Chapter 20
A loud ruckus was weaving its way through the RV park as Arze and I made our way over to one of the vacant picnic areas.
While walking across the park, I noticed that a new influx of people had joined, parking their vehicles not too far down from where Myers and I were.
It was a massive group of humans that seemed to be all sharing a slew of tents.
There must have been about twenty or thirty of them.
I didn’t even think that many people could share a plot, but it wasn’t really any of my business.
I just wished they would keep it down. They were hollering and cheering over and over, excited over being in Phoebe, I guess.
I could see Arze tensing as he walked next to me, shaking his head lightly as we finally had them shrouded from view, trees bending down to cover us as we neared the picnic area.
There were several picnics areas in the RV park, all complete with multiple picnic tables and grills that sat on opposite ends.
All of them were covered by a wooden and metal roof that kept the areas as dry as weather would permit.
I was glad to see that no one was currently at the one we stepped up to, giving us the semblance of privacy.
We walked over to one of the farthest picnic tables, even further from the shouting that the new park residents were emitting. Arze sat down on the opposite side of me as I took my seat, seeing the nerves washing over him like a water that wouldn’t stop clinging to him.
“Thanks for agreeing to meet with me.” Arze allowed his voice to shake with nerves, yet another indication that he was beyond skittish to have this talk. “I’m not sure where to start, though.”
I appreciated his honesty, but I had several ideas on where to start. “Can we start with why the hell you told me it was forbidden? We can dissect what we did all you want to, but I need to know that first.”
He nodded. “You’re right. That was why I was keeping the distance between us. It’s true, what I said. It’s forbidden for humans and tythwig to be involved romantically. Sexual activities between the two are punishable by death as far as tythwig are concerned.”
So Ripp had been right about that part. However, that didn’t answer the why on any of it.
“Why is it a death sentence?” I furrowed my brow. “Is it just humans and tythwig or can tythwig fuck any other Orb species they want just as long as they don’t slum it with humans?”
A sizable sigh fell between Arze’s beautiful purple lips. “It’s only humans that create the criminal offense.”
I hated how legal and finite everything was sounding. I was beginning to lose hope that we were definitely more than a one time thing, even though I found myself resentful and upset that things were heading in that direction.
Which caused me serious pause. I was fucking leaving Phoebe in less than a week now.What was it about Arze that had my mind, body, and heart in a vice grip?
I shook my mental reservoir. My heart? Was I developing…
feelings for Arze? Fuck, this was getting way more involved than I ever thought it was.
I didn’t have time to assess whether or not that was true, because Arze was staring at me like I was supposed to have some sort of response to his last utterance.
So I cleared my throat and poised myself to speak.
“How long has it been a criminal offense?”
“Centuries,” Arze stated, putting his hands on the table and folding his fingers between themselves.
“You know those stories about humans stumbling into fantastical worlds by creatures of the forest?” Wait, what?
What the hell did tales of fairies and fae have to do with tythwig?
The look on my face must have been all the alarm he needed, because he quickly added, “Tythwig believe that those stories were, at least in part, inspired by real events that happened a long time ago between humans and tythwig.”
“Are you saying that fae and fairies are inspired by tythwig?”
“We think so.” His simple smile turned into a devilish smirk. “Although, tythwig look completely different to how fairy folklore portrays our counterparts.”
He wasn’t kidding there. If the form he’d shown at the haunted house was more true to his real form when he chose to scare guests, than the literature surrounding fae was way off on their appearance. Them being hot though, that was still very much true.
“What happened?” I countered. “What happened centuries ago that would make tythwig go to this much of an extreme?”
Arze sighed again, and I hated hearing it. “While I disagree heavily with the current tythwig decree set in place regarding involving ourselves with humans, it’s with good reason. A long time ago, it’s said that a human stumbled across a tythwig and fell in love with them.”
“This happened centuries ago?” I was astonished.
Orbs had only made themselves known a little over twenty years ago, and that was mainly because a group of people had discovered a colony of sangamar.
At least that’s what I read. The real story could have been anything now, especially after hearing this. “Orbs have been around for centuries?”
“Of course we have.” Arze confirmed with a lazy beam of a smile.
“Anyway, this human and his tythwig consort claimed to be in love. And from what I’ve been told, they were.
But something occurred, and the pair made the unfortunate decision to separate.
And then everything for not just tythwig, but all Orbs, was tested when the human threatened to expose creatures to the world. ”
Wow. So this went a lot deeper than just allowing tythwig and humans have a quick go in the sheets. There was rich history, a history that not a single human textbook would ever tell you about. It was as fascinating as it was horrifying.
Fear tickled down my vertebrae as my next question sent a tremor throughout my frame as it wormed its way to my mouth. “So…then what happened to them?”
“The human was sentenced to death.” My eyes grew wide at his admission, my stomach churning with unease. “He was taken by tythwig elders and…disposed of.”
“Oh my god,” I said, my hand straying toward my stomach as I legit felt it toss and turn. “How the hell were they allowed to just kill him like that?”
Arze shrugged, but his face looked anything but nonchalant.
It weirdly comforted me that he was just as appalled as I was at the actions.
“People went missing all the time in those days. It’s not too far from logic that tythwig took the human and made his death a quiet one, at least from the perspective of the humans. ”
“The human was killed and the tythwig was, what, exactly?”
“He was also sentenced to death.” Arze nodded, clearing his throat.
“Both of them were killed for almost allowing the thin veil of our respective worlds to meet. But when Orbs came out of the shadows twenty-two years ago, tythwig refused to abolish the rule against human and tythwig involvement beyond strictly platonic or forced proximity by way of employment or living situation.”
Well that explained the other question I had about why he was allowed to work with humans if it was all that serious.
What a weird fucking rule. I could understand why tythwig were concerned about being exposed to the public hundreds of years ago, but to not eradicate the rule that kept tythwig on their tight leash after Orbs were revealed to the world felt like a massive oversight in my opinion.
My heart hurt that there’d been, presumably, one of the first interspecies relationships and they’d been reduced to such a horrible history.
I looked at Arze with more knowledgeable eyes, but nothing had changed in the end.
I still yearned to learn more about him, too fascinated by him in every angle to abandon the idea of learning all I could.
I wasn’t setting myself up for success by wanting to continue to spend time with him, our leave from Phoebe looming on a handful of horizons yet to arrive. I couldn’t help it.
I felt something strong with Arze that I couldn’t explain. Even worse or even better, depending on the time of day, I couldn’t let go of it. I refused to.
However, that meant nothing if Arze didn’t feel the same way.
“Alright, that being said,” I began. “How exactly does the tythwig hierarchy work? Are you in tribes or something like that?” I’d heard word that some Orbs tended to stick together and live in self-imposed communes comprising of only their respective species, but I had no idea if tythwig were one of the rumored ones.
“How would any one of them find out about what happened last night?”
I swore I could see his cheeks turn a darker shade of purple, and it was fucking adorable. Arze cleared his throat again at the memory that must have danced behind the thin membrane of his eyes, holding his stare with my own.
“Firstly, tythwig don’t typically live in tribes or anything of that nature. Tythwig are pretty nomadic, living anywhere and everywhere. Our ability to shift into trees lets us blend in and appear as any other tree, if we so choose to.”
That was…pretty fucking cool. My head turned toward the tree line the kept us out of view from the still rowdy crowd forming towards the front of the RV park.
The fact that any one of those trees could really be a tythwig in disguise was awesome while also giving me great caution.
I don’t think I’d ever look at trees the same way again.