\n Ferous' breathing was heavy, sweet dripping down his face underneath the sown on hawks mask. He was running, through the snow, the cold biting at his bare pale legs, a castle in the distance and a blood soaked sword strapped to his back. Its icy cold metal scrapped at his shirtless skin, freezing and tearing at his own flesh. The crunching of snow underneath his feet was the only sound he could hear, the only sound that let him know he was actually moving in this barren endless wasteland. He tripped and fell to his knees, snow covering all the way up to his his elbows as he tried to stop himself from face planting into the ground. He coughed, spewing up blood, and with a shudder spit it out onto the snow, staining it red. His body was bruised and beaten, his stitches pulling and yanking, causing even grater pain. 

\n He couldn't stop now, not after what he had finally done, finally after so many before him had failed, after he himself had failed so many times. Other Fae would be coming, they would sense that Shiva, his Fae captor had been slain, and they would come to take her realm. He forced himself to his wobbling deathly thin feet, and continued to run, metal around his waist rubbing together creating an eerie metallic noise in the silence of the night. The Fae castle was beggining to fade into the background, its flying buttress' and vast wooden doorways, becoming more and more of just a memory in Ferous' mind. Huge stain glass windows, and Victorian like gardens of nothing but ice and snow. The fields were other changelings had worked, changelings that had not escaped, no, he was better than they were, he had fought, and he had won. 

\n His memories wandered back, he couldn't help it, he didn't want to think about it but he had to, there was something that was pulling at his mind, there in the background. Four year old Ferous lay in a gray room, all around him were voices but he couldnt see, he was face down on some kind of hard metal table. He tried to turn his head but it was firmly strapped down, or held in place by some kind of magic. Tears were running down his eyes, *Where am I?!* he tried to shout out. No answer came, but there was a noise. A hideous noise, the sound of a drill starting, its whirring point getting ever closer to Ferous' ear. He screamed, calling for help begging for them to stop. please stop. please. pl...please, why wont they stop, what were they doing."AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" The drill pierced his flesh at the temple drilling in slowly centimeter by agonizing centimeter. there was no end to the pain, even after the drill pulled out. He had stopped screaming, completely out of breath, he had to struggle just to cry, to cry out for this mother, for his father, anyone that could save him. 

\n But there was no mercy, the drill soon began to enter his head again, this time from right between his eyes, on his forehead, he didnt scream this time. Not because it didnt hurt, he was out of breath, he opened his mouth to yell and no sound came out. He sucked air into his lungs only to have it stolen away from him by pain, by fear, and by the constant shudders wracking his body from the crying. The drill bit hit his skull and whoever was holding it pulled out, the sound of flesh being ripped resounding around Ferous ears. He could feel blood oozing down his face and filling his eyes. He clenched them tight trying to force the blood out of them, the tears helped, but the blood kept coming. Why was he not dead, why couldnt this agony end? 

\n Ferous felt another puncture entering the opposite side of his small human head, the drill eating a hole into his flesh like a knife to butter. It was unbearable this pain, this unending fear of the unknown. He gritted his teeth and blood soaked into his mouth, he couldnt even try to spit because it would bring even greater pain. The final hole wad drilled, and the device removed from his head. Forcefully he was flipped over, finally getting a view of his captor. He sucked in a huge gasp just then, this thing before him was not human, it was humanoid that was for sure. Its face was completely smooth, small slits for nostrils and large eyes on its alien like gray skin. It had a red cross sown into its elongated forehead. Whatever it was it appeared to be female, dressed in plain gray tight suit and wore a apron soaked with blood over the top of it. 

\n His view didn't last long, soon after being flipped over the creature slid something over his face, and his world once again went dark. Something was sliding into the holes that had been drilled into his head, three small metal pieces. As soon as they were in, the thing that had been fitted onto his head began to feel strange. Something pierced his skin, it felt like a sowing needle, slowly it worked its way up and around his head, attaching this strange object to him in a permanent fashion. His hands were released and he instantly felt what was now a part of his face. It was made of metal, that much he could tell, and as his small childish hands felt down along its curves he soon realized that it was in the shape of a hawks head. 

\n The snow was begging to thicken around him a flurry of snowflakes clouding his view, still he stumbled onward, determined to make his escape. Suddenly the Scenery changed, and not for the better. The snow was gone, the blizzard was gone, the cold was gone. The sun was gone, the ground too was lost to view. All around Ferous were vines and trees, everything covered in prickly thorns, each at least an inch long. The entanglement Ferous now found himself in was known as The Hedge. He pulled the sword off of his back, wielding it to hack and slash at the endless vines, only to have the grow back moments later, spearing and stabbing at his flesh, scrapes and scratches opening up his skin, tearing at his bruises. 

\n Ferous thought he could see a path ahead, some kind of trod within the Hedge. He had heard about them, paths that some changelings would walk in order to find certain things or get from place to place. Perhaps he could use it to find a way out. The path was extremely thin, vines and bushes, trees and thorns, still pulling at him, yanking at his pure white hair. His onward push was slow, an uphill battle, just to walk. Still he pushed onward, he had made it farther than any changeling under Shivas command had. 

\n Soon the path, the trod he had walked on for the past hour began to get thinner, branches enclosing on Ferous, stabbing at his skin, at his soul. He looked backwards to see if he could go back, but the path had closed behind him. The hedge had led him on, tricking him into taking a winding path, and now he was truly lost, unsure of which way he had come from and which way to go. Something caught his attention, something only a little ways in front of him. He forced branches apart, cutting his skin deeper, until he finally reached a small clearing. 

\n There, laying face down in the dirt, was a body, all that remained was bones, and tattered cloth, a foul smell rose up into Ferous nostrils, causing him to retch. Laying next to this once was changeling was a large sword, its blade extremely thick and on it was carved a cross. Heat seemed to emanate from the sword in an aura. Keeping the entire area warm. He picked it up clumsily, it was much to heavy for him to properly wield yet, but perhaps it would keep the Hedge at bay, perhaps it was the sword that kept this clearing, a clearing. He rested the blade on his shoulder, and indeed it was giving off a heat. 

\n With a bit of momentum he swung the sword, cutting through branches, and the blade thudded into the ground. Ferous waited but the branches did not grow back. This sword, this cross blade, was his key to exiting The Hedge, but it would be slow going. 

Eight year old Ferous stood in the snow, blood all around him soaking into spikes of ice that surrounded the edge of the Colosseum, beyond which was a vast stone wall, leading into a stand were many changeling sat watching the battle unfold beneath them. Ferous was knee deep in blood soaked snow, its stench reaching his noes. He had gotten used to it, this wasn't his first time on the field. In his hands he held his sword, its blade as tall as Ferous himself. Another changeling was rushing towards him, a giant mace in his hand. He swung it down at Ferous head and he lifted his own blade to block its onslaught just in time. 

\n Ferous couldnt move, he had sunk too deep into the snow and blood, and as a second swing came towards his stomach he didn't have time to block. The mace took a massive chunk out of his side, his own blood pooling around at his feet, mixing with the blood of so many others. Still Ferous did not die, his Fae captor wouldn't allow for that. He would learn to fight, or he would suffer. 

\n Ferous used this opportunity to make his own strike at the opponent cutting a deep gash straight across the larger changelings neck, blood rained down of Ferous soaking his clothes and hair. The changeling fell over dropping his mace and clutching at his neck, eyes wide with pain and sweat dripping down his face. Ferous himself turned and began to walk away from the agonized changeling he had just 'killed.' It had happened to him many times before, death was insignificant. 

\n Ferous' body had begun to change, becoming taller, thinner. His hair was almost a pure white now and his skin a deathly pale. His fingernails were like the claws of some kind of beast, some unnatural creature. His eyes had changed too, they had lost all sense of remorseful emotion, they were cold heartless orbs of steal, one blue the other red. 

\n He dragged his bloodied sword behind him, heading off to were he knew his Fae captor wanted him. Not that it mattered he would be tortured weather he won or lost. It was just less painful to win. 


\n Ferous had wandered for 5 hours now, making sure that his path was straight, he looked behind him, the path he was cutting into the Hedge was still there, and he could still see the clearing were he had first picked up his cross blade. He groaned, he hadn't made much progress at all and his body and spirit was nearing the limit. He continued to weakly hack at the vines in front of him forging a path through. 

\n He continued like this for another three hours, he had made it so far, only to fall here. He collapsed on the ground, fading into unconsciousness. As soon as his head hit the ground he realized that he had hit stone, not dirt, and around him were buildings. He had made it out. 

Twelve year old Ferous lay face down once again in the gray room. What new hellish experiment were they to perform on him today? They laid him down on the table in the center of the room, he had no idea what was coming. First they took a sharp blade and cut into his shoulder blades, centimeter by centimeter blood oozed out around the knife, cutting though flesh and nerves and muscle, it dug deep straight to the bone. The entire time he was silently yelling, he had learned not to let a sound out of his mouth, if he did he would be punished, and the punishments were far worse, if that was possible, than the experiments. He could feel them behind him, pushing something into the slits on his back, it hurt like all of hell was being forced inside of him. They began to sow it closed with a simple needle and thread, just as they had done the hawk mask on his head. 

\n For the first time he fell unconscious. His Fae mistress, Shiva, had never allowed him to fade into sleep, ever. For what reason he did not know, perhaps Shiva did not need him at the time, or perhaps they were preparing some new torture, or maybe what they had done to him needed time to grow. Ferous woke up one entire year later to find that out of his back now grew to large black wings. 

\n  

\n Ferous woke up, his head laying on something soft, something he had never felt before. He groaned, where was he? This was not Fae. He inspected the room it was made of some kind of stone, not nearly the same as the stone of the Fae castle, he was laying on a bed that was just barely long enough for him, in the far corner was a large glass mirror and at the foot of the bed was a walk in closet. Slowly it was coming back to him, his escape, his Journey through the Hedge. He groaned, he had made it, than why did his body feel like hell. He looked down at his own body, it was wrapped heavily in blood soaked bandages. A noise caught his attention and he reached to his back for his sword, but it wasn't there. He looked around desperately for something to defend himself with, and grabbed a large wooden pole. 

\n The wooden door at the end of the room swung open and Ferous brandished the wooden pole, stopping himself just before he hit a small girl in the cranium. She jumped startled at his actions, dropping a tray to the ground, shattering glass and sending food and drink splattering across the floor. Ferous blinked, who was this girl? She was short, had red hair, and blue eyes, and freckles. Her arms looked as though they were made of wood, and her joints were round knobs like those of a mannequin. She was a changeling. 

\n As soon as the tray fell out of her hands she was on her knees, "I'm so sorry, I should have knocked first." Ferous blinked again, she was apologizing to him? "Er.. its fine," he coulnt come up with anything to say, "umm.... its my fault really." She looked up at him a smile on her wooden like face, "No no, we get your kind all the time, I should know better by now than to just barge in." Ferous looked slightly confused, "My kind?" Was she insulting him? "Yes," she nodded still cleaning up the mess, "Changelings that have escaped the Gentry," Ferous gave a nod of recognition, of course he couldnt be the only changeling to ever have escaped from the Fae. He bent down to help her clean up, "So were is this exactly, where did I exit the hedge from?" 

\n "This," she stated matter of factually, "Is Grape and Wine, The Freehold of the Autumn Court in country of Iwagakure."

\n  

\n *Iwagakure.....* he thought, *The northern country of earth.* he looked at the mannequin girl, "Freehold?" He asked. She nodded slowly having picked up the food and proceding to pick up the glass, "Yes, there are changeling freeholds located all across the world dedicating to helping changelings that have just broken free of the Gentry." She stood up, tray in hand a smile still on her face, "Wait here, you need to rest, I'll bring you up another tray." Ferous nodded and laid down on the soft mattress of the bed, the sheets were a vibrant orange and red. Colors that he had never truly seen before, except the red. It reminded him of blood. 

\n Ferous closed his eyes and drifted into a deep slumber, his black wings folded around his body and his arms crossed over his chest in a very defensive manner. He had gotten used to sleeping like this, to protect his body in case someone decided to kick him in his sleep. His sleep was restless, he couldnt stop thinking that he was back in Fae, that his mistress, Shiva, had captured him once again and dragged him back into the Hedge and into her realm of eternal cold and snow. 

Fourteen year old Ferous walked the halls of the Victorian castle, all the candles in the hall were out, the only light that there was came from the full moon just outside the massive blue stained glass windows. The windows had intricate and gruesome designs of humans being taken by the Fae and many others being killed or tortured. It would be horrifying to anyone that hadn't lived, no not lived, survived here their whole life. 

\n His sword was strapped to his back, Ferous had a determined and fierce look on his face, a snow was starting outside, and his shoeless feet padded along the cold stone floor making barely a sound. His chest was bare and his pants gray and tattered. He turned the corner and entered into the Foyer of the Gentries castle. A massive wooden door was on either end, one leading to the snowy wasteland that was Shiva's realm and one lead straight into Shiva's quarters. He stepped silently on the black marble floor, and passed in between two massive statues, each depicting some sort of Fae. One he recognized as Ifrit, the other he couldnt tell. He placed his hand on the giant wooden door, closing his eyes tight and gripping the hilt of his sword so tight that his knuckles whitened even on his already pale skin. 

\n He had been forced to fight, fight and kill other changelings like himself, and he had won, he was the best Soldier in Shiva's ranks. It was time to finally put that training to some real use, not these fake endless battles that the changeling were forced to fight with each other. He pushed the door open, and it creaked loudly. It didn't matter Shiva would know that he was coming. And sure enough, there she stood, a grin upon her face and a rapier in her hand. 

"Welcome," Her voice was like ice, cold and evil, no emotion what so ever. Ferous said nothing, simply raising his sword and pointing it at her. She laughed manically, obviously trying to unnerve Ferous. She never laughed, it was part of her, it wasn't something she did as a Fae unless trying to intimidate. Ferous wasn't impressed, he lunged at her, swinging his massive blade straight towards her neck.

\n  

\n Ferous awoke to a knock on the door, a dull thudding of wood against wood. He stood up rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and blinking to clear his vision, it was still a little strange for him, waking up in a calming room. He slid out of the bed, sheets falling to the floor around his legs, and scuffled on over to the door, slowly opening it. There looking thought was the girl that had greeted him just moments ago. She was holding in her hand a tray with food and drink on it just as before and as she stepped though the door way she was careful not to drop it this time. She set it down, "I hope you like it, it's one of my favorite breakfasts," She poured milk from a pitcher into a glass and set down to a warm plate of buttered toast, fluffy yellow eggs and sausage. 

\n Ferous picked up a fork and poked at the food, "Errr, what is it?" he asked hesitantly, having never eaten anything like this before. All he ever got was some kind of strange slop that he highly suspected to be other changelings, not that he cared, and ice. She laughed, "It's breakfast foods of course," She pushed him back into a chair, "Eat, i can guarantee that you'll like it." Ferous was puzzled slightly, was she forging a contract with him? No she couldnt be, it must just be a figure of speech. He stabbed at the sausage with the fork and shoved it into his mouth, his eyes went wide. This really was good. He started shoveling the food into his mouth and the girl giggled, "Slow down silly, no ones going to take it from you." He stopped mid bite, fork still in his mouth, and swallowed, his eyes darting side to side, as if to just make sure. 

\n He slowly finished what was on the plate, and wiped his mouth on a napkin, "So this Autumn Court, what is it exactly?" She continued to smile, "I suppose its natural that you wouldn't know, so I'll explain from the beginning." She cleared her throat, "There are four courts, Winter, Spring, Summer and of course Autumn. Each court takes its power from the season itself, manifesting it in the ways that fit their beliefs. The Courts give us power against the Gentry, a power they cant understand. You yourself look like you come from a land of eternal winter, am I right?" Ferous nodded. 

\n "Thought so," She continued, "Well would you Fae captor ever let her land change? Ever let the snow melt, and let flowers grow in its place?" She didn't wait for an answer, "Of course they wouldn't, so we draw power from the ever changing seasons, the natural flow of time that changes the land around us." She giggled, "The Fae have yet to find a way to overcome this power. Anyway, the Autumn court believes that the Fae are vile creatures, that they stole everything from us, took us away from our lives, forced us to be their workers, but for all that they took from us, we took from them an equal amount." Ferous was confused, what had the Fae ever done for him, what had he ever taken from the Fae. The girl must have seen his confusion, "That sword, how did you get it? What power do you think is contained within its blade that only you may wield." A sly grin spread across her face, "And what an excellent weapon it would make in fighting the Fae themselves, a weapon that no other court would dare wield." 

\n Perhaps there was some truth in her words, and it frightened him, did Faerie have such a grip on him that he couldnt let go of his sword, "Don't worry," The girl said, noticing his anxious look, "It's only natural, there is much that we can take from the Fae, still, none of us would ever go back... you can never go back." She said this in a seemingly dark tone. "Anyway," She said, smiling again, "You welcome to stay here until your wounds heal, I haven't looked at them in a while either, it might be a good idea if a changed your bandages." She pointed at the bed, "If you could lay down for a moment," 

\n Suddenly Ferous' mind flashed back to the room where the experiments had been done on him, he jumped to his feet, backing to the far corner of the room, a fierce look on his face. "Don't worry," The girl cooed, "I'm not going to hurt you," her voice was almost empathic, reaching out and feeling his pain, Tears rolled down his eyes, just as the rolled down her own smooth skinned face, "Please dont cry," She pleaded, "I just want to help." Ferous took a hesitant step forward, "That's it, I just want to change the bandages, make sure nothings infected." Ferous nodded, laying slowly down on the bed next to her, "What's your name?" he asked, "Amy," She said happily, tears still drying on her cheeks, "Whats yours?" She bent over to start removing the red stained wrappings, "Ferous, Ferous Oxide," 

Shiva jumped to the side and parried with her rapier, "How simple minded, you changelings are all the same aren't you? She swiped, cutting Ferous across the cheek and blood dripped onto his bare shoulder, still he said nothing, "Changelings such as yourself will be punished, you will be made an example of in front of all." Ferous gave a powerful upward swing and Shiva tried to block it but the weight of the heavy blade was too much to be stopped by the rapier, a gash appeared along her chest. "Oh, you will pay for that," Shiva thrust forward, stabbing the tip of the rapier straight into his shoulder and then ripped it out side ways. Ferous clutched is shoulder, blood running out between his finger, its not that he felt that much pain, he had gotten used to this, he just wanted to gauge exactly how much damage had been done. He spun around and used the momentum to deal a powerful slash towards Shiva's shoulder. She quickly pulled the rapier up to block and the heavy metal clanged, resounding throughout the entire castle. Blood ran down Ferous blade, his sword had just reached her skin, despite being slowed by the rapier. She wasn't as invincible as she made the changelings think, this battle was his. 

\n Shiva thrust forward, once, twice, thrice, in the blink of an eye, each stab piercing into Ferous pale white skin. Once in the rib and twice in the shoulder, opposite the one that had been torn. Ferous quickly felt the wounds, as he had gotten used to during his battles with the other changelings.

\n  

\n Amy smiled, "Well than Ferous, I'm happy to welcome you into the care of the Autumn Court." She peeled off layer by layer of bloody bandages. Amy gasped, blood was still oozing from the wounds caused by the Hedge. "What? Whats wrong?" Ferous asked though through his tone it was obvious that he was unconcerned about his own well being. "It's.. It's nothing, the wounds from the thorns are still bleeding, they might need special treatment." Ferous looked slightly confused, once again, "Special treatment? whats there to do but let them heal?" She performed a couple quick hand seals, and her palms began to glow, "Well healing jutsu of course," 

\n Amy placed her hands on the wounds, startling Ferous but soon the scratches began to close, and the blood stemmed its flow. "What did you do?" Ferous asked surprised, he had never been healed before, he had always been left in his cell to tend to his own wounds, the changelings that couldn't heal properly where killed and fed to the living. "Itjutsu, their healing techniques, I'm still learning though so im not very good at it yet." 

\n Ferous inspected were the wounds were, they were perfectly sealed, not even a scar, "I dont know, i think you did pretty well myself." Amy looked sheepishly at the floor, "Th- Thanks, Wait here I'll get a towel and some warm water to clean up the blood. Amy left the room, taking the soiled bandages with her. 

\n She returned only moments later though, a towel and bucket of water in tow,. "Now hold still while I clean you off," She dipped the towel in the water and wrung it out so that it wasnt dripping everywhere, then gently she began to rub it across Ferous' bare and blood stained chest. The water was warm and relaxing, he had never felt something that warm before, coming from a land of eternal snow and ice. He closed his eyes and let the feeling of Amy's gentle massaging soothe him. "Roll over so I can get your back to please," Amy said, almost in a whisper. Ferous happily complied, rolling onto his stomach, and restin his head on his hands. "These wings," Amy whispered hesitantly, not sure if they were a tender subject, "They're beautifull, I'm sure it was painfull," Ferous simply grunted, not wishing to talk about it, not that he could really remember that much of what happened in Fae. His memories had become fuzzy, far apart. He blamed the Hedge, its clawing thorns ripped at more than his body, it ripped at his mind and soul as well. 

\n "There," Amy stood up, "All done, you look good as new," She set the towel into the bucket of now bloody water. "You get some sleep now, you need to rest and get your strenght back." She turned around to leave, a slight skip in her step, happy at having been able to help. "Amy," Ferous stopped her at the door, and she turned and looked at him, "Will I see you tomarrow?" She giggled, "Of course, I do live here silly." She closed the wooden door behind her. 

Ferous spun around again, stepping back with one foot, quickly thrusting forward. Shiva moved to repel the attack but she was too slow...or was she? The thought instantly crossed his mind, but was forced out in the moment. The blade pierced deep into her chest stabbing into her heart, the crack of her ribs resounded around the black marble room. Ferous wasn't expecting that, his body wasn't expecting that, the momentum pulled him forward. Ferous fell, right on top of Shiva, her eyes staring straight into his, a malicious smile on his face, she whispered, "The Hunt is coming." Ferous eyes widened with fear and he stood up pulling his blade from his captors body, the slick noise of blood splatering onto the floor, dripping form the steel shaft of his blade. The hunt, the dreaded hunt, when the Gentry would leave Faerie to come searching for those changelings that had escaped. Ferous backed up against the door and than turned and ran. Outside, the wind instantly hit him, its cold biting at his bare flesh. He stepped into the snow, he was free, at least for now.

\n  

\n Ferous sat in the main room of the Grape and Wine, it was a simple bar located near the center of Iwagakure it was somewhat crowded, but not everyone here were Changelings. The humans took no notice of the Fae influenced creatures, they couldnt see what they looked like, the mask protected them, the mortals perceived the changelings as if they were simply normal humans as well, no unusual wings or faces, just people. Ferous sat at the bar drinking a small glass, Amy was sitting next to him talking pleasantly. Just last week he had been accepted into the autumn court, there was a ceremony and they had presented Ferous with a gift, a long sword of heavy steal, its blade was thick and it glowed with a dark blue glow. The leaders of the Iwa Autumn court said it had been imbued the powers of lightning element, its name was Raikous Wrath. 

\n He had thanked them profusely of course, he had never experienced so much kindness, taking the sword he placed a his person seal on it. He now wore all his swords around his wrist in shrunken forms as pendants. In the recent days though Ferous could feel something changing in him, and it worried him. He worried that he Hedge had ripped more away than just his skin, had taken more than just his blood. What of his humanity? He felt no remorse for what he did in Faerie, and he was getting restless. This calm life, it was boring him, he felt the urge to get out, to find a challenge, to.... to kill some one or at least some thing. 

\n Still Amy continued to talk, she had scooted closer to Ferous, and was now hanging on his arm smiling up at him Ferous smiled back.