The days – or rather days worth of time – rolled by in Faerie without variation. Every waking period was sunny and warm, with enough wind to make sweating pleasant instead of sticky. Sleeping periods were cooler, but still brightly lit. At most, the sun might disappear behind a cloud. Flowers bloomed continuously in the garden, some frozen in time, some opening new petals each time Mariah woke and shedding them as she was swaddled into her crib. At various times, all three of the humans tried their best to count the “days”. Marks they made in the soil or trees would be gone at their next waking, if they lasted that long. Their most successful effort was in saying the number of sleeps they’d counted to each other each time they rose. Between the three of them they managed over a hundred sleeps before they lost count.
At first, Mariah had been horrified by the passage of time. Her life on Earth was slipping away each time she rested in a cradle, or so she thought. As she practiced her magic, she came to accept that time might not really be passing. Though checking in on the changeling girl who’d replaced her was never easy or reliable, what information Mariah was able to glean showed that little if anything was changing on Earth. Hours blended into each other ceaselessly. When she was hungry, she received a bottle from Podra. If her diaper was dirty, Connor and Molly changed it. Lately, they were taking on the bottle feeding, putting Mariah to bed, and getting her up as well. Podra seemed keen to avoid Mariah, except when the Garden Mistress was about to check on her work. Though it was nice to be feared by her captor, Podra’s avoidance was inconvenient for Mariah’s plan of escape.
Without her fae attendant, Mariah was free to chat with her Irish friends, frolic with Labdyn, and play with the other faerie children. The small magics she could coax out of her broken locket came erratically, and improvement in those skills was slow.
On another endless, flawless day, Mariah was lying in a field of lurid purple wildflowers, trying to get her locket to show her the not-Mariah on Earth. Nothing seemed awaken power in the token, not even humming the song that Mariah often heard while using the necklace. Labdyn – who’d been napping nearby – rolled over and sniffed at Mariah’s leg. For a moment she worried that her diaper was dirty, but pressing her hips against the ground didn’t give her any sensation of dampness or squish in her padding. In that case, his sniffing was for another reason entirely.
“Not now Labdyn, I’m trying to figure out this amulet.”
“You play with that thing all the time. I want to play with you for a while.”
“I just need some time to figure this out. I’ve been trying it for ages and I’m not getting any better.”
Labdyn laughed, his shaggy dog-ears shaking. He ran his muzzle up Mariah’s inner thigh, making her shiver and her nipples harden under her pale blue dress, that resembled nothing so much as strands of cotton candy wrapped in a multitude of layers. “You’ve barely had any time practicing at all. It’s magic. It’ll take a human lifetime to learn, and that if you’re talented.”
His warm, bare, furry body slid along Mariah’s until his muzzle was at her neck. She breathed in the clean musky scent of him as his long tongue dragged across her neck. His dog’s tongue tore a moan out of her and pooled heat between her legs. “Then I should – practice more. I might need it. To protect myself.”
“You should roll over.” Labdyn’s sharp teeth pressed lightly against Mariah’s bare shoulder. “I want you from behind.”
Just a quick one. Mariah promised herself, as if there was any such thing with Labdyn. The locket fell between her breasts as she took Labdyn’s face in her hands and kissed his toothy mouth. When he grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the ground, Mariah moaned and arched her back. Labdyn was clearly in the mood for quick as well – at least by his and Mariah’s definition of the word.
Teeth and tongue scraped across Mariah’s skin as Labdyn worked her dress off with his mouth. She found herself deliciously pinned as his tongue worked across her breasts, curling around her nipples until she writhed. Her diaper rustled like a wad of plastic bags, but Labdyn wasn’t ready to remove it yet. She had to wait until his tongue had driven her to begging and biting him to have her padded underwear pulled off and set aside.
Then he was rough – so wonderfully rough – as he flipped her over and lifted her hips. She braced herself on hands and knees to be filled, and felt his tongue again instead. A gasp burst out of Mariah, she’d misjudged her lover. Labdyn’s massive, flexible tongue was relentless Mariah’s sex. While she’d been studying magic, he’d been studying anatomy – Mariah’s every nerve danced at his command. Her throat was already hoarse from crying out in ecstasy when the thickness of him slammed into her from behind.
In steady rhythm, Labdyn’s hips rocked into Mariah’s rear. She lost herself in the pleasure. It was never clear how long a “day” would last, and often it seemed that Connor and Molly would report longer or shorter times than Mariah felt she’d experienced. In the meadow, Mariah moaned and squeezed herself around Labdyn’s hardness until it seemed that she’d never done anything else. Time and waves of orgasms blended together into a sea of pleasure that was as endless as the Faerie days.
How many times had Labdyn groaned and filled her? Each time his jaws would close the back of her neck, sending a thrill down her spine. Mariah was beyond numbers, nearly beyond words. All she knew was that eventually, they crashed to the rumpled grass and flowers together. As long as they’d been locked in passion, they were equally long pressed skin to fur, their hearts beating in time with each other. Mariah had had some modesty concerns the first few times she and Labdyn had snuck off to make love in the meadows. With time and repetition, that bashfulness had faded until she was happy to lay down with her dog-boy boyfriend almost anywhere he or she wanted.
Cooling air heralded the arrival of one caregiver or another. As the lovers retrieved their clothes, Mariah reflected that the wet patch in the grass was larger than usual. She dismissed a worry that she’d had an accident while cuddling as soon as it appeared. It made sense that they’d leave a lot of evidence of their most marathon session yet, after all.
Sore didn’t begin to cover Mariah’s physical state. Re-diapered and dressed, she commanded her fae boyfriend to carry her, which he did gladly. Of all the strangeness of Faerie, having an indefatigable boyfriend that was crazy about her body was one of the easiest for Mariah to get used to. They met Connor and Molly on their way back to the grove, who rushed up to fuss over Mariah. Though they were bound by magic to take care of her, Mariah had suspected for a while that they’d come to care for her like a child in some ways. For her part, she couldn’t help but see them as somewhat parental considering how many times they’d tended to her needs.
“And what have you two been up to, as if I didn’t know with my girl’s hair full of grass and flowers?” Molly clucked her tongue at them gently parting Mariah’s tangles with a marble hairpin.
“We were making love.” Labdyn considered, his ears flopping comically. “Fucking too, I suppose.”
“Cop on, Labdyn.” Connor admonished. “Leave the lady some dignity.”
“Why? Everyone knows what we were doing.”
“Because if yah continue with your rudeness I won’t toss sticks for yah.”
“Oh, are we doing that now?” Labdyn’s tail wagged vigorously, tearing up a storm of flower petals.
“Aye. Put the lass down and let us take over.”
Mariah held her arms out as Labdyn handed her off to Connor, though she ended up on her feet of course. It was nice to have her arms around his neck and shoulders while Molly finished fixing her hair. Connor got some good distance with a stick, which only marginally increased the time that Labdyn needed to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Molly spent some time fussing over Mariah’s dress before laying her on the grass and feeding her a bottle of faerie milk. A full belly put Mariah in a sleepy mood, especially with all the physical activity she’d been up to. With a soft sigh, she cuddled up to Molly and laid her head in the woman’s lap. Connor and Labdyn were having a great time playing fetch, both women giggled as they watched the boys.
“This is a weird little family, but it’s starting to feel like one.” Mariah said softly.
“Aye.” Molly smiled. “It doesn’t bother yah as much anymore, then?”
“They say you can get used to anything.” Mariah shrugged. “At least I have good people here with me.”
“I’m still not as keen on the dog boy as you are – but I have to admit he’s a fair sight better than the rest of the fae we’ve met.”
“Maybe it’s because he’s so young.” Mariah sighed. “I want to get him out of here before this place turns him as cruel as the rest.”
“You’re still thinking of taking him with us when we escape?”
“I know you don’t approve.”
“Aye, mostly because I wonder what happens to him if he comes with us. What’s there for him on Earth?”
“Me.” Mariah wrapped her arms around Molly’s waist. “A life where people will treat him well, even if he can’t meet very many people. Molly, he’d never been hugged before I hugged him.”
“So yah said. It’s sad, it is, but I haven’t given my heart to him like you have. You see a soft, sad boy. I see that, but I see a wild thing of old magic too.”
“I can’t bear to leave him.”
“Oh, baby girl, don’t be givin’ yer heart to a faerie. That ends with yah in bits – literally if yer not lucky.”
It wasn’t the first time Molly had called her baby girl. Mariah wondered if the older woman was doing it deliberately. She wasn’t about to call attention to Molly’s choice of phrase. It’d taken some time, but she’d come to accept that she liked being Molly’s baby girl. Certainly the response on her lips was something along the lines of – whatever, Mom – but she knew if she said it, it’d either be hurtful or come out a bit too real.
Instead, Mariah borrowed Molly’s phrase for blowing off a request. “I will, yeah.”
“Cheeky girl. It’s yer bedtime anyway.”
“Will you sing me a song? One in the Irish?”
“Yer sweet to ask, knowing the magic makes me happy when I do it, but if you’d rather not…”
“No, I like it.” Mariah looked up, catching Molly’s gaze. They stared awkwardly into each other’s eyes until Molly smiled tenderly and kissed Mariah atop her head.
“It’s not just the magic that makes me happy to do it, either.” Molly rose and helped Mariah up, putting an arm around the diapered girl’s waist. “Connor, leave off with the boy and let’s get the girl ta bed.”
“You heard the lady, Labdyn.” Connor said, breathing heavily around a smile. “You can see her after she wakes.”
“I will, eventually.” Labdyn licked Connor’s face, eliciting a rueful laugh from the Irish man. He managed to get a lick in on Molly too, despite her giggling attempt to fend him off. Mariah got a proper kiss, and a lick on her neck that sent a happy shiver through her body.
The humans had hardly started back to the grove when Labdyn was over a hill and gone. Connor looked back at the grass waving in the dog boy’s wake and shook his head. “He’s a nice enough lad, but yer awfully physical with him, Mariah. I really think yah should give some thought to what happens if you fall pregnant.”
“I know, I know.” Mariah rolled her eyes at Connor. “It’s just, life here is so hard. I’m cut off from my family, my life, and we never know what insanity the fae will get up to next. On top of all that, I have to be a baby. You two would need to blow off steam too if you had that on top of the other.”
Molly coughed in embarrassment. Connor’s freckles had vanished into a fine blush. Mariah’s jaw dropped. “You are! Since when?”
“Oh, I’m not one to kiss and tell.” Connor said with a shrug. “But we’ve plenty of time when you’re out with Labdyn or Podra. It’s – something we’d thought on before we were captured anyway.”
“Aye, it’s not as if…” Molly chuckled and shrugged.
“Well what about if YOU get pregnant, Molly?”
“If that happens – mayhap it’s not the worst thing.” Molly winked at Connor. “I could be stuck with a worse gent.”
“I love yah too, Mols.” Connor grinned. A pang of jealousy shocked Mariah out of adding to the banter. Resenting Molly and Connor’s hypothetical baby was absurd on its face.
“Anyway, Mariah, we could take our Little family back home, God willing. What would you do with Labdyn’s child?”
“Sure, look.” Mariah shook her head, glad that mimicking her friends’ Irish slang was enough to make her feelings clear without a big discussion. The whole point was that she didn’t know what she wanted, or even what was possible. What then was the use of talking about any of it? Swaddled in blankets to make a princess jealous, Mariah drifted off to the sound of Molly’s sweet song.
~~~~*~~~~
Connor didn’t bother Mariah about Labdyn again, especially after the boy was sent on a training hunt and he saw the diapered girl moping about the grove. As much as she wanted to burrow into Molly and Connor’s comforting embrace, Mariah wasn’t selfish enough to do that to them. For one thing, their love deserved whatever uninterrupted time she could give them. They might have started sleeping together – even joking about starting a family – but it was obvious they weren’t in a comfortably solid place yet. Furthermore, whenever she was around them, the Geas on her friends would be in force, making them put her before themselves. They deserved a break from that just as much as they deserved time together.
In an effort to avoid Podra as well, Mariah wandered the wildest parts of the garden. If one looked carefully enough, even the brambles were carefully sculpted to Lualdina’s wishes, but those wishes included spaces that looked wonderfully natural. The physical boost that the faerie fruit had given her made it easy to navigate even rough terrain. Mariah was an old hand at moving in a diaper by now, climbing trees with ease when she needed to get over a stream or wall of thorns.
Her sharpened ears caught on to her stalker before she saw the cat girl. Turning to face Pyrrah just as the fae girl snuck around a tree trunk put a profoundly irritated expression on the girl’s cat face. Though it wasn’t the nicest way to lift her spirits, Mariah leaned into the smug feeling all the same.
“What do you want, Pyrrah?” Though she didn’t need to be on her guard with the cat girl, exactly, there was a hard edge to her that Labdyn didn’t seem to have.
“Labdyn is gone for a while. I’m bored, and I thought you would be too.” Pyrrah was wearing a slinky dress of gossamer silk, it was just the right shade of blue to make her orange fur pop. She washed her furry wrist with her tongue, in an uncaring gesture that Mariah had come to guess meant that Pyrrah was masking genuine emotion.
“I’m lonely – it’s okay if you are too.” Mariah hopped down from the tree she was in. “Did you want to play something?”
Pyrrah approached, her tail lashing. “Labdyn is always talking about how you hold him. He says it feels really good, but that you’re not petting him or anything. He’s a stupid dog – he doesn’t know how to explain anything.”
Mariah raised her brows, keeping a smirk off her lips with some effort. She spread her skirt and sat on the soft moss. “You can try it if you want. Sit in my lap.”
A snarl escaped Pyrrah’s throat, she bared dagger-sharp teeth at Mariah. The mortal girl waited the fae girl’s outburst out calmly. For all her quickness to flash her teeth or extend her claws, she’d never broken Mariah’s skin. Finally, Pyrrah slunk over and poured herself seemingly bonelessly into Mariah’s lap.
“You have to sit up a little if you want to be held.” Mariah scooped Pyrrah up by her shoulders and snuggled the fae girl to her chest. “Like this.”
Pyrrah was rigid at first, relaxing all at once into the embrace. She was warm, and the purr that thundered in her shook Mariah’s chest like a nightclub’s bass. When she spoke, her voice thrummed with her purr. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither does Labdyn. It’s a mortal thing. You don’t have it here, and that’s sad.” Mariah sighed and cuddled the fae girl gently, pouring care into her just as she’d done to Labdyn.
“I thought we had everything in Faerie.” Her tail lashed again, though she never stopped purring. “There are some reasons to visit the mortal world after all.”
Don’t you dare, Mariah admonished herself. Don’t you fall for this one too. Molly is annoyingly right about taking Labdyn back to Earth. What would I do with two of them? Except – they could keep each other company while I’m at work…
Her traitorous mouth hadn’t been listening to her inner monologue at all. Mariah nuzzled Pyrrah’s ears and said, “I’d take you there if I could.”
“You can’t.” Pyrrah scornfully meowed the words through her purr. “The Queen has you prisoner.”
“For now.” Mariah had a guilty drop in her stomach the moment she said it. Missing Labdyn had her reckless. More than anything she wanted to be away from her captors – home, but with her new friends by her side.
“It’s funny that you think you could escape.” Pyrrah’s tail lashed again. She kneaded Mariah’s belly with her knuckles, removing some of the sting of her statement.
“Nothing is forever, even in Faerie.”
“Hmm.” Pyrrah rubbed her head against Mariah’s chin and gave her collarbone a brief lick. “Labdyn says you’re studying magic. You might be wise enough to succeed.”
“Would you come with me, if I left?”
“You’d take Labdyn with you.” Pyrrah’s statement was one of confidant fact. It put an end to the debate Mariah had been reluctantly having with herself.
“I would, and the other mortals too.”
“Then I’d have to come.” Pyrrah sighed. “I’d be – bored without Labdyn around.”
“Do you love him?”
“Hmm?” Pyrrah flicked an ear at Mariah. “We make love sometimes, sure.”
“Silly question, I guess.”
“He likes making love to you. You must be good.”
“Pyrrah, are you flirting with me?”
“Oh, we can flirt when you’re holding me like this?” Pyrrah sat up, her tail up and slightly curled at the tip. “I like it even better now.”
Why not? Mariah leaned in and kissed Pyrrah’s furry lips, cautiously. The cat girl clearly had more experience kissing people with human faces than Labdyn had. She responded with a teasing flick of her tongue – not as rough on her lips as Mariah had feared – and nuzzled Mariah’s neck.
“Labdyn told me that you’re not really a human baby.” Pyrrah pushed Mariah onto her back, nibbling at her neck with tantalizingly sharp teeth. “So don’t dirty your diaper until we’re done. It might not bother Labdyn, but I don’t like the smell.”
Mariah clenched muscles that responded sluggishly from being ignored for who knew how long. A blush rose to her cheeks as she realized she’d been having a tiny accident, but luckily her diaper and arousal was enough to cover her. At least, Pyrrah didn’t seem intent on stopping.
Making love to Pyrrah was as different as the cat girl’s reserved manner was from Mariah’s exuberant canine boyfriend’s. They spent a long time kissing each other and exploring with their hands, always with the rumble of Pyrrah’s purr in the air and vibrating through her touch. Just as Labdyn’s chest was human enough – if furry – Pyrrah’s soft chest was a delight under Mariah’s hands. Surprisingly, neither of them doffed their undergarments, favoring simply twining their bodies together, kissing, and touching for their first time. Mariah didn’t feel the lack of a climax while she laid in the moss with Pyrrah pressed up against her, and the fae girl didn’t look disappointed either. For her part, Mariah’s skin was tingling all over in a lovely flush. Pyrrah’s closeness and purring after being so aloof was a perfect antidote for missing Labdyn.
When Mariah’s minor magical sense warned her that Podra was on her way, it would not have been an exaggeration to say that she was profoundly irritated. The green woman had lost all interest in pretending to be Mariah’s “mommy”, and had all but abandoned her to Connor and Molly’s care. Now that Mariah had found something beautiful in a new friend and lover, the green woman was going to stick her head in?
Pyrrah sat up, startled when Podra got close enough for the sounds of her crashing through the brush to carry. Her purr dropped away and her tail fluffed out – and Mariah had to agree with the cat girl’s distress. Podra was of the garden, she could move as silently as a whisper through the densest brush. For her to crash through like – well like Labdyn – was bizarre.
“Baby Mariah, where are you?” Podra cried out, just as she burst through a bush. Literally burst, destroying the carefully placed plant without apparent care for the Garden Mistress’s wrath.
“I’m here, Podra, what in the world is…” Mariah’s words ended in a squawk as Podra heaved her up and tucked her uncomfortably against her woody skin.
“Night is falling, didn’t you see?!” Podra looked up at the sky, and Mariah followed her gaze. The sun wasn’t visible, but the trees above them had intertwined crowns, letting only a bit of sky peek through. It was darker than its usual eye-aching cerulean blue, as if a rare cloud had passed over the sun. When Mariah looked carefully, though, she could see hint of violet in the sky that had never been there before.
Pyrrah had taken Podra’s words to heart too, squirming into her dress and ripping a silver bracelet off her wrist. As soon as her hand closed around the bracelet, it became a wickedly sharp, curved blade in her hand. Podra sneered at Pyrrah.
“What use, exactly, do you think that will be? I’d leave you here to die, but that’d make the baby cry again. Follow me cat – if you can.” Podra turned, and launched herself into a dead run.
Mariah had thought she’d seen faerie speed on Labdyn, fastest of his little pack of animal fae. She could still remember the wind in her hair from the time he’d picked her up at his full sprint. That was nothing to the power behind Podra’s green legs. The wind battered Mariah’s face so that she could hardly breathe. The land was a blur around her, she had mere instants to see beautiful plants rise up in their path before Podra’s mad charge blew them into leaves and splinters.
They didn’t stop when they reached the grove where Mariah’s crib and changing table sat. Podra slowed, slightly, as she turned and made for a steep hill slope. In the turn, Mariah managed to look back and catch a glimpse of Pyrrah in the distance. Then they were through a cave entrance with a silver door built into the dirt wall. Naked but for a diaper, Mariah was deposited on a scrap of moss that looked to have been torn from the pond shore near her crib. As she gasped and caught her bearings, she looked around the room.
Connor and Molly were the first things she noticed, her heart skipped a beat to see them safe. The room they were in was a mix of dark dirt walls with roots peeking through and smooth stone columns that held up stone beams. The beams formed a circle, as well as stretching inward to hold up a skylight of breathtaking diamond. The ground was stone, and marked with runes. Podra hissed impatiently at the door, waving frantically until an orange blur shot through and rolled to a stop as Pyrrah. The moment the cat girl was inside, Podra threw herself against the silver door and traced its knotwork engravings with trembling hands.
A soft green glow spread through the engravings. When it reached the edges of the door, thick roots grew out of the soil and wrapped the door. Only then did Podra relax, falling to her knees. Pyrrah crouched on the stone and looked upward fearfully. All three humans followed her gaze, watching the sky shift purple, lose its color, and sparkle with stars at an alarming rate.
The scream that tore across the sky made everyone in the burrow echo it with a cry of their own. Mariah felt her diaper fill with wet and mess as her control fled. She was crying, she realized. Connor was there, with comforting strong arms. She threw herself into that embrace and if the word Daddy left her lips, no one had time to care. There was a horse and rider above the burrow.
Only once had Mariah seen the Queen of Glass, and she thought she’d been properly struck by the creature’s terrible beauty then. Glass, gems, and gold flowed in a womanly shape upon a steed made of white fire. In her hand was an obsidian razor as large as a sword, that froze Mariah’s heart to look upon. The light from her steed blazed through the Queen of Glass, flashing through facets to spear the eyes with cruel spikes of light. She screamed again and Mariah unashamedly sobbed. She heard Molly whisper Bean Sídhe and reached for the older woman. The three of them huddled together, and were shortly joined by Pyrrah who put her lessons on cuddling for comfort to good use. Only Podra stood aside – and in the moment Mariah would have welcomed the green woman, though she wasn’t about to force the issue.
The Queen was joined by her daughter. Pitiless as a glacier, the Princess wore a cloak of whirling hail. Her steed was the Night itself, awful blackness that at times would snort sharp shards of ice. Otherwise, its only discernable features were its dead white eyes. The princess had her own weapon, a spear of cold blue ice tipped in shining moonlight.
“What are they doing?” Mariah whimpered.
“Hunting,” Podra said in raw, quavering voice.
“Hunting what?” Connor asked.
“Anyone they can find.” Pyrrah whispered fearfully. “Whatever fae are foolish or unlucky enough to be caught outside.”
“Labdyn.” Mariah looked at Pyrrah in horror.
“We can hope he’s still on his hunt.” Pyrrah’s brow furrowed in worry. “He’d be outside the Queen’s domain, and she doesn’t go out for her Night Hunts.”
Mariah glanced up at the Queen and Princes. They were paying no heed to the diamond window below them, and were too high in the sky to read expressions on their alien faces. It took a while for Mariah to realize that they were talking, so strange were the royalty compared to the more organic fae she’d gotten used to. Whatever conversation they were having, it concluded with their heels digging into their respective steeds and both of them vanishing as if they’d teleported from the spot.
“When… when does the night end?” Mariah wiped her tears and looked sorrowfully at Podra.
“When does the day end?” Neither Podra’s words nor her tone held a shred of comfort for Mariah. The diapered girl – who had suddenly realized a change might not be forthcoming if no one had brought diapers for her – fell against her friends and sobbed.