*Well hello, friends, it's been awhile. Over three years in fact (God help me). But I'm back! And so is this story, for anyone who still reads it. Just a little note I wanted to add in: Due to changes in my relationship with the real-life inspiration for the character, Knavish will no longer be appearing in this story. I don't feel like I will be able to accurately portray them anymore and I do not want to falsely represent someone or the character they inspired. I will not be going back and changing previous chapters or removing Knavish from them, so I apologize if that winds up being confusing to some people. I had considered working through the story to a point that their character just left as a plot point in the story but, again, I just wasn't comfortable trying to portray a character that was inspired by someone who I don't really know that well anymore. If you have any comments or questions about the matter, please feel free to PM me. Now that that's out of the way, please enjoy the story!*

Puck stood, hands on hips, frowning at the line of trees in front of him. Puckie and Iron were hanging back several feet behind him, expressions a mixture of weary, apprehensive, and agitated. Puckie had Imagine's bookbag slung across her back and kept fiddling absently with the straps, shortening and lengthening them without seeming to realize what she was doing. Iron wasn't fidgeting, but she hadn't stopped shifting back and forth from one foot to the other. She couldn't stay still, and the fact that Puck didn't seem to be in a hurry to move was making her even more agitated and twitchy.

She heaved a deep sigh, arms folded over her chest, and looked around her in an effort to try and distract herself. It didn't work. All the trees looked the same, and the ones that didn't weren't interesting enough to keep her focus. Puckie kept glancing at her whenever she made a noise, and occasionally they locked eyes with each other. When they did, Iron would glance at Puck, then back at Puckie, and Puckie would give a feeble shrug as if to answer her unspoken question.

"You keep sighing like that, and your lungs are eventually just going to come popping right out of you," Puck called over his shoulder to Iron when she blew out another huge breath for what felt like the umpteenth time.

She frowned and stopped moving. "I thought we were trying to catch up with the royal assholes," she said. "Why are we just standing here?"

"Because I'm trying to get a lead on which way they went," Puck said, his tone patient, but with an infuriating twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "Plus, I don't really want to go running off into the deep blue yonder with two unprepared humans in tow. I just don't see that ending well. Do you?"

Iron straightened up a little at that, indignant. "We can take it."

Puck's fiery eyebrows shot up on his forehead, the tiniest hint of a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. "That's the spirit," he said before turning back to face the trees.

Iron huffed again, beginning to tap her foot in irritation.

"Look, chikadee," Puck sighed, turning fully around to face her, "I get you're all in a tizzy to go after your friends. But, honestly, even if we caught up with them right now, I don't know what I'd do with the two of you. Even if you can handle yourselves on a regular, average, human day, with regular, average, human punks, and even if I am quite awesome in my own right and totally capable of bringing down two Winter chumps with one hand behind my back, they're going to have a field day with you two if you're anywhere in their reach. Rowan especially. No offense"-he said, putting up both hands as Puckie and Iron stared him down-"but-for once in my life-I'm trying to be realistic here. You two are a liability. But I also can't just leave you here on your own while I run off to-"

He stopped dead, his head snapping around to his right, eyes narrowed.

Puckie and Iron stared at him a moment, bewildered, but with a growing sense of dread settling in the pits of their stomachs. Puckie exchanged a nervous glance with Iron, then started to ask, "What-?"

Puck waved a hand at her for silence, the other drifting slowly, but deliberately, towards the dagger strapped to his hip.

Iron went rigid at the sight of that, and suddenly her hearing seemed to pick up on whatever Puck had already heard. At first, she thought she just hearing the sound of blood rushing in her ears, but then she realized it was a low drumming.

She frowned, straining to hear. Her stomach plummeted.

No...not drumming.

She looked over at Puckie, whose eyes were so wide at that point that her pupils looked like mere pinpricks of terror. She'd realized it, too. They were hearing hoofbeats. Hoofbeats meant horses. Horses meant-

Iron swore loudly and started to move, not 100% sure where she was even moving to, but she knew she needed to get out of sight. Fuck this! Fuck Faery! She wasn't about to be standing out in the open here when Rowan and Sage came charging back into the open. She turned in a panicked circle, swore again, then turned and slammed into Puckie, knocking the the other girl to the ground. Puckie had already been on the verge of hysterics, and started hyperventilating as she scrambled to get to her feet as the hoofbeats pounded loud enough to rattle their skulls.

Puck was saying something to them, but neither of them were able to make it out clearly, especially when Puckie let out a petrified scream as a large, shadowy horse came galloping through the trees towards them. At the sound of her shriek, the animal picked up speed, charging full force into the clearing as the rider drew their sword and raised it for the attack. Puckie shrieked again and curled into a tight ball on the forest floor, and Iron's face went sheet white as she stared up at the dark haired rider, who stared back in stupefied disbelief, his violet eyes wide in confusion and alarm.

The horse stopped just short of Iron, blowing steam into her face, its inky black eyes staring her down, and she thought she might have blacked out for a second before the horse swam back into view, and, with it, the face of its rider. Who wasn't Rowan. Or Sage. And who also looked distinctly confused as he looked first at her, then at the sobbing, huddled up ball that was Puckie, then at Puck, who was looking like he was caught between bursting out laughing and rolling his eyes in total exasperation.

"What the ever loving hell, Goodfellow?" Glitch demanded, scowling at the Summer Jester as he shoved his sword back into its sheath. "What did you do?"

"Nice to see you, too, sockethead," Puck said by way of greeting. "And I don't know why you assume I had anything to do with this when you're the one who came charging in here like an idiot. They were totally fine 'til they heard you coming."

Puckie was still on the ground in tears, but she'd at least seemed to figure out that it wasn't Rowan and Sage coming back to attack them and was only making quiet, hiccupy whimpering noises with her hands over her face. Iron was still motionless in front of the horse, slightly dizzy, and not sure whether she wanted to throw up or just lay down with Puckie and take a nap. Someone leaned around from behind Glitch, eyes wide, and gasped.

"What the hell happened to Puckie?!"

Jester was immediately trying to clamber off the horse, much to Glitch's alarm.

"Hey, don't get down, stupid, what are you trying to do with your ankle like that?" he barked at her, yanking her back upright before she could even swing her good leg off the horse's back.

She immediately snapped back. "Get your hands off me, okay? I'm fine! Puckie!" she turned her head to shout towards the other girl. "Puckie, what happened? Iron, what the hell happened to Puckie?"

Iron's mouth was half-open, but no sound was coming out. Adrenaline was still pumping through her system, but it wasn't doing a lot to make her any more coherent.

Jester swore, shoved Glitch's hands away, and got down, stumbling and cursing as she banged her broken ankle on a tree root. Glitch let her, looking irritable, and folded his arms tightly over his chest as he watched her limp haphazardly over to the other two.

Jester managed to lower herself onto the ground beside Puckie while Iron walked slowly over to join them. Puckie sat up, arms shaking, still teary eyed, and threw her arms around Jester and Iron as soon as the two girls were close enough. It was like her crying flipped a switch, because abruptly all three girls were on the ground in a huddle, arms around each other, outright bawling.

Puck and Glitch exchanged sideways looks. Puck grinned and shrugged and Glitch rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Humans," he muttered.

Puck snickered quietly and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. They stood there, watching the girls sob it out for a while, before Puck's smile became a slight frown, and he looked up at the Iron Lieutenant.

"Where's the other one?" he asked quietly.

Glitch shot him a look, lips pressed into a grim line. He glanced briefly at the girls, then leaned down slightly to speak to Puck. "I couldn't get her. That one"-he nodded towards Jester-"was passed out when I first caught up to them. The other one was awake and managed to convince Prince Sage to let me take her friend while she went with him and his rat's ass of a brother."

Puck lifted an eyebrow. "She convinced him? How?"

Glitch gave a tight smile. "She told him she knew his True Name."

Puck's emerald eyes went very wide. He blew out a long, low whistle, shaking his head. "Shit. Does she?"

Glitch shook his head.

"Shit," said Puck again. "Does he know she doesn't know?"

The Lieutenant shrugged. "No idea. I figure that even if he does, it was just easier to let me take the one girl and let them get away with the other than pick a fight. They know Meghan's not going to let them keep human hostages, but if they can get the other girl into their own territory and to Mab before we catch up, it's going to be a shit ton harder to get them to give her up. They'll claim that she's a threat and an intruder or some bullshit."

Puck nodded solemnly.

"You think your King would be any help with this mess if we can't catch up to them?" Glitch asked.

"Not a chance," said Puck with a dark smile. "Oberon's a right sight better than Mab as far as dealing with humans go, but he won't risk stirring the pot. He's been doing his best to keep himself out of trouble with the Winter Court by doing everything to convince them he won't take sides with Meghan just because he happens to be her father."

Glitch gave a disgusted snort, but he understood the Summer King's perspective. If it weren't for Meghan and her stance on humans-especially considering she was half human herself-he wouldn't be as invested in getting these humans home safely as he currently was. He glanced towards the trio of crying girls, and felt an uncomfortable tug in the pit of his stomach.

Well...maybe he would, even without Meghan...maybe.

Iron, Puckie, and Jester finally seemed to have calmed themselves down enough to speak. And Jester was interrogating the other two as she continued to hug them.

"What happened?" she was asking furiously. "I heard one of you scream and I was freaking out that something happened to you!"

Puckie shook her head, looking a little embarrassed. "That was me," she hiccupped. "I heard the horse and panicked 'cause I thought it was Rowan and Sage coming back again and...yeah…"

Iron nodded in agreement. "Same," she said with a feeble shrug. "I accidentally knocked Puckie over while I was trying to run away like an idiot."

Jester gave a half snort, half laugh, then they all gave a collective sigh and lapsed into a momentary silence. The weight of Jester being kidnapped, and maybe never actually seeing each other again, hadn't been all that real until those last few minutes, and they were taking a moment to let it all sink in. And as they did, Puckie realized something.

"Where's Imagine?" she asked, her voice shooting up a little bit as she looked around and realized that no other person had hopped off of Glitch's horse.

Iron picked up her head and looked around, also really noticing for the first time that Imagine was, indeed, still very much absent.

They all looked at Glitch, who sat up slowly on his horse, his mouth back to that tight, somber line.

"I've got good news, and I've got bad news," he said after a long moment. "The good news is, you've got one friend back." He nodded at Jester. "The bad news is your other friend is still stuck with the Winter Princes, and we have to go get her."

"Well, gang," said Puck in a mock cheerful voice, "Looks like we've got a mystery on our hands!"

Glitch shot him a filthy look, and Puck winked.

"Lighten up a little, sockethead," the Summer Trickster said, rapping his knuckles along the Lieutenant's boot as he walked over to the three humans, "If we're going to go chasing after Winter bastards and storming Tir Na Nog, we should at least have a little fun with it."

Glitch snorted and rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

"Okay, kiddos," Puck said, clapping his hands together as he stood over Jester, Puckie, and Iron, "Wipe those tears and let's get moving. Now that good old Glitchy is here as a decoy, I might actually be able to manage a decent plan to get your other friend back."

Glitch's eyes narrowed. "Decoy?" he repeated coldly. "Excuse me, Goodfellow, I am nobody's decoy."

"Oh, it'll be easy!" Puck said airily, waving a hand, a sly twinkle in his eye. "We just need to get you a hula skirt, a coconut bra, one of those flowery necklace thingies, and we'll be in business!"

Glitch deadpanned. "Fuck you to hell and back, Goodfellow," he said.

"I mean, if you really want to," said Puck, waggling his eyebrows, "I dunno how your stamina is, but if you think you're up to it…"

Glitch sighed his deepest yet and swung himself off his horse and approached Jester. "Come on," he said, offering a hand when she merely looked at him. "The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get to the scumbag princes and your friend, and the sooner I can unload you all somewhere you actually belong and might actually want to be."

"Oh, come now, sockethead," said Puck, "You talk like you don't enjoy having them here!"

Glitch fixed him with a dark look. "They've been here less than a day and two have already been kidnapped, one's broken her ankle and nearly broke my back, and we've still got to go get the other one while making sure the first three don't get themselves killed, maimed, or otherwise traumatized in the process. So excuse me if I'm keen to get them on their way home."

And with that he turned and helped Jester hobble back over to his horse and up into the saddle, with a small amount of pained cursing, and muttering as they went.

Puck blew out a sigh of his own, shaking his head, then turned to Puckie and Iron.

"Alright, you two, let's get a-movin'," he said with a grin.

Iron gave him a skeptical look, then peered over at Glitch's horse. "How are we going to keep up with that?"

"Easy peasy," he said, waving her question away. "If anyone's going to have trouble keeping up, it'll be our dear old Lieutenant."

And with that he dropped to all fours with a full body shudder, and began to shapeshift before their very eyes.

It was strange, Iron reflected as watched the Summer fey twitch and spasm his way into a full-fledged clydesdale, that out of all the things she'd seen today, and all the events that would probably haunt her until her dying day, watching Puck turn into a massive-ass chestnut horse was probably the least alarming part of her entire afternoon. If anything, it was almost normal.

"I'm going to need so much therapy after this," she muttered to herself as she boosted Puckie onto Puck's broad back, and hauled herself up behind her.

"You and me both," Puckie said, leaning forward to grip Puck's mane in her hands.

"Maybe they'll give us a group discount," Iron joked as she wrapped her arms around Puckie's waist just as Puck took off at a strong canter into the woods, Glitch and Jester on their tail.

Puckie's answering laugh was lost in the wind rushing through their ears as they took off into the forest.