I came across this much earlier scene from the Ceallach story while I was taking a break from the other one. I'm almost done restructuring Torii, but I can't work at it steadily, so I go back and forth between it and editing the earlier story.
It's pretty much pure dialogue, which is why I think I like it so much.
Ah, levity.
Excerpt: (Ceallach)
“Come on,” he said, breaking away from me and swinging himself up in the saddle.
“Where?”
“I’m taking you home.”
I looked back then, at the familiar house. It was shaded by two Douglas firs, leaves were scattered across the dark shingles, and there were empty planters on the front steps, waiting for warmer weather. My car sat in the driveway. My bed was unmade upstairs.
“You’ll be able to come back,” Ceallach said, smiling. “I have no plans to sweep you away into another realm, just the next town.”
I took his hand then and was swung up behind him. “Am I going to live with you?”
“I have every intention of it.”
“Maybe I should get my clothes…”
“We can come back for them.”
The horse started off through the woods in his long, easy stride, ears pricked forward.
“Will I still go to college? What about my car?”
“Of course and the car will have to wait at the end of the driveway.”
“You’re going to make me walk all that way, every day?” I teased. “That’s cruel.”
“You’re the one that’s cruel,” he said, holding my hand against his chest. “Making me wait all that time.”
“You don’t know much about girls, do you?”
“You’ve found me out.”
“Well, get used to waiting. A lot.”
“We’ll see about that.”
I felt giddy, drunk. I put my face between his shoulder blades; he smelled deliciously clean.
“Will you meet my parents?”
“Wouldn't it be rude if I didn't?”
“I suppose so,” I said. “They’ll think I’m crazy, taking up with a man with no electricity. How do you do your laundry?”
“Magic.”
“You do not.”
“You’ll have to wait and see, then.”
“Is it because cars have iron, is that why you don’t like them?”
“You’ve been reading up, I see.”
“Some. But it’s contradictory.”
“Their sources are unreliable.”
“So it’s not true, about iron?”
“No, that’s generally true,” he admitted. “Not so much for me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ve trained myself to work with it.”
“You work with iron?”
“I’m a blacksmith.”
I was taken aback. “Really?”
“I shoed this horse myself.”
“Goodness. Do you still do that sort of thing?“
“Not so much, anymore.”
“How old are you?”
“A very great deal older than you are.”
“Are you immortal?”
“I’ll grant you, I am impressive. But I’m no god.”
“Have you ever taken a woman home before?”
“No, never.” His tone of voice turned serious.
“Never?” I asked, incredulous.
“I thought we already went over the part where I’m inexperienced with women,” he said dryly. “How you do harp on.”
“It just seems lonely.”
“I assure you, that is something I am perfectly well able to tolerate.”
“Do you speak other languages?”
“Why would you ask me that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I guess because I was wondering if you’d always lived here.”
“I‘ve spoken many languages. Mostly English.”
“Was Arthur real?”
“Oh, come now. You don’t really think I’m that old.”
“How would I know? You look about fifty.”
“I will drop you right off the hind end of this horse.”
“I‘ve missed you.”
“Well, damn it, you should have come with me the first time I asked.”
“I couldn’t, it was too much for me to take in.”
“I didn’t know how or when to tell you what I was.”
“I know. There's no easy way to break it to a girl that her new boyfriend is a faerie.”
“Sidhe. I myself never expected to fall for a member of the great, unwashed human masses.”
“Hey! We walked on the moon; you guys couldn’t even conquer Ireland.”
He laughed. “That was well before my time; I can’t answer for the idiocy of my ancestors. Besides, I believe your team has yet to find a cure for the common cold, for all your vaunted expeditions into space.”
“We’re working on that,” I said, loftily.
