A fae's offer

No one believed him so Draesa stopped trying to tell anyone about Asiskel. For a time, he thought he might actually be making up the other boy. No one in town ever saw anything while they were working, no one saw anyone running around in the dark when Asiskel came to visit, though Draesa had been caught a time or two. It would be a year or two before it didn’t matter and a couple after that when it became apparent that Asiskel was different.   In ways that Draesa didn’t really want to think about. Because then the questions started. Who was he, really? Where did he really go? For all their forays into the forest, Asiskel had said he couldn’t take Draesa home. If I do, you won’t be able to come back. Is that what you want? Draesa had thought it was a joke the first time, except Asiskel hadn’t laughed. Just smiled, like he was wont to do.   When Draesa had pressed, Asiskel had said the same thing. If I do, you won’t be able to come back. Is that what you want? Of course Draesa wanted to know where he lived! They’d had the odd spat about it. It felt like Asiskel was messing with him, except… Well, it didn’t really feel like that was the case either. Asiskel was fun but honest. He humored Draesa in whatever he wanted except this one thing, which only made it even more contentious.   When Draesa met with Asiskel late in the gray autumn evening, he immediately knew something was off. His friend was leaning against one of the large trees, picking apart some twig he’d picked up along the way. The setting light cut serious shadows across a face that was far too used to smiling. They’d both grown a fair bit in their years – Asiskel was just a little shorter than him.   “Somethin’ happen?” he said by way of greeting.   Asiskel tossed aside the broken stick and straightened, half smiling. An attempt. “Ah, ya know how families can be.” He certainly did. Draesa’s own was pressuring him to pick up the trade. As soon as he graduated in the spring, he’d be going to work alongside his dad. Then there was his arrangement with Aleeteta. Neither of them were happy about it but what were the other options?   Since the sour topic had been brought up, Draesa nodded and bent to pick up the stick Asiskel had been breaking. Picking up where his friend left off. “Ya. Couldn’t worm out of Aleeteta’s arrangement any more than I could fly out of here.”   “Ya really don’t want to marry her, huh?” Asiskel asked. Something he’d prodded around before.   “No. She’s my sister. Or, like my sister?” He shrugged a shoulder, tossing a broken piece of the stick behind Asiskel. “Ma says I’ll grow into it. Don’t even know what that means.”   Quiet settled between the two of them – Draesa breaking the remained of the branch while Asiskel watched him. The wind pulled at the branches, rattling the wood. The hoary trees – the giants at Asiskel’s back – didn’t sway but their golden leaf branches did. It’d get cold eventually. Snow. Asiskel didn’t visit as often during the winter. Travel by foot wasn’t as easy then.   “Draesa… Would ya like to see my house?”   Draesa tossed the last bit of branch he had, quirking a brow at his friend. “I thought I couldn’t go or I’d never be able to come back.”   Asiskel let that hang between them a moment before he glanced off to the side. “Yeah. I’m still askin’.”   Draesa stared at his friend as he realized just what Asiskel was offering. Could he really do that? Walk away? Leave everyone? Really? Apparently there was a place to go to and something more than the life he could have here. But once he went, Asiskel had made it abundantly clear he couldn’t come back.