Already nervous at the small rustlings within the greenery around them, Tara tried to look brave and repentant all at the same time.  Her coral lips curled up in an abashed expression, still as Parne spoke of her being his apprentice; she stopped dead, and looked up at him.  Somehow that didn’t sound right, but one of the things that she had learned from Aunt Mary Lin was that the fae were often fickle, and she hoped this wasn’t one of those times, on either the little voices around them or on her companion’s.<br/><br/>Trying to move ever so slightly to reach into the linen pouch at her side, “I have something you might like, but its uhm… mortal food.”  Off to her side, she heard a soft growl and something sharp stabbed at her hand. “OW!”  Instantly she pulled her hand back, as ruby droplets bloomed on her skin, several of them dropping to the ground as the grumblings stopped instantly then.<br/><br/>Before them a birch’s white and black whip like branch bounced slightly as a sylph-like form shimmered into view.  Only about four inches tall, she, if it was a she, didn’t look much like the little fairies to hang in your window.  The eyes were large, almost as large as the sharp pointed face with a flattened nose. What passed for clothing seemed to the peeled bark from the self same birch tree she stood upon.  Its face scrunched for a moment and there was a soft sniffing sound as if scenting something out of place.  The voice they had heard before, lyrical and high, rose almost songlike from the bird boned creature. “You have a mortal apprentice? Oh my, how the mighty Sidhe have fallen!  Have your own powers grown so weak?”  She doubled over in minute laughter, and the sounds of tittering rose around Parne and Tara.<br/>