Season 4 Epilogue: The Dust Settles

Pieni flits from place to place, the crowd's cheers distant and muffled as though underwater, searching. The battle had been fun -- no, all the games had been fun: he'd been put in situations where his summons had been useless, so he'd been forced to win by other means, a test of mettle and flexibility that left him feeling more powerful than ever before, and he'd made new friends while doing it. But in all the chaos and laughter he'd forgotten what he was playing for, and what, by extension, he'd lost: freedom.

It was never about Jack's freedom. The fey nobility were powerful beyond Pieni's comprehension, and yet they use that power callously and without consequence. And it's the same everywhere else. Warlocks, slaves, the poor -- all those he's seen crushed under the boots of higher powers without remorse. He'd been hoping to prove the fallibility of their kind, that you could live life without their control. But he'd lost, and he was wrong.

He'd been meaning to ask Jack, but he'd never had the time: 'What will you do if you win? And what will you do if you lose?' Now he searches and cannot even find a loose screw, let alone answers. He finds an alcove of some kind away from the noise and pulls out a small bird totem and a fuzzy toy and places them on the ground, where they transform into a raven and a dire wolf twice his size, and sighs, slumping down, leaning on a wall and patting the ground next to him. The wolf lies down there and places his big head on Pieni's lap, and Pieni runs his talons through the wolf's thick fur. The raven rests on Pieni's shoulder.

Before he realises it, he's gestured and muttered and four apes appear, fists raised. Seeing no danger apart from a concerningly large wolf, they look quizzically at Pieni.

"No danger this time," he says, "Just wanted to hang, like before. Do you want to go?"

The apes hesitate and huddle together, humming and hoo-hooing, before breaking apart. One ape (Strawberry: the most intelligent of the three) gestures to the other three and clasps his hands together, back of one hand facing Pieni, and rotates that hand until the edge faces him, like a door opening. Pieni nods and dismisses the other three apes.

"Wish I had a less abrupt way of calling you guys, but it is how it is, I guess…"

Strawberry approaches Pieni and squats down, putting a large hand on his small shoulder, and tilts his head as if to say what's wrong?

"Nothing, really. I just lost a competition. It's stupid."

The ape glares at him.

"Okay, okay, so it's something. It's just… weird, here. I came here seeking small victories and opportunities to do good, and it feels like I just got swept up in conflicts too big for me to really solve, stuff that started long before I was born and I won't live to see the end of."

The ape stares blankly.

"Yeah, that's probably too abstract for you. I guess you don't have to worry about this kind of thing. Small victories just aren't good enough for me any more. Really solving problems is not something one stupid bird can do, I guess."

The raven squawks indignantly.

"Not you! Me. I'm stupid. Or at least, I feel stupid. I keep getting tricked by fey, scoundrels, people who want to hire us adventurers to do their dirty work without telling us what's going on half the time. Outsiders, they got twisted tongues and two faces and speak according to rules I don't know, that only they can change... I've lied before, but not like them -- not like treating words like tools in a game. The fey are the worst of all -- one slip of the tongue can get you tricked into eternal servitude, like Jack -- oh, no offense!" Pieni says, remembering at the last second that Strawberry is a fey ape.

The ape shrugs noncommittally and sits down next to Pieni, opposite the wolf, and starts picking bits of dirt from Pieni's feathers.

"I think I just sympathised with him too much. Jack, I mean. A creature that looks different in a foreign land to him that operates under different rules? Yeah, I get it. I mean, maybe. He might have been evil, but I think all the fey nobles are evil too, and I still let myself get caught up in their mess. I don't know. Was it stupid of me to get so invested?"

Strawberry shakes his head no, though Pieni's not sure how good a judge of character an ape is, even a fey ape.

"It doesn't matter. It's over now and everything will go back to normal soon, I hope. I just wish I could have faith in people like I used to."

Strawberry points to Pieni, points his index and middle finger down and makes it look like they're legs running, and then lifts his hands up and joins them together at the tips like the roof of a house.

"I can't go back home, not forever. It's different there now, and the life I wanted there is gone. It's just me and my friends and my animals and you apes."

The ape counts up those things on its fingers and makes a shocked face.

"You're right -- that's a lot of people. I shouldn't be lonely, right? There's still good people out there. There's always good people most of the time, even if there's bastards up top."

Strawberry gives him a thumbs up.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm not gonna let this stupid place get me down. I've seen firsthand what happens when people give up and fall into a pit of misery, and I will keep my damn bleeding heart on my sleeve or I'll lose it, I think. Maybe I can't solve everyone's problems and there's a lot of stuff that's out of my control, but the little stuff adds up --"

"Uh," says a passerby, and Pieni looks over to see a stranger who's been standing there watching him have a conversation with an ape for who knows how long. Strawberry gives him a middle finger and he quickly scampers off.

"What a rude dude, interrupting a conversation like that. Oh, before I forget --"

Pieni digs through his rations pouch and unwraps a jam sandwich from its clean cloth wrapping, holding it out to Strawberry, who gives him a hoot of appreciation and a back-breaking hug.

"Ow -- okay -- I get it -- just take it!" Pieni squawks, and is let go and relieved of his sandwich.

The ape holds the sandwich up to his mouth, but pauses as he hears a whine, and looks over to the dire wolf, who stares up at him with puppy eyes, and the Raven who now perches on his head and crows 'Sandwich? Please? Sandwich?'

The ape looks the wolf dead in the eye, and then the raven, and then eats the sandwich in one bite.

Pieni laughs and empties his ration pouch for the wolf and the raven, though neither of them need to eat, and takes a break from the bustle of the games 'til the ape waves goodbye and vanishes, after which he leaves accompanied by the wolf and the raven, a sight which, in the feywild, is not too bizarre at all.


(if anyone's confused about the raven talking, look it up -- ravens can imitate and remember words like parrots can)