Why was he still standing here? Ezra kept his heavily lidded eyes on the old hag as she blabbed on and on and on. Damnit! All he wanted was to go home and sleep, not hear about how thankful and happy this woman was.

Two whole flippin weeks. Merlin what had he been doing!? Sprigans were one of the lowest class fairies he knew of, the little pesks should have taken a day to get rid of, tops!

It was all that stupid, annoying, pain in the ass old hag's fault. Nothing had pleased her! He'd suggest they leave the doors open and she'd complain it let in a draft. He'd suggest she put up some iron and she complained it didn't match her curtains. He'd suggest they cut off the corner of her house and she would complain it would destroy her house! The crooked old hag was such a pain!

The only thing that had satisfied her was moving the entire house. Because heaven knows that's the easiest of solutions. It wasn't like moving an entire home took energy or a whole bucket full of magic. Why he'd even agreed to do it he didn't know. It wasn't as if the woman knew where he lived or could possibly come and disturb him there if he'd left.

Then again the council would have gotten wind of the incident and punished him somehow. The last thing he needed was those crafty old men whipping him up some unusual punishment.

A strand of pure white hair was blown up and into Ezra's face. He stared cross-eyed at it for a moment before pushing the knee-length hair back behind his ear.

That was another thing that bothered him. Being away from home for two weeks meant his hair remained undone. The damn stuff was getting annoying.

"I'm so glad I decided to do this, it was just the absolute best choice, really. I was astounded this morning when I woke up to that sunrise just behind the forest over there. Oh! It was just such a wonderful change from my usual mountain view, if you know what I mean deary. And not a single banshee shriek, oh it was just fantastic!" the old had blabbered.

Ezra smiled a tight forced expression. She'd been going on about the amazing wonderful, fanasticness of the job he'd done for an hour. Her tone had changed completely from her constant negativity.

"It wasn't a banshee haunting you, Mrs. Greve; it was a gang of spriggans." Ezra sighed tiredly. The old hag meant well but she was so very tiring. She had yet to remember the proper name of the fairies that plagued her, though it wasn't something most people memorized.

"Yes, yes of course dear." She waved her hand at his comment, as if to erase it. "Truly I should have called on one of you wizard's ages ago. You lot really are a handy group. Did you know? My grandson trained to be a wizard."

Ezra stared blankly at her. Actually, yes he did know. She'd told him at least ten times throughout the course of the two weeks. He wanted to go home and sleep so badly!

"Did he?" was all he could manage to say and even that came out richly coated in sarcasm.

Mrs. Greve apparently didn't catch it though. "Oh, yes! He went off with one of those traveling ones, I think he was a metal, or maybe an animal . . . Anyway, he went off with one who was at the local market and-,"

Ezra tuned the story out, he was so sick of hearing the hag talk. A metal or an animal, really! How could you possibly get those two mixed up? One wears nothing but fur while the other tended to be pierced from head to toe.

He sighed again. This had grown far too tiring.

Ezra would have to walk miles before he got to a decent spot he could use his boots from and the sun was beginning to set. He looked behind him at the neat line of trees that grew quickly into a thick forest. Ugh, he hated going into any type of forest this late in the month. There were only three nights until the full moon.

"Mrs. Greve, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I really must be going," he interjected loudly.

She paused, her eyes turning to him. "Oh, of course. Thank you very much, the council was paid of course and I shouldn't keep you. Oh, but really you have my thanks. I don't know what I would have done if the imp had kept breaking into my house."

Ezra nodded his head and turned away from the old hag, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

* * * *

Ezra stepped carefully out of the thousand league boots. It was night already and the moon was shining close to it's full glory. A small shiver chased down his spine. Lately being out at night gave him the creeps. The strong wind that had been at the mountain cottage was only a light breeze now and it rustled the tall grasses of the valley in long sweeps. The tops of the spattering of trees behind his stone cottage swayed slightly, adding the swish of leaves to the rustle.

He picked up the boots quickly and walked hurriedly to the door of his stone cottage.

A sharp snap made him jump and look around while hastily undoing the locking enchantments he'd placed on his door. Another snap reached his ears. Something was coming toward him and he did not like it at all. His heart beat sporadically in his chest, while his hands trembled as they turned the knob to his front door.

He was inside with the door slammed shut behind him and replacing all the locking enchantments in a heartbeat. Ezra only paused to take a deep breath and calm down then.

This was getting ridiculous. Every month, the last two weeks before the full moon appeared, he wouldn't be able to step outside his house after dark. The consequences of being caught scared him too much. After all he was only a faerie wizard for Merlin's sake! What was he supposed to do against a mad, horny werewolf?!

The damn beast had been stalking him for almost half a year now, attempting to rape him every full moon, it was more than enough to give the wizard nightmares. Stupid beast. He understood wanting the curse released, but there just had to be a different method of doing so, eating a raped wizard was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard of! And yet the man believed it!

He sighed staring at his door for a moment before turning away. The small entry way of the cottage led straight into a clean, stone kitchen, complete with a cauldron large enough to fit an entire man inside sitting upon an equally large fire pit in the middle of the space.

Ezra lit the candles scattered throughout the room with a wave of his hand. Each burned a different colored flame, creating an odd mix of light to bounce off the dark stone that covered the floor and walls. Setting his bag down inside the door, he moved slowly toward the cupboards that lined the room, dragging his feet tiredly.

Now that the scare had passed, he was even more exhausted then he had been while listening to the old hag talk. He would love nothing more than just to curl up on his bed and sleep until the sun was up, but duty called.

Pulling the cupboard open the wizard selected a few choice ingredients and closed it turning to the large cauldron. Another wave of his hand and fire began licking at the base of the large pot.

Ezra threw in the ingredients in a tired trance: he'd made the potion so many times it required little concentration. His eyelids felt heavy. His mind was foggy and drifting. The now bubbling cauldron blurred in and out of focus continually. If only he could go to bed and collapse into his warm, comfortable mattress.

Crackling noises from the cauldron caused him to focus. The concoction was an opaque, bright blue and was bubbling furiously. Ezra tossed in the last ingredient, a pinch of setae, and backed away a couple of steps.

The bubbles began to enlarge; popping every few seconds and sending a tiny shower of droplets that would hiss and sizzle when they fell on the stone floor.

Ezra watched with groggy boredom as the bubbling reached such a scale that the entire opening formed one enormous bubble. It continued to rise and grow until it had enveloped the entire cauldron in an opaque, blue bubble. The first time he'd performed the spell he'd been as excited as a little apprentice, marveling at the mass of the thing. Now it was just an excessively extravagant show.

The bottom of the bubble began to evaporate into the air with an odd crackling-hissing sound. It continued up the side until only a small circle of the blue material was left. The left over bubble formed a fist sized sphere and floated there.

Below it, standing inside the cauldron, was a short balding man wearing a black jacket with tails that reached down past the lip of the cauldron. The man took a moment to look about the kitchen before focusing on Ezra, who was leaning against one of his cupboards. "Ezra, offely late isn't it?"

Ezra frowned and pushed himself away from the cupboard. He grabbed the ten thousand league boots from inside the door as he said, "Evening Arthur. Council rules, you know that. I have to report in as soon as I'm able." Walking up to the side of the cauldron he set the boots onto the lip.

Arthur took them, examined them, and dropped them beside him in the pot. "The council aren't the ones that have to get up in the middle of the night," he grumbled producing a paper and quill from his ridiculous jacket and casting a spell on them both. When he released them they both floated into the air beside his shoulder and hovered there, poised. "Ezra Ambrance. Case of disruptive spriggans. Total time taken-," he paused in his ministrations and the pen came to a halt from it's scribbling on the paper. Questioning eyes flicked up to meet Ezra's.

"13 days," he supplied, the pen jotting down the number.

Arthur's eyebrow went up in surprise, but Ezra just waved his hand, not in the mood to explain what a pain old women where. "Equipment used, a single pair of ten thousand league boots, returned; condition, slightly muddy. Magic used," he paused again.

"One large scale locomotion enchantment," Ezra stated to the pen.

Arthur gave him another odd look, but, shaking his head, continued. He pulled a small bag of coins from his jacket, tossing it to Ezra. "Payment completed. End Report." The quill made one last flourish across the paper before it rolled and was snatched from the air by Arthur before being stuffed back into his jacket.

"Tell the equipment department to get a batch of shorter distance boots. It's just ridiculous to have to take an eighth of a step and still need to walk miles to reach your destination." Ezra said, running his hand over his tired eyes.

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Yea, I'm sure they'll get right on that."

Ezra chuckled. "O'course. Night, Arthur."

The man in the cauldron nodded then reached up and grabbed the still floating bubble. A small whistling sound was heard and then Arthur was gone.

Ezra stared for a moment at the empty cauldron before turning his back on the kitchen. He'd clean up tomorrow. Right now he was so exhausted he couldn't even be bothered to clean the dirt from his traveling coat.

He walked down a darkly paneled hallway and through a heavy door on the left. It shut behind him with a light thud. His candles lit automatically as he entered, casting flickering light onto the cramped room.

A large, messy bed, covered in numerous different colored quilts was tucked in the corner next to the door. The opposite wall had two large windows that looked out on the front yard through thick metal bars. He's had them installed after the damned wolf's first attempt at entering his room through one of the large windows. It'd been the worst night of his life.

A long, squat desk sat between the windows with an odd one legged chair in front. A massive wardrobe took up the remainder of wall space, the end shoved tightly against the window's wall so that the door could just barely scrape by it.

Ezra glanced around the room before walking to the wardrobe and pulling it open. He removed his traveling coat, his purple, waist tied robe, and his overly large, many pocketed pants and rolled them all into a ball before shoving them into the wardrobe and slamming the door shut.

Sleeping in only his loincloth had become almost a custom for him. There were too many nights where he was to tired to be bothered by redressing just to sleep. He pulled a piece of ribbon from the handle of the wardrobe and tied his long white hair back haphazardly, keeping it out of his face.

A lightly tanned face stared at him through drooping eyelids in his mirror. He turned away and did a face plant into his bed where he wormed his way under the multiple quilts. The candles flickered out and he was left in the dark.

* * *

The light sound of metal crashing into metal awoke Ezra the next morning. Pale grey eyes snapped open to meet a pair of large golden orbs staring back at him.

"Ah!" He jerked back into his pillows and the eyes pulled away, revealing a fur covered face that looked similar to that of a cat's.

Ezra breathed a sigh of relief. "Toadstools, Zute, you scared the spells right out of me," he exclaimed, sitting up and swinging his legs over the wooden bed frame.

Zute blinked at him, her pink nose twitching slightly. The brownie was shorter than Ezra, even when he was sitting, her fur covered body barely reached up to his hip when he stood. She stood on her back paws, though her posture was similar to that of a human's.

"My apologies sir." She turned and opened his wardrobe, pulling out the ball of clothes and throwing it out the open door. "You were away for quiet some time, but this morning Raph and I, we were walking by to the mountain side, you know we found this lovely patch of mushrooms the other day, dozens of morsels you know. And I says to Raph I say, 'Now don't those enchantments just look fresh? Why Master Ezra must be back.' Raph said he reckoned so too. So we came in and sure enough there was your bag, thrown in front of the door, the kitchen was a mess, with the candles still burning and all, and you was sleepin."

Ezra listened to her rattle on, a small grin growing. Zute was one of the few people he could stand to listen to for hours on end. The little black brownie's voice always made him feel calm and left him with a pleasant buzzing in his ears.

He'd given up long ago trying to figure out how it was that the two brownies could get through his locking enchantments. When he'd asked they'd always say that nothing could keep them from a home they liked.

A cream colored robe and a pair of the same colored silk pants fell onto his lap. "Now you put these on then you can come eat, Raph's making something in there, though I don't know what, you never seem to keep much food in here do you, which is fine for us of course, we have no problem finding food, but you will be in quite a trouble if you don't solve that issue won't you? Anyhow then you can bathe and we'll fix up this mess you call hair." The short furry fingers pulled the tie from around the white mass and let it fall down around his shoulders. She picked up a small handful of it and looked it over, grumbling to herself.

Ezra watched with light amusement. If it were up to him he'd have just cut it all off and worn it short like every other man out there, but the two brownies seemed to enjoy messing with it so he let them do as they liked. The two faeries were such a relief to have around, compared to the silly little pixies that inhabited the fields around his home. While the brownies tended to rattle on and on about the most obscure topics, it was possible to carry on a decent conversation with them when it was needed.

Zute tugged sharply on Ezra's hair, bringing his head down to her level.

"Ow, Zute, what are you-," he was cut off by a sharp tap on his nose.

He crossed his eyes to see a fresh green leaf. Zute pulled it back from his face and glared. "Ezra needs to be less careless of hair. Leaves in your hair! What would your mother say if she saw her son with leaves in her hair? I know my mom would throw quite the fit, that she would." Zute went on about her mother as she walked out of the room, talking to herself.

Ezra chuckled, running his hand through hair quickly before standing. Oh, he'd missed morning rants. It was surprising how refreshing it felt after waking to an old hag for two weeks in a row.

He dressed quickly. The crème robe wrapped around a slim waist and was held there by a gold rope. It reached down past his knees and the collar dipped down on his chest, revealing a well sculpted muscle. The sleeves were long and flowing, perfect for keeping him cool while he was out in the fields. The pants went on below the robe, the hems similar to the sleeves, long and large.

He padded out of the room, enticed by the smells of a delicious breakfast, leaving his bed in a mess. When he entered the kitchen he was greeted by the sight of Raph, standing on a small foot ladder, stirring the contents of a pot he had over the miniature cooking fire.

"Morning Raph, good to see you," he greeted the brownie walking up behind him to peek into the pot. A light green broth bubbled cheerfully, giving off the scent of fresh onions. "Mmm, smells wonderful."

"Morning Master Ezra!" he squeaked. Ezra had always found it amusing that male brownies had higher voices then the females did, one of those oddities your master never mentions. "Thank you! I found the most scrumptious patch of long onions this morning and I think to myself, why if these were to go with the morsels I found on the mountain, they were all in this huge patch, why that would make for a delicious breakfast, wouldn't you agree?" He turned his brown head around, his large green eyes staring up at Ezra with excitement.

The wizard chuckled. "If smell is anything to go by then, yes, they would make for a delicious breakfast."

Raph beamed and went back to stirring the pot, his tail wiping back and forth happily.

Ezra left the kitchen and went to the front door where he undid the locking enchantments. Today looked to be a beautiful day.

When he had finished with breakfast the two fairies accompanied him to the small spring that sat nestled deep in the woods behind his cottage. The woods were silent, except for the light twittering of birds. That's odd, he thought to himself. The woods were normally teeming with faeries, from nymphs and dryads to pixies and goblins; it was just odd to not see some of them poking their heads out of the trees. Normally after a long break he'd be swarmed by the goblins, all of them wanting to hear the tale of his latest mission. And the pixies were normally happy to assist in his hair, so where were they?

He paused, looking around at the trees. Raph and Zute had gone off in their own crooked path to 'search for pretties to put in the hair', and he could hear their occasional squeak of excitement when they found something. He looked up at the tops of the trees, searching for any hidden faces and listening for any stifled giggle or padding of feet. But there were none. He swept the forest again and began walking, his brows knitting together.

"Oi, Zute, Raph," he called to the brownies.

The two popped up suddenly from within a bush, startling him. "Oh, Merlin, don't do that." The two exchanged a look. Ezra sighed and walked past them, knowing they would follow. It was foolish to reprimand a faerie.

"Has anything odd happened while I was away?" he questioned, unconsciously speaking in softer tones. If there was something out there taking the faeries or doing something to them he didn't want to attract too much attention until he knew what was happening.

"No, everything's just normal, unless you count the weird mushroom groupings," Zute said from behind.

"Yes, the mushrooms have been having very odd cluster patterns this year haven't they," Raph commented.

Ezra frowned. Mushroom patterns meant nothing to him, nor did he think they should, but this was turning out to be strange. All the faeries suddenly disappearing over night? It couldn't be the werewolf; he never bothered anything but Ezra. So what was it?

He shrugged, pushing the thoughts aside. It could just be they had all gone on a hunt. They were known for doing random things, especially in the summer when the heat seemed to affect their little minds.

The two brownies trotted up beside him, one on either side. He could see now that their hands were stuffed full of flowers. He groaned inwardly, flowers were never his first choice of decoration; they tended to attract unwanted attention.

They reached the spring and Ezra quickly disrobed and stepped tentatively in. Few water faeries inhabited running water, but there was always the odd ball that thought he'd give it a try.

The water was cool and refreshing. Ezra lowered himself in slowly, wincing a little at the cold rush that caused him to shiver. The pool came up to his knees, the very bottoms of his hair getting caught in the current and whirling around him.

"Bathe quickly," Zute demanded from the grass surrounding the pond, laying out the flowers into little piles. The only reason the little cat was so incessant about him bathing was because it was only after he had been cleaned that he allowed them to mess with his hair. Little rascals.

He laughed at her impatience and fell backwards into the water, sending up a wave of cold spray. The light current pulled at his hair under water, lifting it above him so that when he came up his face was covered in long strands of white. Ezra dove below the water, running his fingers through the white mess. He emerged, flipping his head and sending the hair slick against his back.

Half crawling, half swimming, he made his way to the middle of the stream where the water was slightly deeper. He submerged himself once more, taking a handful of sand from the bottom and working it into his scalp, cleaning the dirt that had begun to collect there. The surface broke as Ezra came up gasping for air. The cold water was not only cleaning his skin but clearing his mind as well.

He grabbed another handful of sand and began cleaning his skin, working the scour into all his nooks and crannies.

The silence had begun to bother him again. It was just too strange to not have pixies zooming by his head constantly. Pausing in his scrubbing, Ezra listened for a moment but only the increasing sound of birds greeted him. "Are you two sure nothing happened around here?"

Raph looked down at him from his perch on a branch that over hangs the stream with his large green eyes, pausing for a moment in his collection of slim green vines. His whiskers quivered slightly, and then he went back to his task. "No, no, nothing weird, or odd, or even peculiar really. Well, aside from the mushrooms. Really, have you ever seen death caps grow in the shape of mouse?" he asked glancing at Ezra for a moment then returning to his work.

The wizard smiled at the brownies simplicity, dropping the sand back into the water and falling to float on his back. He'd have to go on a little faerie hunt once his hair was taken care of, he decided. After all, he was the faerie wizard, if he didn't know what was going on with the little creatures what would?

"Ezra!" Zute was becoming impatient.

"Yes, I'm coming." Rolling onto his front he returned to the water's edge where he sat with his back leaning against the dirt wall. "Have at it you two."

Raph scrambled down from the tree and took his place next to Zute behind Ezra's head. There was a moment of low muttering, or as low as the poor male could get, before they both speedily attacked his hair, combing it out with their fingers.

Ezra relaxed, sinking down in the water. The two cat like beings were really two of his closest companions, which most people found sad. But, for a wizard, it was rare to be able to have such close companions. Wizard was a lonely occupation, but the benefits were well worth it, in his opinion anyways. Magic was something he'd grown accustomed too. He very much doubted he'd ever be able to go back to a life without it.

The sharp smell of thyme broke through his thoughts. The water around him was strewn with flowers, most likely leftovers the two had decided not to use. A single small purple and yellow pansy floated just to his right. He picked it up, bringing the colorful flower closer to his face. He frowned, trying to remember what they were used for in Faerie. He knew it was something powerful, but . . .

"Hey you two, what is the pansy for?" he asked half mindedly. He really wasn't that interested, it was just kind of nagging at his mind, like something he should remember.

The two paused in their work a moment, and then continued, ignoring his question. Just like brownies, he thought to himself as he sighed. Agreeable little guys but try to get any decent information out of them and you'd be sore out of luck. Though that was true for all faeries.

A tiny splash across the stream caught his attention. From the ripples emerged a very red, lady imp. Her standard spiders silk dress was nowhere in sight though, which was odd. Above all things imp woman prided themselves in their dress, almost more so than their human counterparts. Her entire body was flushed and her eyes slightly clouded.

He'd never seen anything like it before. It couldn't have been a disease; faeries were immune to everything he'd ever heard of.

As he watched the tiny woman went under the water and came back up, giggling like mad. Well, that was just plain odd. Imps were not some of the more chipper magical folk he'd met. The women were normally so reserved, so what was going on with this one?

"Excuse me?" he shouted across the stream hoping to draw her attention.

She turned in the water and stared at him through misty eyes, then, giggling like a mad man, climbed from the water and ran into the forest, still completely naked.

"Did you see that?" he asked. "How odd."

The brownies ignored him, concentrating carefully on their work.

This was just getting too bizarre; he'd have to do a full scale report. If he was lucky as an extra bonus he could get paid by the council, if he did the proper paper work. Eh, that sounded like to much work, he'd just look into it on his own time.

"Done!" Zute and Raph exclaimed simultaneously.

"It looks beautiful!" Zute cried, stepping back to admire their work.

"It does, it does! Ezra you look very handsome," Raph added, stepping back beside Zute.

"Yes, very handsome, almost sexy!" Zute agreed.

Ezra started, frowning at her remark. Sexy? He'd never heard Zute say anything so – un-Zute-like.

"I suppose I should have a look at it then," he said with false excitement. He was glad the two enjoyed their work, but he'd never really found as much joy in the end result, to him it was just hair.

He flicked the water with his finger, sending out a pulse of magic. Two mirror like sheets rose and positioned themselves, one behind his head the other in front.

Ezra stared with mild amusement at the wild work of art his hair had become. Thick braids covered his head in straight rows. A few long, intricately twisted braids behind his ears had been left to hang down while the rest where pulled into a high pony tail. Another braid had been used to secure it there. The two brownies had managed to shorten some of them so that each bundle of twisted hair was a different length. A few had been undone to allow free flowing hair to break of the mass of thick hair-rope. Flowers were tangled throughout the ponytail, the vine Raph had collected wrapped neatly around a single twist.

It was certainly interesting. Another flick of his fingers and the plates of water fell back into the stream. "Thanks guys, it looks great." He stood quickly, leaving the cold water. A brief wave of his hand and Ezra was completely dry. He clothed himself quickly. "I've got some work I need to do," he said to the brownies then hurried back to his cottage.

This had gotten out of control. First the faeries went missing and now they were acting strange. He bit the inside of his cheek. Maybe this was to serious to go unnoted by the society. The Council liked to keep a close watch on the magical creatures.

When Ezra reached the house he threw the door open quickly and hurried to the kitchen. He grabbed his bag from the inside of the doorway and hurried back out. Thank Merlin Zute hadn't had time to rearrange everything in the house yet, as was an odd hobby of hers every time he returned from a mission.

Ezra began to run once he was outside. He didn't know what was up, but he'd figure it out soon enough. On the other side of the forest that surrounded his house, sitting snuggly in a long extension of the valley he lived in, tall grasses like those around his house grew. It was the living place of many of the pixies, the main faerie species in the valley, and the most likely place to get some type of idea about what was going on.

Thick tree trunks flashed by as he ran. The bottoms of his pants were sure to be tattered by the time he was done with them today. His golden tie caught on bracken and he paused for a moment to pull it harshly. It came out with little fight, though it snaggled the twisted rope.

The trees began to thin, only green grass grew between the trees now. The tall mountains that surrounded the valley drew nearer as he ran. Finally he reached a place where the trees fell behind and two tall walls of rock, with a gap a league wide, interrupted his path. Knee high grasses grew in the brightly lit valley.

Ezra glanced up at the sky. It was noon, the sun had reached it's peak, shining straight into the valley.

The silence wasn't as odd at this time of day, even so close to the pixies home. The little creatures got over heated so easily that they rarely moved about much at mid day. Still, there should be some activity and there was nothing.

Ezra walked past the mountains into the gultch, looking left and right carefully. The tall grasses swished gently against the silk of his pants, breaking the silence.

This was giving him the creeps. He'd never been in such a silent pixie nest, it was eerie.

A small rustle of grass caused him to turn sharply, searching for the source of the noise. A few feet from him there was a small patch of indented grass, the stalks around it trembling slightly.

Ezra's breath caught in his chest. It had to be a pixie, he tried to convince himself as he inched nearer. There was nothing else that would be able to get inside the nest, aside from another wizard. He took a deep breath, stepping forward one last step, and strained his neck to see what was inside the patch of grass.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was. As he'd thought, just a pixie. "Excuse me," he said politely, attempting to get the little creatures attention without startling it. Ezra stepped forward again and stopped, looking more closely at the pixie.

Its normally indigo skin had turned a shade of pink and it laid splayed out on the ground, its legs opened wide as his little head tossed and turned back and forth. Its eyes were scrunched closed and the pixie's green tongue lolled out of his mouth.

Ezra stared wide eyed. He'd never seen anything like this. The little one looked like it was in the midst of intercourse. The wizard gulped as he watched the pixie begin to thrust his hips wildly into the air, a high pitched moan coming from its gaping mouth.

What was he supposed to do? He'd never even heard of something like this! Merlin, this was going to take more paper work than he was willing to deal with.

A loud squeak came from behind him and he whirled. Another patch of grass quivered there. Stepping closer he gapped openmouthed at the sight of another pixie in a similar position to the last. Only this one seemed more active; she clutched to an invisible support as she rolled her hips, panting with sweat covering its body. As Ezra watched the pixie arched impressively off the ground and orgasmed before flopping back to the ground, gasping for breath.

Ezra stepped back, his hand coming up to cover his open mouth. What was going on?! This had to be some sort of enchantment; pixies didn't just suddenly all go into heat at once. Not to mention having sex with invisible things. He began to chew his knuckle.

As an apprentice the only thing he'd been told about faerie mating season was that they must do it once a year. That was it! There had been nothing that could prepare a wizard for such a thing.

Ezra walked deeper into the grassy valley, the number of pixies scattered about the ground growing more and more. He was about to panic. How could something like this have taken place while he was away? Had they all suddenly gone into heat? No, that didn't make any sense, none of them had partners.

The bewildered wizard stumbled through the tall grass, carefully watching where he put his feet so as not to step on any of the oddly behaving pixies. He turned in a circle, looking all around him, this was insane!

He reached the end of the valley, a large granite mountain side halting the grass. Ezra stared at it a moment, his mind racing. He needed to calm down and think. There had to be a logical explanation for this. These were magical creatures he was dealing with for heaven's sake; they didn't just randomly have fits.

Ezra inhaled deeply and let the air leave him in a rush. He needed to do something. Even if it was only momentary, until he could figure out what was really going on. Ezra turned and looked back over the expanse of quivering blades of grass.

A thought occurred to him suddenly. What if the pixies were in pain? It was possible, after all unwanted anything wasn't good, even sex. If he could just keep them from being harmed.

Ezra spun and scrambled up the craggy mountain side until he was at a height where he could see the entire valley. Balancing himself carefully on a small ledge he raised his arms shakily.

If he could make something move he could make something stop, right?

He scrunched his eyes shut for a moment, concentrating, before he muttered a few words, holding his breath.

Ezra peaked out, keeping his eyes partially closed. The grass was still, nothing moved in the gultch. The wizard breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his arms. Now all he had to do was look up a solution.

Turning to climb back down the harsh rock he gasped in shock and took an involuntary step back. His foot scrapped desperately at the wimpy ledge, but it crumbled beneath him. Ezra was sent down, falling away from the mountain side as his hands scrabbled at the jutting rocks, but he failed to grasp any.

Oh toadstools, he thought as he fell, preparing for the jarring landing that was sure to break his legs at the least.