I am here, though for how long I don't know. And I'll be back by Sunday afternoon at the latest if I have to go away. Just so you know....

-EH

I'm back, Ema. And by the way, France was at war with England then, both in Europe and in the Americas. I like the idea of it being in France - maybe the fairies have some magical ability that could tip the war in France's favor. And Kanti is trying to capture them and sell them to Louis XV, who was king at the time. I'm in favor of beginning now. If we need more research, we'll do it as we go along. You go first. I'd do it, but I have to go in just a minute. :( Anywho, can't wait to see what you write!

-EH

The glass roof and walls began to let off one sharp ping after another as rain began to slant out of the heavens, glancing off the milk bottle. Mari smiled to herself. She had only just beaten the rain, and Kanti and her friends would be stuck in it. Serve them right, dragging out the debate at the Council like that, she thought.

The round scrap of metal that served her for a door shuddered as something pounded on it. Mari half sat up and called, "Who is it?" but only the rain and more  hammerings answered her. Then, through the rain-streaked glass, she saw that it was a bedraggled crow who had caught a gleam of brightness from teh weak sun that refleceted off the door. The crow was pecking at it industriously, but then a burst of wind shook his feathers, followed by a rumble of thunder, and he took off, leaving his prize for his warm, dry nest.

Mari yawned. France was not doing well in the war, and the fairies were worried. If England advanced too far, they could burn Paris, and the fairies, or at least their homes, would go up in smoke with it. They were divided into three factions: Mari's  grouping, which believed that they should wait out the war adn stay with their homes and families, only leaving if worst came to worst; Neimu ((you can change that name if you want - it was random because I needed one fast)) and his friends, who advocated deserting Paris and rebuilding in the countryside like some of their more rustic cousins, and, most corntorversial of all, Kanti, who was in favor of revealing their existence to the king and offering their services for protection. Mari's following was the biggest, and Neimu's closest, but it was Kanti's, the smallest, that caused the most problems. she never knew when she was beaten, never would give up a hopeless argument. And while it made her look bad, it also dragged out proceeding drastically. 

-EH

The wind slammed Mari against a broken bucket, hard. She bent over, gasping, trying to catch her breath. The leaf spun away in a whirlwind of dancing debris, but the small figure was left behind. Mari bent her head against the wind and trudged forward, her makeshift umbrella forgotten. A newspaper blowing wildly in the wind whoshed over her head draped over the bucket behind her, and a corner slapped her back, soggy from the rain and surprisingly heavy. She stumbled and almost fell, only to find that she was right in front of the motionless fairy.

It was a fairy. There was no doubt about that - it was too small to be anything else. But Mari couldn't even tell if it was male or female, much less alive. Its hair was cut short and ragged, its face tanned and hard from exposure to the elements. Birch-bark trousers and a shirt made from a kind of leaf she didn't even recognize were its only clothing - no shoes, no head covering, not even a jacket for protection against the bitter weather. It didn't stir when Mari touched its shoulder. "Well then, I guess you're coming back with me, whoever you are," she muttered under her breath. The wind was with her now, a good thing, because carrying the limp fairy and trying to stay upright was all she could do. The wind all but moved her itself. In seconds she was at her front door, noting with satisfaction that a sheet from the newspaper was caught against the milk bottle. It sheltered the front door, so she should be able to get herself and her guest inside without soaking and ruining everything. The door slammed behind her, sealing itself well, and the newspaper blew off, shaking the bottle, but Mari's home held fast between the bricks she had braced it with. 

Jacob  stirred, light breaking through the darkness that had enveloped him for so long. Where?.... What?.... He sat up, amazed that he could. The last thing he remembered was pain - mind-numbing, dulling pain, and crawling under a leaf for shelter while he still had some vestiges of consciousness left. So where..... 

He glanced around, mind still fuzzy and slow. Glass walls, ceiling, floor. All round. Blurred, like they were wet. He was in.... well, it looked like a ((what? bottlecap? matchbox? I don't know really how big the fairies are... I'll go with bottlecap, but if you see them differently, let me know. Then again, a matchbox wouldn't fit in a milk bottle. :P)) bottlecap, padded with bits of cloth, scraps of yarn, and a few bits of feather. There as a wall in front of him; more of a curtain, really, bits of everything from canvas to silk patched together. He, living far from civilization as he did, didn't recognize most of the fabrics. Even just the sight of a leaf would have cheered him trememdously. 

((Sorry that's so long. I wrote two paragraphs and then really wanted to introduce Jacob. I know that's a name from Twilight, but I've never read the books
and I like the name. If you've read Twilight, please don't make any mental connections, because, as I've never read the books, I can't be basing this Jacob off the character :P And I don't want to monopolize the story, so I'm not writing a word until you've done at least four paragraphs. :D I love to write, so if I start writing a bigger percentage than you wish I would, please (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease) let me know because it's very possible that I won't realize it. I'm very hard to offend, I assure you, as long as you're not doing something like swearing at me (that does tick me off), and I'm pretty sure that Admins wouldn't let that on the site. Thanks for that, Admins!))

-EH

((No, you didn't write too much. And I haven't seen the movies or read the books, although I'm considering reading at least the first one just because it's generally a bad idea to form opinions about something you've never experienced.))

Mari laughed. "It's shelter, isn't it? And it works well enough for a house. Is your arm all right? I couldn't tell if you'd been hurt without you being awake."

Jacob winced as he lifted it a little. "I don't know. It hurts, that's for sure. Maybe broken. Can't tell. Let's see...." He trailed off into silence as he held his left hand over his sore right arm. His eyes narrowed in concentration and his forehead wrinkled. His left palm began to glow a little, then the golden, dancing light enveloped his right arm. The flesh of the arm began to turn transparent, the same bright hue as the light. Soon the bones showed through, shining like burnished gold, and sure enough, the translucent skin and muscle showed that they were both broken near the wrist. The larger was snapped clean through, the smaller chipped. Jacob began to murmer softly, and Mari joined in, chanting the healing verses from fairy lore. The glow slowly turned from gold to purple, and there was a blinding flash of green, and the light was gone. Jacob bent over his arm in agony for a moment, then straightened again and lifted it. "There, that's better. I think I'm all right otherwise." 

Marie whirled back to the stove. "Good! These are almost done...." She began to flip the berries, one by one, like pancakes. Jacob had to admit that they did smell better after being cooked, and he was hungry. Now Mari began to slide them onto a rounded bit of glass shaped like a bowl. She drizzled the juice she had collected earlier onto them and sprinkled them with a handfull of raw flour from a bag to her left. They did look good. Jacob grinned. 

"Like we do with pancakes, only opposite. We fry the flour and put berries on it. I'll try that sometime." 

Mari waved a hand at the table set against the wall with its chairs, half the legs longer than the others so that it would sit flat in the bottle. "Have a seat. Best to eat while they're hot." Jacob sat gratefully and they both dug in. The rain had long since stopped, and halfway through the meal, the bottle jerked a little to one side despite the bricks that supported it. Mari jumped up, alarmed. Then through the glass she caught a hint of greenish-orange sparkles in the air. Every fairy left a similar trail behind when it flew, although the color depended on the individual. And Mari knew that particular color all too well. 

Kanti!

((Hehe. I wonder what you're going to do with that.... Kind of left you with a cliffhanger, didn't I? *laughs maliciously* You're welcome to do the same to me any time, of course. :D))

-EH