Roland, King of Summer was bored.  He sat on his throne surveying his court with an expression somewhere between apathy and sleepiness.  It had been ten long years since he had taken a new lover, and the sycophants surrounding him were all the same.  The constant war between the courts was in decline and the humans had virtually stopped believing in them, so there were no curious thrill seekers wandering heedlessly into fairy mounds.  All in all, the thrill was gone.<br/><br/>The throne room was actually a grove of ash trees and the floor a blanket of perfectly shave grass.  The trees rose in lines, like pillars, leading up to his stone throne.  The summer's sun beat down endlessly, and the cool summer's evenings were perfectly cool and lovely.  Everything was perfectly lovely and predictable.  It was time for something, anything to change.<br/><br/>He watched as fairy maidens and lads danced in front of him, wearing only ribbons of clothing and flowers in their hair.  Their dance was hypnotic... almost trance inducing.  The music was the same.  It all made him wish to take a nap, or to kidnap a human bard.  Human bards were imperfect, and creative, and original.  The summer court musicians were precise and musically perfect, but they could not create anything original.  They simply repeated the best of what humanity had offered to the world in the past.<br/><br/>Roland's long legs stretched out, resting on the back of a kneeling lad; a willing footstool for the king.  He was as handsome as sin, with sun kissed skin, a thin face with high cheekbones and thick, expressive eyebrows.  His build was slender, with the long, lean muscle of a dancer or an acrobat.  His hair was black as night and cropped short, in the latest human style.  He wore skin tight breaches and a white button up shirt, stolen from the finest of human stores by his minions.  On his head was a thin, golden crown.<br/><br/>Suddenly, he was brought out of his daze.  He felt a new tug on his soul.  Someone had received the sign!  His desires for a new lover, be it a he or a she, had been answered.   Whoever this being was, they had been attracted to a design which only called to those it was mean to attract.<br/><br/>He smiled, though his smile was not entirely pleasant.  It had been far to long since he had an enthralled mortal to play with.  Mortal lovers were so different from the boring Fae folk he was used to.  He rose and spoke to those gathered.  "Rejoice my people, for a new comer will soon walk among us.  Let the feast be prepared while I go a courting!"  The court was abuzz.  It had been years since the last mortal had walked amongst them.<br/><br/>The king strode off through the perfect, endless summer, headed toward the portal to the mortal realm.