At first Connor thought it was just a really bad day. A few hours later, he thought it was the worst thing that ever happened to him. It took him a long, long time to change his mind.

When the ground gave way beneath his feet and dumped him underground, he figured it might take him a few hours to climb back up out of the cave or whatever it was, a waste of half a day. Once he’d realised there was no way to climb back up, he’d explored a little further, looking for another opening.

He didn’t find an opening, but he did hear water, and followed the sound to an underground stream of sorts. Considering he couldn’t see a damned thing, it was unlikely he’d find anything else stumbling around in the dark, so he sighed resignedly and set out to follow it, figuring it would have to come out somewhere sometime.

After a long time, he started seeing a glow coming from nowhere and everywhere, too dim to notice at first, and when he did notice it, he thought the darkness was playing tricks on his eyes. He rubbed them, then tried keeping them closed for awhile while he felt his way along the bank of the stream. When he opened them again, he could tell there was definitely light coming from somewhere – an odd, greenish light, but he was sure it had to mean an opening somewhere. Light had to mean sky, sooner or later.

Only this time it didn’t.

Connor followed the light along a tunnel that grew steadily brighter and finally around a turn, where it stopped at a dead end. He didn’t notice that fact immediately, being far too distracted by the source of the light. Who – or what – was that? Connor didn’t consider himself a religous person, but he made a hasty sign against evil as he backed away.

“What the hell?”

For years the only sounds had been the trickle of water and the occasional echo carried on the surface of the stream of a bird or a roar of some beast. Sometimes rats found their way this far down and could be heard scavaging but little else. It had been peaceful at first, then deafening, slowly maddening, and then…nothing. Sound ceased to be something that registered.

It was not something unfamiliar to Sahriel; he’d been bound for far longer, but that had been a long time ago and then there had at least been others who came to visit, to speak and tell him of the world. This…this was far worse. WIth no way to track the sun and moon, held fast in the dark, he’d lost track of the years as they slid by, hanging suspended in an awkward tangle, ensnared in the wild mass of coccoon-like strands that erupted from the seal against the wall, wrapping him up in soft steel and binding him to the cavern.

He hung a good few feet above the ground, the threads glowing softly with the seal’s power, an inaudible hum of energy present in the air, reverbertating off the rocks. It had given him a headache the first few years…

Sahriel was woken by the voice, not loud but louder than anything he’d heard in a long while, mind snaring on the sound. His senses immediately felt body heat, not so far away, and he could hear the wild thump thump of a heart. A beating, human heart. His eyes cracked open, a wild, bright unearthly blue that glowed with the same soft hue as the thread for a moment before they adjusted to the dark and he looked through the fine slits at a man. There was a man in his prison…come to gloat? Not with that look on his face.

The need to speak, to demand freedom, rose like molten lava and Sahriel rasped out a demand without thinking, throat raw and aching from disuse, speaking in the tongue of demons, breathless and desperate.

Connor knew what he should do, he should turn and run and pretend he’d never seen anything. That…didn’t sound sane, to start with, and if he’d been a little more fanciful he might have said it didn’t sound human. Still, it looked painful to be strung up like that, and he stood for a while just staring, squinting at the glowing stuff and trying to decide what he was actually looking at.

He moved a little closer, reaching gingerly to touch the stuff, not really having any motive other than curiosity, although it did occur to him that maybe he should try to get the poor blighter down, assuming he wasn’t dangerous.

He was being completely ignored. Sahriel glared at the man, but couldn’t maintain it. He felt so oddly detached from everything it was hard even to be angry that the guy was poking at the binding instead of getting him the hell out of it. He realised while fuming though that he hadn’t actually been speaking in any language that would be understood and focussed a little harder, trying to remember what area of the world he had even been in when he got himself into this mess.

“Help me.” That was right, surely. “Please…help me?”

Connor blinked, narrowing his eyes and trying to look past the glowy stuff – some kind of cobwebs, maybe? Not from any kind of spider he’d ever seen, but he didn’t know of anything else that made that kind of webbing…stuff. Past it, though, he could see a pale face, thin and dirty with long black hair, and he felt a tug of sympathy in his gut. Whoever it was, he couldn’t even tell if they were male or female, but they weren’t dangerous.

“O-okay,” he agreed, “just…just hang on…” He had no idea what to do about the green stuff, but he pulled out his knife and tried to decide where the was the best place to take a whack at it.

Sahriel just stared at the knife, not sure what to say about it and hoping that it worked, and that the guy didn’t slice him while he was at it. He didn’t feel like bleeding all over the place today. He was thirsty enough as it was!

“Hang on?” He laughed softly. “If you hadn’t noticed hanging on isn’t exactly the problem?” He sighed and tugged weakly at the binds, but he hadn’t been able to break them at full strength and he could barely make them shake now.

Connor ignored him, bracing his hand against the wall as he began to saw against the green stuff – he’d expected it to be sticky, like spider silk, but it didn’t even give against his blade. He frowned at it, changed his grip, and accidentally brushed against the seal that was holding the binding. It fell away unnoticed as the binding suddenly loosened and he jumped, cursing, trying to catch the falling whoever it was.

“Hey, hey, easy, you’re okay,” he mumbled, frowning as he lowered the frail body to the ground and brushed some of that dark tangled hair back – a girl?

Sahriel crashed against him, trying to find his feet and failing, collapsing into the arms that wrapped around him and took him gently to the ground, shoving feebly at the disintegrating remains of the binding, breathing erratic as he struggled to feel, awareness of the world rushing back in like a heavy roaring in the back of his mind. He focussed on the face above his and found himself just staring.

His rescuer was handsome; tall and well built, all hard muscle and strong lines, obviously used to manual labour. His skin had a beautiful tan to it that highlighted the rich earthy brown colour of his eyes and the paler sun-bleached streaks through his otherwise dark hair. Sexy…incredibly, impossibly sexy. Sahriel licked his lips but frowned at the dry, parched feel of them.

“Water?”

“Um…” Connor looked around as if he might suddenly see a well, but he’d left the stream far behind and he wasn’t carrying any water. “Yeah, just…um. Just a minute.” He didn’t have any way to carry water, either, so he sighed and leaned down to pick the kid up, carefully lifting the light burden and frowning as he headed back toward the stream, not at all sure what he was doing, but he couldn’t just leave.

Surprised, Sahriel wrapped his arms tighter around his neck and held on, watching his face from where his head rested on one broad shoulder. He looked so damn serious, so completely set on his task…Sahriel immediately wanted all that attention focussed on him. It surprised him, because usually he didn’t like people much at all, but this one was just…yummy. He wanted to lick the underside of his jaw, taste his skin…maybe he was hungry. He sighed and curled in against the warmth, amazed by just how warm he felt, but then he’d been hanging in a cave for who knew how long, anything warm was going to feel like a furnace.

He heard the water getting louder but didn’t bother opening his eyes, relaxing completely in the man’s arms, the warmth and the soft rhythm of his pulse lulling.

Connor set him down on the bank and looked helplessly back and forth, shaking his head and then cupping his hands, trying to hold enough water for the kid to drink. It was awkward, trying to carry it back and dribble it into his mouth, but he did his best.

“You okay?” he asked gruffly, eyeing the kid dubiously and trying again to decide if it was a girl or not. For some reason he was pretty sure it wasn’t, but it sure as hell was pretty underneath all that dirt. Didn’t smell too sweet at the moment, but Connor figured nobody would after hanging on the wall of a cave after being trapped by God knew what.

“Mmm…tired,” Sahriel noted with some amusement, but he definitely wanted more of that water and he slowly forced himself to move, crawling over to the bank and cupping his hands to make a cup, sucking it up happily and sighing in relief as he started to feel less like a chunk of sandpaper and more like…himself. He flopped back when he was done, a happy sigh escaping him as he looked at his rescuer.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Connor answered warily, eyeing the kid and feeling very dubious about this whole thing. Still kind of glowing, but that stuff had been all over him, and Connor figured if he’d been there long it was probably stuck all over his skin.

“You want to be more careful in a place like this,” he advised, ignoring the fact that he was stuck down here himself. At least he hadn’t let himself get caught and snared up by any creepy underground…thing.

Sahriel’s lips turned up a little at that, his eyes serious but amused at the same time as he carefully turned over and got up, brushing the last of the binding off and reaching up to run sharp nails through his hair, untangling it with quick efficiency until it hung straight over his shoulders, framing his face in the old familiar way, making him feel vaguely normal again. He looked around the cavern they were in, both ways, up and down the river and then frowned, looking back at the man.

“Um…how did you get in here?”

Connor shrugged, jerking a thumb back over his shoulder. “Fell in. Cave in back that way.” He supposed he should ask for the kid’s story, too, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Come on, I want to get out of here sometime today,” he grumbled. Before dark fell outside, in which case he might stumble past an exit and never even see it. He was a little put out, now, that the light he’d seen before wasn’t a way out.

Sahriel laughed softly at that, wondering just how deep underground they were, not remembering all that much about it, other than a whole lot of running…though he did know he came into the caverns from the opposite direction the guy was pointing in.

“We should go that way then?” He got up and moved closer to the man’s side, drawn closer by the warmth of him, wishing he could wrap his arms back around him and just sleep.

Connor shrugged, wishing he had some kind of damn lantern with him, because the freaky not-quite-glow still coming from his companion was unnerving, and not actually helpful. He couldn’t really see the ground anymore, and still felt his way carefully to make sure he was still on the bank of the stream, navigating by sound as much as anything.

“Don’t suppose you’d know a better way out,” he said, not quite a question.

“Not exactly,” Sahriel agreed, smiling to himself as he watched the man feeling his way around. Sometimes it really paid to be able to see in the dark. He pretended he couldn’t just so he could reach out and cling to the man’s wrist, wrapping both hands around it and staying close, as if frightened, in reality anything but. He could taste fresh air and carefully guided them in it’s direction.

Connor would have been severely annoyed to find out that he’d been fumbling around for the last hour with someone who actually knew the way out, or could see it, but as it was he had no idea, and while the clinging made him uncomfortable, he wasn’t willing to complain about it when he figured the kid was probably scared to death after what had happened to him down here.

He was definitely going to shake him off as soon as they got outside, though. God, he hoped it was soon. He was heartily sick of the dark by now.

Sahriel noticed it immediately when they started getting close, the subtle shift of light making his eyes itch. They were watering well before they got close to the exit, and he had to stop when the exit finally came into view, struggling with the hood on the back of his ragged cloak and hauling it up over his head, a soft whine in the back of his throat. He hated sunlight at the best of times, let alone when he hadn’t had to go in it for…he had no idea how long.

Connor on the other hand breathed a massive sigh of relief at the sight of real light, drawing a deep breath of fresh air and hauling himself out of the stupid cave, turning back to help the kid up and giving him a concerned look. It was nearly sunset, and the light wasn’t that bright, but even he was feeling like squinting after so many hours in the dark, and the kid had probably been down there for a few days.

“Come on, kid. Who are your folks? I’ll take you home.” Now that they were free of the place, he also wanted to get as far away as possible from this kid with his strange blue eyes and pretty face, and his stupid clinginess and really, Connor wanted to get away from him like yesterday, because something about him was making Connor seriously uncomfortable. And it wasn’t the creepiness, because God knew the kid was creepy as hell, but that was, unfortunately, not enough to make him unattractive.

Connor almost cursed out loud at the thought, he shouldn’t even be thinking that and he definitely needed to banish the stupid, staring, blue-eyed freak as soon as possible. “What’s your name?” he asked shortly, irrationally annoyed with Blue Eyes and angry with himself, too. Leave it to him to fall down a hole and rescue a damsel in distress who wasn’t a damsel at all, and he damn well wished it had been, come to that. They were a hell of a lot easier to handle.

Sahriel shook his head, crying from the strong light and stamping his feet in frustration as he finally wrapped his arms around his stomach and forced himself to leave the damn cave. He could sense the seal back there but figured it was better left there, where no one would find it. Especially if the whole place was caving in.

“I don’t have any parents,” he grumbled, because shouldn’t that have been obvious? Only this guy seemed to have absolutely no idea who he was which made Sahriel pause and really think for a minute. He had no idea how much time had passed, or how things might have changed, but maybe things were different now? Maybe no one even remembered him.

“What’s your name?” he asked suspiciously.

“I asked you first,” Connor told him shortly, feeling as if he might be better off just leaving him here. Though if he didn’t have parents, a family, something, that probably explained how he’d ended up lost in the caverns and trapped in some creature’s web.

“What the hell were you doing down there anyway?” he growled. “Thought it might be fun to explore or something? Lucky for you I came along.” He shook his head disgustedly. “Not such a bright idea, genius.”

Right, because he’d really had the time to think about anything when he’d gone into the stupid caves.

“Just…saw something in the wood and ran to hide. Then I got lost…” That was definitely all the man needed to know. Sahriel moved closer to him, missing the warmth but also just wanting to move in his shadow where it was still a little dark.

“Shezmu Sahriel DeAcre-Sauveur….But just Sahriel’s okay…” He looked up, waiting for the man to give him the same courtesy.

Connor’s eyebrows went up nearly to his hair, but he merely shrugged. “French, is it? No common sense, the lot of you. Don’t see much of your kind around here.” It was damn weird, in his opinion, but he totally wasn’t asking anymore questions.

“I’m Connor James, and these woods are mine.” Sort of. “You ain’t supposed to be here,” he added, frowning as he looked around, trying to figure out exactly where they were, actually, now that they’d come out. A good ways from where he’d started, that was for sure.

“Yours?” Sahriel’s brows rose in shock, because he was almost sure they hadn’t belonged to anyone when he came, and in his experience people who owned woods and forests were usually Kings or Dukes or something, but Connor James didn’t sound overly important to him.

“I don’t see your name on them,” he pointed out testily, looking around but having no better idea where they were. “Where are we?”

“In the woods,” Connor told him dryly, pretty damn sure that any more detailed answer wouldn’t be that helpful, since the kid didn’t seem to know much. “Road is that way,” he added, pointing, and started walking. Technically the woods didn’t belong to him – they belonged to the earl, and Connor was just the guy in charge of them. Hopefully he could drop Blue Eyes at the road and point him toward the town, and leave it at that. Hope like hell he didn’t come back or stick around or whatever, because he was making Connor seriously uncomfortable and he wished the guy would just go back to wherever it was he’d come from.

Sahriel had no intention of doing any such thing. Connor was warm and able and sexy, and knew where they were. That made him safe and his best bet for getting to safe ground before anyone figured out he was back. So he followed Connor as he led the way through the woods, not really sure how he was guiding them but having come across enough weirdos in his time to know that humans were uncannily gifted at the most ridiculous things, tracking being one of them.

“What were you doing out here?”

Connor shot him a skeptical look. “Mine, remember? I live here. I know these woods like the back of my hand, which I damn well ought to considering I spend most of my time here.” Why was he even explaining himself to a curious foreigner, anyway? Not really the kind of thing you were supposed to let slip to suspicious strangers – although he was fairly sure the guy was harmless, but he couldn’t deny he was weird.

“Right…you don’t look like a King to me. Or a duke or even a lord…Connor James? I never heard of a rich James,” Sahriel pointed out, stumbling on a branch and cursing rather creatively before struggling to his feet again and hurrying after Connor again.

“What do you do? Are you the gameskeeper or something? Because I wasn’t stealing like…deer or something. I don’t even like deer.”

Connor shot him a sidelong glance, finding that a very odd assertion, but not bothering to call him on it. “Or something,” he agreed dryly, since his job more or less covered that and then some. Forester might be more accurate, he supposed.

“It’s good for you if you weren’t stealing,” he added, giving the kid a sharp look. “The earl wouldn’t take too kindly to that. You’d be in a lot bigger trouble than you are already.”

“Earl….” Was he in England? Somewhere in the Isles…how weird! He didn’t remember running quite that far but apparently he had. He didn’t think it was that good that he hadn’t been stealing, all things considered, but it worked for now so whatever.

“What am I in trouble for? I didn’t do anything!”

Connor raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a skeptical look and raising his hands to tick points off on his fingers. “Oh let’s see… you’re French, you’re traveling alone, no family or anything, you’re not from around here and apparently don’t know anyone, you’re creepy and weird and sneaking around in my wood where you’re definitely not supposed to be, and even assuming I don’t tell anyone about that, your best bet is to get cleaned up and get on your way as soon as possible. Like I said – we don’t get too many of your kind around here, especially as young as you are, you’re an outsider and a foreigner and alone, and to be perfectly honest no one but no one is going to trust you. So if I were you – I’d leave, and be right quick about it.” Please, God. Not that he was exaggerating the situation any, but he had reasons of his own for wishing Blue Eyes got out of town fast and out of his life, for that matter. The kid was dangerous, definitely bad news.

Sahriel gaped at first, but then he glared, because after god knew how long in that damn cave the last thing he wanted to hear was anything about ‘his kind’. Like the stupid human knew anything about ‘his kind’.

“I am not French! I was…adopted…for a while…” And he didn’t want to think about it, at all! “I wasn’t travelling, I was stuck, if you hadn’t noticed, and what the hell is wrong with going somewhere alone? I’m not a kid, I don’t need permission…Oh whatever, I don’t have to tell you anything!” He stormed ahead of Connor, stomping angrily on every branch he came across just to hear it snap, imagining it was Connor’s legs, or an arm, occasionally his neck. Stupid human!

“Who would you tell?” He asked suddenly, an idea forming in his mind. “I mean…who really owns this place?”

Connor stared at him as if he were nuts. “I could tell anybody and that would get you in trouble. People don’t get that far off the road by accident. As for who owns it…. the earl? Same guy who owns damn near everything around here?” He shook his head, wondering if the kid had run away from the French family who supposedly adopted him, and how he’d gotten this far if he was as senseless as he seemed.

Sahriel’s scowl vanished and he smirked over his shoulder at Connor, because really the man only had himself to blame. An Earl…that would be nice, for a while. But eventually he was going to make Connor James eat his words, hell yes he was!

“So it’s his responsibility to take care of lost travellers, right? So do the right thing and take me there.”

Connor stopped walking, folding his arms and just staring at the lunatic. “You haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you? Listen, Blue Eyes, you are freaky weird. Whatever the hell you were doing out here, you don’t really want people asking questions. I’m serious. And the earl doesn’t have a responsibility to take care of anybody that isn’t one of his people. Lost travellers?” He snorted in amusement, knowing the crotchety old man – if he were actually here at the moment, which he was not and rarely was – wouldn’t give a damn about a lost traveller, especially one as suspicious as this one.

“Whatever, it’s your funeral,” he noted, and jerked his thumb at the nearby road. “Road is there. Town is that way.” He pointed again. “Bye.” He turned and headed off through the woods again, at a slight angle to the road, taking the most direct route back to the cabin where he lived on the grounds of the manor house, near the edge of the woods.

Sahriel glared, not sure what to do, but not wanting to give the bastard the satisfaction of following him, so he headed for the road, walking out into the middle of it and looking around, sighing when he saw nothing.

Taking a deep breath, he tossed his arms wide, fingers stretching and feeling the air, head falling back as his eyes closed, hood falling back, long back hair whipping out around him in the chill wind that built up, bringing the world to him, telling him it’s secrets.

His brothers were far away, so far he could barely sense them. But that was closer than they had been in almost longer than he could remember. Closer, the village with it’s smoke billowing out of chimney’s and it’s laughter and it’s rumbling, and there in a valley, creek winding down around it was the manor. Sahriel smiled and let his hands fall, heading in that direction, thinking up a story and practising Connor’s weird accent in the back of his thoughts.

He was a traveller; had been researching histories of local places, but he’d been separated from his companions when he fell into a river…he had no idea where. It had dragged him underground and he’d been sure he would die, but he had managed to climb ashore. The man, Connor James, had found him and led his way out and he desperately wanted to repay the man, only he’d dumped him at the side of the road. He just needed a place to rest until he could contact his companions; send a letter their way, and he was willing to work, any job they had he could do…

These were the things he told the little man who demanded to know who he was at the gate. That and a soft charm to let him in; to believe his words and feel something like…sympathy. Not quite, but like it. Sahriel didn’t know human emotions well enough to know the correct name for it. Empathy perhaps.

“Please…I’ll do anything. I have nowhere else to go.”