. You're hurt Because I asked? Imagine having to make that choice and then living with it. But it's worse for her and you know why? Because it's thrown back in her face every year on your birthday. It was your twin after all" Claire said.

 

When she heard those words, Rebecca remembered a memory long ago. It was her 7th birthday or precisely the night of her birthday. She had gotten a pair of new sandals made by her mother. Slipping them on her teeny little feet, she paraded around their cardboard home like a princess until she heard her mother quietly crying. Sensing her presence, Lily immediately stopped. "Mommy? Why so sad?" Rebecca asked. Lily looked at her for a few seconds. Her mouth slightly open as if to say something or wanting to. "...mommy pricked her finger earlier and it hurts" Lily replied shooing her index finger. Innocently, Rebecca went right over and sucked her finger into her mouth. "Haha...thanks sweetie" Lily said removing her finger from her mouth. Lily sat her on her lap. She held her close and buried her face in Rebecca's hair. "Mommy loves you so much" Lily whispered. "I love you too mommy" the girl replied. Rebecca felt wetness on the back of her neck. Before turning around, Lily grabbed her sandaled foot. "Now you got new sandals, we can pretty up your feet like the older kids do. Would you like that?" Lily asked. "YES!" Rebecca replied eager to be like the older kids in her community.   

 

Rebecca, in the present time, stared blankly forward. "She wanted to tell me way back then. She didn't because she didn't want me to be sad" Rebecca said lowering her head. "She wanted you to have the best life possible mom. I think she did a pretty good job considering" Claire said. "Oh?" Rebecca asked standing up. "You're having your third kid and you're walking around naked in a fairy forest. That's sounds like awesome in my book" Claire replied. Rebecca held her hand and began walking. "Super awesome" Rebecca said as they walked back to Lily.

 

"Feel better?" Lily asked cautious. "Some...some mom" Rebecca replied. "Come sit on my lap. I'll tell you happier stories" Lily said. For hours, Lily told them stories of Puck, her agents of THORN, and her business travels. As it grew dark, Lily's body faintly glowed. "How much have you absorbed?"  Claire asked. "Little over half. Still not enough. So what story should I tell you next?" Lily asked. "How did Rose take it learning she was half fae?" Rebecca asked. Lily thought for a moment then burst out laughing. "Sorry...it's one of those things you can laugh about later. Well, Rose was born full size like any other human baby. At the time, I thought since she was half human, her human blood was dominant. It's not common knowledge but hybrids only inherit the fae side only one third of the time. As she grew up, there was nothing to suggest she actually did take after me. As it turned out, she absorbed some of my magic in the womb and stayed human size instinctively. Being half human, it didn't take much to be that size. Well, when she was 12, she got her first period and she cramped. The intense constant pain ended up breaking the spell and she shrank."

 

"I was on a business trip at the time and I called the house. The maids said they hadn't seen her in two days. Worse yet, they said they found her clothes in the middle of the floor and there was blood on them. I sent every agent I had to track her down. They smelled her socks, shirt, and shorts like bloodhounds. I sat in my plane with my phone in my hand scared shitless. They eventually found her hiding in her sock drawer. She was so terrified of the one huge world around her she shut herself in there with no food or water. I rushed to her side as soon as I arrived at the borrower hospital in the colony. I remember tearing off the roof scaring the fuck out of patients searching for her. There she was, tiny like a fae, sitting up in her bed looking at me with this "why" look in her eyes."

 

"I carried her home and held her in my hands. She felt so fragile trembling in my palm. Her hospital gown all bunched around her lower body. She flinched with I used my fingernails to straighten it. "Honey. Mommy will never hurt you" I said. She began sobbing in my palm and I just petted her with my finger as she let it out. Once she settled down, she wiped her eyes and stared at me with awe. I brought her to my face and she stuck her arm out. She touched my nose and lips. Her eyes locked on my mouth. "And I'll never eat you too if that's what you’re thinking" I said. She sheepishly looked away. I kissed her and placed her on the bed. "You know about your father's side of the family but not mine. Rose, you're half fairy" I said. "F...FAIRY?!" she yelled. I took it upon myself to shrink to her size and sat next to her. She stared mindblown at me. "Yes fairy. I'm not human. I just use magic to be their size. Magic that seems to have worn off on you" I said. She sat silently listening as I explained about magic, the existence of fae, and what that meant for her"

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